Introducing Amethyst

Here's the screen test for my puppet, Amethyst, who intends to teach an "annoying little man boy" how to knit. I'm still working out the kinks with my video skills, but I'll get it eventually.

Easy Sausage Not-Pizza

Eating "Low Carb" has become more than just a trend these days.  The overabundance of starches and sugars in our American diet have plenty of us "going paleo" or sticking to some other sort of low carb diet.  I'm far from an exception to this.  With all of my health issues, getting rid of the junk from my menu is more than just vanity (although I won't deny that it's a factor).  Without counting a single calorie, I've lost about 9 pounds in the three weeks since getting rid of the sugary, starchy addiction.  While the weight is a nice plus, I'm really trying to rid myself of inflammation and allergies that go way beyond the realm of "normal".  I may just be starting to see the beginnings of a slight improvement, but my victory cry won't be sounded until I've gone at least a week since my last case of mild anaphylactic shock.  That's probably a long way off, but in the meantime, I'll share the recipes that are helping me along.

My household loves Italian.  Pizza, pasta... uh-oh, not so low starch friendly.  This recipe is one that my family has been eating with great pleasure. It's easier than real pizza, and tastes great.  I used cheap sausage this time, but have bought sausage straight from a farmer in the past.  You may also want to try taking your favorite ground meat and adding lots of garlic, onions, basil, oregano, cayenne, salt and fennel seed to make your own sausage. Here is everything we used:
24 oz bulk sausage
Italian seasoned tomato paste
Pesto
2 Sweet peppers, chopped
1/2 red onion, quartered and sliced
Olives, chopped
Italian Cheese
Chopped green onion to finish (I usually use fresh basil, but my plant died inexplicably)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and prep your sausage while you wait.  Just press it out flat onto a 9 x 13 inch nonstick baking sheet. (Don't use a completely flat one, or you'll drip grease in your oven.) Bake this for about 10 minutes, or until just barely cooked.  Remove it from the oven, and blot the top dry with a clean paper towel.  If you've used a sausage that is on the fatty side, you'll also need to drain the grease.  At this point, you also will want to make sure that your sausage "crust" is not stuck to the pan.
 
Now you can top it with your favorite veggie pizza toppings.  For normal pizza I usually thin my pesto and tomato paste combination, but for a sausage crust, I keep it nice and thick.  Just spread your sauces as though you're making a pizza, and sprinkle with cheese and other toppings.  If you like something other than what I used here, try it.

 Place your "pizza" back in the oven until the toppings look done.  If you want to, you can even use the broiler setting to get the cheese nice and bubbly. There really are no rules here.  After you've decided it's done, take it out of the oven and cut it like a pizza. Sprinkle on some sliced green onion or basil and enjoy your easy masterpiece.

Apocalypse

Knitters and crafters have all kinds of excuses.

All The Same

My Family to a "T", and every knitter I know.

Steampunk Bloomer Pants DIY

 

I hate trends.  Normally, if anything is "popular" my gut reaction is to run the other way and not look back. However, once in a while something shows up that just fits a person.  With my love for antiques, metal music and science fiction, steampunk just fits.  This trend (Oh, how I really do dislike the word.  Maybe that's a personal issue...) has gracefully made it's way into home decor, movies and just about everything else, with most people not even really noticing.  In the fashion world, however, most steampunk is only found in the smallest touches, the most outrageously expensive merchants or in the world of conventions for video games, comic books or role players. I, frankly, would rather include the things that I like in normal, everyday life.  Here is an easy project for doing just that.

I've been looking at projects for turning slacks into bloomer style bottoms for a while now, and I'll give you some advice that a lot of people seem to ignore.  Go find some cheap, second hand slacks that you don't mind cutting up, but whatever you do, don't get something that starts off looking bad on you.  If they don't fit nicely before you alter them, they'll still look bad after.  Look for something that looks tailored to fit on top, and you'll be doing well.

After you've gotten your slacks home, you need to cut off the bottoms.  You'll want to try them on again and mark the spot.  Since you want to tie them below the knee, you'll give an inch or two extra for flexing the knee, 2 or 3 inches for the ruffle at the bottom, and another inch or so for turning the fabric under to hem.  This should mean that you cut off the pants at about mid calf. Just decide for yourself exactly what you want.  After you have cut one leg, just lay out the slacks and fold them lengthwise, lining up the waistband, and cut the other leg to match.
 
 I used two different kinds of lace trim for this project.  The smaller stuff, as you can see, is for adding to the hem, and the one with the ribbon running through the center is for tying the leg tighter below the knee. You don't want modern looking, wimpy lace for this project.  Try to find something on the coarse side.  I also recommend replacing any buttons with something to match.  Here I used some vintage shell buttons. 
 
Pin the top lace so that it is a couple of inches below the bottom of your knee.  You will need this room for the ruffled look and for your knee to bend.  Once you have pinned the lace where you want it, (make sure you give extra length in the ribbon for tying) fold the slacks to check that you have everything even and symmetrical.  You may use a sewing machine to sew everything in place, but for this project, I just sewed it all by hand while watching TV.  I didn't want my stitches showing and ruining the effect.  Finally, replace buttons, and add extra (I put one smaller button on the bottom of every belt loop), and maybe add some lace trim sticking up out of any pockets.

 Even with all the hand sewing, this project only takes an afternoon, and adds a fun steampunk flare to your wardrobe.  

Pairing your ruffled slacks with simple tailored tops will keep it mainstream enough to wear in "normal" society.  The key here is to match the style without going over the top.  The first time I wore these, I started off with a ruffled, and corset laced jacket over the tank and vest, and it looked like I was off to some kind of convention (Not really my thing).  Changing to a gracefully tailored sweater took it back to the real world.

Go make something fun today, and add a little artistic flare to the boring world around you.

I

Ever Hear of Tatting?

If you're like most people, when you hear the word tatting, you conjure images of needles and ink on skin.  If you are hoping to find that on this site, you're out of luck (unless you want to send me a new kit along with "Huck Spalding's Tattooing A-Z", and I'll be happy to start...)  Some people are always looking for something new to try.  I suppose I'm one of those people always looking for something old to try, in a new way.  

Tatting, as you can see, is lace.  It was popular in the 1800's, and has been largely a lost art.  Thanks to the internet, it's having a comeback.  People like me love it because you can make something new, beautiful and unique with just a shuttle, some string and time.  Some people tat onto a needle, and  they think it's easier, but the traditional way to tat uses a shuttle (That's the pink thing in the picture above).  You can find tatting shuttles in just about any material on the planet from cheap plastic like mine, to gold, silver, bone or abalone like some of my grandmother's.  I prefer using a shuttle, not simply because of tradition (you know me better than that, right?), but because my grandmother taught me with a shuttle, and I would otherwise manage to impale myself on a needle when taking it places.

Yes that's a rainbow on the ball of string... silly girl.

I'll give you the basic rundown for tatting, just to let you decide if it's for you.  However if you're truly interested in learning, there are great you-tube videos out there.  

If you start with a hank of string, like this one, first roll it into a ball.  This will keep you from ending up with a big impossible tangle of knots.  You then wrap your shuttle with string from that ball until the shuttle is full.  

Tatting is a system of knots that are worked into loops and chains.   Let's start with a loop.  Put the ball of string on your left and hold the shuttle with your right hand between your thumb and pointer finger.  Thread coming from the shuttle should be coming from behind and wrapped around your fingers similarly to knitting.  Your left hand pinches the thread about a foot away, and wraps that thread around the hand until you are pinching it as a loop.

Tightening a knot:  The shuttle thread is straight, the left hand thread wraps.

To make a knot, raise your right fingers so that the thread is above the shuttle and send it under the top portion of the looped thread between your pinched fingers and the rest.  You will just let the thread move between your right pointer finger and the shuttle, and then pull the shuttle back, this time coming over the string, letting the thread slide between your thumb and the shuttle.  The second half of the knot is the reverse.  You let the right fingers holding the thread drop so that the shuttle is over the shuttle thread, and put the shuttle around the same part of the loop thread, this time going over then under.   So it's "thread up - under - over, thread down - over - under".    You then tighten the knot.  This is actually the point where the older directions really drop the ball.  You see, your shuttle thread has just wrapped around your loop, but you need to pull the shuttle thread straight, while loosening the loop,  so that the loop thread is wrapping around the shuttle thread instead.  Then just tighten the knot by tugging the left fingers back, while keeping the shuttle thread straight. I know that this all sounds very complicated, but really that is the toughest part of tatting to understand.  When I first read books with tatting instructions, I just made loop after loop that wouldn't tighten properly.  Years later I flew across the country to visit family, and my grandmother told me that all of the written instructions were just bad. "Aack, You have to learn tatting from a person, not a book" Well now you can learn from videos. Problem solved.  Even a child can learn this with enough patience (mine are learning it right now).

 From this point you simply make as many knots as you want.  If you want little loops sticking out (they're called picots), you just make the knot a small distance from your work and don't tighten it until the whole knot is in place.

 
When you have all of the knots that you want in your loop, just pull the shuttle thread to tighten it. That's it.( If it won't tighten, that's because you have the shuttle thread still wrapping the loop thread in some spot.) The first time you make this it'll feel like a whole lot of work for one itty-bitty ring, but as you practice, it gets really fast.

You may want to continue making more rings, or move on to a chain.  It really depends on your pattern, or on what you want make up.

For a "chain" you'll want to turn your work over so that the thread leading to the ball is on top, and hold it similarly to knitting.  Just add knots onto this string in the same way that you would for a ring.

One ring with picots and a short chain

One ring, then a chain, then another ring attaching at the picot.

 Here I've shown you two rings attached together at a picot.  The best way to explain this would be with a you-tube video, but for now you basically get to the point that you want to join the second ring, and use the little pointy part of the shuttle to pull the looping thread partway through the picot from the other ring that you want to attach to, and then send your shuttle through.  Pull both threads to tighten and you're connected.

Long story short, any combination of rings and chains (circles and lines) that you can imagine, you can create.  If you want some gorgeously amazing ideas, just search tatting on Pinterest. You'll find everything from fancy trim to entire outfits, masks, gloves, dragons... you name it.  I am really still pretty new at it myself, so my stuff doesn't even begin to describe what could be done.  Have fun!

One of my first pieces; A tatted necklace with beads, mother of pearl button, and handmade glass pendant

 

Dreadlock Tube Hat with Corset Lacing

I went through my knitting this afternoon and came across my most popular hat.  I would say that it is my most requested pattern, but people don't ask me for the pattern.  They ask me where I bought it.  This was actually one of the first hats that I designed, and it was made right after I fell in love with steampunk.  Today I share it with you.


Honestly, I can't remember exactly what yarn I used (except that it was cheap stuff), but it's really pretty simple.  I recommend that you measure your head and knit a gauge swatch to see if it will fit you.  Adjust your needle size, or the number of repeats of the pattern, to get it right.  If this is hard to read or follow, please, please click on comments and let me know. (Just because it's all obvious to me, doesn't mean that it makes sense to someone not inside of my head.) 

Again, if you can't read this, yell at me. I apologize in advance for not getting off my butt and learning to chart more professionally.