Joyce Makes Art

Picking Up Tiny Tea Leaves

There is nothing like waiting in a doctor's office to give a girl some knitting time. I'm hoping this is just the jumpstart I need to finish this sweater before she outgrows it!

We Interrupt Our Knitting To Bring You.....French Macaroons

Although I have been knitting (and contemplating how different knitted fabric can look, depending on the size needles you use), I've interrupted this afternoon because I'm in love.  With these.

Whole Foods Macaroons.  We discovered them yesterday -- at least a year behind everyone else in the blogosphere apparently.  They were delicious!  We split five among three of us and they were like eating little bites of heaven.

Of course I had to try to make some at home.  But, I didn't seem to have any of the right ingredients or equipment, so I MacGyvered a little bit.  I ground up some almonds to make the almond flower and used a ziploc bag with a hole cut into the bottom instead of a pastry bag and tip.  The green color is an homage to Ollie, whose favorite color is green.

Will they make it?  Will my swiss buttercream be passable?  Should I give up on trying to make these incredibly delicate sweets and return to my needles?  I'm hoping for a good result here, and, if I can settle on the right needle size, hope to have the start of a sweet little scarf to show you by midweek.

The Destash Continues

I'm making great progress with the destash.  Thanks to those of you who've given me a shout out of encouragement, and especially those of you who've come by to help!  There are now rubber stamps and arts supplies on ebay, yarn from my personal stash that I'm parting with is on Ravelry (this is on my Ravelry trades page, but if you're interested in something on my stash page, do ask, I'm trying to circumvent my inner hoarder), and if you are looking for fabric, take a look at the photos here and let me know if you are interested in anything -- mostly Amy Butler, Tina Givens, Kaffe Fasset, and Japanese prints.

So--on to the remaining knitting needle cases.  I have two identical, except for color, silk cases from Delia Q.  One is purple, one is teal.  They are made to house an interchangeable set like knit picks or addis, and they work very well (I'm somehow purchased these, put them in the back of my cabinet and never used them, since I have two in use).  You can see a link to them for sale here. They are $79.95 new, and I'll sell these, which are in giftable, like new condition, for $45 each.

There are also three needle clutches from Off Hand Design (description here and for sale here)

On top is a circular needle clutch, the middle is a switch clutch for a set of interchangeable needles, and the bottom is a deluxe clutch.  They are all in really nice condition.  The top clutch was briefly used, the bottom two are new (you can see the tag sticking out of the bottom clutch).  Asking $25 for the top, $30 for the switch clutch, and $40 for the deluxe.

I really do appreciate all the destash help, and am looking forward to getting back to a little knitting and art after the dust clears!

 

Destash Update

I'm in full destash mode now! I've pulled out some yarn (you can look at my Ravelry stash, I'm willing to part with both what's listed in trade but also what's on the regular stash page) and I've even listed some of my beloved rubber stamps here on ebay.  I also realized that as good as my intentions were when I bought myself some undyed yarn to dye for myself last fall, I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon, so if you are looking for undyed yarn, I have a bit listed here (and it's lovely stuff).  I've actually managed to put a few things I no longer use on Craigs List and freecycle.

I am even dreaming of having this carefree, uncluttered room where yarn is artfully stored/displayed.

 

 

Perhaps I'll paint my studio white and turn it into a backdrop for all my pretty yarn and art supplies (and children who want some room in the studio for their own efforts)?

That thought is convincing me it is worth the work to declutter, destash, share with friends. 

*Please scroll down through the earlier posts to see what I'm destashing, including knitting needle storage in some awesome silk bags.

Studio Yard Sale

I'm doing some pretty massive de-stashing in my studio to make room for some other family members who seem to think they deserve a little space ;p

It's hard to start!  Hopefully, by the end of the long weekend, I'll have done a good job.  I thought I would post some of the smaller items that knitters/fabric artists & seamstresses/mixed media artists might like here  -- if you see anything you would like, let me know and I'll send it to you.

I'll start below with some knitting needle cases (pictures at the bottom of this post) -- how did I end up with so much?  I also have some yarn (all personal stash but I'm going to make myself part with some elliebelly, and more here) on ravelry -- let me know if you see anything you would like, whether it's listed as for sale or not.

Here are the needle cases (please note i can only ship in the US, but prices DO include shipping) Email me at joyce at elliebelly dot com if you're interested:

Lantern Moon Silk -- part of the tag is still on, so I don't guess I ever used this one.  It's a combined case for circulars and dpns (you could probably get straights in as well) with a very roomy storage pocket.  It's quite lovely. $18

 

 

Another from Lantern Moon, this one is also silk and will hold a full set of straights.  It's beautiful and like new. $8

 

 

 

 

This one has no label and is made from a really nice, heavy weight fabric for storing circulars.  I used this one and it shows some fiber on it, so it may need a good once over with sticky tape.  I think it came from Etsy, but not sure.  $8

 

 

 

Ashland Fire Multipack in pink -- shows signs of light use, still very nice.  Wonderful to be able to see all of your needles!  This is for straights. $5

 

I'll get to fabric sooner or later but if you want some older Amy Butler fabrics, I seem to have a lot.  I seem to have lots of fabric in general.  My goal is to make myself part with half of it.  If there is anything on your wishlist let me know.  I would trade GENEROUSLY with someone who might be interested in doing some quilting or other sewing for me in exchange.

 

Happy New Year 2012

 

Things have been a little bit busy around here lately. My Mom has moved cross country and has a cute little cottage in our neighborhood that we've been working on (you can see it here), so the move has taken up a lot of my attention. A little knitting eye candy up above -- I hope to be back to knitting and dyeing within the next few weeks. Happy new year!

One Sleeved Girl

There hasn't been a lot of time for knitting lately, but I have managed the first sleeve for Ellie's not-so-tiny tea leaves cardigan. The goal was a 3/4 length sleeve with a slight bell shape, and we seem to be pretty much on target. Hopefully I can knit a second sleeve that matches the first!

I Am Off To Renew My Car Tags

I'm off to renew my car tags this morning.

You might not think this would be a major event, but where I live, one has to go in person and the lines are four to five hours because we are currently unable to register online.  There is only so much email traffic and document review a girl can do while standing in line for that period of time, so I'm going to take along this handspun:

and turn it into these wristwarmers.

I haven't knit with handspun before, so I'm really excited about this project.

I also considered using this yarn to knit a basic hat from the Stitch 'n Bitch Book, or a Destroyed Cowl or some other version of an infinity scarf.  But I settled on the wristwarmers, because they look like something to wear on cool winter morning walks or late nights at the computer (because the Judge likes to set our thermostat to the setting that says "Pretend to be in Siberia" at night during the winter months).  I can't wait to see how this yarn swatches up.  And, I'm sure I'm going to have PLENTY of time to see that this morning.

Mermaid's Tail

I finished my Mermaid's Tail shawl (also known as the Storm Cloud Shawlette) today.  And I'm in love.

It's loveliness incarnate.  A fabulous pattern and an easy, but altogether fun knit because of all of the intentionally dropped stitches that form the elongated garter stitch.

I love its little ruffle and its graceful drape.  I think this one is going to be my constant companion!

How to Make a Birthday Cake

Although this is not a cooking, or even a baking blog, I sometimes like to dream I'm a famous kitchen blogger.  I don't seem to have gotten the Julie/Julia gene though, so I content myself with knitting.  Nonetheless, I'm going to stray into kitchen territory with this post and show you all the cake I made for my second child's 19th birthday.  He wanted a cake that was both chocolate and white (but not marble) with vanilla frosting.

He got this.

The secret to all good cakes, as I imparted to Ellie, who most decidely thought I had lost my mind, is using a recipe where you separate the eggs. 

Adding whipped egg whites at the end to a custardy batter mixture produces light moist cakes.  So I mixed up my white cake (actually a yellow cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking) and my chocolate cake (Devil's Food Cockaigne from the same book) and baked two white layers and a thick chocolate layer.  The chocolate custard that went into the batter was a crowd pleaser, with spoon tasting all around called for.

The cake layers turned out perfectly.

The only thing left was to put the layers together using Pastry Cream filling that I had made the night before and then to crumb coat the cake with this delicious Caramel Icing, which went underneath the Boiled White Frosting you can see in the picture above after Teddy blew out the candles.

A cake like this is a day-long labor of love, but oh so much fun to make!  I'm off to see if there is a slice left for a mid-afternoon snack.