Moominmama's Memoirs

Inkling Along

astrbear — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:40:24 +0000

As my term of office on the Board of the Friends of the University of Washington Libraries came to an end, I wanted to make some bookmarks as a “Good-by and thank you” gift for the people I worked with. Inkle weaving makes a sturdy and pretty bookmark, and you don’t even have to have an inkle loom to do it. My Baby Wolf holds an inkle warp just fine, going through the heddles but leaving out the reed.

As a bonus, the beater, locked into place with no reed in it, makes a great shelf to hold the shuttle, scissors, and other odds and ends I used.

The color scheme was based on the UW colors of purple and gold. The shuttle seen above, with fat gold yarn on it, was just being used as a spacer between bookmarks.

Here’s the weaving off the loom. Next step was a bath in warm soapy water, followed by a rinse and air drying. Then, I cut the long strip into separate bookmarks. A great way to get even cuts across a woven band is by using a rotary cutter.

I ended up with 25 bookmarks, just enough.

A nice little commemorative gift!

Cookies Galore

astrbear — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:18:24 +0000

Pretty much everything I have to say in terms of me making cookies this time of year was said last year, so go check out that post, which has recipes and pictures. I like to crank up the Christmas CDs while cranking out the Brune Kager, and lead-off tune is alway Feliz Navidad by the sublime Jose Feliciano. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGuCvFdrWPg&feature=related

Don’t Faint, Now . . .

astrbear — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:32:56 +0000

Yes, it’s an actual post here at Moominmama’s Memoirs! And with weaving content, to boot.

It’s been a busy summer and fall here at Chez Moomin, and rather than catch you up with the wonderful times at Sock Summit, the delights of ComicCon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy Con; the quick junket to the US Virgin Islands in December (and I’ve still got the bug bites to prove it!) . . . well, rather than that, I’m just going to show off the quicky scarf I made as a Christmas present for a friend.

The yarn is a mystery yarn I bought from Elsa at the Seaview Weavers Plaid Llama sale. It’s sett at 6 epi, and wove up quickly into a soft, warm scarf, 9 inches wide, and about 5 1/2 feet long. A bit boardy as it came off the loom, but a soak in Soak followed by a spin-out in the front-loading washer beat it into submission, and now it’s cushy and lovely.

What’s that? You want proof that I left the vale of greyness that is often Seattle in December and went to a tropical place? Okay, how’s this?

And we’ll close with the sunrise the day we left.

Celebrate the return of light as we round the Solstice and head towards Spring.

Warp Factor

astrbear — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:56:21 +0000

I’ve just delivered a commission to Syne Mitchell – 15 sets of warp and weft yarns, dyed in vivid colors for her rigid-heddle weaving class at John C. Campbell Folk School. Here are the weft yarns

and here are the warp yarns.

Yes, they are vivid! Especially the two at the lower left. I think of them as parrots. Syne cleverly has her students warp the looms so that the colors flow in a pleasing way. The coordinating weft yarns will tone down the wildness, and the students will end up with a lovely scarf.

I delivered the skeins to Syne at her new high-tech job, and we went out to lunch to discuss future projects for each of us.

One is Sock Summit: Syne will be teaching, I’ll be a vendor, and we’ll be rooming together. Plus we talked about dyeing, weaving, knitting. As Syne said, definitely a high-fiber lunch!

I’ll be putting together more of these sets of skeins for warp and weft. It’s 300 yards for the warp, 250 for the weft, dyed on Louet’s Gems fingering weight yarn. Drop me a note if you’re interested. They will be for sale at Sock Summit, but I may not post them on the Etsy site unless requested.

Pile o’Mug Rugs

astrbear — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:11:44 +0000

I just cut a woven project off the loom — hurray! There’s hasn’t been too much weaving around here lately, what with dyeing yarn and knitting, so it feels good to have gotten some weaving done.

This is 30 mug rugs, which my weaving guild will be giving to the organizers of the 2011 ANWG Conference, Exploring Fiber Horizons, to put into attendees’ goodie bags. We’ve committed to giving 100, and may exceed that. Yay us! I’ll take them to our next meeting and they’ll get distributed to other members who will hem them. The final product will look something like this.

It’s been fun to have an easy project like this for non-weaving members of our group to try their hand at. We’re happy to put new weavers on the slippery slope of new skills!

A Long and Winding Road

astrbear — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:20:58 +0000

I’ve now passed my 4th blogiversary — Happy Blog Day! This prompts a bit of looking back at what I was doing that first month of blogging. In some ways, things are much the same.

I still love and wear my handspun alpaca mitts.

I still love and make the NYT No-Knead bread. This post, by way, is my most-viewed post. Lotta bread lovers out there.

I’m still spinning and dyeing. Spinning much better now, thanks to a couple of classes with the justly-revered Judith MacKenzie.

The dyeing has turned into a business, with actual profits! Not huge, not a living wage, but it’s a self-sustaining hobby that pays for cool equipment and classes, lets me meet great folks, and play with color as much as I want. I’m currently winding off yarn for a commission for Syne Mitchell, who will make it available to her students when she teaches a rigid-heddle weaving class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. (The blurry look of the winder and swift in motion in this photo is my attempt at an arty action shot.)

But, although we’ve had our share of wintery weather, there haven’t been any more visits from the river otters.

What’s different? Mostly the kids, who don’t show up here too much. My son Erik has graduated college and is navigating the chilly job market while also doing some free-lance writing. Fingers crossed for two projects being printed and available to the public this year (I’ll keep you posted). He’s also part of the writing team on The Mongoliad, a cool on-line serial novel. My daughter Alex continues her studies at Savannah College of Art and Design. She’s a Dramatic Writing major, which means scripts, although her writing teacher this quarter is fine with her working on a novel. These kids, they think one make a living writing! Fools . . .

My New Favorite Scarf

astrbear — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:18:24 +0000

The fabulous Syne Mitchell of WeaveZine asked me if I was interested in dyeing some yarn for her upcoming rigid-heddle weaving classes. “You betcha!” I said, and sent her off some yarn to weave a sample with to see if it worked for her purposes. Unfortunately, it proved a wee bit challenging for new weavers to deal with (a bit too fine for a 12-dent reed, worms a bit when woven and washed, also very stretchy), but in the hands of a master like Syne, well . . .

It’s a soft, warm, smooth fabric with an ikat-look effect due to the yarn being handpainted in a regular pattern. Syne cleverly arranges the warp to make the colors line up in interesting ways.

What’s always fascinating is how yarn changes when crossed with another color. The warp skein was navy blue, bright green, and yellow, which you can see in the fringe. The weft, or crossing yarn, was a pale lavender that I thought would play well with the paler parts of the navy. The final look is cool, spring-like, and just wonderful! Syne sent it back to me to show off to my customers, but they have to get it off my neck first. Thank you, Syne!

And a better yarn for her classes is on order.

Blunch

astrbear — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:41:53 +0000

A recent late breakfast/early lunch that had real staying power!

Thaw a black bean burger and pan-fry in a bit of oil till crispy. Set aside on a plate. Fry an egg in the same pan, and put some grated chedder cheese on top to melt. Put it on top of the burger. Heat a small tortilla in the same pan and slip under the burger. Heat some salsa in the same pan and pour over the top. Easy! Delicious! If I had a food cart in Portland, I bet I could sell a lot of these.

Happy New Year!

astrbear — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:29:27 +0000

As I mentioned recently, we had a bit of snow. It’s been quite cold since then, so the snow remains in shadier spots. But where the sun has a chance to do its work, green is poking through.

The lake was beginning to freeze in the shallows

but it won’t last. Take this a metaphor for bad times, for the winters of discontent that we go through from time to time. With luck, the sun’ll come out tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

All Day Soup

astrbear — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:30:41 +0000

I spent yesterday making what is perhaps the world’s most complicated ramen recipe, from the cookbook Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. The previous day, I bought pork shoulder and rubbed with salt and sugar, then put it in the fridge to rest overnight. I started slow-roasting it yesterday morning, basting it with accumulated fat every hour for 6 hours. Meanwhile, I made tare seasoning by roasting stray chicken bits (leftover wing tips I has stashed in the freezer) until deep brown then simmering them with soy sauce, mirin, etc. Also made dashi , not the full court broth called for in the recipe, but a very good fresh dashi from seaweed and bonito flakes. Also slow simmered eggs at 145 degrees. Also cooked greens with soy, vingar, and little brown sugar. Also cooked noodles. I did not make the noodles, the crazy bus didn’t make it quite that far.

Came dinner time, and hot noodles were divided among the bowls, hot tare-seasoned broth ladled on, hot shredded pork shoulder, greens, and shelled egg put on top, sliced fish cake slipped in on the side, a sprinkle of green onions . . .

Why, dinner was ready in an instant!