wait...this isn't the salad bar

Greetings readership of Gerwerken's blog, I am a guest writer, her husband.  You may have noticed me in such famous editions such as "the garden box" and occasionally popping up as the recipient of some of her crafty resourcefulness.  When Gerwerken first asked me to guest-blog for her, I thought "I really don't know what I'd say.  I have a Wordpress™ account, but never post anything - where would I even start?"  Sadly, I'm still sort of stuck there. One possible angle I see is the almost contrary nature that our respective craft endeavors  have when compared side-by-side.  Gerwerken leans toward knitting, sewing, soap-making and organization among others - many things reflective of an altruistic and ecologically sound approach to life.

While not an anarchistic hellion (usually), most of my creative pursuits involve scrap metal, noisy exhausts, combustable substances, fire, and hitting things with hammers.  When I'm at my most creative, there's usually safety-goggles required, specific instructions to watch for falling objects, and usually something burning somewhere.

Yin and Yang, probably a very good illustrative metaphor.

Let me back up.  If you're reading this, you're probably already quite familiar with what Gerwerken is all about, and equally dumbfounded as I am about how those two kids turned out so adorable.

I'm an aspiring blacksmith, that's my goal.  Having attended an hammer-in (informal blacksmith gathering), made a bailing tine knife with my own two hands, I'm hooked.  Only, I didn't have anything besides a desire to learn when I got started.  That was about a year ago.

To date, things are progressing pretty well.  Having a background as a bicycle-mechanic, and the accompanying pragmatic mindset that comes along with it, I started working on the basics; identify the equipment needed to start smithing, find a place to work, set up shop.  The more I studied, the more I realized that much of the equipment I needed (tables, forges, kilns, implements) could be build out of scrap metal easily obtained from a junk yard.  That was all I needed - We're off to the races.

That, in a nutshell, is the craftiest activity I have.  I'm still learning, I haven't started smithing, but I'm on my way.

I work on cars, I weld, I fabricate, I build bikes, I ride bikes, I read, and now - I blog.

Hi.

What's your sign?

During 2009 a very good friend got married to the love of her life.  For her present this Christmas, I wanted to make her a symbol of their new love.  Since she loves the stars almost as much as her new husband, I decided to embroider her a constellation depicting a beautiful love story.  However, there is a reason for the phrase, "star crossed lovers."  All of the constellations I could find depicting love stories were horrible tragedies.  So, I change direction a bit, and  embroidered their birth signs.  After all, they are meant to be together, it's in the stars.

Doctor, you've got some MRSA on your tie.

One of my best friends is a new doctor, who still wants to change the system and make hospitals a healthy place for patients.  During his annual Christmas visit last year he was incensed that doctors in many hospitals were required to wear ties.  After all, a doctor's tie is an exceptionally good at spreading disease.  Ties are at just the right height to get coughed on, they fall on patients during exams, they are not changed between patients, and compared to other clothes they get cleaned infrequently.  A doctors tie is probably covered with disease! Over the past year, with the mental image of a tie crawling with disease, I decided that this Christmas the good doctor would receive a tie with a visible representation of what was already on it.  The disease tie was born....

On a black silk tie I embroidered 4 visually distinct, and rather scary diseases.  Here are some closeups;

Next time you visit the visit the hospital, avoid the ties.

Holiday Roundup

Christmas decorations came down today officially ending Christmas.  Before I completely forget about Christmas, I thought I would give you a quick holiday round up since I was too busy to post during most of the Christmas season.

The Christmas Tree Farm

Decorating the Gingerbread House

The Captain Comes to Town

Christmas Eve Light Viewing

Christmas Day!

Coming Soon: The Christmas Crafting Roundup

2010

I hope you all had a great holiday season.  We had a wonderful time, but I am thrilled it is over now.  I feel like I have enough time to take a deep breath again!

I am so excited to begin a new year, and a new decade, it feels like a new beginning.  I have decided to set a few goals to work toward during this new year - some people might think of these as resolutions.  I would like to share my goals with you.

1.

Goal	Create a Home Management Notebook
Define Goal	Create a tool that helps me keep a well organized, efficient, and peaceful home, by keeping important information, checklists, and tools for my job at home all in one place.
How to Accomplish	Gather the information I use or need as a home manager and keep it in the same notebook.  Create a routine for myself, and keep a written copy of it in the notebook.  I will also create templates to organize future information, and use the notebooks of others as inspiration.

2.

Goal	Be a Healthier Person
Define Goal	Gain and maintain a healthy weight as defined by the BMI, and be able to ride the St. Marks trail (50 miles) in under 3 hours, and run a 5k.
How to Accomplish	Exercise at least 5 days a week.  Ideally that would alternate emphasis on aerobic activity, and strength training.  On days in which I do not feel able to exercise, I should at least engage in relaxation activities.  I will schedule times during my day for the sole purpose of exercising.  At the time of this writing that will be after my morning responsibilities, and again after the kids go to bed.  I will also make more meals for myself and my family with whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy amounts of dairy.

3.

Goal	Finish all of my current UFOs
Define Goal	Complete or rip back all craft projects currently left unfinished.
How to Accomplish	Find all of my current unfinished objects.  List them in order of finishing priority.  Those with due dates need to be finished first, and then those that are closest to being finished come second.  Objects that I no longer want to finish can be ripped back into their raw materials.  Once these projects are completed, I plan to have no more than 3 projects unfinished at one time.

4.

Goal	An Awesome Blog
Define Goal	A frequently updated, informative, easy to search, and beautiful blog.
How to Accomplish	First, begin posting at least 2 times per week, working toward posting everyday.  Second, make blog more searchable by better defineing post categories, and subcategories.  Third, focus on posting information that would be interesting and informative for my readers, and fourth, work on creating a unifying visual theme.

Are you setting any goals or resolutions for the new year?  I would love to hear about them.  If you are not setting any goals or resolutions for the new year, why have you decided against it?

Happy Holidays

I hope this holiday season is going well for all of you.  So far I am feeling a little behind on my holiday to do list, but instead of letting the stress get to me, I am letting a few things slide (unfortunately the blog is one of them, sorry).  After feeling completely overwhelmed last year, to the point that I did not enjoy the holidays until after they were over, I am making a conserted effort to enjoy myself this year.

In addition to realizing that I don't have to make everything perfect, I have also realized that I don't have to stress about buying my kids expensive Christmas presents.  Christmas isn't about expensive presents, and my kid's shouldn't expect them.   Instead, I will get them something they will really want that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  The rest, I will make.  We will have a small but heartfelt Christmas.

I will leave the spoiling to the rest of my family.

My family started our simple holiday fun, by picking out our Christmas tree at a tree farm in North Carolina while we were up there for Thanksgiving.  In addition to the fun of going out in the field and picking a still growing, uncut tree, this tree farm had carriage rides driven by Santa, and an elf village with crafts for the kids.  This was all for the cost of the tree, and our (rather small) tree was only $20.  The kids loved it!

In keeping with my simple holiday fun here are a few things you can do this holiday season, if you live in or near Florida's Big Bend region;

• Thomasville, GA's Victorian Christmas Festival in downtown Thomasville.  The festivities are December 10 and 11, 2009 from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.  Admission is free.
• Christmas on the Farm at the Tallahassee Museum.  The farm is having it's Christmas on the 19th of December, 2009, from 11:00 - 3:30 and you can participate for the cost of Museum Admission.

Candy and Candles

My family, including myself, has been out of order as of late.  The kids got either a very bad cold, or a mild version of the flu.  They have only recently begun feeling better, and letting me walk around without holding one of them.  One good thing did come out of it however, I am now almost completely immune to my little boy saying, "I can't do it.  I siiiiiiiick."  The recent fake coughing at the end of that exclamation was like a vaccination encouraging quick immunity.  Who would have thought a two year old could be so manipulative.

My daughter had her 4th birthday just before the illness kicked in.  To my immense pleasure, she picked a Halloween themed party, which we decided to hold on Halloween night.  Since I LOVE Halloween, it was no trouble to go all out for this party, and I did.  Here are some pics from the festivities. The birthday girl and her grandmother as fairies.

Graveyard cake, as requested.

Lady Fingers.

Marshmallow Bones.

Batman!

Formula for Increasing Evenly Across a Row

I finally got around to putting up my formula for increasing evenly across a row, check it out.  It is on the Knitting Math Page.

How does DIY Laundry Detergent Work?

After writing my previous article, DIY Laundry Detergent, I realized that there is no reason that any of you would trust a word I say on such a subject.  If I were you I wouldn't trust me, and I don't trust other bloggers on blind faith either.  When I find a topic I an interested in, I research.  Here is some of my findings on DIY Laundry Detergent, and a few links to help you begin your research if you are inclined. ~Gerwerken

How does DIY Laundry Detergent Work?

For thousands of years humans have been washing fabric in water.  At times we have also hit that fabric against rocks, with sticks, or against the beaters in our washing machines.  We have boiled the water, or added things to it, but the use of water hasn’t changed.  Why?  Water cleans really well.  That’s why it is often referred to as, “the universal solvent.”  We could wash our clothes in plain water alone, get pretty clean clothes, and save a lot of money.

So if water does such a good job, why do we bother with soaps and detergents?  The main reason when it comes to laundry is that oil and water don’t mix, soap acts like a match maker.  Soap, or saponified fats, act as emulsifying agents so that oil, and the dirt attracted to it, can be washed away by water.  Washing Soda, or Sodium Carbonate is added to the mix because we rarely wash our clothes in pure soft water.  Instead, we use tap water, hard, soft, or in-between (for a cute story about the difference between hard and soft water click here).  The washing soda bonds with some of the minerals in hard water, particularly magnesium and calcium, so the soap does not have to.  Without the washing soda, we would need a LOT more soap.

Finally Borax, or sodium borate, a naturally occurring alkaline mineral, helps whiten whites and brighten brighten.  Borax converts some of the water molecules to hydrogen peroxide, which you will know if you have ever seen a peroxide blond, acts similarly to bleach.  As an added bonus, it also kills roaches, I bet your old detergent didn’t do that.

DIY Laundry Detergent

So you can knit, sew, cook your food from scratch, and change your own oil.  Can you make your own laundry detergent?  Do you even know what is in your laundry detergent? I started making my own laundry detergent almost a year ago now, and I have been experementing to find the best formula.  At the moment,  I have a keeper.  This formulation has been successful at getting out toddler strength stains.

This is how you make it...

Ingredients:

Castille Soap (grated)

Borax

Washing Soad

Baking Soad (optional)

Essential Oil (optional)

The Formula:  I made a ratio of ingredients rather than an exact recipe so that you can make a small batch or a large batch, and there wouldn't be any problem going from English to metric measures, etc.  Note:  Ratios are by VOLUME.

Mix 2 parts grated soap, 1 part borax, 1 part washing soda, and if desired, 0.5 to 1 part baking soda (use more for heavily soiled clothing), and essential oil as preferred (I like lavender).

Example: 2 cups grated soap (about 1 bar), 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 0.5 cup baking soda, and 20 drops essential oil.

Once you mix it all up, stick it in a container with a tight lid, and use about 1/8 cup per regular load of wash.

Homemade Pasta

I finally made pasta from scratch, and I can't believe it took me so long.  It was so EASY, and the pasta tasted great!  Additionally, while I didn't do a cost analysis, I think it is also cheaper than boxed pasta.

My husband thought they looked like cartoon noodles, which I think made my kid's more willing to try them (the kids liked them by the way).

This is the recipe I used.  It is super simple, and seems endlessly adaptable.  If you haven't tried to make your own pasta yet, you should.

Delicious Mud Pie

Yesterday was Labor Day in the US, making this past weekend a long weekend for me and my family.  Rather than trying to take a long trip out-of-town, we decided to relax and do some work around the house.  It turned out to be a wonderfully refreshing weekend.  My kids had an especially good time on Sunday playing with what they informed me is their favorite toy, "dirt."  Here are some pics of their good "clean" fun.

On Monday we cleared about 1/6 of an acre that we hope will be our new garden next summer.  The trees we felled will become the borders of our garden beds, the larger limbs will become trellises, and the smaller twigs, leaves, etc will be composted.  The kids helped the entire time, mostly collecting the smaller items to be composted.  I think you will likely see more about it in the future.

September is National Sewing Month

It's time to break out the sewing machine and sew!

This year the theme of National Sewing Month is reuse, remake, restyle.  This theme is right up my alley!  I am looking forward to a month full of sewing.  I was already planning to sew Halloween Costumes and Christmas Presents, but now I have an excuse.

I thought I would kick off this month with a review of the Flower Girl Dress Pattern, from my latest favorite sewing book, "Weekend Sewing," by Heather Ross.

So far I have made a few item from this book, and every item involving a size has been a nightmare!  This dress was NOT an exception.  The pattern as sized in the book would never have fit my daughter.  I could not make the seam allowances small enough.  I had to size the pattern up, but once the top was large enough to fit over her head it seemed to large.  If I make this pattern again (which I might because my daughter loves the dress), I will either make the top smaller and install fasteners, or make the top smaller and out of a stretchy knit fabric.  On the other hand I made the dress for free by restyling fabric and using scraps.  The bottom of the dress was restyled from an old satin curtain, and the top was made from the scraps from a linen dress I made.

Note:  I am planning to continue posting on the knitting ABC's as well, but I have been having trouble finding information on Anna Zilboorg, the next A on my list.  If you have a source I would love to hear about it.

Thanks,

~gerwerken

A is for Angora

Three in a row that are all about fiber!  I know, I found it frustrating too.  That is just how things popped up in alphabetical order.  I promise the next 2 will not be fiber related.

On with the show:

Angora fiber comes from the Angora rabbit, a group of domestic rabbits bread for their long silky “wool.”  Angoras come in several arbitrarily defined breeds, based on their physical appearance.  The most common breeds in the US are the English, French, Giant, and Satin (the English – my favorite – are the smallest and look most like giant cotton balls).

Regardless of their breed, angoras produce a very fine, extremely light weight, and warm fiber.  In fact, Angora fiber is only 10 microns in diameter, far finer than even cashmere.  Like Alpaca, it is also 8 times warmer than sheep’s wool.  It will even keep you warm when saturated with twice as much water as sheep’s wool can hold.  As a result of its warmth and diameter, angora is often blended with other fibers like wool or silk to reduce the yarn’s density and increase its wear-ability.

Angora fiber can be harvested thru traditional shearing or clipping methods, but the fiber also sheds in tufts and can be painlessly plucked from the rabbit during grooming.  The best part is that the plucked fiber is also considered the highest grade. This fiber can then be spun directly off the rabbit, and washed after it is spun.

Angora yarn is known for being extremely fuzzy and somewhat delicate.  While this is often true, it is the result of using low quality, short fibers that have not been spun tightly enough.  Since angora has little crimp and the individual fibers are smooth, angora must be spun rather tightly to get a structurally sound yarn.  Correct twist, combined with higher quality, longer staple length fibers yield a strong, stable yarn.

I have been trying to find an excuse to get an English Angora for a while now, but using it’s fiber to enhance my stash is not a viable excuse so far.  Here in Florida it is simply too hot to wear more than about 5% Angora fiber on even the coldest days.  Even one bunny would produce more fiber than I need at my current knitting rate.  Maybe if we move farther north……

A is also for Alpaca.

Alpacas are South American domesticated herd animals that come from the same scientific family as camels.  They look a lot like llamas, but they are smaller, much friendlier, and most of them rarely spit on people.  Alpacas are also pretty easy on the land they graze, making them a pretty “green” fiber option.  They have been described as cuddly investments, but I think they are just cuddly.

Alpacas come in two varieties, Huacaya and Suri.  Huacaya are the far more common variety.  Their fiber tends to be shorter, and has much more crimp than that of the Suri.  The Suri has longer, silkier fiber with very little crimp.

Alpaca Fiber is the “wool” harvested from an alpaca; much like wool is harvested from sheep.  In fact, alpaca fiber is similar to sheep’s wool, but it is warmer, smoother, and lighter weight per unit of fiber than sheep’s wool.  Alpaca is also lanolin free, making it safe for those with lanolin allergies.  Good quality alpaca is fine and soft at only 18 to 25 micrometers in diameter (the finer the fiber the softer it generally feels, and alpaca is very fine).  Baby alpaca is particularly fine, as alpaca fibers get thicker as the animals age.

Alpaca fiber is as much as 7 times warmer than wool, drapes beautifully, takes dye very well, and is not prone to pilling.  On the other hand, it is more slippery and less flexible than wool, and stretches underweight.  Alpaca is also heavier than wool in heavier gauges because it has less crimp than wool and is more slippery than wool it has to be spun very densely.

What do I knit in alpaca?  Since I live in such a warm climate I knit only whisper fine lace in alpaca, as everything else is too warm.  If I could, I would beautifully fine draping sweaters and cardigans.  Alpaca is lovely.

Knitting ABCs: A is for Acrylic

I have been working on a project tutorial for you all, but it is taking me a while.  It has allowed me to do a bit of thinking however, and the current tutorial in the works inspired the Knitting ABCs.  Today.....

is for Acrylic

Acrylic yarn is a synthetic yarn made from a polymer of about 1900 monometer units. At least 85% of that polymer must be acrylonitnile monometer in the US to be called acrylic.  The yarn is made by dissolving the polymer, then extruding through a spinnerette, which spins what it extrudes.

Although acrylic yarn often resembles wool, it doesn’t need to be taken care of as carefully as wool.  Acrylic yarn is machine washable, and dryable on cool settings, and unlike wool, moths hate acrylic.  It is also much lighter weight than that other favorite machine washable, cotton.   It also tends to be inexpensive compared to natural fibers and other synthetics, and is safe for people with wool allergies.

Acrylic is very susceptible to heat however.  Steam blocking acrylic will “kill” it, getting rid of all of its bounce back.  That is not really a problem though, because acrylic doesn’t really block anyway.  It can also irritate sensitive skin, or in the case of really cheap, plastically acrylic, all skin.  Additionally, it is not as warm as wool or absorbent as cotton.

What would I make with acrylic?  Something I have to wash, a lot, and needs to be lighter, and cheap.  What do I make with acrylic?  Almost nothing.  Just about the only things I knit in acrylic are gifts that I would rather knit in wool, but I know the recipient would machine wash.

Do you have a suggestion for the Knitting ABCs?  Let me know by leaving me a comment.

My New Baby

Meet my new baby, Ronan.  He earned the name after falling at least 20 feet out of his nest, then being used as a chew toy by my SIL's dogs.  Miracously, Ronan survived visibly shaken, but with only minor injuries.  We have been nurseing him back to health since.

Since this picture was taken we contacted an expert in the squirrel rehab and found that bottles should not be used to feed baby squirrels, as they can asperate on the milk if it comes out too fast.

"Dirty" Pictures

My kids have a box that was made for our garden that is filled with clay .  They played in it while I planted the other boxes and eventually claimed it for their own.  A few weeks ago they were getting filthy playing in their box as I was tending to the garden - getting pretty dirty myself.  My daughter noticed that how messy I was getting and asked, "Mom, can I take dirty pictures of you?"

If only Bill Cosby still had that show about that stuff kid's say.

Missing Normal

Feeling normal is so easy to take for granted, until you no longer feel like yourself.  It has been several weeks since I have felt normal, and I have missed it dearly.  I have been extremely tired.  It has been difficult to work on anything for more than a few minutes at a time, and almost nothing has gotten done.  I am beginning to feel "normal" again, but it is slow goings.  I hope that I will be back to regular blogging before too long.

Grosgrain's Dress Giveaway

Grosgrain is having yet another giveaway, but this time they are giving away a gorgeous, adult sized dress by Shabby Apple.  Shabby Apple has cute, flattering dresses for women, and a guide to help you find the ones that will look best on you.  Even if you are not interested in the giveaway, you really should check Shabby Apple out.