Marie Haigh

Apple Jelly before a Trip

October 22, 2008 Marie Haigh7 Comments

I made apple jelly last night.

I had found a recipe for it in perhaps my favorite recipe book: Home Made by Sandra Oddo. This book has saved my pride more than once. You see, I have the will of a wet noodle when it comes to fresh, local produce. I typically buy enough to feed a small army. Occasionally, Dan has asked me what I plan to do with all the produce I just brought home. My answer involves listing several childhood recipes, blindly certain that I will use it all and might even need more. Then, I start to root through my traditional recipe books and am slightly unnerved that all the recipes only call for 1 or 2 pieces. I’m staring down pounds of the stuff. Home Made has a wide selection of recipes for getting rid of a lot of produce in one fell swoop.

Admittedly, I did not follow Oddo’s recipe for Apple Jelly. Instead, I cheated. I used pectin. It’s so fool-proof that it hardly makes sense not to use it. After 10 minutes of processing in my canning pot, the jelly was done.

My next stove, if I can ever bear to part with this oldy-but-goody, will have an area large enough for my canning pot. Right now, the pot straddles two burners. Worse, it has stained the white coating. I’ve tried everything to get it off. How the original owner managed to keep the stove in immaculate condition and I ruin it in a short 3 years is beyond me.

On a personal note, I’ll be out of town for the next few days. Dan and I are headed down to Talbott, TN. Unfortunately, his grandfather passed away earlier this week.

Don’t forget to root for the Phillies. Game 1 starts tonight!

Knitters at a Brewfest

October 20, 2008October 21, 2008 Marie Haigh6 Comments

On Saturday, I attended a brewfest at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

This is a picture of the mural that was in the World Cafe. It reminded me of the Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

It was an Oktoberfest, featuring nothing but German beers.

I made it my mission to try each and every Oktoberfest style beer. By the end of the afternoon, I had decided that the following were my top 3 favorites:

1. Beck’s Oktoberfest
2. Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest
3. And, of course, the classic: Spaten Oktoberfest

While waiting in line for the fest to start and while meandering through the tables of beer, I ran into two other knitters. Both picked me out as a knitter by my Ravelry buttons.

The 1st knitter told me about a new knitting store that she found in Newtown, PA. I’d share a link to the store if I could find it, but no such luck. She said it was called Slipped Knot. Has anybody heard of it?

Edited to say that I found information on the new store. The name of the store is Slip Knot.

Slip Knot
3719 West Chester pike
Newton Square, Pennsylvania 19073
610-359-9070

The 2nd knitter, Trish (this time I got her name), mentioned that she attended the Phillies Stitch-n-Pitch for the past two years. It was she who had knit a Phillies baseball cap. Not only did I know exactly which hat she was talking about, I had featured it on my blog 2 years ago, I told her how I had searched for the cap this past year but didn’t see it. Trish explained that she had given it to her daughter to wear, but her daughter was sitting in the bleachers up above us. Next year, Trish vowed to keep the hat herself and at least wear it for a few minutes. I’ll be looking for it. It’s such a fabulous hat!

Speaking of baseball, my Phillies are going to the World Series to play the Tampa Bay Rays. It starts on Wednesday. I am SO excited!

Story of Double Happiness

October 17, 2008 Marie Haigh6 Comments

Do you remember this pillow front I had blogged about earlier this year?

From Double Happiness

The yarn weight was too heavy for the design. Plus, I had made a slight error in the portrayal of the Chinese character meaning Double Happiness. So, I revised it.

Here is the new and improved version:

From Double Happiness

My original plan had the back side of the pillow being an exact copy of the front version. The plan was scrapped for three reasons. (1), I hate knitting something twice, which is yet another reason why I don’t knit socks. (2), more important than my silly quirks, the plan didn’t allow for the removal of the pillow insert. (3), I wanted a way to embellish the pillow after having such a blast decorating the tree skirt.

The redesigned back with ribbons woven through the eyelets:

From Double Happiness

As you may remember, this entire ~~crazy~~ idea of mine came about from a framed Chinese paper cutting art piece that my cousin bought for Dan and I.

From Double Happiness

All I did was take the Chinese symbol and turn it into lace.

The pattern is now available on my website, on Ravelry and on Samantha in Stitches website: http://sisyarn.terapad.com.

Swatch for Knee Warmers

October 15, 2008 Marie Haigh3 Comments

The ball of yarn on the left is Manos del Uruguay (100% wool), gifted to me by my MIL.
The ball of yarn on the right is Peruvian Tweed (100% alpaca), purchased from Sophie’s Yarns in Philadelphia three or four years ago.

The bottom half of the swatch was knit in what is supposed to be Diagonal Ribbing from Barbara Walker’s 1st Treasury book.
Go ahead, say it. …. It looks ghastly, right?
I couldn’t agree more.
I have no idea how she made the diagonal ribbing look so pretty in the book. No idea at all.

The top half of the swatch is the winner: Fisherman’s Ribbing. It has all the characteristics that I wanted: elasticity, warmth and simplicity.

I had never knit Fisherman’s ribbing before and thus had a minor panic attack when trying to follow Walker’s instructions. Her instructions told me to P1, then K1 but into the stitch below. Repeat till end. Simple enough. Except after executing the K1 into the stitch below, I was puzzled as to what would happen with the stitch on the needle. Should I keep it on the needle? I tried doing just that for a few stitches, but it didn’t seem right. Then, I went in search of an online tutorial. I found one: Lana Grossa’s Knitting Tip. In the 3rd paragraph, my concern was addressed: “The stitch above is then more or less unravelled and forms a new loose stitch.” When performed correctly, it actually looks like two stitches are sitting on top of the newly knitted K1.

You may notice that halfway through the swatch the stitches start to slant to the left. I did that on purpose. I really loved the way the diagonal ribbing looked in the book. Knit on circular needles, it would look stunning – a real eye pleaser. Plus, it would keep the pattern interesting. In order to accomplish the diagonal slant, I had to resort to using a cable needle on every K1 stitch. Two rows is all I managed. It was a bit too interesting for my taste. Plus, it reduced some of the elasticity. Fooey. No diagonal stitches. Maybe I can design a thick border at the top and bottom of the warmers instead.

I’ve also decided that I will not be using Manos as the main yarn. It’s thick and warm enough, but it’s only a single strand. These knee warmers have the potential of being well-worn. Additionally, I really wanted to use my own 2-ply, handspun wool. It would make the gift more personal. I still face the problem of not having enough handspun wool to make 2 knee warmers. What’s a girl to do? Exactly what any girl or fiber lover would do – go buy more. Yep, I did. It’s already en route.

Prepping Alpaca without Tools and a Tag

October 13, 2008 Marie Haigh8 Comments

A question was posted on Ravelry asking how to prep fiber without a carder. I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I just use my hands to prep alpaca fleece. (I haven’t tried to prep sheep’s wool yet). However, I’ve never taken the time to write down all the steps and take pictures along the way. I finally did this weekend.

This is how Buddy’s fleece looks before it is washed. Buddy is the blind alpaca that resides at my local alpaca farm. If you look closely enough, you can see the tips are matted.

Before I even wash the fleece, I first comb out the matted tips using Jake’s flicker brush. I also take the time to pull out all the second cuts and the large bits of vegetable matter, such as straw. The pile in the middle of the picture is all the junk I managed to pull just from this small section of Buddy’s fleece.

Then, I wash the fleece in warm water with a little bit of soap. Afterwards, I rinse it 2-3 times or until the water runs clear of grime and soap. This is what the fleece looks like after it is washed.

Next, I pull a small chunk out of the washed fleece.

From the small chunk, I remove 1 lock of alpaca.

Now starts the fun. I tease the fibers open width-wise.

Then, I pinch the ends of the fibers in each of my hands. Pulling gently but firmly, I coax the fibers completely part.

Next, I stack the fibers on top of each other and repeat the last step 2-3 times or until the fibers no longer cling to one another. The fibers should resemble a cloud.

Finally, I gently roll the fiber cloud down my thigh until it resembles a mini roving. It’s like rolling a cigar.

I repeat these steps until I have completely filled my recycled stationery box.

To spin the mini rovings, just grab one and start drafting it. When you get to the end of the mini roving, join in a new one.

OK. I admit that my technique does take a while to accomplish. You can make a batt on a drum carder in the amount of time it take me to make 10 mini rovings, but you won’t have nearly as much fun!

Meri of Elbit Blog bestowed a Brilliant Blog award on me. Thank you so much, Meri!

In accepting this award, I agree to:

1. Display the logo and link to the one who awarded it.

2. Nominate at least 7 blogs to receive the award.

3. Add links to those 7 blogs to my blog.

4. Leave the nominees a message that they have been nominated to receive the award.

And here are the 7 blogs I nominate:

Mr. Pooper’s Day Out
Mrs Petersson Knits
Knitting Knoobie
Hadley Gets Crafty
Today We Are….
Tom’s Astronomy Blog
Daily Fiber Adventures with WildHare

Finding the Perfect Yarn for a Project

October 9, 2008 Marie Haigh5 Comments

Fall is here and with it the cooler weather. Though I haven’t turned the heat on yet nor have I burned wood in the fireplace, I imagine it’s only a matter of time. Yesterday, I went in search of my wool socks for it’s my feet that are the first thing to get cold on my body. Dan, ever the good husband, bought me a foot warmer many years ago. I cart it all over the house in the wintertime.

Dan, on the other hand, rarely complains of cold feet. It’s his knees that give him the most trouble. They are first thing to get cold and last thing to warm up. Last year, I attempted to return the favor of the foot warmer by purchasing him knee warmers. I bought him two separate sets. Neither worked very well. The first set was made of cotton and though they were soft, they were constantly falling down from his knees. I should have know, since cotton isn’t very elastic. The second set was made of polyester and tinsel. They were scratchy and much too tight.

I had a bright idea last night while unpacking all our winter clothes. I will knit Dan a pair of knee warmers. They will need to have the following characteristics so as not to make the same mistakes as the ready-made ones:

Next-to-skin soft
Elastic properties but not too tight
Warmth but ability to breath
Durable since they will get a workout 4 months out of the year
In a manly (boring) color

Based upon these requirements, I decided wool would be best. I eliminated Merino though due to its shorter staple, tendency to pill, and lack of durability.

I went rooting through my stash (Ravelry link). Insisting that the yarn be wool, but not Merino, eliminated the lion’s share of it. Then, I took out the brightly colored wool: Hand-dyed red and gold wool from Maine and Crystal Palace Yarns Taos. Then, I eliminated the not-so-soft wool: all my Briggs n Little (I can’t wait for the Soft version to come out) and Reynolds Bulky Lopi. Finally, I ruled out the Shetland I handspun, since I simply don’t have enough yardage.

I was left with 5 choices.

From left to right:
Manos del Uraguay Wool
Jamieson Shetland Marl
Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed
Cascade 220
MIL Brown wool, Hand-spun

Yardage concerns plague with a Jamieson and Cascade. I only have 1 skein of each. Though I have two balls of Jo Sharp, it equates to less than one Cascade.

So, that leaves me Manos del Uraguay and MIL Brown wool.

I love my husband, but I cannot use the MIL Brown wool for something he is going to wear underneath his clothes. If he would promise to wear them out in public with a pair of shorts, I might consider it. I’m not being selfish. OK, maybe I am. In my defense, there is a reason for it. This yarn was given to Dan’s mother by her Mother-in-law. When the MIL could not locate a pattern or project worthy enough for the $100 handspun wool, she gifted to my Mother-in-law. My MIL had the same problem. There isn’t enough yardage to make a sweater. There would be yarn leftover from a scarf. Though she considered making a scarf and hat ensemble, it just didn’t seem special enough. The yarn deserved better. I was thrilled when she gifted it to me. So, no, Dan is *not* wearing this yarn around his knees. I have dreams of a textured stole.

Process of elimination leaves just Manos. I should be happy that I found something. Last night I was certain that I had nothing at all in my stash.

Of course, I am a bit remiss that I don’t get to go yarn shopping.

Does anybody else have such trouble when searching for the ‘perfect’ yarn?

Baseball and Jo’s Brooch

October 2, 2008 Marie Haigh5 Comments

Before I go on about baseball and brooches, I want to thank everyone for their kind and generous comments about my tree skirt. It really meant a lot to me. I’m thrilled that you like it. Dan had said the same thing, but he’s biased and can’t be trusted.

Speaking of not being able to trust Dan, last night he told me he felt in his gut that the Phils would win the National League playoff series. This is the same man who informs me at the beginning of each season which is his favorite player on the Phils. At the start of the next season, that player is no longer on the roster. It’s happened 3 years in a row. Patty (Pat Burrell) is his new favorite and wouldn’t you know Patty is a free agent at the end of this year. So, don’t you see? Dan jinxes the players. I won’t have him jinxing our playoff hopes. I just won’t.

We did win last night. Hamels pitched a great game. Lidge had us all on pins and needles in the 9th inning, but managed to pull out the win. Score: 3 to 1.

I don’t have any pictures of the game last night, because we weren’t there. We watched the game from home with Jake bouncing between us every time we cheered.

I do have pictures of the game we went to see on Saturday, Sept 27th though.

Dan and I traveled into New York to catch a Mets game.

Allow me to set the stage:

It was the 2nd to last game of the regular season.
The Mets were 2 games behind my Phillies for the NL East Division Championship.
If the Mets lost their game, the Phillies would clinch the title.

The Mets were playing the Marlins. Guess which team I was rooting for.

Rats. I don’t have my baseball cap on in this photo. Well, take my word for it; I wasn’t rooting for the Mets.

By the 8th inning, I found it hard to not root for the Mets. No, I didn’t want them to win the title. I wasn’t feeling that generous. Yet, I was just amazed by the performance put on by the Met’s ace, best starting pitcher in their line-up. Johan Santana was on fire! He pitched a shut-out game on a 3-day rest (typically a pitcher gets a 5-day rest for you non-baseball fans). It was just a splendid and awe-inspiring performance by a very talented baseball player. As Dan said, “It was a privilege to be able to watch a game like that in person”.

Of course, later that day, the Phills won their game, clinching the title anyway.
The next day, the Mets lost their game and with it their hopes to sneak into the playoffs on the Wild Card.

I normally don’t write that much about baseball on my blog, but these next few days I may have a hard time shutting up about it. We’re in the playoffs, baby!

Just so I don’t alienate the non-baseball fans, allow me to show off what I did with Jo’s brooches, Jo of Blissed Out – that is.

I quickly sewed up some tie-backs for the dining room curtains and pinned the brooch on it. I think it adds a bit of whimsy to the otherwise formal curtains. Since Jo only sent me the one brooch in my contest winnings, I snagged the last brooch from her Etsy store for the other tie-back.

Credits for O Tannenbaum Skirt

September 29, 2008 Marie Haigh8 Comments

I have never posted credits for any of my patterns, but this pattern warrants it.

From Christmas Tree Skirt

Over a year of my life was spent on it. Many people were involved in the making of it.

Stats:
Yarn dyed in August 2007
Yarn Spun August through September 2007
Cast on for Christmas Tree Skirt in October 2007
Completed knitting Tree Skirt in July 2008 while on my road trip to Talbott, TN
Completed decorating Tree Skirt in August 2008
Technical edits completed in September 2008
Pattern published on my website and Ravelry September 26th
Pattern will be published on other sites later this week

First, I would like to thank Brenda of Naturally Spun. Her Christmas Sparkle yarn inspired me.

From Christmas Tree Skirt

I took one look at her hand-dyed, handspun yarn and knew it would make a gorgeous Christmas tree skirt. Yet, if I had not “met” Brenda in Indiepublic, her yarn might have sat in my Etsy Favorites for forever.
She had marked me as a “friend” in the Indiepublic community. In response, I sent a quick convo thanking her and confessing my adoration of her Christmas yarn line. Those two small acts became the basis of a wonderful working relationship.
Brenda spun the yarn in the weight I required, in the yardage needed and remained patient as I debated back and forth over what color of glitz and thread I wanted plyed with/into the yarn. Periodically during the knitting process, she would stop by my blog and leave encouraging remarks in the comment section. Thank you, Brenda!

My thanks also go to the following people:
-To Ada (Ravelry ID: AdaKnits) who tech edited the pattern for me. She did a tremendous job! I already have her hard at work on another pattern of mine.
To you, dear blog readers, who encouraged me to keep knitting when I was starting to go cross-eyed from all the white ties.
To Jake for supervising all the photo shoots, except the last one. He was dismissed from his duty after walking across the skirt and then trying to sit on top of it.
To Dan for his love and support
To my Aunt for gifting Grandpa’s jacket to me. The green stars decorating the skirt were made from the felted jacket.
To my MIL for starting my button collection many years ago.
And to EZ, Elizabeth Zimmerman, for popularizing the i-cord, which just happens to be my favorite embellishment trick in knitting.

Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without you.

From Christmas Tree Skirt

Mini Skein of Yarn and Butterflies

September 25, 2008 Marie Haigh4 Comments

From Spinning

It’s a very small skein of wool. It took me three weeks to spin. I probably won’t be able to knit anything out of it. (What can you do with 10 yards of wool anyway?) But oh, the things I learned while spinning it!

First, mohair is slippery, but manageable if worked from roving.

Second, alpaca would much rather fly away on a cloud than be bound and spun into a yarn. Blending helps.

Third, even though alpaca does not have the lanolin that sheep’s wool does, it is much more enjoyable to work with after it has been washed. (Extensive washing is not required. A good soak to get rid of the dust is all that is needed.)

Fourth, practice makes perfect. By the end, I had quite a good rhythm going.

Fifth, I love to spin!

From Spinning

So, what is on my spindle now?

Well, I have 2 spindles (not counting the plying-only spindle), so naturally I have 2 projects.

Project #1: More of the brown Shetland roving. This is being spun on my new top whorl (no hook) spindle. The spindle wobbled at first until I got a good length of yarn wrapped around it. Now it spins like a dream – a fast dream.

Project #2: Since I’m still nervous about washing and prepping the llama (it’s precious to me), I thought I would practice some more on the alpaca. This is Buddy’s wool that is being washed in the basin. I plan to blend it with ever more of the brown Shetland roving.

From Spinning

Even though I have a butterfly living in my tomato garden that flies all around me when I water my plants, my blog title wasn’t referring to her (him?). I was referring to the butterflies in my stomach. I always get them right before I publish a new pattern. You see, my Christmas tree skirt pattern is complete. It has been tech edited. By the way, if you are a fellow designer and have been sitting on the fence about hiring a tech editor, allow me to push you off. Hiring a tech editor was one of the wisest business decisions I have made thus far. First, my tech editor caught several mistakes in both my charts and in my written instructions. Then, she took the layout I had and spit-shined it. It gleams now. I’ve never been so proud of a pattern. (Of course, I tend to say that about every pattern I write).

Still, I’m nervous. Will people like it? Will people hate it? Will the newness wear off and leave it as dull as a rock? Time will tell. It goes live soon – very soon.