Happy National Pie Day!

In America, the National Pie Council (what, your country doesn't have one of those?) declared January 23rd National Pie Day. Being as we for some strange reason don't get this as a day off, I had to do my celebrating yesterday in my now-traditional fashion, with a pie-luck!

I made a batch of cherry cup-pies and a chocolate/raspberry pie that I neglected to photograph.

(Note to all bakers out there, when making a recipe for the first time, read the whole recipes before the morning you attempt to make it. I neglected to do this and caught myself running out of time when I realized that my raspberry pie took FOUR HOURS to make due to refrigerating time for the different parts.)

I think I need to make cup-pies more often, they're adorable and take only a tiny bit more work than a regular pie.

As usual we had a range of savory, sweet, and tart pies.  A pie-luck requires at least three rounds to the table and generous amounts of tupperware for the leftovers.

We also got in a fair amount of knitting and Aimee, Chris, and Maggie split up several balls of Jamieson and Smith yarn for our sheep heid knit-a-long. (I'm spinning mine).

So for those interested, here's a run-down of the pies (if I forgot any my apologies!):

• Savory
  • Red Lentil & root vegetable pot pie
  • Goat cheese and leek egg pie/quiche
  • Pizza Pie
• Fruit-Based
  • Apple Cranberry
  • Cranberry Pear Shortbread
  • Cranberry Sage
  • Cherry Cup-pies
  • Chocolate Raspberry
  • Apricot Cheese
• Cream
  • Chocolate Satin
  • Butterfinger

With all the leftovers I ended up with - I'll be celebrating pie all week!!

Introducing: Bob & Wave Cowl

In September I stopped in PurlDiva and treated myself to two skeins of Misty Alpaca Chunky.

I'm not a big yarn horder, I typically only buy for specific projects, so I had admired and passed on this yarn on a couple different occasions. But on this particular day it had been a long week, and Misty Alpaca feels like soft cuddly air and Purl Diva had it stocked in one of my favorite colors, so how could I resist??

As soon as I had a break from all that November knitting, I turned that yarn into this Bob & Wave cowl. The color reminded me of 1950s Cadillacs, so I wanted do do something with a retro feel and nothing feels more like retro knitting to me than bobbles.

Though it's a small and relatively quick project, there are a lot of fun details. The cowl features an i-cord cast on and bind off. I-cord also appears as the button loops and faux i-cord is created by rows of purl stitches that are pleated horizontally to make the texture really pop. Carefully placed increases and decreases create the scalloped waving background for the bobbles and the fabric manipulation makes for a denser and warmer cowl.

The project uses two skeins of Misti Alpaca or 175 yds of cozy chunky yarn and measures 22”/ 56 cm long, 9”/23cm high.

The pattern is available for purchase for $4.00 USD

or you can queue it up on Ravelry.

To find out about new pattern releases and special offers, sign up for the Ms. Cleaver Mailing List.

More Christmas Makings

Here's a few more things I either made in secret (ornaments) or at the last minute (wreath):

Did you do any Christmas making?

2011 in Review

We became homeowners on Dec 31 of 2010, and a lot of this year was learning the in and outs of being homeowners. We removed what didn't want and started building in what we did. We peeled wallpaper and painted walls.

Shoveled snow and learned the importance of roof-rakes.  (Hint: don't pile that much snow that close to your house)

Perennials were planted in the spring and bulbs were planted in the fall. Lawns were moved and leaves raked. Floors were swept and appliances replaced. And at some point along the way it stopped being their house and started being ours.

Starting the day after we moved in, we filled our home with friends: Pie Day, poker games, dinners and documentaries. The highlight was inviting over all our friends for a summer time barbecue and concert.

And we saw a little doggy online and decided to invite him to stay for the long-haul.

During Lent I wore skirts for 47 days and visited Washington D.C. for the first time.

In sewing, I got my own studio space and made a thing or two.

Fiber-wise, I learned how to dye and needlefelt.

I bought a loom and made a total of one scarf.

I also did a fair amount of spinning, but haven't quite met my knitolution of knitting anything with handspun yet.

Knitwise, this has been a huge year for me. I've released three patterns with Quince & Co., one with Twist Collective, and six on my own. I started a mailing list.

It's amazing to me how much has happened in one year, and how quickly that year has gone. There's snow on the ground outside now and it's a few days to Christmas. It's been a helluva year in the best way possible.

Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year!

A Stocking for Steiny and Other Makings

I was trying to not to be one of the those crazy pet parents who gets their pets Christmas parents (which seems to be a largely American thing - yes?), but I gave in and not only got Steinbeck a gift, I sewed him a stocking.

In my defense, it only took me the baking time of about 2 dozen cookies to get the whole thing done from conception to completion and it's totally cute. The fabric was leftovers from my Valentine's skirt and a wreath I'm still trying to finish up.

In addition to the aforementioned cookies, Ive made my annual batches of dark chocolate mint fudge and peanut brittle.

The goodies are baked, the house decorated, the packets shipped, and the gifts (mostly) wrapped, with three days left, I think I'm good to go!.

Second Annual Ornament Swap

I think by now it's well established that I spend my Tuesday nights (and regularly weekends) in the company of a bunch of creative and talented knitters (not to mention funny and kind).

This past Sunday we held our second-annual holiday party and ornament swap at Aimee and Eric's charming home.

I love the ornament swap because 1) I only have to make one thing for it,

2) these ladies know how to throw an amazing potluck

and mostly 3) everyone's ornaments are different and wonderful. I've managed to pull Lynn's ornaments for the past two years and they have places of honor in home, but I'd be equally happy to have taken any of these home.

As for me, I needlefelted this holiday beaver, complete with stylin' holly accessory. I'm pretty proud of the little dude.

And I may have made a few more ornaments since then, but you'll have to wait a bit longer to see those. :)

Introducing: Dolan

I'm a bit late in introducing this pattern, because honestly it came out mid-November, within a week of threeotherdesigns, and I didn't have another blog post in me that week, but it's no knock against the pattern, because I love this one too.

When I dropped Ferrous off at the quince Offices, I said I was feeling a hat for my next design.  I'm a sucker for textured stitches, so I thought it would be fun to do a sampler hat of knit/purl textures.

I swatched a bunch of patterns in both Lark and Osprey and settled on using Osprey as the bouncy nature of the yarn really makes the texture pop. Also, Osprey is totally my new favorite Quince yarn.

Dolan is knit in the round and uses one skein of Osprey (shown in Leek here). Because of the large gauge (size 9/5.5 mm needles), it's a super quick project - if you have any last minute Christmas gift needs. The pattern can be purchased for $5 USD via Quince & Co or queued up on Ravelry.

(PS - aren't these photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge the dreamiest? I love them!)

Introducing: Bradac

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here before that I learned to knit from a teddy bear kit in 2005 and many of the first things I made were another bear, an elephant, and a flying pig. Though I moved on from my initial focus on knitting softies, stuffed animals are still knitting comfort food to me.

While my usual excuse for knitting an animal is an impending birth, Bradac is just for me. I got the notion in my head to knit a Polar Bear and I went to Purl Diva in search of some yarn. I wanted a slightly off-white, superwash wool and the Lambs Pride worsted from Brown Sheep fit the bill perfectly.

Named for a college roommate who's fond of the creatures, Bradac is knit seamlessly in the round from nose to tail.  Most details, like the ears, are worked in short rows, while the legs are knit with scrap yarn and then picked up and worked in a similar fashion to an afterthought thumb or heel.

The bear is stuffed as you go and measures approximately 12 inches from nose to tail and takes 200 yards of worsted weight yarn, plus some additional contrast yarn for the face and scarf.

Bradac is available for purchase for $5.00 USD

or you can queue it up on Ravelry.

To find out about pattern releases and sales right as they happen, sign up for the mailing list or follow me on Twitter. Sign up for the mailing list by Dec 15th and get access to an exclusive free pattern.

A Sock Story

The first pair of socks I ever knit I made for Mr. Cleaver and to the joy of any crafter who gives a handmade gift, over the last 4 1/2 years he has loved them to death. I mean, look at these things.

I've darned them twice, and tried to appease him with a new pair of socks, but to no avail.The new socks were nice socks, he wanted another pair of house socks.

So in the past month or so he has taken to wearing that first pair over another pair of socks, just to keep wearing them.

As touched as I am by this, decided that a suitable replacement must be made.

I mean, look at these things!

For the past few months, I had been on the lookout for a suitably thick and suitably manly sock yarn, but didn't find anything just right. Then Quince released their winter heathers and I though"bingo!" and picked up a skein of kumelien's gull and kittiwake in chicakdee at Knitwit, with a plan to do some kind of stripe.

Eventually I decided on this salt and pepper pattern, which had the added bonus of making the insides double-cozy because of the floats and I ended with up just enough of main color to finish two man-sized socks.

Technically, I knit three socks, but sock #1 didn't fit right, so  I ripped it out. Fortunately try #2 and its mate received full husband approval.

And since I am the nicest of wives (particularly with grateful recipients such as these), I let Mr. Cleaver have this Christmas gift a whole month early.

He's worth it. And a girl can hope these last over 4 years too!

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PS: Did you know you can get 20% of any the patterns in my shop through the end of the day Monday (November 28 at Midnight EST) Just use the code "smallbiz."

PPS: And did you know you can find out about pattern releases and sales right as they happen by signing up for the mailing list or following me on Twitter?

PPPS: And did you know that if you sign up for the mailing list by Dec 15th, you'll get access to an exclusive free pattern? I'm knitting it up right now and it's going to be pretty awesome. Just sayin'  :)

Introducing: Ferrous

Like I said, last week was a big week for me and today I'd like to talk about the inspiration behind the third and final design released last week, Ferrous.

Ferrous is my second design, and shawl for the locally-based Quince & Co. yarns. Going into fall, I wanted this shawl to be a little bit denser than Alaria and I wanted to feature strong lines.

So my first thought went it came to motifs for the lace was wrought iron fencing (hence ferrous= iron).

The yarn is Quince's brand new 100% wool fingering weight yarn, Finch, in kumlien's gull, one of the limited edition winter heathers.  When Pam asked me if I wanted to work in a yet-to-be released yarn, in a yet-to-be-released colorway,  I was super excited and Finch is springy, cozy and lovely to knit with.

The shawl uses two skeins of the Finch, but if you wanted a larger shawl, you could continue out the lines until the desired length then complete the arrowhead patterns.

Ferrous is available for $6 USD from the Quince & Co. website, or you can queue it up on Ravelry here.