molcajete

This is a molcajete, the traditional mortar and pestle tool of Mexico and Central America.  They've also been found at archaeological sites in the Southwest.  These have been used since ancient times for making salsa and grinding spices.  It is made of hard, porous volcanic rock.  My boyfriend's mom gave this to me.  It belonged to her grandmother and is around 100 years old.  If taken care of they can last for many generations and improve with age.  I love possessions like this.  The molcajete gives a texture to salsas that is far superior to the blender and also makes a beautiful bowl for presentation.  I only recently tried grinding spices in it.   (I didn't for a long time because I was afraid the flavor would linger.  It didn't though.)  Toasted cumin seeds for chili or cardamom pods for chai tea grind up easily and quickly from the rough surface (much faster than the common ceramic mortar and pestles.)  Grinding food between two stones is also just really fun- though I'm sure my boyfriend's great gradmother would have been grateful for the blender.

cardmom pods for chai tea grind up easily

baby alpaca cowl knit with hood river yarn

I knit this cowl on a 16" circular needle (I think it was size 4).  The yarn is amazingly soft baby alpaca from Foothills Yarn & Fiber in Hood River.  It was spun from thier alpacas. The pattern is free here at the Lion Brand website. 

Pendleton crochet scrap wool rag rugs

I made two rugs last winter out of Pendleton wool scraps.  They sell them for $1/lb at The Mill Store.  It measures 50" X 60".  I made a chain the length of the rug and then added rows in single crochet.  I haven't gotten around yet to weaving in all of the ends.  Next time I'd like to machine sew the strips together to make a continuous ball, and then it would be smoother without the knots and ends sticking out, and faster work as I won't have any knots to tie as I go.  That aside I am very happy with it.  It makes an awesome rug for our room.  It's really thick, and I love the jumble of colors.  It has held up well for the past year and half, though I would probably not recommend making one of these for any high traffic/ dirt areas of the house.  Does anyone have any experience machine washing these?  I think remember someone at the store saying they can be felted.  Has anyone tried that?

    

 

The brick red one above, I made as a wedding gift for a friend.  It is a single crochet circle about 36" across.  To get the circle shape, I loosely followed the pattern below. 

Circle Rug:

Chain 4 and join with a sl stich in the first ch to form a ring.

Round 1: CH1, 8sc in ring.

Round 2: 2sc in ea sc. 16sc

Round 3: 1 sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc. 24sc

Round 4: 1 sc in each sc

5: Rep round 3. 36sc

6: Rep round 4

7: 1 sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc. 48sc

8: Rep round 4.  

9: 1 sc in ea of next 3 sc, 2 sc in next sc. 60sc

10: Rep round 4

11: 1 sc in each the first 2sc, 2 sc in next sc, *1sc in each of the next 4 sc, 2 sc in next sc; rep from *, ending with 1 sc in each of the lst 2 sc. 72 sc

Continue on in this way, adding 12sc every other round by working one more stitch between increases.

I have a small rectangle rug made out of these same red scraps for sale here at my Etsy page.

recycled sweater felt zip bags

Here are several pouches I made from felted wool thrift store sweaters.  I felted the sweaters in hot water in the washer set on high agitation with some dish soap.  Once felted, they make a dense, matted fabric that can be cut without unraveling.  Felt bags are great for items that need padding like laptops, cameras, or glasses.  They also have amazing insulating properties and would be great for keeping drinks or food warm.  Maybe cold too?  I gave these as gifts for Christmas.  Got some practice putting in zippers and leaned how to use the buttonholer on my machine too.

to make the boxy grey one:

Get a standard 8.5" X 11" piece of paper and use as your pattern to cut a rectangle.  Cut another rectangle 4" X 16".  If using a 7" zipper like I did here, start your zipper cut 4.5" from the edge of the longer rectangle and make the cut 7" long.  Center the zipper right side down on on the cut and pin and sew into place.  (Sew a box around the zipper with it zipped up.)  Cut a strip of felt to use as your loop.  Wrong sides out, pin the corner of narrow side of the long rectangle to wide size of the fat rectangle 3.5" from the edge.  Pin the other corner.  (It should be centered.)  Fold the long rectangle over and pin the other side in place.   Pick a spot for your loop and pin it in remembering to push the loop to the inside of the bag because it is inside out now.  Pin the rest of the bag, unzip the zipper, and sew with an even seam allowance.  Turn inside out, and you've got your bag. 

I actually think it looks cooler with the seams on the outside, and next time I'm going to try that.  (You would just flip the long rectangle with the zipper to the outside before sewing.) 

the fair isle one:

This one was kind of a pain because I wanted a zippered pouch without a seam on the bottom (there are only seams on the sides.)  I took a large square of felt folded in half, inside out and pinned the zipper in place.  I then unzipped it and sewed in the zipper, and luckily it zipped close without any warping.  (I guess the "right" way to do it is to sew the zipper in with it closed so both sides meet evenly.)  I turned the bag right side out and sewed the side seams (also putting in a tab.  If you don't mind a bottom seam then just cut two matching rectangles that are the length of your zipper and sew on the zipper to the top of each piece then fold the two together and then sew around the other 3 sides.  Felted fair isle looks super cool.

for the small green and purple ones:

Take a sweater cuff, and sew a seam across the sleeve a couple of inches up from the cuff.  Cut next to the seam.  Cut 1" off a little bit more than half of the cuff edge (what's left is your flap).   Using the button hole maker on your sewing machine make a hole for your button on a small tab.  Attach tab.  Iron down flap.  Sew on button.

photograph of mt hood I took from a plane

I have a collection of pictures taken on my travels that I've always wanted to print.  I finally started on this project yesterday at the Newspace Center for Photography in thier digital printing lab.  Photoshop is some pretty daunting software and the prints are tricky because they look much different on the screen than they do printed out.  I printed this one that I took from the window of an airplane coming back into Portland last June.  I love this picture!  I have prints of this for sale here: hoodwool.etsy.com

Pendleton melton wool blanket & the mill store

I made this blanket from Pendleton melton wool.  I hand pressed and machine sewed felt trim to the fabric.  The color is called Columbia Blue.  I bought it and the trim from the Mill Store on SE McLoughlin.  The mill store is an amazing resource for felt trim, wool fabric, selvages, and craft materials and books.   I love Pendleton fabrics.  The quality is amazing.  They've been around for 140 years here in the Northwest.  I think this fabric was made at the Washougal mill 30 miles from Portland.   I'm selling custom order twin and lap blankets on my etsy store here:  hoodwool 


Here are the colors available for the custom blankets:



from top to bottom: lipstick red, melton red, berry, maroon, dark cardinal (the reds are hard to photograph accurately.  you can see what these look like without flash on the side in the picture below)





from top to bottom: heather gray, royal blue, columbia blue, sky blue, navy, dark green





black, camel, chocolate, (bottom color not for sale)



cherry, wine, red, orange, yellow, green, dk green, lt blue, blue, navy, purple, taupe, drab, lt brown, brown, grey, steel blue, black, white

DIY lotion and laundry detergent



I made my own lotion and laundry detergent, as inspired by articles in Readymade and Bust magazines.  Both turned out awesome and were very easy and cheap to make.  I made the lotion with coconut and avocado oils.  All you need is a blender, any edible oil, beeswax, and essential oil for fragrance if you'd like.  It makes a great gift for the holidays packaged in a simple mason jar.  Click the readymade link for more detailed directions.

Lotion:
1 C water or cooled brewed green tea
3/4 C any edible oil (olive, safflower, coconut, avocado, etc.)
2 T grated beeswax
several drops essential oil

Heat the oil and beeswax in a double boiler (or a pyrex mixing bowl placed over a pot of boiling water) until the wax melts.  Remove from heat and let cool for 2 min.  Blend the water on high in the blender, remove the stopper on top and slowly pour in the oil.  Blend until it's emulsified completely. 




 

The laundry detergent cost about $1 per gallon to make.  It acutally works better than a lot of the expensive eco-detergents.  And even better does not have migraine-inducing fragrances like most conventional detergents.  I scented it with eucalyptus and lavender essential oils, and it smells wonderful.  I used a coconut based soap that did separate when the detergent cooled, but it still worked great all the same.  I couldn't find the recipe on Bust's website so here are the instructions: 

Laundry Detergent:

Grate 2 C of unscented bar soap

bring 4.5 C water to a boil and stir in soap till dissolved

add fresh herbs (4 sprigs lavender would do)

2 C each of borax and washing soda (some grocery stores have them in the laundry section or hardware stores)

pour mixture into pail with 2 gallons water

add 10 drops of essential oil such as ylang ylang, lavender, or eucalyptus

let stand overnight and strain into a large container, discarding herbs
use 1/2 C per load, shake before using



You can find these in the laundry detergent section. 



orca beans from cherry sprout market

I bought these beans from Cherry Sprout on Albina.  They're so pretty I had to share a picture.  These even keep thier spots after being cooked.

some tomatillos I grew

some tomatillos I harvested last week.  I love the purple veined husks.  These plants get big!   Mine was heavily rootbound in a size 10 nursery pot.  Tomatillos are awesome raw in salsa with lime juice, garlic, cilantro, and chiles.

stock from vegetable trimmings

I first read about this idea in the The Locavore's Handbook.  Instead of going into the compost pile, you can save your vegetable trimmings in a bag in the freezer.  When you fill it, simmer the contents on the stove for a half hour.  You then have stock for soups or risotto.  Its a great way to utilize all of those small center pieces or garlic (no peeling needed), celery greens, or parmesean rinds.

Here is a great article about this on the Portland Farmer's Market blog.