Sunday, January 31, 2010
Honest Scrap
I'm usually really bad at actually doing things like this but here we go!
Here's the deal:
the rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to that blog post.
2. Tell ten honest things about yourself and make them interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
3. Pass the award on to ten bloggers you feel embody the spirit of Honest Scrap, and whose blog you find brilliant in design and/or concept.
the scrap
1. I'm Native American but have been mistaken for just about every nationality from Mexican to Armenian. My mom is Native American and my dad is well, I'll just say white because he doesn't really know exactly what his makeup is :) Honestly, I don't think nationality is very interesting but people are always surprised that I'm Native, maybe because there are so few of us around.
2. I have a major major sweet tooth, I will totally skip a meal so I can eat more cookies!
3. I refuse to drive in the winter, totally refuse. My car is not great on ice and snow so I just don't go there :)
4. I want a pug really really badly, they're so cute!
5. I have no interest in ever having a "real job" one with hours and whatnot, it's just so not me!
6. I'm super allergic to MSG. I don't know how interesting that is, but if I eat something with MSG in it, my face and neck muscles tighten up like crazy and my arms get all tingly, not fun!
7. I love exclamation marks! And smiley faces :)
8. When I was kid I wanted to change my name really badly. Nobody every pronounces or spells Kala correctly on the first try and it used to really bug me. My top picks for a new name were Trixie an Tracy :)
9. My Indian name is Early Morning Star (neep-ona-cosa in Menominee).
10. I want to get a vegan tattoo eventually but am scared of the pain, I'll have to have someone hold me down!
Ok, I want everyone who wants to play along to do this on their blog, so I'm not listing 10 blogs, just an open invitation :)
-Kala
Friday, January 29, 2010
Apple butter, banana pudding, and cow hugging
I got a jar of awesome homemade apple butter from a friend for Christmas and I finally broke into it last night. I was waiting to make some pumpkin bread but I was always missing one ingredient so I decided to just give in and give it a taste. Holy wow, it's so good! Canning is magic to me since I don't know how to do it, and I'm in awe of people who do it. It's like pottery, since I can't do it, I think it's the coolest thing ever :) Anyway, this morning/afternoon I had an English muffin topped with peanut butter and a nice slather of apple butter, delicious!
And last night I made banana pudding for my husband, I used the recipe that Teresa from Affectioknit posted on her blog a little bit ago:
It's insanely easy and super yummy, and I don't even usually like banana things too much! It'll be a nice treat for the hubby when he gets home from work, thanks for sharing, Teresa!
And finally, cow hugging! I finally stuck my Cow Hugger sticker from Herbivore onto my sewing machine last night:
Cute, right?
-Kala
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Cookies and Sneakers
First, cookies!
Cookies from a mix! I've never made cookies from in a mix in my entire life, but I wanted to try this gluten free mix from Bob's Red Mill so there so you. First warning, do not, I repeat DO NOT taste the dough before you bake it, trust me! One of the main ingredients is garbanzo bean flour which I think tastes like pure evil before it's baked. I made the mistake of tasting the dough and almost tossed the whole mess in the trash. Luckily I didn't though because they are super yummy once baked! For sure not as good as totally homemade cookies, but good in a pinch :)
And now for sneakers:
I can't even tell you how much I love this fabric, it's so awesome! This kind of shoe has been my favorite since about 4th grade and I've had them in tons of different colors over they years so when I saw this fabric I knew it had to be mine. This project bag is in my Etsy shop right now and it's only a matter of time before I make one for myself :)
-Kala
Monday, January 25, 2010
Coming soon: Knitcircus blog tour!
I'm excited to announce that my blog is going to be a stop on the Knitcircus blog tour! If you haven't heard of Knitcircus, it's a knitting/crafting magazine based in Wisconsin, it has been a print magazine up to this point, and with the February issue it's going totally digital. When I saw that there was a call for blog tour stops, I signed up right away, I love the magazine and thought it would be fun to help spread the word :) Aaaand, I even have an ad in the February issue! So be sure to keep an eye out, on February 2nd there will be a special post here all about Knitcircus and a giveaway for a free issue!
-Kala
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A bit of knitting in the morning
A great way to start the day, before my hair is brushed or my face is washed, I like to get at least a few rows of knitting in :
Tucked under a quilt I made years ago, I worked on the very beginnings of a sweater for my husband. He's been wanting a Cobblestone Pullover for a looong time and I finally bought the yarn and cast on last night :) I got an excellent deal on the yarn, about $65 worth of Tatamy Tweed Worsted for $20 plus shipping from someone who was destashing on Ravelry!
In other news, I finished the first sock of my second pair of Soybeans!:
I'm loving how the pattern looks in this colorway!
-Kala
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Hearts for Haiti
This set of pins is super cute and the money is going to an awesome cause! Plus, shipping is free worldwide, can it get any better?
-Kala
Soy Ahoy!
I've never really been much of a monogamous knitter, but I'm really seeing how it works for some people. I finished my first pair of Soybean Socks in record time it seems, and I'm zipping through the socks I'm working on now. After my Soybeans were done, I really struggled with my next project, I scoured by Ravelry queue, went through my books, but nothing inspired me. Here's my thinking pose :)
I finally decided to cast on for another pair of Soybeans, that's how you can tell I really like the pattern! I'm using Panda Cotton this time, the Blueberry Grapes colorway:
This pattern is such a fast knit!
Also, thanks so much to everyone whose puchased my Nesting pattern, so far the total that will be donated to Doctors Without Borders from my pattern sales is $30! Oh, and be sure to check out the patterns that the designer for the Soybean Socks has for sale, she's also donating 100% of her sales to Doctors Without Borders, I purchased her e-book The Odd Couple, for $7.50, you get 2 lovely sock pattern and the money goes to an awesome cause!
-Kala
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Help for Haiti on Ravelry
Ravelry is awesome for many reasons, but the latest bit of awesome is that they have set up a special program for designers to donate all or a portion of their pattern sales to help with aid to Haiti. Patterns that are part of this program are tagged "Help for Haiti" - here's a link. I only have one pattern for sale (most of mine are freebies) and that's my Nesting pattern. From now until February 1st, 100% of the sales from this pattern on Ravelry will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. The pattern is super cute (if I may so myself!) and is a great way to use up little bits of extra sock yarn - for $5 you get instructions for nests, birds, and eggs in various sizes, here's some pics:
So please, if you've ever thought about purchasing this pattern, now is the absolute best time, I've already made a personal donation to Doctors Without Borders but I'd love to contribute more and you can help me do that!
There are many many designers pitching in to help, Ysolda has raised a ton of money so far (her last update on Twitter was $4.688), and I loooover her patterns. So go take a look through the patterns tagged "Help For Haiti" if you're a member of Ravelry and see what patterns you can purchase, every little bit helps!
-Kala
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Knitscene Winter/Spring 2010, a wee review
Ninebark Cowl from the Berroco Design Team. I sort of go back and forth on this, at first I thought the pattern was for just the cowl, but it's a whole cowl necked sweater thing and I think I might love it. Or not, like I said, I go back and forth :)
Geodesic Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio. This is really lovely but I don't think I'd ever actually knit it, mostly because it's knit in lace weight!
Heartigan Cardigan by Katie Himmelberg, so cute! Although I might leave off the heart elbow patches.
There are also three beautiful shawls in this issue, if I had to choose a favorite I think I'd go with the Emily Shawl by Mandy Moore:
So what do you guys like from this issue?
-Kala
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
FO: Pink Soybean Socks
Look what I finished today!
These are the Soybean Socks that I've been working on as part of the current Vegan Sock Kal and I absolutely looove how they came out. As I've said before, the pattern is beautifully written and makes me think twice about my chart knitting hatred :) The yarn is two skeins of Crystal Palace's Panda Soy in the Provence colorway, I'm still not 100% in love with the color but the pattern more than makes up for that!
Finally, I want to share a picture that my husband took of me knitting today, we've been monkeying around with the new camera I got for Christmas:
-Kala
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Quo Vadis: Covet Worthy
Everyone knows I love Etsy, right? So many talented artists and so much cool stuff to drool over :) So I thought I'd share one of my favorite places to window shop, Quo Vadis. She has a really lovely selection of handspun and hand dyed yarns in weights from lace to bulky, many of them inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Ponyo...), I just love seeing the things that inspire other artists. And she ships worldwide so everyone can enjoy her work! Aaaaand what really makes this little vegan knitter happy? She has vegan sock yarn! Here are some of my faves from her shop:
The lovely owner of this shop can also be found on Ravelry as Veggiegirl and even has a fan group for her shop, be sure to check her out!
-Kala
Friday, January 08, 2010
Knit Picks: Land of Vegan Plenty
What makes me love a yarn company? Lots and lots of vegan yarn options! And one company that's doing a great job with vegan offerings is Knit Picks. I'm sure all the yarn crafters out there have heard of Knit Picks, but I've been wanting to do a post about their vegan yarns for a while, so here we go! Knit Picks currently has nine vegan yarns available in weight ranges from dk to bulky.
CotLin: This yarn is a dk weight 70% cotton/30% linen blend available in a lovely range of rich colors. I'm dying to make a summer top out of this stuff!
Crayon Boucle Yarn: This fun yarn is a 100% cotton pima, dk weight yarn that would be great for anything with a nubby texture, like a cute kids sweater maybe?
Shine Sport: I really love this stuff, in both the sport and worsted weight, it's an easy care 60% cotton/40% modal blend that's super soft and comes in really nice colors. I've made a pumpkin baby hat out of this for a friend and it came out super cute.
Simply Cotton Sport: This is one I was excited about as soon as I heard about it, it's a 100% organic cotton with naturally occurring shades, no dyes or bleach used at all! I have a few skeins of this in both the sport and worsted weight and it's crazy soft. I can see some lovely delicate baby knits in this yarn. I also love Simply Cotton Worsted and am playing around with a design for some socks with it.
Comfy Sport: Another great sport weight option, this yarn is a 75% cotton, 25% acrylic blend. This is another really soft yarn that would be great for all kinds of garments. This is also available as Comfy Worsted and Comfy Bulky, I'm so happy to have another vegan bulky option out there, they can be pretty scarce!
So if you're in the market for some affordable and awesome vegan yarns, make sure to check out Knit Picks, the only thing they're missing is vegan sock yarn!
-Kala
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Progress and a Wee Sweater
First, the wee sweater:
It was a pressie from a certain tall blond friend who made a bunch of them for her New Years party. Husband and I couldn't go because of his poopie work schedule but she brought me the ornament last night at knit night and I love it! And she even made it in cotton yarn :)
Check out the progress on my Soybean Socks for the knitalong, I have one done!
I started the second one last night and have just started the lace repeats on the leg, these are coming along super fast!
-Kala
Monday, January 04, 2010
KAL Prize Update!
Sunday, January 03, 2010
A New Year, a New Knitalong!
Prize 1. An awesome Kitchener reminder tag from Karat Stix on Etsy, as mentioned in my last blog post. I love mine so much that I had to buy one for a prize for you guys!
Prize 2. Winner will also receive any one item from my Etsy shop, Vegancraftastic!
Knitalong is running from now to the end of February to give everyone a chance to gather yarn and whatnot. And of course, you don't have to be vegan to join, you just have to knit the socks in a vegan yarn :) Here's what I'm knitting for the KAL, the Soybean Socks:
So join join join, you know you want to :)
-Kala
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