deceptively packaged

New digs

Howdy all, I'm moving this here blog to a new location. I'm tired of managing the extra identity and trying to keep it completely separate from the rest of my online goings ons, so come on over to ellie <3s crafts. I may or may not migrate some or all of the posts here over there depending oh how private I felt they were. So update your bookmarks and feed readers because this URL will be broken fairly soon. xoxo - Ellie

Tea Towel

I just got my tea towel from the color study group back. I still need to sew up the edges, but here's what it looks like off the loom:

New shoes

From MooShoes!

The quilt is quilted!

This was mostly finished months ago, but my apartment was so frigid that it needed to be pulled into commission along with every other blanket and warm article of clothing I owned. Now that it's warming up a little I was able to take it down to the craft room and finish it off.

Hokett

I first saw Hokett's stuff two years ago at the last Contemporary Handweaver's of Texas conference. I was blown away by how beautiful it was, but I felt too poor to get anything (not that it was exorbitantly priced mind you, the handheld frame loom was $20, I was just very broke). I saw his booth again at Kid 'n Ewe that November. I stopped to tell him how wonderful I thought his work was. He gave me a drop spindle that he had left over from a commissioned door prize project. I remember thinking to myself if I were infinitely rich and didn't have to work and could do anything with my life, I would apprentice myself to Hokett. That Christmas my mom gave me a $20 bill earmarked for that frame loom. So when I went to the weaving conference this time I knew I was at least coming home with that handheld frame loom. I also picked up all the little tools that go with it, a drop spindle and a nostepinne.

Hokett signs his works and labels them with what type of wood they are. Unfortunately he doesn't have a website.

Latest stash enhancement

A lovely friend gave me some lovely yarn while I was in LA, and even though there was a ton of it I managed to do some magic packing and not have to check a bag! They were hand offs from here mom, who used to weave, but now is a Buddhist monk. (I don't know whether those are actually mutually exclusive or just non sequiturs...) You can see close ups on my Ravelry page. I got involved early enough that my user name is just "ellie" so look me up :)

I also bought some yarn at the weaving conference. The green bamboo will be napkins for a friend's belated wedding present and the multi-colored tencel will be a shawl for me.

Pretzels

A fantastic friend and I made these on Sunday afternoon (from the Vegan Dad recipe). They were heavenly.

Greens

I forgot to take a picture of the finished soup, but it was a lentil and rice and greens recipe that came with my CSA basket. I had split my collards with a friend so I made up the bulk with the turnip greens. It's fantastic!

Catching my breath

After Spring break in LA, I was off to San Antonio for a weaving conference and then to Houston for a library conference. Plus I gave three presentations last week. While everything was fun and the presentations all went very well, I'm incredibly excited to finally be getting a chance to slow down and catch my breath.

I signed up for a local CSA and got my first basket of veggies yesterday, so today I've been looking at recipes and seeing what else I need. I got a lot of greens and I want to cook the ones I can before they go bad and get a couple of things to fill out salads with the rest. Tonight I'm going to catch up on laundry and cleaning while I cook, and maybe even get a little weaving in. I didn't finish my guild color challenge dish towels before the conference, but I'm still going to make them. Then tomorrow I'm going to make soft pretzels with a friend.

The weaving conference was a ton of fun. I finally got my Hokett hand loom. Pictures coming soon. In the meantime here's some knitting I finished up that weekend.

The organic cotton dishcloth for myself:

And a cotton dishcloth for a friend:

They were both really easy conference knitting and I'm loving using handknitted dishcloths.

More deliciousness