Summer is really great for multiple reasons, granted so is every other season. There are several options for eating locally in the summer that aren’t there as easily in the dead of winter. What I am talking about has to do with gardening and farmers’ markets mainly. I so enjoy all the fresh produce, either that I have grown myself, or others have grown and I can buy directly from them. Ames is especially rich in this sense, we have two farmer’s markets, and it seems like a lot of the people with booths there are just selling straight from their garden in town. I love that! This time of year is wonderful for asparagus and the first salad greens, radishes, and rhubarb. Tarts are about my favorite thing to make, whether an egg based veggie tart or a fruit based sweet tart. I can also get all kinds of local meat from goat to pork to beef, not to mention fresh eggs. Yummy yum yum!

This kind of creates a problem though, so much produce and meat and eggs and dairy… How to carry it. Market bags are really great for this. I use fabric reusable tote bags for all my solid items and then crocheted market bags for all the produce. If I need to go somewhere after the farmer’s market, I bring a cooler with some ice packs in it with.

I posted about making a fabric reusable grocery bag awhile ago, so check that out for some links to patterns as well as some etsy shops that sell them. I never mentioned crocheted tote bags and I looked around a little bit and there are a ton of great patterns for them. Here are a few:

• Crocheted Market Bag - Posted on the Classic Elite Site, I really think this one is neat, it’s more narrow that I’m used to seeing.

• Handicrafter Cotton - String Market Bag

• Large Plastic Market Bag This bag is actually made out of old plastic grocery bags! Neat-o!

• Monica Brown’s Crochet Market Bag - this pattern costs $5, but it is really nice and I think it would be worth it. I would love to carry this cute crocheted bag around on market day!

• I found this bag on Craftzine. It’s a Lion Brand Pattern. I have to admit, they are getting better, the organic cotton isn’t half bad…. yikes! did I just say that!? Here is another market bag from Lion Brand: Cotton Ease Market Bag

• I really like the Sally’s Shopper! What a cute name. Worked up in the right colors this bag could be oh so cute!

• I think this one is a vintage pattern, I always like that.

• And of course the crochet pattern central section on Totes, Purses, and Bags is always a great place to look around for bag patterns.

Now I’m not sure about everywhere, but just to give you an idea of what is sometimes available, there are a ton of really great Farm Share programs in most areas that are rich in farming. So midwest/middle of Iowa means that I have a lot of easy access to things that might not be available everywhere, I would imagine that everywhere you go, something similar would be available for whatever crops are being produced. You can actually search for farm co ops, farmers markets and the like on Local Harvest. That’s where I first found the farmer’s markets in Ames and the Food to Folk program.

Here in Ames (and it turns out DeKalb had one too, I just didn’t know about it) there is a program called Farm to Folk. It’s a farm share program, and I’m not going to know exactly how it works (I missed out on it for this year and plan on signing up for next year), but from what I have read there are a certain amount of shares available at the beginning of each season and you can buy a half share, a fruit only share, a full share, etc. Then when harvest time comes you get a certain % of whatever is harvested and pick it up at the local drop location. This is really great for the local farmers because if say in seasons like this one where their yields will be low they don’t go under and seasons where they have a high yield you as the folk get really cheap fresh local produce! Over the long term it works out to be a great system for both the farm and the folk! (I love that name!).

If you have a hard time getting to the farmer’s market and don’t have a farm share program, you can turn to you local health food co op. They usually carry a huge selection of locally grown produce as well as meat and dairy products. Also in the Chicago Area, there is this great home delivery program called TCF Organics. It’s not all local, I think a lot of it is actually through WholeFoods, but it’s still organic and in the case of eggs and such they mostly come from farmers within this region. They only operate within 150 miles of the Chicago area. I signed up with them the last 4 months or so that I was in Dekalb. I really liked it because I was so busy and it pretty much made it where my grocery store trips were just for grains and some other small things like yogurt. It helped me to eat healthier and saved me precious time.

Well, that’s it for today! I hope this helps encourage you to take a trip to your local farmer’s market. I’m sure I’ll post about this again sometime, but I’ll put it to rest for now.

I think the way things are lining up I’m going to get the pattern up on Saturday and not tomorrow (I forgot it was the 4th, so there will be 4th of July things that need attending and whatnots, haha, how could I forget that!).

Also Kro Postal is officially open for business, but because of the holiday, orders will not go out until Saturday (if you order today or tomorrow). A few things have already sold out (thank you K!) so make sure to check it out sooner rather than later.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Kristin

My plans for today were a little turned upside down once I made it to my folk’s house. My Dad was all set for us to go fishing! Hooray! We had been planning on it, but I didn’t realize it would be day one hour one that I was home. I’m sorry for the late post, but it worked out really well because the experience gave me a great idea for today’s post (well, tonight’s really).

(my dad setting up his fishing pole)

I used to fish all the time with my dad, it seemed like to me in my memory anyway, just about every week in the summer. Fresh fish all summer long, frozen fish all winter. So delicious and good and wonderful! Believe it or not I can still fillet a fish pretty well. My dad used to pay me a quarter a fish when I was a kid… and we would catch anywhere from 4 - 14! Lots of practice. My dad is quite a good fisherman, come home with a catch just about every time. I know that fishing isn’t for everyone, but I actually really enjoy it and now that I’m out of school I asked my dad to get me back into the swing of it…. it’s been quite some time since I’ve gone. If you already have a pole, and you know where to find the fish, it’s actually a really great local food to eat. And I guess that’s where I’m going with this.

(one of the walleye we had to toss back because it was in the 20-26 inch range)

I caught a perch (back into the river it went) and he caught a perch, a stripey, and 4 walleye (2 were in the 15 - 19 inch range that we could keep). I have much to relearn.

Anyway we brought the 2 keepers home, filleted them and then prepped them for cooking.

We decided to make two pouches for the fish and make each one a different way. I coated them both with butter, then sprinkled them with salt and pepper. On the one with the lemons I added a handful of fresh winter savory from my folks’ garden, lemon zest of one lemon, then layered the lemon slices on top. On the other one I put some honey on each fillet, then sprinkled it with chopped dried chilies. I sealed up both aluminum foil pouches and let them sit for awhile.

In the meantime my dad started a fire in the fire pit in the back yard and broke apart the logs to get a nice layer of embers. We tossed the pouches on the embers and let them cook for about 20 mins; rotating them about halfway through. We also cooked some leftover potatoes in the pouch as a side dish.

It was delicious! Everything was so fresh and wonderful tasting. I think I did get a little carried away with the dried chilies though as my mom said that she couldn’t even taste the fish because her mouth was burning so bad (I used 4 on two halves of one fillet).

If you know someone who fishes or hunts or gardens, hit them up for some game meat and fresh veggies and herbs. It’s really the best food that you can get your hands on. Pay them, thank them, cook for them, anything to get some. I personally will never be able to go hunting more than fishing, nor could my dad he admitted to me today. But some of Jason’s and my friends (including my Uncle) really like hunting deer and rabbits and such and there is a need for that so they give us some and we cook for them and help them with things around the house (like putting up fences and siding and etc). I really don’t eat a lot of meat, but when I do, I try my best to get it locally and if I can to know exactly who and where it comes from.

That’s all for today. On Wednesday I’ll talk more about the farmer’s market side of local food and maybe some on co ops and farm shares…. and of course a recipe and/or some related projects!

Have a good night!

Kristin

I did something this morning that I have never done before. Jason and I woke up an hour before Target opened and went and stood in line for a Wii Fit. I couldn’t help myself but to play with it off and on all day… results, I’m sore and worn out and after only 6 hours of sleep took a long nap. I did get the projects done for today, but lack the time to write it up. I thought to myself “oh I have enough time, no problem” I didn’t anticipate the addiction to balance games and the fatigue that would hit me from lack of sleep and physical exhurtion.  Geesh. It’s 8:30pm and I’ve decided that I should just give in for the evening and finish packing. Which leads me to the next point:

I do have some fun news (for me anyway). I’m going on vacation tomorrow morning for a week. And by vacation I mean going to do research for an instillation piece I’m working on. There will be some relaxing and reading and researching and I’m going to go fishing with my dad and go to some museums and gardens and do a whole lot of drawing. It will be a good time. I’ll be back next Sunday.

I’ll still be posting tomorrow and wednesday. The pattern I had planned for today will be ready no problem by next Friday. I’m going to start posting the patterns on Fridays.  I think a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule will be nice.

In other side note news, I’m starting a new project this week. I’ve mentioned it from time to time on the ol’ blog-o. Kro Postal will be opening up for business this Tuesday, July 1st, 2008. So what is Kro Postal and why did I decide to start it? The name Kro Postal is short for Kristin Roach Original Postal and is pronounced Crow Postal. You can read all about the whys on the About Page.  And I’m taking all my shop stock for Craft Leftovers, Green Prairie Fibers, and Kro Postal with me, so there won’t be any shop closures. It all fits nicely into a rubbermaid bin the back of my car.

And I’m out. I’m going to get this packing done and head to bed.

Goodnight! See you tomorrow!

Kristin

Jason and I built a light box a couple of years ago and used it for a little bit, but then it got shoved into the closet for awhile. Lately (this past month) I’ve become more and more interested in improving my photography skills. They have improved from my earlier Craft Leftovers Posts, but still lacking. I am an artist dang it! I have a BFA! I should be able to come up with more interesting composition and take better looking product shots! Hahaha, well, I’m a painter, not a photographer, and like I said, I have improved over the last few years, but I feel like I’m ready to take the next step and really use my camera to it’s full potential. Part of that was pulling out the light box and getting to know it again. I mean what was I thinking not using that to take product shots! ha! (In my defense it was at Jason’s place and I didn’t have enough room at mine).

We used this tutorial and it’s still the best I’ve been able to find. There are a few more that are pretty good, just different styles. I like the one we used so much because it’s collapsible. Space saver is a plus!

Setting up:



(oh yes, that is a big candy painting on the wall, haha, I had so much fun painting that sweedish fish)

With Lights On:



Some shots (click to see larger):

Here are some of the other tutorials I mentioned:
Do It Yourself Photography Light Box for Under $40
How to build a food photography light stand
Light Box / Light Tent
How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio
How to Make A Inexpensive Light Tent

They work so well, are all pretty easy to make, and will improve your product shots a million fold.

And then, I was looking through my rss feed and found all this that I wanted to share with you, it’s totally random and I saw a lot of it on either whipup.net or craftzine.com or the site that it is located on, but I can’t remember which is which now!:
The Toy Society
BittBox - Great tutorials and how to’s for adobe illustrator and photoshop and others (those are the two that I liked it for)
Starving Crafters - “A place to find the latest opportunities for artists, crafters, designers, and makers.”
Smallest Man-made Orange Polymer clay mini orange!
Pimp Stitch Realllly cute embroidery patterns.
All The Best Tips on Getting In Shape, In One Handy List
How to Make Exercise a Daily Habit (with a May Challenge)
Handprinting with Lotta Jansdotter on True Up
Exhibiting at the County Fair
Nesting - a wonderful artist to check out
How to Unleash Your Creativity Experts discuss tips and tricks to let loose your inner ingenuity

Well that’s it for today! I just got my sewing machine back from the repair shop today. It needed a tune up, the timing was a little off, and so I took it in to this little sewing machine repair shop and it was there for the last three weeks! I’m so happy it’s back. I’m going to go sew! Hooray! See you all on Saturday!

Two weeks ago Jason and I decided to go on a Sprouting Adventure. Neither one of us had tried it and we had both always heard it was easy. I looked it up and wowwee look at all the info I found!

++ Sprouts ++ More Sprouts ++ And More Sprouts ++ Buying sprouting kits ++ Sprout recipes ++ Different types of sprouts ++ Overview of Sprouting ++ Questions about sprouts (health concerns addressed ++

I headed to my local co op and found sprouting containers, but couldn’t find the seeds for sprouting. I asked, there was a whole display with a huge sign that said “For Sprouting!” haha! So it goes. I looked at the sprouting containers a little more and realized I had everything at home I needed to sprout my sprouts except the seeds.

Cheese Cloth + Mason jars + Water = Sprouts!

I was shocked how easy it was. I read all the tutorials I could find (above were the best I got my hands on) and had a go at it.

I wanted to experiment a bit, so I used smaller wide mouth mason jars and tried out 4 types of seeds. Alfalfa, broccoili, radish, and a salad mix. And labeled each one on the bottom. I put about a 1/2 Tablespoon of seeds in each jar and replaced the lid with cheese cloth.

Then I filled each jar half way, rinsed, emptied, and filled half way again. Then they took a nap overnight soaking in the water. Drain, rinse, and drain again in the morning.

After that the rinse and repeat cycle started. You need to fill your jars with water, rinse, and empty out the water every morning and every night. You also want to store them in a cool dry place out of the light (in the picture above they were moved to the window so I could photograph them, they were moved back to the kitchen counter out of the sunlight). I stored them in my cake pan so the water would continue to drain out and they would get plenty of air flow.

It took about 4 days (including the night soaking as day 1) for them to mature. The last picture is day 3 and then on day 4 I woke up to find each jar packed!

Then you take off the lids and let them sit in the sun for a few hours and their leaves will green right up!

I stored mine in the frig with the lid off. We made way too many and some will go to waste, but they were delicious on just about everything we could think to put them in and on. I particularly liked the salad mix and Jason’s favorite were the alfalfa sprouts.

So go have some fun and make some sprouts!

In other news, while I did manage to get the tapestry loom and the recipe box up on ebay, the fabric was a bust. I have about 4 yards of this one fabric and when I went to photograph it there were stains all over the place. I think I can salvage a yard of it, but I decided to go ahead and put it aside for now. I’m going to pick out a few things tonight to put up tomorrow. (edited in: I took the product shots, was going to list them, and then started having second thoughts, sorry folks, I’ll grab something I’ve had a little longer next time so I can handle passing it on to a new home, haha).

Jason and I built a light box, and I spent a lot of today getting it set up right with lights and all that and I swear it was like relearning to use my camera. It’s like the more you know, the more you know you don’t know anything, that’s how I feel with photography. While my photos have improved significantly over the last 2 years, I feel like I’ve plateaued. I’m spending some extra time learning some new things to help me improve. The point of this sidenote in today’s post? I found This blog and it has been amazing for everything from the basics to particular subject photography techniques (like the zoo, landscape, kids, pets, etc). I am going to a lama farm tomorrow with the Ames Area Fiber Arts Guild and am looking forward to having the chance of photographing them (if the farm/other guild members don’t mind too much). I’m also hoping to make it to the zoo in Des Moines this weekend to photograph some animals and groups of people as well as my sketch book.

I think I could start rambling quite a bit if I don’t stop myself here, so I’ll end this here. Hope you all have a great evening! See you Wednesday!

When trying to think of a title for this little matchbook style sketch book, not really sure why, the song by Eddie Murphy came into my head. Oh you know the one… so Drawing all the time, you have to say it three times like “Party all the time” maybe even sing out like “My girl wants to draw all the time, draw all the time, drawwww alllll theeee tiiiiime!” Hahaha. Okay, seriously though, these little books are so easy to make, quick, made from things most peole have on hand. They make wonderful gifts, stocking stuffers, letter stuffers if you like to send packages like I do, and the covers are such an open canvas for any kind of embellishment. You can also use paper that would normally go into the recycling bin to fill it too!

And really, they aren’t just sketch books either, you could make little “To Do” books or little “Idea Books” “Think Books” “Write Books”. You get the idea. Very free form indeed.

Get the pattern for it here (pdf).

I know it’s hard to tell, but I actually did update the shop this past Friday. Only one item, kind of, I added all the color options for the solid dish cloth kits. So make sure to check out all the great new colors! I’ll be adding some more things throughout this week as I have time too.

I’m also going to add my other lap loom to ebay tomorrow evening (I really didn’t need 3! ha!) as well as some fabric and other random thingies. You can see all I’m selling on there, here. Which is only one set of buttons right now, but that will change tomorrow night.

Well, that’s all for now! I have a fun little weekday post all set for tomorrow, so I’ll see you soon!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

So on monday I covered quite a few ways to get your hands on used books. I had an oversite though, book swaps!

Here is a list of the book swaps I rustled up:

Book Mooch ++ Bookins ++ WhatsOnMyBookshelf ++ Title Trader ++ Read it Swap it (uk) ++ Readers United ++ Swap Club (New Zealand) ++ Boeken Ruilen (Netherlands) ++ Book Swapper (Germany) ++ Frugal Reader ++ Paperback Swap ++ And on the topic of swaps, if you haven’t visited Leah Peah’s Craft Swap, you should go check that out too!

And another thing that I forgot about was to mention a great way to keep track of your books, go check out Library Thing for all your library keeping track of needs, it’s kind of like the Ravelry for books. You can check out my Library here (it’s not the complete library, but a bit of it) There is another similar site, but I can’t remember the name of it (Carolyn (or Trixy), that one Trixy told you about, what was it called?)

Here is a bundle of used encyclopedia I found at a garage sale last weekend.

Anyway, that’s the catch up. So on to the main theme, Using Used Books!

I have always liked this tutorial since I found it. It’s about moleskin journals, but I think that you could pretty much use it to refill any book with new pages to use as a journal or a sketch book. It describes binding really well with clear pictures and instructions.

You can Rebind a book you love with a hard back book you don’t care for so much. Use the same method they do here, but just skip the part about making your own hardback for it, just use a book stripped of its pages (using the tutorial above for that part).

And if you have problems removing the pages cleanly, you can check this tutorial for how to cleanly remove pages from a book.

Now you can just go ahead and remove some pages and use them for working into collages, scrap book pages, and other odd such bits like that. The sting method (which I just accidentally spelled stink method, hehe) would work great for getting pages out of a book. Making book marks from old book covers would be another good idea.

I found a ton of tutorials on Instructables about making secret compartment books of one form or another, these were my favorites:
Audio Book
Sexy Secret Book
Ipod Book

And then if you need some book ends, you could give this a shot and make yourself some Book Bookends.

Or if you cd/dvd collection is as out of hand as the book collection, you could make a book into a holder for them.

Well, that concludes my bookish ideas on the subject for now. I’ll be trying out some of the above tutorials and I’ll make sure to let you know how they turn out.

I’ll be posting some more things on ebay tomorrow as well as updating the shop this friday, so make sure to check those out. Thank you to everyone who has bid on my ebay auctions and placed orders through the shop, you are really what keeps Craft Leftovers up and running and my bills paid and food on the table. I appreciate you all so much!

Have a great Hump day!

++ Kristin ++

Recently I’ve been taken by the idea that how you buy says a lot about how you think. For me, who loves reading, there is no other buying new temptation stronger than a new book. I’m addicted to reading. I’m happy to say out of my much to big library there is only a small shelf of books that I have never read. Kind of like craft supplies I try not to have any leftovers. Well, the problem for me lately has been that I really can’t justify buying new books anymore. There are just too many used books out there that need a home, need another read, need a cozy place on the shelf. Sure some books are stinkers, maybe even made for the landfill instead of the reader, but even those can usually find a home in a collage, scrapbook, or the binding can be used to bind a more cherished book that has been read so many times that it has completely worn out.

The point is, other than instant gratification, why should I really buy a new book at all? Until all the used books have homes, why buy new? Most books, within a few months of publication, start showing up in force as “used”. If I can just wait a little, I can get a great book that is new to me, not contributing to deforestation, keeping something out of the landfill, and saves me a little money. For me it is a win win situation all around. The other factor is that by buying used, I am helping to support other small business or morally conscious businesses.

I started out just thinking that I would buy used from amazon as well as my local used book shop, FireHouse Books. Then I went to the Green Fest on Navy Pier in Chicago and came across Better World Books. These people revolutionized the way I shopped for books, the way I looked for books, and the way I thought about my buying habits in general.





According to them:

“Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.”

And they totally do! There is this great project they have where they connect with schools and libraries to help them do book drives. You can actually search by your zipcode and look up your local library and search what they are selling through Better World. If you find something you like, you can purchase it, and some of the profit goes towards your local library. How wonderful is that! You can also search by used books only, a great tool if you are trying to cut down your new book buying vice. It’s also nice to know that if I really need a new book, say for research, or a review, or whatever may be the case, by buying from Better World, I know that it is going towards a good cause and not just a corporation’s overly huge profit margin. Right now they have already raised $4,286,317.26 towards lituracy funds and they have saved 11,351,833 books from the landfills! Did I mention too that all shipping within the US is just, well, free!

“All books are available with free shipping to any location within the United States (or $2.97 worldwide). And in case you’re concerned about your eco-footprint, every order is shipped carbon neutral with offsets from Carbonfund.org.”

How great is that!





Now sometimes I can’t find a used book I really need on Better World, so I turn to another favorite book site. A1Books. Now the reason that I really like A1 Books is that they search all the sellers and affiliate sites for you bookish desires. I actually searched for a book and Better World came up as well as one of my other favorite sites, Thrift Books. For me it’s a really great place to buy books from sellers I like, with only one checkout. You can also sell your own books through them. I haven’t done it, but it looks pretty easy.





Another option for fulfilling your book needs is to look up what you need on World Cat. This is a nation wide library search engine. You can find the book closest too you, you can also use it to help you request an interlibrary loan. And, I just found this out today, when you search for a book, they will also have a link to the book in Google Books if it is available there! I searched for Craft and Contemporary Theory in World Cat to see if a library near by had it that I could get sent to the Ames Library and I ended up finding this great excerpt on Google Books!





And that leads me to the next thing, check out google book search! Sister D of the Crafty Pod did a great review for them awhile ago that you can check out to hear more about it. You can search by topic, author, title, keyword, you know, the standard. So great. A lot of times they may not have what you are looking for in full, but usually a preview or a review at the very least. It’s really nice to check before you commit to buying a book outright over the internet. It’s like being able to browse it virtual style. Like Diane mentions too, there are a lot of out of print books available in full on there. What an amazing resource!

Now these are all just resources for getting your hands on reading materials and used books in general. On Wednesday I’m going to post all about using used books project ideas. See you all then!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the shop, I added some new goodies last Friday afternoon. I’m hoping to have the dishcloth kits up and on sale this friday coming up, so check back for that too!

Oh oh oh! Also, I have been listing some vintage and used and few new but haven’t used and it needs to get out of my studio things on ebay. You can see all I’m selling here. (cough, which is zero because all my auctions just ended, thanks to everyone who bid on things!) I’m going to be putting a lap loom I bought eons ago up for auction tonight as well as some more fabric, some vintage lace, and some lots of buttons. I bought the lap loom from Dick Blick about 3 years ago and since have gone head over heels into weaving and don’t really need it anymore because I’ve built my own lap loom and also have a floor loom now too. It’s just taking up space, so it needs to go. The original instructions for it were crap, so I’m going to type some up for it and include those in the auction as well.

And that is all for today! Happy Crafting Everyone!

++ Kristin ++

I met Beth about a year ago at the local yarn shop where I worked, she was always wearing these fabulous knit dresses and wonderfully creative clothes. We always got on well, but it wasn’t until Earth Day when I saw her booth at the Earth Day festival on campus that I realized she had an etsy shop and sold her own yarn and knit hats and prints and did ceramics too! What a dynamo! We started hanging out and it’s been so fun getting to know her and see her spring into action and self employment. So without further delay I would like to introduce you to my friend Beth and her wonderful work and life. She lives in DeKalb, IL. You can visit her shop here and her blog here.

What’s your favorite medium to work in?
Oooh that is a tough one. Any given day I might be trying something new or going back to something that I had abandoned. I can give a list of stuff I work in though. There are SOME things I don’t do after all.
My latest projects have all been knitting, mainly hats in recycled yarns (which I NEED TO FINISH). I have some projects planned that include making some vintage tin badges I found at a garage sale into belt buckles, working on some wood block prints, and making jewelry out of the leftovers from frogging sweaters for yarn. So ok, I was supposed to say favorite materials… Silk, cotton, cashmere and angora blends are some of my favorite yarns. I like vintage materials, odds and ends in interesting styles. I also love terra cotta clay. It has a lovely earthy richness.





When did you first learn to knit? Who taught you?
I first learned to knit in a class taught by Lindsay Obermeyer, a pretty well known fiber artist. You can check out a little of her work in the summer 2006 issue of Knit.1 Anyway she was heading the Fibers department at NIU for a year while the main professor was on sabbatical. So I took one of her classes as an elective and in the class we learned how to make a few kinds of beadwork, how to make netting and how to knit. I had a lot of trouble at first with it, but pretty soon I was off. After the required samplers the first thing that I knit was a hat. I really really stuck with knitting in (a) way other crafts and arts had not grabbed my attention. I tend to get frustrated and bored with a lot of things. I’ve always been one of those people who has to do things my way or the highway and I don’t care much for procedure so the first thing I bought was a stitch dictionary and set about learning how to read the directions so I could apply the patterns to things I want to knit. It took me a year to learn how to read patterns. I made a lot of mistakes, but I still have quite a few of those first things that I knit.






How did you come up with the name for your shop? And how does it relate to what you sell?
Ahhh the name of my shop. After I decided I wanted an Etsy store I knew I HAD to have a great name. Something that spoke to philosophy but wasn’t constraining so I wouldn’t feel the need to set up a different shop at some point in the future because I chose (the wrong) name. So I sat down with the thesaurus on my computer and an idea that I wanted two contrasting words one that meant taking apart and one that meant rebuilding, so I went through about a million permutations of the idea with different words till I found one that said what I wanted and easily rolled off my tongue. Therefore: defaceReconstruct. I made it one word because it looked cool. It really relates to all of my products because, really in order to make ANYTHING you have to take something apart. You have to dig clay and metals out of the ground, you have to shear the sheep, you have to cut down the tree. I have always had an attraction to reduction. What is the simplest way to produce something, starting with its base elements. I have always wanted to own a sheep and take the fiber from that animal to make into yarn to make into and garment or accessory. I have my hands on all of the chain. This is obviously not practical at this time of my life,… but I try to take these attractions and principles into the things I do produce. I think reusing old things is almost as good.


What first made you think to recycle yarn to resell?
I had heard of it a couple of years ago as a cheap way to get nice yarn and as I had a pretty fiendish yarn habit I thought this sounded great. So I went to the Salvation Army and picked out a bright green heathered sweater to frog. It prompty stayed in its original bag for a year and a half. Yeah… it took me a while to get around to it. So in March of this year I finally got around to taking apart that sweater. It was not in the best condition the yarn had MANY weak points and was a little brittle from being worn. But I was hooked. I loved taking apart something crappy and gaining something great out of it. For the record I kept that yarn and have made several lovely already broken in hats out of it. So in April I got a random Convo on my neglected Etsy store that had three lonely hats in it from a girl named Cassie asking if I would like to participate in an Eco Art Fair for Earth Day. I didn’t have ANYTHING to sell. I’d been depressed for the last year or so and hadn’t made any artwork or crafts. So I had a lightbulb and thought, I’ll buy some sweaters and sell the yarn at the fair. And so it began. I got a pretty good response at the fair and have taken it forward from there.





How did you come up with your Green Bean? Does it speak to the idea of being green by using recycled materials? You mean sprouting bean?
Hahahah oh geez, its a little embarrassing how that got invented, but I’ll tell. I once drew a little doodle of a legless armless woman with a bonnet on looking at a baby on the ground. I liked the way the woman looked so much that later, when thinking of things to draw for my printmaking class, I gave it arms and legs and called it Bean Baby. I made a large print of bean baby sleeping inside a sprouting bean. I took the sprouting bean and gave it arms legs and eyes and the sprouting bean was born. There is a whole little theology with these characters that includes an ear of corn with a halo that is god. That was a strange time in my life. Heh. I’m not sure that I specifically connect it with being green so much as just a simpler feeling of anthropomorphized (ten dollar word) nature.





In your profile you say that you are working on writing up some patterns, a wonderful idea! I like they way you phrase that you desire to share the creativity. Any idea when we might see the first patterns for sale?
Within the next month or so. I’m making basic patterns with ideas for personalized embellishments so I still have to work on the embellishments part, but I’m getting close. I also have a secret collaborative project in the works, but I’ll be mum about that for the time being. I think sometimes people have a hard time envisioning what they might do with recycled yarn, so I want to share my ideas for that.


What goals do you have for your shop? yourself?
I’m hoping to make at least a living wage working for myself. Obviously I want to do as well as I can, but to at least make enough money to pay my own bills and put a little away would be my wildest dream at the moment. I dream big
I’m hoping my shop grows and breathes and gets a life of its own. Sometimes goals are all well and good, but there are also times you have to follow the rabbit down the hole and drink the potion. I think I’m drinking the potion right now. Haha.
Anyway, I’m hoping to give back to the world a little bit by bringing high quality recycled yarns to people on a budget, who enjoy fine fibers. I want to supply other crafters who are interested in using recycled products, but hesitate to recycle them themselves. As for my non-shop related goals I’m hoping to travel a bit more by train, maybe make it to Europe again at some point. I’m also filled with lust for a tiny little house of our own. I want a garden and dog and a work shed in the backyard and maybe a kid someday before my ovaries stop working. That’s pretty maybe on the kid, but I think I’d want one at some point. Who knows?





Thanks beth!

Some how Wednesday gives me the sense of having gotten a good chunk of the weekdays, yet still having enough time to get the things done I need to before the weekend (which is usually a misguided feeling, but I’m okay with that).

I’m taking a swing away from craft today for the main part of the post. Last night I whipped up some pizza for dinner and it was so easy and so fresh and delicious, I thought I would share that with you.

Having some little mini pizza crusts in the frig is a nice way to have a quick meal on hand without being completely processed. Sure if you can, make up some pizza crusts yourself for the best of quality. I just happened to have these though, and so I figured I might as well use them up. Mini pizzas are a great way to use up just about any veggie from your local farmer’s market (and co op). A lot of times I will just buy whatever and then look at it and say “hmm, well, now what?” This week I got a great bundle of wild garlic, oregano, zucchini, tomatoes, smoked mozzarella. (some from the co op, not all at the farmer’s market). Hmm, what to do. Pizza!

Sauce:
1 T butter
1/4 c. minced onion, garlic, wild garlic, shallots, whatever oniony kind of things you have
1 T chopped fresh herb
Fresh pepper
Sea Salt to taste
1 small can tomato sauce
1/4 c. red wine
1 T. unbleached all purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees at this point

Heat up the butter with a little dash of olive oil in a sauce pan. Once it is all melted down, add your oniony parts and sauté until fragrant. Turn up the heat to medium high and add your salt, pepper, and herbs. Stir vigorously until the herbs turn dark green. Add the wine and let it simmer down. Once most of the wine has evaporated and simmered down, add the tomato sauce. Stir well and sprinkle the flour over the top of the sauce mixing constantly. This way you won’t get lumps in your sauce, just add the flour a little bit at a time. Lower the heat to, well, “low” and let it simmer and thicken up while you make the rest of your pizza.

Honestly I use this sauce for just about everything, in omelettes, for spaghetti, pasta bakes, on hot sandwiches. So I always make more than I need and store the rest in a mason jar in the frig.

Pizza:
Veggies
Cheese
Galic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

I take a garlic press, load it up (especially if my garlic is older and sprouting), and press it right onto the dough. I take a fork and smear it around on the crust with a little olive oil. Then give a nice coat of salt and pepper. Slice your veggies nice and thin and layer it on. Then spoon on your sauce. Then layer on some thin tomato slices. Sprinkle your cheese or place your slices of cheese on the top. More salt and pepper.

Put on a pan and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins (until sauce is bubbling and the cheese is browned).

The great thing about this little pizza is that you can make it with or without cheese, with whatever veggies have on hand, and even without the sauce, just the garlic paste on the crust and some veggies sprinkled with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Once I figure out a good pizza crust dough for freezing I will post that. For right now, any little premade pizza crust works just fine and they stay good for quite some time.

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I also wanted to share a couple of things I came across in this morning’s blog reading.

This project is a little old, but pretty amazing all the same. I would love to organize something like this for my town. They “sowed and distributed several hundred seed pots for planting in gardens across New York City.” Artist Leah Gauthier explains her project here in a wonderful interview and I really relate to her feeling on food and cooking and gardening. They didn’t just distribute and sow seeds, they distributed and sowed endangered, rare, and heirloom seeds. So she wasn’t just promoting growing your own food, she was promoting growing unique and interesting food, promoting going against the grain of monoculture agriculture. Ah, I love it. Good job! I don’t know you personally Leah, but I think what you are doing is just great! Keep it up! You can see pictures from the Sow In project here, and info on the seeds they distributed here. I first saw this posted about on whipup.net (wonderful site and if you haven’t been over there yet, hop to it!)

A great article over at Meet Me At Mikes on How to Market Your Craft Blog, I should definitely take some of these suggestions! A good read for anyone with a blog, not just craft. (via)

And then there is also a great contest going on for a new sewing machine going on over at Craftzine.

Have a great day everyone! I’ll see you next on Saturday, finally with that interview I’ve been promising!

Oh and Craft Leftovers Monthly is only on sale until Tomorrow night (Thursday, June 12th) so make sure to swing by and pick up your 1 month or 3 month subscription! Thank you so much to everyone who has renewed/ordered for the first time. Your support helps so much to put food on the table and keep the bills paid.

Keep it Crafty!
Kristin