January is Garden Planning Time!

Posted on 01/26/2012 by Kristin Roach

Ah, now is the best time to be thinking about planning your garden. I just got three seed catalogs in the last 2 weeks. Start making a plan for the garden. I took notes last year, but I also launched myself into a nice brainstorming session.

One of the things I realized from last year is that while the garden supplemented my summer groceries pretty well, we didn’t have any left to put up for the winter. This year I’m adding two beds that are 4×4′ each which will hopefully allow us our first bumper crop.

Garden Books I’m Digging On

I got this book called Four-Season Harvest and this other called Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables and I’m super excited about planning for a winter harvest using more cold frames and the like. So that’s another thing I’ve taken into account with my garden plan. My heart is all a-flutter with “putting up” for the winter. Jason hasn’t quite come around to the idea of me digging a hole in the backyard for potatoes and carrots, but he is more than happy to help me set something up in the basement.

Keeping it all Sorted Out

I use google docs to keep track of all my seeds, last year’s plan and plant list, and then this year’s plan and plant list.

I’m surprised how useful the seed spread sheet has been. It not only tells me what I have, but also what I had in the past, what’s worked, what didn’t work. What brands do best, and updated planting and harvesting times – I tweek it each time I get results. I figure I’ll get it right by the time I’m 72, like my neighbor Bill who says he’s no good at gardening, but has the most beautiful productive garden I’ve ever seen.

Also, keeping it on google docs allows me to check it on my phone. And that prevents me from impulse buying seeds that I already have – like I have 3 packs of cilantro, 4 of parsley, and 5 basil! Geesh.

Most Excited About…

So what are the new seeds on the block I’m most excited about? Popcorn! Seriously, I’m planting 2 rows (I’d love to do three, but 2 works better in my garden) of strawberry popcorn. It makes these lovely little ears about 3 inches long that are red like a strawberry. From what I’ve read it’s supposed to make the best popcorn I’ve ever tasted – and I’ve tasted a lot because I LOVE popcorn :) Planting the two rows should give me enough to last for a year. I hope. I’m sure I’ll eat it all in 3 months.

How do you plan your garden? What new (or old) crop are you excited to have in the garden this year? Do you put things up for the winter?

Happy Garden Planning!
Kristin Roach

Assisted Painting: many little paintings!

Posted on 01/24/2012 by Kristin Roach

I’ve had so much fun making many many paintings this past weekend using the Assisted Painting method I showed you all in the last issue of the zine. In a few hours time I whipped up a batch of 5 paintings. They are all pretty small (4×4″ each) and I’m going to slip them in the ArtVend machine at the local coop here in town. It’s been a really fun series to work on and hopefully they’ll sell and I’ll just HAVE to make some more :)

I was able to source some great images using a few public domain image searches, which are pretty handy for all kinds of projects we art and craft folk like to work on. Not just Assisted Paintings, but also just about any kind of paper art. You can also use them to cut out silhouettes for fabric decals and even to be the basis for a knit chart or embroidery pattern.

Me, I opted for a winter theme and searched for “winter” which then got me on the trail of dog sleds and snow cats somehow. I freaking love this picture of this fat cat. And how can I not think of Jak when I see these dogs in the snow.

Wikipedia has a great entry on using public domain images along with a long list of resources of where they can be found. I highly recommend checking out this list. If you are going to do something for personal use and not for commercial use, check out the Life Magazine Photo Archive on google. Amazing! I have to say, such a joy to play with.

If you go to Flickr, you can use their advanced search tool to include only images that have a creative commons license:

And always, make sure to do your research and make sure the images you are using – especially if you are using them for commercial purposes – are actually public domain. Unfortunately, just because someone states it is, doesn’t make it so.

Book Review: I Love Patchwork

Posted on 01/23/2012 by Kristin Roach

Ever since I Love Patchwork: 21 Irresistible Zakka Projects to Sew by Rashida Coleman-Hale came out, oh, 3 years ago, I’ve been drooling over it. It’s one of those books that every time I would go to the book shop, I would flip through it, contemplate buying, then put it back because “I already have so many craft books, I need to make projects from those”. Well, last year I was able to buy this book under the guise of “research” for the book (and the zine) because I found the design so endearing and the book structure was pretty appealing to me.

But I had yet to make anything from it until this past week! There was a lot of overwhelming “rah rah” for this book when it came out. And rightly so. It was one of the first groupings of books that really embodied the now prevalent japanese styled american craft books.

And looking at it now, three years later, I still find the projects as inspiring as I did 3 years ago. But this book is so much more than just cute projects, I think that would be missing the main point of this collection: Linens & Patchwork.

And true, it is for the beginner. And granted, I’m no master of linens OR patchwork/quilting, but I’m no slouch either, and found a lot of really useful tips included in this book that were then reiterated in the projects. And that’s my favorite type of instructional book. Show me how to do something, then show me how to use that skill in a larger project.

Maybe you’re like me and love the idea of English Paper Piecing, but don’t really feel up to making a whole quilt. Well, that’s the beauty of this book right there – each project is the chance to play and experience different types of patchwork processes and learn new techniques.

So what did I end up making? The simplest of the projects, but for me, the most immediately useful – a utensil basket for all my chop sticks. I love how easy this comes together, that it uses up some of my little “craft leftovers”, and adds a spark of inspiration in an unexpected place – my kitchen drawer.

It’s a traditional little design that I’m definitely going to use again and again – especially when I start re-doing my studio space! I’ll need lots of little baskets for my pencils, brushes, and the like.

Do you have this book? What did you think about it? Have you made any of the projects?

Happy Crafting!
Kristin Roach

Winter Indoor Garden: A sprout of hope!

Posted on 01/13/2012 by Kristin Roach

This year I’m making a preemptive strike on the winter blues. The seedlings will all be green and wonderful by the time we are a foot under snow. Ha. Take that Iowa winter. We planted these sweet little seeds on Tuesday, and today, sprouts! Just two. And you can barely see them.

See, here:

No, I swear, there are two sprouts. Look closer:

Why hello there my soon to be yummy greens!

It’s such an easy project, it takes up so little room, and the rewards are so great – green things growing in the winter, and significant savings on the weekly grocery budget, we eat a lot of greens.

Once it gets going you just cut what you need for meals with scissors, keep watering, and it will last about 2 months before it gets root bound. At that point, compost the whole thing and start over. If you have space, you can rotate through two trays by planting a new flat of greens every 4 weeks.

Last year I just mixed everything all together, but this year I decided to do salad mix on one side and green leaf lettuce on the other. I think I first wrote about this now annual tradition last February, ah there it is. I seem to always think of gardening this time of year. Like how I devoted half an issue of the zine to starting seeds and indoor winter gardening back in February 2009!

Enjoy and have a good weekend!
Kristin

Cold Snap Winter Craft Leftovers Zine – Volume 3: Issue 6!

Posted on 01/04/2012 by Kristin Roach

Get the single issue in the Shop or on Etsy! Get the E-to-P version as a pdf here! Or get all of Volume 3 as a box set here. Or sign up for a subscription and start with the current issue! So many options!

In this issue:

Craft Leftovers Comic – Winter Bouquet Discovery
Assisted Winter Painting – building a mounted panel and painting a wintery scene
Tribute to our four-legged friends – the antler tutorial was unable to be completed after the Jak unexpectedly became ill and passed away during the creation of the pattern
Quicky Gift Bags – making gift bags from this year’s wrapping paper to gift again during next year’s Christmas.
Making Necklaces – sizing, pendants, and knotted fasteners.
Plus the usuals of course! Find the Words, coloring page, and warming recipe for cranberry tea.

The Craft Leftovers Monthly Zine is printed on 100% recycled paper at my local print shop. It’s designed, written, laid out and hand assembled by your’s truly. It’s 24 pages of crafty goodness in a quarter page size. Perfect for pockets, purses, and pouches. Get inspired, inspire your friends.

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

Rest in Peace Jak Jak Parr

Posted on 12/26/2011 by Kristin Roach

Update: The afternoon of writing the last post Jak was diagnosed with late stage luekemia. It completely took us all by surprise, but actually made a lot of sense with all the issues we’ve had since his adoption. Lethargic, anorexia, nausea. Because its one of those generalized chronic issues, it’s really hard to figure out. And he’s just always had it since we adopted him. His sick self was his normal self. We were told most likely 2-3 months to live, but that if we did treatments maybe 6 months to a year a year.

Before we could even make a decision on the treatment, he started to decline. By Thursday morning the vet, oncologist, and Jason and I all came to the conclusion that no amount of treatment would help, he was really suffering big time, and we had to let him go. He was a sweetheart to the end, wearing his sweater to keep his cold old bones warm while in the hospital on that last night.

We miss him so much and I can’t really explain the gap it’s left in our hearts and lives. It was so sudden and so unexpected.

The last project I had to finish for the zine were just a few stitches on and final photos of antlers for Jak, I just can’t do it. I’m changing things up and filling the rest of the pages with non-dog related things and a single page paying tribute to Jak. It will be printed and sent out asap. Thank you for your compassion and patients as we go through this time of grieving.

Kristin

ps – this is the last super depressing post in a long long time. I’m really looking forward to throwing myself head long into crafting and working therapy.

Jak Super Sick, many delays, updates later.

Posted on 12/20/2011 by Kristin Roach

This month has been one little twist after another and it seems extremely fitting, that the issue that has Jak on the cover is also the issue to which he caused delay.

I was planning on telling you the story of Jak’s illness and recovery and announcing the newest issue of the Craft Leftovers Zine in the shop this morning. But things have taken a turn for the worse and our poor greyhound is really really sick. We’ve been working with the vet since getting home from Renegade – trying meds and light walks and special diets and different tests – and this morning hit the critical point of rushing him in for emergency care.

After this morning’s bout, I have a lot of clean up to do before I can get back to work on the zine. I hate puke. Jak’s in good hands and I’m sure he’s getting lots of pets (and pokes) as we speak.

The scary thing is that they just don’t know what it is. So while we wait. And I’ll be working on final layout and edits and I hope to get the last file sent off to the printer today. But I know I won’t make that last “ship by” time to get it there for Christmas. If you have a subscription, I’ll send you a digital edition to print off. I’m so close to being done that even with Jak being sick I’ll have everything in the mail tomorrow.

Keep my pup in your thoughts today. He’s such a sweet guy. We’ve only had him in our family for 9 months, we are fighting hard for him. We really want him to stick around for another 9 years.

Kristin

MAL Quicky: Hurricane Hat Finished!

Posted on 12/16/2011 by Kristin Roach

The Hurricane Hat is finished! On and off the needles in just 5 days!

This week I tried something completely new, and a little random, and quite a bit off-the-cuff: the first ever Craft Leftovers Make-A-Long quicky! Why did I opt for a fast paced make-a-long? Well, I have a lot of super involved projects already on the needles and I really wanted a new hat to keep my head warm and match the November Craft Leftovers Monthly Zine Scarf.

So the CL MAL Quicky was born. I’m super happy with the response I’ve gotten and will definitely do another one next month. Maybe you all aren’t clambering for flickr group membership, but I have gotten quite a few tweets, likes, and comments saying you like the concept of it and want to do one in the future (just maybe not the week leading up to christmas week)(maybe with a little more notice).

Personally, it really kicked my needles into gear to get this hat finished. I wonder if I would have gotten past the cast on this month if there wasn’t that 5 day deadline.

I was surprised that it took only a few hours of knitting to go from yarn ball….

to sweet finished hat.

And how much I enjoyed a late night knitting session.

Part of the enjoyment could have been the pattern itself. It’s so lovingly easy, yet more than just a basic round and round we go stockinette hat. I really enjoyed her use of the M1 after finishing the rib to get the spiral to be a one row pattern repeat. And how she got rid of that joining in the round gap that seems to always show up.

Now I have about 100+ yards of this lovely dyed-by-me yarn in my “craft leftovers” pile and it’s taunting me to write a pattern for some matching mittens with dashes of orange to make up the rest of the yardage. Hmmmm.

I suppose that’s the third reason I opted for a MAL Quicky, I’m just about out of yarn leftovers, I have just mostly stash yarn left! Which is good, but what am I going to write patterns for y’all with!

I hope you enjoyed knitting this project with me as I have. It’s been fun connecting via twitter and facebook through our joint making efforts!

Happy Knitting!
Kristin Roach

to see the rest of the MAL Quicky series, visit: December MAL Quicky Part 1 and Part 2.

The Sketchbook Project + a Coupon Code

Posted on 12/15/2011 by Kristin Roach

Last year I signed up for the Sketchbook Project – and only started three drawings, and didn’t finish a single one. I felt like an epic failure. Me, I draw all the time (or so I thought), not able to finish filling out my sketchbook. I fill a sketchbook no problem like every 2 months just by doodling and writing random things. What happened?

1. Intimidation – yeah, I got scared.

The idea of putting my sketchbook into the line up with amateurs and greats alike scared the heck out of me. Would anyone think it’s worth looking at? Would anyone seek it out? Was what I had to say with my visual language worthwhile?

2. Too Personal – I picked the theme “nightmares”.

Which was good for me because I have loads of them. Heck, between the ones I can remember and the ones I have on just about a nightly basis, I should have had no problem filling that little book – or so I thought. But it turns out having enough subject matter wasn’t the issue, dipping into the imagery kind of scared the crap out of myself. While all drawings tend to have a personal autobiographical nature, the idea of exposing all that twisted sludge in my head turned out to be a valley I really didn’t want to hike into. I’ve long thought about illustrating my nightmares. But, sadly, no. I was not ready for that challenge.

Honestly I think those were the two big things that held me back. The personal thing more than the intimidation one now that I write it out.

I love the idea of archiving my drawing in the Brooklyn Art Library. I love the idea of collecting up sketchbooks from around the world, what an asset to historians of the future (having studied art history enthusiastically myself, I know how important this kind of thing can be). So yeah, I want to toss my hat into that ring.

So, knowing that, when I received an email about signing up for the 2012 Sketchbook Project Limited Edition Vol. 1 today, I opted to jump into it and try again. But this time picking the theme “How to Spell and Other Things to Learn”. In a spark, 20 pages of drawings and collages ideas came to mind, a very good sign.

When I signed up they sent me a coupon code to share with my buddies, which I consider all of you. My crafty blog buddies. I know some of you must be like me and enjoy drawing too. Or collage Or painting Or fabric art. You get the idea.

Use the coupon code: ADDAFRIEND to receive $2 off. It costs $25 to participate.

I hope you’ll join me in filling a sketchbook for the project which in turn helps to fill the sketchbook archive.

Happy Sketching!

Kristin Roach

MAL Quicky: Hurricane Hat + challenge prize!

Posted on 12/13/2011 by Kristin Roach

Alright, by a 4-1 vote the Hurricane Hat has it! I’ve snapped up a skein of yarn, wound it, and have even dropped the details into my Ravelry Notebook. The official CastOn has begun. Ready. Set. Knit!

Now to spice thing up, if you finish your hat by Friday night AND post a picture of it to the MAL Quicky Flickr Group, you’ll be entered to win a digital edition copy of Craft Leftovers Monthly!

Become a member of the Flickr Group here. You can post up to three pictures per a month - your yarn, a wip photo, and the finished hat.

*****swiiiiiiifffffft*****

Clearly I was inspired by the blue hat pictured above. I’m using a self dyed worsted weight merino. I’m concerned it’s a little too thin for the pattern gauge so I’m have a back up lace weight yarn I may wind into it. Since I want the hat to be warm (and I want to use up stash), I’d rather add in more yarn thickness than work with a larger needle size.

On to an evening of crafting!

Happy Knitting and thanks for joining me on this Make-A-Long adventure!
Kristin