Woodland Skirt.

 Every now and again a fabric comes along that just screams at you from the shelf "WEAR ME!" It's hard to believe that this cute little dainty girl holding a soft fluffy bunny would scream like that, but she did. I have witnesses. So I bought a yard and brought her home... and stuck it on the shelf.

Then, as luck would have it, about a year later some other fabrics from the collection went on sale, so I snatched up the remnants and got down to business! This barefoot nature loving girl needed a skirt covered with barefoot nature loving girls!

Of course, one of the challenges of working with such a fabric, is the inhumanity of cutting of feet and heads. So I drafted a pattern to make the best use of each row of girls, and no body-chopping. I ended up with three long strips to be the hem of the skirt. The other two fabrics were then divided into tiers, six panels around, each layer larger at the bottom than at the top. Pockets were made (skirts can have pockets! It's magical, I know.)

 So, a very swishy, swingy skirt was sewn. Perfect for running barefoot in the woods! And how did I get it so swishy? How did I protect the wee feet of these girls?

A bias tape maker, and a trip to the hardware store. Four yards of fine ball chain is sewn into the bias wrapped hem, now it doesn't ride up when I walk or fly up in the wind. Hardward store notions are the best...

Curds and Whey

Ever have an "Oops"? A kitchen Oops? An I-left-the-oven-on-now-a-gallon-of-yogurt-has-curdled Oops? Yea... let's take a page from Bob Ross, call is a happy mistake, and turn it into a bird. Well, not an actual bird, that would be weird.

I keep my yogurt at temperature in the oven by preheating it on the lowest temp and putting the warm packed jars on a tray in there with the oven off. Usually it's just enough heat to keep the fermentation going, this week it was enough heat to kill the culture, so a gallon of milk was made into not-yogurt.

 No panicking! First rule of cooking. So, I got on the Google, asked some fellow fermentors, and started looking for ways to salvage this. First, I strained the curds out from the whey. stirring the mess from time to time to let more liquid drain. I then placed a bowl and some weight (A jar of water) on the cheesy bit to force some water out. That whey, is of course being reserved for other uses.

In the morning the curds had formed a fairly firm cheesy mass. So firm, in fact, that I added some milk back to it to make it more mixable. Then I ate it with jam for breakfast - Fan-fucking-tastic!

 As for the rest, the majority of the mess had become whey. I used skim milk which has considerably higher percentages of water in it. I discovered that *gasp* one of my favorite cheeses is not in fact a real cheese! Brunost, which is sometimes sold as "Ski Queen" here in the states is made from boiled down whey with a little cream added. The color comes from the milk sugars caramelize, thus it's slightly sweet.

The history of this cheese is interesting, and much newer than one might think. In earlier periods whey was a valuable animal feed for the small farm cheese maker, and it was also commonly added to soups and the like. As dairy productions got bigger and bigger there was more whey than could be given back to animals (it's more often given to pigs and horses, not cows.) Nowadays, Whey is in fact a problematic waste product!

For my Whey cheese I boiled the whey for hours... and hours... and finally it went from a thin yellowish liquid to a thick brown substance the consistency of gravy. I took it off the heat, and added a little bit of cream. It has to be whisked several times while cooling to avoid the crystallizing of the sugars.

Not quite as solid and brown as the Gjetost, but quite good on crackers nonetheless!

Salve Making

 I've been exploring herbal medicine for a few years now, and my repertoire of useful items keeps expanding, as does the cupboard space I keep them in...

After last summer's intense heat and bad sunburns I decided it was time for something a little more soothing than the aloe, I'd use it with aloe of course, but when I burn I need some serious moisture! I infused chamomile and rosemary in olive oil, letting them sit in the sun of my kitchen window for a few weeks.

 The other ingredient is beeswax, all natural with that slight whiff of honey to it! I used about one cup infused oils, and one ounce beeswax. You can add 20-30 drops of essential oils or a tablespoon of vitamin E oil as well.

 Melt the wax in a double boiler, make candles, then pour into a container. Note that once a container is used for wax related stuff it's tricky to clean it all the way, so just dedicate those jar to ever be for salve making and wax melting.

I stirred the salve while it was cooling to make a light fluffy concoction, better for smearing on sensitive burns and rashes. Simple, effective, wholesome and free of unknown scary long -named chemicals!

Do you make body products for yourself at home?

Squared Up

 I'm certain that everyone who has ever met me knows I knit, usually in front of them in fact. What's worse than forgetting to bring your knitting with you? But I also know crochet. That is, I knew exactly two stitches - chain, and single crochet.

I just joined a year-long crochet afghan class, and already doubled by repertoire of crochet skills! Each month we will be learning a new square, and then sewing them together to make a mixed blanket. It's like a sampler that keeps you warm!

I bought all the yarns already - 10 different shades of green. After all my years of art classes and yarn dying the safest color combo for me is still to not combo at all ...

You locals can still join the class if you want to dedicate yourself to a year-long project (they may be offering the classes month by month also, for those of you who are afraid of commitment.) Check it out at Fancy Tiger.

Are you expanding your craft in the new year?

Unfucking

 During this year's Holiday Break I've dedicated myself to getting some house things done. I have grandiose plans to have some rooms painted by Yule, and of course a house that's clean enough I can have people over and they might want to come back sometime....

I told these hopes and dreams to a Stitch-n-Bitch buddy and she said - " Oh, you're Unfucking."

I was disappointed to find out that unfucking is less fun than one might hope, but you feel every bit as good afterwards. Here's the Blog "Unfuck Your Habitat" with lots of motivational stuff to make you want to clean your house, and an article by the author on why it's good to do.

Now Pink, why do I need a website to tell me to clean my shit? Here's the genius, it's not about being fucking Martha Stewart and giving your entire house a one time awesome clean (those always assume your house is not a disaster to start with), it's about tackling little things and getting a pat on the back from the internet when you do. Here's the strategy - clean one small little part of your world and only spend like 20 minutes on it. Then go do something else, like knit, or look at lolcats, or sit on the couch like a vegetable. Then if you want go clean something else.

 I have lots I want to get fixed up in the next week and a half, but I'm dividing it into little parcels, and of course one then needs to be dedicated to keeping it clean. How do you get motivated to make your house work better?