Duo Fiberworks

New free knitting pattern & a favor to ask

2012-02-06T14:16:05Z

I had fun using up some wool scraps,

making tiny felted vessels inspired by Laura's Winter Rainbow series of photographs.

They're so simple and fun to make (less than 30 minutes of knitting time!) and useful to have around.

The main reason I made them however, was to gather information about how YOU like to hand-felt. As you may know, I'm currently working on a book for STC Craft full of knitting patterns for slippers, many of them knitted and felted. Most of the felting I do is by hand, and that's the technique I will be including in the book. Before I write more about that however, I'd like to get more information about your experiences with hand felting.

SO. I have a favor to ask. I'm hoping you'll knit up one of these vessels and then felt the pieces by hand following my directions in the pattern. Then fill out a survey that's right here to let me know how the felting process went for you. ETA: Free to use any yarn comparable to the one I used, surely you have some feltable worsted weight yarn around.

When you send me your completed survey, you'll be entered to win a set of Color Stripe Vessels made by yours truly along with a $50.00 gift certificate to the online yarn shop Webs.*

Recap:

1. Get the pattern and knit a Color Stripe Vessel. Here's the pdf.

2. Hand felt the vessel.

3. Complete the survey by February 20, 2012.

4. Be entered to win a $50.00 gift certificate to Webs and a completed set of Color Stripe Vessels.

Please help me spread the word, I'm looking forward to hearing about your felting exploits!

*Just FYI, Webs isn't sponsoring this project. Webs doesn't even know who I am other than being one of their customers. I just love shopping there and thought you probably do too.

February color 1

2012-02-04T12:29:00Z

leaf, gall, pine needles x 2, leaves

New look for Duo Fiberworks Shop

2012-02-03T14:00:55Z

I'm happy to say that there are quite a few members in the Duo Fiberworks group on Ravelry. I was kinda worried that I would make a group and the only people who would join would be my friends from my knitting group who I asked to join. But happily that is not the case and I'm looking forward to having some fun over there talking about knitting and felting. I am giving away one of my patterns- your choice- to the first 25 folks who request one over there and there are still a few patterns left to give, so please do go join up and post a comment in the forum.

Also, I've tweaked the shop pages quite a bit here on the blog. (Actually my husband gets most of the credit for that.) I'm so pleased with how clean and fresh it looks. You can now purchase all the patterns from our e-book individually, including Laura's sewing and paperwork designs.

We're also in the process of re-doing the layout for all my knitting patterns, I'm kinda embarrassed with how the Katie from four years ago made them. The content is fine and good, but the fonts and style are not super-fresh. So they still be jam-packed with how-to photos and professionally edited patterns, but will be smaller documents that are easier to print and read from a tablet device. I'll let you know when those are live.

New Duo Fiberworks Ravelry Group

2012-01-31T13:31:51Z

I'm happy to say that Duo Fiberworks has a new little place on Ravelry- I just made a new group. This will be a place to learn about my new free patterns, pattern testing, find FAQ's about my designs and to share projects that you make using my patterns.

There's a special giveaway over there for the first 25 people who join, so please go there and check it out!

I'm also going to be doing a hand-felting survey in the next week and we'll be talking it about over there too. So if you're interested in helping out with my slipper book, please do stay tuned here and join up the group over there.

Things I found

2012-01-30T14:07:43Z

:: I just read a newspaper article about Tina Rodgers Rebirth Recycling on Etsy, a localish fiber artist making clothes and accessories.

:: Laura and I have big sewing plans thanks to the book Simple Modern Sewing. I'm not much of a sewer, but based on Diane's review, I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did! The book is beautiful and rich in instruction and inspiration.

:: I'm loving my version of a recipe for knock-off Ines Rosales Tortas de Aceite- adapted from A Taste of Beiruit. They're the perfect morning nibble. See below for my recipe.

:: I'm thinking about vegetable gardening, which means I'm thinking about the sun. My lot is super-shady. Check out this sun trajectroy calculator- see where the path of the sun will be in June at your house.

:: I took some photos of my chickens last week, they are looking fresh and fine after their molting. This girl's coloring totally changed- and I'm smitten with her new, lighter look.

Tortas de Aceite

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• One lemon or orange

• 1 tablespoon of anise seeds

• 1/2 cup orange juice

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the tortas

• 1/4 cups of sesame seeds, toasted in a skillet until golden

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 325.

1. Peel the lemon, avoiding the pith. Place the lemon peel and the olive oil in a small skillet and

heat the oil over medium-low heat until the peel starts to brown. Remove the peel, add the

anise seeds and cool the oil.

2. Place the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, mix.

3. Add the olive oil mixture and the juice to the flour. Mix to combine well. You should obtain a

moist, soft dough.

4. Place 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl. Place the sesame seeds in another small bowl.

5. Form smallish walnut-sized balls from the dough. Take one ball at a time and press on it with

your fingertips on the cookie sheet till it gets as thin as possible, ideally 1/16 of an inch.

6. Sprinkle the tortas with a bit of sugar and sesame seeds.

7. Bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until browned around the edges and dry.

Let cool for a few minutes on cookie sheet, remove when they have cooled and firmed up a

bit.

These will keep in a tightly sealed tin for a couple weeks.

Yield: about 24 tortas

January color 4

2012-01-28T12:00:00Z

leaf, fungus, dandelions(!), leaf, fungus

Things I found

2012-01-23T13:55:05Z

:: I'm making Smitten Kitchen's Carnitas again for dinner tonight. They are one of the great food discoveries in recent history for our family. So easy and so good.

:: Little Home Blessings just posted about her sons' making fruits and vegetables inspired by my simple wood carving tutorials. They made an amazing assortment of veggies!

:: This sweet crocheted dress by Sophie at Piquerat makes me wish for a moment that I had a girl to make it for and also that I knew how to crochet.

:: Yesterday was balmy and Michael and I worked outside, cleaning out the gutters (him) and moving firewood (me). Inspired by Laura's series of Winter Rainbows, I found a firewood rainbow of sorts-

Ash, Black Walnut, Locust, Ash (x2), Tree of Heaven (x2).

January color 3

2012-01-21T17:00:45Z

rose hips, shelf fungus, horse nettle berries, fern frond, pebbles

Something Different

2012-01-19T14:05:32Z

The New Year has been a busy one so far, and my family has faced some challenges. My parents' holiday visit to Kentucky was extended by my mom's two-week hospital stay. I rushed to meet a tight book deadline. And after homeshooling for several years, my boys started attending school for the first time.

I am so happy to say that my mom is well and heading back to Pennsylvania today. I met the deadline, though not entirely on time. And my boys are doing great in school.

My thought process on the switch to school from homeschool was a pretty rapid one, I just knew our current way of being was not working for me or them at all. So I figured we needed to make a change. It was a bit scary, but many friends offered helpful counsel and we spent December preparing the boys for school. I am so happy to say that the teachers and staff at their school have been unbelieveably accomodating and kind. My fourth-grader and kindergartener are both enjoying school, learning new things every day and coming home happy. I am so pleased and honestly a bit surprised about how good this change has been for our family.

And I have more time and mental space than I have had since before I had kids. Quiet hours in the studio used to be Saturday afternoons when my husband would take the boys for a hike, or late at night, working in my dimly-lit space. But now, I'm sitting here, with only my lazy dog for company, working on new projects in my clean and sun-lit space.

I feel rich and very blessed. I'm taking a couple days off from slipper designing and book work and working on something new and making a big mess. It's really fun.

Generosity

2012-01-19T13:34:06Z

This summer, at the Quilt Extravaganza market in our little town, my friend Carol Ann had a great booth of vintage craft supplies, quilt tops and fabric. I bought a couple quilt tops from her and also picked out some vintage buckles.

I think they were .35 cents each. While I am focusing most of my creative energy on the book, shoe and leatherwork thoughts are percolating in my free time. I used a buckle recently to make a belt (more on that another day), and have big ideas for jewelry or more belts. But I only had a few and since they were precious, I wasn't really using them.

Then, this week my friend Teresa pressed a large ziploc bag into my hands. It was full of vintage buckles-

an unreal assortment of beautiful things!

Here's a closer look at the colorful ones.

I have so many favorites. Like this one-

and this-

I look forward to using them. Sometimes I struggle with using special things, prefering to just "have" them, tucked away in my studio. But I'm determined to work them into some of my new projects. Also, I was so moved by Teresa's generous gesture, I'm planning to pass it on to another creative friend soon.