SpiderWomanKnits

House Tour: Simonne's Room

The sun was out today and shinning as best as it could for late January in VT. For the first time in months our upstairs was a tad more than dreary. You see our house was built in 1819 and we have knee wall or eyebrow windows in all of our bedrooms so they don't get too much natural light. We do each have one "normal" window in our room and that helps a lot! It was enough light today however for Simonne and I to hang out and play. Don't get me wrong I turn on lights too but the rest/downstairs of our house is filled with sunlight so that is where we naturally gravitate. Let me just say that I love Simonne's bedroom. It is the smallest but also the most cozy and I know that we are going to have to do some room shuffling once the new baby comes. So I was happy to get some pictures knowing that all too soon it will have to change.

All the while she was happily drifting about the room, tucking dolls in to her little crib but only after reading them a story first. She is such a little nurturer and I am confident that I have the best helpers surrounding me for when Baby Spidey 3 makes it's arrival!

Oh and here's another one of my dad's paintings that is in Simonne's room. Enjoy!  Be sure to stop by next week because I am going to be having a shop give-a-way in celebration of my first month in business! I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend :-)

Something you may not know about me and some Shameless Self Promotion

A long, long time ago (2004) I was really frustrated with the direction our country was heading, frustrated with the complacency of the population and frustrated in general with what I felt was a society losing it's mojo. So, I started making my own T-Shirts with sayings on them to communicate my thoughts and sometimes provoke dialogue. First I started out making shirts for myself with just the iron on letters from craft stores. Then people started asking me where I got those shirts. Shortly after, my T-Shirt company Revoltees was born. For a while I sold shirts at fairs, to friends, off a website, and at our local Co-op Market. I was even featured in Berkshire Living Magazine! Then like many other of my endeavors Revoltees took back seat to motherhood, moves, other job requirements and just life in general. I sold almost all the shirts that I made, although I still have a few left. To me it was a success. Some of my t-shirts went clear across the country. Others I would have the satisfaction of seeing worn in the grocery store. Here are some of the designs I made... (The farming one was my best seller!)

I made them all for men too on regular T-Shirts with the exception of the Breastfeed your Baby one but you wouldn't believe how many requests I got from men who wanted that shirt! We won't really get into that though. 

I printed all of my shirts on American Apparel T's which if you aren't familiar with the company are 100% American Made, Living Wage, and some are Organic. Well, I have A LOT of blank ones left. They retail at a pretty high price but I am selling them just a smidge above wholesale to cover my listing and commission fees on my Other new Etsy Shop Red Comb General Store. Seriously, if you wear t-shirts, embellish t-shirts, or have any desire to do what I did years ago these shirts are the best. Eventually I will get around to listing the rest of my Revoltees and offer those there as well but for now I have listed all the blank t-shirts I have left. So tell all your crafty friends and get 'em while they're hot! 

If you like any of my printed designs just email me or convo me over at Etsy and I'll list one for you!

Thanks for dealing with the Shameless Self Promotion :-) I promise I will try not to do this too often but I have to say the Etsy endeavor has been really, really fun and exciting. In the same way we all connect here Etsy has let me connect with people who are as obsessed with vintage as me. Hopefully the General Store will allow other people with ideas to take action and make some stuff too. When I first started Revoltees I was so overwhelmed by the idea...how do you get a supplier, how do I print the shirts, how do I get a Tax ID, how do I keep track of everything? But a good friend told me to think of it more like selling one shirt at a time and not get bogged down with the entirety of it all. That really helped a lot. I have been holding on to these shirts for a long time now but in reality I won't get around to having another T-Shirt company any time soon. I figure the blog is as good a place as any to offer them since so many of us love to just create. I hope that's ok. 

(me and my heat press, which is how I made all the shirts, back in 2004ish)

P.S. What's up with these Typekey accounts and not being able to reply to comments? If I haven't gotten back to you I am sorry. I keep getting returned email saying "noreply@typepad.com" I went into my own Typekey account and changed my settings to allow my email to be visible. Does that help? Anyone know? 

Something Sweet

We had a lovely snow day today. I really **heart** snow days. We whipped up something sweet.

Black and White cookies as big as our hands! Oh, yummy. They are Gluten Free too I might add since I am gluten intolerant. Greg and I have vivid memories of these since we are both transplanted NY'ers. They had a lot to live up to in our minds because of that and I hadn't had one since I was diagnosed. This was my first attempt and I have to say they are amazing! Oh. My. Wow.  Now we have to keep our selves from the rest of them at least long enough to start and finish dinner.

I hope you day was just as sweet too :-)

UPDATE! Here's the recipe! I didn't include it in the original post because it is a Gluten Free recipe and you'll have to omit a few ingredients if you make these with regular flour. Gluten Free supplies are so ridiculously expensive so don't run out and get them! I'll make notes where I would guess you could alter the recipe to use regular flour although I can't promise it will work...

Black and White Cookies from Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts

1 1/4 cups Brown Rice Flour Mix (2 cups brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch NOT potato flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour) I guess here you could sub regular flour or pastry flour

1 Tablespoon Buttermilk Flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum omit this if you are using regular flour because it's what helps the non gluten flour rise

1/4 teaspoon salt

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the oven rack in the middle position. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine your dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

4.  Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture and water in two additions; mix until just smooth. ( I always use warm water to activate the baking soda and xanthan gum) 

5. Drop generous spoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheets and flatten very slightly. Bake in the center of the oven for 12-14 minutes until tops are puffed and cookies are a pale golden and cooked through (tops should spring back when touched). Cool slightly on sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Using a small spatula or butter knife, spread vanilla frosting over half of the top of each cookie. Let that harden and then spread the chocolate frosting over the other half. Let that harden and then ENJOY!

Store in an airtight container placing sheets of wax paper between cookies. 

Vanilla and Chocolate Frosting

1 1/3 cups confectioner's sugar

(1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for chocolate frosting)

1 or 2 teaspoons of light corn syrup

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1-2 Tablespoons of water

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioner's sugar, cocoa powder (for chocolate frosting), light corn syrup, fresh lemon juice, vanilla extract, and 1 Tablespoon of water. Add more water 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until smooth and spreadable.

Relief That's Bittersweet

Thank you all so much for your sympathy yesterday. Losing chickens is hard. We have grown attached in many ways to our ladies. For the beauty they add to our yard, their distinct and hilarious personalities as well as their delicious eggs and there is nothing like a fresh egg! When we lose chickens we are always left with the uncertainty of what happened. As scary as it was to discover the Bobcats this fall there was a sense of relief that at least we knew what we were up against. This time we might never know what happened yesterday that caused us to lose our Little Red Hen. But there was bittersweet relief last night when Greg went out to tuck the ladies in. He heard a chicken in the woods and was pleasantly surprised to discover Goldie just on the periphery of the field, frightened out of her gourd but 100% OK. So this morning a new flock emerged. Less one special lady but you can bet your bippy we are counting each one of our little feathered blessings.

1. Hildegard

2. Chippy

3. Goldie

4. Cookie

5.Milly

A Sad Sad Day

Tragedy struck today. Two more of our hens were lost. This time one of our hens was still in the pen in bad, bad shape. The other is missing so we can only assume she is gone. One thing about winter is that it's easy to track our perpertrator. This time there was a complete absence of tracks though so we are guessing it was a bird of prey.  

This is a part of farm life but it never, ever gets familiar. 

Goodbye to our sweet Little Red Hen...

And Goldie who was very, very shy and never was much for picture taking but allowed me to take this shot in the fall. She was just so beautiful.

This leaves us with only four chickens, half of our initial flock. I have to say that I never would have thought we'd lose half our chickens in less than one year. Never.  We have grown so attached to them and enjoy the fruits of their labor on a daily basis. It's really hard when this happens and we are all very, very sad. 

FO: Fingerless Mitts

Boy, oh boy! I still have a few more projects to share from 2008!  Here's just a quickie since Sunday seems to be my busiest day in the shop I have to spend a lot of time photographing and then uploading. Such is the case with us on-line gals, eh? 

First up a quick pair of Mitts that were gifted to a friend for her birthday. Raveled here.

And then my dear brother lost the mitts I made him last year so he requested another pair. Lucky for him I had just enough yarn left from the last pair to whip up another. Although I couldn't get him to stop playing guitar long enough to get a good photo so this is the best I could do. Raveled here they are a modified version of the Maine Morning Mitts I knit for him last year.

Next up...two sweaters I made for myself which accommodate my ever expanding baby belly....

Now...back to work! 

FO: Inaugural Hat

Knit during the inauguration. So simple because everything else was so complex. The day, the emotions, the change, the closure. Just the right gift for a friend returning from Iraq this week. 

Raveled here. What a beautiful day it is today isn't it? President Obama. That is just SO right. 

FO: The Dining Room

Thank you all SO much for sharing my enthusiasm about my new Etsy Shop! It really is a thrill to finally share some of the treasures I have been stashing away all this time. I am going to try and add new items each day so if you're a lover of vintage please keep checking back. 

Now onto another FO from 2008 that I haven't documented yet...our dining room! Meg just took us on a tour of her dining room and Leah's been doing some home improvements. All of that reminded me I had yet to share our final 2008 house project. 

When we first moved in our house last April our dining room looked like this...

I don't think you can fully appreciate the horrible wallpaper unless you shared a meal with us in this room. It had texture, shine and belonged in my Italian Grandmother's bathroom not on the dining room walls of a house built in 1819. After many months and a brief interlude of being a pale yellow Greg and I finally agreed on this...

The paint is Sherwin Williams but is a Ralph Lauren color, Chester Grey. It's a moody gray that changes throughout the day. I am so happy with it. The buffet in the background was an auction house score just before the holidays. But my favorite thing is the gift my father gave to us just for our new dining room.  My dad is an incredibly talented painter although he would shake his head and walk away if he heard me saying so. Just take a look. (You must click on this picture to get a closer look.)

He painted these two ladies in 2004 and had them wedged between his TV and a bookcase for all this time! Now they have taken up permanent residence on our wall over the buffet. Thanks Dad! And thanks to my guy who did all the painting and work to help me finally feel at home in this room. 

Surprise!

I am so excited to announce what I have been working on. Welcome to my new shop! Red Comb Vintage!

 

It's finally time to share some of the wonderful vintage things I have been collecting for some time now. Having an antique shop has always been a dream of mine but being a mother comes first. Etsy gives me the ability to offer up some items but stay at home with the babes. And since you all know our family is growing even more now just seems like the right time. I have been listing items as fast as I can (which is not that fast) and wanted to wait to share the news with you all but was surprised and delighted to discover I already started selling some pretty cool stuff out of the shop this weekend. It was my intention to give you all first dibs. Here is just a small sample of what I have now and much, much more will be added as time allows. Each picture links to the item in Etsy.

Vintage Frye Boots

 

Sweet Salt and Pepper Shakers

Cute Mugs

Even a pram!

So, I apologize about the shameless commerce but after my love of knitting comes my deep love of old things. The same way my senses stir for fibers old patinas, lovingly worn objects and unusual stuff really gets my goat. Greg, Jorn, Simonne and I (and soon Baby Spidey 3) all go to various estate sales, antique stores and local thrift shops almost every weekend looking for cool old stuff. Honestly, Jorn complains sometimes but most of the time his curiosity for the old and sometimes odd objects keeps him busy and filled with questions. You could say it is a family obsession that started early for me. My parents divorced when I was young and each weekend my father would take me antiquing on Long Island. As a child I was always drawn to beautiful, old hats and of course, jewels! Now as a mother and wife I lean towards housewares and childrens items. Being a knitter sharpens my eye toward vintage knitting supplies too. All of that is reflected in my shop. So please take a look and get while the gettin's good! I can't seem to keep my vintage sheets in stock but have many more to list so keep an eye out for those. Also, like I said I am listing as fast as I can but email me if there is something you have been searching for I just may have it! 

Here's the first batch of packages going out on Monday and I have one more to add since I took this photo! How exciting!

The first item that sold was one you all will appreciate...this super cool, hand knit sweater!

 

Yay for knitting!

Stockings and Taking Stock and Surprises

Doesn't feel like Christmas was forever ago! I mean, really, it's so last year. Well anyway, with the risk of nauseating you because of your already saturated Christmas coffers I offer you my Christmas Crafting Summary. 2008 ended with a lot of stockings being crafted in our home. Our advent calendar is still missing one day (25) but I'm sure I'll get it done by next year, right? Here's how it all turned out...

It was really fun to make. I just cut stockings from felt, they are single pieces meaning they don't actually function by holding anything, the fun is just hanging each new day on the "line" with teeny, tiny clothes pins. I think this is a keeper. At least for a few years.

Then all of our stockings were literally Dollar Store Red Fluffy Topped so, needless to say, they really had to go. Jorn and Simonne got felt kits to work with, Jorn made his own and I put Simonne's together...

Then I used old wool scarves we don't seem to use often to quickly whip up stockings for Greg and myself...

Much better than the Dollar Store cheapo's we had been using but not "forever" stockings. Well, at least not the one on the right which is made of acrylic blended fabric which doesn't allow it to hang nicely. The red plaid on the left is 100% wool and is much nicer. Anyway, they took about five seconds to make. Sweet.

Now for the taking stock part. I am a big list person. I also love setting goals. As far as knitting goes I have relatively few UFO's that are sitting in baskets and waiting for their day in the sun. I thought January would be a good month to tackle them and try to get my knitting basket cleared for 2009. 

There's the Kureyon Sock Swallowtail shawl that is so near the finish line but the nupps put me out of the mood. I am have been considering ripping this project but I am really on the fence.

Then there are the Waving Lace Socks I am knitting with my Piece of Vermont sock yarn which are also so close to the finish line it is silly they are not on my feet already. The situation is made even more silly by the fact that I love everything about this project. The pattern and the yarn are perfect mates and such a pleasure to knit. So what's up with that? Now my Pregnancy Brain keeps messing up the simple lace pattern hence the idea of ripping the Swallowtail Shawl. 

There's the Aran Stocking I am knitting that I hoped would be done by Christmas. It's not worth photographing in it's current state and I am not even sure if it is worth finishing. It's a stash buster though so maybe just for the sake of stash reduction I should go ahead and wrap this project up. We'll see. I am a bit Christmas crafted out...

Last up is the blanket I am working on for the Next Baby Spidey which technically is a WIP and not a UFO since I have been working on it steadily. It's chuffing along. A mindless but enjoyable square knit with alternating Socks That Rock I picked up at Rhinebeck '07. Mindless is good for me right now since like I said Pregnancy Brain has been setting in hardcore. The colors are louder than I usually knit and remind me of the blankets Greg's grandma used to crochet when she started losing it a little but I am loving it anyway! I plan on lining this one like I did my mothers.

That's it! Three/Four UFO's doesn't seem too bad, eh? So maybe I'll get them all done this month or maybe at least by next year!

I have some BIG news I can't wait to announce over the next few days (not baby related) so keep in touch!  Oh...I am terrible at keeping surprises so here's a little tease or two...