August Occasions...

Well, we are halfway through August and the summer is flying.  We had a perfect day yesterday, hot and sunny with blue skies in every direction.  Today, we have THIS--->  Really horrible misty, low cloud day.  Outright pouring now.  Friends in America are sweltering in the heat and we are wondering if we should light the fire!!  There is a mountain range in the upper part of the photo, but you can't even see it.

I got precious little done last week.  Wasn't feeling the best and the weather just did not help motivation any.  And dragging small boy to the studio is getting harder and harder.  Roll on school!!

I did get a scarf felted on Friday.  I think it needs a bit more fulling, but the colours are lovely.  I dyed the chiffon red and then used the hand-dyed merino batts that I got in my Clasheen Crafty Swap for spring.  Very dramatic colours and I do love my reds!  Speaking of Clasheen Crafty Swaps (you can see pics of the swaps on www.flickr.com), the summer one is upon us and we are doing journal covers and are supposed to use experimental materials--in other words, step outside the comfort zone!  I love this.  I have done two journals and I have learned a lot making them.  The last one I placed design bits in the wrong place, but I know now where I should put them, so I think this one will come out well.  I think I will use prefelt and then felt my design and colours over it.  This is my third swap and I highly recommend them because you get matched up with interesting artists/designers and it's great fun opening up the box to see what treats lie inside!  Sometimes you need the pressure/challenge to a new idea going.The winter swap I got at Christmas was fabulous from Reinventing Fashion.  She's Australian and she upcycles clothing and does really funky, retro work.  Hard to find antique fabrics for her in Dingle! 

Since I have to order everything online, I will have to have a few goodies set aside for this winters so I don't have to dig around in a panic.  The bonus of living in a city is that you can just walk out the door and go buy stuff when you want it; here we must PLAN, which is not as much fun.  However, we do not sit parked in our cars for an hour each way to work, which is a real bonus.  Life is a trade off.

How can I dry anything in this???

I have loads of dyeing to do, but will have to wait for a decent day to line dry them as I just don't have room in my house to let things drip dry all over.  I need to dye chiffon for the top portion of a dress that I need to wear to a wedding in a few weeks.  I have wool and silk bits to dry and bag up for sale and I have more of the knitting yarn to dye.  I think I will get more chiffon and then some other silk and try dyeing or painting for effect.  I just saw some lovely felted scarves that had pieces of silk cloth felted in and they were gorgeous, so I want to try that.  It's all money!!

Back to school is upon us and I must get into Tralee and sort out the uniform and get small boy's books.  He is changing schools to an all-boys school and so he has the usual excitement (boys!) and dread (Irish!)  about the change.  He will be fine.  I am going to TRY and get him a new bike while we are in Tralee, if funds allow.  I am trying to clear as many bills as possible before the wedding September 11th.  My dress is mostly sorted, I have shoes, but I will need hair sorted and I need a new handbag anyways.  And drinking from 3pm til the wee hours does not come cheaply!  Irish weddings are all-day to two-day affair. 

Isn't my model gorgeous??? 

The End of a Busy Week

I have had a quiet weekend, but a rather busy week overall.  The details for Lámhdhéanta/Handmade are coming together.  We have instructors for Crochet, Felting, and Patchwork.  We have space at Aiseanna na hOige, the local community centre.  Funding for marketing is underway and I just need to sort out the insurance issue.  We are in pretty good shape for September 25th!

I spend yesterday afternoon getting started dyeing.  I received a nice Merino lace weight wool and a lovely blend of Merino/Alpaca/Silk in a chunkier weight.  I am really happy with the colours!  Today I over-dyed a vest that I felted on Thursday a deep red, but the light faded and it is now a misty, dirty rain so there will be no photos taken now.  I am so delighted with the dyeing process.  I love mixing the colours and testing out new fabrics.  I spent the morning on the Internet and YouTube.com trying to figure out how Chad Alice Hagen dyes her wool so beautifully.  I think she must use encaustics somehow, perhaps the new technique of using soy wax?  I am going to try that and see if it works.  It can't hurt and the soy wax washes out with simple soap and water, so it doesn't involve chemicals and messing around.  Chad Alice's notebooks that she makes are sooo gorgeous.  I would love to be able to dye pieces with such vibrant colour and texture.  I am perhaps light years away from that!  But I have my Wollknoll order to play with and new dyes that came this week.  I mostly use Jacquard Acid Dyes, but Arty's little pen liquid dyes for microwave dyeing (from www.rainbowsilks.co.uk)  is handy because you can quickly space dye pieces with the pen tip.  I got some prefelt from Wollknoll, as well as a kilo of undyed Merino, some cotton gauze for nuno felting, and the Merino knitting yarn for dyeing.  That will keep me busy for the next week.

 I also made the rest of the appliques for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding blanket.  Or rather their wedding present!  Here are a couple of the appliques that I felted and machine stitched.  I decided not to add too much ornament to the appliques because this blanket will need to be washed and glitzy stuff will most likely fall off with normal wear and tear.  This blanket is 100% wool and will last a very long time, possibly the rest of their lives, if they take care of it.  It feels like it has been hanging off the arm of my chair, patiently waiting for me to complete it, for a very long time.  I crocheted nine panels and the stitched them together like a traditional nine patch quilt.  The rest of the quilt is simply filling in the gaps, but the variegated purple wool is a nice silk and merino blend that's baby soft.  All of it should be nice and soft.  I hope they like it because I have spent about 70 hours on it so far.  Sewing a traditional quilt would have taken far less time!

Must go rescue dinner!  Free range roast chicken, one of my favourites, with roasted onions and garlic and spuds and broccoli.  Life is good!

Sneak peek: almost finished!

Calzone 101...

For a change, I thought I would do a food post since my camera is still a bit wonky :)  I got the memory card sorted, but now the little gadget that transfers the pics to the compute has quit on me!  So, a foodie post...

I worked for years at Pete's Pizza as a college job and sometimes a second job.  Not rocket science, but people would come from all over for them because they are fab.  I made them over the weekend and I forgot how wonderful they are and how easily adaptable: you can do meat or vegetarian or even small ones for hors d’oeuvres.  It's one of those dinners where you can please everyone because you can customize for all likes and dislikes.  Here we go...

As always, read directions all the way through first so you know the whole process…:)

Pizza/Calzone Dough

(Half this recipe makes two medium pizzas or four good size calzones)

• 2 tsp. dry yeast

• 2 c. warm water (blood temperature)

• ½ tsp. sugar

• 5 c. flour

• 2 tsp salt

• Olive oil

In a small bowl, add yeast and sugar and slowly pour water over and stir until dissolved. Leave to bloom (the yeast will start growing and you can smell it in the air) for about 10 minutes. If it doesn’t grow, then you have the water too hot and killed it (start over) or too cold to activate it (add a bit of warmer water).

Meanwhile, get a large bowl out and add your flour, salt, and a swirl of olive oil to the bowl. When the yeast is ready, add it the flour mixture and stir until it becomes a decent lump. Mix it with your hand until the dough all comes together, catching the dough around the sides of the bowl and adding flour to your hands to keep it from sticking too much. If you added a little more water, then you will need to add more flour.  Smoosh and knead the dough for about a minute, pour olive oil on top of it and turn the dough so the bowl and dough are all covered. Put a tea towel on top and leave in a warmish place for an hour.

This whole dough process should take about 12 minutes, tops. Leave it and make yourself a cup of coffee and relax or go do some awful chore that you would rather not do, but has to be done.

Sauce: you can make your own in five minutes or you can buy a jar of decent sauce and make your life easier. I make my own because it takes no time at all and it’s cheaper. You need 16 oz/large can of tomato sauce, pinch salt, splash balsamic vinegar, pinch sugar, and 1 tsp. oregano. Stir in a skillet and heat through. Garlic is also nice to add. Let it start to boil and then turn off. I use a cast iron pan and it stays hot, but the flavors will develop as it cools. Better to not have the sauce too warm for assembly as it’s messier. I have an herb garden and so I use fresh oregano and that makes a huge difference.  Fresh basil works also.

Fillings: You have to have cheese and plenty of it. This is not time to cry diet. Make your life easier and buy the grated mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is too wet and causes sogginess, so don't get too fancy. I highly recommend ricotta cheese, especially if you put anything spicy in the calzone. Olives and spinach are excellent, but you can do any combination of things. One thing to watch out for in the veg is the amount of water that cooks off when heated. Spinach is lovely, but you should blanch it and squeeze out the excess water so it doesn’t make your calzone really soggy and watery. Mushrooms are okay, but broccoli cooks off a lot of liquid also. My favorite is spinach, mushroom and meatball with red pepper flakes or jalapenos and ricotta. Yum! This is a great thing to make for friends that are vegetarian because you can easily customize for everyone!

Assembly: It is not as scary as it sounds.  Once you have made one you will see how easy it is. 

Roll out dough to a circle (not too thin or the pressure of the filling will make it burst=disaster) and put a small handful of grated cheese in the middle; this will make a barrier so the heavy ingredients aren’t pushing at the back of the calzone and forming a hole. You are going to build a mound from the middle forward so you can fold the part nearest to you over and make a half moon. Add a spoon of ricotta on the cheese and the meat or main veg onto the top of that. Pour 1/2 cup sauce over the mixture. Add the remaining toppings and then more grated cheese, about a cup (Pete’s uses 8 oz if I remember right). Fold over the half of the circle on top of each other and line the edges up. Starting on the left side, put your thumb down on its side and use your right hand to fold the dough over it. Pinch down to seal as you go around the half circle. Repeat until you have a neat "roll" all the way around the calzone. If this is too tricky, use a fork around the edges to seal it.  Air bubbles in the calzone are good, holes bad. Cheese in the roll looks a bit messy, but it's delicious. Now, if you are making different calzones for everyone, take a bit of the main ingredient and put it on the corner of the roll (small piece of pepperoni, mushroom, and olive) so you can identify after they come out of the oven. Otherwise, chaos trying to tell them apart.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes in a hot oven, around 425 degrees.  If the top gets dark, put a small hat of tinfoil over the top.

Three notes for eating:

• A half cup of sauce over the top is REALLY good. I make extra sauce just for this.

• They are VERY HOT inside, so take a fork and break open the top like a vent and let it cool a second, even though it’s very tempting to start wolfing it down.

• They are really filling. Make half-size baby calzones for kids and some adults. I recommend half size portions if you are drinking beer with them because you will want to take over the sofa like sea lion afterwards. And perhaps not flattering for a date to look six months pregnant.

Bon appétit!

The sun is shining and I see blue sky!!

This is just a quick post to say hello, I am not dead, I am working flat out.  The weather looks great for today, so I am heading into studio early and if it stays nice we might make a trek to the BEACH!  You never know when the weather might change on you, so it's best to take advantage straight away. 

I am felting a nice piece of red dyed chiffon today.  I will have to have a poke around to see what other colours, but definitely Merino with some nice silks.  I just got some great dyeing tips for fibres from an American friend I met on Facebook, so I can hopefully try those out this weekend.  And I really *must* get at the plastering so that I can paint in the next few weeks.

Again, no photos, but I am replacing the memory card in my camera today so all should be well in the world soon.  Happy Thursday!

Another Drizzly Sunday in Ireland....

I have, over time, developed the bad habit of starting new projects before finishing old ones.  So this week, I have been trying to tidy up and finish up projects sitting around my studio.  I am trying to clean up my act.  I suppose when a felted item doesn't turn out the way I wanted it the urge to embellish dies with a thump.  Why bother when it won't be an item for sale or even good enough to give as a gift?  Too many white elephants on the learning curve. 

So I am beading the collar on the turquoise cape because it really did need a bit of bling before it was completed.  The collar will make the whole garment stand out.  I did felt two handbags, but I suspect that resist felting is not my forte yet.  I will need a lot more practice before I produce something that I could sell.  Perhaps nuno felting and sewing the handbag pieces?  Hats are coming along well.  I finished a purple and gold one that is felting as we speak and I finished a lovely scarf that will match a hat.  I have a charcoal gray hat the I am working on now, so there is progress.

It's all go for the Dingle Fibre weekend on September 25th.  I am tentatively going to call it Lámhdhéanta or Handmade in English.  While most of the workshops will be just textile initially, I would love to see other handcrafts included if we can get going.  I am in the middle of contacting people, inquiring about space and funding, and putting a committee together.  A committee of people is a tricky thing because they have to be people that are workers and all get along.  Not always an easy task.  And not too big a committee or else we will never get agreement on core issues. I think five people sounds good, an odd number in case we can't agree.  I know I should start with just the Saturday, but my guy says do an optional Sunday for crafts that need more practice time.  It's hard to rush a learning a new skill because if you don't get enough immersion then you don't go home and practice.  It's a waste of time.  Must have the committee agree on that one!
No pictures today as my camera is not uploading photos.  I think I need to get a new memory card, but either way my computer is locking up when I try to upload.  Not a good sign.  I installed new anti-virus, so applications should be safe enough.  Thank God I have insurance on this computer so if it ever does go BANG then I just go and get a new one. 

I will post again in the next couple of days when I can get some pictures to upload....

Something's Marinating in There....

I have had the idea, off and on, for the last year that I want to start fibre weekends in Dingle.  I want Dingle to become a destination for artists and hobbyists alike who are looking for training in a fun, inspirational location.  The talent is certainly in the area, it just needs to be organized.  So, I think I am going to step up to the plate, with more than a little assistance, and organize a small weekend at the end of September.  I am trying to start small and be practical, but it really isn't one of my strengths.  I am going to have to have someone nominated as the Rain on My Parade to stop me from scheduling fibre slumber parties and marathon dyeing sessions and how to felt your own lampshade sessions--you can see where a little enthusiasm can go all wrong. 

For now, I am thinking of doing a session each of Crochet, Knitting, Feltmaking, and Fibre Dyeing.  Once I have the instructors on board we can think of interesting focuses in each subject.  I would love Tunisian Crochet or how to crochet lots of flowers (or coral!!).  I would love to see a patchwork session, but I am not sure if a short session would serve that well; if people are interested then that seems like a weekend affair.  I have dyed loose fibres, but not spun yarn and a big session of dyeing fabric for patchwork would be good.  Intro to Knitting would suit me since I cannot knit, but most people learned to knit in school here so I think we will have to think outside the box on that one.  Nuno felting is popular, but laying out fibres and felting a handbag or slippers would also be good.

I think that we want to get the pre-Christmas crafty people who would be interested in learning something new for the coming gift-giving season.  I don't know if it's recessionista or simply just anti-Celtic Tiger  excess, but there is a huge upsurge of interest in making things by hand.  Perhaps they just want to keep their hands busy so that they don't crack up while out of work.  Get out of the house and into some grownup talk.  I don't care.  People that can make things with their hands are usually far more interesting.  They are My People.  They understand why it is so important to stay up until 1am (or later) to finish crocheting a project when the more sensible people are sleeping.  Dyeing your own fibres and felting a scarf and spending five hours beading an item are perfectly legitimate uses of time.  It's these people who will come to Dingle.

And I want to lure them with a Swap or Shop.  The day of the workshop a select group of people will be invite to sell materials, lovely stuff that will be hard to put down, things that need to come home with you.  Alternatively, people can bring items from their own stash at home and swap fabric/wool/fibres. 

Lots of ideas swimming in the head.  Time for a cuppa and to find my crochet hook and have a think....

I started a Facebook page for Chiarraí Creations this week (see my wee badge in the top right corner) and I think the pressure to post more pics, finish work, get my ETSY shop open finally is going to give me plenty to blog about! I am on the antibiotics still, but the little darlings are working and I can feel my energy coming back slowly but surely. I got into the studio yesterday and finished beading my seaweed wrap and felted a silk and Merino nuno scarf. I think it came out pretty well and I am happy with the colours. My critical eye is always: would I wear this? Maybe I am a bit of a Smarty Pants, but I think I happen to have good taste and so, sorry to say good people, I will be producing goods that I like and approve of. Let's hope that snarky attitude will actually put a bit of money in the bank....

The model for the silk and Merino scarf was drafted under duress so I could get a quick pic and get this posted.  I had to promise Tayto's, which he is eating while I photograph.  I think the scarf is nicely offset by the Transformers' pajamas, don't you???

Finally, pics of my seaweed wrap.  I have felted the optional brooch for tying it, and have to dye it to match and stitch yet.  Will do a pic with a model to show the drape when I finish it Monday.  You can really see the free machine stitching and the random beading.  I think it's pretty and I WOULD WEAR IT!  Ha!  You have to laugh at yourself!