Martinmas crafting

Only 3 or 4 days ago, I realized how close we are getting to Martinmas.  I also remembered a few very specific crafts that I've been dying to make since, well, last Martinmas. And so the frantic crafting began.  In the midst of all that, a friend from our festival group asked if our kids might enjoy getting together to wet felt lanterns.  Of course, wet felting lanterns meant that the project was mostly worked on by us moms.  The balloons are so slippery to try to felt around!

We finally found some success when we wrapped some mesh around the wool on the balloon to hold things together while it started to felt.  Inevitably, there were a few thin places in the wool lantern.

I thought that a bit of decoration might cover the thin spots.  I needle felted a few stars inside of cookie cutters, then steamed them with an iron and stitched them to the wool lantern.

Another issue I discovered with the lantern was the propensity it had to fold in half when the weight of the lantern was on the handle.  I bought a bit of 1.2 mm wire to form into a circle and blanket stitch to the top of the lantern to give it a better shape when held.

Finn is quite thrilled with his little Martinmas lantern.

He quite seriously walked around the yard to practice carrying his lantern for Martinmas.

And he took his lantern into a dark closet to test it's brightness.

I will confess to one less-than-natural piece to this lantern.  I bought a battery operated candle light.  Wool is less flammable than other natural fibers, but Finn is not known for his careful handling of lanterns, and I really didn't want this lantern ruined or burned.  Maybe another year we'll add a little glass candeholder and tealight, but for this year I wimped out.

While we were creating wool lanterns for Martinmas, I decided to make a smaller version, out of natural gray-brown wool, for our dinner table.

This lantern I bravely trusted with a real flame.

Elizabeth started a felted lantern at our friend's house, but she really wants to use this mason jar covered with a lacy jar cozy that I started earlier in the week.  The yarn really has a glossy sheen to it that shines with a candle inside.

We just need to add a wire handle for her.

The last bit of Martinmas crafting I've been working on this week is this sweet little lantern child. I wish I would have started this sooner because I'd love to make a whole parade of these children.

The kids adore this little addition to our nature table, and I bet I can find other seasonal uses for this little hooded cutie.

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny for Yarn Along again this week.  I finally pulled out a stalled project that I began back in the spring.  It's a short-sleeved cardigan for myself that is more than half complete and I just need to finish it now so it can stop taking space in my knitting basket!  I'm reading Light on Snow.  I'm not usually much of a fiction reader, but this story has me captivated.

Also, over the last week, Paul gave me this lovely green wool coat from a local boutique owned by a friend.  I, of course, had no matching scarves, and that is a problem that is unacceptable.  So I found this sweet hand-spun, hand-dyed colorway, Not In Kansas Anymore, by Aloft Fibers on etsy.

The pattern is Chunky Alpaca Cowl, although I didn't use alpaca, and since the yarn is thick and thin, I added 6 extra stitches.  The pattern doesn't show quite as much as with an evenly spun yarn, but I think it showcases this yarn nicely.

The buttons are ceramic and made by Bead Freaky.  I bought them a few months ago with another set of buttons because I just loved the tree, hills, and moon carved into the clay.  The greenish glaze highlights the scene beautifully.  When I held them up to the cowl, they seemed to fit perfectly.  I see this coat and cowl being a favorite set this winter.

*the last 3 photos were taken by Elizabeth

in the kitchen

Nourishment. Sustenance. Food.  The thoughts that occupy my mind each day as I prepare meal after meal, snack after snack. I've done much reading about food and the ways it nourishes our bodies.  I've read Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Waters, Joel Salatin, and Sally Fallon. I've watched documentaries on the subject: Food Inc., Forks Over Knives, Fresh, Food Matters, and King Corn.  I've even read the Little House books and mulled over their diet. 

It seems like everyone I know is constantly on a diet.  It used to be Weight Watchers, fat-free, or Atkins.  Now it's gluten-free, vegan, grain-free, or Paleo.  I know that each of these latter diets have their merits. The research often seems conflicting.  Eat local, unless your local food is grain.  Eat close to the earth, but make sure you include exotic superfoods that must be trucked a thousand miles. 

I've just read so much contrasting information about what you should and shouldn't do that I've taken a step back and decided to just live as close to the earth and my local food community as possible. I can get locally milled organic spelt for a song and locally made buttermilk from very happy cows I've met in person, and I choose to soak my grains as often as possible.  We grow what we can in our backyard, and I spend much more in food dollars from May to October trying to buy as much local food as possible to can and freeze.

The jalapeños from the top photo were from 3 little bushes in our garden that produced like crazy this summer (and fall).  I made salsa with them, froze them, gave them away, and bartered them for eggs from a friend.  Almost every dinner in the last 2 weeks has included jalapeños, until the frost finally nipped them at the end of last week.

Also in the kitchen this weekend, a crock pot full of apple butter that cooked all day Sunday filling our kitchen with the wonderful autumnal aroma of apples, cinnamon, and cloves.  We also made our first soaked crust cherry pie from the pie filling I canned back in June. We added whipped cream made from a local cream, raw local honey, and homemade vanilla extract.

These are the foods I want my children to connect with, simple, wholesome, real ingredients; not macaroni and cheese made from coconut flour noodles, fake cream sauce and weird additions just to make them "healthier".  Not that I'm above adding butternut squash or pumpkin to our macaroni and cheese.  But I'll choose a real local raw cheese and milk to give them a rich flavor at the same time.

This minestrone was on our dinner table this evening.  It contains the last of the farmer's market tomatoes that are trickling in, our last bell peppers from our own garden, some finely chopped beet greens from the beets we ate last evening, and a multitude of herbs from our back deck. This is the food tradition that I choose and want to gift my family. It's often time consuming, it's usually labor intensive, and it's the most authentic way I can imagine raising my family.

And if you notice some cheap spaghetti and marshmallows that, according to Finn, have "really, really, really, bad, bad, bad chemicals in them" in my pantry, you'll know they're for Philip's science fair project. ;)

Zombie Run

Paulie and several of his friends gathered at a local Zombie Run on Saturday to see if they could make it through a 2 mile course littered with zombies with 2 yellow caution tapes attached to their belts intact.  We, of course, were only able to watch them at the beginning and the end of the race, but the antics were hilarious.  The roller zombies at the end of the course were particularly dicey to navigate, but Paulie and all of his friends made it through and won little sticky, squishy brains as a prize, not to mention the distinction of defeating the zombies.  I don't think it would have been worth it for me, but they were thrilled.

trick or treat

Finn decided to be 2 blue Legos for Halloween, an idea, made of cardboard boxes and plastic cups, that I found on Pinterest. He was thrilled by all the compliments he received on his costume. (We live in an area where princesses, super heroes, and other tv characters reign supreme.)  Finn was the only kid here for Halloween this year. We spent about 45 minutes trick-or-treating, another 30 minutes handing out candy (he was VERY excited to hand out candy this year), and then off to bed just a few minutes later than usual.

This morning, as per our usual, Finn found that the Halloween Fairy had visited during the night and whisked away his candy, bringing a small Lego set, a new book, some organic chocolate, and a few organic gummy spiders. A perfect Halloween for a little guy, I think.

I hope yours was similarly delightful!

Yarn Along

I've been in somewhat of a knitting frenzy for the last several days. There's something about the cold, wind, rain, and general dreariness that has enveloped this eastern side of the US that makes me want to plant myself  in a chair with a cup of hot tea and knitting and not move for the entire day!

And so that's mostly what I've done. Four knits in as many days. This first knit is to be Finn's Christmas stocking hat, although I admit it's an act of will not to just give it to him now.

One of his favorite autumn books is Elsa Beskow's story of Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip. (You can see the Woody and Little Pip project we did with last year in this post.) Once I saw the Little Pip Acorn hat on Ravelry, I knew it would be Finn's Christmas hat this year. The hat is knit in Knit Picks City Tweed in Tabby, which I think lends the perfect amount of nubbiness and texture to accentuate the acorn cap ribs.

The other knitting I've been working on is a bit tinier.  Paulie and Philip are expecting a baby sister in December.  When they first found out, back in the summer, the first thing Paulie asked me was if I would knit something for the baby.  Well, of course!

Both boys were thrilled to come back from their mom's house on Monday to discover that I'd made several baby things over the weekend. This 5 hour baby sweater I first saw over at Hullabaloo Homestead and thought it would be perfect. It really is a super sweet sweater, although it took me closer to 8 hours to knit, I think. I used Knit Picks Swish DK in Sugar Plum, which really looks closer to lavender than it does in my photos. I wanted a yarn that would be soft and easy to care for. This yarn definitely fits the bill!

With the leftover skein, I thought I would make a little hat and booties, but I settled on this aviator-style hat, which used most of my skein. It's completely adorable and, with the little chin strap, will stay on well.  I thought the garter stitch lines in both pieces matched nicely. Unfortunately, both of these knits are still waiting for buttons.

The first hat I made for the baby is a decidedly newborn hat, although I didn't use a pattern or even write down what I did. It turned out perfectly newborn size with a cozy waffle weave.  And I was able to use some scrap cotton yarn to boot!

All this leads me down to the fact that I have no new projects to show you.  I finished up the last hat just yesterday evening so I haven't started anything new yet. (And I'm still ignoring the 2 unfinished projects upstairs, ahem.)  Since I didn't have enough of the sweater and hat yarn to make booties, I though I might use this leftover bit that I found it my stash.  It was a sweater for Elizabeth last year.  I just can't decide if the striping will help or hinder in the bootie departement.

pumpkin moonshines

One of my kids' favorite books to read during the month of October is Pumpkin Moonshine. The Tasha Tudor classic is beloved almost as much as the season.  I think it's usually the first book that sees action when the autumn book basket appears.  

Likewise, one of the favorite activities of this season is making our own pumpkin moonshines. Unfortunately, this month is typically very busy for us with 2 birthdays and our anniversary.  Last weekend, we threw in a camping trip too.  And we found ourselves, over the weekend, mere days from Halloween, with no pumpkin moonshines.

Even though Finn was the only little guy around this weekend, as our other kids were with their other parents, we tackled the annual pumpkin moonshines.

Finn's favorite part, of course, was the seed and pulp removal.  In fact, he happily played in the bowl of seed goop for the better part of an hour while daddy carved the large pumpkins.

He attempted carving his own pumpkin with "triangle eyes, a triangle nose, and a 'big grinning mouth with horrid, crooked teeth'".  (He borrowed the mouth description from the book.) Finn quickly realized how tough those pumpkin walls can be!

No matter!  Daddy helped him with the "horrid, crooked teeth".  Soon our kitchen table looked like this: a whole family of pumpkin moonshines!

We impatiently waited for the darkness to descend, lighting them at least an hour before sunset.

Eventually the chilly darkness fell and we ran out to the driveway in our sock feet to take a quick peek before dashing back for the warmth of the house.

We didn't wait "to see how terrified the passers by would be", but I'm quite certain they were.