The Birds and the Beads

There's a park a couple blocks from where I live. Due to the proximity to a wastewater treatment plant, some days there's a really funky odor coming from this park and it's unbearable to go anywhere near it. Other days, it's perfectly pleasant. Yet the malodorous nightmare really keeps people away and this park is fairly deserted. It's too bad because it's right on the water and when it's too hot to move you can usually catch enough of a breeze to want a light sweater.

I was sitting there, keeping cool under the shade of a huge oak tree and this guy pops up nearby.



...and then another and another. A family of four of these odd quails that I have never seen before. At first, I thought they were Bobwhites, which is the only native quail in this area. On second look, they look nothing like a bobwhite at all.



They walk around the park nervously, clucking to each other constantly, pausing to scratch the earth and nibble on the tasty bugs they stir up.



After some consultation with WhatBird.com and a mystery bird flickr pool, it was concluded that this is a family of Chukars. They are native to the Mideast, India and Nepal and there is an intorduced population of them way out west. How they ended up in Brooklyn is a mystery.

Aside for tracking down exotic species, I've been busy listing pretty jewelry on my Etsy site.















Most of them are one of a kind originals- I have a couple reoccurring themes but I tend to not repeat myself. They are all very reasonably priced and rather stunning. I will be listing more in the coming days as I have quite a stack of them to photograph still.

Find them here, along with some yarn and roving and lots of other goodies:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob

Enjoy!

Craft Beer Festival

Over the weekend, we headed to Manhattan for a Craft Beer and Food festival. I am still not a beer drinker, but I don't mind trying a couple sips here and there. I was more excited about the food.

I do have to say, the beer wall was impressive. They had over 60 beers on tap to sample.



As with all of these beer events, the people pulling the taps seemed happy and friendly. There were also a lot of homebrewers there to chat with.



One guy sold his car to buy his homebrew system. I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that.

Biercraft had a booth- this is where I'm forced to stop by every week to pick up the pork share from The Piggery, and buy some nice cheese and chocolates as well. They had some sort of beer-bong like contraption that was infusing the beer with extra hops before pouring.



Hops are in the same family of plants as hemp. The beer being soaked in the hop-bong ended up tasting like skunky pot in the least pleasant way possible. Some people really like their hops.



There was some really amazing food- Smoked brisket from Mexicue, shrimp rolls from Luke's Lobster, bacon brittle from South Houston, frites from the Frites and Meats truck, Cheese from Murray's, some lovely pate from D'orsay cafe...wow. Just wow. We fasted beforehand and I didn't have to eat again until the next day.

After a couple hours, everyone was walking around glassy-eyed and jolly. I can totally get into this hedonistic beer culture, but if I could just brown bag a glass or wine while I'm walking around, I'd be much happier. I left the event noshed out and very sober.

Just coincidentally, there was a bead show going on at the pavilion next door. What luck! I ended up getting some really cool vintage Lucite beads from The Beadin' Path from Freeport, Me. I'll have to take some pictures of them because they are amazing. I found the rest of the vendors kind of ho-hum and nothing special, but it's mostly because I work very close to the bead district and the majority of the vendors were New York based. I've been beading quiet a bit lately and I've been really happy with my creations.

Deep Winter is a Cure for Stashbusting of All Sorts

Waking up to less than ideal weather conditions makes me happy to kick around the house in yoga pants and knock things off my to-do list. Every day has been a new craftadventure and I've started so many new projects. It's been fabulous, but I had to rein it in as I was taking over the house in a big way.

I made granola.



Huge batches of it. Ya know, the granola plant might catch fire tomorrow and there will be no more granola in the world for ages but I'll be happily munching away at my own granola stash because I have jars of it. It's easy to make, fun to modify to your liking, and it's much less sweet than commercial brands.

I made pickles.



A trip to the Foodshed Market in Boerum Hill led to the acquisition of some winter treasures. It's an indoor farmer's market that happens every Sunday. There are quite a few food vendors (like Luke's Lobster Rolls, be still my heart) and a few good veggie vendors. Most of the produce consisted of things that loved the cold or could be stored- lots of onions and kale and root veggies. We did find some hothouse cukes and I went to work right away on turning them into spicy pickles. I've made pickled cauliflower a couple of times, but here in New York, they worship the almighty cucumber pickle. I think there are a little sweet, but I added a couple jalapeno peppers in there so they have a pretty hefty kick to them as well.

Despite my constant striving towards vegetarianism, I'm debating signing up for a pork CSA this spring from the Piggery. We do a fruit and vegetable CSA every summer into the fall and we only have to run out to the grocery store for eggs, flour and sugar all summer long. I don't even really cook meat at home, but this is really appealing to me.

Oh, speaking of pigs...I got my AVFKW January club. It's a lovely BFL/silk blend in the most delicate pale pink. And the color is called...Wilbur. I take this as a sign.



What started as a way to repair my own broken bits of jewlery has bloomed into a full-blown beading craze. I've pulled out my bead stash and strung some necklaces, just for fun.



Bry had brought me back these gorgeous stone beads from Tibet years ago. I finally got around to stringing them up and found a labradorite pendant to match. I love when that lightbulb goes off and you realize that something can be stash no more. I'm waiting for an order to come in for toggle clasps so I can make a few more. They are simple once you get the technique down, and I'm fortunate to work close by to several large bead emporiums in the fashion district.

I love glass beads.



There's so many creative possibilities here. I've got a few strands of freshwater pearls that have broken over the years that I've dug up. They are in need of a Chanel-style makeover. I've promised the beau that I wouldn't start getting into metal smithing -yet- but this is a great apartment craft as it requires minimal space and storage.

As for spinning, I've got a huge project going. Remember Cadfael the BFL ram? He's finally getting some attention.



And holy hell, what a pain in my ass he is. It's not a very big fleece, but I've spent more time on this than any other fleece that I've prepped. Not that I'm surprised- I knew this would be like this. Every single little curly lock needs to be pulled apart by hand. It's really time consuming, as there are thousands of tightly-coiled locks in this fleece. If I didn't do this, I would damage the fleece and my carder irreparably. The teeth on my carder would end up looking like Austin Power's in all his toothy glory.

Once I have each lock separated and fluffed, I feed it lock by lock into the carder. Then I card the resulting batt four times to get it smooth as possible.



And it's being spun into a fingering-weight single.



I'm aiming for a worsted-weight 2-ply. I'm clueless on a yardage estimate so far, so I'm not really spinning with a particular project in mind yet.

I've also been knitting. I started a small sock-yarn shawl-


It's the beginnings of the "In the Land of Oz" shawl by Adrienne Fong. It's BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight in "Luna Sea". It's very pretty, and not so busy that it will make the lace look like clown barf.

I'm more than halfway done the Spey Valley Socks:



I've also cast on for a sweater, but I don't have pictures yet. Also, I'm upset at myself at my lack of awesome pictures (maybe if I had some daylight and you could actually see things) so I'm taking a photography class just to get accustomed to the bad-ass beast with a lens.