yummy yarns

artificial turf by WeirdandTwisted

watermelon by Ozknits

funshine by knittydirtygirl

caterpillar by GreenwoodFiberworks

electric indigo by Snowberrylime

garden fresh gazpacho

Dear Bloggery,

Summer is the perfect time for whipping up a batch of gazpacho. Whether you have your own vegetable garden, access to a local farmer's market, or shop at the neighborhood grocery store, an abundance of vegetables can be found at the peak of freshness!


INGREDIENTS
4 tomatoes
1 medium cucumber, peeled
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 medium purple onion
2 garlic cloves
dash of hot sauce
juice of 1 lime
4 cups of tomato juice(I like Knudson's spicy)
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

for garnish~
1 avocado, sliced
chopped basil or cilantro leaves


Rough chop first 6 ingredients and combine them all in a large bowl. Add the hot sauce(as much or as little as your taste buds like) and lime juice. Toss this mixture into a food processor or blender(you may need to do this step in several batches). Pulse until you get the consistency you prefer, anywhere from really chunky to super smooth. Pour the blended mixture back into the original bowl. Add the tomato juice, vinegar, and oil. Stir to combine. At this point taste to see if you need to season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until very cold, several hours at least but the longer the better. Just before serving, top with avocado slices and fresh herbs. If you want to turn your gazpacho into a meal, it's really delicious topped with fresh lump crabmeat or grilled shrimp.

finally!

Guess what bloggery... I was finally featured on the front page of etsy again! It happened yesterday morning while I was still asleep. Could this be the beginning of the end of my slump? *fingers crossed* Here's the treasury:

created by Lisa from justCHARMING

These are some of her charming bracelets
and she offers free shipping anywhere

someday

Dear Bloggery,

This is my wish list for the future...someday

a son named Bosco

a winter home in Bora Bora

my knitting treehouse

help with the laundry

By the way Bloggery, this handsome fella is Hamlet the Wonderdog! Whether or not we adopt a Bosco in the future, no one can replace Hamy in our hearts.

fab four knit picks

Luke Brooks

Sandra Backland

makepiece

Irina Shaposhnikova

moments

Dear Bloggery,

Guess what? Back in February I received my first custom order on Etsy, a cowl knit in baby poo green organic cotton yarn(hehe). Well today I received an email from the lovely Kate including photos of her wearing my cowl. It's the first time I've gotten to see someone I don't "know" wearing something I made, how exciting!!!



This was definitely the boost I needed. I seem to have fallen out of favor with Etsy lately. In the past I've had my work featured on the front page at least twice a month and a treasury I curated made the fp at least once a month. I had also been averaging 3 sales per month(not a great record but I'll take it!) June is almost over and...nada, zip, zilch, zero for all of the above. Being flat broke, this downward spiral could not have come at a worse time. I've been knitting like crazy lately, got some new creations listed and I'm working on a new line of knit necklaces. Here's the first one, "knot an emerald necklace", what do you think?


Have a great day Bloggery, I'm off to knit, take photos, and list.

Making T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial

Dear Bloggery,

I'm going to teach you something today. When I'm low on funds, I like to create my own yarn out of repurposed materials. We'll use once loved t-shirts for this tutorial.

materials:
old t-shirts, washed first
scissors or rotary cutter
straight pins
sewing machine or needle and thread



Step 1: Cut the t-shirts straight across body at underams so you're left with a large rectangle.
Save the top portion of the tee for future scrap fabric.

Step 2: Cut the rectangle into strips around 1/2"-1" wide.
*warning: there will be a lot of t-shirt lint

Step 3: Once all of your strips have been cut, lay them end to end, overlapping 1/4" and pin.



Step 4: Sew all of the strips together. Using a sewing machine saves a lot of time!

Step 5: Place your newly sewn strips into a pillow case, knot the case closed and then run through the washer and dryer on your normal cycle. This step gets rid of all the extra lint.

Step 6: Roll your new yarn into a ball.



Step 7: Begin knitting.