Too Many Radishes

Just a small, small portion of my radish stash - these have been topped and tailed.

See, what happens when your father-in-law and husband take over the garden plotting is you end up with – amongst other things – not enough of some things and too many of other things. Radishes, in this case. At least, that’s how it worked out this year, for us. I have bags full, and many of them are too old, simply because there *are* so many. So since somehow *I’m* the person responsible for creating a Radish Plan to deal with the Situation, I’ve been scouring the net looking for possible recipes. These are the best candidates right now, that I plan on trying out this week.

• Crispy Baked Radish Chips
• Roasted Radishes
• Radish Chips – this last one a dehydrator recipe.

Small list, good for a start. (Sigh.) If anyone wanders through here and has another (frugal food) suggestion, I’m all ears.  Or in this case, roots.

I’m Still Out Here….

… just feeling a bit frazzled.  As I’m sure is the case for many, we’ve been working hard to stay above water, so niceties like blogging got put aside for a while.  Still more or less in the same position (thanks, BP! -.-), but we’ll get there, and in the meantime, I’ve decided to come back to blogging and pursuing creative outlets in an effort to stay sane. o.O Anyway, so – to bring things back to all things creative and crafty – here’s a new (to me!) concept I’m looking at trying out – crocheting with poptabs from soda cans.  Check out these great links (links pulled from (and adapted from) a fab thread on Ravelry):

Pop Tab Wrap

• Tutorial for making a large crocheted pop tab purse.
• Here you can find has instructions for making pop tab flowers (which you can use as motifs for larger items).
• “This one is in Portugese, but the pictures are pretty self-explanitory and could be used as a guide for designing your own (she does rows instead of flowers).”
• “This ebook has patterns for making purses, baskets, vests, bracelets, skirts, and dresses. I don’t know if it uses crochet, though.”

I also found:

• http://poptabpurse.blogspot.com/
• Pull Tab Crochet / Crochet com Lacres – Flickr set from a lady who specializes in creating Pop Tab crochet pieces.  The photo in this blog entry is from this set.

Considering Yarn… [NaBloPoMo]

I have to say, as I approach my first Holiday Season as a crocheter and proto-knitter, I’m struggling a bit with veganism and yarn.  I’ve been a vegan for more than 4 years, and I don’t buy wool – with the *possible* exception of second hand.  However I really do like a good wool yarn.  I don’t know if that’s a side effect of having a mom who knitted with wool when I was a kid or what.  Maybe so.

There are a lot of synthetics out there, but then I worry about the environmental impact their creation makes.  On the other hand, cotton is a very water intensive crop for most farmers.  It can be done “dry” but then one is looking at organic yarn, which is a bit beyond my budget at the moment.  Actually, a lot of better yarns are beyond my budget at the moment. o.0  So I’m mostly stuck *wanting* to get fancy vegan yarns (bamboo, soy, etc.) but actually purchasing affordable synthetics.

Today I’m going hunting for affordable yarn I can use to create the Delicate Web Wrap from Hooked Throws.  You can see the pattern at Lion Yarn (it’s free) or at Ravelry.  (I was a bit freaked out to see errata at the Lion site – hope that’s not par for the course for my chosen projects from this book!!)  I have some ideas, and I hope I can find what I need – I’m hoping to make this for a relative for Christmas!  Wish me luck! ^_^

Good Project

This is a fantastic program and when I get my sewing machine back in working order, this is high on my list of things to sew:

“In many areas of the world, access to adequate menstrual supplies is difficult to come by. Many women and girls rely on rags, newspaper, camel skin or nothing at all for their menstrual needs. A lack of sanitary pads can be a big barrier to a girl’s education….Imagine trying to go to school or work without protection. For many, it brings life to a halt….Providing disposable supplies creates an additional burden on some communities where solid waste disposal consists of burning the garbage. Since many disposable feminine hygiene products contain plastic, incineration potentially creates an environmental and health hazard.”

Their sewing patterns page is here.

On my way!

Woot!  I went ahead and ordered some goodies at Amazon.  My sweet folks sent me a gift certificate for my birthday, and after a lot of back and forth, I decided to spend some of it on something other than bulk food.  (Hey – our budget is tight. )

So, anyway, I got a killer deal on some olive oil, bought a renewable coffee filter (WHY can’t I find one around here?) and also Renee Loux‘s latest book, which is a great resource for folks trying to live greener lives – read part of it while visiting with my folks.  But then I got Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook and Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker which both seem like not-so-serious fun.  I also got Knitting: Learn to Knit Six Great Projects and Crochet: Learn to Crochet Six Great Project, both by Klutz. Yeah, I know those are kids’ kits, but they come with some basic supplies and get really good ratings for explaining things. And this way I’ll have some yarn and needles right away, which is good for da budget.  I know I have at least part of a crochet hook kit around here somewhere, but who knows where. o.0

Now to figure out where to get more (vegan) yarn to play with.