Roles of silk fabric at Jim Thompson.

Ikat silk at Old Siam Market

So DH and I went on holiday to Bangkok… and I just happened to see lots of Thai silk. Yeah, quite the serendipitous coincidence. Here are my best textile photos of the trip – I hope you enjoy!

Flat folds of Thai Silk at Old Siam Market

More ikat with interesting stripe embellishments

It’s been a fun and busy week. I spent lots of time at the loom this week, working on the Spectrum rug.

I’m moving through a color sequence from maroon to purple to pink to red to spice to orange, and next, onto yellow.

Lots of dyeing has been happening…

…and I’m working on a new sock design to which Rufus has taken a shine. I can’t wait to wear these!

I’m working on a project that’s been a couple of years in the planning.

It’s a simple woven rug with a color progression from gold to orange to russet to red to fuchsia and purple.

I’m using a ton of stash yarn in this project, including some of the very first yarn I spun.

I’m also getting to use up some very special bulky yarn made from the recycled thrums of other weaving projects.

This project is going along really quick, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like on the floor.

Chinese New Year is almost here! As red is the most auspicious of colors, and as you are what you eat during the festival, red fruit is in high demand. Thus, it is time for bourbon cocktail cherries!

While utterly contrary to nature and the seasons in the Northern hemisphere, this is randomly the best time of year to buy cherries and strawberries in China. I used the same recipe as last year, although this time I added a vanilla bean, and used bourbon instead of brandy. I’m looking forward to enjoying these in Old Fashioneds, Aviations, Waldorfs, and more.

I’m taking the seed packet instructions at their word when they say “as soon as soil can be worked.” I planted lettuce and mild mustard greens this week, along with some beets and additional kale seedings.

My little apple tree seems to have survived its first winter, and put out three sets of these cheery little leaves. Here’s hoping for an early spring!

In this chilly winter season, I’ve been making bitters with infusions of herbs and other flavor agents.

Shown here are homemade vanilla and mugwort, plus old favorites Angostura and Peychaud’s in soda water for a tasting flight.

My current favorite are vanilla bitters, which are really lovely in a mug of warm milk before bed.

Vanilla Bitters

In a mason jar or other 500 ml bottle, combine:
2 vanilla beans
1 whole nutmeg
1 black cardamom (green cardamom works too, but use a small one – black are smokier and milder)
3 black peppercorns
500 mls vodka (I use Stoli)

Infuse for 30 days, shaking every day or two. Store in a dark place while infusing. If your vanilla beans are especially awesome, you may find a layer or brown oil floating in your bottle. This is a good thing – just be sure to shake it like a Polaroid picture before every use.

Vanilla Bitters Nightcap

Combine:
1 T of bitters
8 oz warm milk
1 T of honey
…and drift off to sweet dreams.

It was a very full weekend around these parts, starting with vending at Amelia’s Marketplace Yanping on Saturday, and finishing Sunday night with a round of infusions to make bitters. All of it was rich and full and great.. but I want to do is knit!

I want a quiet corner and winter sunlight and my new blue and white mitten project for company. More on that very, very soon, I hope…

Wishing you a peaceful and productive Monday!

So, failure… Please consider Exhibit A, shown above, the cream wafers. Cream wafers are a Christmas recipe my mom used to make. I loved them when I was little – I loved them like I loved ponies and mermaids and stickers and things that were pink and purple. I was determined to make these cookies for the holidays, and I failed.

I made the cookie dough, popped in into the frige to chill like the recipe said, and then realized I didn’t have a rolling pin. Then some time went by, and it was still in the fridge. There it sat, a sad, incomplete, doughy reminder of great plans unrealized.

Then, dear reader, I accepted my failure and threw it away.

My failure was complete, I no longer felt bad about it, and there was the epiphany – completed failure means 1. acceptance and 2. purging the evidence.

Being surrounded by daily reminders of failure is awful. Completing the failure, purging, and moving on feels awesome. Here’s to failing, better.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

When it’s done right, fruitcake is amazing. By done right, I mean adhering to the following fruitcake rules:

1. None of that weird preserved green stuff. The mysterious green stuff is supposed to resemble candied angelica root, a common fruitcake ingredient of yesteryear.

2. Fruitcake should contain real fruit. I use figs, prunes, dates, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and dried cherries if I can find them

3.Fruitcake should be boozy. I soak my dried fruit in brandy or bourbon for 24 – 26 hours. It adds flavor, richness, and moisture.

This year, I wanted to get all authentic. Ye old family fruitcake recipe (i.e. my mom’s) calls for 4 oz candied orange peel, 4 oz candied lemon peel, and 4 oz of preserved citron.

I make candied orange peel a couple of times each year, but never tried to make candied citron.

I’ve been lucky enough to see lots of citron in Asia, but almost never in Shanghai. I asked around at several fruit places, but nobody stocked it – it seems to be more of a Southern thing.

Conveniently enough, the plant market had several smallish ornamental trees with three or four citrons on each. I bought one and got it home to discover the citrons didn’t actually grow on the tree – they had been cut off another (probably much larger) tree, and grafted on to keep them fresh and make a pretty display. So weird.

I scrubbed them with fruit wash, and followed the same recipe I use to make candied orange peel. They have a slight bitterness and more of a green flavor than the orange peel, and were really fun to work with.

The final pile of brandy-soaked fruit, blanched almonds, and the various peels smelled amazing, and I just love how the fruitcake itself turned out.

It’s gotten me thinking about what other recipes need a bit of love to bring them back to their former glory.

Tuna casserole is next on my list.

It’s been a quiet week around here.

Right on schedule, I came down with a cold the day after my last holiday sale of the season. Today is day six, and I’m definitely starting to feel better.

It’s been a week of taking it easy, cold medicine, hot water (and hot toddys), lots and lots of kitty snuggles, knitting, and gratitude. I feel so very lucky to do the work I do, and to be able to take some time to recuperate.

It’s also been a week full of knitting. I’m pleased to report that these mittens are done, and will soon (I hope) be available as a pattern.

Wishing you and yours a peaceful Solstice and a  merry little Christmas (or a successful zombie apocalypse if that happens first).

Recently, I’ve been collaborating with feline designer Vesper on a re-imagining of woven and knitted textiles.

Her first piece is entitled “Tasty Swatch.”

I’m unable to share the interpretive dance element of “Tasty Swatch” in which I chased the artist around the house trying to wrest the swatch from her grasp.

The second piece I’d like to share is “Where the ^&*% are you?”.

“Where the ^&*% are you?” is a larger work utilizing a hand-woven blanket I made five years ago. The blanket was the first hand-made gift I gave to my (now) husband.

Executed while I was away for 10 days, Vesper’s redesign explores themes of absence and negative space. It was also during the creating of this work that she first started re-using fragments of the woven and knitted pieces in the naturally felted cylinders (colloquially known as “hairballs”) for which she is best known.

Vesper is less than a year old, and I have no doubt that our collaborations will continue into the foreseeable future.