rostitchery

ridiculous chocolate

today i want to share with you the story of a family that i know and love.  mandy is a homeschooling friend of mine who lives with her husband and three children just outside of nashville.  i’ve written about their son before:  his name is hunter, who little over a year ago was diagnosed with leukemia.

part of the process of bringing hunter to healing was that his very little sister ronin became his bone marrow donor.  this tiny child courageously and selflessly committed to an act which many people avoid, but which saved her brother’s life.

meanwhile, during this ordeal, the baby, drayken, has still needed a mother, still needed a father, and still needed someone to keep him from climbing chairs and kitchen cabinets on his quest for the amazing treats his mother makes for the family.

which brings me to ridiculous chocolate.  this is the company that supports this young family.  and the chocolate is utterly, ridiculously, fabulous.  it also reflects their belief that treats can be healthy and wholesome, while still being TREATS.

 

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 Raw Organic Vegan Diabetic Chocolate, so good it's Ridiculous!

You may be asking yourself, how can anything this natural be so healthy and taste so good? We're glad you asked!

Michael and Mandy Jones have a deep passion for healthy, great tasting sweets. After many trial batches, we created what we believe to be a perfect blend of healthy, delicious chocolate. We use only organic and raw ingredients to create this ridiculous treat.

What makes our chocolate so unique?

Well, it's raw (meaning not cooked or heated above 105 degrees and therefore the ingredients all maintain their healthy and lovely beneficial properties), organic (which means the ingredients were grown without using chemicals and pesticides), low glycemic (meaning the sweetener we use, agave nectar, will not make one's blood sugar spike... we have many diabetic customers who say that our product is safe for their diets), and vegan (meaning we don't use any animal products).  As a matter of fact, our product only has three ingredients.  It's simple.  It's delicious. It's "green". And it's good for you!

Our chocolate is sold in ice cream containers and that is appropriate as it must remain in the freezer at all times.  But never fear... no thawing is necessary.  The product is designed and intended to be eaten directly from the freezer.  Just try not to eat it all at once!

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ridiculous chocolate has a “green chocolate” commitment, which is reflected in their eco-friendly shipping policy:  everything they send you can either be eaten, reused, recycled, or is 100% biodegradable.  so readers that are not in the middle TN area, you can have your ridiculous chocolate too!

if you are in middle TN, you can purchase ridiculous chocolate at the roasterie in murfreesboro, TN.  you can contact them directly by email at ridiculouschocolate@gmail.com or by calling 615-691-2899 or 615-642-7956.  they will have ridiculous chocolates at a few more locations in the area soon, including the nashville farmers market.  please, friend them on facebook.

then stop by hunter’s page and wish him the well on this special day:  today, hunter is celebrating his re-birthday.  this is the day one year ago when he received his sister’s generous gift and began the enormous task of becoming whole again.  he’s not completely there yet, but he’s on his way, and his journey has inspired a whole league of people thru his mother’s telling of their story.  HAPPY RE-BIRTHDAY, HUNTER!  i wish you hearts and stars and rainbows and ninjas and astronauts and legos and the One thru whom all good things are made possible.

 

*how about a little something extra for this family:  do you know an investor who might be interested in getting involved with ridiculous chocolate?  how about a local merchant that might want to add ridiculous chocolate to their offerings?  you know, even access to a larger commercial kitchen would be a huge help.  it’s the time of year when people are in a giving mood—let’s put our heads together and see how we can give ridiculous chocolate a boost!

who are the people in your neighborhood?

there are a lot of local and regional vendors i still want to tell you about, and a lot of great events coming up, but i've heard from several readers who are getting discouraged because the holidays are quickly upon us, and things are tight all around--and let's face it, whether you do it yourself or buy it from someone else, handmade ain't cheap.

so today i want to share with you some thoughts about what “buy local, buy handmade” can do for you.  and it has nothing to do with buying presents.

when you take your car in for service to the local auto shop down the street--you know, the one that is in an old warehouse and was started by the father of the man who runs it now--you're putting your money into the hands of someone who lives where you live, shops where you shop, sends his kids to the same schools you send your kids to.  that money ends up helping your neighborhood stay healthy and vibrant and attractive to live in.

the same goes for every little, independent, locally-owned and operated business in your town.  the local hair salon, run by the single mother who is raising two smart, funny, well-behaved kids and keeping them on the right track--the local garden center where you get your flowers and bulbs in the spring because they know their stuff and they know your name, and they want to make sure you leave happy and tell all your friends --the woman who cleans your house, the kid that cuts your grass--these people need you, and you need them too.

you need them to buy candy bars and raffle tickets from the PTA at your kid's school.  you need them to pay sales taxes in your neighborhood so your town can hire enough fire fighters.  you need them to eat at the local diner and to have enough cash to tip the server well for refilling their coffee cups over and over while they monopolize the table for two hours entertaining out-of-town guests.

you need them to keep that money right there, in your neighborhood and community--not send half (or more) of it off to big-box retailer’s expensive corporate offices in east somewhere-you-don't-live.

because the powers-that-be at big-box retailer’s corporate office in east somewhere-you-don't-live don’t care about your kid's PTA, they don’t care about your fire department, they don’t care about that waitress who is saving every dime so she can start her own sewing and alteration business down the street.

they don't know your name and they don't give half a flip whether or not your neighborhood is clean or safe or whether there are still even any jobs there.  they don't care.

but your local merchants and service provides do.  they want to build a relationship with you, and you need to build these relationships, because these people are raising your children's’ peers, they are making decisions about your town’s development, and they will show up at your doorstep with a meal or a tool box when your whole town is under 8 feet of water.

so stop feeling bad about whether you make all your christmas presents, or whether you are cleaning your own home, or which percentage group you belong to.  YOU have the power to be a job creator, right where you are, and YOU can do this all year long.

 

*later today i'll start slinging more nashville/middle TN vendors, crafters, and arts events your way! i also have a surprise announcement coming tomorrow. :)

remembering, again

on this, the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, i am revisiting this post which was originally published in 2006.  

in the days immediately following the attacks of 9/11, i spent a lot of time just trying to keep my mind off my fears.  flylady was a tremendous help in this--she had taught me that i could add to the total peace in the world by creating peace in my own home.  it was soooooooooo soothing to take up a mop and just clean--to spiritually unite my little effort to the efforts of so many brave, heroic men and women who were cleaning up a far greater mess.  a lot of contemplation can be had while swiping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth....

my heart began calling me to do something outside myself, to offer whatever i could to help.  and like most americans, my mind turned to the one symbol the entire world recognizes as "US"--our flag.

from my scrap bin i found just the right red--just the right white--just the right blue (it even had some stars on it).  i cut and sewed and pieced and trimmed and at the end of the day, i had a pile of little quilted flags.  TINY flags, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand--all different, all made on instinct and without a plan, all of them childish and simple and utterly comforting to my sore, scared heart.

i wore one as a pin that night to the show, and so many people asked to buy one that a little "industry" was born--i sold dozens of these little flags for whatever donation the buyer thought they were worth--and in just one week i raised hundreds of dollars to give to the american red cross.

as much as possible, i will describe how i made these, but there aren't really any instructions because the making of them was more a process toward healing than an exercise in creativity. 

i started by cutting several strips of white and red fabrics and piecing them together lengthwise in groups of two (white and red) and three (red/white/red).  i also cut little rectangles from the blue fabric, not really paying attention to how many stars were in each piece but making them about the width of the red/white/red group.

i cut the group of red/white/red strips into segments that seemed proportional to the blue field--i did this by eye, and i think you can trust your own eyes for this too.  i stitched a blue piece to a red/white/red segment, stripes running horizontally of course, making the upper half of the flag.

i cut the white/red pieced strips into segments the same length as the upper sections, stitched the upper and lower sections together, and trimmed them to square up the corners.

lastly, i layered the flags with batting and muslin backing, stitched around them and turned them right side out, then quilted along the stripes and around the blue field.  i sewed pin backs on by hand after the flag was all done.

i kept two of these little flags, the one that i wore, and one other.  i got them out today so i could wear mine to work, ella took the other one (that one does not have a pin back on it), she held it over her heart and sang her ABC's.  i think that is as american as it gets--to hope for a better future as we remember the sorrows of days past--all wrapped up in the hand of a child.

 

why your clothes don't fit

this is a fashion industry standard dress form.  this is the model used to make patterns for clothing manufacturers.

 

 

what is that you say?  you're plus sized?  well, they make a model for you too.

 

here's the measurement chart for these dressforms.

 

these are also the same dressforms used to create sewing patterns for the big 3(4) pattern companies.

all dressforms, regardless of size, share these characteristics:

• they are all made with a B-cup bust.
• they all have a narrow waist and slim hips, relative to the rest of the body.
• they have flat stomachs.
• and flat behinds.
• they have very good posture.
• and they are completely symmetrical and in balance in every direction.

 

here's my point: 
if you do not have a B-cup bust, narrow waist, slim hips, flat stomach, flat behind, very good posture, and are not symmetrical and in balance in every direction—nothing you buy will fit.  NOTHING.  not clothing, not patterns.

if your bust is bigger than a B-cup, you will have to buy your shirts big enough to go around, which means the shoulders will be so long that they hang over the top of your arms and the waist will be baggy.  alternately, if you buy your things so they fit your body,  your blouse will gape because there isn't enough room to go around your bust.

if your stomach or behind isn't flat, or your hips are wider than your chest, your skirts will ride up till they hit a point where there is enough room in them to fit around you, and your pants will wrinkle at the crotch, and lord knows NONE of us needs a wrinkly crotch.

if you do not have perfect posture, the necks of your tops will strangle you, or you will be limited to buying only V-neck tops, or you'll have to pin the front of every top to your bra so it won't flop open.

and bless your heart, if your bust is smaller than a B-cup, be prepared to always feel inadequate for not being able to "fill out" your clothing.  plan on padding your bras, or plan on everything being baggy in front.

so--what's the solution?  well, if you're buying off the rack, there is no easy solution, but at least now you know it's not YOU.  some people learn to do their own clothing alterations--old sewing books have whole chapters on how to do this--and some people send things out to be altered.

if you're sewing from scratch and you purchase patterns, you must learn to adjust them to fit you.  you must accept that you will often have to make a few trial garments of a new pattern in order to get things just right before cutting into your good fabric.  but at least now you know the problem is not YOU.

you can learn to make your own patterns.  it's really not that hard, once someone shows you a few tricks.

you can buy patternmaking software, but even then you have to learn to use it, and you have to learn enough patternmaking to know what fits and what doesn't and what adjustments to make. so even though this is a great solution for many people, it only works if you take the time to learn the software and learn to make good patterns.

this is not meant to be a downer.  this is a wake-up call. 

stop beating yourself up for your lack of sewing or patternmaking experience. and stop beating up the pattern companies because their patterns are not "true to size".  there is no true to size.  patterns are only templates.  it is the seamstress that makes them true to size.

now--figure out where you are on this spectrum and then go in the direction that gives you clothes that really FIT.  if you want help, ask me for it.  if i can’t help you, i can hook you up with someone who can.  :)  but don’t take it sitting down anymore—fight the power.

 

*my greatest fitting challenge has changed since having a baby--it used to be my almost-A-cup bust, now it is my nearly-non-existent waist.  what's yours?  what do you do about it?

a stitch by any other name is still just a loop

 

a few days ago a question was posted on the gettin' it pegged! loom knitters clique facebook page that got my mind whirling:

“Do you prefer the true Knit Stitch, the U-Knit Stitch, the Flat Stitch or the E-Wrap (Single) Stitch? I think I prefer the U-Stitch.”

it is often said in needle knitting that there are only two stitches:  knits and purls.  everything else is a variation on these two stitches.  i contend something a little different:  that there aren't actually two different stitches at all, but two variations on the same stitch:  a loop.

 

further it is my opinion that the terms "knit" and "purl" are actually verbs, not nouns.  i hope i can explain.

the only difference between a knitted stitch and a purled stitch is what it looks like on the front of the work.  whether the head of the loop appears on the front or the back of the work determines whether or not it is called a knitted or purled stitch. 

you can demonstrate this to yourself easily.  when working in the round, if you knit every other round and purl the rounds in between, you end up with only purl bumps on each side of the work.  you know you made knitted stitches at least half the time, but the surface is not flat, it is bumpy.

the product when knitting flat panels depends on whether you are knitting with needles, machine, or loom.  when working on a flat panel on needles, if you knit every row, back and forth, the final product will be two sides with purl bumps on them.  you didn't purl at all, yet you have only purl bumps showing.

when knitting back and forth on a loom or a flat-bed machine to make a flat panel, you will end up with one side of the work that is smooth, showing the knitted V's, and the opposite being bumpy, having only purl bumps.  if using a loom, it doesn't matter if you make knitted stitches back and forth or purled stitches back and forth, you will always have one side flat and one side bumpy.  (flat bed machines don't make purl stitches, but that is for a different post).

now to put this to a more strenuous test:  knit 2 purl 2.  when knitting this on a flat panel you have to purl 2 knit 2 on the back side in order to maintain the pattern.  that's because when looking at the back you are presented with the purl bumps on the stitches you knitted and the knit V's on the stitches you purled.  but the final result on the front will still be K2P2.

i bring this up because in my opinion all the talk about different knit stitches in the loom world is really not useful, and i'm hoping eventually the loom field will standardize the terminology so as to be less confusing.  the method you use to create a stitch is really not critical except as it pertains to achieving the look you want.  needle knitting patterns do not state "make this kind of knit stitch", they tell you to knit, and you then knit according to your preferred method—continental (this is the method i use), or english, or eastern/combined, or backward, or one-handed, or whatever.  same with purling--a pattern doesn't tell you to form a purl stitch, it tells you to purl--verb, not noun.

rightly the term “stitches” should apply to the fabric created by knitting, such as stockinette stitch or basketweave, or cabled stitch.

the stitch most commonly used in loom knitting is referred to as the e-wrap stitch, but to needle knitters it is just a twisted knit stitch or KTBL (Knit Thru the Back Loop).  the stitch that loomers call the flat stitch is just a plain knitted stitch as in all other forms of knitting.  whether or not you create this stitch by flat wrapping, or U-wrapping, or some other wrapping method, what you end up with is a knitted stitch.

it is important for loomers to start taking charge of their knitting.  i hope that patternmakers for looms will begin using the standard that needle patterns use, which will make patterns more concise and will also eliminate a lot of the confuse loom knitters seem to have about which "stitches" to use for their projects.  the point of a pattern is not simply to dictate how things are made but to give a blueprint for creating a finished product.

thoughts?

 

*pretty much everything you could want to know about the technical aspects of knitting can be found at techknitting and its companion site, techknitter.  loom knitters and beginning machine knitters might find the article about why some knitting curls and other knitting doesn’t.

developing confidence

 "once you accept the fact that you're not perfect, then you develop some confidence."

rosalynn carter, wife of the former president of the united states jimmy carter

"when i stand before god at the end of my life, i would hope that i would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "i used everything you gave me". "

erma bombeck, american humorist

helping kids learn to sew

 

recently ella made her first dress, pretty much all by herself.  many people have commented to me that they were astonished at her accomplishment.  but honestly, although i am certainly proud, i am not at all surprised, nor would i be surprised if any other six-year-old did the same thing.

the secret is in putting together the correct project with the correct tools.

for example, many people believe that children should start on small projects, such as doll clothes. however, anybody who has ever actually made doll clothes knows that they are fiddly--the seam allowances are very small, the pieces are very small, and the notions are very small.  doll clothes are hard enough to manage when you have some experience, much less when you have NO experience.

likewise, many people believe that hand sewing is easier than machine sewing but in fact i have found over and over, with adults as well as children, that sewing by machine is really easier.  it takes very well-developed fine motor skills to make a strong, even seam by hand, whereas sewing by machine only requires the operator to be able to press a foot pedal and to guide some fabric.

along with all of this, it is important to choose a project that really interests the child.  most teachers start out with things like pillow cases or tote bags--which are perfectly fine projects that teach a lot of good basic skills but let's face it:  wearing something you've made is infinitely more rewarding than sleeping on something you've made.  and if you pick the right project, it has no more pieces nor more complicated construction than an ordinary tote bag does anyway.

the dress ella sewed has only four pattern pieces:  a front, a back, and a front and back neck facing.  the sleeve is incorporated into the design, and the only sewing i had to do for her was finish the neck placket in the back.  

i did do the cutting, using rotary cutters, but she could definitely have done it herself if i had a pair of dressmakers sheers for her to use.  :D  i haven't cut anything with sheers in so long--at least 12 years--that i don't even own any.  i'm thinking they might be on the list for our next shopping trip.  if i find a pink pair, she will be in dressmaker heaven.

now--if you could make a first project all over again, what would it be?  dare to dream big.  :)

creativity: sacrifice

IN SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN

AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY.

"the important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

Charles DuBos, french critic of french and english literature

 

 

creativity: waiting

"you can't wait for inspiration. you have to go after it with a club."

jack london (1876 - 1916)

creativity: percentages

"invention, my dear friends, is ninety-three percent perspiration, six percent electricity, four percent evaporation, and two percent butterscotch ripple."

willy wonka, candy maker, inventor, dreamer of dreams