Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Here's a tweaked version of my tangy chicken salad recipe . I started putting curry powder in my chicken salad just because I recently bought some from Penzeys , then just a day or two later I found curry sauerkraut from Farmhouse Culture (my favorite!) at the Ferry Building farmer's market! So I feel it's evolved into something that deserves its own post. Farmhouse Culture is only available in California or a couple spots in Nevada. Diane from Balanced Bites came up with this recipe for making your own fermented raw sauerkraut after she moved away from the Bay Area. For every 2 cups of cooked chicken - 4tbsp homemade mayo from the previous recipe , with or without the additional spices and lemon. I originally used an olive oil/avocado oil blend, but then I couldn't find avocado oil and used macadamia oil for half the total oil instead. Either one is great. 1/2 cup broccoli slaw (easier and more interesting than celery!) 2 tbsp curry raisin sauerkraut (...

I'd been toying with the idea of starting a Spectra scarf of my own for a long time, and even dreamt about it once, but never quite decided on the right yarn and colorway. After pouring over other people's Ravelry projects , I really fell in love with this one color of Zauberball . Then I realized we had that color on the shelf, the shop started carrying solid colors of Kauni, and we got in an awesome shawl pin that matched the colorway perfectly! Everything fell into place and I started on this very addictive pattern about a week ago. So technically I finished this Mondo Cable Cardi last night and wore it today, but here's a still kinda in progress photo. I am thrilled that we're having another cold spell so I can wear it a lot. I made it in Dream in Color Classy in Gothic Rose. I alternated 3 skeins at a time, 1 row each. That was a little weird at the front neck cast on area, but I managed it with minimal weird floats. It wasn't an issue to keep things fr...

Here's a Baby Surprise Jacket I made for a high school friend's baby. It's my 3rd one, all in Claudia Hand Painted Sport. This colorway is Eat Your Veggies. I also recently finished a Shop 'til You Drop bag from Lanaknits Designs in Allhemp6. I love it so much! I made the medium size and had to get a 3rd skein of yarn to finish the second handle. The official site says there are 2 sizes, but I swear the pattern I bought at Yarndogs had 3! I need to get an action shot because it stretches out super huge and holds a ton of stuff! Here's the only (kinda crummy) photo I have of the woven scarf I made from Creatively Dyed Steele in Cumin. I'm always shocked at how little yarn weaving takes! It's a good stashbuster, but it creates lots of leftovers. This is the project you can see me starting at the last spin in I made it to.

Here's the deets on how to make my favorite lunch- chicken salad with paleo-friendly (ie, non-canola) homemade mayo. After I got friendly with fat but before I started avoiding industrial seed oils, I was in love with this stuff called Lemonaise. Now I have a homemade version that I think is even better because the oils I use now have actual flavor. A lot of paleo mayo recipes call for "light tasting" supermarket olive oils. After reading Extra Virginity , I am pretty squeamish about that. Even if it does actually contain olive oil and not seed oils(staggering amounts of fraud in the industry), it is probably a lesser grade product that has been deodorized and refined. The whole point of making my own mayo is to avoid "vegetable" and seed oils, so I've gone with a mix of avocado oil and the Artois Ranch EVOO by California Olive Ranch that is naturally a bit milder than some EVOO, but still very flavorful. It might not be for everybody, but I've ...

Oh, hi! I just found this post from the holidays which was languishing as a draft. The season for wintery treats is mostly over, but here it is. Over X-mas, I tried out a few more grain free treat recipes. These vegan pecan bars were great despite my skepticism about the lack of eggs, even though the crust wasn't initially cooked all the way. We're pretty picky about pecan pie-like treats, being from Texas. "My" antique gas oven is incredibly uneven and I'm just now figuring out how to optimally use it. The top looked fairly brown, so I went ahead and poured on the topping (which initially didn't look voluminous enough but was really fine) and put it back in the oven. After letting it cool, I sliced into the bars to discover an oozing crust! I put a lid on the dish and put it back in the oven on the lowest rack until the crust firmed up. These pumpkin bars (which happen to be vegan as well if you follow the recipe) were amazing! I couldn't find a...

I spun up the singles from my Star Trek SAL batts from A Dyeing Wish several months ago, but I never quite decided how I'd ply them until recently. There were 3 batts- one was black and light gray with red sparkle, one black with red and green sparkle, and one black with red, green, and yellow sparkle. I thought about just using them as singles or maybe chain plying for 3 different but coordinating skeins. Finally I decided just to ply the 3 singles together for a consistently colorful yarn. My Braaaaiiiins colorway batts from Heavenly Fiber also arrived as 3 batts, but all very similar. I spun up one at a time, splitting the batt lengthwise in strips so each single went from black to gray to light gray/pink. I plied the 3 singles all going in the same direction to get a gradient yarn. I have about 160 yards of worsted-ish yarn. I'm thinking a hat or cowl/scarflet. That may be a little boring, but it needs to be something I can wear a lot and show off that doesn't ...

Apparently I have a thing for knitting things for my fee t out of Noro Hitsuji. I almost used this colorway for my felted clogs, so I decided to use it for these Mukluk slippers that are quite popular at the shop right now. Most people go for the low tops, but I thought the neon color and high tops had a nifty 80's legwarmer thing going on, especially with the two-piece suede bottoms that make them look like dance shoes. They are slightly ridiculous, but they make me smile and no one outside the house who's not a knitter will probably never see me in them. :) They are really comfortable and warm and will stay on my feet while I sleep, unlike the clogs. The construction is interesting to knit and I love the result, but to be honest the process of knitting chunky yarn on size 7 needles is a little intense. Definitely more of a "little bit every day" project than something to be worked on for hours at a time. One of my X-mas gifts for Bryan was this knitted Adi...