Impress Me

Who hearts lettepress?  On Saturday my friend Suzanne and I took an introductory class at Studio on the Square with Mindy Belloff of Intima Press.

What is it about letterpress?  

One classmate said it was "delicious", another that in a world of flat screens and flat pages, it's nice to be able to feel something tactile and real.  

OK, that second person was me, but still...

in just a few hours Mindy taught us about the history of the art and the incredible amount of detail and attention involved in setting type.  

I always love seeing the tools behind the craftsmanship.

It was a little scary working the huge press, but Suzanne did a great job!  

We definitely want to go back to get more practice and learn more.

But we were very happy with our first efforts!

You can go to Mindy's blog to see how how she recreated the Declaration of Independence -- all set by hand!

Fun with Fruit

Happy November!  I've been so inspired by lots of fall fruits and events lately, everyone is as busy as little bees....I really enjoyed Pie Party Live hosted by Jackie & Ken -- great job, guys!  I even won a copy of the Sarabeth's Bakery Cookbook, hurray!!

I'd been meaning to make a pie (or 2!) but being sick for the whole month of October threw a wrench into my plans.  Eventually I got back to canning with some black grapes and red plums from a recipe in Canning for a New Generation.

Love how the kitchen smells when fruit is simmering...

Helping the Little Guys

[picture by Charlie from Skeinz]

Casually scanning Twitter the other day I saw a tweet by Brett Bara with a link to this article about the plight of penguins who survived an oil spill in New Zealand.  

[photo by Toby Zerna/Newspix/Rex USA seen on abc NEWS]

Even though I don't know much about that part of the world (aside from Flight of the Conchords) I found this especially touching: Skeinz yarn store was calling for knitters to make jumpers to warm the penguins before and after rescue workers cleaned them, and to protect them from preening their oil-soaked feathers and being poisoned.  What a great way to use crafty skills!

[photo from Adorablog]

A similar request 10 years ago from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust for 100 jumpers resulted in over 15,000, and now already Skeinz has reported on their blog they've received enough to reach "critical mass"!  Here's video news proof with cleaned up penguins swimming happily.  But if you've already finished a jumper, or just want to try your hand at creating penguin clothes, you can still use this pattern and send to Skeinz for the Wildlife Rescue Team to keep on hand if needed.

So hooray for penguins and for all the knitting and cleaning hands that helped them out.  I'll leave you with my amigurumi penguin: I crocheted him for Christmas 2009 from a Lion Brand Yarn pattern and I love him so. 

For further reading on penguins and crafting doing good:

• Dyan deNapoli, "The Penguin Lady" has a lot more to say about the conservation and rescue efforts.
• Book: Knitting for Good! A Guide to Creating Personal, Social and Political Change Stitch by Stitch by Betsy Greer, read more about her on her Craftivism blog.
• Book & EVENT!: Craft Activism People, Ideas and Projects from the New Community of Handmade and How You Can Join In by Joan Tapper and Gale Zucker.  Read more about them on their Blog and even MEET them in person for a signing at Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC next Monday, October 24th 2011 at 6:00 p.m. (RSVP required).
• and of course Many MANY more pics of penguins in sweaters as Googled by Gothamist