debra roby's blog

The Second Carnival of Green Crafts!

2008-08-09T12:00:15-05:00

What do empty toilet paper rolls, plastic shopping bags, old cordoroy pants have in common with a call to ban PVC? They are all part of the second Carnival of Green Crafts. This new carnival is alternately hosted at Crafting a Green World and other blogs. Submissions right now will be part of the August 21st carnival at CAGW then the party moves over to Whip Up.

I received some wonderful submissions for this edition.

Home Decor

Taking clever dog paw bottle caps from Trader Joe's, BlogHer member Condo-blues satisfied her need for thrifty crafting and an entry for Haiku Friday, with How to Make a Bottle Cap Tile Picture Frame:

paw print bottle caps

craft challenge issued answered

gifted photo frame

She also wrote a great tutorial on how to turn a (shadow box style) picture frame into a raised pet feeder.

True Living Space highlighted recycled paper home decor items created by Phillipino artisans as part of SAPSPA.

Clothing

I love how Cheese Pirate turned an old pair of cordoroy pants into a skirt. She shares the challenge of using cordoroy instead of the denim used in the original BurdaStyle tutorial.

Well, here is why not: the fabric on a pair of cotton trouser pants is far easier to work with, sew and reshape than corduroy. This oversight led to spending an hour on what I probably could have finished in half that time. The issue was the fly.

Organicasm's Christina Laun offered Tips for Great Deals on Organic Clothing.

Recycle Cindy suggests that a cute hobo-styled handbag can be crocheted by cutting plastic bags to create a recycled plastic yarn she calls plarn.

Crafts

Using empty toilet paper rolls seems to be a fun trend among the green crafters. At ecosalon, Larkyn Mongovan admits:

This may sound strange but I actually get a sense of accomplishment from changing an empty roll of toilet paper. Often at a party or while a guest at a friend's house I secretly hope the t.p. will run out while I'm in the bathroom so that I can replace it with a fresh roll. It makes me feel like I have done my anonymous good deed for the day. Unfortunately, I have to admit I don't do much more than toss the empty roll in the trash bin (after I've given myself a pat on the back, of course)

She then points to the more than 50 patterns that DLTK offers for creating shapes from these rolls. Meanwhile, Niki Meiner shows a toilet paper roll turned gift card holder. I hope instructions for this come soon.

WiseBread's Myscha Theriault gets creative in What to do with Wire Hangers. She has gathered some original ideas and a number of links to other projects that will have you cleaning up that pile of old twisted hangers quickly.

If you are a machine knitter, check out Kathryn's three part post at Knittsings on making your own needle retainer sponge bar. Most knitting machines require this bar in order to work.

Food for Thought

The authors at Crafting a Green World have offered several posts on "craftivism" that leave us with something to chew on when it comes to living "green" and crafting.

First, Kelly Rand wrote a two-part article on Crafting Vs. Vinyl. In Part One, she calls for a ban on PVC products, including the "fabric" found in everything from the clear window in a wallet to designer purses. Later, in Part Two, Rand offers suggestions for replacing vinyl products in our crafting.

In Consumer Choices Alone Won't Craft a Green World, Skye Kilaen not only lists the four current strategies for crafting green (thrift, recycling, buy handmade, and buy sustainable), suggests that a fifth stragegy is to buy less, and offers the true major force for the future is political action.

Usually I see green crafting written about as essentially how to cute your way to a healthier environment.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to find pleasure in lovely things, make better consumer choices, or consume new craft materials. I am saying that we need to ask harder questions about the impact that our hobbies and/or livelihoods have on the environment, going beyond our individual acts to a critical look at what it takes to make this stuff.

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Refashionistas: What To Do With Jeans

2008-08-02T13:57:35-05:00

It's been a while since I've done written about the refashionistas, those creative, frugal fashion crafters who take older, unworn clothes and thrift-store finds, cut, paint, sew, style, and design great new functional items from them. A gold-mine of ideas for used jeans can be found at WiseBread's post: Twenty-five Things to Do With Old Jeans by Myscha Theriault.

Let's examine some of her ideas:

2. Cool Quilts. Theriault and I are fan of these jeans quilts. Simple but heavy, these are great picnic quilts and dorm rooms quilts. You can find a discussion on making them written by Susan Druding at the equilters forum, with links to insturctions by some of the makers. There is also an inspring forum on jean's quilt photos.

4. Pocket books and backpacks. Jeans, with their already constructed pockets and installed zippers are a natural for cutting up and making purses and backpacks. CraftBits offers simple instructions for a "no sew" denim bag. My experience with gluing as she suggested, is that the purse will fall apart quickly and usually at the most inappropriate moment. Crossing a busy street, maybe?

WikiHow has great instructions for sewing a similar purse. If you're more of a needle-artist, Crochetnmore offered directions for turning a leg from jeans into a purse with a crocheted top.

5. Patches. Using denim as the base for little art patches is the brilliant idea by B. Original. I don't think I've seen this before, but I'll be playing this idea later this weekend.

6. Embellish. While Simplicity offers an article on embellishing jeans, I'll admit that I would want these fused embellishments stitched down, or at least have the edges painted over (painted fabric embellishments. Doesn't that sound too 1980s for today?) Unless you cut open the inside seams, however, you'r limited to awkward hand sewing. I like the suggestion of checking at local bead shops for classes; that should give you a more modern look!

7.. Pimp Your Jeans! The link to Thread Heads Coffee stained jeans is fabulous! After all , who doesn't love a Thread Heads video??

10. I LOVE the idea of an electronic gadget pocket from old jeans. Something to keep my phone and car key together no matter which bag or purse I'm using? The Instructable How-to by sage femme is complete, even to this warning:

Denim is strong - I broke two needles, a pair of scissors and a seam ripper making just two of these little pocket pals. That taught me some lessons I'll pass on to you: Don't force anything and Always cut through the thinnest area possible.

13. Ofcourse recycling jeans into a crazy quilt jacket has been around perhaps as long as either individual skill. The piece by Magpie Mumblings appears to include some nice embroidery, traditional piecing, and maybe a furry collar?

14. Demin Vest. Turning jeans upside down and using them for the basis of a vest? It's another old idea. But is it old enough that a whole new generation might be ready to adopt it? I can't judge! (that old, "if you wore it the first time, don't the second time around" rule keeps screaming in my ears!). You tell me.

17. Coffee cozies. An office/club small gift idea whose time has come? I like the ones by two straight lines with the little button detail, but pink milk and fairycakes published a whole tutorial on flickr.

18. My favorite idea of the bunch is this custom camera case from Evil Mad Scientist. Maybe because it was designed for my camera, so I don't have to go changing a thing?

OK. I ran through the list, adding a few links and pointing out some of my favorite ideas. Now it's your turn. Which of these ideas are you itching to get to started on? Do you have any other big ideas for used jeans? One idea I didn't see mentioned (again, it may be one whose time has come and gone) is cutting your jeans into strips, joining them together and making a braided rug from old jeans. Should I be wearing my "I survived the 60s/70s/80s crafts movements" Tshirt to even suggest that?

Let me know in the comments.

And a big ole beef-jerky hat tip to the fabulous MizFit for pointing this link out in the first place.

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Crafting a Life: Building a Crafty Online Community

2008-07-28T21:08:51-05:00

This year, when you talk to a knitter with any kind of online presence, they mention Ravelry. I can't remember a time when an online community developed such strength and following as quickly. I've talked with a number of crafters who speak wistfully about the hope of building a similar community that might include other activities. A site like Ravelry for quilters, jewelry makers or all those paper crafts.

While I cannot suggest an exact duplicate, I have found two crafting communities for you to explore that might satisfy your community seeking: CraftStylish or CraftyNation.

A Magazine With More Online

Craft Stylish is a quarterly "special edition" magazine from Taunton Press (the same people who publish Threads magazine and number of wonderful craft books). It is also a community site that brings all the crafting knowledge of the publisher online and invited each reader to get involved. The website provides the choice to discover which articles exist on the website, share your own projects through a photo gallery and the ability to create a profile and write your own posts for the site.

I found a number of wonderful how-to articles including Know Your Hand Sewing Needles. This article was written by Diane Gilleland, (aka Sister Diane from the Church of Craft) and will help you recognize your sharps from the straws and everything between.

The website currently running the The Tote-ally Crafty Bag Challenge (you have until 7/31/08 to enter). Looking through the gallery, there are a number of creative entries already.

This site is new, and while it does not let you share stash or search for patterns like Ravelry does, there is the beginning of a sense of community building and the opportunity to blog your projects there might make it more appealling to some of us who never find the time to photograph our entire yarn inventory.

An Internet TV Show Grows To A Community

Toni Lyn makes the web-tv show Crafty Nation and has expanded that show into an entire community. It has just come live in beta and is growing every day. Like CraftStylish, it offers you opportunity to blog on the site, sharing your creations, discoveries and tutorials with others.

Because this site is so very new, there isn't a whole lot of meat on it yet, but it's got great potential. And, look, one of the first groups started there: Twitter Knitters!

Why don't you go join, explore the site a bit and tell me what you think?

In other crafty news:

Vickie Howell is looking for crafters who'd like to Join the Craft Corps.

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Crafting A Life: Craft Blog Round-Up

2008-07-26T18:38:28-05:00

I missed the Craft and DIY Bird of a Feather session at BlogHer '08, or I'd be highlighting the many people who came to share their passion during that session. Instead, let's look at what's been happening in the rest of the blogosphere:

Dyeabolical spent the week sewing pencil cases (can the start of school be far behind?).

ARTJuNK girl believes we should Do What You Love~

Nicole Lecht of freshly{blended} highlights the work of the block printers at Tugboat Print Shop.

Claire from Loobylu perfectly describes the brain fuzz I'm been feeling lately. :

Oh my goodness… do you ever get that frenzied, slightly panicked feeling that there is just so much you want / need to do in such a short period that. you can’t actually get focused on anything?

Click through to check out her brilliant solution.

Ulla-Maaria Mutanen, aka HobbyPrincess, reprinted her essay about "slow fashion" vs. disposable clothing in Big Returns.

When H&M announced that it would be using the classic Marimekko prints and models as a source of inspiration for their 2008 spring and summer collection, Marimekko's customers predictably cried foul. Why is the McDonald's of fashion suddenly so interested in slow food? Because vintage is hip. In return for letting H&M reinterpret their products and image, Marimekko got its brand name and logo to be the central focus of H&M's global advertising campaign, sweeping over bus stops and billboards from Shanghai to San Francisco like graffiti written in disappearing ink. Former Marimekko CEO Kirsti Paakkanen (she has since stepped down) explained the partnership considerably increases Marimekko’s visibility among the young trend-conscious consumers. As a result, one of the world’s biggest marketing engines is currently promoting everlasting Marimekko as this summer’s trend.

Meanwhile, reacting to hearing Mutanin's Craft Manifesto, Caterina Fake wrote :

I see the rise of crafting, DIY (and their mouthpieces in magazines such as Readymade and Make) -- and, in the digital realm, people publishing their photos and blogs, as the expression of a powerful, almost demiurgic need to create one's own world. The need for uniqueness and singularity becomes really pressing in a world of endless reproduction, sameness, mediocrity and crap.

And Michael Nicoloff expands on the theme at I am yer grammar:

But what I'm really interested in here the fact that this manifesto casts craft culture as something that's trans-medium, as a philosophy that can lie beneath whatever work one happens to be doing. That was certainly the case with segments of DIY culture--I mean, riot grrl was something in music but also something in zines but also something in performance and film (hello Miranda July). There was a broad network of diverse social spaces one could enter--physically enter--where a similar philosophy was in the air regardless of the art form or activity that was going on. And with that came a sense that things frequently seen as "art" could now be democratized into "craft," into something that anyone could do, sometimes as a real "career," sometimes not. Instead of the "dumbness" that it tends to imply--and instead of implying a particular kind of content--"craft" becomes a mindset with which to approach your activity, instead of the forbidding "art," which frequently carries the silent "(high) art" along with it.

OK. On to something lighter and more yellow: Bitter Betty Blogs that her life has been taken over by yellow lab puppy:

All major projects are slowed to a crawl. My life is divided into the short segments between naps, walks, training sessions, and clean up. I really want to be a good dog person with a really good dog, but I find the lack of sleep and concentration are really wearing me down,

In truth, it feels like my life is no longer my own.

I was able to make and un-make 14 potholders. (Yes.. I had to disassemble my potholders because Poly Batting is Not Good For Potholders. In fact, it almost conducts the heat. And I had hand quilted 7 of them.... ARRRGH!

But at least I found out now and saved my loved ones from scalded digits.)

And yesterday I finally prioritized some selfish sewing and tried to make a shirt from this Adorable Japanese Craft Book... and it is AWFUL. which is perfect since I made no muslin and used instead my expensive linen. What a doofus. I think the pattern is fine.. I'm just not doing great with the lack of English instructions, limited brain power and my not tiny petite Japanese body.

I think Betty needs to give herself a break!

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Photographing Crafts: Challenges and Tips

2008-07-21T20:30:53-05:00

One of the best things about finding a good craft blog, whether it's someone using yarn, fabric, paper, tin, or plastic, is seeing the photographs of a person's work. When an item is well-photographed, the hand of the creator can be seen in the work. It's almost like touching the product.

However, taking a great photograph is not the easiest thing to do.

Deb Lacativa spent two days trying to photograph her latest work and running into frustration:

Getting good digital images of textiles is a struggle on a good day but throw anything shiny like metallic thread or paint or damask fabric into the mix and be prepared for hair pulling, crude cursing and lots of sweat.

Part of my problem is not being able to decide if I want the digital image of the work to highlight the basic elements of the design - the shapes, colors, lines and energy of each piece, to speak first and loudest, or do I want the textures of the fabric and the textures created by the stitching to have an equal voice.

Like her commentors, I think the piece taken in natural light, highlighting all the stitching she's put into the piece, is the better of the two. What's your opinion.

Reading her post reminded me that Stephanie Barnes (she of Little Birds Handmade and 3191 photoblog fame) once wrote a piece with advice on taking photos of crafts. Her piece of advice #2:

Natural light is your friend! Always use natural light, if at all possible, to take your photos. This means turn your flash off, folks.

Riffing off some of her other advice, here's some of my own suggestions for great shots:

Outdoor light in direct sun might be too harsh. Find a spot with dappled shade, or an indoor area close to a window.

Use or make a tripod. It limits the possible blur of the photograph.

Get even with your subject. If you place a softie on a table to shoot, bend down to the table's height instead of standing above it and shooting at an angle. Square flat pieces can start to look like parallellograms when shot at an angle. (there is a technical term for this, someone tell me? The edges begin to drift off the to horizon point?...)

Take more than one picture. Take pictures from different angles, different sides, if you can different speeds and aperatures. With digital cameras, you have nothign to lose. Then pick the best 2-3, edit them, and publish the very best one or two.

Style your photo. Nobody wants to see yesterday's dirty dishes piled in the sink in the background of your photo. See you can include objects to help "tell the story" of the craft.

Come in close. Some of the best pictures I've seen have been super-close ups. These allow us to see the fineness of the stitching, the detail of the work. They pull us in and make us want to stay there.

Crop. Crop everything out of your photo that isn't perfectly relavent to the subject. Don't be afraid to leave part of the picture go beyond the frame.

Consider building a photo studio. It might be a box you place objects in to get a good bouncy light; or a a stage that consistently lets you fold a nice piece of knitting. To take a good series of "how-to" photos, I build a custom boom to attach to my tripod. It allows the camera to hang over the work surface, I do a project as I normally would (well, I try to do it with a little less mess), reach up and snap a photo at regular intervals. It took all of $5, a trip to the hardware store and about half hour of fitting nuts and bolts.

The author of Vikatikkeja understand the challenges of lighting crafts. Living in Finland, she has very dark winters.Ph On January 1st, she wrote:

I haven't blogged much recently, but that doesn't mean that I haven been busy with needles. I've knitted lots of basic socks and mittens for kids and four pairs of Kerttu-socks, and few Minttumaari-scarfs. Here in the north is so little daylight at this time of the year, that photographing crafts is almost impossible.

Normally I read all my blogs through BlogLines, but I have a list of favorite crafters who I make a point of visiting because of their photographs. Yes, BlogLines now pulls in the photos, but it still doesn't feel like the same thing. Who are your favorite craft photographers? And what tips would you share?

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Gardening 101: Compost Doesn't Happen

2008-07-19T08:53:27-05:00

This past week, armed only with a garden fork, I worked for an hour at making my own soil, mixing together kitchen scraps, shredded papers, and the remains collected in our vacuum.

One of the most important elements to add to any garden soil is fresh compost. The sweet crumbly brown matter helps to aerate the soil, improve its texture, helps to retain moisture, and add valuable nutrients. While composted material is usually inexpensive to find at a garden center, it's also one of the easiest garden items to make for yourself. And, as more and more municipalities are limiting yard waste additions to the waste stream, it is even more important that we all take some time to

What exactly is compost? It's the rotted remains of waste materials which have been broken down and digested by bacteria, worms and insects. These materials are usually held in a pile (though as you see, that term can be used loosely) until fully cooked. Then it can added to any garden bed.

The materials in the compost pile are best an equal mix of carbon and nitrogen sources by weight. While I don't advocate taking a scale to your garbage, the easy method of measuring this is approximately 5 parts of brown to 1 part of green.Brown materials include leaves, straw and paper; green material includes grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and coffee grounds (inspite of the fact that the grounds are brown in color). Get this mix right and your compost will cook hot and quickly. Build a pile too high in carbon and the pile cooks cool and slowly while a pile too high in nitrogen may make the pile anarobic and smelly. Marion Owen keeps the list 163 Things You Can Compost which included several surprises for me. Who knew you could compost Elmer's glue? Tofu? Used Kleenex?

I have a 3 quart container in my kitchen where I can quickly slip fruit skins, vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds and tea bags. I also shred the unnecessary papers that result from the mail. Every day or two, I carry these scraps out to my compost pile so they can begin breaking down. Adding the handfuls of shredded paper mean each batch contains both a mix of brown and green materials.

When making compost there is one important fact to keep in mind. Remember I mentioned that these items are consumed by bacteria, worms and insects? These are very small organisms. The finer you can chop these items the easier they are for the composting organisms to digest. Imagine trying to eat a hamburger that is hand-sized vs. one that is the size of a house. Which would you more easily consume?

Now that you have compostable materials, what should you do?

There are a number of different ways to build a compost pile. The Compost Guide has all the basic information about setting up a compost pile. If you are just starting to build your garden beds, you can dramatically improve your soil by trench composting. Dig a trench about 12-18" deep in your bed, place your compostable material in the trench and cover. This is a very effective method to dispose of lots of chopped leaves in the late fall.

Three years ago, I wrote about my own composting process. Hasn't changed since then.

Evniromoms made a nice video of their different composting styles:

Julie Artz Demistified Compost last February.

Daisy of the appropriate Compost Happens, posted about her compost, including links to photos and previous posts.

Anna's Cool Finds wrote about an in-house composting set-up she's trying in her condo.

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.

Stitching It Together: Sewing Machines, Old and New

2008-07-14T18:59:26-05:00

I was going to write about sewing today. That was my plan.

I've spent the weekend sewing on a purse I've been designing - ripping and redo-ing as each little problem with my no-pattern-all-in-my-head piece became apparent. It seemed logical to simply search for fellow bloggers doing the same thing. Right?

Right?

And it's not that folks aren't sewing and blogging about it.

Cottage 46 Knitter just starting sewing and has several of the beginner's projects that she shared.

Reclaiming the Home has started sewing clothes for school (with tutorials!) already. So cute!

DIY Maven at Curbly even wrote a nice tutorial on making an apron out of napkins.

There is a basis to write about sewing projects. But as I wandered through blogs, I found a greater theme: sewing machines.

Cottage 46 Knitter, besides knitting, started sewing after acquiring several sewing machines, including this vintage Singer 99 in a bent-wood carrying case. (From personal experience, let me tell you these things only make the "portable" class because they are not in tables. Mine weighted a ton!) Hers, from 1928 will be unelectrified and turned into a hand-crank machine. Sewing during "power down" days will not be a problem for her!

Idyllic Chick was gifted a nice Singer 301 In honor of receiving her wonderful gift, she posted a great gif on how a sewing machine works. Go check it out!

I used to own a number of vintage Singers, including a Feather Weight constructed near my birthdate, about 5 of the 99 - most made in the 50s- and one of these 301s (in the more contemporary tan color). Believe me, it's one of the very best Singers ever made. I would pick this hands-down over a Feather Weight any day. (gasps from the readers change weather around the northern hemisphere).

The 301 is slightly larger and slightly heavier than the revered FW, but this is a gear-driven machine where the FW is belt-driven. The difference? Besides the obvious fact that you don't have to keep trying to locate and replace belts for the machine, a gear-driven machine doesn't transfer any of it's kinetic energy like a belt-driven machine does. Every little bit goes right into the act of sewing, which makes this a strong silent workhouse. This is a machine that can power through upholstery fabrics, heavy denims and even machine quilt with ease.

And the 301 and 99s are 3/4 sized machines. This means they are a bit shorter than their full-sized sisters (like the 201) but not quite as tiny as the 1/2 sized Feather weight. Sometimes having just an inch or more room in the throat plate region makes a big difference in what you can sew

If you're at a garage sale or auction house, and need to choose between these machines. don't hesitate. Grab your self the 301.

Not everybody is going vintage, however, in their sewing machine acquisition. Minnie's old "big box sewing machine" died on her a couple weeks ago, and she went out and purchased herself a shiny new Bernina! Does she love it? I think so:

Already i have completed a bunch of basic mending tasks that have been sitting around in my sewing room waiting for me. Some for actual YEARS have been waiting to completed. Also many of the decorative stitches have been tested and gloated over.

I swear.. sewing with this thing is sweet!

We sewers do have a dedication to our equipment. We split into camps of "Classic Singers", "Pfaffies" and "'Nina heads". Many women promise that the first item out the door in an emergency evacuation would be their sewing machine. Yet some anonymous woman chose to go a step further and bring her machine with her to eternity. Check out this Flickr photo of a sewing machine etched on a headstone.

I sold or gave away all my vintage machines about 10 years ago, when I purchased a (then) near top-of-the-line Pfaff. It's far from the newest machines of today, but it still keeps me in stitches.

Do you have a sewing machine love story or a photo you'd love to share?

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.Come talk with her at the Birds of Feather breakout session at BlogHer Con, Saturday, July 19, from 10:45 until 11:25 am..

Crafting a Life: Carnivals, Influence, and Crafty Literature

2008-07-12T11:41:52-05:00

There has been a bit a good news breaking that involves the crafty-blog scene. A new craft carnival has been announced, a knitter is named one of the most influential women bloggers, and the crafty chica pairs beach-reading lit with crafting fun!

Let's look closer:

Carnival of Green Crafts
The folks over at Crafting a Green Life announced the kick-off a new blog carnival: The Carnival of Green Crafts.

The Carnival of Green Crafts is a twice monthly online celebration of all things eco and crafty. Whether it’s a full-fledged tutorial or your personal musings, photos of projects in progress or completed, great thrift store finds that are destined for a craft project, or a love letter to your favorite environmentally friendly craft supplies, we want it! We hope that this Carnival is a place to show off, inspire, rant, rave, learn, and support each other as we find ways to create beautiful things while protecting the Earth.

If you're unfamiliar with this concept, wikipedia defines a blog carnival this way:

A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic.

CAGW has published a bi-weekly schedule for thier carnival with one even a month being run through thier website; the alternate carnivals will be run through individual blogs. If you make, blog, photograph, or find a post about a great green craft project remember to submit it to the COGC list. And consider hosting a round of the carnival yourself.

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This week Jarkko Laine published NxE's Fifty Most Influential 'Female' Bloggers (look who's #1!) and coming in at #15:

Stephanie Perl-McPhee (aka Yarn Harlot)

Yarn Harlot -
Why She Matters:

Known as the ‘Knitting Sensei’, Pearl-McPhee might not be the most important figure to everyone, but the knitting world pays close attention to what she says and does. Pearl-McPhee is not only the most influential knitter online, but also a knitter who uses her position for greater good through her non-profit organization. Her blog was also recently voted the ‘Best Canadian Blog‘ of 2007, as well as the ‘Best Hobby Blog‘ on Blogger’s Choice Awards.

Funny, as I read through this list, I had to admit that I knew very few of the women listed. I know a couple of them from Twitter, or from attending She's Geeky or BarCamp last year. I'd even read a post or three on some of their blogs. But most of these other women have no influence on me, my online experience or my life. Most of the other women did not matter to me.

However, when I spotted a familiar face among the crowd, it did effect me. While 3 out of 4 American households admit that they spend some time each week crafting and many more have added gardening to their lives, and while there are a significant number of these people who blog about these activites, I always feel like we live in a private little corner unknown to the wider blogosphere. To have a knitter ranked as #15 on this list is a step toward feeling validated as a genre. For me.

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Now on to something that's just plain fun!

Just in time for wonderful beach reading season and with carefree evenings of simple creative fun in mind, Kathy Cano-Murillo wrote 10 Creative Projects Inspired by Crafty Lit. From Terry McMillan's The Interruption of Everything to Lois Winston's Talk Gertie to Me there is a book and accompanying craft for any taste or beach stay!

Time to increase my "wish list" at the library and start inventorying my on-hand supplies. Think I'll pick my books based upon the supply list.. which should really shake up my summer reading style!

Digging the Dirt: Summer Vegetable Garden Tour

2008-07-07T15:00:03-05:00

We are at the height of summer vegetable gardening across the northern hemisphere. Plants are established in their spaces and we, the gardeners, are starting see the rewards for our work. Surely a garden tour is in order, right? Keep in mind, that my garden is mostly potential at the moment, not edible produce.

The pomegranate fruit here is one of several hanging on the tree still. This bush/tree is only 2 years old, and colorfully packed with blossoms. So few of them turn into actual fruit, though. I have yet to figure out why.

All My tomatoes have set fruit. This San Francisco Fog was the best producer last summer, giving me tomatoes inspite of loss to scrub jays and pocket gophers. Ah, the pocket gophers! They are becoming the bane of my garden existence.

Bell Peppers. While I can find little fruit, the blossoms are thick on this plant. The heat from a week ago encouraged it to nearly double in size in a week! (it was a sickly thing before). The ripe peppers promise to be yellow and orange, which means they will probably still end up red. But I can't wait until they blister on my grill, bathe in Balsamic vinegar, and show up in almost every dish later this summer!

You can't tell by the scale, but this Pumpkin plant is completely dwarfing the pepper growing next to it. It should yield better than a dozen 8-10# pumpkins perfect for carving or making into pies and puddings. Again, I can't wait!

Now to the sadder parts of the garden. Those darned gophers seem to be picking off my Swiss Chard by color! Gone are the gorgeous golden stalks, and the red (as you can see) is withering away. They have eaten the roots and the base of the plant. Next they will pull the remains down into their tunnel and devour that too. So far the white has remained immune, and while not as colorful on the plate, is quite a tasty treat at dinner for me.

One experiment for the summer was to plant two soybean plants. The picture of snacking on freshly picked edamame from my own garden? Irresistible. Alas, I may need to adjust my expectations. The first plant is puny and doesn't promise more yield that these several pods.

And the second plant? Disappeared overnight, the victim of plant predators. I'm suspecting that durned pocket gopher again.

At least my citrus trees are all full of fruit for the fall and winter. One of my navel orange trees kept us fed for over a month last year; it promises to do the same again. And the Meyer lemon growing on my deck is full of blooming promises! These should be ripe just in time for hot September day lemonade into throat-soothing late fall teas.

What are other Bloggers reporting about thier own gardens?

My Bit of Earth picked a great head of cabbage from her garden, and shared her recipe for cole slaw.

Seedling shares her own veggie garden's potential in photos.

My California Garden in Zone 23 got her veggies started during our last heat wave. With heat late into fall, she should still be able to get a great return for all her rock-picking efforts.

Thanks to Farmgirl Fare, I know something new to do with my Swiss Chard. Make her fresh, lowfat twist on Cole Slaw!

Daisy at Compost Happens wrote about "found water."

Nikki mentioned blue berries and a cool caterpillar.

Susan Harris warns that hardy kiwi's great if it doesn't eat your home. And she's still waiting for some fruit!

Photo credits: Debra Roby's Flickrstream.

Twitter Crafters

2008-07-05T22:41:10-05:00

I am an admitted Twitter addict along with so many others. It's a great place to vent, to brag, to make new friends. What surprised me several months ago was how many folk identify themselves with nicknames based upon their crafty addiction. Knitters, quilters, crafters are abundant on the site. Getting to know them in short 140 character bursts then encouraged to find them again on their blogs, on Ravelry and other places on the nets.

So who are the twittering crafters?

Ofcourse, quiltcetera. She came through with her own Quilters of Twitter blogpost. She lists 21 quilters she's met.

Dharmas Universe (darmawrites) knits! And even blogs some finished objects!

Knittwit (brilliant twitter moniker!) blogs at Everything Kate.

Idyllicchick is a local Yarn Store owner, but she sews too! I LOVE this explanation of how a sewing machine works.

WendyKnits blogs and twitters about her life including her knitting. Wendy is working on a book due next year all about toe-up socks! I can't wait to get my hands on it! She has also developed a unique way of rewarding regular readers who comment frequently:

You may have noticed that my web guru recently installed a doo-hickey that puts the number of total comments a commenter has left on my blog in parentheses after said commenter’s name when said commenter leaves a comment. (I think I just invented a new tongue-twister with that sentence.)

Anyhow, a friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous unless she wants to “out” herself) recently told me that she hesitates to leave comments now because she’s afraid that her total number of comments on my blog would put her in the stalker category. I responded “Don’t worry about it. Heck, you have to have 500 comments before you get your Junior Stalker Pin.”

So naturally she responded that she wanted a Junior Stalker Pin. Then L-B (who has left more than 500 comments) got in on it and asked why she had not yet received her Junior Stalker Pin.

You know where this is leading, right?

WilloToons blogs her life and craft at WilloToons, including her first sculpey-thing. While visiting her site, be sure to check out the WilloToons Shop!

Schmutzie is better known for her photographs and writing, but she'll admit to knitting scarves.

Lish Dorset, blogs at Handmade Detroit where she covers all things DIY in the motor-city region, including this wrap-up of the Craft Magazine 07 Release Party in Detroit last month.
There are also

Cheekyattitude, Tricia's blog has the same name. Last week she took a Scratchboard Class. and wrote about the demo by Rik Olson:

Rik told us that some scratchboard artists remove the entire background behind the central image before working the details. He chooses to work it in sections so he has more flexibility and can adjust the dimensions and add other items. He took the suggestion of one of the other students to add a worm poking out of the apple’s side.

Knittycent is enjoying her summer work break:

When one doesn't have to worry about getting up for work, a mere 4-5 hours having getting home from the last thankless job with no benefits, life is good! :-D
Howdy people! How's the summer been treating you? Well, me, I've been on a knitting spree.

Who have I missed? Is it you? Feel free to leave your twitter ID in the comments.

The Craft Blog is Dead! Long Live the Craft Blog!

2008-06-30T14:33:46-05:00

Maybe it's just summertime, I think. Posting on craft blogs always slows way down in the summertime. That's the likely explanation.

Except the slowdown began way before summertime.
Except the slowdown includes blogs just going away.
Except the slowdown includes bloggers lowering blog posts because of book deals.
Except the slowdown includes a lack of interesting posts on the blogs that are there.

Which makes some wonder, is the craft blog dead?

Cara Davis of January One, was considering the same thing this weekend when she wrote KnitBlogs. New knitblog webring software was requiring everyone to re-register. From an active ring with firm rules, the ring has now dramatically relaxed its rules: only one knit-related post a month is required. Yet many of the original 1300 members will probably not join the ring or not qualify to join the ring.

But what does this mean?

It might mean that blogging has evolved beyond the "common interest" ring. Early in blogging, the blogrings were a way to find new members, to connect to those with common interest, to build that blog-community that we all rave about. Now, with RSS feeds do we really need blogrings? Is that the part of the formula that's become archaic?

For myself, I've got to say yes. I think I may belong to several rings, though I never click through one anymore. I have my quilting blogs in my BlogLines and Google reader; clicking through a ring to find something new takes too much time.

Davis suspects it's more than our simply outgrowing the "technology" of blogrings. Looking back over the past year, she believes that the dramatic shift away from a blog-based community began with the birth of Ravelry.

There are many many blogs on my bloglines list that post very sporadically and when they do, they blatantly say they've been on Ravelry. It's MY OPINION that the interesting discussions about knitting and projects that used to be on the blogs have moved over there - instead of many in-depth posts about a project we generally get one wrap up post that says the details are over on Ravelry. No doubt, Ravelry is an extraordinary tool in this community, but the social aspects of it have had a huge impact on what I loved about knitblogs.

The same thing has been written about Twitter and Facebook and Fill-in-the-blank-latest-social-media-site. Yes, it's easier to connect on one of these sites. On blogs, often we feel alone in the woods or lost among the masses. There seems to be no inbetween ground anymore. You write and occasionally get one or two comments, or you write and always get 50 or more. On a network sites there is the impression that you are always involved in the conversations and the community.

I'm not certain that this is indeed true, but is it even a valid observation? The comments (68 and still growing) keep the discussion going:

Amber summed up part of my feeling about the decline in craft(knit)-based blogs:

I think you're right that Ravelry has had a huge impact. In some ways though, I think that's good. A lot of blogs were just like here's the specs - and didn't really write about the process or their thoughts. Sort of like what one blogger once referred to as a "Cheese sandwich blog" (Dear Blog: Today, I ate a cheese sandwich. The end.) I felt like the same old big names were always writing the more involved posts everyone would talk about (I think that's still true); there's just fewer basic stats out in blogland.

"Cheese sandwich blogs"... I'm going to have to remember that. I've admitted that the draw for me in any craft blog is the author explaining their personal process. What they did, why they chose to do that one thing, how they feel about it's outcome. (If you need a great example of a knitting process blogger, look no further than Grumperina. All process. All the time. And one of the best damn knit blogs in my reader.) Many's the day that I click through 50-100 blog posts searching for that one unexpected process post without success. I used to find them all the time. Now, frequently I find a simple "Here it is. I finished project XYZ." No thought, no analysis. Simple news.

BeadKnitter was the first to state the other main argument, that lives change and blog change with them:

Blogs change because peoples lives change. There are blogs that I used to read religiously that I don't even visit anymore, and new blogs that I new read religiously. It's part of the human condition. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same.
As for Ravelry being to blame for this, I disagree with that. The blogs I stopped reading didn't change because of Ravelry. They changed cos the authors life/interests did.

Alice points out another problem with knit blog successes:

Another factor is purely commercial. A lot of the most popular bloggers have gotten book contracts. Design details that might previously have been discussed on their blogs are now saved for their books.

KnitNut's Wool & Words,took the discussion to her blog with The KnitBlog is Dead! Long Live the KnitBlog! She mentioned another factor missing from many knitblog communities that was like ants at a picnic 2 years ago: The Knit A Long (KAL). I had noticed a decided gap in KALs on blogs, but thought I was just missing them somehow. Perhaps not.

However, in one of the clearest distinctions between her interaction on Ravelry and her reading/writing of blogs, however, she states (emphasis, mine):

The blogs I read are the ones where I feel a connection to or have an interest in the personality of the blogger behind it. I go to Ravelry to find the information I'm seeking about projects, yarns, patterns, communities. I go to blogs for people.

So lives change, the internets change, successes change. It all leads to a decrease in quantity or quality of blogging. We shall see if this is a temporary or permanant change. While Davis acknowledges her own blog has changed dramatically in the last year with a pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, I sense we all believe that eventually she will return to blogging obsessive series of posts on mitred squares and we will check back through our readers for every word.

So what do you think? Have you seen a decided change in the craft blogs recently? Do you believe that other social media sites have taken some of the action? Or is it just life coming between the blogger and the page? And who are the new bloggers that are replacing those that have left?

Creativity 350:Craftivism for a Greener World

2008-06-28T13:27:09-05:00

Everywhere you turn this summer, conversations, both private and public, seem dominated by the topics of the environment, global warming, carbon footprints, living greener. Besides changing lightbulbs, reducing driving, and saving water, though, what can a crafty person really do? Turns out we can do a lot.We can use our craftivism to spread the word about the importance of the number 350.

Bill McKibben has started the website 350.org to encourage us all to work toward a a global CO2 reading of 350 ppm. How better to spread the word than through art and craft activism.

First, there is the 350 postcard project. (an example of these postcards above)

Though we strive to keep our campaign up to date with the most cutting edge, open-source, web 2.0 organizing tools, we've decided to start out the 350.org campaign by getting back to basics. So to launch the global open source movement to spread this number, we’ve begun an experimental project to spread the word through one of the oldest forms of communication – the mail. In words, collages, drawings, or any other form on the back of a postcard, we want to hear from people all around the world, why it’s worth it for you, your community, and the rest of the world to aim for 350 parts per million?

More importantly, though is Creativity 350:

a partnership between five craft- and DIY-themed websites who are looking to help creatively spread the word about the important new climate change awareness group called 350.org.

The websites are familiar ones:

Craftster (who is hosting the site)

To get us all involved in spreading the word and having some craftivism fun, Creativity 350 is hosting two wonderful contests at the moment.

The first is creatively called Creativity 350 Craft Contest. Make a project that expresses the importance of 350 using any technique or materials that you wish. Upload a picture of your project between July 15th and August 15th. Then from 8/16-8/31 vote on your favorite projects. The winner will receive a wonderful pack of prizes!

Looking for something to keep your school age kids busy for a while this summer? I'd think having them craft about the environment would be a great busy-time activity.

The Creativity 350 T-Shirt contest runs in the same frame. Come up with a completely original design that will help spread the word about 350.org, upload a GIF or JPEG file of your design and let the public vote. Another fabulous prize pack is being offered (I so want to win this!).

The word is already spreading.

Rob Walker of Murketing wrote:

One of the reasons I devoted one of the closing chapters of Buying In to the DIY/craft/handmade scene is that while it’s clearly a material-culture phenomenon, it’s a material-culture phenomenon that seems to have, on some level, an ideology....
(The Creativity 350 Craft Contest is [author edit]), in other words, about getting the word out, on a subject of greater significance than most of consumer/murketing culture,...

Kelly Rand blogged the news for Crafting a Green World.

Pumpkin Girl admits she's a "Lazy Man's Contest Lover".. but maybe we can encourage her to enter this one too!

image source: 350.org Flickrstream.

Submit Questions for BlogHer '08s Home And Garden BOF

2008-06-21T13:55:34-05:00

During the First Break Out Session on Saturday, July 19th, I have the honor of hosting the Home and Garden Birds of a Feather Meet-Up. I want to make this session special for both the attendees and anyone who blogs these topics. So, I am bringing my video camera so I can tape the session and share it with you all. I hope to structure the session like a interview getting the best tips and ideas from the attendees in this very special place.

To do this best, I need two things from you, the BlogHer community:

#1. Will you be there? If you are planning/hoping to make this BOF session, please leave your name and blog link in the comments. We'd all like to know a bit about you beforehand and it will help us all with:

#2. What questions do you want me to ask these bloggers?

I can always begin with the general questions:

How long have you doing XXX?
What attracted you to it?
Why choose to blog about it?
Do you have tips for taking photos?
An under-appreciated source you'd like to share?
A list of favorite reference books?
Whose blogs do you read?
Do you have a favorite post?

Do you want some down-and-dirty specifics?

I know if someone like Grace Bonney of Design Sponge were sitting in the session I would ask her about the trends in home design, if "eco friendly" is driving new design decisions, and if there are really different design aesthetics across the country?

Then there are the Home Makers. We could all use any time-management tricks, cleaning tips, and how to make a place filled with love on today's budget.Is that enough?

Are these the questions you'd ask any "Home" blogger? What else would you want to know?

Let's not overlook the gardeners.

I know if someone like Andrea Bellamy from Heavy Petal were to join us, I'd want to know the best tales of guerilla gardening, tips on green gardening, and how to deal with my insect-ridden houseplants. (it appears she would recommend Botani-Wipes).

This year, with high energy prices driving costs through the roof, with strange weather making gardens either too wet or too dry, do you have questions about gardening to save your food budget? How to deal with the weather challenges? Perhaps how to best preserve the flowers, herbs and foods that we grow?

Genie, The Inadvertent Gardener, hopes to be at the session. With a history in Iowa, her recent move to the bay area, her experience with bunnies (go read this, garden humor writing is so rare!) and her admitted passion for tomatoes, what would you want to ask?

(Confession: I am whispering sweet nothings to the green tomatoes in my garden: Ripen for BlogHer and you might get to meet Genie...)

So here's your chance BlogHers. If you'll be joining me, please introduce yourself below, the rest of us want to know you better.

If you can't join me but wish you could, let me be your surrogate and ask the questions you'd be asking.

Then look for the vid-cast a few weeks after BlogHer '08!

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her mundane life at Deb's Daily Distractions.Come talk with her at the Birds of Feather breakout session at BlogHer Con, Saturday, July 19, from 10:45 until noon.

Knitting the Pieces Together: World Wide Knit in Public Day

2008-06-16T11:19:22-05:00

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day: it appears that some people made a BIG deal about it! When the first WWKIP Day occurred two years ago, there were about 20 official gatherings. This year, there were over 200 formal groups meeting in parks, farmer's markets and coffee shops around the world.

According to the website:

World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes. It began as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each other’s company. Knitting is such a solitary act that it’s easy to knit alone somewhere and sink into your work without thinking about all the other knitters out there. Neighbors could spend all their lives never knowing that the other knits. This a specific day to get out of your house and go to a local event (with your knitting in tow) just for you and people like you. Who knows you might even bump into your neighbor! Consider this a spark, to ignite a fire; getting all of the closeted knitters out into fresh air.

So here's a world-wide tour of local Knit in Public gatherings:

Knit-Eat-Sleep ,Littleton, Colorado.

My Artful Life, Nashua, New Hampshire.

Knithound Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York.

HPNY Knits, Central Park, New York City, New York.

Robin, and Dixygirl, Virginia

Lime and Violet, Somewhere in Oregon.

Que Sarah, Happy Tails Dog Park, Florida.

Adrienne, Orlando, Florida.

Texas Purl Gurl, Dallas, Texas.

Knit Your Love, Plano, Texas.

Ms. Crafty, San Rafael, California.

Yarn Tails, Westwood, New York.

Expat Knits, on a playground somewhere.

Joce, Calgary, Canada.

Maggie, Meegiemoo, Lesley, Hello, Pineapples, Halifax, Canada

Damian, Knitting and Chocolate, Melbourne, Australia.

Roo Knitting, Birmingham, England.

Guin Stuff, Aarhus, Denmark.

Sara Lechner, Mank, Austria.

If that wasn't enough international excitement, Saturday was also The Yarn Harlot's 40th birthday. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, Franklin flew in to shoot the 1000 knitters project, and Toronoto knitters all gathered to to celebrate.

Knitty stopped by. I'm sure the blogging among the other party attendees at Lettuce Knits are still recovering from their cupcake-and-yarn induced buzz and will be recounting us with tales of great hilarity as the week continues.

I discovered (much to my surprise) that there was a KIP in my very town sponsored by The Basket Case Lady. I got to meet a number of local knitters and just relax for a couple hours.

Did I miss your KIP gathering in photos or a blogpost? Please leave a link in comments below.

Digging The Dirt:Out Damn Pests!

2008-06-14T20:00:08-05:00

My approach to pests in the garden or landscape is usually to adopt a technique that is least harmful to the general environment while being highly destructive to the pest itself. So I often use soap, dusts, hot pepper and young men to deal with my pests. Except for muskrats. They actually drove me to buy a .22. But let's hope your garden invasions don't end up resorting to that degree of destructive power.

More than likely your invaders this time of year come in one of two varieties: insect or mammal. What can you do to discourage, or eliminate the problem if each case?

Insects:

In many of the spring/fall vegetables, planting time is the most important factor in preventing damage. If you plant brassicas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, beets and swish chard as soon as the soil can be worked but before the first frost-free day, the plants become established and you can pick a crop before warmer weather brings on insect invasions. So it's too late for early spring plantings, keep in mind that any open garden space come mid- to late-September might be prime territory for a fall crop of these goodies.

Good commercial organic pest controls include Safer Soap, (dehydrates the dasterdly things) diatomaceous earth, (cuts softs bodied insects to shreds. like mini-glass shards) horticultural oils, (smothers those suckers!) and floating row covers (if the pests can't get in they can't eat it). 'Bacillus thurengiensis', or Bt and it's known to gardeners everywhere is a bacteria you can apply as the insect worms are appearing. It is deadly to the invaders, but does not harm humans, birds or other animals. Look for it commercial by name or as Dipel.

In 2006, FarmGirlFare went into detail on dealing with Blister Beetles. Her "home grown" recommendation:

I used all-purpose flour and limestone ("granular calcium carbonate for livestock and poultry") that I bought two years ago in a 50-pound bag at the farm supply store for under two dollars (to add to the water of the two bottle lambs I had at the time to help control scours and some other stuff). Since it was 95 degrees F in the shade, I figured this qualified as "the warmest time of the day" and simply sprinkled the mixture all over the plants and the surrounding soil.

I checked back later and only saw a few blister beetles, but there also weren't any in evidence on the bean plants they had been all over earlier. I wondered if they were all simply taking a siesta. I also wondered if this was such a wise idea: if I succeeded in getting them to vacate my already ruined chard, what would they attack next?

Do you have any favorite "home grown" insect controls?

Mammals:

Can we have a little fun in our pest control? When your pests are the furry kind who walk on top of the soil, yes I think we can try to have some. There are few truly effective commercial products for discouraging deer and rabbits and such from visiting and destroying your landscape. Most of the suggested treatments are of the "home made" version. All of these work. They just don't work forever; you have to adapt and change your approach every month or so to stay ahead of these munching horde.

LifeBouy or Palmolive bar soap. These specific brands have been suggested for deer because of something in their scent or in the oils used in their manufacture. Take a freshly opened bar, place it in a clean nylon stocking or net-type produce bag and hang it in a tree or on a stake.

Plant marigolds and daffodills. Again, the theory is that deer and rabbit are repelled by their scent. I've had limited luck with marigolds, but daffodills planted along the edge of a bed did discourage deer from tasting all my tulips.

Human Male Scent. Here's where the fun comes in, especially if you are lucky enough to have young males at home. It's theorized that the pheremones secreted in their urine and sweat will deter many a mammal from crossing their path. Collect those sweaty t-shirts and hang them in the garden overnight before washing them (the likely origin of the scare crow). Or pour a line a urine around the edge of a garden bed. It's your choice (and the boy's/men's) whether they apply this treatment themselves or simply pee in a bottle for you to use. BTW, the boys must have gone through puberty; while the 5 and 6 year olds may find this great fun, testosterone is needed for these to work.

I've tested them both with some success. They seemed to be effective for about 2-4 weeks before the pests figured out it was only a scent.

My biggest pest problem at the moment is the pocket gopher. Imagine something the size of a chipmunk, that burrows into my yard from the open space beyond. It eats the roots off plants except where it pulls vegetables down into the burrows and eats them. I tried the sonic MoleChaser. It didn't.

Commercial gopher repellants work fairly well; these treatments release castor oil into the soil. They actually work! This year I didn't get a treatment down before the rains stopped (the castor oil must be watered in), and water restrictions mean I won't be using the product until the winter rains come. If you have problems with a tunneling critter (be it mole, vole or gopher), I recommend giving one of these castor oil products a try.

How are blogger dealing with garden pests?

Rixgal's Weblog babied a tomato plant through 2 wind storms, but the first tomatoes of this year became the victim of gun violence.

Amy Urquhart listed 10 Ways to Deter Rabbits at Suite101.

Jean Vernon chooses a number of treatments for garden pests in the Telegraph.co.uk

TreeHugginFamily has compiled natural ways to get rid of pests.

Wendy R. writes How to Identiy and Eliminate Pests in Your Garden at EHow.

Amy at Playing In The Dirt showed the results when tulip meets rabbit.

photo credit: RaeA's Flickrstream

Debra Roby blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her mundane life at Deb's Daily Distractions.Come talk with her at the Home and Garden Birds of Feather breakout session at BlogHer Con, Saturday, July 19, from 10:45 until noon.