cooking up glass goodies

I have sometimes referred to Scott as the beadmakerbaker. That's because his main work-for-pay is in our home-based wholesale bakery. Recently, though, he was asked to bake up goodies of the glassy kind as a result of a swap we arranged with Carissa of The Cupcake Factory. Carissa requested very specific cupcake bead "flavors," including one to match her logo, complete with sprinkles and a cherry on top!

Meanwhile, we received an order for a sheep to sock stitch marker set from Lixie, who used to put out a podcast that we enjoyed. While packaging her order, I remembered that Lixie used to wax poetic about her love of cupcakes and at one point I asked Scott to make her a cupcake bead. He did that and also made a bead with her name on it, but somehow they got put in the bead box, not mailed to Lixie, and then she stopped podcasting (only temporarily, I hope!) and time passed and...well, you know how it goes. So I rummaged around in the bead box and found the two beads that were originally made for her.

Apparently Scott's glass cupcake-baking skills have improved in the interim, but the older cupcake was still fun, so off they went to London with Lixie's order.

Thanks, everybody, for the stitch marker loop feedback so far. Lots of great ideas and comments in there. Never thought much about the glass sheep, drop spindles/bobbins, socks, and balls of yarn as jewelry or bracelet charms, but hey, if you all are fiber-crazed enough to adorn yourselves with glass sheep, who are we to argue?! Will get some more jewelry findings and let you know when I post them on Etsy. Meanwhile, keep those comments coming. We appreciate your input!

BTW, Leah's in the home stretch on her Cece cardigan. She has about an inch of raglan decreases to go and then a narrow button band to attach. She intends to block it today and then dive into her dad's pretty glass button stash and see what she can find to perfectly complement her second handknit sweater.

a boy and his toys

Lixie, who has been mentioned here before, asked Scott if he could do a likeness of a person in glass. He's a cartoonist from way back and has made some lampwork heads from his imagination in the past, so he was game for the challenge. Lixie forwarded a link to one of her blog posts that cracks me up every time, comparing how her husband, Pooch, resembles a baby hedgehog! (Go ahead and click over there for a giggle. I'll wait.)

It then took a couple of tries, but a disembodied glass Pooch-like stitch marker is currently winging its way to London.

Doesn't get much more custom (or silly) than that, does it? ;-)



When he's not playing with fire and glass, Scott's lately playing with fire and food. Since the oven was still hot yesterday morning, after the pizza party of the night before, he stoked up the fire again and made a big batch of bagels (about 6 dozen, flavors including cinnamon raisin, garlic, onion) yesterday morning.

And since the oven was still warm yesterday afternoon, he popped a ham in there before he and the kids headed to the indoor water park (free admission!) again for the rainy afternoon. There are no words to describe the delectable results. Holy moly, you guys -- smoky, slightly crispy edges, falling off the bone. The ham; not the kids.

Meanwhile, we're all still raving about the egg sandwiches from the other morning. Fresh sourdough bread, toasted. Fresh local eggs rec'd as a gift from our firewood delivery guy, who sure does like Scott's cookies. Homemade honey mustard. Locally grown lettuce, crisp and cold and green. Tomatoes from one of the farmers at last week's markets. :::drool:::

I just refilled my coffee mug and noticed he's out there with a roaring fire again this morning. I wonder what he's mixing up in the bakery...

Fibery post to follow. There's just too much fun going on around here to fit it all in one post.

bsj, nyc

Welcome to any visitors who heard about our glass and fiber obsessions on the Lixie Knits It podcast!

I cast on for Eliz. Zimmermann's well-known Baby Surprise Jacket a few days ago, partly as a stash-busting exercise and partly because, though I've seen pics of this sweater all over the Internet, I still couldn't quite understand how it works. The curious thing about it is its funky construction, described by many as an amoeba or knitting origami. I found some good pictures of one in progress, but still wanted to knit it myself. It is totally irrelevant that the only baby-to-be in my life is a pretty far stretch away -- my brother-in-law's brother's first child. Whatevah. Gots the yarn, gots the pattern -- must cast on.

Once Scott's bakery got past the Thanksgiving rush, he decided it was time to fire up the torch again. I think he's on a good track with these small floral buttons he cooked up, but unfortunately there are some sooty imperfections in the clear glass. He cleaned all the tools and glass along the way, but there were still a few dark spots, so we're wondering if it's some sort of impurity in the boro or something that he should be doing differently. If any lampworkers out there know, we'd love to hear from you. The little paper snowflakes in the background came home with us from Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk performance in New York City this weekend. This show and NY trip were excellent in every way.

I don't usually like to show a bunch of progress pictures here, but corrugated ribbing takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r, so reaching this point on a mitten cuff feels like a huge accomplishment. They'll be the mittens on the cover of Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch. I started a pair a while back with a plain cuff because corrugated ribbing is so painfully slow for me, but at the time I didn't think the highly patterned mitten looked right with a plain cuff, so I tore it out. (Although now that I look back at that picture, I think I was a fool for tearing it out. Too late now.) Anyway, I am ga-ga about the Selbuvotter mitten patterns, but the book isn't available in our library system, so I'm very tempted to buy it (which, if you know me very well, you'll know that this is a pretty significant statement), although I'm really not sure that I'll enjoy knitting such detailed mittens/gloves. My solution was to again try a pair of mittens from Charlene Schurch's book, available at our library, and then see if I'd want to do it again or if I never want to see another colorwork mitten pattern in my life. To be determined. Although now that I'm looking at those Selbuvotter mittens and gloves, I'm noticing how many of them have plain or just striped cuffs. Hmm...even more of a temptation.