Pearl of the Pacific Home

Phases of obsession

lucia — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:38:47 +0000

I’m sorry that I have been so bad at blogging regularly. Life has been a bit crazy lately. Now that it has calmed down momentarily I hope to be back to blogging more regularly. Well..enough about that, on to the good stuff.

I don’t know about you, but I go through phases of being obsessed/enamored by a particular hobby or topic. At the moment it is knitting… I have known how to knit for a long time but I’ve recently taken it back up as a hobby. It is a good way to get my mind off things and keep my hands busy. It gives me a sense of accomplishment when I finish a project and the process is also useful in keeping me busy while spending hours on public transportation. Homework will start to take over more and more of my time so I’m trying to take advantage of the time I have now to finish as many projects as I can before winter comes. Right now I’m in the process of doing a picot edging bind off on a shawl that I’ve been working on for a while, which I will be very happy to have off the needles. I also just finished a baby sweater for friends of mine who are expecting a little boy in a week or so. I still have to weave in the ends, block it and sew on buttons, but it is absolutely adorable! Next I plan to cast on for my first pair of socks since its it is ‘soctober’ and hopefully a sweater for myself (my first one). You can find me on ravelry as PearOfThePacific if you want to check out these projects. Pictures should be posted this weekend if all goes well. If you have any suggestions or tips for a first time sock and sweater knitter please leave them in the comments below. Thank you in advance.

Back to School

lucia — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:39:20 +0000

As many of you already know, I am in graduate school studying energy systems. Basically what that entails is lots of courses involving math and other engineering related topics with the hope of learning something about alternative energy. This semester I am taking a particularly challenging course entitled “Transport Phenomena.” You are probably scratching your head and making quizzical faces at the computer screen wondering what on earth that means. It combines about 5 of my undergraduate engineering courses including: fluid mechanics, differential equations, heat transfer, dynamics, and thermodynamics. In plain English, the course teaches about the transport of momentum, energy and mass in liquids and gases. It may sound simple, but it is quite far from it. Right now I’m working on the first homework assignment which is 3 problems and we have 2 weeks to do them…and there is a reason. Well, I should probably get back to those problems. Thanks for reading and I’ll try to write more regularly in the future.

Continental vs English style Knitting

lucia — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:07:40 +0000

Lately I’ve been really getting into knitting. The mini bow is just so fun, easy and quick to knit! Originally, I learned to knit using the english style (having the yarn in your right hand) from my grandmother, but lately I’ve been wanting to try continental style (yarn in your left hand) since I’ve heard that is much faster. A couple of weeks ago I decided to teach myself using whatever videos I could find online. I began using a yarn that kind of unwinds easily which was a bad choice and I also seem to knit a lot tighter when using the continental style (and a lot slower at the moment) so the beginning was challenging and frustrating to say the least. Now that it has been almost two weeks, I’ve done a couple really small projects using the continental style I’m starting to get the hang of it. I think it will be much better in the long run as I get faster at it. I just started on the Cedar Leaf Shawlette pattern by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting as my first big project in a while and so far the continental kitting is going well. I also tried a new style of casting on since trying to cast on 270 stitches with the long tail method (which was my previous cast on of choice) would be rather difficult..so I used the cable cast on method. It was slower because I’m not as familiar with it, but I like the way it turned out. I’m using a lavender color Rowan Cashsoft DK yarn that I picked up today from my local yarn shop because it was on sale and I just loved the feel. I kept walking around the shop feeling yarn and I always went back to that bin. I ended up getting their last 3 balls of the lavender and 4 balls of a light blue for some other project I dream up in the future. I have been having so much fun on Ravelry looking up cool new patterns to try. If you’re a knitter you can find me there as Pearl of the Pacific.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings….I want to know if you are a continental or english style knitter? Please leave a comment below letting me know what your favorite style is and why and if you have always knit in that style or if you changed at some point during your knitting career?

#aPieForMikey

lucia — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:30:02 +0000

Many of you have probably lost someone close to you and sometimes very suddenly. If so, you can sympathize well with Jennifer Perillo who suddenly lost her beloved husband this week to a heart attack. She is a food editor for Working Mother magazine, mother of two girls and food blogger. Everyone in the food blogging community wanted to know how they could support her through this and she asked everyone to make a peanut butter pie in honor of her late husband and share it with people they loved. Here is a link to her blog post about it: http://www.injennieskitchen.com. It seems that everyone on twitter (at least in my little world of twitter people) has been talking about #apieformikey for the past week. So I decided to join food people from around the world in baking a pie for Mikey. I’m also doing it for my grandmother who, as you know from my last post, passed away about a year ago. She loved baking pies and so I’m doing this in her memory as well.

I have to eat gluten and dairy free so I had to modify the recipe a bit in order to make it work for me. I used this recipe for cashew cream instead of whipping cream and this recipe for diary free condensed milk. Thank you to the Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, for these recipes. Here are pictures of me making those.

As those were cooling in the fridge I set off to the store again to acquire the ingredients I needed for the crust since the first store didn’t have what I needed. I had to wait for the massive thunderstorm to pass first though. After purchasing the rest of the ingredients and a pie pan (because I didn’t have one..) I was ready to make the pie of nutty goodness. I started with a almond flour crust (because I can’t have chocolate…I know..such a tragedy!) with this recipe (I found it a long time ago so I forget exactly where it came from):

1½ cups blanched almond flour
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda
2. In a small bowl, combine grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
3. Stir wet ingredients into dry
4. Pat dough into a 9.5 inch glass pie dish
5. Bake at 325° for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown

While that was baking I started on the filling with the recipe from Jennie’s blog (link above). Since I don’t have a stand mixer I used a whisk and my own brute strength. My roommate was making pesto at the same time so I used the dinning room table since our kitchen is so small. Here is a picture of the mess I made (I used all three of my spatulas, 2 whisks, and many bowls and spoons):

The pie crust finished so I brought it out to cool. I put carob chips and leftover cashews from the whipped cream on half (my roommate has a strong aversion to carob).

The carob chips melted nicely on the hot crust while I finished up the filling. After I put the filling in the pie and put it in the fridge to set, it was time for a yummy pesto pasta dinner made by my roommate. Because I had so much pie filling left over (I tend to over estimate when making measurements) I ended up making another crust after dinner. I put carob powder in this crust since I already had some without. I had to use a loaf pan since I only have one pie dish (which I bought this morning). I coated the bottom of this one with carob chips and cashews as well before filling it.

Both pies are now in the fridge to set overnight and be ready to enjoy tomorrow. I’m glad I ended up with two pies so that I can share them with more people that I love This has been a great reminder to always tell people how you feel because it may be your last chance…

Here are some pictures of the finished pies..I can’t wait to eat them and share them with people I love!

A thank you note to my grandmother “Gigi”

lucia — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:12:28 +0000

My Grandmother and Me in Jan 2010

A year ago this past Tuesday, my dear grandmother left this mortal plane and ascended to the heavenly realm above so I wanted to take some time to thank her for all she taught me. She had an abundance of caring and compassion and a kind word for all. She could also be a force to be reckoned with if she wanted to. Her high standards for everything combined with her lack of patience always seemed to bring out the best in us in the end. She taught me how to knit, a skill that I’ve been using a lot lately. She taught me how to be strong and stand up for what is right. Her strength can be seen in all the women in my family and her legacy will never die. Her love of and value for good music permeated the whole family and we are all grateful for that.

I had the bounty of spending a year with her while she was living with my family and I feel so blessed to have had that time with her. I will always have fond memories of taking her for walks down our street, even though they weren’t really her favorite part of the day. Her sharp mind and witty comments always kept us laughing.

I love you Gigi..thank you for everything!

What’s in a name?

lucia — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:24:39 +0000

Many of you may be wondering how I decided upon the name of the company and the logo…so here is the story behind all of it.

My mother’s father, whom I called Papa, gave nicknames to all of his grandchildren. Mine was the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’. This probably stemmed from the fact that I was born and raised in Hawaii (which is in the middle of the Pacific ocean). Whatever his reasoning, I loved when he called me that, it made me feel special and loved. Because of all the positive memories I decided to use that name for my business in order to remind myself to cultivate an atmosphere of love and caring. I keep this feeling in my mind when creating all of my pieces and I hope it gets conveyed to all my wonderful customers as then enjoy my creations.

While trying to decide on a name, I was also thinking of what I wanted the image of the company to look like. I wanted it to be organic and natural looking. I decided that drawing the logo and other patterns myself was the best way to achieve this look. I really like paisley patterns, plaids and polka dots so I set about finding the best combination of these using pastel colors. [As you can see..a 'P' alliteration started appearing, which is one of the reasons I finally decided to use Pearl of the Pacific as the company name and purple as the company color.] I went through many patterns and drawing sessions to finally get something I was happy with. I hope you enjoy the slight whimsicalness of it all and the fun feeling it creates.

How I made a very inexpensive light box

lucia — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:48:21 +0000

Ever wondered how professional photographers take pictures with such nice lighting? They use light boxes or light tents to achieve a soft diffused lighting look. I decided to make a light box today so I could photograph items for my shop. I followed the instructions from this link: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent with a few slight modifications. I used materials I had on hand and bought a poster-board from the local craft store for $0.70.

I started with boxes left over from my Costco trip last weekend and taped them together to look like the cut-out box from the tutorial.

Then I stabilized some of the sections with chopsticks, glued some white paper on the inside, inserted the poster-board, and covered the sides and top with material from old t-shirts.

Creating Space

lucia — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:30:10 +0000

Today I finally sat down in my living room to do some crafting for my business…it had been a while. I noticed how important it is to me to create an inviting and inspiring work space. Below is a picture of my space this afternoon (before I made it a huge mess). I made a fire in the fireplace and laid out a blanket (the hardwood floors can get uncomfortable after a while and also beads are less likely to run away when they have to fight the friction of the blanket). I had a lovely afternoon beading and listening to music and got quite a lot done. The cat didn’t even bother me! I encourage you to create a nice crafting space for yourself whether it is at a desk or the dinning room table or a blanket on the floor; having a space to call your own, even for just a few hours, is important.

Another important aspect of creating space is creating space in your life for the arts. This can include a variety of different things from arts and crafts to going to see a musical performance. The arts are a part of our lives and cultures and it would be hazardous to your health to neglect creating space for some form of artistic expression in your life. My suggestion is to make a point to include at least one form of art in your life everyday whether it be dancing, poetry, playing an instrument or even just singing in the shower. The arts nourish our soul…so just as your body needs food, your soul needs art. Well, I will get off my soap box for today. Thanks for listening and please comment below about how you incorporate the arts into your daily life.

Welcome

lucia — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:13:36 +0000

Aloha and Welcome to my blog. I create beaded earrings and necklaces, knit and crochet creations for people and 18” dolls, while doing my best to be eco-friendly. I am in graduate school studying energy systems and also working full-time as a data analyst. This business is my quest for an enjoyable source of extra income.

In this blog I will share stories of my adventures to create new items and those little things in life that inspire those creations. I’ll share new knitting or crocheting patterns that I’m learning or using and exciting new beads that I’ve found to work with among many other topics. I look forward to your comments and suggestions of things you’d like me to try or styles you think might be inspiring. I am always open to new ideas for projects or designs so don’t hesitate to chime in.

You can view my shop at Pearl of the Pacific’s etsy shop, ‘like’ me on facebook at Pearl of the Pacific’s Facebook page, and/or follow me on twitter @PearlofPacific. I hope you will join me in this adventure. Stay posted for special deals