food truck – not your average crochet

sewing and a belated link

Hey everyone! I have a bit of a different post for you today. I’ve been doing some sewing and wanted to share it with you.

As you can guess, working on a food truck is very hot. Working outside the food truck for hours in the sun is also very hot. Appropriate attire is a bit tough to figure out — if you wear a shirt you’ll need an undershirt to keep your sweat from showing through, which works but also makes you a bit hotter. Dresses are ideal for standing outside (inside the truck you need to stick with the shirts), but there is the problem of wind. I was nearly discommoded by a strong breeze a couple of weeks ago, but I caught the skirt before it flew up. Here’s the dress, which as you can see is a bit short, meaning the problem is likely to happen often:

That close call reminded me of something I’d heard a long time ago about sewing things into the hem of a dress to weigh it down just a bit and keep it from blowing up. The best options I could think of were cheap chain necklaces or small fishing weights. The fishing weights were really cheap, so I went with those:

They actually don’t weigh very much (although heavier options are available), but since the fabric is so thin I didn’t want to weigh it down too much and make it look weird. I went to my handy dandy sewing box, which my mom used to use:

Using navy thread, I hand-sewed a fishing weight every 5 inches along the hem of the dress:

Testing it out today revealed that the fishing weights do indeed help with breezes, but are still not effective against stronger gusts of wind. I’m debating on getting another pack (they’re only about $1.50) and sewing more in. It took such a long time though, working with such tiny things and making sure that they were securely attached, that I’m not up to doing more right now.

The second thing I wanted to mention today is a bit belated. Over a week ago, Rachel from The Little Room of Rachell made a guest post on another blog about how to crochet if you are left-handed. Being right handed myself, I never really thought of how troublesome it would be to try to learn as a leftie from right-handed instructions (which pretty much everything is), but now I see that it would definitely be nice to have some instruction. I just wanted to link to her post so you can see it, if you haven’t already. The post is on the blog Slugs on the Refrigerator; click here for the post! I had actually never seen that blog before, so I subscribed immediately — it looks great!

That’s all for today, thanks for stopping by! The next CAL post is already scheduled, so get ready for Saturday!

my temp job on a food truck

A few posts ago I mentioned that I’ve started working on an as-needed basis on a food truck called The Herban Legend, and I wanted to share a bit about it with you. It’s so fun, and I wish I could just keep doing that for a while (but I need a job that will have more hours and thus, more money). I’m actually really proud of the business, the chef I work with (my chef boyfriend’s head chef’s girlfriend… so many chefs!), and myself — I’m learning quickly and doing my best! Here are some pictures:

You order at the window, and inside there’s a fryer, a flat top grill, some warmers, a refrigerator for the fresh ingredients, a freezer, a cooler for the drinks, a sink, and the little area in front of the window that has a table/cutting board. That’s a lot in such a small space! I stand at the window and take orders using both regular paper tickets and an iPad app that’s like a cash register. The chef’s phone has an attachment that works with the same register app, and it lets you swipe credit/debit cards. Pretty cool, right? I also season the fries, put things in the little baskets and paper bags, and call out the names of the customers to give them their orders. I’m learning what goes into each dish, so maybe I’ll be able to construct them myself sometimes when we get really busy!

The menu is designed with a few staple items and some specials that can change from day to day, depending on what ingredients are available and what new ideas the chefs have. Here’s what we were serving on Wednesday:

I’ve tried almost everything and it’s all amazing! The Parmesan truffle fries are especially great — they’re tossed with Parmesan, truffle oil, and a salt blend:

There are always some left over at the end of the day, so I get to eat them along with a free meal of my choice! It’s really a great job, I just wish I could work more days/hours!

Just wanted to share this with you. I know it’s not crochet/knitting related but it’s something I’m really excited about, and I don’t go off-topic too often, right? 🙂

Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Back to the CAL tomorrow — it’s gonna be a great installment!