Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin, (a wonderful line of handcrafted organic clothing and DIY kits) is in the Bay area this week. She visited A Verb for Keeping Warm to conduct a fabric and stitching ‘tasting’ with stenciled and plain organic cotton jersey, floss, and beads.
About 30+ people geeked out with fabric swatches and stitched and sewed as we listened to Natalie talk about growing her business, sourcing and growing organic cotton, textile manufacturing in the U.S., the state of Alabama, and some of her future plans.
Natalie’s stories on the importance of making things and making and buying things locally vs. a far off land particularly resonated. Food, shelter, clothes…know where it comes from, and who makes it because they’re essential to our lives.
While we listened we all got a chance to play with generous swatches of Alabama Chanin jersey. 
And I ogled the hand stitched samples worn by many of my neighboring sewists.
As well as sewn by fellow stitchers.
We are really a terrible group to hang out with if you’re on a diet, trying to go low carb, low fat, low sugar, gluten free, Paleo, Atkins, or in any way trying to restrain yourself calorically.
Today’s 
There are probably more good Chinese restaurants out on that street than in Chinatown in SF now. House of Pancakes was favorably reviewed in 
You have probably already surmised that we’re not talking about the International House of Pancakes here. These are savory pancakes. This is not the place for chocolate chip pancakes or buttermilk waffles. These are made with dough- not batter, pan fried, filled with scallions and/or chicken, beef, pork, egg, and/or veggies. (In case you’re too far away and are now craving a savory Asian pancake and feel like making some yourself, here’s my recipe: 
These are pancakes sold on the street and at night markets in Asia. Salty, greasy, flaky goodness. House of Pancakes is definitely upscaled from an Asian roadside stand, but it’s not fancy either. There are about 10 tables. It’s a small spare space. We were thumbs up on every pancake, plus the tofu with salted greens (on the snack page – look on the back of the menu),
and the zha jiang mein made with handpulled noodles. 
If you’ve never had handpulled noodles, they’re awesome. Handpulled noodles take al dente to a different level. (Ask for sciss0rs to help cut and serve the noodles if you’re sharing by the way. The scissors were also helpful for dividing the pancakes into smaller pieces for sampling.)
Our days in Eugene were over cast for the most part. Raining, drizzling, even hailing sometimes. But there were intense bright spots of color….
piecedgoods 