She finished the walk and made a bonnet May 15, 2008

First, I promised pics of the sweater a couple days ago.  My second Tangelo, this one made with Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton.  It’s a pretty periwinkle color.  Thank you Isabelle for modeling…

I have been working on my yard, turning it into a garden and I wanted to lay pavers to create a walk.  It wasn’t a job I was looking forward to doing on my own, but with the baby, my husband and I don’t get much time together to work on projects.  Today, however, my mother-in-law came to play with the baby, so we got to lay the walk.  It went quite well, and we finished in less than 2 hours.  Now mind you, it won’t be featured on any DIY Network show, or anything, but I don’t think “Holmes on Homes” would be horrified by it either!  Here is the full view and a close up with the flowers my Mother-in-law brought me today!

Also, today, while the baby played with grammy, I made her a little bonnet.  It’s a simplicity pattern, and it was inspired by the blog Frog Creek Cottage.  It’s a delightful blog that I’m thrilled I stumbled across, and look forward to her writing more.  The bonnet is fabulous and looks great on my daughter, who seems to like it.  Her dad has requested I make her one in a solid color so I think she’ll have one from some chocolate brown linen soon.  The other great thing about the hat is that it goes over pig tails very well!

It was a full day, that ended with a nice dinner out with my husband.  I’m thoroughly exhausted and going to bed now.  It is a nice feeling to go to bed tired from a hard days work!

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She is excited about potatoes! May 13, 2008

I have been searching the internet for information on gardening in tires. It seems to be a very efficient way, as well as economical, to create raised beds. We have enough space to plant in the ground, but raised beds provide better drainage, can save on water, are physically easier to access, reduce the amount of weeds and provide defined rows…all good reasons to consider them.

I found the following website, that had a great idea for potatoes: www.thegardenhelper.com

This is brilliant! A great way to maximize your potatoes, while keeping them safe from crazy spring and early summer rains.

“Potatoes without a garden

If you have no established garden plot, or if there just isn’t enough available space within your garden, you can still grow a respectable crop of spuds, and do a little recycling at the same time. Potatoes thrive in the warm environment of a soil filled tire!
Four tires + Two pounds of seed potatoes + Good soil = 20-30 pounds of winter potatoes!
Pick a spot where you can stack your tires which is out of the way and preferably out of sight. Loosen the surface of the soil just enough to allow for drainage, and set your largest tire in place. Fill the inside of the tire casing loosely with good topsoil, and then set 3-4 potato seeds into the soil. (Use sticks or rocks to keep the casing rings spread open.) Add enough soil to the tire “hole” to bring it to the same level as the soil inside the tire.
When the new plants are eight inches tall, add another tire and soil to the stack, as in the first level. Repeat the process for your third, and if desired, fourth tires. As you add tires and soil to the stack, the 8″ of the plant stalk is covered with soil. By doing this, the existing stalk essentially reverts to a root status and the plant is forced to grow upward to once again find the sunlight which it needs. (much like if you were to try to eliminate a dandelion by covering it with a scoop of soil) By raising the soil level this way (in 8″ increments) the plant is able to continue growing without suffocation, and at the same time you are creating a 24-30″ tap root from which many more lateral roots can develop. Each lateral root can then produce additional potatoes (at 3-4 levels rather than the normal single layer). When you water, be sure that the soil is thoroughly moistened all the way to the base of the pile.
The tires act as an insulator and heat “sink” for your potatoes. This added warmth will cause the lateral roots (where the new potatoes form) to multiply more rapidly, thereby giving you more potatoes. When you need fresh potatoes next fall and winter, harvest the crop from the top tire, and remove it from the pile. More potatoes??? Next tire…”

I decided to give it a try. There is a very good local organic farmer who lives in town, so I was talking to him about the “Potato Towers”. He’s grown them that way and says it works great. He also suggested a thin layer of pine needles under the potatoes. He finds it confuses the potato beetles, which can be a real problem in this area. So I collected needles and planted my first two potato towers. I have 4 more to plant, but possibly 8 more, depending on how crazy I decide to get. I think I have the space. I also planted my spinach today.

Behind the towers is the fence I’ve been putting in. I just need to create the gate and it will be done being built. To the left is the lattice I installed for the peas, which poked their heads up today!

The seedlings spent their first day out in the real sun today. Oh, and do you see on top of the knitting basket, peeking out…it’s the now finished Tangelo Sweater! I finished it in class tonight!! I’ll show pictures tomorrow.

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She has a knitting update April 22, 2008

All Knitting!  I have been doing that, even a lot, but I haven’t finished anything because I’m very scattered in my knitting right now.  I have so many projects going at once.  I did finish a sweater I started months ago.  I made the body, but wanted to do something creative on the front. I’ve made several of these great little cardigans from the book, Special Knits, by Debbie Bliss. While I do like the ribbed front that is in the pattern, since I’ve made so many I decided to mix it up a bit.

I picked up the stitches on the front, as I was supposed to.  Then 3 rows of Stockette.  Next knit row increase 1 stitch in each stitch.  10 rows of stockinette decreasing a stitch on each end.  This creates a rounded edge instead of an awkward pointy flare that will naturally happen with this technique.  Bind off on  a knit row.

I also made i-cords to sew on the front for a closure.  I like it, and am glad I tried something different.

It’s made with the Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton, Naturally Dyed.  It’s very soft and I love working with the yarn.

Not finished, but I’ll show you anyway.

Another Tangelo, this time in Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Dyed Cotton.  I love this yarn and knit on the 9′s to get the gauge I need it’s so soft it’s amazing.  I really like the color, first of all because it’s a color, and not black (which is a standby for me that I’m getting quite sick of), but it’s also a deeper tone so it should be flattering for the chubby gal I am.

This pattern is fun, and I think it’s worth it, but the ribbing is kind of a pain.  it changes several times, but like I said, the look is worth the work, and when all is going smoothly it is fun to knit.  This is skein 1 of this project.

The French Market bag is coming along.  I actually worked on it while driving the other day…did I just admit that?  I hope my parents don’t read that.

Finally, I’m working on a sweater for the baby. My mom is make the same sweater with luscious Jo Sharp silk/wool blend I posted pics of a few days ago.  The pattern had a little more to it then I originally though, so I figured it I did it at the same time I could stay a couple steps ahead of her so I could help her.  So the baby will have two sweaters one from Grammy and one from Mommy, knit simultaneously.  I think that’s pretty cool.  I’m using the same Malabrigo Worsted Merino Wool that I’m using for the body of my French Market Bag.  I love this color and this yarn!!  I worked on this sweater yesterday while standing in the field, next to the manure pile, while the guy on the tractor loaded the truck.  Never waste a minute you could be knitting!

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A blog not updated… February 10, 2008

…is a blog not read! This was what I was going to write to a friend of mine who has a very poorly updated blog…but then I realized I had little room to talk… I am so sorry to not update in so long.  Let’s see…I’ll start with the baby.  She’s doing great.  She’s healing very well…down to going to Shriner’s once a week this week, also down to bandaids!!  She has one little bandaid on one finger on her left hand and a small bandage on the right because where she would have a bandaid is the palm which is impossible to keep a bandaid on, so we are wrapping with gauze still, but only for the sake of keeping it on!  Her hands are still peel-y and the new skin is coming in, so they are pink, not fleshy, but they are healing and they look great!

I have been doing a lot of frustrating knitting.  I feel like everything is more work then it should be.  The toe up socks are done up to the start of the leg. I don’t know what pattern I want to use on the leg, I just know I don’t really want a simple rib.  While I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I had one sock fall off the needles….grrr…that tiny yarn is just too small, so a lot of fighting ensued.  They are back on the needles, and I will find a pattern soon, as these need to get done, just for my knitting sanity!  I’m not sure I really like knitting two socks on circulars.  It seemed like the perfect solution to the whole “knit a sock then…oh, look, you get to knit another” dilemma I have, but it’s a bit clumsy, so I think they take longer to make this way, even if you throw in a fair amount of procrastinating to start the second sock.

Here is what I have so far…

   

My other huge frustration is the Tangelo Sweater I had started a while back.  I don’t remember if I told you, but I had finished two arms and 1/4 of the body when I found out that the gauge was all wrong.  I had read the gauge in the pattern incorrectly, yet very inconveniently what I read is what I was coming up with on the right size needles.  In fact I was off by 4 stitches to the inch, which is going to make a dramatically smaller sweater!   I pulled it out and the proceeded to knit up swatches to determine the right needles.  I had to go up 2.5 sizes!  I am finally back on that project and have completed the cast on!  WhoooHOOO…  As pathetic as that is, I am not going to show you pictures.   But hopefully in the next few days I’ll have a respectable amount completed so images can be shown.

I’m going to go onto another post with the finished objects, that were not frustrating…

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Paris Night Sweater January 2, 2007

Last night I started a new sweater for myself. I didn’t knit garments for myself, other then scarves, until I made the Central Park Hoodie, and I’m loving it so much, that I decided to give knitting a sweater another shot. This time I hope to just plow through and finish so I can wear it this year! So far so good. Below is my little cuff from last night, and tonight I have 10″ of the 14.75″ sleeve done. I’m hoping for more knit time tomorrow, and I’m going to watch an episode of Gilmore Girls tonight, so maybe I’ll even finish this sleeve and have the next started by tomorrows post!

I’m using Malabrigo Yarn, in the color Paris Night, which is simply gorgeous! Great for the girl, like myself, who loves how slimming black is, but would like a little color in her wardrobe. It’s dreamy soft too!  The pattern is from the same Knit Scene magazine as the Central Park Hoodie, which was Fall of 2006 issue.  It’s called Tangelo, and I don’t plan on adding all the foofy flowers, but I will have a couple, which I’ll show the yarn for when I get there!  The magazine is out of print, and is the one that contains the oh, so popular Central Park Hoodie. But maybe you’ll be able to find it at your local yarn store, or library. It looks like this site might have one available.

Oh, and I am on Ravelry now!! Yay!! I’m having fun checking it all out. Very cool.

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