My Edible Garden

We are really proud of how our garden is taking shape this year.  This has been keeping my hands busy and away from knitting and spinning as much, but hopefully it will reward us with lots of fresh produce, and enough to can and ferment.

A few years ago when Dan gave up his car and started taking the train to work, we started the conversion of his parking space into a raised bed garden.  This year, our wonderful new neighbor Aaron brought us a truckload of wood chips so that we could spread them between the planters.  In spite of the planters being placed on the old gravel parking pad, the weeds had found their way. Hopefully this will keep them at bay.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Vegetables in the back yard are:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Tomatillos
• Japanese Eggplant
• Pattypans
• Another squash I can’t remember
• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Leeks

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In the corner is the Compost bin

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Surrounded by wonderful mint

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And flowers at the back to make it pretty:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lavender, this is where knitting comes in.  Will be harvested to put in my yarn stash.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sunflowers coming up also, these we try to leave for the birds, if the squirrels don’t get there first.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And on the side of the house we are trying 3 shitake mushroom logs, although someone has been nibbling at them…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And the back yard has more vegetables, more kale & swiss chard again (not sure what Dan was thinking):

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lots of beautiful lettuce at the moment, and tons of dill in the background next to the herb planter.  I have let the dill take over space wherever they want, as the Monarchs love them in late summer.  And in the mid summer I see Black Swallowtail butterflies. In fact, we saw a couple of them as caterpillars this week, unfortunately so did the cardinals.  Momma dove down to snatch one up, while dad stayed high as the lookout.  We witnessed this twice.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Kohlrabi and beets (love to roast both of them!)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is one of our old Christmas trees, we will try to get the tomato to trellis up the branches.  Have had moderate success with this in the past.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And cannot forget food for the Monarchs:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And some pretty hostas and ferns from what used to be our shade garden.  This may change next year.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

All this from our little urban plot of land!

Chickens next year hopefully.  We have been chicken sitting, and it has convinced us that it is not all that hard.

Epic?

This lovely yarn from Juniper Moon Farm that I purchased last week at the Knot Just Knits closeout sale was begging to be knit up.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was purchased with the intent of knitting something for the Women’s Heart Association annual fundraiser that my SnB group has been knitting for the past couple of years.  Last year I did not contribute, so thought that I should start early this year.  I chose to reknit the Greta Garbo shawl by Nancy Bush.  A couple of years ago I knit this and gave it to my sister Diane.

Since the Juniper yarn is a much finer gauge than I knit this with, I chose to add an additional repeat and use a smaller needle.  At first I just cast on an extra set of stitches to repeat the large motif on each side.  This shawl is started at the bottom right and left edges, so this meant casting on 475 stitches.  After knitting the first row, I realized that there was a problem with my methodology. The border repeat is a multiple of 14, and the large center motif is a multiple of 48.  Didn’t work out, so I kinked back 475 stitches, as I really did not want to cast on all over.  Then I had to redraft how the bottom portion would knit up at the beginning and the center.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This yarn is so soft and lovely, 50% merino & 50% silk.  However, it is also a bit tedious to work with given this pattern, and I am nervous about the yarn slipping off the needles.  I am also hoping that the nupps will show prominently enough.  Currently they are a 5 stitch nupp, but I am considering switching to a 7 stitch nupp for the main part of the shawl.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And, then again, I may knit something much simpler for the main part, I will see how the border goes, and how it looks.  This shawl will not be traveling with me, nor going to knitting group until it is finished.  I have it setting next to my comfy rocker in the living room, and there it will stay while I work on it slowly.  Currently it takes about 20 minutes to do a row, but 4 stitches are decreased every other row, so it incrementally gets faster.  I have been tearing my knitting stuff apart looking for the point protectors so that I can make sure that nothing slips off when I am not working on it.  May have to buy some new ones.

So, will this be an epic feat, or an epic failure?  I know that I will use life lines on this one!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Google Sheep View

This is just too good not to share.  Google camera catches sheep all around the world.

English Tailoring

In October of 2012 I took a class from Julie Weisenberger, aka Cocoknits, on English Tailoring.  We worked on a baby sweater, starting at the mid point and doing the shoulder shaping.

I loved this class, and the cute little sweater that we knit up.  And then it sat, for over 2 years until I finished it earlier this winter. I thought that it was the perfect gift for my friend’s new grandson.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Buttons on, and it was finally off to the little recipient.  And here he is, room to grow:

Even though this took me so long to finish, I would definitely make it again.  Love this whole process.  Take a class from Julie whenever you have the opportunity.  I have taken 2, and would gladly take another.

Closeout Sale

A local yarn shop, Knot Just Knits will be closing their doors in a couple of weeks.  there is nothing I really need, so did not go the first week, when things were 30% off.  I did stop by this week, and at 40% off, got the following items:

A book by Lucinda Guy, I have 3 of her other books and really love the whimsical nature of some of the kids projects.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This cute dress intrigued me:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

As did these moose mittens:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A Piecework magazine is always in order.  This seems to be the only magazine that I am purchasing as of late.  I need to add my magazine collection to the Ravelry database, and then perhaps I would use them more.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I also purchased this pack of sock yarn, I am thinking that it will make some lovely Fair Isle mittens.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lace yarn to be used to make a shawl for the Go Red auction next winter.  I think that I will make the Gretta Garbo Shawl by Nancy Bush again for this .  This yarn is a bit finer, so might need to do additional repeats.  It is Findley by Juniper Moon Farm; 50% merino, 50% silk, color Serendipity.  Very soft, and I really liked another wool by Juniper Moon that I knit last Fall.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And lastly, there was some dishcloth yarn, that at 40% off seemed to be a good deal.  Might go back at 50% next week and see if any is left.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Oh, and Eucalan…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My new Hobby requires a few things…

Taking on a new hobby is not without some equipment and supplies.  I found these at Architectural Artifacts (led there by Kim and Jane), and got a great deal on the cones for warping my loom.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Luckily they fit nicely in my yarn closet, at the front of the baskets holding yarn and projects.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

For my second project I tried direct warping, and although I had to do it twice, it seems to have worked really well. I did not have a clamp to hook to, so brought one of my dining room chairs down.  Essentially you have a large cone of yarn sitting under the wheel and keep wrapping it over or under the back bar and then to “peg” that you have set the distance away to get the length that you want.  Because you are not tying down individual strings, except when you want to change colors, it seems to go much better.  My new weaving hook helps a lot too, tried the first time with a crochet hook, and that was really cumbersome.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is the video that shows how to do it, much better than I could describe.

And here is my 2nd project, over 1/2 way done.  Not sure what it will look like…  It is quick and fun though, and I have found a good location in the basement that was an unused area, and I can watch TV while working on this.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Magical Sweater

When young Franklin was not quite 2, I made this sweater for him, and posted about it here.

Legend has it that it became a favorite one, and was worn for many years on visits to Santa Clause.  One time when his dad took him on the train to visit Mom downtown, he arrived with the sweater on inside out; when questioned about it, the father replied that it looked just as good inside out.  A gift that loved, and worn that much, could not be better.

Well, I could not believe that he wore the sweater all those years.  I intentionally made it big so that it would last a long time, they started with the sleeves rolled up.

Then last week, this photo was in my inbox.  Franklin had just returned from a camping trip on a cold weekend, and this was what he wore, 7 1/2 years later!

How much longer can it go?

Gorgeous Gradient

I finished spinning this gradient from Zebisis Designs a couple of weeks ago.

This was the final product, 850 yards of 2ply, 3.5 ounces. On the skein winder the colors really show well :

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was cool when I washed this so it sat to dry on the bathroom radiator.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And, it sat skeined up like this until today.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was time to wind it, and now I am looking for the perfect pattern.  I really want a rectangular scarf/shawl so that each color will take up approximately the same width.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The colors show really accurately.  What I cannot show is how incredibly soft and squishy this yarn is, the 50% silk not only makes the colors vibrant and saturated, but gives a sheen and softness to the yarn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The perfect pattern search is on, no applied border, that way I can keep the colors intact. Any suggestions?