1. Last night, I had to pick a new book to read. I had finished one that was fantastic and wanted to start something engrossing and possibly fiction-y for relaxation purposes. (I am slowly making my way through Mythologies otherwise and this book is not pre-bed reading, let me tell you.)
2. I hate being between good books.
3. It is so much more fun to have a book ready to escape into a moment’s notice.
4. Apparently, I am in the mood for rereading.
5. I chose Barabara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which I read about this time last year.
6. I was instantly taken away by her easy style.
7. It’s not fiction, but it’s the kind of non-fiction book that reads like a novel. A love song to the countryside.
8. I wish I could write a sentence using the phrase, “boy howdy” and get away with it.
9. Perhaps if I were really from Kentucky instead of just claiming Paducah as my ancestor’s landing spot.
10. Apparently Paducah, KY is full to overrunning with Holts.
11. I have often thought I should go down there and investigate–find the place where my great great grandfather ran a distillery hidden in his blacksmith’s forge.
12. It’s an amazing story, and I will do it justice someday.
13. For now, I am headed back to school.
14. Hence the reading of Mythologies.
15. I am not really a Roland Barthes kind of girl, but he’s on the reading list.
16. To get a teaching license, I apparently must be well-versed in semiotics.
17. Yes, I am going back to school to become a teacher.
18. An English teacher.
19. Because I already have a degree in English.
20. And this whole working for nothing thing is really starting to grate on me.
21. I know you’re saying, teachers don’t make that much.
22. From where I’ve been sitting for these past few years, it seems a fortune, I promise you.
23. That’s not the main reason I am going back to school.
24. I am going back because I am not good at working from home–it enhances my introverted tendencies.
25. And every single job (besides Librarian) that I might be qualified for bores me to tears.
26. Teaching is something I can see myself caring about for longer than the time it takes me to master.
27. Something I don’t see myself wanting to move on from in 3 years.
28. Which is the amount of time I have spent at every single one of my jobs since I was 16, isn’t that funny?
29. I am still going to do the yarn thing.
30. I know production has been slow the last few weeks.
31. A combination of working a temp job that does not agree with me, and general anxiety about getting through the summer means all I want to do is sit on the sofa and knit and watch bad tv.
32. Which is what I plan on doing today.
33. And laundry.
34.The truth is, I am rather anxious about all of it.
A Few Things . . .
Posted in Uncategorized
Good Morning, Zuchini
Good morning, zucchini blossom
This is one of the plants that still needs to go into the earth box. Apparently pretty quickly, because it is getting ahead of me.
So are the potatoes!
I didn’t look in on the potatoes for a couple of days (just a couple, I am not neglectful) due to my job trying to kill me (another post I hope to write soon, I promise) and the potatoes grew! I am a new enough gardener that seeing something sprout after it’s planted in dirt and then watered it still magical. I don’t think it ever stops being magical, which is probably why gardeners are always adding more plants, taking up more of their yards, learning to can and freeze properly. They are addicted–and so am I. Now, if I can just remember to check the potatoes every day, I might be able to keep them alive.
Despite the job that’s trying to kill me, I have done some other stuff too.
I took this sweater out of Pterarnodon Worsted that was too big
to this kinky mess of yarn
And overdyed it a couple of times (I know it’s hard to tell from the photographs, but I promise, it’s much lovelier) to get a darker, richer brown that is destined to become some kind of vest I think. I have just under 1000 yards of yarn here, so I have room to play. Any suggestions?
Also, I started a new sweater.
I do love a poor photograph in the morning, don’t you?
I cast on the Surfer Tee that Stefanie Japel has been blogging about this week–mostly because I liked the neckline and I am a sucker for a kangaroo pocket. The pattern is free right now on her blog–not sure how long it will be up.
I am doing something that most people would advise you not to do ever never ever. I am knitting this sweater in the size I want to be and not the size that I currently am. Perhaps I am overly optimistic because I have lost 20 lbs recently, and am hoping that I can lose another 20-30 more before the cold comes again. I am knitting for my future self and I don’t care who knows it. I needed some sweater therapy and this is just about right. (Yarn is knit picks swish worsted in lost lake heather–which is knitting up nicely, but I have to say, I am so used to minimally processed stuff (EG, Pteranodon Worsted) that this feels kind of like American cheese when you’re used to artisan cheddar.)
What are you working on this weekend?
Posted in Balcony Garden, In The Works, Inspiration
Tagged gardening, Knitting, potatoes, Stefanie Japel, Surfer Tee, zuchini
Fiber Play
While I am still plugging away on my Daybreak and Brock’s birthday socks, and pretty much letting the Birds and Dinos Cardigan languish, I have been having many other ideas of what to do with yarn lately.
Some involved turning a new find
into some new yarns
and turning a sweater that’s too big,
into a big pile of pure potential
Posted in In The Works
Tagged dyeing, food color, frogging, good safe dye, sweater, tie dye sock yarn, yarn
Garden Update
Basil ready for transplanting.
I have been a bad gardener so far this season. Most of the seedlings Athrun and I planted failed, mostly because I couldn’t afford the soil to transplant them soon enough. I can’t take all the blame though, the weather has been so wishy washy that we have had random freezes, even with days regularly in the 90s since March. One pour squash plant was decapitated by an errant yo-yo. Things happen, and there is still time to start over.
Last night I went to the hardware store and bought a whole heap o dirt. I mean, during this time of year, I am sure it’s not uncommon for someone to buy 4 bags of 2 cubic feet of potting soil, or even more. I do think it is probably unusual for someone to ask for it to be loaded in the back seat of a Ford Escort instead of the bed of pick up truck (at least there was no kid in the car seat is all I am saying because there was no room back there for anything but dirt.)
And, I am pretty sure my neighbors thought I was crazy, hauling that much soil up into my apartment. They know how small the apartments here are. Where would you keep that much dirt? What would you do with it?
I am keeping my mounds of neatly bagged soil on the balcony–along my garden table (folded for now), a blanket for low temperature nights, a chair for convenience (you can see a leg off to the left) and these:
That my friends is what I am now christening a potato bag. It looks to be tarp sewn in a cylinder with two little velcro flaps on the side and some drainage holes in the bottom. I got two for $14.99, which looking at the materials out of the package, seems to me a little steep. However, I have never grown potatoes before, so what do I know?
Over the winter we had some organic potatoes sprout before they could be eaten. I kept them in the window all winter long and they were growing very well off their own tuber energy. Last night I planted six of them in the potato bags.
Some alien-looking potato sprouts.
I followed the instructions on the package for the planter, with a little bit of wisdom from the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible (which is due back at the library tomorrow and makes me sad.) With any luck, we’ll have our own crop of potatoes this year.
I’ll be planting the Earth Boxes this weekend with tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and one box will be dedicated to whatever Athrun wants to plant. Probably something impractical that he won’t eat, but you never know.
I loved getting my hands in the dirt again, even if it was bagged potting soil.
Posted in Balcony Garden
Tagged balcony garden, basil, container gardening, dirt, gardening, herbs, potato bag, potatoes, soil, vegetable garden
Bazaar Recap
The bazaar this weekend was a lot of fun. I love a good excuse to hang out in a room full of people working on fibery pursuits. There was a lot of knitting (I was mostly working on a sock, because I am sooo exciting that way), spinning, weaving, and needle felting. I needle felted for the first time! I was very proud of my flat square of wool. I will have to get some more direction on how to make something other than a rectangle from Anna the next time she offers classes.
I have been making subtle changes to my set up every week.
This time I hung my hand dyed tops on my drying rack, which gave me room to spread the worsted weight yarn out a bit.
The best seller of the weekend was definitely the sock yarn.
My sock yarn shelf is starting to look just a little bit sad. It doesn’t help that I am out of vinegar and have consistently forgotten to purchase any when out for the past week–and therefore I can’t dye. As soon as a gallon of vinegar makes it home with me there will be more sock yarn.
I made a really great score from the BlushingEwe booth.
Tarnish on the left, Fireflower on the right. I had in mind to find something at the bazaar that I could weave a fun scarf for myself out of, and these two lovely ladies just fit the bill. I love how elegant and understated tarnish is, and how loud and saturated fireflower is. They are about the same percentages of wool, silk, and firestar, and I can’t help but feel I am going to have a very luxurious woven scarf when I finish.
Here they are pulled into roving and ready to spin. I like to pull it out so I still get all of the layers ate one time for the color and texture variation, but so that it is still in an orderly strip. I find spinning directly from batt form a little difficult.
I seem to be on a bit of a neck warmer kick. First the Ebbtide, then all the luxurious woven scarf planning, and of course, the Daybreak I started a few days ago.
I am a little less than half way through the striped section for the largest size. It’s very easy and fun to knit–and I love how retro looking my colors are turning out.
Spring Bazaar
A few of you locals might be interested to know that instead of being at the farmers market this weekend, I will attending the spring fiber arts!
I, the Potwin Fiber Artisans and I will be at Potwin Presbyterian Church in Topeka. We are on the First Friday Art Walk Friday from 5-9 pm. On Saturday, we will be open from 9am to 5pm. The coolest part is that we will be offering mini-classes, from knitting to spinning to weaving.
Come join us. It will be a blast!
Other notables:
Alpacas at Orchard Hill will be there (ie, the finest alpaca in Kansas)
Blushing Ewe will be there as well with her gorgeous batts. (I usually can’t resist buying one myself.)
The Industrious Knit’n Spin who has been working her tail off, so make sure you give her some love when you see her.
My mission, to find yarn and / or fiber for my first unsupervised weaving project.
New Object
Posted in In The Works
Tagged daybreak shawl, Hand-dyed Yarn, protoceratops yarn, westknits
Flash Sale!
Take 10% off your entire order from the Tiny Dino Studios etsy site from now until midnight central standard time!
Use coupon code DINO10 at check out.
Hurry! That yarn you have your eye on might not be there come Monday.
Posted in Almost a Business
Tagged farmers market, flash sale, sale, yarn, yarn on sale
In the Works Wed–Wait! What?
This is what happens when I try to do a regular, weekly segment here on the blog. I plan and plan (in my head where all the most reliable planning is done dontcha know) about what I want to include in the “In the Works Wednesday” post; what project to talk about and how cool and interesting and squishy they have been.
This morning before work, I was making a to-do list for the open time I had later on in the day. As I write “photograph new yarn for etsy” I think, “I could go ahead and photograph all my projects on the needles, because Wednesday is coming up pretty quick and I have so much free time on Thursdays–Gah! It’s Thursday!” Thursday, you know, the day after Wednesday.
I am not sure how I missed Wednesday, even though I did all of my other normal Wednesday things (except blog!)
Here I am a day late, hoping you enjoy this post just as much as you might have yesterday when the alliteration still made it a cool day to post it. I can’t even think of any cool Thursday alliteration, so before I start feeling down on my brain power, because clearly I haven’t been overwhelmed by rejoining the workforce or anything, let us move on to woolier subjects.
I started knitting Brock’s birthday socks. You will be able to tell I have been running on low bandwidth when you check out the rest of my projects–they haven’t made much progress, but in a week with very little knitting time I have managed to knit most of a large, gentleman’s sock. I excel at stockinette in the round.
The pattern is just a plain top-down sock with a heal flap, pretty much the only sock pattern I ever use because I don’t need a pattern to knit it anymore. (Locals, this is the sock I will teach when I finally get around to scheduling some more knitting classes. Stay tuned.) The yarn is “French Roast” from Swift Fiber Studio in 75/25 BFL/Nylon.
Isn’t it gorgeous?
Next up I have a tangle of a super secret surprise project that may or may not be a pattern in the making that is currently kicking my butt.
Can you tell what it is yet?
The yarn is Pteranodon Worsted in Cretaceous Grape. There is still one skein left in the shop if the color catches your fancy.
Then, I have the lace weight cardigan. And I swear I have been knitting on it. I have actually added two whole inches to the length!
Not that you can really tell.
How are your projects going?
Posted in In The Works
Tagged birthday socks, cardigan, Knitting, oviraptor yarn, pterarnodon yarn, shawls, socks, sweater, yarn
Evidence
Last post I mentioned I was headed out to an alpaca shearing. Today, I have the sore body and the photographs to prove it.
We sheared 24 alpacas. Well, I say we sheared, I mean Paul sheared, and I clipped a lot of toe nails.
And all I can say is thank goodness for Juniper Moon Farm and Shepherding camp. I was the only one (who wasn’t a vet student) who wasn’t reluctant to give the trimming a go. I was excited for it! (A couple of others pitched in when I had about had it, and I appreciate that more than I can say.)
Here’s a photograph of me all hunched over circular looking trimming alpaca toes. I was pretty darn exhausted by this point, but I am now determined to strengthen the muscles in my hands (and other places) so that the next time it’s a piece of cake.
And just for fun, cute pictures of the pacas.
Naked pacas
A reluctant cria named Pixi
All photograph copyright Scott Wickham 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
