Planned Purlhood

This year, I was determined to have a decent garden. So far, I have two 4×4 foot square foot garden beds and quite a few containers growing “stuff”. I started six tomatoes from seeds this winter. All but one survived the heavy rains. I’ve got a patio tomato, a cherry, two early girls, two brandywines and one striped. Or two striped and one brandywine.

My pepper plant starts didn’t do too well, and neither did the lavendar. I’ve decided to just buy the darned pepper plants, so I now have 4 sun bells, 4 poblano, 1 red bell, 1 serrano, and 1 cascabel. At least 10 basil plants now. The cilantro decided to bolt rather early.

A couple flat leaf parsley, three Florence fennel plants, chives, carrots, volunteer red potato, sweet potato, rhubarb, and four red cabbages round out the field. Oh, and I just broadcast a bunch of “mesculin” mix in the empty spots on a raised bed.

It’s going to be interesting keeping up w/ the watering. I think it’ll be the last thing I do before going to bed in the morning.

I received my mini swap quilt from my partner this past week. Its super cute – thank you!

The block pattern is “Bento Box”. It’s destined as a table topper.

This is the one I sent. Since my machine quilting sucks, I decided to hand quilt it.

I haven’t done much sewing in the past week – mostly knitting and spinning. I expect that I’ll be back at the sewing machine soon enough.

This post is for my MT swap partner so that she may have some idea what I like in quilts and design.

Basically, I like clean, symmetrical lines and clear, un-muddied colours. Think IKEA vs picasso. My first quilt top is basically like that.

I also love scrappy charm quilts in all those fabulous new modern quilt lines that have been coming out lately. My favorite blocks include: straight up nine & four patch, bento box, chinese coins, to start.

Currently, my favorite colours are lime green (spanning from the rind of the lime to the flesh), sky blues, turquoise, brown, white, and black. I’m starting to get into yellows and oranges, but I usually say if you can find it in nature (or the back yard) I like it.

I live in a dove grey house with white trim and lots of dandelions.

What’s new:

Spud’s tripled in mass since bringing him home in November. He eats like a typical herbivore, which means A LOT. He’s up to 1/2 cup of pellets and 3 cups of fresh greens a day, plus all the hay he can turn into (free) fertilizer. He’s bonded to John, and I’m Persona Non Grata. Figures. He’s a smart little shit, too. We’re composting his litter box contents, and Horace (the name of the compost heap) is going to be very good for this years vegetable garden.

Knitting continues in fits and starts. My frog to finish ratio is still a bit high, no thanks to me trying to knit things that weren’t designed for anyone over 5’6″. At 5’11″ and large framed, knitting to spec on fitted garments (anything written for a woman) is going to be too small. I was 70%+ into Peak’s Island Hood before I realised it was going to be too small in the hood section and there was no way I was going to REKNIT that much seed stitch to accommodate my noggin. I hate seed stitch. If I could say it gives me hives, I would.

There’s no FO pics as either they aren’t FO’s or they were gifted out before I could get them photographed or they aren’t gifted yet and won’t be posted.

I’ve been working on my knitting goals for 2010. After going through my 2009 projects, I’ve found that I need to concentrate better on monogamy and stop “testing” things. Just knit for god’s sake! Here’s some things I’ve decided on for this year:

10 Shawls in 2010 (self explanatory, more details at the Ravelry group)
Finish the Mandala Shawl
Participate in the Winter Ravelympics
Get all my fleeces scoured (this will have to wait for warm/fair weather – nothing dries these days in the basement)
Finish John’s sweater (it only needs assembling and the collar knit)
Finish Eris
Organize the “Craft Storage Room” (That DOES give me hives just thinking about)
Knit a few pairs of socks out of SOCK YARN, no merino need apply.
Weave more.

I’m sure there’s more I can do, but that’s a good start.

Some spinning has taken place. I’ve found that I really don’t care to spin lace weight yarn (at least from commercial prep), even now that I have a production spinning wheel. My poor attention span is absolutely shot these days and the time it takes to spin even an ounce into fine enough singles for a 2-ply laceweight is enough to drive me batty. I may put that project into a time out and spin something “bigger”. This also reminds me that I need to find my hand cards and/or purchase a higher TPI pair (mine are only 72 tpi, and I’d like something over 100 for finewool). Nothing beats spinning long draw from a rolag. NOTHING.

More anon.

In the interest of “content”, I present the December 2008 Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club offering of “Champagne”. Domestic wool blend.

I carded the top into batts, then spun it woolen for approximately 424 yards averaging 14 wpi (varying from way-too-thin to aran). 5 oz. I’m supposed to get 8 oz each shipment, so I’m hoping there’s a lost spindle with a bunch of this stuff wrapped around it buried in a box somewhere.

Before!

and as yarn:

There’s also been some weaving and knitting going on in between plumbing dramas at Chez Purlhood.

The latest scarf off the rigid heddle loom. Socks that Rock Lightweight as warp and Cascade Heritage Sock as weft.

The knitting?  Right, no pictures available for that.  We’ve entered Winter Gift Knitting Season.

I signed the papers on the house today.  It’s been 65 days since I first saw the house and submitted the offer.

I want to thank Carol Jackson, pricipal broker at Premier Properties for getting me through this.  She has been downright amazing with this “foreclosure from Hell”.  I couldn’t have done it without her!

Now, to pack and move this crazy wool-filled household!

After seven (?!) attempts at a crocheted potholder pattern that I liked, I finally settled upon something.

One thing about crocheted flat stuff, you’re going around, and around, and around….thus the dizzy spell. Anywho.

Here’s the sorta-pattern, adapted from an old coaster I found lurking in the kitchen. No idea of the original source.

Make 2.
Ch 4. Join w/ sl st.
Round 1: 10 sc in ring
Round 2: (3-dc cluster, ch 1) in each sc
Round 3: (2-dc cluster, ch 1) twice in each ch 1 space
Round 4: (3-dc cluster, ch 1) in each ch 1 space
Round 5: (3 dc, ch 1) in each ch 1 space.
Round 6: dc in each dc and ch-1 space.
Round 7: dc in each dc

Join the two layers with crab stitch.

I’ve finally opened an etsy shop for my handspun.  I might even list some spinning fibers, too.

What’s in the first shop update?

One lonely skein of yarn.  It’s a BIG skein, it’s PINK, and it’s BFL.

Anyway, one can find it and the shop here.

In knitting knews, I finished something.  My attention span has been severely lacking, and it’s a wonder I can brush my hair without getting distracted, let alone knit an entire THING.

Handspun tussah singles. Fiber dyed by THE Abby. The FO met with Abby’s approval, so I’m feelin’ pretty good about it.  Ravelry link.

I also knit a hat for Johnny.  It’s “Thorpe”.  I didn’t know if he’d actually LIKE an ear-flap hat, but since it reminds him of the old-fashioned football helmets, it’s good to go.

My first and only skein of Dream in Color Classy has been knit into a plain beanie hat and a Bainbridge scarf.  I’m not bothering with pics, as I’m very disappointed with this yarn.  Two knots, kempy, and honestly a bit itchy.  The fiber feels like it was over heated during the dye process.  I’d rather have Cascade 220 next to my skin.  To add insult to injury the yarn sagged horribly in the SOAK wash.  I can’t wear the hat outdoors now, as it’s not warm enough.  I knit it on size 7′s and you can see hundreds of little seive-like holes in the fabric of the hat.  Sheesh.

No recipe today. My only experiment with making sausage stuffing from scratch met with a soggy end. Yucko.

When faced with an expiring package of wonton wrappers, one resorts to desperate measures.  Sorta.

Here’s my lackadaisical version of “Pelmeni”.  Think Russian Wontons in broth.

• Jimmy Dean Natural sausage
• Round wonton wrappers
• Chicken broth

Place 1 tsp of sausage in each wonton wrapper.  Seal and pinch into an ear-shape package.  Simmer in chicken broth for 7 minutes.

SOLD

I have the following cupcakes for sale, all are full except where noted.

• Farmgirl
• Vacuuming in Pearls
• The Dawn
• Wednesday’s Market
• Sinfonia
• Wake
• Garden Apron
• Synesthia
• Sinflower
• Ivory Merchant
• Dirty Jack * sampled twice

$10 shipped, Paypal only