Sunday afternoon matinee

Dearest blog readers, here come some updates:
Garden News:
First and foremost, I have a garden, that’s news in itself.  My last post show updates from my little weensy garden space, and now I present to you the progress report:

The back of the yard garden, which has exploded with zucchini and radishes.  The giant patch of overgrown green you’re looking at is the most successful batch of plants.  To the left, if you squint real hard, you might be able to make out the carrots and the single green bean vine that’s clinging desperately to the fence.  The lettuce was a dead end, I never saw a single plant.  They have since been dug up and replaced with a more formal spot for my exploding tomato plants.  I didn’t have the heart to choose which ones got to live and die, so I let them all live, and now I have 5 tomato plants.  Only 4 actually fit in this teensy patch of garden…

….the other one gets to live it up bachelor style in his own plant pot on the porch, next to the saucy downtown herbs.  The tomato cages are courtesy of Momma Vrock, who let a giant tree fall on them, so they are mangled and twisted and look like they belong in a Tim Burton inspired garden for twisted and mangled things.  I bent them back into shape as best I could.

The shady corner garden to pretty plants that we don’t plan to eat.  They’ve all grown bigger, and I really should have weeded before taking this picture.  Please don’t assume I’m a horrible garden mother, I do eventually get around to pulling out the offensive plants.

Keep your pants on readers, now we’re getting to the knitting news:

Remember the humble beginnings of my Laminaria shawl?

 

Ummmmmmm, it’s DONE!

It was a long road to get there, as you may recall…

(imagine sappy recap music, tenderly playing as we stroll through my blog montage of how this glorious shawl came to be)

Waaaaa-bam!

I also just bought a shawl pin yesterday, a sassy little wooden number that won’t weigh down my delicate lace.


Also, I may or may not have finished a baby sweater.  No big.
Ms. Bear is modeling here, showing off the finger details of the owl cables.

The completed little package, with my personal care instructions card.  I had 500 of them made (vistaprint.com, love it!), and I left the spaces blank to write in the washing and drying instructions for all of my handknit things.  I also included my personal “handknit with love by vrock” stamp on the back.

The finished and wrapped package, ready to ship to Virginia for Fuzzyhead’s cousin’s baby, arriving in August.

And late last night and this morning, I started and finished a pair of felted slippers.  These are French Press Slippers, from Fresh Press Knits, and I love them.  I’ve loved them since I first saw them on Ravelry, and I only very recently got together the gumption to actually purchase the pattern and make them myself.

Here they are drying on my porch.  I used two strands of grey and one strand of black for the three-strands-held-together-extra-thick soles.  This was partly because I didn’t think I had enough grey yarn, and partly because I liked the idea as a design feature.  This is my tester pair of these slippers so I can mass produce them for Christmas presents this year.  So far Slim Jim and Hamster are getting a pair, and considering these took me a grand total of 3 hours to make, I might just make them for everyone I know.  We’ll see.

The flaps for the slippers, drying on my clothsline.  I wonder what my neighbours must think of the knitting-related things I hang on the cloths line.

Also, I’m into paper crafts now.  To accompany the owl baby sweater to Fuzzyhead’s cousin, I made this little card:

We just need to sign it, and then the whole kitten caboodle can be sent off.  I was waiting for more than a week to zip to the fabric store to get buttons to sew on to the card. 

This is my collection of card making stuff.  I bought a card organizer recently, and that sparked my obsession with making my own cards instead of paying way too much for them from Chapters.  My collection of embroidery floss from my childhood days of making friendship bracelets really came in handy for the stitching details on the cards.  Oooooo, I’m so crafty!

And finally, I will leave you with images from my Canada Day celebration on Friday:

Actually, just cupcake pictures.  The fireworks, puppydogs, and ice cream party was in full swing, and I make ice cream cone cupcakes so we could avoid the giant line-up at DQ.

Onward,

vrock

Can’t read a book without cracking the spine

We begin, dear readers, with a garden update, as promised:

The patchy grass is coming in nicely, the seeds starting sprouting about a week ago, and every day it looks a little more green.  One major problem still: Oscar.  The large brown-only patch of dirt is courtesy of my little doggy destroyer, who took it on himself to dig a nice cool patch of dirt to lie in.  Thanks Oscar.

Sad scene in the herb pots, the basil looks like he won’t make it.  We’ve had buckets of rain for the last two weeks, so I think he may have drowned.  The other herbs are all doing fine, but basil bit the bullet.  I’ll be digging his sorry ass out of the planter this week and taking him back for an exchange.  The garden centre guarantees their plants for the season.

More grass, slowly but surely filling in.  I haven’t mowed any of it yet, it seems cruel to cut down the fresh young grass, they’ve never been cut before.

Tomatoes are coming in strong now.  Soon I’ll have to play god and choose which ones live and die.  The package told me to plant two seeds in each hole, and then weed out the weenie ones so that only the strongest plants grow.  It’s too soon to tell, but enjoy this last picture of them all alive and happy.

The pretty plants have been planted in the side garden.  I left them in their planter pots for another week after I planted the vegetables because I thought it was too cold for them.  They seem to be doing well so far.  Oscar pees in this patch of garden each morning, then traipses over my plants.  They’ll be a strong and hardy stock by the end of the summer.

Veggie garden updates!  These are the only two things I can tell for sure are growing.  The picture on the left is my patch of radishes, in two nice neat rows.  I’ll have to thin them back in the next few weeks to let the strong ones grow.  The picture on the right is the beginnings of my carrots, they’re the thin wispy green shoots right in the centre. 

A better close-up of the grass action.  It’s still patchy, but some of the seed must have started growing ahead of the rest. 

Moving on to knitting, I’ve been a busy little knitting bee working away on a baby sweater for Fuzzyhead’s cousin and his wife, who are expecting a baby girl in August.  I borrowed a pattern for a cable owl vest from Catherine, and combined it with a pattern from Vintage Baby Knits, a simple garter stitch and stockinette stitch raglan sweater for a 3 to 6 month old baby.  The patterns meshed well together, I used an acrylic/nylon DK weight baby yarn from Shall We Knit, and both patterns used a similar gauge.  Here’s the real kicker – I’m short by about 2 inches on the second sleeve.  I originally bought yarn for a vest, not a sweater with full length sleeves, and I didn’t quite have enough.  Sugar.  It’s on the back burner this week until I can zip to Waterloo for a third ball of the yarn.

Immediately after I completed Fuzzyhead’s teatime socks (pictures coming eventually), I raced to start that baby sweater, and to pick up a new sock project.  This is from the small stash of yarn I bought form KnitPicks, the first yarn I’ve ever bought online.  It looks and feels good so far, and I’m hoping it will be enough for two pairs of yoga socks.  Buying yarn online for yoga socks is much more economical than buying the nice stuff at my LYS and spending just as much time knitting it up.  I’ve decided to keep my yoga sock patterns down to 3 or 4, rather than scrounging for a new and exciting (and also time consuming) pattern.  I’ve made this pattern before for a pair of yoga socks, it’s got some simple lacework up the front, with small cables running up either side of the foot.

Happy long weekend my readers!
Onward,
vrock

Dog pee is good for plants, right?

Happy spring readers! Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this tale: Adventures in Gardening...with a splash of knitting just to keep it real.

Fuzzyhead and I don't plan to stay in our current house for more than a year or so. We're saving for a home of our own, so our gardening plans this year are unfortunately not long-term or permanent. We made a short list of the things we wanted to accomplish this summer so our little backyard could look its best.

Our list:

-Move brick pathway so that is actually leads to the gate, not to a random patch of the fence
-Make a small vegetable garden
-Plant flowers along the side of the house
-Keep a selection of fresh herbs
-Fix the bare patches of grass in the backyard
-Cover the pathway in gravel to keep the weeds away

Fuzzy already took care of the first one, he moved the path all by himself when I was at work about a month ago. The bricks have settled back into place now and you'd never know it used to be different.

The others got tackled by me today while Fuzzy is out on the town with his friends. We both took a trip to Belgian Nursery earlier in the day, initially just thinking we would price things out and head home to plan some more. I love this place, it's so full of exciting ideas and things I want to buy. We're leaning toward gnomes for the garden by the way.

First up, this is what I accomplished today:

Our baby herb garden! We had dill and parsley in seed form, so I planted those in the boxes along with the more mature and ready-to-eat herbs we picked up today. I love the boxes, they were on sale and they look very rustic and natural.

Box # 1 - rosemary, oregano, parsley, and dill

Box # 2 - cilantro, thyme, and basil

We also bought some shade-loving plants for the side garden. I chose not to plant them today because I spent so much time prepping the soil for the vegetable garden and I was worn out. I'm also a little afraid that it's still too cold for them to be outside without parental supervision. Momma Vrock is very protective of her plant babies.

The beginnings of our vegetable garden. We had tomato seeds, and the packet called for starting the seeds inside before putting them out in the big wide world. I will track the progress of my wee little tomato plants for ya'll.

Have you ever seen such patchy grass? I scattered some grass seed down today, after diligently digging up the top 10cm of patchy soil so the grass will have somewhere to go. The trick now it to keep Oscar from patting it all down with his little dog feet.

The worst patch by far, this is between the porch and the fence, right next to the house. Essentially a no-sun zone, we'll see how the seed does.

My pride and joy of the day! I prepped our little garden for planting - turned over all the soil a good 10" down, pulled out the grass that was starting to grow there, and fenced it all in to keep Oscars and bunnies out. I worked up a good sweat doing this, you better appreciate it!

The little rock pathway was added after I realized that I couldn't use the whole space for a garden because I need access to the compost bin and the far side of the laundry line. Also, if I ever wanted to pick any of the veggies I grow, I would have to go traipsing through my nice neat garden. Pathway solves all of those problems! The rocks were sourced from a wicked pile of big-ass rocks that used to be stacked up against the tree in this picture. I found even more when I was turning over all the soil.

And finally, we're going to put out our bird houses this year! They're all lined up and ready for a coat of paint.

A post wouldn't be complete without a knitting recap:

Fuzzyhead's teatime socks, originally started during my business trip as something to do at the airport. I've ripped these little babies out twice, and I've decided to just go with a written and established pattern instead of being adventurous with my own design. Le sigh. Once I finish these, I'm hoping to get cracking on some yoga socks. I want to have a few pairs knitted up and ready to sell so I don't have to do custom orders for everything.

The very best knitting-related purchase I ever made! I bought a personalized rubber stamp for all of my knitted giftables. It says "Hand knitted with love by ". I got it from an etsy shop that does custom rubber stamps. I highly recommend it if you have $14 + shipping burning a hole in your pocket. I'll be putting this stamp on all of my yoga sock care instructions tags, and also any knitted gifts I feel like making this year.


I had a spinning fit a few weeks ago. I spun 100g of roving that I bought at the knitter's fair last fall, all in 2 days. And then I got really crazy and did the other 100g the next weekend. Now I have 200g (about 680 yards) of roughly DK weight yarn to play with. Any ideas?

Onward,

vrock

Not brand loyal, and proud of it!

Hello loves!

I've been inspired today. I sat in on a webinar this afternoon about wedding blogs and how to make them work for you (this is for the catering side of my life where I want desperately to appeal to all brides with moderate budgets), and it got me itching to do some bloggin'. I also spent my afternoon bookmarking national wedding blogs for future creeping/research about weddings. Appalling/outrageous fact: brides do most of their online research Monday-Wednesday from 9-5. What are your employers paying you to do?!

In the spirit of bookmarks, I wanted to share a short list of the websites you'll find on my bookmark list. These are all sites that I cruise over about once a week, sometimes more.

ravelry.com - duh, come on readers, of course this is on the list
bitchmagazine.org - as a supplement to my quarterly Bitch magazine which I love
yarnharlot.ca/blog - kind of a requirement for being a knitter, it's in the handbook
sandiwiseheart.wordpress.com - I saw Sandi at my very first Knitters' Guild meeting and I loved her
feministsforchoice.com - I found this little gem through a link from Bitch's site
goaskalice.columbia.edu - updated every Friday, I've been reading this since I was 13
apartmenttherapy.com - Fuzzyhead stumbled on this one in an effort to find design ideas for smaller spaces
postsecret.blogspot.com - I read this every Sunday, no exceptions
starbucksgossip.typepad.com - now that I'm no longer with the bux, this one keeps me up to date with the latest behind the scenes happenings

Just today I added 5 or 6 wedding blogs to the list, so we'll see how they stack up next to my usual reading list. My website list + standard Facebook time takes me about 45 minutes of computer time total each day, unless it's a heavy Ravelry day. I don't understand how anyone can spend more time than this on a computer.

In knitting, this little baby is my new Everest:

I'm finally taking a crack at Laminaria, using the lace weight yarn I bought at the Knitters' Fair in the fall. The yarn I have is a merino/seacell combination, without a brand name. I'm not 100% sure who I bought it from either, and the little label tied to the skein was less than informative.

My gauge swatch (what a good knitter I am!) for the star chart. I was really curious to see how the yarn and pattern would look on the needle size I chose. Before blocking, this swatch looked like a little loopy scrumple of fabric. Blocking is magical.

Slim Jim's completed yoga socks, hot off the press! Or rather, sitting on top of a laptop

Fuzzyhead's teatime socks, shamelessly "borrowed" from a Ravelry pattern I did not purchase; I counted stitches in the most close-up picture I could find and made up the rest. They're turning out a little big, so I might be ripping these back to start again, but Everest has totally taken over my knitting time right now.

Today is Taco Tuesday dear readers and the frying pan is calling my name. Happy mid-March to you all!

Onward,

vrock

Working up a nice sweaty glow

Hello lovelies! And a happy Family Day to you!

First, let's recap my recent knitting adventures:

Second knitting for hire project! These socks were requested by a woman I've never met, who attends the Thursday morning yoga class. I was subcontracted out by Sue, through email, with all of the lady's details, and I dropped these off to the studio last week. I've upped my price a wee bit, I'm now charging $30 a pair for hand knit yoga socks. I was out yarn shopping this weekend and realized that my deeply discounted yarn find at the Fair is not typical, and my pricing should reflect market value for the yarn at the very least. Also, I've realized that one 100g-ish ball of sock yarn yields two pairs of yoga socks. I just cut my costs by 50%! My original pair of yoga socks weigh in at 56.5g (thanks KnitPicks yarn scale, I love you), and the sock yarns I had were a generous 110+g each, and the numbers work out perfectly.

The pattern I used for these is from my toe-up sock book, just a simple scroll pattern. In my efforts to streamline yoga sock production, I've decided to do only a patterned front and do the back in simple stockinette.

Following in the footsteps of using half balls of yarn I already had, I've finally created a pair of socks for Slim Jim. This colour beautifully matches her yoga mat, and I chose a feminine hearts and flowers pattern for her socks. As of today, these are still a WIP, although I hope to finish them by the end of the week.

A quick detour back to early 2011 for the first pair of socks I've made for myself in a while. These socks feature Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, blue label, and Dead Simple Lace from Socks From the Toe Up

This little creature was finished last night for Fuzzy Head. He requested a netbook cozy for his precious little tiny laptop, and I whipped up a green orc in "kiwi" Lamb's Pride Bulky. The orc's giant underbite opens up to reveal a little netbook, safe and sound. I had a teensy bit of yarn leftover from Fuzzy's felted Christmas stocking 2 years ago, and I picked up some more at the Needle Emporium during a recent knitting field trip. I still need to add some kind of closure (Velcro, maybe snaps), and then he is complete for reals.

After I finished Slim Jim's yoga socks, I want to get back into some spinning. I picked up two 50g braids of roving from Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington, and I'm itching to get back on the wheel. Same thing with those two bags of roving from the Fair, they are destined to be something great, and I owe it to yarn to put my foot back on the treadle.

Also, I'm hoping to produce a dog coat this year for my beloved Oscar. I'm not sure if he'll wear one, but he looks like the kind of dog who can pull off big delicious cables in a natural colour.

Observe:

What a dreamboat.

And finally, I have hopes and dreams of making a sweater this year. I was truly inspired by Sanid Wiseheart in November when she spoke at my very first Knitters Guild meeting. She made knitting a sweater seem less daunting and overwhelming than I always imagined it, and above all, I want a sweater that will fit. She swears that that's a possibility too!

For now dear readers, I am off. I want to finish those yoga socks and move on to bigger and better things.

Onward,

vrock