Woolybuns

Dye Pot Day

Got back to dyeing some yarns.  The big supplier I used to get yarn bases from went out of business.   Their yarns are still available from another supplier, so I can at least continue to get (at least for now - don't know if that will change) my favorite yarn bases.  But I decided to try out some of the other yarns, ordered a small batch of two sock bases, both of them in 50 gram skeins rather than the bigger 100 gram.  Makes knitting TAAT easier.  Both of those yarns are 4 ply.  One is SW merino, the other SW merino with nylon.  I also ordered some mini-skeins in a base I hadn't tried that originally came from the old supplier. These are SW corriedale. These will be great for trying out dye combos, both for mixing my own colors and trying out variegated colors.  Most of what I dyed the other day are solids, with a couple tonals and one variegated.  Shades of green predominate, driven by a couple of planned knits for other people.  I'm more of the blue/purple or red/pink persuasion.

On dye day, I chose 2 skeins each of the bigger skeins, each enough for a pair of socks, as well as 6 mini-skeins, and dumped them in to pre-soak.  Then I spotted a yarn that had already pre-soaked a long time ago but for whatever reason, didn't actually dye then.  Into the water it went, although I didn't get around to dyeing it yet.  I ultimately added 2 more mini-skeins. I am pleased.  The solids and tonals will be for socks.  Darker green 50 gram yarns are for my younger son, lighter green 50 gram yarns are for me, no pattern yet for either.  I was quite pleased with just how soft the mini-skeins are after pre-soak and dye.  I'm looking forward to comparing all 3 bases once knit.

The variegated yarn is based on someone else's described color preferences.  It's for a baby hat, not the colors I would choose, but it's not my baby.  I'm still pretty pleased with how it came out.  The hat pattern has 3 bands of garter which I plan to do in coordinating color.  I'm undecided so far whether the variegated will be the main color or the coordinating.  I'm leaning toward main color.  I also have to decide which of the solids I prefer with the variegated.  I'm leaning towards the lighter blue green.  

Dye Pot Day was a very happy success.

 

Quick Knits

Cold and dark of January plus a couple families I I know having babies led to several quick knits.  Hodge, a free pattern on    Ravelry, is my favorite knit bootie pattern, so each baby got a pair.  I love the construction of this knit, in spite of my cumsy fingers stumbling over stitches.  A big plus: these booties stay on those itty bitty feet.  And of course, Hodge is adorable, too.   Each time I've knit a pair of these, I think I'd love to make a pair sized for my own feet.  One of these days, I just might get around to doing that.  

Along with booties, I knit each baby a hat, that pattern is also a freebie on Ravelry, 1-2-3 Baby Beanie.  One baby, a girl, was born a full month early, and I wasn't sure about her size.  It mostly fits her.  I also didn't know what colors the family like so that's why I knit both hat and booties in a natural color merino yarn for her.  I apparently did not get a photo of that hat - oops.  The second baby hat, for a boy, has 2 yarns held together: my handspun grey angora I dyed cherry red, and a commercial merino yarn I dyed shades of blue and cherry red.  The mom seemed quite happy with it, said the baby would wear it home from the hospital.  I am honored!  

I also knit for myself because apparently I cannot have too many cowls and pairs of fingerless mitts.  My favorite cowl pattern for handspun multi color yarns is a simple welted stitch.  I don't use an official pattern, it's just alternating sections of garter and stockinette.  I tend to do 5 rounds of garter followed by 5 rounds of stockinette, but I adjust depending on weight of the yarn.  For this latest welted cowl, Cirrus, I tried a new to me cast on, Chinese Waitress cast on,  suggested by a friend. My fumbly fingers finally figured it out and I love the look.  For the cast on to show properly, I had to turn the cowl inside out which works ok because this cowl is reversible.  In the future, I will do a couple rounds of stockinetter first then a garter section, which will show the cast on on the right side.  Turns out, there is a corresponding bind off, Chinese Waitress bind off.  I am very happy with my little Cirrus.  

Then I knit a pair of Point Edwards fingerless mitts using a purchased yarn, and followed that up with a pair of Lambing Mitts.  Lambing Mitts pattern has disappeared, at least temporarily, from Ravelry, but I did find it on the wayback machine.  I need to tinker with thumb construction on the Lambing mitts because I want a more distinct line between hand and thumb gusset.  I used my handspun yarn for the Lambing Mitts, and have plenty of yarn left to make a matching cowl.  

That pair of mitts slid me into February and my knitting continues.  Current project is Heart Cable  headband, a Valentine's Day gift for my granddaughter.  Seeing these hearts unfold just makes me giggle with satisfaction!  I made a mistake in the first heart, fairly obvious but with it's position at the provisional cast on, it won't really show when she wears it.  And it's a good way to show her it's ok for things to be imperfect.  I purchased the yarn years ago and I love it for it's great stitch definition.  Sadly, it's since been discontinued.  I have another full skein of it plus this headband is a small project so will have lots of the skein left.  Plenty to knit something for me in this yarn.  

 

 

Holiday Happenings

I started this knit for the granddaughter just because.  A few days into it, I found out her school would have a week of special holiday themed days, one of them Candy Cane day.  That gave me a deadline.  This pattern is an easy knit, garter stitch on the bias so some K2tog and KFB.  But the least bit of distraction and I would do extra KFB.  Had to constantly check my stitch count and sometimes rip back an entire stripe, which definitely slows down progress.  My deadine was 1st thing this morning.  I finished the scarf last night at 10 pm.  Kid is delighted with it, which delights me.  

One of my favorite holiday events is the annual party with a Fiber Artisans group.  We meet monthly, and have been for years.  Our party includes a Yankee Swap.  My prize this year is a lovely hand crafted yarn bowl and about 1/2 oz of oh so soft grey alpaca fiber.  I plan to blend it with some wool and angora.  What a yummy spin that will be!

 

Sockus Interruptus

Knitting only 4 to 8 rounds on a sock almost daily doesn't get the sock finished quickly, but it is at least  progress.  But then along comes  the  grandchild's  request.  Teach  me to  knit.  So I bought some  Patons  Classic  Wool,  one skein  red,  one  white. Using some of my more luxurious yarns in stash just isn't a good use for that.   But a tired kid at the end of a school week isn't the most receptive student. Lesson lasted about 5 minutes. She's been talking up candy canes so I decided to knit a candy cane scarf for her, a free pattern on Ravelry.  It's a bias knit, something new to me.  Pretty simple but I too was tired, read the pattern wrong and convinced myself it was working out just fine.  But no.  Finally figured out the big Ooops and started over.  And then after completing 4 big stripe sections, realized I didn't have enough yarn.  Bought more yarn and decided scarf dimensions were too
big for a young kid.  Started over again with fewer stitches and narrower stripes.   With dogs bouncing around and begging for attention, knitting this basically simple pattern involved a lot of tinking, ripping, and redoing.  Started the scarf 6 days ago.  My progress as of right now.  Looks more proportional IRL.  I like it.  :) 

Knittin's Happening Here

Here it is, a full year since my last blog post.  My current active WIP is a pair of socks, pattern Fee Dragee.  I started the sock in June this year, and here I am nearly finished.  I am turtle fast at knitting.  

Morning Madness, With A Touch of Just Mad

Sheesh.  Blog, it's been a long time.  So glad you are still here.  Many of you readers already know what I've been up to since last I wrote here, so not gonna rehash it.  If you have any questions, email me.

Living with a few species of critters means morning wake up is all about the animals, not me.  Dogs have to go out 1st thing, especially with a young puppy in the family now.  House Bear's sensitive tummy requires feeding at regular intervals or it gacks up that green frothy stuff in inconvenient places.  So outside, back inside, feed the dogs, start tea water for me.  That wakes up the cats who yowl "myyyyyyy turrrrrrrrrnn, foooooooooood now hooman!"  If it's light enough, I run out to give rabbits morning hay while dogs and cats eat.  Next I clean litter boxes.  And little FluffMuffin needs to go out again.  I sneak in a first cuppa tea while House Bear parks his butt in my lap for a thorough scratch.  FluffMuffin doesn't really eat much until about this time, so back in his crate he goes while I take House Bear out for about a mile walk.  When we get back home, both dogs are ready to wrestle, with some wild house wide zoomies that threaten to break big things like sliding glass doors.  This is the point when I might be able to knit without a big slobbery head dropping into my lap and sharp little teeth grabbing my ankles.

I decided to start a new knit project during this morning's dog wrestling. Youngest granddaughter's Susie's Reading Mitts are more a dressy wear, not really geared for playtime. I promised her mitts that will hold up better to play. It's a project that fills a need for me, too: simple mindless tv knit. I pulled out some yarn I dyed years ago which was already divided into 2 balls, and yes!  I had enough brain power that early in the day and before breakfast to give TAAT magic loop another go. (non-knitters: that's 2 at a time using long circular needle).  Starting was pretty fussy but I got it done.  And then I got a phone call requesting a Hail Mary, so end of morning knit.

Someone I know had a brain fart when scheduling an appointment, and suddenly realized at 8 am this morning the need to be in 2 places at the same time.  Could I help?  As it happens, yes, I could.  Dropped my knitting, crated the dogs, grabbed my keys, jacket and mittens, out the door in 3 minutes.  Forget that I hadn't yet changed into "out in public" clean clothes nor brushed my hair.  I just scooted.  I ended up in the company of a woman I only met recently, have only seen a few times.  As we chatted, she reached over and casually pulled one of my errant hairs off my cowl.  

Ummmm... people, NO.  Do NOT pick things off someone else, unless you know you have permission.  I hate that, especially near my face.  It takes great restraint on my part not to react with a defensive Tae Kwon Do arm block.   Putting your hands on someone else for any reason is a big invasion of personal space.  If you can't handle an errant hair or piece of lint or whatever, that is YOUR problem.  Leave it the fuck alone.

And now I'm gonna go back to my peaceful place and knit.  

Half Hour At A Time

“Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration.” ~ Lou Erickson

Oh so true about my yard.  So much tearing out, cutting down, chopping into fire pit size.  This is my 3rd summer of actively ridding my yard of all the invasive stuff eating it up.  I want instant results, of course, but that ain't gonna happen.  I don't have enough perspiration to tackle all that stuff in one big effort.  But I can do half hour a time.  I've mentally divided up my back yard into small, manageable spaces, and alternate between ridding stuff wherever needs gone the most, and slowly planting those small spaces.  This little shady spot is my current focus.  I transplanted hosta and astilbe last year but something ate a lot of the hosta leaves.  The plants survived but I'm rethinking that spot, and picked out some deer resistant plants.  It's the 2 steps forward, 1 step back approach to garden design.  

Early morning, I wander the deck for about half hour visiting with my potted plants.  Who is growing, who needs a little attention, who needs defending?  Right now, the dahlia stems are just beginning to emerge. Rebecca's World, a new variety for me, is the precocious one.  Tubers from last year that I divided about a month ago are just opening their eyes, and 2 that arrived with Rebecca's World aren't showing any growth so far.  Hmmmm.   As early spring chill lingered, I really wanted dahlia blooms, so bought a new to me variety, Dahlia Dalaya, already in bud.  It's sold as an annual, though a couple websites say it too can be propogated by tuber division after 1st frost.  I gifted one to my daughter that bloomed right after Mother's Day and wow! Gorgeous bold pink bi-color and yellow center.  1st bloom on mine is a bit more conservative with the pink.  I also have a mini herb garden on the deck, thyme, sage, and rosemary, a delightful blend with onion and and garlic in a wet rub to roast chicken, and  a pot of cilantro for making guacamole.  

Gardens may demand a lot of perspiration, but I can't imagine my world without them.

 

 

Getting Out From Under the Dark and Cold

Spring this year feels like we're coming out from a lot more than just winter's dark and cold.  I'm still isolating, not sure yet whether I can get fully vaccinated, so my annual focus on yard and plants is more heightened.  If I'm still gonna have to stay home a lot more than I like, then the yard is gonna be filled with flowers.  Forsythia's gold has now given way to green, and my beautiful bleeding heart so gracefully stands watch as hosta and astilbe emerge.  The hosta has already been nibbled so I have to rethink that garden.  My lawn is glowing with dandelions. I pull them out of garden spaces but embrace those in the lawn. Food for the bees! And since there is such a bounty of them, they also provide healthy treats for the rabbits.   Last night, each bunny got a whole clump of dandies thanks to weeding a garden.  That's my Hoppy Hooligan enjoying another dandie clump this morning.  Knowing how much they all enjoy the snack makes weeding a much more pleasureable activity for me.   I like pairing chores with another purpose. Getting rid of stuff is a big, unpleasant chore way too easy to put off, which is why I still have saddles hanging around in my garage.  Seeing them reminds me, with a big ol' jab in the heart, I no longer have a horse.  But I do have dogs, and having a fenced area accessed from the deck is good for them and me.  Right now, that area is a bit on the small side, given the size of my big goofy House Bear.  Another problem with the fenced area is my cat Fiona sees it as a litter box.  Dogs having access to a cat's litter box is just gross.  Fiona's been stuck in the house while I figure out a solution to that, and she's not one bit happy about it.  The answer lightening bolted into my head last week. Sell my western saddle, and maybe my English saddle too if it has any real value, and use the money to buy some fencing to match my neighbor's along our property line.  That would double the dogs' yard space and free up my chain link panels to line the outside of the deck.  That would then block the cat's access to the deck and the dogs' yard space.  It also gives me a safe spot to set up a bunny play yard, something I've long wanted to do.  And a new bit of fence would also give me a space to set up a garden spinning spot.  Not only solutions and motivation all the way around, but ideas to ponder and dreams to finally fulfill.  

Anybody want to buy a good Arabian trail saddle, pretty much never used?

 

 

Rabbits, Ducks, And Strawberry Gardens

The summer I had a pet duck, I also had a strawberry garden. It may have been Daddy's garden but I remember it as mine (and siblings, let's allow me that, m'k?). My duck loved strawberries. She'd stick her head and that long neck through the fence and gobble up strawberries as often as she could get away with it. It was kinda funny gross to watch because she swallowed the berries whole and I could see their progress down that long neck. I'm quite fond of the memories of my duck, and also my strawberry garden.

I haven't grown strawberries since then, until this year. Daughter and granddaughter gifted me a strawberry pot so I added strawberry plants. But I failed to read up on growing strawberries in containers so I only got a few berries, lost the 1st couple to a squirrel, I think.  Only thing I had quickly available to protect the berries was an unused rabbit cage, so that's what the plants sit inside.  It worked on squirrels, but I think a bird was able to munch a bit.  Now at the end of the growing season, there are a few more berries developing, but I'm more interested in how to properly winter the plants. My big mistake this summer was not cutting off the runner plants. There are a ton of them. I hate tossing thriving plants. instead, I'm going to try to root a bunch before it's too late (anybody local want a few?).

 

This assumes, of course, that next year, I'll have a better set up for raising strawberries. I have to work on critter proofing. That's one of the 2 big reasons I didn't plant in the ground. The other is not having a raised bed. I've often pictured a strawberry garden in my back yard set up like a 3 tiered wedding cake.  I think I'd be better served with a strawberrry tower on my deck.  My mouser cat Fiona is now at the older edge of middle aged and not quite the hunter she used to be.  She likes lounging on the deck though, and generally the only rodents, other than squirrels, that show up on my deck are there because of Fiona.  They are not at all interested, let along capable, of eating my berries.  My rabbits, however, would love to get into a strawberry garden. And they are not afraid of Fiona, which could be a mistake, but in Fi's 8 years living here, she's never once gone after one of my bunnies (wild ones are a different story).  If I set up a strawberry tower on the deck, I'll have to factor in squirrels, my rabbits, and birds in the design.  Figuring it all out sounds like a good winter project to me.

Garden Friends

That would be the plants themselves.  Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved visiting with plants.  In March coming home from school, I'd stop at Mum's garden to search for 1st signs of crocuses.  Those little tips peeking out from receding snow promised months of glorious gardens ahead.  I could count on that.  I still can  in my ... ahem... maturity (not that anyone accuses me of maturity). Forsythia, too, is reliable, it's signs of imminent bloom my reminder to attack crabgrass before it germinates.   But only in the front yard.  The back yard sprouts all kinds of good bunny snacks and I don't interfere with that.  

This year, I'm continuing the Very Big Project I started a couple years ago: reclaiming my yard from the several years of neglect.  I moved a Nikko Blue Hydrangea as probably my 1st reclaiming project a couple years ago.  It had merely survived about 15 years in a spot it clearly didn't like, didn't bloom for years, and the few times it did, never gave my that lovely blue in spite of the pine needles I fed it.  Now a couple years into it's new spot it's about twice the size it was, and it not only bloomed, it bloomed blue.  It's a type of hydrangea that blooms on old wood.  We had a killing frost as buds were forming this spring so I didn't expect blooms but there they were.  And as an extra reward, this plant friend decided to gift me at summer's end with a couple extra blooms on new growth that apparently has to go back to old nodes somewhere.  And they are that lovely blue of it's name, even if my camera won't share that.  It's finally a happy plant.  

This is another hydrangea I made very happy by moving it.  I fetched it out of someone else's woods where it had been tossed because it refused to grow without water.  Sad little thing had no leaves left, but the wood was still pliable, so I figured the roots were still alive.  I took it home and tended it carefully, quite tickled when it did indeed sprout new growth and leaves.  I intended to return it as a surprise to it's rightful owners.  But ... well... life, and the plant really wasn't welcome back.  I cleared out some weeds and planted it.  And now for the 1st itme in it's life, it's blooming.  I don't know exactly which variety of hydrangea it is so I don't know it's size range nor even it's light requirements, but it's got plenty of room to grow if it wants to be big, and it gets both sun and shade, so I think it will be ok.

Another of my favorite garden friends, the Morning Glories got a slow start this year of near  drought.  They usually cover my lamp post and spill over the top.  They're more like anklets this year, though.  But they are spreading out away from the post and I can't bring myself to mow down the errant plants.  I'm thinking I might put in some lattice as a low fence to define that corner of the yard, and let the Morning Glories wander to their heart's content.  

And of course, every meander through my plants includes a visit with my Dahlias.  They've mostly come back from their traumatic experience with bugs and spray. My 2 favorites, a red spikey type and another spikey one in lovely dark lavender, both celebrated with several blooms at once.  The red currently only has one flower, but the lavender still has several, and more to come.  Two of the Dahlias have yet to bloom, though there are buds.  I failed to label the tubers last fall when I put them to bed, so I don'tk now what they will be like, but one is hinting it could be a split off the lavender Dahlia.  That would make me very happy.