Category: spinning

  • garden starts

    It’s been all secret knitting around here lately, which isn’t very good for blogging! But now that the weather has turned (maybe?) and it’s a bit brighter and warmer, it was time to get some garden stuff going.

    I picked up a bunch of tiny pots at the dollar store to start my seedlings this year – I’m a bit tired of peat pellets, and I can reuse these ones next year! Plus, the plants will have a little more room and maybe I won’t have to repot them again before transplanting.

    tray1

    I’m starting extra tomato plants this year even though we won’t have room for all of them on the deck. Some local friends will get lucky with free plants!

    windowsill

    The basil is doing nicely from seed. I’m planning to do aggressive pruning on the plants to see if I can get them to grow bushier. Varieties: Italian large leaf and dark opal basil from Cubits.

    basilseeding

    tomatoseeding

    gardentray

    Tomato varieties: Riesenstraube, which was the first to germinate, looks pretty great and was our biggest producer last year; Black Cherry, Ivory Pear, Black Prince, Purple Cherokee, Sungold, Matt’s Wild Cherry. I was really excited to find the Sungold seeds at West Coast Seeds, along with a small variety of zucchini (Patio Star) and peas (Little Marvel)!

    Unfortunately even with my nifty popsicle-stick labelling system I’m pretty sure I’ve mislabeled at least one tomato!

    marge

    I haven’t spun much in ages but there’s been lots popping up in my Instagram, and it’s inspiring! I wanted to take a little time off knitting this past weekend so I pulled out a few braids. Marge is unimpressed. (Yes, we have the Lego Simpsons House.)

    new ruffles!

    Hopefully I’ll have some new patterns to share with you soon!

  • sexy yarns

    What do you think, can yarn be sexy? I think so.

    New handspun – polwarth/silk.

    springy-yarn

    This one’s more fun than sexy, but I made this little magic ball awhile back and decided to swatch with it. It’s quite short lengths of Koigu (probably 12-24″), Russian joined together to make a scrappy ball. (What’s a Russian join, you ask?)

    magic-ball

    I swatched with some gorgeously bouncy, round Targhee from Dirty Water Dyeworks, Johanna in colour Pond. Swoon. Itching to cast on for this sweater!

    swatches

    Sexy yarn samples! I think my favourite is Hat Box (superwash merino, silk, cashmere, fingering weight) but Steamer Trunk (plied superwash merino, worsted weight) would make an amazing sweater! I love the colour of this Satchel sample, too. Thanks Mrs. Crosby!

    mrscrosby

    Sexiest of all? Handmaiden 4ply cashmere. Started a new cowl project that I’m quite excited about – it looks like double crochet but it’s actually knit!

    faux crochet

     

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    P.S. The Indie Gift-A-Long sale ends tonight at midnight! If you’ve been eyeing any of the patterns in my gift-a-long bundle, now’s the time to get 25% off with code “giftalong2014”! Make sure you join the Indie Gift-A-Long group with whatever you’re making this holiday season – there are SO MANY PRIZES!

  • A Little Slow

    Skies over Uxbridge on the way back from the farm. #October

    I don’t have much to blog about today! I had a bit of a run-in with a box grater last week (grating onion for latkes, worth it) that resulted in a pretty good gash to my right index finger, so I had to take a couple days off knitting. I did manage to get out to take some photos for a couple of new sweater patterns that will be out soon.

    Then, I realized the sweater back I showed in my last post was probably going to be too big, so I had to rip it out and start over. Luckily I still really like these cables! The problem with having so many projects in progress is that there’s not much to show even if I were knitting around the clock!

    I have posted a couple new skeins of handspun yarn for sale, including this pretty one:

    Bramble

    I’m hoping to get lots and lots of knitting time in this week. Maybe start a new shawl.

    If you’re in Toronto and haven’t done so already, make sure you get out and vote!

    Watching: Defiance – I just finished season 1. It’s not particularly deep, but I like it!

    Reading: Starting Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson. I finished 11/22/63 and it was so good, you should definitely read it if you’re into time travel mysteries.

    Eating: Halloween candy (oops) and Chicken Pho. I cheated a bit on the broth and used 1 carton of chicken broth + 2L water to cook 4 chicken legs, instead of the whole chicken, and omitted the 3lb of extra chicken bones/wings. I used the spice amounts from Serious Eats. After we had our dinner, I refrigerated the broth overnight, removed the fat, and now I have a couple containers in the freezer ready for when pho cravings strike!