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This livejournal is a mirror of the blog BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here, but if you're just joining me come on over!
It was hard to leave, I'd just planted my garden on Sunday, and Reggie got into a major tussle with a porcupine that afternoon. Without exaggeration I can say we lost count of the quills we pulled from his face. I'm guessing somewhere between 30 and 50? Including quills from the roof of his mouth, his gum line, under his tongue, and all up the right side of his face almost to his eye. I kinda wonder what the porcupine looked like? Was it bald after this incident?? Reggie was down-right stoic during the process. He let us pull quills from inside his mouth without snapping, snarling, and I swear once he'd calmed down from the initial incident he was careful about holding his head still so we could try and grab those little suckers with the pliers.
Neil is a competent, caring, careful guy. He's totally able to keep an eye on Reggie, water my seedlings, and take care of the house while I'm gone. I still really really hated leaving him with all that to watch over!
But I did knit a sock and a half while I was gone! Sadly for you, I have no pictures (yet) It's Plymouth Happy Feet yarn in a lovely orangey-brown. I worked ribbed cuffs with little faux cables every 4th row. They're easy enough I can knit under the table, but pretty enough I can focus on the plane.
But sadly I didn't finish the pair, so now they're in the unfinished sock pile. That pile is up to 4 pairs! My wrought iron socks, some stripy socks for a design*, and those sad wallflower socks - the ones from my LAST conference knitting where I ran out of both colors of yarn just before the toe of the second sock...
And we're Fenway bound**! We going to see a baseball game this weekend with my parents. I'm very excited, and have been planning my car and baseball knitting. Sadly no socks are included...
*probably out this fall at this point
**This time of year I'm always crazy busy. I loose track of entire weeks in May.
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
Ingredients:
2C flour
3/8C butter (that's 3 notches on the label of your standard stick of butter)
2tsp baking soda
1/8tsp salt
1Tbsp molasses
1 1/2tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp allspice
1/2tsp ginger
1/4tsp cloves
1 egg
1Tbsp oil
1/2C squash
1C and 1/2C water
1/4C milk
Directions
In a large bowl cut the butter into the flour until crumbly, mix in the baking soda, salt, and all the spices.
Combine the squash and 1 cup of water, blend if needed (yay for immersion blenders!)
To the flour mix add the egg, oil, molasses, squash mix, and milk. If you want puffier pancakes keep the mixture dry, if you want thinner pancakes add more water until the mix looks right for you. I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong here, except if you add too much water you'll be making pumpkin crepes**
Get your pancake griddle to the right temp (on my stove that's medium high) pour the batter, let it brown. I always learn they were ready to flip when the bubbles around the edges burst, and don't fill back in immediately with batter. Flip the pancakes, cook on the other side. Enjoy! I bet these would be awesome with whipped cream. But I just had maple syrup on hand (no real tears here)
*remember that LIST of squash from my gardening post? I really do grow enough to keep myself in squashes almost year 'round...
**And don't they sound amazing? Let me know if you try that!!
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
But this spring has been SO WARM. And what's the worst that could happen?*
So I planted beans! Three varieties of bush beans!
I'm eshewing all modern agriculture for my corn this year. My friend Calley at Fat Toad Farm swears by the three sisters planting method. That'd be corn, with poll beans growing up it, and squashes around the base as ground cover to keep the weeds down. Makes sense, right? And I'm still growing High Mowing's Ashworth corn, which I've read can be grown in clumps instead of rows.
So I planted corn in clumps of 4**, each seed is about 4 inches out from the center marker. Two bean seeds are in the center of the clump. The clumps are in rows with 12 inches between each clump and 24 inches between each row. Please note I made up ALL these measurements based on my experiences with how the corn grew last year and how I expect/hope things to go this year. I'm recording everything here because this is such a different way of doing things, but I don't know if it'll work!
My spinach is almost gone to seed already (but it's been delicious!) My lettuces are doing well, and about to take the place of spinach in my salads. I planted another 2 rows of lettuce, and I hope to plant two rows every other week to keep us in salad all summer long.
I expect my peas will be blooming any time now. These are a short-vined variety that are supposed to do well in our short-ish spring seasons. It was 75-90 over this weekend which is essentially too hot for tasty peas already! Hopefully it cools down a bit...
Let's see, what else did I plant? Carrots and beets! I don't know if I can grow root veggies in my garden yet (the soil was a pine forest 5 years ago) but this is my first year trying! Cucumbers and basil in the garden. Scarlet runner beans and nasturtiums for edible landscaping.
The broccoli seedlings were transplanted, the bunching onions are ready to be eaten, the chives, oregano, and thyme are coming back nicely, the squashes (buttercup, butternut, delicata, carnival, yellow crookneck, patty pan, and watermelon in case you were curious) and cherry tomato seedlings are all hardening off outside. They'll go in the ground between the corn seedlings next weekend!
*Answer: all my seedlings could come up and we could be hit by a hard frost in June. I could loose $15 in seeds and be forced to re-plant everything. Would I cry? Maybe. Would the world end? No.
**Actually, clumps of 6, but my seed is 2 years old, so I'm counting on a lower germination rate here.
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
I'm feeling rather like there's nothing going on around here that's blog worthy, so I'm going to make a recommendation instead.
I think you should check out the series of posts on the Gaze over at Knitting Kninja. Kristen talks about Gaze and how it affects* our craft, especially since so many of us connect online where photography is the best way we have to show off our work. Here's her introduction:
Gaze as it is used here comes from a usage popularized by French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques Lacan and refers to the anxiety inherent in the awareness of one’s visibility to others. In being viewed, the subject of viewing loses some control over how that viewing is perceived. Gaze requires theory of mind – the ability to understand that others have their own reactions and emotions separate from one’s own.
Yeah, so the subject is a little (ok, a lot) deeper than my standard fare of knitting, chickens, and gardening. But I've been fascinated with her whole series. Start with the first post on the male gaze or with the one about the crafter's gaze (featuring my Morningtide mitts!) Either way I highly recommend it. And I understand she's not done with the subject yet!
*effects? no, pretty sure this is affects
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
Yesterday I went in to Fletcher Allen for my annual check up. And I took along some scarves.
TWENTY-FIVE scarves to be exact! I couldn't have done this without all of you. Seriously, I couldn't knit 25 scarves on my own. Funds from the sale of these scarves will go to supporting the outreach and research of the High Risk Breast Cancer program of vermont. That's the research group to which I'm donating samples. I, the doctors, nurses, and other patients all thank you. Especially the ones who stopped me and my giant bag of scarves and asked what they were :-D
My mom had breast cancer when she was just 35. We get kind of twitchy when some scientists recommend that because of the metal stress of getting mammograms and biopsies women should wait until they're older to start screening. If my mom had waited until she was older, she'd be gone. There's no way around that fact. The cancer they found in her was a type that didn't form lumps. But by 35 she already had 3 infected lymph nodes. They're starting to think there may be benign cancers that don't spread or cause trouble, but this wasn't one of those cancers. I know it's a huge balancing act in medicine: the cost of screening for diseases, the stresses they put on patients (even a fine needle biopsy can get infected) and the actual risk of a disease all need to be balanced against the actual dangers and risks to a patient.
But if you're in a high risk group, or over the recommended age - go get your mammogram already! They're the gold standard for tracking cancer. And they work best if you have a baseline one - something they can compare future mammograms against and look for changes. Sure, they're not comfortable, but I honestly think your life is worth a few seconds of discomfort, don't you?
And also, let's all TALK about these things. I'm astonished at the number of friends I know who have family under 40 diagnosed with breast cancer. I think that if we can all talk about our experiences, and those of our friends and family, that'll take the stigma off the disease. I remember my mom saying the same thing when she was diagnosed, I'm sure things are better now. But I still feel the more we talk about it the less people will be afraid to ask questions, see their doctors, and get screened.
Once again, I can't say it enough. Thank You!
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
Which is to say it contains all the shades of green and it changes from light to shadow. I love these properties in both yarn and leaves.
Our trees have all started to leaf out at once in the last 5 or 7 days. Less than a week ago the willows and poplars had a green tinge from a distance, and that was it. Now we have the soft, baby green on the maple trees. The hard, edgy green of oak leaves. The poplars have full shaded green already, and the willows are wispy light green.
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
That's a crappy cell phone photo of him getting an award for academic achievement in a non-traditional setting. He's at Johnson State College as part of their external degree program (which is set up for grown ups who want to finish their degree but also have jobs, mortgages, real lives, can't live on campus, etc...) and yes, he's wearing a fedora!
Anyway! Today I'm at work. But I have a list going beside me - things to do for tomorrow's party:
pile bonfire wood
clear coat rack for guests
shove crap back into guestroom closet and close the door
get a burn permit
make popcorn and snack foods
find lawn chairs, badminton set, pop-up tent for shade
Tomorrow I'm starting the TWELVE POUND ham before we even head to the graduation ceremony. Tomorrow afternoon there will be food, friends, a bonfire, and good times!
I can't wait, I'm so proud!!
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
So instead I'll show you the things I wish I were knitting, if I had an extra pair of hands*
Dyer's Delight on Ravelry
Dyer's Delight © Amy van de Laar
I don't even remember how I stumbled onto this one, but look at the colors! She uses mini skeins dyed with koolaid, I'm sure you could use sock leftovers too. Look at the happy chevrons! Yes, there's intarsia, but I think it's the good kind of intarsia! And it's certainly better than trying to sew up all those little strips!
Skipperdee also on Ravelry
Skipperdee by Julia Farwell-Clay © 2012 Caro Sheridan
I love cables, I LOVE shoulder cables! But let's be honest, what I really love here is that shade of red. Although I am chronically unable to knit a sweater in the yarn that's recommended, and I still want to cast on Right Now. So clearly it's not just the yarn that's calling to me.
Planche vest also on Ravelry
Planche vest by Meghan Jones © Interweave Knits
This vest is in the summer issue of Interweave Knits. I think I'd wear it just like this one- over a tank top to dress it up enough to wear to work. Or maybe that's just my dream outfit since our offices are still so cold I'm wearing the bulkiest handknit sweaters in my collection... I even have some Mirasol cotton yarn in my stash that I think would be perfect for this vest!
Wrought Socks on Ravelry
Wrought Socks by Stephannie Tallent © Kathy Cadigan
Waitaminute! How'd these get on the list? Oh yeah, because I had to put my orange wrought socks into the hibernation pile while I work on some designs. See? this is why I have lots of incomplete socks, and lots 2 year old socks that are starting to wear through...
What do you wish you were knitting right now? Or are you knitting exactly what you want to be knitting?
*I've thought about this. I think if you had two pairs of hands you'd want to switch off between which pair were knitting and which pair were doing the day-to-day activities. Otherwise the always-knitting hands would get really tired.
Also, what would you do when you just wanted to sit and knit? Could you knit two things at once? Or would you just give one pair of hands a break?
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
It was inspired by autumn, but spring is being rather rainy and foggy right now, so it's still appropriate!
And in other news:
Christine (who likes the fringe socks) appears to be my winner for the California Revival Knits ebook. Christine: watch your inbox, I'm e-mailing you next!
*I'm too impatient to get to be any good at them
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
This is where things get tricky, I often have a very exact idea of what I want the photos to look like, in fact sometimes an ideal photo shoot inspires my whole design. In this case I've known I wanted a glorious green field setting right from the start. At first I was afraid this'd be impossible if the photo shoot needed to happen in March or April. Then I realized if I put it off to the last possible minute I could use a green hay field near my house.
Everything was going exactly as planned until May rolled around and things got cloudy. A week ago monday was nice and sunny, but clouded over pretty much as I left work. Then it rained all week. That made the fields gorgeous and green - but there was no way I was taking a delicate lace shawl out into the rain. Also the lighting was all wrong.
Finally this weekend was sunny, but of course I had plans to be out of state. Neil and I visited my family all day Saturday. But on sunday as we headed home through the sunny mountains I realized that evening would be perfect. We got home, I quickly changed (the benefit of being model and using my husband as photographer is not having to match anyone else's schedule) and we found ourselves a nice, empty hay field:
perfect! And it's not just me saying that. Anne thinks they're perfect too. She'll be posting some (carefully labeled) spoiler photos in her Ravelry group later this month. The pattern will be headed to club members for June. The rest of you will have to wait a bit longer then that. But I'm really so SO excited about this shawl I couldn't even wait until June without giving away this little sneak-peak of a sneak-peak!
*If you're in the club no worries- there will be no spoiler photos. If you're not in the club- too bad! No spoiler photos for you either
This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.
