Ramblings

Rattlin Brook

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:55:09 GMT

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day for the 30th anniversary of the Rattlin Brook Bluegrass festival.

There was music, there was food, there were friends and knitting and sunshine.

It was sunshine-y and gorgeous (did I mention that already?) and I missed sunscreening the inside of my right ankle. So beyond the nasty sunburn (and now I can make great references to my achilles heel) I have only good memories of the day.

And then, of course, it rained on sunday...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Stonework

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:56:10 GMT

There's a lot of new work out in our yard. We have a new flower bed which Neil and I put in during the hottest weekend so far this summer. Yeah, moving stones in the heat sure was fun. This bed fills in the gap where stumps were pull out (um, 4 years ago) FINALLY.

I wish I had a "before" photo. It was a mess. No topsoil, and the exposed subsoil was about 8" down from the lawn. Neil placed the rocks first (he's really good at setting stones so they don't shift) then we filled in with horse manure. We mixed that into the subsoil to make something almost like good garden dirt. I planted my gladiolus* here this year. There's chicken wire under the mulch to keep the chickens from digging everything up. Although it doesn't keep them from kicking the extra manure into the garden and over the stones...

Neil put some pretty stones in around my whiskey barrel garden as well! Did I mention he's good at stonework?

But of course I decided to put this garden path in without him... It is, shall we say, a little more loosely set. No matter how I arrange my garden, every year I have a path here. Then I have to weed the path constantly. I think the stones will be a big improvement, especially if I plant thyme or something in between. The tomatoes will go in that bed above the path this year. But eventually I suspect the perennials will spread into that space. It's under a little maple tree, and I doubt the tree will stay little forever...

*the gladiolus collection which is trying to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Seriously, anyone want some?

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Gardening

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:56:04 GMT

My garden is (FINALLY) almost all set. The beans are planted. The tomatoes and squashes are started. Really the only thing still to do is put those little guys out into the garden once they're big enough.

I even planted the sunflowers along the edge of my whole garden. Actually it's going to be more of a sunflower spiral because they're along three fenced edges, then the strawberry patch, then in a line down the center. I wanted to use up the seed and apparently there was a lot in that packet...

Moxy cat helps me whenever I go in the garden. She always sits outside the fence and waits for me to lift her in. Then she patrols the fence, rubs against the tomato cages, and curls up in a corner to watch me. It's funny to me, because I've never had a cat that SO wanted to be with me that she'd be willing to be fenced in...

Guarding the garden is such a tough job.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

slow progress

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:55:35 GMT

I made slow but steady progress this weekend. I edited photos for TWO sweater patterns (both winter patterns, because of how I am still playing catch-up) I formatted one of them into final book layout. I drafted another one. And that was all just on Saturday! Progress is good.

I love how the camera decided the hot cocoa was clearly the important part of this shot...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Design process: yarn support

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:55:54 GMT

Let me be honest: I'm not showing you even close to half of what's going on here. I'm in a push to get the knitting all wrapped up for this book. The fact that I can squeeze any baby knitting in at all is kinda amazing. So let me talk for a moment about something I've done a lot of over the last year: yarn support requests. Hopefully this'll be helpful if you're an indie designer (or considering it) and at least interesting even if you're not (if it's not interesting go read something else. I don't care if you skip a post)

What is yarn support? Hopefully it's a relationship, and a business agreement, that supports BOTH the yarnie and the designer. It can be a lovely, LOVELY thing when it works. But I've heard some horror stories from yarn makers I know. And I've heard questions from designers who are mystified by the process.

First and foremost remember this is a BUSINESS deal. Even if you're just designing on the side you should still be keeping track of profits, right?* Well the yarn company is the same way, except it's probably someone's full time job. Or several someones. So let's all try to act professionally, shall we?

From my point of view that means having a plan. Before I go looking for yarn support I want to know exactly what I'm designing. I need to know how I'm going to construct it, what it'll look like, and this means I have already created a swatch and a sketch. Hopefully you have too. The yarn company would LOVE to know you've thought this through. So be prepared to send them the details! I always lay out my yarn support requests just exactly like a submission to a magazine.

That is, quite literally, a jpg of the PDF I sent for my Doric mitts. I fuzzed out the contact info at the bottom... If I feel like the swatch add a lot of info I'll scan it, or photograph it, and include a picture in the PDF. In this example the stitch pattern is simple, so I left that out.

Writing out a proposal forces me to determine exactly what I'm doing. I've got enough of a plan that I don't have to worry I'll get half way through construction and hit a snag. I should also have a good idea of how long it's going to take me to complete the project at this point. Once I have all my thoughts written down, I'm ready to contact a yarn company.

Whenever I want to reach out to a new company I start by finding a general e-mail. If I can find something about yarn support on their website AWESOME. But that often doesn't happen. So if I'm emailing the yarn(a)yarncompany.com address I'll start with something like this:

I’m (Name), an independent designer with self-published patterns as well as patterns published through (list a few by 3rd party, if you have them). I am looking for yarn support for an independent design for release through my blog and Ravelry. Could you please let me know to whom I should submit my request? Thank you!

It's short but still polite. I'm not asking for anything except a proper introduction with someone to whom I can send the juicy details. Note that I've already given them enough info to go look me up if they're curious. But generally, this fits into the limited character contact forms on some websites. And I don't send any links at this point. It's a personal preference, but I figure they get a lot of spam at this general contact addresses, I don't want to be filtered out.

Now comes the waiting. When you hear back be prepared for one of several responses:
No, sorry, we don't do yarn support.
Yes, please contact helpful.person(a)yarncompany.com
We love indie designers! What are you looking for?!

If they don't do yarn support accept that and move on. Remember it's business, not personal. That last one is great, although sometimes I get flummoxed (don't you want to see my idea first??) but it's also rare. A lot of companies have been burned by indie "designers" who take yarn and then disappear. Don't be that person ;-) The middle answer is most common.

Here's where my carefully laid out proposal comes in. I e-mail my new friend:

Hello! I'm (name), an independent designer with self-published patterns as well as patterns published through several publications. You can see my full portfolio online, here: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/becky-herrick.

I am looking for yarn support for a sweater/hat/shawl pattern which I'm developing for release this winter/spring. Do you provide yarn support for indie designers? Please let me know if this is something you could help me with and if so let me know the requirements of your yarn support program.

Please find attached my proposal for the sweater/hat/shawl. I'd like to knit this design in your (merino, cotton, unicorn hair) yarn in the (shiny name) colorway. Please let me know if there is a problem with this yarn or colorway, or you know of a better option. For these detailed cables/insane lace I need a mostly solid/highly variegated colored yarn in fingering/aran weight. I believe I will need between 300 and 350 yards or 2 skeins. I look forward to hearing back!

Things to note:
1) I gave them a direct link to see all the published work I've done so far.
2) I gave a timeline for release.
3) I asked the requirements of their yarn support program.
4) I asked if the yarn I'm eyeing is really best in their mind for my project.

Let's go through those points:
1) Now that I'm e-mailing a person I want to show them my body of work. I love the Ravelry designer page as a simple portfolio. It's public and can be viewed even by folks without accounts. It shows both 3rd party and indie designs. And since I'm selling my indie patterns there they might as well see the platform through which I'll be selling the pattern I hope to knit from their yarn.

2) This is key. It gives them an expected timeline. Whether your turn around will be 1 month or 1 year be up front about it. That way they know what to expect. And if you fall behind? Communicate! I originally planned to publish my Boyden sweater in late fall or winter. But then it took 7 months to pull together. I wasn't e-mailing my dyer every week. But I did give her a head's up that I was running behind when January rolled around and the pattern wasn't close to being released.

3) Did you know yarn support comes with requirements? At the very least you want to be sure you're not recommending substitute yarns! Some companies can't afford to give out free yarn; it's just not in the profit margins. Some companies would like photos of your design to help promote your yarn (good news, this promotes YOU as well) Other companies are happy to let you do most of the promotion. But asking what their requirements rather than making assumptions shows that you understand this isn't just a handout. It's a partnership.

4) Several times I've reached out for yarn support only to find the colorway or base I'm considering is in danger of being discontinued. Apparently I have bad luck that way... But these are exactly the sorts of things the yarnie will know better than you. They may also have a new yarn they're about to release that would be even better for your design. Asking their opinion gives them a chance to communicate with you, making sure that the yarn used is not just a good fit, but the best fit.

Now that you've opened a dialogue things should move smoothly, just remember to be professional! I always get in touch again to let my new friend know when the yarn safely arrives. Then I get down to work. When the pattern finally goes live I get in touch again to let them know. Sometimes we can work out a give-away or other promotion on the yarn company's blog. Knitters love a chance to win a free pattern, and I bet that yarnie has a slightly different audience that might like your work!

I hope this helps! If you'd like to read more about yarn support Alex Tinsley has another post on the process behind asking for yarn support. And Ruth over at Rock & Purl has given her own opinions and suggestions as well. And if you have any questions that still aren't answered feel free to ask them here!

*trust me, the IRS (or whatever your government agency is) expects you to be keeping track of profits.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

going home sweater

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:55:39 GMT

It's important for babies to have an outfit to wear home from the hospital right? So I figured my baby needs a little sweater. And what better pattern than Perpernum? Even the name is right!

(Going home sweater on Ravelry)

For some reason I cast on this sweater thinking I'd knit it in a day. Well, it actually took a whole weekend (with a fair amount of co-piloting and knitting) But that's still pretty quick!

I trimmed it in the same green merino/silk blend as the leaf hat I knit earlier. In fact, I'm thinking the two can be a going home set! The odd bit there is that both are designed by Kelly Brooker - and I totally didn't plan it that way. In fact, I didn't even realize it until I started knitting this little sweater and thought to myself "gee, this layout looks familiar" Yup. I recognized her by her font and pattern style.

Isn't the embroidery adorable?! I wanted a little flower, but decided to use a spiral because it's a little less standard. I love the bright colors of this for a baby. Pastels are pretty, but babies like bright colors more, right? This yarn is Edna, a DK from Dirty Water Dyeworks. It's a silk/polworth blend so, like the hat, the sweater should be soft enough for a newborn.

Even the inside of my embroidery is pretty neat. I guess all this practice I'm getting is actually improving my skills!

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

My life lies in rows

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:56:10 GMT

I (finally) had a weekend at home. We worked in the garden, went canoeing in the heat of the day, and built a new flower bed.

Most of what you can see in the garden is still just garlic, lettuces, and peas. But I love how pretty the rows look. I've planted rows of leeks, cabbage, carrots, and beets west of the pea trellises*. Soon there will be more pretty rows! I've finally accepted that I should plant broccoli and brussel sprouts from starts because it's too late for seeds. They're in the garden now too.
That whittles down the to-plant list leaving squashes, tomatoes, and green beans.

Meanwhile the fruits are looking happy this year. Our scruffy front acre is setting bloom for another crazy harvest of blackberries. The plum trees didn't get pinched by frost. And look:

I think these are tiny grape buds!

*the snap peas I grow only get about 3' tall. I discovered completely by accident that the love trellising up tomato cages!

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Where were we?

Fri, 31 May 2013 15:55:33 GMT

I'm not really clear on what happened to this week. I remember coming home from Maine... Then Neil and I both came down with the nastiest head/chest/throat germ I've had in years. Now I'm surfacing at the end of the week to find my dishwasher full of soup bowls and my knitting needles strangely empty.

I haven't had the energy for much knitting at all, and certainly no energy for casting on the next book project. I haven't even been able to pick buttons for my little baby sweater. There's been a tiny amount of garter stitch going on, and a lot of napping on the couch. I vaguely remember a stockinette swatch, but haven't got the mental energy to check the gauge, nevermind write the next book pattern.

So hopefully the fact that I'm here means I really am on the mend. The goal this weekend is to finish putting in the garden, so I'd like to have more energy by then please!

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Whirlwind

Tue, 28 May 2013 16:30:04 GMT

We took a tour of New England this weekend. That wasn't really the point, but it's as good an explanation as any! Saturday parts of Vermont were under water and the rain was still coming down. But we were on the road by 6:45am headed to Maine for a wedding!

Neil was driving, and of course I was knitting. Somewhere in western Maine I finished the body of a tiny baby sweater, only to discover I'd left my dpns at home. That's how the embroidery started...

The wedding was beautiful, even if they did have to move it inside. Our friends are farmers and so everyone there agreed that rain on a wedding day is good luck, not a problem.

Our next stop (because Neil is awesome and enabling) was Knit Wit in Portland where I picked up an extra set of dpns (whew). Then we headed to Fort Williams where the continuing rain just made standing on cliffs overlooking the stormy ocean feel more stoic.

From there we met up with Neil's friend, then my friends. The next day we swung through Massachusetts for dinner (you know, because we clearly needed 4 states in 3 days) Finally we visited my family in NH on Monday.

Yes, I finished the tiny baby sweater (more details to come.)

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

interlude

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:55:31 GMT

I took a bit of a baby interlude between book designs. Ok ok, the booties happened mid-design. But I swear it was just a weekend fling!

Tiny knits are fun, they go so fast! I knit (what I hope is) a newborn hat in about 4 hours flat.

It's the Woodcutter's Baby, a cute little free pattern with corners! I think they're adorable. And knit out of Manos silk/merino blend it is soft enough for any baby's skin.

And the booties? They're moc-a-socks. Technically I followed that infant pattern, but I didn't get gauge. Not even close. I figure baby will grow into them. In the mean time I might make another set because they're just so adorable!

I absolutely love that they look like little shoes. But they have sock cuffs so a baby can't kick them off. Babies don't really need real shoes anyway.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

A weekend and a half

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:55:30 GMT

Over the weekend Calley and I shot SEVEN finished recipes and three knitting designs. We took well over a thousand pictures and I put more than 350 miles on my car.

But it was worth it! Partly because Vermont in spring looks like this:

Seriously, even the interstate is pretty.

Also worth it because our food photos look nothing like this:

That's just the angled view I had while holding reflectors and black boards and other lighting props.

Calley is amazing at setting up food shots. She had sketches in advance and knew the layouts and angles she wanted. The studio is in a spare bedroom at the farmhouse. Between their kitchen and the bits and bobs Calley and I collected we had plenty of props.

I learned so much about product photography. It's a completely different world from modeled knitwear. Studio shots involve lots of lighting tweaks, reflectors for fill light, black boards for increasing contrast, and diffusers to cut shadows. I learned how to use them all (at least a little). And since the food doesn't move you can take a photo with a 2 second shutter speed and get gorgeously crisp images (try doing THAT with a model) We're certainly not as fast as the professional food photographers. But I think our amateur shots look just as good, even if it takes us twice as long to get there.

I'm happy to report that the food in this book is all real. We did not resort to tricks like adding glue to milk, or shellacking anything. Although Calley did spit-polish the radishes at one point...

And the star of this show? The reason we HAD to do at least two shoots this weekend?

They arrived in full force and on schedule. Thanks mother nature!

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

On books and photography

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:57:01 GMT

This chain of thought started on twitter, then I realized I have WAY more than 140 characters to say on the matter:

I'm in the process of pulling together a last minute photoshoot for the April book pattern. We're not technically late here because April is an ugly month in Vermont, so we'd planned all along to do the shoot in May when the dandelions bloomed. But I will admit the flowers kinda snuck up on me. So Monday found me emailing friends hoping someone was available late afternoon Saturday for photos.

As before my awesome friends have pulled through, and with style. No, seriously. The person I'm working with Saturday has far more style than I do, she's excited about modeling, AND she's a knitter - always a plus.

The photos for this book are being done following a rather different mode than the usual book photography. I hear it's normal for books to be photographed in one or two shoots. Just a handful of models are used, and each garment gets a short time in front of the camera. I admire those photographers for being able to produce such gorgeous results with whatever situation is thrown at them.

But we didn't want that for our book. We knew that to capture the seasonality which is KEY to our theme we needed to shoot garments in multiple seasons. This means many shoots, many locations, and far more individual attention than any publishing house could afford to pay a pro photographer for. I'm eternally grateful that Cooperative Press is willing to let me do my own photography.

This freedom has allowed me to treat each knitted item like an indie release. I choose the friend. (hereafter referred to as "model") I knit the garment in their size. I pick the perfect location, and reschedule as needed (see: maple shoot)

This means all our samples are modeled by normal people. I don't generally like the "real people vs models" conversation so let me explain. What I mean here is our models are our friends. Calley's cousin, Neil's college buddy's wife, my friend from knit group, etc... Our models are not pros. Surprisingly (or not) almost all of them know how to knit, at least a little. But what they don't all know is how to act in front of a camera. And that's ok. I have time during the shoot to help them feel at ease. I make sure there's an activity, so they have something to do with their hands. I can distract them with funny stories because their my friends. They can laugh at the increasingly pregnant lady getting into awkward positions to capture just the right angle.

And I think this means every photo shoot has a little bit of our community built right into it. The essence of our book is built around locality, supporting small artists, using local ingredients, and enjoying good food with friends. I hope the little snips of our community can be seen in the photos when you look at them.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

example vs warning

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:55:23 GMT

I have a sewing story to tell you. But it doesn't have a very happy ending...

I wanted to make myself a wrap dress. Something I could wear to various weddings and showers and that would grow as my belly grows. Thanks to crafters on Twitter and pinterest I thought I'd try sewing with Jersey fabric. I'm no fool, I knew for a first major jersey project I should start with a simple pattern. I'd work with cheap fabric (as much as I wanted to buy Alabama Chanin jersey cotton...) I'd even avoid making changes! It'd be simple, and perfect!

Yeah, right. I made so many mistakes on this dress that it's dead on arrival. I'm not even going to bother finishing it :-/

The buttrick pattern I chose is, indeed, very simple*.

But my first problem was in the fabric itself. For my size I needed 2.25 yards. And to cut the pattern pieces you unfold the fabric so it is just one layer thick. That means I was working with a stretchy square 60x80 inches. Yup. I lost track of the selvages. And since this is knit fabric ALL FOUR EDGES ROLL. I couldn't find the selvages again. Or I could, and I'd loose them instantly.

I ended up cutting the back and right front perpendicular to the selvage. And then I didn't have enough fabric to cut the last piece in the same way. I thought, since it was 2 way stretch, I'd try cutting the left front parallel to the selvage and hope for the best.

The second problem actually happened first, but I didn't catch it until later. See, I'd cut the front and the back at the same time. And for the back piece I had to flip the pattern stencil (because it's symmetrical) So I thoughtlessly flipped the front piece to make it fit the fabric better.

Catch that? Now I have a front right piece cut with purl side out and perpendicular to the selvage. A front left piece cut knit side out and parallel to the selvage. And a back piece cut knit side out and perpendicular to the selvage.

I'm not even gonna bother assembling those to see how the dress would hang. I went to the store last weekend and got a very nice maternity dress on sale which will be fine for the wedding in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll try sewing again in June...

*although THEY screwed up the artwork on the front. The dress is just 3 pieces and two ties. There's no way, without major modifications, that you could make the top half of the dress a different color from the bottom half. It's all one piece of fabric...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

book progress, of a sort

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:55:19 GMT

We have a book photo shoot planned, not this weekend but the next. We're hoping to do food photography for five or six recipes... My co-author has been assisting, and learning from, a pro. She has an indoor light setup and everything! So with any luck we'll get some excellent shots*

We're also hoping to shoot THREE knitting patterns. I seem to have slept through most of my first trimester and I admit I'm a bit behind on the book projects right now (my test knitters would probably agree). This should get me almost caught up with where I should be. Almost, because it'll get the knitting caught up through April (which is almost like May)

The food is best photographed in groups, because when you go through the process of cleaning the kitchen, setting up the lighting, and prepping the food - you might as well do a bunch of recipes at once. I know there are designers who take the same approach to photographing knitwear. They get one model, two or three outfits and a few locations and run through the shots for an entire book, right? I guess so, but I've never done knitwear shots that way...
But the hardest part is both garments are knit in my size. Wait, correction: the size I used to be before I was pregnant... So now we need a model who's my other size, give or take, and we need her to be free that planned weekend...

I'm sure it'll all come together. I mean, we got that maple vest done (it only took 4 tries) how hard can this be?

*I think her photography was pretty awesome even before she started learning from the pros. I'm not nearly as worried as she is.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

poultry

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:55:23 GMT

The chickens have been LOVING the recent spate of sunny weather. The grass and other plants are green and tasty. The bugs are out, the dust baths are dusty. Really, what more could a chicken ask for?

I love watching these ladies, they're better than TV (although some days that's not hard).

I'm a bit sad that we have no chicks this spring. But it's for the best. Neil and I agreed that trying to process meat birds when I'm 7 or 8 months pregnant would not be a brilliant plan if we could avoid it. My mom agreed, so my parents ordered some extras this year to make up the difference.

And we have no layer chicks either. The addition of 5 young hens last fall means we have an ABUNDANCE of eggs right now.

We've gotten 16 in the last two days. I'm probably eat 3 eggs a day but we just can't keep up with them! It's a good problem to have, mostly.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

first harvest

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:55:09 GMT

If you had asked me about green garlic last year at this time I'd have said that I'd NEVER plant enough garlic to harvest some of it green. But then I lost several plants in among the squash last summer, and this year they happily sprouted - far to crowded for each clove to grow into a new bulb.

So tonight we had a stir fry of green garlic, mushrooms, and fresh spinach. The wonderful thing about green garlic is you can eat the whole plant. From the tiny white bulb at the bottom all the way to the tips of the green stem - the whole thing is a fresh, light version of dry garlic. If you were the early-spring localvore type these would be PERFECT in a stir fry with fiddleheads, asparagus, and dandelion greens. But since my garden has given me exactly ONE stem of asparagus I'm gonna stick to mushrooms for now...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Happy bloodroot

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:55:03 GMT

YOU GUYS! Let me show you my bloodroot flowers!

This may be my biggest gardening success. Not my showiest plant by any means. Bloodroot comes up early in the spring, blooms for just a day or three, and even the leaves are gone by the start of June.

But bloodroot is HARD to grow. First it can be hard to find the plants. They're endangered, so you don't want to just go digging them up in the woods. And they're hard to grow from seed. Each flower produces just one (so it's kinda surprising that you can buy the seed). And the internet tells me the seeds germinate best when ants carry them down under ground. Then it's hard to find a place that makes them happy. They need sun in the spring to bloom, but shade is better once the blooms are done. They like a decent amount of moisture. Oh, and they hate to be disturbed, so you need a quiet corner of the garden.

So how did this happen? As far as I can tell it's pure luck. I mean, I did pick a quiet corner of a shady patch of my garden, near a willow. I figured that was the best possible site for them. My rhizome came from mom's little patch of bloodroot in NH. When I put it in the ground 4 years ago it had 3 or 4 flowers. This year I have TWENTY. So it must be happy, right?

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

spring gardening

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:02:15 GMT

I've finally gotten seeds in the ground! It feels late, when in reality I'm just about on time. I planted green and red leaf lettuces, spinach, and snap peas. All four (hopefully) should sprout in the next week of pleasant weather. And if we get some chilly nights in May* none of them will be killed off.

I tilled the earth, planted the seed, admired my work, and then realized we have NO rain forecast for the whole week. So I got out this little turtle sprinkler. This cute guy covers a circle about 5 or 6 feet across. That's all the coverage I need at the moment.

This year's combination planting is just rows of lettuce and other short leafy greens in between the rows of garlic. The garlic did great between sweet corn two years ago. It did ok between the squash, but was really hard to harvest. This year I'm figuring the leafy greens will be small enough that they won't out-compete the garlic.

*keeping in mind my last frost date is in June...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Sunday was gorgeous

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:55:00 GMT

Sunday was gorgeous, 65F, breezy, and sunny. So why did all the laundry this weekend go through the dryer? Well you may ask… It's because I'm forgetful, and not everything is perfect, even when we want it to be. My clothesline snapped the weekend before, not on the first load, but the second. And not right away, but it waited until I wasn't looking. I wish if the thing were going to give up, it'd give me some advanced notice (this will become a running theme.)

Then I spent a week forgetting to pick up new line. On Sunday I thought hopefully to myself, "Self: it worked a little last week. What if we just tie some careful knots and try again?" I'd like to point out my knot-tying skills are pretty good! The knots themselves held up fine. The line also held up fine (for awhile). It showed no signs of breaking while I ratcheted it tight. It showed no signs of breaking while I carefully pinned a whole load of clothes up to dry. You can see where this is going, right? Of course, it waited until I was done to snap a second time, thoughtfully dropping all my clean laundry onto the ground.

So I have to ask? What do other people do? Do you actually take your line down in the winter so it doesn't weather as much? Do you also go through the process of replacing a clothesline every other year? Is there some magical clothesline string that doesn't break with age??

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

deep stash

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:55:42 GMT

What to do when you're in the mood for a quick project on a lazy weekend? Stash-dive for the right materials! (note: I was filling a sewing craving, obviously) I've been saving this awesome fabric for years. I never knew what its purpose was, but it was too awesome to just give up on. This weekend it finally told me, it wants to be a baby blanket.

I combined the cotton print with an old flannel sheet. The dogs tore the center of this old fitted sheet, but most of the fabric is still good. There's plenty to back a good-sized baby blanket! Even the binding is from stash. I think it's old, I have no guess where it came from...

The blanket may be trimmed in blue, but I think between the unicorns and dragons, castles, wizards, sailing-ships, and trees this blanket will be fine for either a boy or girl.

This is the simplest blanket ever. I lined up the fabric wrong sides together, stitched three times across horizontally, and three times vertically making a grid. Then I put on the trim. The lines can best be described as straight-ish (I don't like using pins). The final blanket is about 40x40 inches, kind of mid-weight, and the main feature is the fabric.

I have enough fabric left to make a set of nursery curtains. After that I may have enough left for another nursery project, we'll see. I'm seriously considering painting a forest and castle mural in the nursery too! I may have discovered a theme...

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

sourdough

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:55:37 GMT

I have a new pet project! Sourdough. My mom got a really nice starter from someone in her area, and she's shared it with me. It has a lovely fresh-sour (does that make sense?) scent and bubbles along so happily

I'm storing mine in the fridge so I only need to feed it once a week, but after being pointed to the recipes on King Arthur's website (and in their bread books too) I don't think I'll have any problem using the starter that gets removed each time I feed it.

Last weekend I just made dough. Good, old-fashioned bread dough. I divided the starter, fed both halves, stuck one back in the fridge, and let the other bubble happily on above the wood stove. That evening I added flour and water, kneaded, and rolled out the dough.

I put down a layer of caramelized onion and sausage, rolled the whole thing up stromboli style, and let it rise in a barely warmed oven.

Yum.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Budding

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:56:04 GMT

It's still a pretty cold spring up here in Vermont. It's dropped below freezing every one of the last 4 nights. I wanted to put out spinach and broccoli seed this weekend, but the cold forecasted seemed too much for even those hardy little guys.

The garlic is brave though*. So are the daffodils,

and the rhubarb is starting to think about spring too!

It'll be here eventually. Next weekend I'll start my squashes indoors. This means I spend the whole week daydreaming about garden arrangements and new veggies to try. I already bought leek seeds and shallot starts, those will be new this year...

*yes those are coals on the ground. It's not for the garlic. That's left over from last fall when the squash bugs were SO BAD that I threatened to BURN THEM WITH FIRE. Never let it be said that I make empty threats at garden pests.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Mindless but pretty

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:32:36 GMT

I needed something really mindless to knit during a complicated class last week. It was the perfect excuse to cast on this crinkled (for now) little design that has been kicking around my brain for months.

Shhh, don't tell the book that I'm designing something else! Seriously though, it's simple enough that I wrote out the pattern in 30 minutes. And there's no grading a stole! I should design more of them!!

It's been great having something to knit while I fix math and typos and re-do charts on other book patterns as well. I may kick myself when I'm rushing through projects in May. But that's future-Becky's problem. Right now I'll think I'll go knit some more garter...

(ps, I'm going with the brown and blue buttons for that little baby sweater. It was a unanimous vote. You can't all be wrong!)

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

First baby FO

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:55:57 GMT

I feel confident saying this space isn't going to be turning into a parenting blog or anything. But you'll probably get a dose of baby here, just like you get a dose of everything else in my life.*

Since there's no baby yet, we'll start with the first baby sweater!

Yes, this is Noro. Yes, Neil and I have already worked out a method for distinguishing hand-wash baby items from machine-wash baby items. Yes, I know at least a few things will probably get felted anyway. I've accepted that... I think.
Also yes, I did go through and divide each color chunk in half so the sleeves would be identical.

This started out as me following a free pattern from a yarn company. The details will go unshared because there were fatal math errors on the first page which forced me to just wing the rest of the sweater. (Let's just say that if you cast on 32, inc 8 stitches in the first row, then inc 10 stitches every other row, you will NEVER get to 146...)

So I knit the body until it looked good. Then I consulted the CYC charts for babies and knit 8.5" sleeves to go with the 20" body. And they looked way too long. Then I asked twitter and Joeli pointed out these comprehensive kids charts.

Sleeves too long. Lesson learned. But for this sweater I'm just going to fold the cuffs back. Oh, and I still need to decide which buttons I like best. I'm leaning towards the purple swirly ones at the top. What do you think?

*knitting, chickens, dogs, gardening, food, the twice a year cleaning of the coop... you know the drill!

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Hello Gorgeous

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:55:03 GMT

Wednesday afternoon was a complete success

There were maple buckets

and draft horses

and my wonderful new friend who can drive them.

This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.