New Toys

December 22, 2011 at 10:18 am (Fiber) (, , )

We had a spinning guild meeting not too long ago.  Window shopping at our vendors left me wanting a support spindle in a bad way.  I searched around etsy and artfire for a little bit before finding Pumpkin Hill Farm’s Russian spindles.  They had a beautiful padauk spindle made locally.

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Now I just have to learn how to use it. Supported spindles rely heavily on long draw, which has never been my forte. I also have to get my muscles used to the new potion.

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Invaders

December 17, 2011 at 2:14 pm (life) (, )

I seem to have something eating my piper nigrum (black pepper) plant.  I have little white/sandy looking dots all over the back of the leaves and stem and it seems that there is something chewing on the leaves.  I’m not sure what pest I have on my hands but I think I will give it a cool shower and then spray it with some neem oil.  (click pictures to get to bigger versions)

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Peckham’s Greenhouse

November 5, 2011 at 11:13 am (life) (, , , )

One of the bike routes I do when visiting RI goes by Peckham’s Greenhouse I finally decided to go check them out. They have a huge selection of house plants in their many greenhouses. I’m sure during the summer their collection of outdoor plants is impressive as well.

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I also stopped at the Island Garden Shop. THey had a lovely greenhosue filled with indoor plants and a nice slection of pots. I was actually looking for some pots so this worked out well. I picked out some Rosso’s International pots. These are made of bamboo and other plant bits and will start to break down after 3 years of indoor use. I liked the colors and I liked the price. I figure that I get sick of my pots after a few years anyway so this would be an interesting way to get some turnover in my planter collection.

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October Storm

November 3, 2011 at 8:55 am (life)

We really didn’t get much snow, but with all the leaves on the trees I lost power for five days. I actually went off to Rhode Island once I found out I had no school this week.

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We just lost some junk brush trees on our property line… that darned walnut tree that throws walnuts on our cars is still standing.

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Our new doggie Na’vi

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We used him to keep us warm, but now he thinks he belongs on the couch.

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Its been a wet fall

October 27, 2011 at 8:12 pm (life)

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Process Knitter

October 14, 2011 at 5:25 pm (Fiber)

My birthday is tomorrow and I’ve been thinking of my grandmother a lot. She past away almost two years ago, but I miss having her around for my birthday. She is the woman who taught me how to knit. She was a columnist who worked from home; as such she was often tasked with watching my brother and I on snow days and school vacations. She taught me to knit and purl and I would turn out trapezoid shaped strips as I churned out knits and purls in whatever random combination I wanted. I was never very good at having the right number of stitches on the needles, and my knitting was filled with accidental increases. My grandma could never be considered a good teacher. She never encouraged or taught me how to knit a useful object, and she always ripped out my knitting when she saw how many accidental increases there were. I think she is the reason that I’m a process knitter. From the very beginning I knit for the sake of knitting, not with the intention of making a hat or a scarf. She never taught me to cast on or bind off, so knitting was mostly an activity at grandmas house. I didn’t touch needles once I was old enough to stay home alone. It wasn’t until I was living on my own for the first time that I picked up the pointy sticks again. I had just started my first job after college and couldn’t afford Christmas presents. I picked up some needles and yarn at a big box store and cranked out feather and fan scarves for everyone that year. I needed to teach myself how to cast on, yarn over and decrease, but the knits and purls came right back to me.

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I still think of my grandma every time I knit. She learned to knit because she was a child of the Great Depression. Her knitting was always more utilitarian then mine, and I’m not sure she ever got the same joy out of it that I get. She would crank out intarsia sweaters for everyone. The kid’s sweaters wear knit out of practical acrylic, and the adults got basic wool. I still have and use the afghan she made for me when I went away for college.

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Still Alive

October 2, 2011 at 4:36 pm (life) (, , )

I have finished most of my fall planting. In an effort to remember what I planted this year I drummed up a quick diagram with the fall plantings in red, the summer is left in blue.

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Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Ragged Jack Kale
Neon Lights Swiss Chard

I found garlic at a local shop, so these aren’t links to the exact source.
Chesnok
German Red
German White

Parsley Root
Lutz Salad Beet

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Carrot Pickles

August 13, 2011 at 3:14 pm (Food) (, , )

I made some firecracker pickles from a Good Eats recipe.

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Because these are refridgerator pickles and will be stored with the rings on I tested out these awesome Lid Lables from Marnie MacLeans blog.

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I must be pretty efficent at packing my jars because I had enough pickle juice left to make extra… I’m glad I got the two pound bag instead of the one pound bag.

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Who needs a wooly winder?

July 25, 2011 at 9:29 pm (Fiber)

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It’s cheaper to be obsessive about moving the sliding hook. (That, and I couldn’t get a wooly winder for this wheel even if I wanted to.)

This is Frabjous Fibers merino in Hespera. Its been spinning very nicely for me. I was leaning toward knitting something a bit lacy with this, but I think the yarn will be kind of stripey. I’m considering trying to fight the stripe by dividing up the other half of the roving length wise a few times. That way the colors will (allegedly) be less likely to line up. I think the orange and pink will contrast too much against the blue and green that it won’t matter what I do. I should know better and stick to solids for lacey projects.

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Hot! Hot! Hot!

July 23, 2011 at 3:29 pm (bees)

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I went outside yesterday to put a bucket of water out for the bees only to find a big beard on the solid bottomed hive. The hive with a screened bottom had nothing.

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I pulled some bars out and put a window screen across.

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Then I propped the screen up with one of the top bars (some mulch and grass stuck to the propolis) Hopefully this will make them a bit more comfortable today. It should be much cooler after tonight.

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