Garlic Raising Project at Home!

While we were in Maine (Rangeley Lakes) in October for a vacation week, I was able to attend a garlic-raising lecture at the local library.  It was very interesting and encouraging. I love garlic!  The thought of raising it ourselves had never previously occurred to me.  As a byproduct of the lecture, all participants (nearly 20 people, many of which were garlic growers already!) received a bag with four or five garlic bulbs to plant in our own gardens!

When we got home from Maine I still had work to do to clean up the kitchen garden, which I finally did.  It was now ready to prepare for spring, AND ready to plant garlic which is supposed to be planted in October or November in this area.  That was good news as we had not passed the garlic-planting deadline.

Earlier in the fall there had been a note on our town's ListServe with someone offering $10 loads of composted goat manure.  I dredged into the recesses of my brain and remembered the name so I was able to go back into the ListServe archives and find that message.  Contacting the goat farmer was an easy thing and he agreed that he still had a pile of "compost" so I headed out in the truck.

The trip was a nice trip though the final trip up a steep and VERY narrow driveway was a bit nerve-wracking for this gutless driver.  When I got to the top into the yard the farmer told me to turn the truck around and drive it up to the compost pile cross-ways of the road.  This entailed getting VERY CLOSE to the edge of the road and a very very steep drop-off.  My heart was fluttering and my stomach was clenching, and that was before the farmer got there with his tractor and bucket to load the truck.  Well, he did a good job and gave us a nice load on top of that tarp that I had so smartly put into the bottom of the truck bed so we would not have compost forever impaled in the ridges of the truck liner.

Once home Dear One and Dear Daughter-in-law unloaded the compost (which was much LESS compost-y that I had envisioned, but which will still add good stuff to the garden) onto the garden. I was worn out from the stress of the loading up so I put off shoveling it around (with our new square-pointed shovel!) until the next day.

Finally we were ready to plant the garlic.  I gave three of the bulbs to Dear Daughter-in-law to plant in their garden, along with about a third of a bale of straw for covering it to protect it over the winter.  It was so great to get that garlic in the ground.

Heavenly Father helped things along nicely by giving us wonderful gentle fall weather, unusually warm for an extended period.  Here in mid-December the ground is still not frozen, though I think that is coming soon.

Here is the kitchen garden with a straw-covered garlic patch...with a straw-covered chive clump as well!

Straw-covered garlic, and chives, too!

Without the extended mild fall weather this would not have happened.  Now we get to wait until spring to see if anything is actually happening under the straw.  If all is well with the garlic, we should have some nice bulbs come July next year!  That would be wonderful.  These are German Extra Hardy Hardnecks.

Christmas Knitting Journal, Day One!

The title of this series of blog posts is sort of like the Creation story in the Holy Bible...day one does not necessarily mean it was all done on THAT day, just like all the stuff done on Day One in the Creation was not done in one day, but in one period of time, whatever Heavenly Father's period of time happens to be.

So, each year  I knit for the grandchildren and give them at Christmas.  Usually it is mittens but this year I decided to ask what they would actually like to receive.  This is the list:

G: convertible mittens in light green and light blue
A: convertible mittens in light blue and dark green
L: gloves in pink with some purple and mouse faces on the fingertips
T: a Christmas tree to go on a cardboard cone
A-2: a Christmas tree to go on a cardboard cone
J: a felted dinosaur
E: mittens
C: mittens
L: mittens
B: mittens

Three of the last four sets of mittens are already completed since I knitted them in January to get a head start on Christmas knitting.  The rest of the process is why I am writing this Christmas Knitting Journal....the other parts of the Christmas knitting have already been taxing in the extreme.

Having some Hilda Yates' Farm Bartlettyarn which is wooly and very thick and warm, I knit a prototype convertible mitten to see how it would go.  I found a pattern on Ravelry and knit it up true to the pattern. Her mittens/glittens are absolutely beautiful.

Sadly, this pattern did not work very well for me.  At least, I thought it was way too humpy and armour-like.  Kathy Cochran, the designer, said she had used DK weight yarn for years but had started using worsted weight yarn with the same needles which only made the glittens a little bit larger.  All her glittens were so promising but when  I used the Bartlettyarn  I was unhappy with them.  Here is the prototype I made with that yarn:

Bartlettyarn glitten closed

Bartlettyarn glitten showing fingerless glove interior of mitten

Maybe I mentioned above that the glitten feels like chain mail armour, or at least, how I imagine it would feel. I am a bit claustrophobic, so this is a problem for me.

Since this failed for my liking, I purchased some Cascade 220 Superwash in DK weight to try again.  VERY similar results!  SO...obviously the problem is with me and my knitting. Kathy's glittens are stunningly beautiful...

DK weight glitten backs...

DK weight glitten-palmside

DK weight glitten - palmside showing fingerless glove

Things I have already learned on this project to this point:

1.  The intensity of the yarn colors matters.  If you are going to go to the work to do a somewhat complicated pattern, there should be a vast different in hue so the pattern will show clearly.  No bragging rights if you can barely see the design.  Sadly.

2.  Even following a pattern exactly will not necessarily give you the results you are expecting.  This does not make the pattern wrong.  Expectations may need to be readjusted!

3.  Sometimes it is a good idea to have some kind soul try on the glitten to see if it fits on a hand more closely approaching the size of the hand of the recipient grandchild.  This can be encouraging.  Diana was kind enough to try on this DK glitten and found it comfortable and fine.  She suggested that the ribbing on the palm was the only flaw...should have been tightened up some, so when I make the second glove insert I will do it differently.  At least, I hope to do so...

 

New Health Find...infused water

Last Sunday Debbie asked me if I had ever tried infused water.  Since I had never heard of it, I said so.  She said to take a nice 2 quart glass bottle and put a very thinly sliced apple of any kind (I used a Pink Lady since that is what I had) in the bottom of the jar.  Toss in one stick of cinnamon, fill the jar with water, cover and refrigerate. In an hour, pour yourself a glass of lovely lightly flavored infused water.  I loved it!

You can refill the jar three or four times.  By the time the apple slices begin to brown you might want to remove them and start with a new apple and cinnamon stick...

Since I love lemon, I tried putting a sliced lemon in the bottom of a jar along with about an inch of finely sliced fresh ginger and let it refrigerate.  That one was really good, too.

If any readers have suggestions of other good flavors of infused water, send comments!

Thanks.  And thanks, Debbie, for a treat that will most likely be a rest of my life sort of thing!

Three By Three Cable Cowl--finished two of them for The Grandmother Project

In the interest of finishing up current projects so I can get on with Christmas knitting, in the early morning no-sleeping-hours, I finished the second Three by Three Cabled Cowl.  It is knit in Queensland Collection Llama Soft Cotton, a yarn which has a put-up of 273 yards in a 100 gram ball and which is 80% cotton and 20% Baby Llama.  It was made in Argentina for KRI.  This yarn is lovely and soft, though at the end of the ball there were multiple areas where there seemed to be some dried glue on the strand of yarn.

This knitting was for The Grandmother Project at the White River Yarns shop where scarves and cowls are being knit for a group of grandmothers in Africa.  This is sort of a "sisters project" because these grandmothers are part of the Tuko Pamoja group and make beautiful baskets and other things for sale to help provide for their families.  To learn more about this group, click here.  Some of their baskets are, or will be, on sale at White River Yarns.  Also they will be at the Christmas Market with a Difference at the Church of Christ in Hanover, NH  Thursday, 7 November to Saturday, 9 November 2012.

This was a rather fun knit project, though when I put down the knitting to sleep and picked it back up, there were times when I started at the wrong row...out of 8 rows in the pattern! SO, there are a few creative spots on the cowl which is about 20 inches long in total.

The knitting was done on size US 7 needles with 33 stitches cast on.  The first and last 6 stitches of each row are knit.

The picture above shows where the buttonholes are at the end of the piece.  Some kind person has donated buttons to the White River Yarns shop so I am hoping someone will sew them on.

The skein of yarn I used made two cowls, with about 12 inches of yarn left over!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Last year M made some laundry soap from a recipe she found online.  She sent us a package with several loads' worth of soap.  It was very well received here.

Ingredients for one batch of homemade laundry soap

Over the last month or so, I have been collecting the various ingredients for the soap.  The Oxy Clean generic was harder to find.  The Dollar Store did not have it in stock the day I was there so I went to Family Dollar and found it...quite a bit more expensive than $1.00 per box!

To make this soap you need six ingredients:  20 mule team Borax--76-ounce box, 3 bars Fels Naptha soap, Washing Soda--55-ounce box, Baking Soda--2 cups, 2 containers Dollar Tree "Oxyclean"-40-ounces in each box, and Purex Fabric Sofener Crystals--28-ounce container.

Fels Naptha soap, grated in Cuisinart

In your food processor, or with a box grater, finely grate the three bars Fels Naptha soap.  In a 5-gallon bucket lined with a double (or preferably, triple) layer of kitchen wastebasket trash bags, pour in all the ingredients, starting with the Borax and ending with the grated Fels Naptha soap.  Mix well with your hands then close the garbage bags and swish back and forth until the mixture is completely homogenized.

Use 2 Tablespoons of soap mixture per load of clothes.  I found that the little scoop in the Family Dollar (the Dollar Tree was out of Oxyclean when I stopped there...) Oxyclean was just 2 Tablespoons so I can use that as a measure for each load of laundry.

Combined ingredients in triple garbage bags in 5-gallon bucket

Because I was making this soap as a demo for a "Family Preparedness Night" at our women's organization at Church,  I printed up labels with the ingredients and "Use 2 Tablespoons per load" on them, which I affixed to some zipper-top snack bags which I then filled with one-quarter cup of soap so the ladies can run two loads of laundry to see if they want to make this themselves.  It is supposedly less than $30 to make this batch.  I made up 30 snack bags which equals 60 loads of laundry and have A LOT left in my bucket.  It may just be a year's worth of laundry soap!

 Happy cleaning!

Fall Sweaters....Completed

Last year I started sweaters for E and C.  I had promised them the year before. I wanted to knit them on my Bond Incredible Sweater Machine.  I had made one several years ago for little L and found it enjoyable.  A couple of Christmases ago I made then for G, A, and L.  Finally I got started last year.

Cardigan knit on the Bond, from Yates' Farm Bartlettyarn in red and blue

In September I finished the red and blue one except for putting in the zipper.  Last weekend I was sick and did not want to share my germs with the brothers and sisters at Church so I stayed home.  I spent a couple or three hours that afternoon at the Bond and finished the front and back of the blue and green sweater.

Still not in good shape physically, I did not sleep well last night so I spent the time finishing the blue and green sweater then inserted the zipper in the red and blue sweater.

Pullover knit on the Bond in blue and heather green from Yates Farm Bartlettyarns

I have just sent an email to children to see what my Christmas knitting project should look like.  Normally I make a pair of mittens for everyone.  I decided to ask what was actually wanted this year!  New strategy....We shall see what tickles the fancy for 1.5, 4,4,4, 6,8,8,10, and 16 year olds. I look forward to knitting what they would like.

Lilae Shawl Adventure

The White River Yarns shop sometimes invites people to knit samples for them.  This time the samples were shawls.  The pattern Karen gave me is Xale Lilae (Lilae Shawl) along with some lovely soft cotton yarn, which yarn I cannot name as she was kind enough to wind for me. I did not think to ask for the ball bands.

When I saw the pattern my stomach clenched!  I am not much of a lace knitter but I decided that I could give it a try.  Since I was going to be spending two weeks in Maine mostly by myself I was sure it would work to finish it in October as requested.

For ages I have wanted to get a music stand to use to hold my patterns at eye level. Now was the time!  I went to Blue Mountain Guitar and met a very nice man who had just what I needed at a very good price:  $14.95!

Music Stand from Blue Mountain Guitar

  I then went to Joann Fabrics and Crafts and found two magnetic pattern holders to put on the music stand. I needed two of them because the pattern for Lilae was two pages long horizontally.

Magnetic pattern holders with magnets, plus homemade long magnet from magnetic tape for very sturdy long magnet.

Here is Chart Two from the Lilae Shawl pattern installed on the music stand and magnetic holders. The hardware works like a charm, particularly with the long heavy magnetic strip I made with some magnetic tape and scraps of fabric.  It would have looked better if I had used some nice scrapbooking paper instead of the fabric scraps, but...I did not have any at the time.

The shawl was fun to knit, after a fashion!  When it was going well, it was great.  When I had to start over, again and again and again, it was not so fun.  When it was two-thirds done, I discovered an impossible error way back there, so I tore it all out once again, and started one last time.

One motif left of center

Left Front end, with crochet bind-off visible

Top Central Medallion with Nupps

It was interesting to learn how to do a crochet bind-off as the pattern instructed.

Even though I knit the entire thing more than once, and most of the rows, or portions of the rows, many times,  it still looks kind of nice.  When I turned it in to the yarn shop there were a group of knitters there, perhaps in a class, and when they found it was a sample, one of them said, "You won't even get to wear it!"  Not a problem, no way!  It was great experience and I learned a ton, but it is not my taste in shawls.  Actually, I don't know what IS my taste in shawls, but I will know it when I see it.