Charade on parade*
I finished mom’s Charade socks last night:
(Both clickabale thumbnails; color is more accurate in the first)
Such a simple and yet beautiful and elegant pattern! The bumpiness of the Fixation hides it some, but it’s still a lovely pattern. Were I to do this pattern with this yarn again, I’d change how the toe is done as it’s a little too boxy on yarn this thick.
Next up is 9-to-5 using some truly bright variegated yarn which I suspect will completely overshadow the pattern, but it’s another simple and elegant one and at this point, I’m going for something that will keep me entertained while knitting more than finished effect. *smile*
* Give me a break; it’s early!
Living up to its name..
This week is spring break here, which is normally a sort of optimistic title around these parts. This year, not so much. The weekend saw our first truly spring-like days, and the weekdays are following suit quite nicely. I even sat out on the back patio and grilled last night (color me surprised that I actually had charcoal)! Now, if only the administrators got spring break off, too.
It’s been difficult not to think about my plans for the yard and garden this year now that it’s finally getting warmer. Last week I talked about the plans part*, but it got long so I didn’t go into the plants I’ve ordered, which should be here in .. oh.. about two months. *grin*
Backyard:
15137 Strawberry – Ozark Beauty – 25 Plants
I’m pretty excited about these guys, but haven’t exactly decided where they’ll go yet. I need to cut the bed for them, so hopefully the ground will thaw here soon so I can get it all prepped before they arrive! I don’t usually have an issue with animals eating things from the gardens, but I’m a little more concerned about strawberries, so we’ll see if I actually get any of these to full ripe before the critters get them.
Side bed by patio:
41285A Moonflower Giant White – 1 Pkt. (20 seeds)
These will vine up the pergola. My eventual plan for the pergola is grape vines, but I’m expecting that it will take a few years before they grow enough so my hope is to use some vining annuals in the interim. I love Moonflowers – friends in DC had them in their back patio and they were enchanting and beautiful. This is the bed that needs to be overhauled, which I’m not particularly looking forward to, but such is life.
Deck* (in containers):
22018 Patio Princess Tomato – 1 order (3 plants)
I have two other tomato varietals (see farther down) this year, but will only get 1 or 2 plants of each, depending on what the other folks who ordered with me want. I’m expecting to get 1 of one kind and 2 of the other (but don’t know which), and since I may end up with just one of each I wanted to have another option to be sure I’d have plenty of fresh tomatoes this year. I’m excited to try these – they grow in pots, so they’ll be up on the (newly remodeled) back deck.
Front yard:
36483A Dolichos, Lablab – 1 Pkt. (35 seeds) – in the flower boxes
22105 Lobelia Cardinal Flower – 2 plants
42267A Convolvulus Enchantment Series – Mix – 1 Pkt. (150 seeds)
I originally envisioned foxglove in the front yard, but either the plants I ordered never survived or the squirrels dug them up. I’m hoping the lobelia will have better luck. The Convulvulus are sort of a filler – I planted Cosmos in a patch in the front two years ago, and though they’re supposed to be an annual, they rebloomed last year. I decided to hedge my bets that they’d make it another, but if they do, I have other places I can fill in with the Convolvulus. The Dolichos will go in the front flower boxes just as a variety on the morning glories I’ve done in the past.
Garden boxes:
69013 Asparagus Mary Washington – 1 Pack (25 Roots)
14985 Onion Walla Walla Sweet – 1 offer (2 bunches)
20615C Sweet Pepper Collection (6 plants, one of each, though I’m splitting this with a friend)
23015 Tomato Fresh Salsa – 1 order (1-2 plants; the others will go to a friend)
20651 Tomato Fourth of July Hybrid – 1 order (1-2 plants; the others will go to mom and dad)
59114 Lettuce EZ Serve – 15′ Seed Tape
54833A Summer Squash Sunray Hybrid – 1 Pkt. (25 seeds)
51722A Winter Squash Burpee’s Butterbush – 1 Pkt. (25 seeds)
52175A Burpless Beauty Cucumber – Packet (30 seeds)
53512A Snap Pea Super Sugar Snap V.P. – 1 Pkt. (200 seeds)
60962A Radish Burpee White – 1 Pkt. (300 seeds)
And that’s the vegetables.
- I’ve been wanting to grow asparagus for*ever* but the long lead-up time discouraged me. This year I’ve decided I’ll never get it if I don’t just start some, so here’s hoping it works.
- The onions, peppers and tomatoes will get used for salsa inevitably, though I hope to have enough to enjoy lots of them fresh too.
- One of the reasons I tend not to eat more salads is that I don’t like how wilty the lettuce gets if it’s not really fresh, and I don’t eat it consistently enough to buy it really fresh regularly; the lettuce above looks good and they say that when you harvest it, it just falls apart into a nearly ready-made salad, so here’s hoping!
- I like summer squash in stir fries and kabobs and this is the kind I planted two years ago which has a great taste. The winter squash I’m hoping to store and use throughout the fall and winter – I love squash, but don’t think to get it very often.
- Cukes are just good summer food. I was at a restaurant last weekend that had cucumber slices in the water that reminded me how much I like that, so even if I end up with lots this year, I expect I’ll find uses for them.
- Snap peas are great snacks, great in stir fries, and I suspect they freeze rather well, too. I’m rather fond of the idea of chopping up some of the squash, onions, peppers and peas and freezing my own little garden stir fry packets for use throughout the year.
- I eat radishes raw as a snack whenever I remember to get them, which isn’t often. I wanted to grow them two years ago, but never managed to get the seeds in the ground before it got too warm. Given that I’m already itching to get out in the garden this year, I don’t expect that to be as much of an issue!
So yeah.. it’s 52 degrees out now (at twenty to seven in the evening, so not bad) but the ground still appears to be frozen and the small strip of yard that doesn’t get direct sunlight still has snow. Spring now, please?
* Smart, smart dad suggested I contact the City to see if the deck would require a building permit and it pr’bly will, and may even need a variance because the existing deck might be too close to the property line, so I’ll be making my first foray into grown-up home-owner/city relations soon!
Dyed.
A while back I mentioned that I learned the weekend Liz was here that I shouldn’t dye in my washing machine. *How* I learned that was actually a lot more fun than it might sound.
As I am a knitter, my mother is a seamstress. But, as I actually don’t have an overwhelming stash of yarn, she does of fabric. So much so that dad has complained that she needs to use some of it up before she acquires more. Which found me some time ago sitting with her going through both patterns and fabric so she could make me some new work clothes. Among the fabric was some white linen that she’s purchased to make me a couple of underdresses, but as I’ve been on somewhat of an extended hiatus from the SCA, we decided to repurpose the linen for other things. After going through all the fabric, we decided that the linen would be used for some light jackets and that there was enough there to make two jackets, and that I would take the white linen and dye it something more appropriate for my wardrobe.
I’ve been wanting to play with vat dyeing for awhile, and with more modern dyes, so off I went to Dharma Trading to order some dyes appropriate for use with plant fibers. I got three colors (Oxblood Red, Royal Blue, and Moss Green) of fiber reactive procion dyes and the soda ash fixative and then .. waited for company. Fortunately, Liz was just the kind of company I needed to give me courage to make my first foray into modern dyes.
Let me start by saying that it’s dead simple. Dharma Trading has great directions on their website, and it really is pretty much 1-2-3. I started with the Oxblood Red and decided that for the first piece I would do it in my kitchen sink, which was pr’bly not quite big enough, but was easier to keep an eye on for my maiden attempt.
(Clickable thumbnails, as usual.)
As I said, the process is pretty simple, and for most of it, the fabric just sits in the dyebath, soaking up the dye. I rinsed it out in the sink until the water ran clear and then threw it in the washing machine to wash out any residual dye.
It was a little brighter than I’d hoped (I really wanted it to stay the rich, dark blood red of the dye bath), but still pretty exciting. A quite run through the dryer and it was finished.
Because the sink wasn’t quite big enough, the fabric and the dye didn’t move around as much as they probably should have, so there’s some non-uniformity in the finished piece – though it’s not as noticeable as the camera flash makes it seem! I don’t really mind that, though and am pretty sure that we can make the finished garments look just fine. Additionally, the process of moving the fabric around using a large metal spoon appears to have put some stress and strain in some places, causes weaknesses in the material.
Fueled by my success with the red, I got a little bold and decided to do the green in the washing machine. And despite all the warnings (of which there are many!), I managed to run the dye bath down the drain after not nearly long enough not only once, but twice. While the fabric just out of the washer was rather pretty, it was very inconsistent and no where near colorfast.
Which was fortunately not too much of a concern since I still had the blue and figured that I could overdye the green and maybe get a nice aqua, or at least a decent blue. Not being brave enough to try the washer again, though, and not wanting to repeat the stress on the fabric from using the sink, it waiting for a few weeks until I found myself with an unexpectedly free afternoon Sunday. I picked up some bins that I thought would be big enough without being too big (they weren’t; I’d go with slightly taller sides next time) and set things to go in the bathtub:
The jar of dye for this color said to use 4 times the recommended amount for other dyes, but when I rinsed it out there was a *lot* of dye still in the bath. I suspect, though, that even with more room to move, the fabric was still not quite free enough to soak up all it could properly as it was still streaked a bit after rinsing (and very definitely blue, not the aqua I thought it might end up having started out green):
As with the red, I ran it through the washer and dryer to finish it off, and even though it’s got some lighter and darker patches, they’re again not really as noticeable in person as the flash from the camera makes them seem:
All in all, I’d say it was a successful (and easy and fun!) first attempt at kettle dyeing. I’ll deliver the two pieces of linen back to mom at Easter, along with her socks – finished the first one and will be casting on for the second pr’bly tonight!
Gift socks
I think I remembered to mention here that Christmas Day found my mother and my sister perusing the Webs website and ordering an rather embarrassing amount of sock yarn. My sister has a pair of dark green/sagey Cascade Fixation socks that I honestly didn’t even remember making until she brought them out to show to me after gushing for at least five minutes about how they were her favorites. Cascade Fixation being big for sock yarn, I told her that if she wanted more, she just needed to order it and have it shipped to me and I’d make her as many pairs as she wanted. That’s when mom got involved, and before I knew it, they’d ordered something like two dozen skeins in a variety of colors and sent them zipping on their way to me.
The attraction is the combination of the cotton – breathes well – and the elastic – doesn’t slump. For my sister, the addition of a lacy pattern helps, but mom likes solid patterns (which given that mom likes solid colors while sis likes variegated yarn makes for some muddy patterns here and there, but hey, it’s what they want). And since it’s Fixation – which, did I mention, is big for sock yarn? – it knits up into socks lickety-split. So when I realized a couple weeks before my sister’s natal day that I hadn’t thought much about a gift and then remembered the surprisingly small box containing all those future-socks, it was no trouble at all to whip up her first pair:
(Clickable thumbnail.)
They’re.. hrm.. one of the patterns from Charlene Schurch’s first Sensational Knitted Socks book.. Um.. one of the 12 stitch patterns even, but I can’t remember the name. Anyway, I sent them off and she got them and said they fit perfectly, which is good because I was a little worried that the foot got a bit long on them (they were knit toe-up, oh and on US7s for those who’ll want to know that, over 48 stitches – told you, big yarn, goes quick).
And I’ve started mom’s version of this pair – using the Charade pattern (PDF) that I’m ever so fond of:
Hope it to have those finished before Easter (that’s still awhile from now, isn’t it? Hrm.) and then to bring the rest of the box they ordered to Easter so they can tell me which one of them ordered which colorways since there are only 3 or 4 that they ordered enough for them each to get a pair out of.
Spring! (Soon..?)
According to the calendar, Spring starts this month. While I’m sure it’s the case that true gardeners in Zone 4 have been planning their plots for months already, this little novice gardener has just set out in that direction.
The raised beds were dormant last year* – I had a bit going on as well as some uncertainty about permanence that precluded even maintenance that should have been done – so there is a fair amount of clean up that will need to be done yet this year before things are ready to plant. The four raised beds need to be thoroughly weeded/emptied and I’d also like to add more dirt to them. While the level of soil is deep enough, it is only just barely. So at some point, once the ground thaws, I’ll be tending to the clearing of the beds and ordering more soil. Like.. in a dump truck.
The front and side beds, fortunately, for the most part are self-maintaining. I will need to put down more mulch in the front this year, and be a little more vigilant about weeding out there. I also need to be more regular in watering the front planting boxes, and training whatever gets planted in them to vine up whatever mesh I install as that is the only way I’m going to get afternoon shade on the front porch. And I’m rather romantically attached to the idea of mint juleps in the shade on the front porch. *grin*
The side beds need to have the brush and deadfall from last year cleared out, but then are mostly good to go on their own with little interference from me. The rose bushes need to be trimmed back, at least the one on the side of the fence, but I’m nervous about doing that since the ones by the garage didn’t bloom last year after I was rather mercenary in trimming them the year before. Fortunately, I can pr’bly just trim those a little and still cut back the one by the fence rather a lot as it’s quite healthy and vigorous.
I’m taking advantage of my father’s winter planning to make some changes to the back yard. The small deck space, which is virtually unusable for any real purpose, will be extended so that it runs the width of the concrete patio, and the tall fencing will be replaced with something more friendly, at least on the side facing the rest of the patio and my yard. At the same time (or near to it), we’ll be building a pergola to cover most of the rest of the patio. The inside box will be 8×8, with I think an 18″ overhang beyond that on each side and my plan is to train vining plants (more on that later) up and across it to create filtered shade for that portion of the patio. There will be some of the middle that won’t be covered by the pergola or the deck, which is at the moment where I’m planning to put the grill, at least when it’s got stuff burning in it.
The bed by the patio needs rather desperately to be overhauled. I’ve never managed to get all the rock out of the soil, so it’s difficult to work with even in the best of times. It’s also a fairly heavy clay soil, which when combined with the rock is truly painful. I’m trying to figure out the best way to reclaim the bed that won’t require spending days on my hands and knees manually kneeding black soil into the clay and picking out the rocks by hand. But as I have Plans(tm) for that space (see above regarding vines), it will need to be done even if it’s grueling.
I’m also contemplating creation of a smaller bed running along the front edge of the patio. While I have a more or less bare spot at the back of the yard where the raspberries were under the mulberry tree, the back yard has a significant slope to it and that section tends to be very wet when we get a lot of rain. The raspberries never minded this, but I’d prefer to seed that section with grass and use some of the higher ground for another full-sun garden area. At the moment, I’m planning to put strawberries there, so it looks like I’ll be in need of a sodcutter as soon as the ground thaws in order to carve out some space.
I’ve put in an order for veggies and other plants already, but as this has gotten quite long already, I think I’ll save that for another post.
*Well, they weren’t intentionally planted at any rate. The jungle of tomatoes from two years ago re-seeded so I had another quite respectable, if entirely unplanned, tomato jungle in three of them, interspersed with a rather healthy variety of weeds.
Ink, part III – 72 hours later
In keeping with the trend from the first two parts, 72 hours later, or as of last night:
As usual, clickable thumbnail.
The shininess is from A&D ointment. At the suggestion of my artist, new ink gets covered with A&D for the first three days or so to help healing. Now that I’m into the fourth day, I’ve switched to plain (e.g., unscented, etc.; I used a Lubriderm variety because my Eucerin managed to end up at work during my recent office shuffle) lotion, which is easier to apply and doesn’t leave the sheen. I can still feel the outline when I put lotion on – it’s rougher and raised slightly – but that’s normal and part of the healing. There was still some tenderness yesterday in spots, but so far today there doesn’t seem to be any left. I expect it will be fully healed in a week or so.
Dyeing rainbows
Right then, where were we? Oh, yes, drinkable dyes. This one’s pretty photo intensive, so for those using dial up or a feed reader, you may need to click through the jump to see it all. Read the rest of this entry »
Shearing.
So, about a month ago, I cut my hair. I’ve been meaning to take pictures of it showing how it looks when I style it, instead of the pictures I have from the night it was cut showing how the stylist styled it (though they’re pretty close) and finally remembered this morning.
All photos are clickable thumbnails. This is the front how it’s arguably supposed to be. I tend to part it much more on the side than the stylist did, but that just means the longer side has some extra layers, which I think looks fine. I like it like this, but if I’m actually trying to work on something, it bugs me over my eye like that. I knew that it would, though, so I was very specific that the front had to be left long enough to tuck behind my ears.
And this is the front how it usually actually looks since I really do tuck it back behind my ears more often than not. (And yes, I fixed the mascara smudge beneath my eye after I took the picture.) It’s hard to tell from the front, but it’s an assymetrical cut – it’s shorter in the back and gets longer toward the front.
You can see it a little better from the back, though it’s pr’bly a little more mussed here then it usually looks, the the little flip on the left is from where it’s tucked behind my ear.
I still like it a lot. I think I’d like it a little shorter in the back, with a more extreme angle to the length in the front, but at this point, I may as well wait another two weeks to go in anyway since I think 6-8 weeks is sort of the normal maintenance time for haircuts (right?).
FAQ:
Yes, I donated the pony tail – it was about 12-14 inches from where she cut it off, but she ended up taking several more inches in finishing the styling.
No, I’m not traumatized. I’ve had long hair off and on throughout most of my life and while I love my hair long, I get bored with it that way. The last time I had it this short was in grad school, and before that in college (when the back of my head was actually shaved for a time).
No, it takes me more time to care for now, not less. Before it was cut, I would shower and wash it, brush it out, and let it air dry. Now there’s a blow dryer and something called “root volumizer” involved. It takes about 2 minutes, so I don’t mind, but it doesn’t have the volume I like if I just wash it an go.
Yes, I can still pull it back in a barrette to get it out of my face if I want to.
f(ruit salad)
This will pr’bly only make sense to a few of you out there, but it was amusing to my cold-addled brain, so I thought I’d share.
Part of my job involves some nominal oversight for creating samples for electronic surveys. It’s not a big part, but because it’s something that we’ve been seeing a lot more of, it’s sort of been getting a lot of attention lately, so I’ve been more or less muddling my way through the process of trying to create a way to figure out how much electronic surveying we’re actually doing on our campus.
In the process, we’re trying to provide guidance to those conducting surveys about how large of a sample they reall need. It’s very easy to just say “Send it to everyone!” because with an email distribution, there’s no additional marginal cost for increasing the sample size. Unfortunately, when everyone starts doing that, recipients get fatigued from constantly being asked to respond to surveys and stop responding. So it’s one of those “tragedy of the commons” type problems where it’s really in everyone’s best interest to use an appropriately sized sample, even if any individual *could* (and usually does) take the easier option of just hitting up everyone.
So, the question of sample size is one that is covered in every basic research methods class, right? So it should be easy to figure out – run a little power analysis, figure out expected response rate, and you’re good to go. So I decided I needed to actually put myself through the paces yesterday for an institutionally sponsored survey and immediately realized that I couldn’t do a power analysis because I didn’t know what comparisons would be made with the data. So I emailed a bunch of friends in the faculty, some from our Psychology department and some from our Sociology department, and explained. And the Psych folks were scratching their heads along with me, but the Soc folks got it immediately and straghtened me out.
In summing up for all of us this morning, a dear friend made the following statement (edited somewhat to remove names and such): we were talking apples and oranges.. the question was how many apples do we need to represent the orchard within a confidence level. The Psych folks were talking about how many apples and oranges do you need to compare them to each other.” My response (again, remember – cold is eating my brain): “Having been brought up in an orange orchard, my thinking was more in line with the Psych folks, so I had to learn how to make fruit salad.. or.. something.”
