Grow - Down Another Rabbit Hole

Veg Patch Before

In my new house I have a tiny bit of garden that I am now responsible for, in which has a bit of grass, a pathway and an overgrown bed, probably used for something like flowers before. Either way it is a little neglected and I feel like I myself can give it a bit of love that it needs. I first thought that I might find some low maintenance, pretty type shrub to put into the bed and that would be that. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try my hand at growing some vegetables and I ended up falling down a massive rabbit hole of veg gardening, and found several books to get my nose into.

When I made this decision it was getting on into the second half of February and it was just in time to start getting things in the garden ready for a new life. I was down visiting my Mam when I found these books and read nearly two books on growing vegetables, as well as finding bits a pieces in another reference book that my Mam had. By the time I was making my way back home, I had bought myself some seeds, a book, borrowed one of my Mam's books on long term loan, and decided what I was going to plant and had most of a plan of action thought out in my head.

The day I got home I got out into the garden and spent a good three hours digging and making good the old flower bed ready to become a veg bed and hold some new life. I also managed a cheeky trip out to the local garden centre, just to see what gives and to pick up a bag of compost and one more pack of seeds.

After The Digging

My afternoon of digging, did make me ache all over, and I was back to work the next day, and was a little stiff and achy then too. But I felt so much better for being outside and the exercise it gave me. It is so nice to be in the fresh air when you have spent a lot of the winter cooped up inside. The idea of growing new things also filled me up inside. I have a few fond memories of when I was a child trying to grow things in my parents garden, with varying degrees of success. I remember enjoying the digging so much, I think it was a welcome tonic to sitting at a desk for days in a row when I was at school - I've never been one for a desk job!

After the mammoth weeding session, I dug in some fertiliser into the bed to get it all set for when I plant some things out. I found when digging that some bits of the bed were a little better then the rest. The section nearest the house was rather stoney, but the rest seemed less so. When I was digging I pulled out most of the larger stones, but this stoney part seemed pretty full of gravel almost. I marked the section off with a piece of bamboo that I found in the garden, to seperate it from the rest of the bed. It gives me the chance to properly plan what I am going to put in that section.

Fast forward a few weeks and it is now the middle of March, I've luckily been able to keep on top of the weeding, although there has been minimal weeds. There has been a couple of storms as well, but that seems to have helped to soak the bed. But the local cats seem to think I've made them a new giant litter tray. - I dug out three poops in about as many days. I gave it another quick dig to try and level out the soil, and I'm starting to get all excited again. I also planted some of my first seeds.

My plan for the garden was to plant spring onions, leeks, carrots, basil and spinach. I think saying all of those things are for the garden is a tiny bit misleading, as I don't think the basil is going to go outside. When I did my reading up to start with, those were the veggies I thought would be best suited to what I wanted to achieve and what I had. In my grand plan, I have started the basil, spinach and the first lot of spring onions inside. The basil I expect will stay inside in pots, but once the weather has decided what is going on, then the spring onions and the spinach will start to be planted out. Eek! I feel like things are finally happening!

New Seeds Just Planted

The carrots and leeks are in need of more thought. I have yet to decide on a variety of leeks I will use. I know the variety that I want, but I can't seem to find it in the shops I have looked around, so I might have to see what gives online. The carrots I do have the seeds for, but am yet to decide if I try them in a pot to start with. I am also very tempted to try some potatoes. I know they are fairly hardy and are good for planting in a plot that is relatively new, but I am weary of biting off more than I can chew.

So this is the new rabbit hole I've been dragged down this year, and hopefully I can get something out of it, even if that is a sense of  feeling closer to the world around me. I will try my best to keep you all updated. Green fingers crossed that these all work out.


** This post was written before there was a country wide lockdown, I hope that everyone is doing what the government has mandated, and is staying safe inside, only going out for the essentials. I am classed as a key worker, so am still going to work when I'm on shift, but doing what I can to stay indoors when I'm not. **

Finished Object - Antler Toque

Knitting on the Arbor Vitae has taken a back seat recently, while my mojo has been a little lacking from having to rip the thing out. Most of my WIPs were not doing anything for me, so I thought I would cast something new on. Deciding what to make was also a little hard, but I have recently discovered a brilliant new app that allows you to make lists and it will choose something at random from that list, so I've loaded up my queue in it and the Antler Toque by Tin Can Knits is what it came out with.

I used a skein from stash to make the hat. It was a yarn from a Knitcrate a little while ago and is Audine Wools Sigh DK, in the Ladybug colourway. The yarn is an 85% Merino Wool and 15% Cashmere, and is incredibly soft. I used one skein to make a hat a little while ago which ended up too big for me so I gave it to my Mam. This one I was determined to make fit for myself. Which meant a couple of false starts.

I started the hat on one of my knit nights, using the recommended needle size. No I didn't gauge swatch... yes, I have learned from the Arbor Vitae, I'm sorry! I knit a fair amount of the ribbing in the child size, using a 4mm needle, before realising that it was still too big. So I ripped it out and went down to a 3mm needle and cast on again. This time the child size was too small, so I was able to up a size and knit the small adult. This made me feel a little better about my smaller than average head.

I have so much trouble being able to knit a pattern that I feel actually fits me in the way I want to, but I guess the joy of knitting is that I can continue to use trial and error to actually find something I will enjoy wearing. I finished the ribbing and moved onto the main body of the hat, which was rather fun to knit, but I did not go up a needle size. I would like to say that was deliberate, but it was because I was sat in bed and I couldn't be bothered to go downstairs and find the right sized needle. Lazy I know, and I might be paying for it now, hopefully a good blocking will sort it all out.

I worked out how to work cables without a cable needle for this project, which I feel is a lifesaver. It allows you to wizz through so quickly. I think there are a good few tutorials for it online. I've never really looked, working on the Arbor Vitae has given me an insight into how cables actually work, so I found working out for myself how it is done rather easy. But do let me know if you want me to write a blog post about it.

Overall the hat fits well. It is tight on my head just how I like it to be, and I finally think I have found the right knitting needle for my hat patterns in future. Even if it is just for the ribbing. I think I will try again, but move up a needle size when I continue with the rest of the hat. The hat itself doesn't come too far down my head, stopping just above my ears, I think I would prefer it to come down a little further and I do feel like it might pop off the top of my head at any moment. I am going to subject the hat to a good blocking to try and smooth out the cables and I am hoping that this too helps the hat to sit on my head in the way that I want it to.

The final touch I added was a pompom. I treated myself to a modern pompom maker. Instead of two rough cut pieces of cardboard, and was able to make a matching pompom for my hat in a fraction of the time. I made in in such a way that I could just tie it on, allowing it to be taken off for blocking. It was quick and easy to do, so there way well be a good few pompoms in the future.

This make you can find on my Ravelry project page here, where the yarn and the pattern are linked. Overall I am pretty excited that I am starting to find the right needle sizes for making hats that actually fit me, so I'm hoping for some more hats soon.

Finished Object - Leftovers Shorty Sock

Another Leftovers shorty sock! This one knitted to exactly the same recipe as the last one, to make a delightfully miss-matched pair. Recently I have started taking my knitting to work and getting a couple of rounds done on my tea or lunch breaks. It's been nice, and quite pleasing to see a fair amount of progress on things as well. I've only been taking in little projects, and leftovers socks are perfect for the job.

This leftovers sock I've been knitting with the leftovers from a pair of socks that I knit for my sister-in-law for Christmas just gone (Ravelry page for those here) in an Opal sock yarn. I'm not sure what colourway it was, but the sock was mentioned back in one of my blog posts about all the Christmas knits I made. I knit them on my set of 2.5mm DPNs, and with 60 stitches, just like the previous sock I made.

I decided to make this sock in the same way and using the same techniques as the previous one, so they could be paired up. So there is about an inch of 2x2 ribbing for the cuff, followed by a german short row heel. The toe of the sock is finished normally, alternating one decrease row with one plain knit row. I added two plain rows just after the heel, mostly so the sock was the same as the last one, but also because I feel it worked well. I think it adds just a tiny bit more room for my quite long toes without the rest of the sock becoming too long. I think that may be a little thing that I add to most of my socks from now on, especially the ones that I have knit with this kind of toe.

So with this leftovers sock complete that is another pair to add to my ever growing sock draw. Maybe one day I'll have nothing but hand knit socks!

WIP Wednesday - Deck The Halls Stitch-A-Long

Back at the beginning of the Christmas season I decided to take part in a mystery stitch-a-long (SAL) run by Caterpillar Cross Stitch. When I decided to get involved the first part of the SAL had been published, and it looked cute, so the decision was made. The SAL was organised in such a way that a new section of the cross stitch design was released every two weeks in the lead up to Christmas. It was a totally doable time frame, and I joined the lovely SAL facebook group to see other peoples progress and ideas.

What I failed to take into consideration, was that I was trying to make a lot of my gifts for my immediate family, and didn't really have the time to dedicate to keeping up with the SAL. So here we are, in March and I haven't finished it yet. I have still been working on it, even though it is tempting to leave it now until December so I can carry on with the festive making, whilst feeling legitimately festive. I'll probably have a load of other gifts to make then too... a makers work is never done! ;)

I picked this project up again mainly because I was feeling the need to work on my WIPs after moving house, and I really fancied a cross stitch project. It fit the bill nicely, and I got a little more done. To be perfectly honest it has been put back in the draw now, and hasn't really been much of a priority for me at the moment.

I am having a little bit of a funk in my making as I write this. Most things have taken a little back seat whilst I get used to settling into my new home, but I also seem to have a million and one things to do and people to see. Is it too much to ask just one off shift at home! Although saying that I'll probably just get bored and want to go and do something.

I digress, I am still making progress on my Caterpillar Cross Stitch, Deck the Halls SAL, very late indeed, but I am still enjoying it. Hopefully it will be done and ready to display one Christmas soon. I have currently completed sections 1 and 2 and am now working on section 3. It is an enjoyable cross stitch with an easy to follow pattern, and I believe you can buy the whole SAL as a complete kit from the Caterpillar Cross Stitch website here. So if you feel like being unseasonally festive, go give it a go!

Book Review - Jane Blonde: Sensational Spylet

I find there is something a little special about going back to a book you loved as a child, and reading it through adult eyes again.

When moving out of my parents house, I had a chance to go back through my belongings and sort out what I was going to take with me and what was to go and find a new home. I have always had a love for books, so had a good few to look through to see what I wanted to bring with me. Among those books was the series of books about a school girl spy, Jane Blonde.

These books caught my imagination when I was a young girl at school, and from the little I remembered of them, they were fun and exciting to read back then. These feelings were brought back to me when I pulled the books off the bookshelf and I decided to read through them again, in order from the beginning. My memory of what actually happened in the books was very clouded, only remembering little bits here and there, so I was excited to get reading. Once I had started I really was hooked and chapter after chapter just kept on coming. What I enjoyed was that the book, by its nature written for children, was incredibly easy to read and was finished quite quickly. 

The story line, while a little bit far fetched for the real world - but who really cares in a children's book, or one about spies in general! - it did have some really touching parts which brought about emotions that I don't recall feeling when I was reading the book as a child. I enjoyed the way that you could see the story developing, and every next twist and turn you could see being built up and drawing on the things that had happened already. Because of this I feel even more attached to the series, a book written seriously about something completely unserious.

I really have enjoyed reading this book back through as an adult, and am going to love working my way back through the series. Even for a book aimed at people a lot younger than me, it will be an enjoyment for sure.

Finished Object - A Leftover Shorty Sock

After Ripping out my Arbor Vitae Jumper, I felt like I needed something new to work on. I wasn't really feeling like I wanted to make much of what I already had on the needles and was itching for something else. The thought of a family weekend away looming, got me thinking about train knitting and knitting that could be done when chatting to other people and being social. So I decided on a sock. In the back of my mind I was still feeling the need to work through what I had, so I decided it was time for another leftovers sock.

The leftovers sock is something I have been doing with the leftover yarn when I have been knitting other pairs of socks, be them for myself or other people. I will make one shorty from the yarn, the remainder of that ball will be wound up and put with my other scraps. I find it's a nice way to have a reminder of all the socks that I have knit before, especially if they have been for a gift.

So in my draw of bits of projects and things, I found the leftovers of the pair of socks I knitted for my Dad (Ravelry Page, Blog Post). I then had a look at what needles I had free and my set of Knitpro 2.5mm DPNs were empty, so that was the plan made. They were packed up into a bag and taken with me when I set off on my journey to see my family.

I cast them on in a coffee shop whilst waiting for my train, with 60 stitches, and I started on the cuff. I worked them top down and knit an inch of 2x2 ribbing. I had forgotten to bring a ruler or tape measure with me, so I knitted the length of the top portion of my thumb, I measured the length of the ribbing when I got home. It's nice to know I have an inch long thumb section - makes for easy quick measuring!

I knitted a plain knit round after the ribbing before starting on the heel. It was a german short row heel, the easiest I find to remember. I knitted the foot until it was about an inch and half below the top of my big toe then I started the toe of the sock. Quite a few of the shorty socks I've made before have a habit of slipping down my foot during the day, which is probably down to them being a little too short. So after I finished the toe decreases, I added two straight knit rounds, and then grafted it together.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the outcome, it was made really quite quick, (less than a week!) and the fit is really good, better than previous attempts. Maybe I should play around a little bit more with my leftovers socks. I'm feeling the creativity right now, so I may have to go cast on another!

A Lesson in Gauge - The Arbor Vitae Jumper

My Best Friend Trying the Jumper on.

The progress I've been making on my Arbor Vitae Jumper has been stopped and the jumper almost completely ripped back, and on purpose too. The jumper had a complete body, and I had started on the first of the sleeves, having done the short row sleeve cap and just started to work in the round for the main part of the sleeve. When I got to that point I decided to try on the jumper to see how the sleeve was doing. I had tried the jumper on before when I had completed the body and the neckband, but back then I didn't think much about the bottom ribbing of the jumper being a little loose - Admittedly when I tried it on the first time I was on the train and at risk of looking more then a little odd, so didn't keep the jumper on that long!

This time I really noticed the loose-ness of the jumper, and it got me thinking about how I wanted the jumper to sit, and how often was I going to wear it if it didn't have the characteristics that I wanted. It was then that I decided that it was too big for me, and it might be an idea to start over again. Now I didn't know that much about gauge and swatching. I did swatch for this project, and I knew that my gauge was larger, but my inexperience with it all lead me to believe that it would only be an inch or so larger than it was meant to be. I also didn't really know what to do with the gauge information once I had got it.

Luckily when doing some research I managed to come across a few websites explaining gauge swatching in more depth then I had really looked for before. The For Dummies website (here) was more of a help then anything I had found before. It gives a brilliant run down of what you need to do, followed by a little bit of maths to work out the size of the knitting using the gauge and the stitch count. This came in really handy, and had my little geek brain all excited to be doing a little bit of maths to help out my knitting.

My best friend tried on my jumper when I was working out a little bit of the maths before I started frogging. She is a few sizes bigger than me and it fitted her almost perfectly. Shame it wasn't for her!
I worked out in the end that the jumper was about eleven inches too big, just a little too large for my liking. The second gauge swatch I did with a 2.5mm needle, which was the smaller needle size used for the ribbing and such in the pattern. My gauge was a little closer, but unfortunately not as close as it needed to be. We were looking at a gauge of 7 stitches per inch pattern gauge and 5.5 stitches per inch my gauge. With the maths all worked out, if I knit the smallest size, the outcome would only be a little bit bigger than it should be (actually an inch bigger, not eleven!) so I went with that, worrying that any smaller of a needle and then I might end up with a fabric which has a feel I don't like as much.

The Arbor Vitae, three months in progress, and only an hour to frog completely. I wasn't as sad as I thought I would have been ripping it out. I know that the yarn is a nice yarn that has a meaning to me, and the pattern is one that I feel I will enjoy wearing. So I am quite pleased to be able to have a second chance at getting it right, one of the things that I love about knitting.

So as the phoenix rises from the ashes, I have cast on and started the Arbor Vitae again, this time on a smaller needle and in a smaller size. But also with a much better understanding of gauge and how it affects the knit, and what to do about it when it isn't what you want. I feel so much better for finally understanding gauge, and I think I do feel a little bit differently about swatching now. I think I will enjoy it a lot more.