~ garden happs 2013 v. 13 ~

Jun 182013
 

Gardening is such a curious science experiment.

This last week, my blue flax bloomed and I find it so pretty.  Overall, I’ve been very impressed with this ornamental area of my garden to withstand Hurricane Chicken.  You can see that the chickens have nipped at the hostas, but otherwise my perennial ornamentals are unscathed, despite being in the middle of Hurricane (Chicken) Alley.

I have several friendly gardening neighbors, one of whom has been giving me plants after she’s divided them.  She gave to me a few of these pampas ornamental grasses, which I’ve planted in the ugly drainage area by the house.

She also gave to me several yuccas.  I planted these three one evening by the shed, went inside to take a break from the heat, and returned to discover that Hurricane Chicken had been there.  They created two sizable dust bathing areas and have been having loads of fun scratching at all the upturned dirt.  I placed a bit of chicken fencing to protect the plants, but only time will tell how devastating the effects of Hurricane Chicken will be here.

As for the veggies, I’m finally beginning to wrap my brain around the concept of Growing Degree Days (GDD).  On seed packets, the GDD is listed for how many days it will take the plant to mature, however the GDD on seed packets is for optimal growing conditions and doesn’t take into account local growing conditions (or, year round growing).  So me, I started my seeds based on the packet information, which more experienced gardeners tell me does not apply to this zone.  They tell me that I should have started everything much sooner for a spring / early summer harvest, and should have used better cold frames for when it was so freezing this winter.

For example, I started my broccoli from seed at the end of January, and there are FINALLY some broccoli heads emerging, approximately two months later than I had expected.  This is Windsor Broccoli, which has a “short” GDD of 55 days (but it’s been almost 120 days).  I’ve sown another crop, and already those seedlings are growing at a much faster rate than my winter sown ones.

According to the USDA Hardiness Map, Boise is Zone 7a, but a neighbor says that he gardens for Zone 5.  When he first told me that, I thought he was being rather silly, but now it seems very smart.  Maybe Boise, on average, is Zone 7a, but our neighborhood is tucked against the foothills in a cold pocket, so perhaps we’re in a colder microclimate.

I have several cauliflower plants but only on the Cheddar variety are there very wee heads emerging (you have to peer closely in the below photo). What seems weird to me is that the other varieties look good, while the Cheddar Cauliflower plants look sickly, but they’re the only ones that are producing.

We’ve been enjoying a few more peas, but the harvest has been small enough that we just pick and eat directly from the vine.  The Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas finally came out, and wow, they were DELICIOUS, better than the snap peas.  I’m going to sow another crop for the fall when the temps start to drop.

I realized a potentially fatal error in planting my potatoes so close to the tomatoes… the potatoes were threatening to crowd out the tomatoes!!  Last week, I carefully moved all of my potato plants elsewhere in my gardening area, mostly in random empty spaces.  As I was digging them up, I noticed a few stolons with very wee potatoes!  I hope that I didn’t disturb their development, but I probably did…

My eggplant are blossoming and starting to fruit!  This one is either Black Beauty or Black Egg, and I find it to be very stunning.

I also have a few small green tomatoes!

The fence that Josh installed last week has been working MARVELOUSLY!  The chickens haven’t been able to penetrate it, AND, while they seemed upset for a few days that they couldn’t access their favorite trouble-making area, they seem to now have completely forgotten about their love of digging around in my veggies.

And here they are, looking all innocent.  It’s hard to believe that they are responsible for so much turmoil and garden devastation!

 

~ garden happs 2013 v. 12 ~

Jun 112013
 

It probably goes without saying that I’ve been working on some secret stuff, which is the primary reason that my “craft happenings” posts are exclusive to gardening.

I am currently clicking away on a knitting design that might possibly be my most favorite knitting project (and design) to date.  I had a heart-to-heart with myself awhile back about focusing my creative energies on pieces that really excite and inspire me…   I feel like I’ve been flip-flopping around for several months but I am so excited about having, what I think, is a really innovative structural and visual piece.

As for my other fiber related hobby, I have actually been sewing lately and hope to have TWO FOs to show you soon.  I’m making a skirt and a somewhat coordinating top as an outfit – – the skirt is done (and turned out fantastic) and the top is almost done.  I’m hoping to finish the top tonight and maybe could get a blog about it done tomorrow (maybe).

ANYWAY.

The garden is doing well.  I have been working on a list of things that I want to change this autumn for next year’s garden, including a rearrangement of my raised beds.

One of the disappointing things about my current garden is that the harvest-to-date has been rather meager.  I sowed all of these lettuces, radishes, snap peas, etc., that I had been hoping to enjoy more of by now.  Despite having a good frost 10 days after the average last frost date, we’ve also had unseasonable heat spikes and my cool season crops seem to be on their way out.  I’ve harvested a handful of snap peas but most of the plants seem like they’re done with life, after a several days of almost 100 degree temps.  I’ve enjoyed some spinach, kale, and red leaf lettuce, but the spinach has bolted and the kale is no longer producing leaves.  Radishes have also bolted and, according to my GoogleFu, temps are too hot to produce a tasty radish and I should just give up on them.

A lesson learned is to sow crop varieties with differing harvest times (ie, early & late).  A gardening friend of mine, who is growing an early broccoli, has been enjoying broccoli for months and I am overcome with jealousy as I consider all of my late producing broccoli, wondering if I will enjoy any brassicas this year.  Though, I am planning my succession sowing so as to (hopefully!) have a late fall / winter harvest.

GOOD NEWS! Pole beans are coming up and are NOT DEAD!!!  I was super lazy with this sowing and didn’t build any kind of trellis, instead wondering if the chain link fence would suffice.  This is my third sowing of beans (the other two all died right after germination) and I had lost the motivation to do a nice job with them.  I just plopped some bean seeds into holes I punctured in the grass and have been aimlessly sprinkling them, without hope or joy.

MOAR GOOD NEWS!!!  The squash, melons, and other types of viney plants that I bought are also NOT DEAD!!!  I read a tip in my Rodale’s Organic Gardening Guide that many gardeners sow A LOT of these types of plants and transplant successively to find a window when the pests are less active.  I am definitely going to try this next year.

And of the final four of the ones that I grew from seed, THREE ARE NOT DEAD! (since I last posted last week, however, one has called it quits).

My apple trees look kind of sad and I don’t know what’s wrong with them (some leaves are turning yellow with brown spots).  I had been wanting to add pear and plum trees to my backyard orchard, but I know that it would be best for me to figure out how to care for an apple tree before adding on.  I’ve been reading about how to care for apple trees, but with gardening, I seem to be a learning-as-I-go kind of person (which can be a lengthy and discouraging process).

I had two strawberries that were ripening and the squirrels got to them (again!) before me, despite my feeble attempt at covering them with netting.  Those squirrels!  Last week, I went to a wine tasting and found myself talking to several gardeners about squirrels as pests, and one gentleman described how he had crafted a humane squirrel trap and caught 169 squirrels one season.  (I found that to be rather astonishing!)  I also learned that West Nile Virus wiped out the squirrel population a few years ago but now they’re coming back in full force.

(Sorry, no photo of the missing strawberries!)

Speaking of pests, OMG the chickens are like feathered terrors!  I spent so many hours last week building a fencing thing for all of my beds, and it took two days for the chickens to discover its weakness.  I don’t think there’s any lasting damage from Hurricane Chicken, but it made me get serious about needing a for-reals fence.  Of course, I don’t want to spend money on a for-reals fence right now, so I asked Josh to make me an almost-for-reals fence.  We’ve been busy, and he only just put it up today, so I’m not sure if it is Hurricane Chicken-proof, but it is 5 feet tall and I doubt if the chickens can jump/fly that high on their own.

And look!  He used some of our old window screens to make a gate.  How clever!  In total, this almost-for-reals fence cost us about $10 for the fencing posts and $4 for zip ties (the other materials, we had lying around).  Not too bad!

(A future project is to make a nicer fence, but this one was quick, easy, and cheap!)

So, I don’t want to spend money on a fence but I do want to somehow procure an automatic chicken door.  Months ago, when I was obsessing about coop design, I was reading all about these automatic chicken doors (that can be programmed to close when it gets dark or whenever) and I was in disbelief in reading about how chickens tend to go voluntarily into their coop when it gets dark.  When we moved the chickens into their coop, it was a pretty big (and ridiculous looking) production to shoo and lure the chickens into the coop.  But now, their instinct has totally kicked in and they all wander into the coop before the sun sets on their own.  Josh and I don’t go out very much in the evenings, but when we have gone out, we’ve put the chickens in their coop before leaving.  Last week when we went to the wine tasting, the chickens were being very ornery and would not go into their coop early, so we just went to the tasting (which was conveniently located a 10 minute walk away) and then I walked home an hour later to shut the chicken door, and they had all put themselves to bed, and then I wandered back to the wine tasting.  An automatic chicken door would be very handy!

Anyway, the chickens are 17 weeks old!  They’re finishing up their pullet developer feed and will start the layer feed soon.  Gosh, I hadn’t realized how old they are until I just now did the math.  Everyone keeps asking me if they’re laying eggs yet and, not that I really KNOW, but they don’t seem fully developed for that yet.  Though, one of the RIRs has a lovely set of wattles and her comb is blooming in super chicken style (the other RIR doesn’t have much of a wattle or comb developed).

With the heat spikes, the chickens have seemed uncomfortable in the heat.  Even though everyone assures me that chickens are fine in the heat, I had been concerned about their comfort.  One of the tips for helping chickens beat the heat (and stay hydrated) that I’ve found in my internet wanderings is to give them slices of chilled watermelon.  And wow, our chickens just LOVE watermelon.  Over the weekend, when it was 97 in our backyard, the chickens were flopped in some shade, totally uninterested in the cool icy water I had provided them, but immediately perked up when I threw down some chilled watermelon, and regained their vitality and interest in being alive again.  Fortunately, the temps are dropping into the 80s, which is much more reasonable for the beginning of June.

And of course, no post is complete without a beautiful photo of Kiko.

~ garden happs 2013 v. 11 ~

Jun 062013
 

I was under the mistaken assumption that, once I had my garden all planted, I would have more time to work on my fiber-related hobbies.  As I’ve mentioned before, the previous owners of our house had let all of the weeds go to seed, for who knows how long.  Last fall, I spent what felt like thousands of hours pulling up seriously insidious weeds (weeds with very long taproots that will regenerate unless you pull the entire root out, and that sent out bazillions of seed pods, with each pod having bazillions of individual seeds therein).  I worked so hard to get out all of the weeds last year and now all of the babies are coming up, forming a carpet of weeds everywhere.  I pull weeds until my back aches and have developed weed-pulling callouses on my thumb and index fingers.  I tell myself that if I can get these baby weeds out before they go to seed, that it should be better in the future.  Even still, it feels very overwhelming.

One recent addition to my gardening gear is a grass catcher dealie for my human-powered mower.  This doesn’t have very good reviews on Amazon, but I mowed the front and back yards today and thought it worked perfectly.  It  does fill up quickly and it does limit the agility of the already not-agile mower, but it successfully caught my grass clippings…

…which I then added to my compost pile.

In the last couple of weeks, most everything in my garden has really taken off!  I had been worrying about some signs of failure to thrive among a few plants, but with the warmer weather, everything is suddenly bursting with growth.

Broccoli are getting so big!

Cabbage are big and beautiful!

Though, leaf miners are snacking on them…

My tomatoes and potatoes are going bananas!  I’m a little worried about how I planted potatoes in the same bed as my tomatoes.  Being unfamiliar with the potato plant, I didn’t realize how large and bushy it would get.

I planted my sweet potatoes – and unlike the normal potatoes, I actually researched their growing habits to anticipate what kind of spacing they will need (read: a lot!).

I’ve placed netting around my strawberries and am excited about possibly being able to enjoy a few.

Sadly, I am doubting if I will be able to enjoy any green beans this year.  I have sown and re-sown.  I think it’s a combination of insects, chickens, and bad soil.

I think we’re in a low-activity phase for the cutworms, which decimated my earlier planting of beets.  I sowed some more and these actually seem to be left alive.

I’ve been lamenting for some time about my failed squash, cukes, melons, etc., and finally just bought some established plants from the nursery.  I had wanted to grow everything from seed (mostly for the scientific experimentation) but I would prefer to have a successful harvest.  I bought two varieties of watermelon, two varieties of cantaloupe, two varieties of cucumbers, and I meant to buy one zucchini and two yellow squash, but instead came away with one pumpkin and two varieties of not-yellow squash accidentally (oops!).  Below is the support that I made for my cantaloupe (I’ve made an identical one for the watermelon).

Interestingly, not all of those that I started from seed have died.  There are a few survivors, though I have no idea what they are – - I got mixed up when I was planting – - so I have four mystery plants and it will be fun to see what they turn out to be.

Behold! A plant that is not dead!  I have no idea what it is, but I’m going to nurture it as best as I know how.

One big project has been fencing off my veggies from the chickens.  I’m letting the chickens free-range again because their paddock area has almost no shade and I decided that when it’s hot (temperatures are above 90 degrees during the day) I should let the chickens find the coolest places in the yard.  I’m hoping that once my bushes and trees fill in that there will be sufficient shade.  They’ve been free-ranging for about a week and I only just got this fencing up, so they’ve already done a bit of damage.  I used this $10 poultry fencing that I cut in half widthwise (to extend the length) and used some branches from my yard for the supports.  It’s not very pretty but seems to serve its purpose.

Here is the “fencing” that I skillfully crafted with leftover window screens.  This is the area where I’ve planted my melons, cukes, and other mystery viney plants, and I intend to take this fencing down once the plants are more established.

Well, Kiko and the chickens are getting along… sort of.  The chickens are entering into their phase of establishing the pecking order and they seem to be including Kiko in this process for establishing a hierarchy.  They don’t peck at her or anything, just charge at and chase her.  Poor Kiko, she just runs away from them as fast as she can, my little cowardly lion!  The chickens are also very fascinated by Kiko’s tail, particularly when she swishes it around.

Now that the heat is beginning to set in, I’m conscientious of the chickens and the heat.  I’ve been putting ice in their waterer but I can tell that they feel uncomfortable when it gets so hot.  Today, they got chilled blueberries and icy blueberry water for a beat-the-heat-treat.

 

~ 33 ~

Jun 052013
 

Today is my birthday and I find myself reflecting on how wonderful my 3rd decade is, compared to previous decades.  Now that I am in that elite group of mid-30 year olds, I feel especially awesome.  Even though I have so much left to learn, I finally feel grounded with an understanding of what to do with this whole “life” thing.

I spent the last few days with Josh in McCall, which is one of my favorite Idaho destinations.  If you are similar to Josh and myself, with a love of beautiful wilderness but a dislike for camping, and you were to visit just one place in Idaho, I would recommend McCall.  Our dislike for camping definitely limits our opportunities for overnight trips, and it’s not really camping that we dislike, per se, but is specific to sleeping in a tent.  We enjoy cooking food over a camp fire and waking up in the morning to the calm sound of a rushing stream and no sign of civilization, but sleeping in a tent doesn’t work for us.  Anyway, McCall is great because there is a lot of beautiful wilderness, but there are also affordably priced hotels with comfortable beds.  McCall also has some very good restaurants and nice shopping (including a yarn shop!).  The town sits against Payette Lake, which is so beautiful and makes me feel very calm and rejuvenated.

Anyway, I had to go up to McCall for the Day Job, but Josh was able to take a few days off from his job and it was really nice that he was able to come up with me.  Sunday was our main day to spend together.   We got a pretty late start in leaving Boise because I was being a little OCD about cleaning the house and doing all of these last minute chores.  I’ve always felt guilty and sad about leaving Kiko for a few days, despite asking friends to kitty-sit while we’re away.  For this trip, I asked our next-door neighbors to house sit because I didn’t think it would be inconvenient for them (given their very close proximity to us) and because I know that they have similar feelings about pets as me – - they have three cats, a dog, and NINE ferrets, and they don’t talk about their pets as though they think of them as “just animals” who are inferior to humans, but rather as members of their family, which is how I think of Kiko (and to a somewhat lesser degree, the chickens).  They are also very skilled gardeners and I felt confident in leaving the care of my garden in their hands for a few days.

When we arrived in McCall, it was raining, so we took a little siesta and ate some DELICIOUS strawberry-rhubarb pie that I had bought at a produce stand along the way up.  After the sun came out, we went on a wonderful mountain bike ride over at Ponderosa State Park, riding up to an amazing lookout and then did three loops on the gnarly Huckleberry Trail.

Above is the lookout and below is a not-gnarly section of Huckleberry Trail.

After our ride, we had a wonderful dinner at a sushi restaurant.  I had to work the next two days, but Josh had some amazing solo-adventures, and we enjoyed several lovely walks and dinners in the evenings.  When we arrived home last night, I was very happy to see that Kiko, the chickens, and the garden had been so well cared for.

Here is a gratuitous kitty photo to enhance your day.

 

~ giving up bananas ~

May 302013
 

My enjoyment of food is thorough and complete.  I enjoy the eating of food.  I enjoy the smell of food.  I enjoy the thought of food.  I enjoy the cooking, growing, and reading about food.  To sum up my feelings: food = good.

Some time ago, I finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and I absolutely loved it.  It is about the food that we eat and the growing, harvesting, distributing, and eating of this food; ipso facto, I enjoyed this book.

I keep meaning to post a review of this book on one of my ‘craft happenings’ posts, but (I don’t know if you’ve noticed) those posts are kind of too long, and I have several words that I could type about this book.  And so, I present to you my review here.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was very similar to Farm City by Novella Carpenter (which I only read last fall), in that they were both memoirs of recreational gardeners who sought to produce as much of their own food as they could, in the most sustainable way that they could.  Whereas Novella wrote her book from the perspective of an urban gardener, Barbara (I hope I’m not being too presumptuous by using their first names) wrote from the perspective of someone moving from an urban area to a large plot of land in a very rural area.  While both books included discussions about the political and environmental issues, AVM definitely included more substantive and expansive discussions of the political side of things.  AVM also incorporates tools for the reader in their own sustainable eating projects (ie, meal plans and recipes based on what is available seasonally – - they also have these resources available on their website).

For me, one of the most poignant arguments discussed in the book about why to purchase local produce is simply the amount of energy that industrially produced and commercially packaged, shipped, stored, and soled produce uses, in comparison to local produce.  I’m one of those people who brings her own bags to stores rather than accept the plastic bags and am often horrified at the amount of packaging that so many commercial goods come with, not to mention the thought of how much diesel is expended in transporting food across the country, or across several countries.  A few weeks ago, Josh and I were watching a documentary about that island of trash in the ocean, and I had to stop watching because it just made me so sad.  In addition to the environmental implications, this reliance on far-away food presents real concerns about energy politics in terms of increasing our dependency on volatile sources of energy (‘volatile’ either because of where we get our energy from (ie, oil from an unstable regime) or because the source itself is uncertain (ie, non-renewable, peak oil threats, etc.)).

In my graduate program, I took a course on energy policy and it has forever changed my perspective on how we, as humans in the modern age, use energy.  In one class session, we were discussing this exact issue (a reliance on food that is not local to where one lives), and a classmate made the point that “people aren’t going to give up their bananas” and for a long time, I agreed with her.  People are not going to give up their bananas.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, however, is specifically about giving up your bananas, those items that you cannot procure locally or regionally.  It is about how a whole family gave up their bananas, and instead of living off bland and flavorless banana-free food, they discovered a whole new world of taste and excitement in the food that was naturally available to them locally.

It made me feel compelled to give up my own bananas.  Though, while I do try to procure most of my food from local sources, I do eat a lot of bananas.  …I have a banana sitting on my desk right now, in fact.

Behold, my banana… (it’s not the prettiest of bananas)

Anyway, the book concludes that every locale and region is capable of producing wonderfully delicious and nutritious food.

I am not ready to give up my bananas specifically, but I have been trying to increase my capacity for preparing and enjoying more local food (and in a few months, I hope for most of this food to come from my own garden!).

This past week, I’ve delved into my Moosewood New Classics  and have made several tasty meals.

Cauliflower Polonaise – - preparation & cooking time (30 mins) – - this was good, but I have a much better cauliflower recipe for something similar

Braised Fennel (this was EXTREMELY delicious) – - preparation & cooking time (30 mins)

Roasted Asparagus (this is definitely the best asparagus recipe ever!) - – preparation & cooking time (30 mins)

In other news, I was finally able to get some sweet potato plants!  I’ve been pestering the local nurseries for months about sweet potatoes and had actually given up on them, but then magically, they arrived this morning!  I’m going to work on preparing their planting bed as soon as I finish eating my asparagus.

Sweet potatoes are an amazingly nutritious vegetable. A medium-sized sweet potato is virtually fat-free, cholesterol-free, sodium-free and provides more than the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, along with high levels of protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, folic acid, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, beta carotene, and vitamin C, E and B6. (source)

Also, later tonight I’ve been invited over to the garden of someone who lives in the neighborhood.  She told me to bring my vehicle, because apparently she has dug up a bunch of plants from her garden for me, and “they are too big and numerous to transport by bike”.  Isn’t that so exciting and nice!?!   I bet ya’ll are going to be sitting on pins and needles waiting to see what additions to my garden there will be.

Finally, I forgot to tell you all about a mountain bike adventure that Josh and I did last weekend. We rode out to the craters that we had tried to find previously (when we became lost in the multi-use BLM lands).  They were a grand sight, those craters!  Unfortunately, a big storm was brewing and we were forced to skedaddle extremely quickly away and found ourselves in the most harrowing drive home, the storm was intense!

~ Craft (ie, Garden) Happenings 2013 v. 10 ~

May 272013
 

It seemed both cruel and unfair to lose two eggplants and a pepper to a frost 10 days after the average last frost date, but it was a good reminder that the battle to keep my garden alive and thriving is neverending.

Above and below, it appears that the two eggplant I thought I lost may still have life in them.  After I found them, all wilted and dead-looking from the frost, I pinched off their leaves and hoped for the best.

Sadly, the pepper I thought was dead appears to be so.  I’m going to pinch off its leaves, just in case pinching is a miracle cure for death.

Fortunately, I have a few other pepper plants that are all doing well.  Not counting the dead-looking pepper, I have 12 other pepper plants, so I should be okay.

And look at this beauty of an eggplant!  In fact, I think it’s called Black Beauty.

Potatoes are growing!  Can you believe that I was born and raised in Idaho, and have NO IDEA what a potato plant looks like!?!  I ended up re-planting all of my seed potatoes in their own bed, rather than that dumb laundry basket idea (dumb because I really had no idea what I was doing with that one, at least this strategy of “planting potatoes in the ground” seems a little more time-tested).

I have 14 tomato plants!  Hopefully that will be enough… I love homegrown tomatoes so much that I’m going to try my hand at canning them (whole and in sauces and in salsas) for to enjoy during the tomato-less winter.

The battle against birds, squirrels, and other garden pests wages on.  My kale, spinach, lettuces, squashes, cucumbers, zucchini, and melons are decimated.  I’ve re-sown all of the viney plants, as I don’t think it’s too late to start anew with them and am going to implement some better pest management strategies.  A friend suggests hanging something shiny to scare away birds and netting to fend against squirrels, while a neighbor suggests cheap beer for slugs and earwigs.

Look at what the birds have done to this fine broccoli!  GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

But hey, I gots me some snap peas!

And am watching the beginnings of a cabbage taking shape!

Rhubarb is coming up!

And the strawberries continue to emerge, though the squirrels eat them all before I have a chance.

I have several brussels sprouts plants that all look like this and I’m not sure if I’m growing them wrong, they don’t look very brussels sprout-ey.

And I planted both of my apple trees in the chicken run.  I decided that I could probably prune them sufficiently for this space (as I want them small enough for ease of apple picking, anyway).  Below, you can see the first apple tree in the foreground and the second one in the background (if you squint).

Here’s the view from the other perspective of the chicken run.  On the right, that first apple tree, then a currant bush, and two blueberry bushes.  And in the far left corner is where the ladies enjoy their dust bathing.

This RIR is growing a lovely set of wattles.

And her royal highness is as uncontrollably delighted about everything, as always.

In conclusion, FLOWERS!!!

PRETTY FLOWERS!

OH, I LOVE FLOWERS!

~ Sewing FO: Winter is Coming, a “summer” dress (another Truffle) ~

May 252013
 

Last weekend, Josh and I hosted a Garden Soirée for some friends and acquaintances and I had wanted to sew up a pretty dress for the occasion.  Having felt a little down about a recently frustrating sewing project that was above my skill level, I decided to tackle a Tried and True (TNT) pattern: the Truffle Dress by Colette Patterns.  Having made this dress twice (very successfully) before, I knew that thrice would assure a beautiful and well-fitting garment.  Unfortunately, the weather suddenly became freezing again and I opted to wear jeans and five sweaters to my Garden Soirée, rather than this pretty dress.  Then this last week, it was unseasonably cold and I had to retrieve my parka from winter storage for my bicycling commute to the Day Job.  We even had a good frost one night (sadly, I lost two eggplant).  So this is my Winter is Coming Sundress, because apparently it is winter in May.

For the main fabric (which I also used to line the bodice), I chose a lightweight poly-blend with nice drape and a pretty floral design.  The lining for the skirt and the flounce is a rayon challis and seems to compliment the main fabric perfectly in terms of color, weight, and texture.

Having fitted this dress before, I already have my bodice pattern pieces adjusted with an SBA and sway back adjustment and ready to grade out to a much larger size for the skirt, so I didn’t need to do anything special to fit this dress.  Other modifications included lining the skirt, lining the flounce, adding sleeves, and cutting the back bodice in one piece (rather than two) and installing the zipper at the side.  For the sleeves, I used the Sorbetto Sleeve (which I also fully lined).  However, I should have used a different sleeve pattern because the Sorbetto Sleeve didn’t set into the Truffle Dress very well.

Lining the bodice was a fun and interesting adventure.  Based on my experience of modifying the Truffle lining method in the past, I decided to not follow the pattern instructions for the lining at all, because they just wouldn’t work with my side zipper and my sleeves.   So I freestyled my lining and, magically, it worked out!

I also lined the skirt and the flounce.  Firstly, I decided to line the flounce because I haven’t been the hugest fan of the flounce on my other Truffles because I had a hard time making the narrow hem on the edge of the flounce very nice AND since it’s a flounce, the wrong side totally shows on occasion and I just feel that everything visible on a garment should be pretty.  So lining the flounce ameliorated both of those issues.  However, after lining the flounce (and realizing how much I liked it), I was worried that the heavier flounce would weigh down the unlined skirt, so I lined the skirt as well to balance it all out.  Plus, this just makes the whole dress have a much finer finish.

The only thing that I don’t love about this dress is that I forgot to bring in the neckline, as I did with my other Truffles.  It’s not too much of a problem except for that my added sleeves tend to weigh down the neckline even more, revealing my bra strap.  Otherwise, I really love my third Truffle Dress!

~ Craft Happenings 2013 v. 9 ~

May 182013
 

I’ve been a most seriously busy bee.  BZZZZZZZZZZ!

Featured FO

Spending time with my sewing machine, I have cranked out a few sewing FOs!  Featured here is another Tiny Pocket Tank by Grainline Studios made out of some scary ’70s polyester that I procured from a thrift store.  This fabric feels pretty awful to the hand, but surprisingly is comfortable wearing against the torso.

Knowing that I would never use this fabric for much else, I decided to make up another tank and consider this fabric stash-busted.  I’ve really been trying to bust the stash, so this feels nicely satisfying.

On the Knitting Needles

I’ve been clicking away at this sweater-thing.  Finished one sleeve and am almost done with the second.  I’ve lost my size US4 12″ circular needle (which I use for knitting sleeves) and am knitting these sleeves with DPNs… while I’m not one of those knitters who shies away from DPNs, I am definitely faster with a good circ, so these sleeves are taking a while.  Also, the collar will be a stand-up thing with buttons, instead of the floopy droop you see.

As a side note, I have to say that I just love it when I receive nice notes from knitters about my patterns.  I’ve been in a designing funk for a while – -  I don’t really know why I feel all funkified but I do.  Perhaps I should go back through my emails and find some nice words that knitters have written to me, and post them on my craft room wall for inspiration and motivation, to escape my funk.  Yesterday, I received an email from someone inquiring about how they might go about lengthening a sweater, and she mentioned that she had knat THREE of my sweater patterns and ended her email, “PS, write more patterns!” and it really made my day.

On the Sewing Machine

Well Readers, that dotty dress I’ve been working on has gone away for good.  Last weekend, I made a concerted and methodical push to create an FO, but my efforts were all for naught.  After FINALLY finishing the bodice, I discovered that it was irreparably too small for me.  So then I had a BRILLIANT idea to just make the skirt portion of the dress as a stand-alone skirt.  NOPE!  After spending three extremely aggravating hours trying to hem the skirt, I gave up.  While the pattern is a “Very Easy Very Vogue” pattern, my fabric choices were not a recipe for success.

After tossing my failings into the rubbish bin, I whipped up the above-showcased Tiny Pocket Tank, which was a quick, easy, relaxing, and confidence-enhancing success.

Then!  I made another Truffle Dress, which I will be writing an FO post soon.  Having made two Truffles, this came together frustration-free and fits perfectly!  Josh and I are hosting a Garden Soirée tomorrow and I made this dress specifically for tomorrow’s gathering.

It has a floral pattern that I really love, which I think will be extra pretty at the Garden Soirée.  I don’t know if anyone else is going to dress up, but I sure am!  I did some extra spiffy stuff on the finishing so I think this might be my most finely made sewing FO to date.  (Stay tuned for that post!).

And now!  I’m about to start on Jasmine, also by Colette Patterns.  Having read through all of the reviews of this pattern, I’m going to include a few recommended modifications (ie, hiking up the neckline and narrowing the shoulders).  I’m still trying to decide which fabric to use.  All of these fabrics are semi-sheer (and the fabric in the pattern photo is also semi-sheer) but I don’t really DO sheer of any degree, so I’m thinking about fully lining it (like I just did with my latest Truffle Dress).

Feathered Friends

My little ladies are growing up so fast!  This week, they transitioned from chick starter to pullet developer feed.  Also, last week they enjoyed my gross okra, and this week they enjoyed an eggplant disaster.  You know, I don’t always cook, but when I do, I generally set off the fire alarm.

We had a sudden heat surge last week and this week (with record high temps at 95F… it was horrible!) and the ladies didn’t take it very well.  We don’t have much shade in the backyard during the height of the sun (I’ve planted several bushes in their paddock area, but the bushes are still too small to provide much shade).  We do have the lean-to thing against the shed and I hung up a shower curtain (another thrift store find) for more shade, and I’ve been adding ice to their waterers with added electrolytes and sprinkling their favorite grassy areas with water.  I also brought out a fan for them, but they just seemed scared of it.  Despite my attempts to help them beat the heat, they were panting and holding their wings away from their bodies, and I was very worried.  Fortunately, temperatures are now down to a reasonable 65-75 degrees and everyone is much happier.  I’m hoping that it was just the suddenness of the spike in temperatures that made it seem so bad, because this is supposed to be a really hot summer.

Yard & Garden

Lots of changes in the yard and garden this week!

In response to the aforementioned lack of shade, I have bought two apple trees and a shade structure.  The apples are for dwarf Gala apples and I need to get them in the ground ASAP.  They were on sale for $10 each (probably because it’s getting kind of late for planting trees).  I’d like to plant both of them in the chicken paddock (for much needed shade) but there might only be room for one (I need to research what kind of spacing they need).

As for the shade structure, I decided to purchase a canopy/gazebo thing.  This past week during the heat surge, the complete lack of shade was very uncomfortable and the heat is only going to get worse in the summer.

I’m proud to say that I was able to construct most of the structure all by myself.  This shade structure thing was on sale for really cheap (like, two digits cheap!) – - I’ve been shopping all around town and am just aghast at how expensive patio furniture is.  So when I located this two digitly-priced canopy thing, I was really chomping at the bit for it (even though I dislike beige).   I also found the sheer white curtains on clearance for $4 each to hang around the perimeter.  I need to add some weights to them and sew a pretty sash to tie them up.

I also procured some flowers for my pots.

Furthering the aesthetic enhancements of the backyard, Josh set in some slabs of stone behind the house for a walkway.  I’m going to sow in some creeping thyme and some other kind of filler (rather than bare dirt and crabgrass).  Again, I’ve been aghast at the price of stone and pavers, but these beauties Josh dug up from our own backyard!  It’s so interesting – - this house is fairly old and there are so many buried treasures.

For example, while I was planting my blueberry bushes, I found this porcelain rabbit.  I’ve also found marbles, little Buddha’s, GI-Joes, doll’s heads, a helicopter toy, and all kinds of other treasures.  In a way, I wish that I had been keeping all of the buried treasures, but most have been junky and broken and it’s not like I want a bunch of junky broken crap lying around.

Okay, so the garden is all planted.  I know that I should have waited another week or so to plant my melons, cukes, zukes, and the like, but the timing was convenient for me to get them in the ground this week.  Unfortunately, something is eating off my zucchini.  I’ve scattered a bunch of Sluggo around them and am covering them at night, but the damage may be too great.  I might also set out some beer traps.

With regards to other pests, I finally conquered my ant problem with some food grade diatomaceous earth.  I’ve had three big ant colonies in and around my shed / chicken coop, and several big ant colonies at the back, where I had planned to plant my tomatoes and then squash.  While I was preparing my tomato beds, I discovered a HUGE nest of ant eggs and larvae and decided to take drastic action.  Perhaps some gardeners do not consider ants much of a pest, but they most certainly have not been eating whatever pests have been eating my veggies (so I question the supposed benefits of ants as predators), but seriously, six big ant colonies in one backyard is too many ants.

In other disappointments, I’m trying to be positive and consider it a scientific experiment, but some of my onions and leeks are doing fantastic and others are failing to thrive.  Please behold, thriving onions and leeks…

… and failing to thrive onions and leeks.  I’ve made an inventory of the differences in planting location, sunlight, fertilization, soil composition, soil temperature, and planting time, and by all accounts I don’t understand why those that are failing to thrive are doing so, considering that I believe they have the optimal growing conditions.  Maybe onions and leeks prefer sub-optimal growing conditions???  Also, for your information, the thriving onions and leaks are a month YOUNGER than the failing to thrive ones, yet they are about thrice the diameter.  Please tell me, what is up with this?

Also disappointing, the heat wave killed some of my pea plants.  Squirrels are still eating my strawberries.  Cutworms have eaten almost all of my beets.  I killed one of my bare root rhubarbs and bare root raspberries.  And some of my basil has died.  POOP!

The good news is that a lot of my plants are doing really well.  I’ve planted lots of pretty flowers around the house and have been eating spinach, kale, and red leaf lettuce from my garden.

Gratuitous Kitty Photo

That’s all for now.  Garden Soirée is tomorrow and there is SO MUCH left to do!  I’ll try to get some photos of my new party dress making it’s debut at the Soirée.

~ Craft Happenings 2013 v. 8 ~

May 082013
 

Happy second week of May everyone!  Thank you all for the reassuring comments on my last post, with regards to my bicycling (lack of) fitness.  Rather than feeling lame, I’m trying to get back on the bike and just ride as much as I can.  I’ve been having some very fun rides.  Over the weekend, Josh and I had a small bicycle adventure, which was smaller than we intended because (1) Josh forgot a few key pieces of cycling gear (including cycling shoes!), (2) there was an approaching storm, and (3) we got really lost.

We had been trying to ride out to these big craters in southern Idaho, but found ourselves on a free ranging cattle pasture with many roads to nowhere.

As for Me Made May, unsurprisingly, my desire to take a photograph of my daily Me Made Outfit has failed to manifest itself, particularly because I am knee deep in gardening work for The Average Last Frost Date and not wearing many Me Made Outfits.  I actually took off this past Monday and Tuesday to work on yard and garden projects and I’ve barely managed to scrub the dirt from underneath my fingernails for my return to the Day Job today.

Anyway, today’s Me Made Outfit features my Truffle Dress, my Zest Cardigan, and my Dreaming Shawl.  This Truffle Dress turned out a little too short for my comfort (particularly in the back) so I feel compelled to always were leggings or tights with it.  Also, I hope you all don’t mind my pairing an orange cardigan with an orange shawl, but I find this pretty fantastic.

As for the craft happs, I continue to knit and sew, but right now my world is ALL ABOUT the garden.  OH!  I did some thrift store shopping this weekend and, in addition to procuring some useful gardening implements, I found two pretty pieces of fabric for super cheap.  I’m not sure how much fabric this is (both fabrics reek of gross thrift store perfume) but once I give them a good laundering, I’m excited to use them.

Anyway, the chickens.  After much hemming and hawing, Josh and I decided to no longer let the chickens totally free range around the entire back yard.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching them run all over the yard, but they’ve started to reap havoc on my veggies.  I experimented with fencing off the veggies but ultimately decided to fence off the chickens into a good sized paddock area.  It’s about 10 feet by 30 feet, which is still a good amount of space for four chickens, and I’m working on planting some bushes and maybe a tree for them.  Over the weekend, Josh installed a lean-to structure from all of the scrap building materials that we had leftover from the shed roof project and the plan is to expand this to a more permanent run enclosure.  I’ve been seeing all kinds of hawks and falcons circling our neighborhood (there are a lot of backyard chickens in my ‘hood) and thought that by using some of this shiny metal roofing material that it might help to detract birds of prey.

Their paddock looks kind of junky right now, but we’re going to make it much nicer.  Along the perimeter, I’ve sowed several rows of corn and sunflowers, to give them extra shade and nibbling opportunities, as well as some nice currant and blueberry bushes in the main open area (not pictured).

Somewhat related, over the weekend, I made for myself some okra that I didn’t like (as much as I try, I just don’t enjoy eating okra… too slimy) and so I gave to the chickens the okra, and they LOVED it.  I have seeds for two varieties of heirloom okra and I can’t decide whether to grow it.  Clearly, I won’t want to eat it, but the chickens will.  So Readers, help me decide about the growing of okra… yea or nay?

As for the garden, this past week I’ve been focusing on preparatory work for planting ALL of my seedlings this coming weekend.  Weeding, preparing planting beds, weeding, turning the compost, weeding, rinse and repeat.  It doesn’t sound like much, but it has been a lot of work.\

Tangentially, please regard this fine lettuce.  I foresee a home-grown salad in my future.

I did take some time to plant a variety of ornamental plants, in an effort to beautify the rather stark backyard.  I selected some partial shade and mostly low water needing plants for the ‘drainage area’ at the back of the house, using some of the river rock and large slabs of wateverrock that we’ve dug up from the ground as a pathway and ground cover.  It’s still a work-in-progress, but it’s nice to finally have something pretty in the backyard.

Knitting and sewing continue.  I hope to have a finished sewing project to show you soon and next week I will hopefully have everything planted.  Also, I may or may not have a significant change in my existence coming up, which may or may not alter my crafting and/or blogging capacity.  (It’s nothing that you’ll find exciting and it’s nothing that I’ll be blogging about except in passing, but it would be a very big deal for me… so feel free to send some confidence-enhancing wishes my way, as I’m pretty nervous and excited about it.)

These are the strawberries that I grew from seed.

 

~ looking at my mirrors that reflect on me ~

May 022013
 

Readers, if you haven’t already, I would recommend that you click on over to Kerin’s reflective post about how Self-Esteem Needs Many Mirrors.  I found it ponderable as I’ve been reflecting on my own mirrors.

In considering the different things that we do to achieve fulfilling lives, do you ever worry about taking on too much? And not being able to do any one thing well??

Me, I like having several different hobbies to occupy my time.  Bicycling, knitting, gardening, sewing (mostly in that order)…  My hobbies bring me joy, they are an outlet for stress, and they also have the side benefit of giving me something in return for my time (fitness and health, clothing and accessories, and food).

But at the same time, even though I’m not a perfectionist, my hobbies can be a source of stress if I feel that I’m not producing a quality in line with my own expectations.  For example, I’m only just getting back into biking (for more than just commuting) after taking a long break over the super cold and icy winter and during a time of many home DIY projects.  Despite exercising regularly on my indoor bike spinner thing, my fitness is greatly reduced and my technical skills are also putting me to shame.  ex., There is a local mountain biking trail that has a few switchback turns, and I’ve ridden it several times recently and keep getting too scared to ride all of the switchbacks (even though I’ve successfully ridden them MANY times in the past).  Yesterday, I finally forced myself to ride through all the turns, and while I was proud of myself for facing a fear, I also felt incredibly lame for allowing an irrational fear get the better of me.  Last year, I made leaps and bounds with my mountain biking skills, and was having no trouble riding up and over big logs, down these gnarly rocky things, and just overall rocking the bicycle (oh, and I also won first place in a sport level mountain bike race).  But then this year, I’m switching into super low gears while huffing and puffing over wee little baby hills and am too scared to ride through some basic turns.

For so many years, cycling has been part and parcel of my identity and I just feel like my identity is obscured by the fact that I am MISERABLE at cycling right now.  Tonight, I’m supposed to meet Josh and some bike shop folks to go for a ride, and I’m DREADING it because I’m so worried that I won’t be able to keep up with everyone.

Obviously, the answer is simply that I need to spend more time on the bike.  Unfortunately, my spare time does not runneth over like my yarn stash and I feel like there is so much I want to do with my other hobbies as well.  Sewing seems to be the hobby that gets pushed to the back burner the most frequently – - which is so disappointing for me because I love sewing and I would really love to have more sewing FOs to wear.

In sum, balancing hobbies (particularly if you have a Day Job that limits your spare time) is challenging.  Readers, do you have any wisdom or thoughts about how to balance your multiple self-esteem mirrors?

In other news, today is the second day of May and is also the second day of Me Made May!

Today’s featured Me Made outfit has two knitting FOs and two sewing FOs.  You can’t see them, but I am wearing my Farnkrautsocken Socks, then my Mint Thurlows, my V8323, and my Thistle Vest.

I actually wear these Mint Thurlows a lot.  They are so comfortable and fit perfectly.  The fabric does wrinkle and stretch out, but not too badly the first day’s wear (in the photo, those trousers have probably two days of wear behind them).  I love my V8323 – - the color and the fit seem to really suit me.  And this is my favorite way of wearing my Thistle.  As an outfit, I think everything pairs nicely.  I like the way the colors and textures work together as well as how they look on me, and I find this to be a very comfortable and self-esteem-enhancing outfit.

Finally, Kiko was sad that my previous post didn’t have a pretty photo of her.  She was concerned that my devoted following of blog readers* would unsubscribe from my blog if I didn’t post a photo of her adorableness post haste.

*Both of you.

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