jennifer

~ holla spring! ~

Mar 212013
 

I am so excited that it is spring!!! (… even with all of its unpredictable weather – - yesterday was 60 and very rainy, today is 40 with strong winds).  Mainly, I am so relieved that it is no longer winter.  Our nighttime temps continue to dip below freezing, but much less below freezing and much less frequently below freezing.

Anyway, this isn’t a real ‘craft update’ but I did want to mention my excitement for spring and pay homage to the garden and other related activities that spring ‘sproings.’

The chicks continue to do well and I am trying to get them outside as much as I can (though, with the unpredictable weather, that has been less frequently of late).  They are almost five weeks old and have grown so big!  They have hardly any of their baby fluff left and their previously distinguishing features are now gone (replaced with totally different distinguishing features that I continue to try to distinguish).  …It’s possible that who I am currently calling Penelope may actually be Madeline!!!

I had wanted to get better photos of them for you, but it’s been so stormy here lately that they haven’t gone outside very much (and when they have, I haven’t taken photos).  So these two photos were the best that I was able to get of them in their inside home, and they were moving so much that I couldn’t get a clear shot.  I actually think these two photos are pretty funny.  Above is Florence giving the camera of the evil eye and then, behind her, Penelope is doing her long-neck-cock-her-head-look-at-something thing.  And below you can see just how much they move in a split second.  I recently (as in, yesterday) switched their bedding to play sand because I couldn’t handle the dust from their pine granules. The smell doesn’t bother me but the dust drives me crazy.  I procured a 40 pound bag of the washed play sand for $3 and the chicks seem to like it.  One plus is that I can now scoop up their manure with a cat litter scoop, which I think also helps with the smell.  Also yes, the basement is wall-to-wall carpeting, which makes this extra disgusting (tearing out the basement carpet wasn’t on The List of DIY Projects for this year, but maybe having chickens down there will bump it up).

As for the coop, I believe that I mentioned we are going to convert our ginormous shed into a shed/coop combo.  The first step in this process is to re-roof the structure, which we were planning on doing anyway, because the roof leaks horribly.  Josh tore off the old roof and we had to discard most of the old boards because they were all rotten and very very moldy, and he is working on putting a new roof.  Of course, the inclement weather has stalled this work (please note the ominous storm clouds and the tarps over the shed in the below photo).  It’s kind of hard to put on a roof with 25mph winds and lots of rain, and of course, Day Jobs that take up your time during the Day.  When weather permits, Josh has been hard at work during all of his spare time, until almost 9:00 at night (well after the sun has gone down), but wind and rain is hard.

Once we get the roof up, we’re going to finish off and insulate the walls, section off a portion of the shed to be the coop, open up the second door, open up a chicken door, open up lots of ventilation areas, and then set up the coop interior (not necessarily in that order).  While I find that housing chickens inside my human house is not the most optimal living situation in which I have ever found myself, it is much more tolerable now that they are in the basement and I think that being able to take the chicks outside as much as possible will only make it more tolerable until they can be formally moved into their coop.  Please weather, get nice and stay nice, pretty please!

My gardening work is going well and all of my seedlings are thriving.  I’ve got onions, leeks, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, spinach, romaine, carrots, radishes, parsnips, many many herbs, brussels sprouts, strawberries, and this weekend I am going to sow my tomatoes (and some other stuff on my list).  Some of them are already in the ground and are doing well, and I’m planning on planting everything else the first week of May.

Unfortunately, my frost abatement frames haven’t stood up against the 25 mph winds that we’ve been having and the tops have all blown off, so I need to revisit their construction.  I have been using them continuously, however, and the seedlings underneath are all doing well.  Sort of…

Last week, Kiko and I were outside catching some rays and working in the garden, when I realized that I wasn’t sure where she had gone.  I looked all around and started to get worried that she had gone feral and decided that living with humans was no longer for her, until I found her basking in the warmth underneath one of the cold frames.

I think she was a little annoyed and contemplating going feral when I made her get out, but I haven’t brushed away the kitty prints in the raised beds, as I find them to be a cute addition to my garden.

A few seedlings were damaged while she was rolling around, but it’s hard to be mad at someone so cute.

As for sewing, I don’t have a ‘real’ sewing project to show you, but I have been working on mending and altering this dress that I bought almost a year ago.  The dress was at an antique store for about $10 and was clearly handmade.  It also had a lot of holes where the seams had busted out and there were a few styling elements that I didn’t like.  However, as I held the dress up to my person, it was evident that the dress would fit me well.  So I brought it home with the intention to fix it all up, but then it sat at the back of my fabric stash for almost a year, sadly forgotten.  Recently, when I did the deep clean of my craft room after moving the chicks to the basement, I re-discovered this dress and decided to finish it.  Sorry, I don’t have any before photos.  Initially, the dress was so long that it hung to my mid-calf, which I believe is possibly the most unflattering dress length.  So I cut off about 18 inches from the length and hemmed it.  I also re-sewed all of the seams that had come undone.  The sleeves were hemmed with elastic which was way too tight around my upper arms, so I took out the elastic and then made some pleats at the hem.  Anyway, I didn’t make this dress, but I did fix and alter it to fit me better, and I’m very happy with it.  The print on the fabric is actually plaid with butterflies and I kind of love it.  It was also surprising to find an already sewn dress that fit my bodice perfectly, as that never ever happens.  Incidentally, the bodice has shirring at the waistline and I find this to be exceptionally comfortable.

I’m still trying to decide what my next real sewing project should be.  Decisions, decisions.

Finally, as for my book reading, I am making my way through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein and, to be honest, I don’t like it very much.  I find it boring and uninteresting, and am inclined to think that I won’t have it finished before I need to return it to my public library.  I’m trying to decide if I should try to finish it (either before the return deadline or make the effort to renew it) or just find something else to read.

Readers, tell me, when you find yourselves reading books you don’t enjoy, do you ever feel guilty for not finishing them, or do you subscribe to the notion that life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy?  This book has very favorable reviews on Goodreads, so perhaps I just haven’t gotten to the good part, or maybe what is so great about this book is just eluding me and I should pay more attention to locate its redeeming qualities.

~ Sewing FOs: Tiny Pocket Tank & Mint Thurlows ~

Mar 152013
 

Apropos of nothing, apparently Google Reader is going away and I’m struggling to find a new Reader.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I’m trying out Bloglovin’ (and apparently I need to claim my blog by posting about it, or something, I dunno) – - so I guess you can follow my blog there if you like (Follow my blog with Bloglovin).  But, le sigh, responding well to change isn’t my forté and I haven’t yet developed the lovin’ for Bloglovin.

But I digress.

Anyway, I finally have some sewing FOs to show you!!!  These were in hibernation for a LONG time, due to various home DIY projects and temporary chicken housing that required the total occupation of my sewing room.  Once I got my sewing room back, it took me all of 30 minutes to finish off these projects.

Pattern: Grainline Studios Tiny Pocket Tank
Fabric: 1.5 yards of cotton
Notions: Just thread
Cost: Pattern was $6.50 and fabric was cheap (but I don’t remember how much)
Time to Make: 1-2 Hours

So, I absolutely LOVE my Tiny Pocket Tank and will definitely make many more of them.  It was SO EASY to make and is a style of top that I very much gravitate towards.  I wish that I had made this earlier in my sewing career – - as of this writing, I am approaching my one year-iversary of learning to sew and making this top back when I was a total beginner would have given me a quick and easy project to gain a lot of confidence.  The pattern instructions were very appropriate for a total beginner and there were very few pieces to cut out and piece together (one back, one front, one pocket, and pieces to make bias tape for the arm and neck holes).  I didn’t make any alterations to the pattern (cut the smallest size).  For future versions, I hope to experiment with different fabrics.

(Also, I’m sorry that these pieces look so wrinkly in the photos; I feel rather frustrated with how cotton seems to wrinkle so quickly.)

Pattern: Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers
Fabric: 3 yards of cotton sateen
Notions: Trouser Zipper, Hook & Eye, thread.


This is the third wearable version of the Thurlow Trouser pattern that I’ve sewn.  Now that I’ve made it so many times, the pattern comes together like a breeze.  This version features a sort of mint colored cotton sateen that I was excited about when I saw the fabric at fabric.com, however, I am much less excited about them now that they are made.  Firstly, the color isn’t nearly as minty as the website led me to believe, and I actually don’t like the color all that much.  I wanted a BOLD MINT pair of trousers; these are muted and pretty blah.  I’m thinking about trying to dye the trousers to be more green-green.

Secondly, I’m a little wary of the appropriateness of this fabric for this pattern and am not so sure about the fit.  The fabric is very stretchy and very prone to wrinkling.  And since it is SO stretchy, I sewed the trousers together with a slightly larger seam allowance around the hip area because I was worried that they would stretch way out of shape after a small amount of wear.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been bicycling as much this winter (since it’s been so ridiculously freezing), and I’ve gained some weight in that area and I’m not sure the trousers fit very well, as a result.  (They might fit better once I resume my normal cycling schedule.)  I also wish I had cut them to be more of a straight leg rather than so boot-cutty.  (I might rip them apart and adjust them so).

All in all, these are very comfortable trousers that will be good for the Day Job, although they aren’t as stylish as I had hoped they would be.

For my next sewing project, I want to make a dress and am contemplating the following patterns: V1236, V8723, or V8663.  The last two are “Very Easy Vogue” patterns and the first one appears to also be very easy.

   

~ Craft Happenings 2013 v. 4 ~

Mar 122013
 

So many projects, so little time!

On the Knitting Needles

I have been going BANANAS knitting my Aesa pullover.  I have one sleeve done and am into the second.  The first sleeve fits PERFECTLY and the colorwork is very addictive.  I have so much going on right now that I probably won’t be able to finish this sweater for a long time, but it is very enjoyable to knit nonetheless.  (Also, I’m sure this goes without saying, but I haven’t yet blocked the sleeves, so the colorwork is a little bumpy).

I also have TWO sweater designs in progress!  I’ve been knitting a lot of accessories lately and I’m so excited to get back to sweaters.  And because I like to always knit two versions of a sweater to see how it looks in different yarns, one sweater will feature The Plucky Knitter Primo Merino Worsted as well as Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed, and the other sweater will feature Sunshine Yarns Singly Ply Merino Fine  and another unidentified yarn.  It will be a month or so before I have anything ready for testing, but I wanted to mention that I’ve started running  test knits through my Ravelry Group, which feels kind of embarrassing to have my own group (especially since I’m not very good at the social aspect), but it has proven to be handy for test knits.

On the Sewing Table

Well, I have my craft room back, having moved the chicks to the basement (see below) and am excited to be able to spend time on my sewing machine again.  Last night, I performed a deep clean of the craft room and am hoping to finish my Mint Thurlows very soon, and then move onto my other spring sewing projects.  All that I have to do to finish these trousers are to top stitch the waist band, add the closure at the waistband front, and hem the legs.

In the Garden

My trays of seedlings runneth over as springtime waxes into warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours.  Outside, the kale and spinach that I planted are doing well under my frost-abatement frames, and some carrots are germinating.  Inside, my onions and leeks are going strong, as are my broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, and whatever else I have growing.  They’re a little leggy, but I don’t know how to get around that and still grow indoors (I do place them outside whenever the temperature is above freezing, which is now becoming more frequent).

I have one tray (with nine flats) of an heirloom variety of strawberries that has fully germinated, but I lost two other such trays (though, un-germinated) during an accident in which the table with all of my ungerminated seeds had tipped over (I can re-sow the brussles sprouts and other similar veggies, but the strawberries are a total loss (I have no more seeds and, considering that they needed a two week cold treatment and were sown 2 weeks ago, I just don’t think I can start the process over again, particularly because I haven’t found seeds for these specific heirloom varieties at local nurseries).  So, that is sad, but I can try again next year.

Here Chick, Chick, Chick!

The chicks are all doing well. They had a very exciting weekend.  Not only did they get a new home (a larger pen in the basement) but they got to spent a lot of time outside.

As for their new home, in consideration of their growth, Josh and I anticipated that they would outgrow their brooder faster than we had expected.  On Friday and Saturday, we built a larger pen for them in the basement (their brooder has been kept upstairs in my craftroom because the heat from our furnace doesn’t make its way down to the basement and I had been worried that they would be too cold down there – - but now that they are four weeks old, I am confident that they can be kept very comfortable downstairs with their lamp).  We had thought that they might remain in their brooder for a little while longer, but then on Sunday I decided that it was time to move them into the larger space; as they get older, their desire to run around, “fly”, peck in the ground, and dust bathe has increased and all of these activities have become challenging and obnoxious in their brooder (not only are they constantly trying to roost (and therefore poop) on their feeder, but they are also kicking and scattering their poopy bedding in their waterer, and on Sunday they completely knocked over their waterer TWICE while chasing each other around and “flying”).  It was time to move them into a bigger space.

(Note, I’ve converted the photos of their inside home to ‘sepia’ because the red light from their lamp makes the photos indiscernible).  (Also, of course while I was taking photos, they were all having a nap in their sod clod box, but when they are not-napping, they are very actively running and “flying” all around the pen).

Their new home is 4′ x 4′ and they have plenty of room to run and “fly” around, and they seem so much happier in their new space.  I placed a bowl of dirt for them to dust bathe (which they seem to have so much fun kicking around) as well as a box of sod clods for them to peck and forage at.  They seem to absolutely LOVE the sod clods and spend most of their time either pecking around or just napping on them.  I also made a small roost area and have observed the chicks roosting there at night.  I  was also able to place their feeder and waterer away from the hub of activity, and so the chicks are no longer soiling their food and water with poop and bedding.  Also, the more shy and anxious chicks seem to no longer be shy and anxious – - having a lot of space has allowed them to come out of their shell and they actively push their way through the more assertive chicks to get a good spot on the sod clods or the dirt bowl and I am very pleased to see this change in their temperament (before, I was worried that they were being bullied into submission).

One feature of their new home is that it has a side door so that when we open it up, we are presented to the chicks on their horizontal plane, rather than swooping down on them from above (as was the case with their brooder), so we no longer startle them by seeming like predators.  Spending a lot of time with the chicks is making them much more comfortable with us – - they will actually walk, of their own free will, onto our outstretched hands.

They also got to go outside this weekend.  It was sunny and warm, and we placed them into an outside enclosure that allowed them to soak up some sun and exist in a more natural state of pecking around in the ground and frolicking in the sunshine.  I was monitoring them very closely for signs that they were cold but they never looked uncomfortable and seemed to be having such a BLAST outside.  I think being outside gave them some very good mental stimulation and an opportunity for physical exercise, and they seem so much happier.  They’re four weeks old now and were ready to escape the confines of their brooder.

I think this chicken pose is hilarious!  Here is Joesphine trying to look at something she’s curious about.

And here’s Penelope showing us her big girl feathers.  Despite being the shyest of the bunch, she had a wonderful time being outside, pecking around in the ground, running and “flying” around, as well as chasing her sisters.

As for their coop, our plan is to convert part of our big shed into a coop (the shed is currently 9′ x 24′ with a 1′ thick concrete foundation and a human-sized door on either end) by sectioning off a third of the back part of the shed.  That would make the coop roughly 9′ x 8′.  We will also need to add a lot more ventilation and plan to fully frame and wall the coop area (as well as adding insulation).  I’ve been doing a lot of reading about different coop constructions, and one feature that I am excited to have is a ”poop board” with zeolite.  I was able to find a 40 pound bag of zeolite for $14 at the horse supply store and have added a little of it to their new home in the basement.  The stuff I bought is the powder version and I’m wondering if the granular stuff would be less dusty.  So many options to consider!

Anyway, you’ve seen photos of the outside of the shed many times, but here is the inside.  The roof has been leaking all winter and needs to be completely replaced (Josh is working on that today) and we’re going to do a full internal remodel.

Anyway, I’ve been learning so much about keeping chickens and I find it actually very fascinating!  Whereas I used to spend all of my internet time poking around on Ravelry and PatternReview, now I’m clicking away over at Backyard Chickens, which is amazing in the wealth of information on backyard chicken keeping.  I’ve also been obsessively reading through the following tomes:

          

Anyway, even though I wasn’t fully prepared to get chickens when I got them (as in, no coop constructed), I am so happy that I took the plunge.  The chicks are such a delight and I am so looking forward to having them part of my garden ecosystem.

On the Bookshelf

Despite all of the chicken reading I’ve been doing, I have also finished two books since my last ‘Bookshelf’ update.

After a non-fiction kick, I had the inclination for some fiction and I randomly decided to read The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber, upon seeing it prominently featured at my local public library.  I have never before read anything by this author, but I found it pleasantly heartwarming.  The story centers around the themes of loss, grief, self-imposed guilt, forgiveness, and redemption, focusing these themes on three characters in a small Pacific Northwest oceanside town.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.  It is not of a genre to which I normally gravitate (typically, I enjoy more nerdy reads (see below)) but it was a nice change.  In looking at the Goodreads page for this book, I see that it is placed into the genres of romance, chick lit, and Christian fiction… so yes, genres to which I don’t gravitate, but a nice read nonetheless.  Part of what I liked so much about the book was the setting in a small Pacific Northwest town, which was such a quaint little scene that I could imagine retiring to the same town in my old age and being very content.  The book really did leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

Of course, after reading such a heartwarming tale, I had to immerse myself in some solid science fiction to get all of those fuzzy feelings out of my system.  Enter Variable Star, a book outlined by Robert A. Heinlein and written by Spider Robinson.  I haven’t actually read that much Heinlein in my life and I’ve never read any Spider Robinson, but this book made me want to read much more science fiction (in fact, I am currently reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein).  Variable Star is a story whose outline was discovered by Heinlein researchers several years ago and, during a science fiction convention in Toronto fewer years ago, someone suggested that Spider Robinson write the book to go along with the outline, and things progressed from there.

I very much enjoyed most of the story.  Not having read Robinson before, I wasn’t sure what was his and what was Heinlein’s.  There were a few neologisms and references to current popular culture that I didn’t care for (such as the term “to google” as a way of searching for information on an electronic database, and references to The Beatles and The Simpsons, etc.).  I also didn’t really care for the ending; in the epilogue to the book, Robinson explains that Heinlein’s outline didn’t have an ending and that he agonized about how to end the story for a long time.  I can’t imagine what a difficult decision that would be to make – - trying to decide how to end what is probably the last book by Heinlein (the “dean of science fiction”), and opening yourself to all kinds of criticism for whatever ending you chose.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book and found it was one of those books that are very difficult to put down — on many days, I stayed up well past my bedtime delving farther into the world of Variable Star.

Gratuitous Kitty Photo

I haven’t come close to mentioning a small fraction of the yard work that I’ve been doing.  But the weather has been very nice and Kiko has been enjoying being outside with me while I toil away in the dirt.  She even came outside while the chicks were out and was more interested in gnawing at some grass than her feathered friends.

Nom, nom, nom.

~ Garden FOs: Cold Frame & Compost Containment Unit ~

Mar 042013
 

This past weekend soared to almost 60 degrees (F) on Saturday and high 40s on Sunday, mostly sunny both days, and proved to be an excellent time to get some projects done in the garden.

Firstly, I built a set of cold frames to fit over one of my raised beds.  Actually, I’m not sure if these qualify as for reals “cold frames” but they should help to protect my plants from frost and prolong my growing season.

I’ve been meaning to build something like this for a while but have been indecisive about the construction.  There are so many different kinds of structures to protect plants from the cold and since I’m still a novice with power tools and construction materials, I’ve felt rather intimidated…  As with most of my gardening inspirations, I searched around on Pinterest for some design ideas and then drafted up a construction schematic before going to the hardware store.

I

My construction materials:

  • Untreated cedar fencing boards (4″ x 6′) for $1.48 each = purchased 10 boards for $14.80 (and then cut them into 16 boards 3′ long, 4 boards 2′ long, and 4 boards 1.5′ long).
  • Row cover material = $12
  • Roofing material 2′ x 12′ cut into 3′ lengths = $32
  • Handles @ $4 each x4 = $16
  • Galvanized screws and heavy duty staples

Total Cost = $74.80 for two frames

(I’m not sure if I could have bought pre-fab cold frames sized to fit my raised beds for cheaper or not.  This project was more expensive than I had hoped.  For one, I misread the pricing label of the roofing material as $12 when it was actually $32, and only discovered the real price AFTER I had had the material cut up into pieces (and then couldn’t ethically not buy it).  If I had known it was so expensive, I would have sought a cheaper alternative.  Secondly, the handles seemed unnecessarily pricey, but they were the cheapest at the hardware store and I didn’t feel like shopping around.)

Anyway, above is the skeleton of the project which was extremely simple and easy for me to construct.  And below are the completed cold frames.

After constructing the skeleton, I wrapped the row cover material around the body, securing it in place with heavy duty stables, and attached the roofing material.   I wanted to use a durable roofing material to help protect the seedlings from harsh rains or hail, and also gave the top a good slope so that rain and snow could slide off.  The handles were added after-the-fact because the cold frames proved to be rather unwieldy; without the handles, the cold frames were slightly too wide for my wingspan to comfortably manage.

All in all, I am very pleased with how they turned out.  On Saturday, I also planted several cold hardy plants in the bed: month old seedlings for spinach and kale (not pictured), week old seedlings for beets and radishes, and direct sowed some carrots.  Saturday night didn’t fall below freezing but last night temperatures dipped down to 20(F) – -  the month old seedlings are still looking great after the cold night, but some of the week old seedlings are looking a little sad.  I have zero experience with cold weather gardening so I’m not sure if they actually look normal, or if my pseudo cold frame has some weak points, or if I should wait until my seedlings are a little older before I plant them with sub-freezing nighttime temperatures.  I suspect that experience will be a great teacher for me but I am very interested in whether more ‘seasoned gardeners’ have some thoughts about this…

Also over the weekend, Josh built for me a compost structural containment unit, for which I am very grateful.  He used concrete blocks for a foundation and then installed 4″x4″ posts and lined the sides to keep everything in place but with spaces between each piece of wood to allow airflow.

He still needs to construct the lid to help the compost to retain its heat and “cook”.

In the below photo, you can see my non-composted pile of sycamore leaves that I am very excited to chop up and get “cooking” (already, I’ve got lots of chicken poop ready to do its “duty”).

In other news, the chicks are all doing well.  Today, they are three weeks old and they seem much more accustomed to their new humans than they did a week ago.  The Barred Rocks even willingly walk onto our human hands in order to get treats and they all seem to enjoy being held (none of them enjoy being picked up, but are fine once they can settle into being held).

From left to right, they are Florence, Josephine, Penelope, and Madeline.  Josephine is the Barred Rock with the biggest splash of white on the top of her head and she is also the most fearless (the one looking directly into the camera in the below photo), and Penelope is the Rhode Island Red with the lighter colored red streak on her head and she is, by far, the shyest chick in the group (right next to Josephine below).

Hopefully, I’ll have a finished chicken coop to show you in the next few weeks.  Josh and I are still hashing out the details of the coop, but I think our basic plan is pretty solid.

~ Kranium Kowl: doubleknit variation ~

Mar 012013
 

When it comes to colorwork knitting, there are some motifs that are better suited to doubleknitting rather than normal stranded knitting (even though normal stranding works just fine, too).  For example, if a colorwork motif has blocks of color that are more than, say, 5 stitches long, then it can be a little tricky to manage that long float and still maintain an even tension with stranded knitting.  Furthermore, if those longer blocks of color extend upwards for several rows, the knitter should make sure that they do not twist/weave their floats in the same vertical stitch as the previous row (otherwise, the knitting stitches will not look right).  Knitters who are experienced in stranded knitting most likely are able to manage these longer floats just fine, but personally, I prefer stranded knitting in smaller blocks of color.

The skulls motif that I use for my Skull Mittens and the Kranium Kowl has been one of my favorite colorwork motifs because it’s fun to knit and it seems to make good gifts.  However, it has blocks of color that are as much as 9 stitches long for 3 rows and, anymore, I just find it annoying to bother with long floats like that.

Enter, doubleknitting, a perfect knitting technique for colorwork that has long floats.  Previously, I have expounded upon the merits of doubleknitting ad nauseum… Not only do you not have to worry about managing floats, but your knitting is double-sided, and very very stretchy!

Basically, with doubleknitting, you cast on twice the number of stitches that you would with a single sided stockinette fabric and, essentially, work 1×1 ribbing (but bringing both yarns forward and back as you knit and purl);  the stitches that you knit become the “right side” facing fabric, and the stitches that you purl become the “wrong side” facing fabric and also presents itself as stockinette.

One of the components of doubleknitting that has eluded me until now is the cast on.   In my doubleknitting reference library, there are a vast array of cast on suggestions, but none of them have rocked my world.  Recently, I was fiddling with some different tubular cast ons, and discovered that using Judy’s Magic Cast On is possibly the most perfect cast on technique for doubleknitting.

Check out my cast on edge!  Doesn’t it match nicely with my Kitchener Stitch grafting?!?

For a few years, I’ve been fielding requests from knitters for a doubleknit variation of the Kranium Kowl and I am excited to finally be able to make that happen.  For this doubleknit variation, I used Knit Picks City Tweed DK in the Romance and Snowshoe colorway.  This is the small size and I used only one ball of each color (the sizes medium and large will take two balls).   In order to get gauge, I used a size US 4 needle (and for the cast on and the grafting, I needed a second needle).

The pattern for the Kranium Kowl now includes both the stranded version and the doubleknit version and I am keeping the pattern at $4.00.

Kranium Kowl

  $4.00

Here chick, chick, chick!

Feb 262013
 

Once in a while, I suddenly lose interest in knitting and whatever other hobbies I might have.  Sometimes this happens after a period of time when I have excessively been knitting and need a break; other times, I might just have a lot of other stuff to occupy my energy.  My current and sudden disinterest in knitting is a combination of the two.  Last week, I finally finished knitting two design-things that I’ve been working on (one of which has been an enormous amount of knitting) and ever since binding off, weaving in my ends, and blocking, it has felt really nice to not knit for a while.  Of course, I also have some other stuff that is occupying my energy…

Here chick, chick, chick!

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that I was sad because I probably wouldn’t get chickens this year.

Um, yeah, about that…

On Sunday, Josh and I had exciting plans to visit a little hatchery in Parma (a VERY small Idaho town), to look at chicken coops.  This is a small family hatchery that also offers custom-built chicken coops (and plans) for sale.

The hatchery is nestled down in a valley among some foothills and was kind of a magical place.  It was a sunny day and we enjoyed walking all around the area.  They even had a very sweet and friendly kitty, who was leading us all around (at some point, I very seriously asked if I could adopt the kitty).  I was impressed by how cool and collected she was around all of the chickens, fantasizing that maybe Kiko could behave that way.

They had a big outdoor area with lots of coops and big runs.  I was struck by how handsome all of the chickens were.  There were so many beautiful bantams (apparently the female proprietor (whose name I have totally forgotten) is starting to slow down her production chickens and is getting more interested in bantams).  Despite the comely plumage of the pretty show birds, I was really drawn to many of the dual purpose breeds and I wanted to pick them up and hug them (but refrained)… the Silver Laced Wyandottes were my favorite and I was sad to learn that they didn’t have any of those for sale, but I also really liked the Barred Rocks, who seemed like such stately birds.

Anyway, we did fulfill our mission of looking at the chicken coops, and we were inspired to try to design our own.  We also went on a little hike into the nearby foothills and took some photos of the knitting pieces that I just finished, which was productive.

And then, I have no explanation to how this happened, we found ourselves driving home with a box of four chicks, two Barred Rocks and two Rhode Island Reds.

They were one day away from being two weeks old (Monday was their two week-iversary) and the folks at the hatchery were able to set us up with everything that we would need for the first little while.

We set up their brooder in my craft room (for a lack of a better space to keep them, during this time when they need to stay warm), and they have been settling in nicely.  They were a bit anxious at first, but once they discovered the food they seemed a-okay.

It’s taken a little bit of experimentation to get the temperature right.  The folks at the hatchery seemed to assume that we would keep our house temperature regulated at 72 degrees and thus recommended having the lamp hanging in their brooder with a 75 watt bulb.

I tend to not be very assertive, especially with strangers who seem to be experts in a subject that I am not, and so I didn’t clarify that I thought regulating an entire house at 72 degrees was totally ridiculous.  First of all, even though I suffer from feeling cold at all times, 68 degrees is my preferred temperature and 72 degrees just seems wasteful.  However, we tend to turn the thermostat down to 55 degrees at night,  then 62 degrees in the morning, 64-66 degrees during the daytime (if we’re at home to enjoy such luxurious warmth), and only turn it all the way to 68 during the evening.

So for that first night, we compromised and set the thermostat to 64 degrees and I couldn’t sleep or get comfortable at all with the furnace running all night.  It was awful.  When I checked on the chicks, they were all huddled together under the light, apparently too cold, so I brought in a big space heater and heated up that room to make them more comfortable.  The next day, I made it a top priority to get a heat lamp for them, because this business of keeping the entire house warmer than I wanted and still for the chicks to be too cold wasn’t going to work for anyone.  Also, the guy at the feed store recommended using a red heat lamp so that the chicks didn’t have a bright light shining on them at all times; he said that the red light would allow them to relax a little more.  The new lamp set up seems to be far superior.  Not only does it provide more heat, but I pulled it out of the brooder (which seemed to get too hot for the chicks) and affixed it to this adjustable shelving unit, so we can easily adjust the temperature for the chicks by moving the lamp closer or farther away.  When I went to check on them last night at 3 a.m. (when the house temperature was down to 55 degrees), they all seemed very comfortable and content under their heat lamp.  Yay!

Here’s just another view.  We also added a perch for them in the upper corner.  I kept observing them seeming to be trying to roost on their feeder (and then pooping into their food container), so I thought giving them something else to stand on might deter them from roosting on their feeder, but the design isn’t quite right yet.  They do jump up onto it and hang out, but they still try to roost in their feeder.

Also, Kiko has had a few opportunities to be in the same room as the chicks (with strict supervision) and she has seemed only mildly curious about them.  Which surprises me because she tends to go crazy watching outside birds, but I’m glad for this mild interest.  I think if we acted like we were keeping some exciting secret from her, she would become obsessively curious about the chicks, but acting like they’re not a big deal (and setting boundaries) might be good for keeping the curiosity mild.  Eventually, I would like for Kiko and the chicks to co-exist much like the cat at the chicken hatchery.

One interesting thing, for me, about getting chicks is the poop situation.  For my Day Job, I work at a hospital, where sanitation and hand washing is a huge deal.  For example, pooping in your drinking water is discouraged.  As is pooping in your bedding and then going to sleep with your face in your own poop.  I have a friend whose grandfather was a well-known microbiologist, who talked about how it’s actually important to be around germs in order to build up our immunity.  And more than immunity, we exist in a symbiotic relationship with many bacteria and fungi in order to meet our daily needs, like digestion.  So I’m trying to find a balance of keeping a clean brooder but relaxing a little bit about the poop.  After all, chicks poop a lot more than I realized.  A lot more.  And keeping them in a poop-free brooder is completely unrealistic.  Perhaps also, unwise.  For my balance on this issue, I’ve been trying to keep their water and food containers poop free and I do a quick poop scoop of the bedding once a day, but maybe that’s too much.  I also have read that adding a little bit of the raw, unprocessed Apple Cider Vinegar (with the “mother” at the bottom of the bottle) to the water will help provide the chicks with beneficial bacteria as well as helping to keep the water container clean.  Oh, and I’m also doing daily butt-checks, because no chicken of mine is going to have pasty butt.

Anyway.

I also procured some little mealworm and grain treats appropriate for chicks and Josh and I have been trying to bond with the chicks using the treats.  In a little over 24 hours of having them home, we have been able to successfully get the chicks to eat out of our hands, on multiple occasions!  It is so adorable!!!  And when I do scary things like butt checks (which also involve some gentle cuddling and pets), I follow it up with a mealworm treat (which they seem to LOVE).

It’s also interesting watching the distinct behavior patterns of the different chicks.  For example, the Barred Rocks are noticeably more adventurous than the Reds; they were the first to approach the food and water dishes, and once they ate and drank successfully, the Reds scurried over and joined them.  The Rocks were also the first ones to gradually approach our hands offering treats and just in general seem to wander around the brooder with more boldness and confidence.  The Reds are definitely more shy and cautious.  I’m curious to observe the establishment of the pecking order, and I have an idea about which two will be at the top.

As for naming them, I strongly feel that our chickens deserve classy and distinguished names.  The Barred Rocks are Josephine and Florence (Josie and Flo, for short) and we’re still mulling over names for the Reds… Any suggestions???

The most pressing unknown, as you can probably guess, is what we’re going to do about a coop.  The folks at the hatchery said that the chickens will be ready to go into a coop in 6-8 weeks, though I anticipate they will outgrow their brooder well before then.  The “plan” for that intermediate stage is for Josh to bring home a bunch of BIG bike boxes from the bike shop where he works and to make a big pen for them, which will probably have to be in the basement.  And I guess we have several weeks to design and build a coop.  So, no problem, right?  I have to add that I am very concerned about making the coop predator-proof.  Just by the wild scat I find in my yard, I am certain that there are all kinds of predators roaming the neighborhood at night.  In my late evening walks, I’ve seen skunks, racoons, foxes, and have heard coyotes.

In other news…

I finally got all of my raised beds moved to the fullest sun area of the yard and have almost gotten them all filled with soil.  I broke down last week and actually bought an organic top soil, steer manure, compost mix.  I was resistant to the idea of buying dirt, but the dirt that I have to work with is not good (it’s full of paint chips, cigarette butts, and other trash and just seems to be very nutrient depleted) and my compost pile isn’t fully composted (actually, I have several huge piles of chopped sycamore leaves and I wasn’t able to get enough green matter through lawn clipping and kitchen scraps to get those leaves to break down… so I’m VERY excited to be able to start adding my chicken poop to it).

According to my gardening calendar, I can start directly sowing radishes, carrots, beets, etc., so I’m hoping to get that done this coming weekend.

Also, last week I wrote about how all of my seedlings developed mold and how I had experimented with a peroxide treatment before transplanting them all into individual flats.  It’s been over a week since I did the transplanting and a few of the seedlings didn’t make it, but the vast majority of them are doing very well.

Quick Craft Update

Even though I say that I’ve lost interest in knitting and sewing, in the past week I have finished one Parallax Sock, have done many rounds on the sleeve for my Aesa sweater, and I almost finished with my Mint Thurlows (which don’t look remotely mint colored in the photo).

~ decompressing (after some home & garden projects) ~

Feb 202013
 

Sometimes I think that I should be more skillful at handling change, but any disturbance to my routine or my norms tends to discombobulate me severely.  I mean, I’ve lived in some different countries, I’ve traveled near and far, and I’ve done some other stuff that might give one the impression that I am easily adaptable and spontaneous, but it’s all deceiving; without my sacred routines I am a mess.  Sacred routines, like say, enjoying some coffee and knitting for a few hours in the morning before I go do whatever are fundamental to my internal equilibrium.

Decompress:

1. To relieve of pressure or compression.

2. To bring (a person exposed to conditions of increased pressure) gradually back to normal atmospheric pressure.

House FO: Replacing Moldy Drywall

Two weeks ago at Casa Joshifer, there was the roofing project to patch up the leaking roof, and that was sufficiently disturbing to some of my sacred routines that I felt a little unhinged.  And then this past week, we replaced the moldy drywall that was directly below the leaking roof, a project that effectively took away my favorite place to enjoy my coffee and knitting in the morning for several days.

I guess that part of what was stressing me out about this project, in addition to not having a livable living room for several days, was my uncertainty about how easy of a DIY home improvement project this would be, as well as my uncertainty about how far the mold and possible wood rot extended.  In my roofing project post, I mentioned that Josh and I had broken into the wall of our living room and discovered mold directly below where the leak in the roof was.  In the photo above, you can see how the mold went all the way down to the floor (if you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking at in that amazingly crisp photo, we broke away approximately 15 layers of paint (presumably several layers being lead based) to expose the drywall, which should be a white or cream color, not brown and black).

Below is another look at the mold.  Fortunately, the mold was contained to a manageable area that was relatively easy to replace (and by “relatively easy to replace” I guess that would be my assessment of Josh’s demeanor during this project, as he did most of the work).

Our fortune was compounded by the fact that the mold hadn’t gone beyond the drywall and that the structural wood behind it appeared to be sound and dry.  I didn’t take many photos of this project, but below he is beginning to cut into the drywall.  We took out that whole lower section (including the baseboards) and some above, replaced it, plastered, and painted (even adding the texture bit), and the finished wall hardly looks different than the surrounding surface (which is a testament to Josh’s handy abilities because the drywall that we bought was a different thickness than the 64 year old drywall that we replaced).

In the end, we were able to successfully replace the moldy drywall and patch the roof at a surprisingly (to us) low cost (if you consider just the cost of the materials and not any tools that we bought (which should be of future use) these projects really didn’t set us back very many dollars, which was nice).

It has now been a few days since this project was completed and the living room is back to its livable (and non-toxic) state and it feels so nice to relax there again (the living room is where I like to enjoy my morning coffee while knitting everyday before work, and is also where I prefer to wind down with some yoga in the evening before bed, so it really is a harbor of sacred routines).

On the Bookshelf

I recently finished reading the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain, and it definitely explains my need for routine (especially those involving solitary relaxation and decompression).  Overall, I think the book was very good… empowering for introverts and informative to extroverts (who may have an interest in better understanding introverts).  However, at times it seemed as though the generalizations about introverts and extroverts were biased in favor of the former.  For example, introverts are consistently characterized as cerebral and preferring deep and meaningful conversations, while extroverts are portrayed as superficial and excelling at chit-chat.  While I didn’t mind the validation of my type’s enhanced mental capacity, it did seem a little unfair to suggest that extroverts are all gregarious goofs.  Further, most of the case studies with adults focused on shy and introverted adults trying to succeed in a highly competitive corporate environment, and I don’t relate to the corporate culture at any level, so the adult case studies were not at all germane for me.  Also, there were times when I felt that introverts were described as being victimized and extroverts were the aggressors, and that bugged me.  Just because I am a seriously hard-core introvert (and also a very very shy person to boot), and have spent my whole life feeling awkward in most social situations, I honestly don’t feel like a victim or that extroverts are big bullies.  Yeah, being shy and awkward isn’t spectacular, but it’s not that bad.  Anyway.  The book does have a lot of nerdy stuff about the brain and neuroscience that I found FASCINATING, and it also synthesizes many many studies about the brain, behavior, and personality, and that alone I think makes the book well worth reading.

Home Decor, woot!

Ever since the drywall project has been done, I have been uniquely interested in spicing up some of the home decor.  I’ve been making the rounds at the local thrift stores, and found a set of four antique Audubon prints in old frames for $5 that I really really love, which Josh hung in the kitchen.

Above are prints for the Western Meadowlark and the Robin, and below are the Mockingbird and the Mountain Bluebird.

And I finally completed this craft room decoration idea that I saw on Pintrest.  Having found old embroidery hoops at my thrift stores for super cheap, I used them to frame fabric quarters of pretty quilting cotton.

Garden Tragedies and some Progress

My stress during the drywall project last week was amplified because ALL of my seedlings that I’ve been nurturing for about a month suddenly developed a cobwebby mold and I was concerned that they were damping off.  I guess I’ve been over-watering, over-fertilizing, and keeping them in a too-warm environment with not enough air circulation, so shame on me.  None of my gardening books had suggestions about what to do when all of the seedlings get moldy if they look otherwise healthy, so I exercised my GoogleFu and found that a number of experienced gardeners use hydrogen peroxide to combat mold (though this seems to be a somewhat debated technique).  Since I wasn’t prepared to loose all of my seedlings, I tried this recommendation and the mold seemed to retreat a little bit (I think it completely saved my kale and lettuces, actually).  I have been monitoring the seedlings like crazy ever since and I just wasn’t satisfied with my mold abatement efforts, so I finally decided to take drastic measures and very carefully transplanted them into fresh soil in individual flats.  This process took HOURS because month-old onion and leek seedlings are so fragile, but it was encouraging to see that they all had good roots developed.  Below is a photo of one of my chive sets, and how the mold had really infiltrated into the soil.

After removing each seedling from the moldy soil, I also carefully washed it off in some peroxide to try to remove any fungus that might be attached to the roots or leaves, before transplanting to fresh soil.  I also found a better draining potting mix that should be less prone to getting moldy.

We’ll see how my seedlings fair after this.  I did this transplanting on Sunday and some of them look like they might not make it, but most of them look good (the below photo was taken on Tuesday evening).

My kale, spinach, and lettuces are all thriving.

Sunday was also a big seed starting day.  According to my gardening schedule, it was time to sow peppers, parsnips, broccoli, cabbage, and all kinds of other stuff.  After this mold experience, I will be mindful about not over-watering, not over-fertilizing, and keeping them in a cool place with good air circulation after they germinate.

Anyway, my list of gardening and yard work tasks runneth across two pages and I’m a little concerned that I’m trying to do too much…  For example, I bought raspberry and blackberry plants also this weekend, as well as a rhubarb crown, and need to prepare a place to plant them ASAP.  I’ve also found an awesome chicken hatchery that sells blueprints for chicken coops and I’m so excited to get a coop built, but I am doubtful that will happen in time; supposedly, chicks will be available at the beginning of March.  So, I might need to resign myself to not getting chickens this year.  I’ve also given up plans for an asparagus bed and some other ideas that make me sad to give up, but it’s good to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I should limit myself to what I can reasonably accomplish in one year.

~ Craft Happenings 2013 v. 3 ~

Feb 072013
 

It’s been a few weeks since I posted a crafting update.  This is kind of a meager update because of some  unexpected home improvement opportunities, but I have gotten quite a bit done.

On the Knitting Needles

Due to a sudden need for a mindless small project that would be easy to quickly pick up and put back down, I have started working on a pair of stranded socks using the Parallax doubleknit scarf pattern.  While I would like to knit this pattern as a doubleknit scarf someday, I am hesitant that the psychedelic motif would be rather bold as neckwear for myself, and socks might be better.  For this first sock, I’m using leftovers of my Abstract Fiber Matisse yarn (in the Shady Glade colorway) and a skein of lime green Koigu.  I don’t have enough of either of these yarns to make a pair of socks, so the second sock will be in different colors, which might be nifty.  After all, who said that socks have to match…

I really love stranding with one variegated yarn (the Abstract Fiber) and a coordinating solid yarn (the Koigu), it just looks so neat.  Anyway, I charted out a simple checkered toe for these socks (if you click on the below image, it should become larger for you) and I’m planning on charting out a simple checkered heel as well.  (In fact, it’s so simple that a chart is unnecessary.)  Also, in the photo above, I am only about halfway through the colorwork chart, so you cannot quite discern the pattern yet; check out the pattern page so see what it’s going to look like.

On the Sewing Table

Since I posted my ambitious sewing queue a few weeks ago, I have managed to finish a Tiny Pocket Tank and am well into a pair of mint green trousers using the Thurlow pattern.  I’m hoping that these two pieces will coordinate well with each other, so that I might have a nice outfit.  Below, you can see that I am giving these trousers patch pockets.

I am still committed to sewing from that queue, and was thinking of actually tracking my progress on it and setting a goal to have this queue all marked off by June.  As a recap, here are the pieces I am hoping to make (listing them as follows makes this queue seem much more manageable):

TOPS

  • Colette: Jasmine Blouse
  • Grainline Studios: Tiny Pocket Tank – - DONE!
  • V8856
  • S2050 (OOP)
  • V8815

BOTTOMS

  • v8328 (OOP – Skirt)
  • Mint Green Thurlow Trousers – - In Progress
  • Sew Serendipity: Multi-Fabric Skirt
  • S7329 (OOP – - Gardening Overalls)
  • Colette: Meringue Skirt

DRESSES

  • V8723
  • V8663
  • V1236
  • S8832 (OOP)

On the Homestead

With regards to my garden activities, the seedlings that I sowed a few weeks ago are all doing well.  We haven’t had much actual sunlight, so they are having to endure a plant light setup.  This weekend, I was planning on starting my strawberry seeds but then I realized that I was supposed to “cold treat” the seeds first, so the seeds are now in my freezer getting their cold treatment and I hope it’s okay that they will be sown a few weeks late.  I’ve been trying to keep myself very organized with all of the different seed starting timelines, but this “cold treating” business totally fell through the cracks.  Oh well.

Above are the seedlings for my leeks (Lancelot & American Flag (heirloom) varieties) and my onions (Sweet Spanish and Ailsa Craig (heirloom) varieties) and below are all of my herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, chamomile, lemon grass, garlic chives, valerian, and others I cannot remember right now).  I actually gave my leeks and onions a big haircut this weekend because they were getting so long that they were just falling over and I read that it’s good to keep them shorter until they have the strength to hold themselves up.  I’ve been using whatever containers I can find around the house for my seed startings; I always keep the plastic containers that plants come in, so I have a lot of those, and I’m also using old toilet papers rolls with good success.  I also procured a box of wooden coffee stirs that I’m using to write the name and variety of each set of seedlings, because I want to keep track of all my plants.

I have also started sowing some flower seeds using a “winter sowing” idea that I found on Pinterest.  Basically, you use old milk jugs to create mini-greenhouses and leave them alone outside until the spring.  I just planted these flowers as an experiment to see how well this system works (I was too scared to try it with veggies just yet).  I’ve started reading all about ‘four season’ and ‘winter gardening’ techniques and am very interested in trying to have a garden going year-round, so I’m planning on doing all of this seed starting stuff for fall crops again in July or August.  I’m also very interested in having a huge food preservation system (including freezing, drying, canning, and root cellaring) so as to enjoy my fresh produce as long as possible.   Instead of going shopping at the grocery store, I’m excited to go “shopping” from my own food stores.

On the Bookshelf

Finished reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown and it was a really good book.  As expected, it was absolutely heartbreaking but very much worth my time to read.  I don’t think I can write about this book without going on a political and social justice rant, so instead I will just recommend that everyone read it for themselves.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown’s eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. …  Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.”

On the Kitchen Counter

For dinner tonight, I made some Parsnip Fries and they were simply DE-LICIOUS!!!!

~ House FO: an unexpected roofing project ~

Feb 062013
 

“Home improvement projects can seem daunting and overwhelming, but they are completely manageable if you break them down into their individual steps and focus on one step at a time.” 

- – Josh, February 5th, 2013 (at the completion of the roof repair project)

Some of you may remember that Josh and I were delighted to become very green first-time homeowners six months ago in July to a ‘beautiful-to-us’ fixer-upper that we adore.  For us, that we are excited, motivated, and capable of doing a lot of home improvement has meant that we really did get an amazing deal on our house, which was WAY below market value because it had been sadly neglected for many many years.  We are excited to bring new life to this house and we have already had several adventures in home improvement, some of which I have chronicled for you here.  This past weekend, we had another such adventure…

Part 1: A PERFECT STORM FOR CATASTROPHE

January 2013 was crazy, weather-wise.  As I wrote previously, it was on track to being the 5th coldest winter since 1865, with temperatures as much as 24 degrees below average.  The main water pipe leading to our house froze solid and we were without water for a full day, while crews worked tirelessly to thaw out the pipes.  We also received a lot of snow and by the time of the pipes freezing, we probably had at least 5 inches of snow packed on the roof (which is a lot for Boise).  Then, the very next week, we experienced a heat wave, with warm sunshine (as opposed to the gray inversion fog which we had been having for many weeks) and temperatures suddenly soared up to 40 degrees (F).  This meant that a lot of water was streaming down from the roof.  Then at night, temperatures were dipping down below freezing, and all of the wetness and thawing snow would freeze again, only to become wet and dripping during the day.

Last week, Josh had the foresight to go up into the attic to check for moisture.  Actually, a few months ago, he installed a ceiling fan in the bathroom (WHEW!) and spent some time in the attic to work on the ducting for that.  While he was up there, he noticed water damage to the wood on the roof by the chimney (water damage which had obviously been there for a while that our home inspector had not found… side-note, I’m actually pretty annoyed at our home inspector because fixing a leaky roof would have been a project that we would have prioritized to work on during the warm and dry Fall rather than the freezing cold and wet Winter… ugh.).  Anyway, when Josh went up to that attic again last week, not only was there some moisture, but there was A LOT of moisture streaming down and pooling everywhere.  We spent the next several days trying to contact various roofers, but couldn’t find anyone to return our phone calls.   (Maybe no one wants to take on a roofing project in the depths of winter when it’s freezing cold and wet?!?)  Then on Friday, we were examining the  interior walls next to the chimney and noticed that there were poofy/bubbly sections.  Without thinking too much about what we were doing, we cut into the wall a little bit and were instantly struck by a pungent moldy smell and saw a blackish colored mold.  We then quickly sealed up the wall and decided that we couldn’t continue to wait around for roofers to not call us back, and decided to try fixing it ourselves.

Part 2: BEING BLOWN AWAY BY THE DAMAGE

Neither of us slept that night and then on Saturday, we made a big shopping trip to Home Depot (it was fortuitous that earlier on Friday, Josh succeeded in selling my old snowboard on Craigslist, so we had an unexpected extra $80 to spend).  This step was actually backwards, because we procured mostly items to deal with the mold.  Upon further reflection, we decided that the first step should be to repair the roof so that no more water could seep into the walls.  After doing research about fixing roofs and developing something of a plan, Josh started demolishing the roof at the affected area.  The damage he discovered during deconstruction was kind of shocking…

First, evidence of a poorly executed patch job done at some unknown time in the past by people who didn’t care enough to do the job correctly…

Ineffective flashing and compromised shingles allowing water to go where it’s not supposed to…

Rotten soffit board that was obviously someone’s bad repair attempt…

Bird’s nest that was on that soffit board, exacerbating the pooling of the water…

Looking up through the hole where the soffit board and bird’s nest were, revealed a lot of wood rot…

Yeah… that’s not good…

Not good at all…

Here is a photo that Josh took that night while he was dismantling the roof with the light from his bicycle helmet light.  You can see the rotten wood and the, at least, three layers of old shingles.

Part 3: OUR INCREDIBLY FRIENDLY AND ‘NEIGHBORLY’ NEIGHBORS

At almost 9pm that night, the handy guy across the street (who has helped us out on a few occasions) came over and inquired what we were up to.  After Josh explained the situation, Tom (the handy guy) offered to loan us all of his tools, as well as his roofing expertise (he re-roofed his entire house a few years ago), and volunteered to come over as much as we needed to help out.  This was a HUGE relief to have someone with roofing knowledge, expertise, and appropriate tools willing to help us.

Sunday was spent continuing to deconstruct the existing roof.  Tom (a retired Air Force officer who towers over the already tall Josh by several inches) came over and helped, as did our other neighbor, Mark, with whom we share a fence (and who also replaced his roof recently).  It was so nice having these knowledgeable neighbors take time out of their day to help us.  I’ve lived in many different places and have never before had neighbors who seemed so ‘neighborly.’   Both Mark and Tom were so encouraging and supportive that they helped Josh and I feel less stressed out and uncertain about this project.  In a way, the moral support they gave was the most appreciated.

Here are Josh and Tom working together on the roof.

Because the actual dismantling of the roof was mostly a one-person job (sometimes two people with strong upper body muscles), I had the opportunity to talk to Mark all about gardening stuff.  I know I’ve written previously how I have tried to spy on his GINORMOUS garden (he’s got rain barrels and cold frames and twice the number of raised beds as I built).  He expressed an interest in collaborating on gardening efforts (for example, we both want to get fruit trees and he suggested that we coordinate our fruit trees, he also said that I can use some space in his cold frames, and that perhaps we could take care of each others’ gardens when the other is away).  Considering how much work is involved in gardening, I’m very excited about a possible cooperative gardening effort.

Once the roof was all deconstructed, the handy guy drove Josh and I out to Home Depot in his ginormous truck to buy some roofing supplies.  Without his truck, I really have no idea how we would have transported these materials back home in my little fuel-efficient Corolla.

Part 4: RECONSTRUCTION

Once the roof was deconstructed, then began the reconstruction.  One important factor to the success of this project was that the weather, while gray and inverted, cooperated for the four days of this project and it didn’t rain, sleet, or snow, and the temperature remained a constant 32-34 degrees (F).  It was by no means “nice” outside, but it could have been a lot worse.

Fortunately, the rotten wood was contained somewhat, and the water hasn’t seeped too much into the walls (we do have some moldy drywall to replace on the inside of the house, but that shouldn’t be too bad).

Josh installed custom fitting wood to replace the rotten wood.

Tar paper and custom flashing…

And finally, a happy ending.  Having done this home improvement, we are now confident that we can do a full roof replacement on our own (or, perhaps with the help of our friendly neighbors).

As a result of this unexpected roofing project, I didn’t get hardly any crafting done this weekend.  Since I last posted a crafting update, I have finished a Tiny Pocket Tank and have started sewing some MINT green trousers and am hoping to have that finished sewing outfit to show you next week.

~ Spring / Summer Wardrobe Planning ~

Jan 292013
 

In many ways, preparing for spring and summer begins in the depths of winter.  With gardening, for example, if you want to have seedlings ready to plant by your average last frost date, you should start them (depending on the variety) several weeks or months in advance.  Likewise, in attempting to craft a self-made wardrobe, January and February might be an excellent time to start making one’s spring and summer clothing pieces.

To that end, I have tried to create a sewing queue (sorry, no knitting since I knit for cold weather) that uses fabric exclusively from my stash.

Colette Patterns: Jasmine

Much like the Renfrew (which I have made thrice and love, love, love), I do believe that Jasmine would be a perfect wardrobe builder for me.  Cut on the bias, this top doesn’t have any closures yet still flatters the figure, and can be easily dressed up or dressed down.  Unlike Renfrew, this top is sufficiently blousey to be appropriate for more professional work environments but I can easily imagine pairing it with a pair of cut-off jeans and working in the garden (side note, I do not actually own any cut-off jeans because the inner thighs and butt area of my pants wear out much sooner than do the knees, but I digress).  For the main fabric, I would like to use this very light weight floral polyester, and use the cotton dotted fabric for the contrast.

Grainline Studio: Tiny Pocket Tank

While we’re on the topic of wardrobe builders, the tiny pocket tank will be a must-sew for me.  I wear tank tops just like this pretty much constantly during the summer… which has resulted in all of my tank tops wearing very thin over the years.  I can see myself making quite a few tiny pocket tanks, but this one will be the first.

V8328 (OOP)

I’ve already made this pattern, somewhat unsuccessfully, and I think it has a lot of potential as a spring skirt in a lightweight fabric.  My love for polka dots has occasionally landed me with strange wardrobe pairings, and I don’t have a plan for what top I would wear with a skirt in this fabric combination, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Vogue 8856

I’ve actually started making this top (View A in gray) out of some scraps of fabric I had leftover from previous projects.  As I was making it, it seemed to be a little above my skill level… and then I realized that I had sewn several pieces incorrectly and I decided to set this project aside.  I would like to return to it and try to finish it.  Since the fabric is all scraps, I wouldn’t feel too disappointed if the top was a disaster, but it could be awesome.

Thurlow / B5614 Hybrid Pants

Using the pant block that I modified from the Thurlows, I’d like to try making a pair of capris using this MINT colored cotton sateen fabric.  I haven’t thought this “plan” though at all, so I cannot answer any questions about the construction as yet

Multi-Fabric Skirt from Sew Serendipity

I’ve been meaning to make this skirt for a long time and I think one of the neat things about this pattern is that you can use it as a stashdown project to use up some scraps.  This fabric combination might be rather tacky, but I could really love it.

Simplicity 7329 (OOP)

Okay, okay, don’t hate this because it’s beautiful!  I found this pattern while I was digging around at a thrift store (procuring it for a measly $0.20) and I think it would be just PERFECT and ADORABLE in this floral UPHOLSTERY fabric!!!  (If the fabric looks familiar to you, it’s the same that I made the kitchen curtains from (which are awesome)). Don’t you think that a pair of floral overalls would be an AMAZING outfit for my gardening activities?!?

Meringue Skirt, Colette Patterns 

I was poking around on the internet recently, looking at finished Meringue Skirts and, WOW, there are some adorable Meringues out there.  This fabric is a LONG and sort of narrow piece of upholstery fabric that I (yes, you guessed it) bought at a thrift store for a few dollars.  I am confident that I have plenty of fabric to make this skirt, but I will probably have to be creative with the cutting layout.

Vogue 8723

I think this dress could look really cute on me.  The only problem is that I don’t have good fabric to use.  So, I am hoping to make a “wearable muslin” out of this gray fabric (not sure what it is… and yeah, it’s another thrift store find).  I suspect that this color of gray isn’t a good color for my skin tone, so I dunno if I would actually wear it, but I would like to get the fit of this dress right and then buy some pretty fabric.  Or, maybe this fabric could eventually be used as the lining for the prettier version of this dress.

Simplicity 2050 (OOP)

These are the cutest little kimono blouses!  Again, thrift stores seem to be a MECCA for finding awesome sewing patterns, fabrics, and notions.  I’ve got enough fabric left over from my Sorbetto to make one, and I am thinking of making View 3 with the contrasting bands.

Vogue 8663

I told you that I am bananas for contrasting polka dots.  When I made my Queen of the Mountains Renfrew, I was concerned that it would bring to mind some kind of Minni Mouse thing.  Fortunately, I don’t think it does and I still have plenty of fabric left to make this dress, using the white with small dots for the bodice and the red with big dots for the skirt.

Vogue 1236

This dress has received mixed reviews.  It appears to be an okay pattern, but I guess the bodice is extra generous and the fit of the dress is very sack-like and unfitted, thus making absolutely necessary the belt.  Nevertheless, I still think it’s a cute dress and I might be able to get it to work out.  Maybe, I dunno.

Simplicity 8832 (OOP)

This is another “don’t hate it because it’s beautiful” combination.  In the way of “Color Me Beautiful”, mustard yellow is definitely a color that I should avoid wearing next to my face.  But, le sigh… I happen to LOVE mustard yellow and I am confident that I will able to rock this frock with a matching pair of gray and mustard yellow shorts (View 3).

Vogue 8815

Okay, I thought this was clever – - peplums are trendy, “putting a bird on it” is trendy, so combining the two in order to have a peplum blouse in a fabric with toucans is going to be the best.  I think the line drawing for this pattern is pretty boring, but there are some fantastic FOs from this pattern.  I’m sure my birdie version will also be fantastic.

… In conclusion, I’m sure that you will agree that this is a completely reasonable queue for a spring and summer wardrobe.  I have set all of these fabrics and patterns aside and am resolved to diligently working on the items in this queue (until such a time that I decide to work on something else).  :)  Now, the only thing I need to make a decision about is whether to start on the Jasmine Blouse or the Tiny Pocket Tank.  Decisions, decisions.

Do you all have any plans for spring and summer crafting?

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