Knitting Paraphenalia and Geekery

Last night, I expressed my inner geek and made these.


Up until last night, my double pointed knitting needles were tied or rubber banded together, which was extremely inconvenient. Add to it that, every time I needed to clarify the needle size, I had to look up which color was which set (great until you buy two sets in the same color!) or pull out my sometimes unreliable and unfindable needle sizer.

So I sealed together little needle cases. I love the look of the rolled cases, but I don't find them overly practical. Maybe I'm just a messy, careless knitter, but I was never careful enough to keep the roll just at the right angle to prevent needles from escaping or sliding around. With these, I just velcro them shut and throw them in my little knitting tool box. Handy!

I would like to use snaps instead of velcro on these, but I will probably not be getting a snap press in the near future.

And back by popular request...

More pictures of the demo for my destruction loving viewers! :D The demo is now complete and the site has been crudely graded, so the fun is pretty much over and we're looking at this:



Boring, right?

Demo, baby.

Progress is being made on my future mini farm! The demo will be completed by the end of the week, if all goes well, and I'll be able to start cleaning up and preparing for spring. I was hoping I'd be able to go out and chart light this week, but my poor toes are in too bad of shape to even think about that.

And no, I don't get to keep the awesome yellow machine.

Just because it says 'mist'...

I got a new hose nozzle a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving it! It's very heavy duty, has great heft, and all of the settings are different and work like as they should. Even better, it was rather inexpensive!

Today, I went out to check on my flats of winter veggies and found that they needed a bit of moisture. I dragged over my hose, knocked my handy-dandy nozzle to mist, and went at it.

Just because it says 'mist', I learned, doesn't mean that it's a gentle mist. Yes, it mists, but I'm short and being only a couple feet away with the nozzle is a bit too much for tender little seedlings. I've been working on my technique and found that aiming the nozzle over, rather than at, the flats works much better and the little seedlings maintain their heads.

So far, arugula, some spinach, broccoli raab, buttercrunch lettuce, swiss chard, kohl rabi, and kale are all making an appearance. I wish the fennel was showing, but the seeds I found were old and hadn't been properly stored. I may go get some fresh seeds for this winter, if I'm feeling motivated!

Shiny objects...

Got distracted again. There's been a lot of stuff going on recently, and it's been a bit tough to keep up between doctor's appointments, imaging appointments, and life in general.

The EtsyOrganicTeam is off to a good start, and I've, apparently, been given full reign of the blog. So far, it's been a lot of fun, but not having flash really prevents me from keeping up with treasuries and that sort of thing.

It's also harvest time in them thar gardens. I've been doing a lot of seed sorting and harvesting, cropping and pruning, rooting and moving. It seems that fall is in the air, so it'll get really busy in another month or so. I've got a ton of bushes that I need to move to new homes.

I've also been dealing with a piecing nightmare. I came up with a pattern for a pair of pants and it's truly one of the most annoying things I've ever done. I haven't decided what's going to be victim first: the sewing machine or the square. Luckily, I bought 6 yards (a whopping $4.81 at 5% of the original price!!) so I've got some room to play with it.

Tool review and little notes

For my birthday, my awesome mother got me this awesome tool. I went out and took some pictures of it yesterday, and I decided to post a review on it today.

The tool in question is a DeWit Half Moon Hand Hoe. I love DeWit tools, and there's not much else to it. I've visited their factory (who does that???) and have an assortment of their stuff, but this handhoe is probaby my new favorite.

It's well-balanced with a long neck. I'm pretty clumsy and have terrible visio-spatial skills, but I can wield this hoe like an extension of my arm. That's quite an excellent thing when you're not interested in crawling through expansive beds that can't really be compressed without damaging the plants.

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With this lovely, I'm able to sit on my stool and hack away. The small head makes it ideal for whacking around in between plants. For those of us who have limited mobility, it's an even sweeter deal, since not having to squat or kneel can mean actually being able move the day after a rigorous gardening session.

When the blade starts to lose its impressive edge, you're able to regrind and sharpen it without voiding the product guarantee/warantee.

What else is going on in my little world? MORE RAIN! The Weather Channel says that we've gotten only 1.5", but there's been an 8" increase in my collection pans -- without the funnel on. It looks like we're going to get more rain tomorrow, but I'd be very thankful if we got a couple of days to dry out so everything doesn't rot. Please?

Also, I got a little plug for my other shop, fluffnfixings, here.