First up, is planning for the spring garden. I get out my gardening journal (poorly maintained), the seeds I've acquired or forgot to plant last time, and various notes. Then I trash the table with it all and start laying out the next crop.
I'm a poor sketch artist, but there in that book are 6 rectangularish raised beds. I consult my notes on what was planted where last time, check the list for recommended crop rotation, and then say "Screw it!" and plant what I want, where I want!
In real life, there is a small, new orchard behind the raised beds, with apples, pears, and 3 hopelessly scrawny peach trees.
Behind the orchard (sounds better than saying "sticks bearing fruit," don't you think?) I plan to till up some ground and plant corn, some strawberries, and maybe some potatoes. "Plan" is the operative word. Best laid plans and all! I tilled this patch up twice last year, but that's as far as I got! If all goes well, I hope it will look like last year's veggie garden.
On the domestic front, I am knitting myself a pair of socks. I had so much fun knitting Almost Grown's Christmas socks that I wanted a pair for myself.
One sock down, one to go!
And on the subject of socks, even my little big town up north doesn't have much in the way of sock yarn choices. So, I decided to try unravelling a wool sweater I found at the Goodwill for just this purpose. I don't have a before picture, but it was way too small, and a lovely shade of soft green and cream with flecks of blue in the yarn. The sweater hadn't been felted by someone throwing it into the washer and dryer, which would make it impossible to unravel.
I followed this tutorial on what to look for and how to go about unravelling it. I will say this. It is a lot of work, between unpicking the seams, unravelling the yarn, winding into a ball, rewinding it into a skein, washing the yarn, drying it, and then rewinding it into balls.
But. You end up with a ton of yarn that can be used to knit whatever you wish, all for the price of a thrift store sweater, and the pound of flesh it took to do it. Mostly, I wanted to try this method as a way of obtaining nice yarn (not available in my area) at a good price (not possible in my area.) And it works!
Lastly, in the "Keeping it Real" department, all my school textbooks have arrived and I have been getting myself organized for the semester to start next week.
Okay, "getting myself organized" might be a gross over-statement.
Mostly the stuff has taken over the dining room table, and it remain occupied for the duration. Not one of my books is less than 2 inches thick with diagrams and lists of
Good frickin' luck!!
4 comments:
Stud Muffin you better jump in there if she is resorting to buying a card set of naked people...
MYS
Ahhhh, garden planning is the best! I usually get out the graph paper and make all these detailed sketches (to scale, even!). Then, when it is time to plant, I forget my sketch somewhere inconvenient and just plant everything wherever it looks like it will fit.
Good luck with school. You will do FABULOUSLY. And you can just send along all the cards with hot young men on them when you are through...k? I will even be generous and let someone else have the hot young chickies... *wink*
I love the socks. Where do you get your sock patterns from? I can't remember if I ever made socks or not but I have made mittens and it can't be that much harder. I'd like to give it a try. I think it's really neat that you are recycling the yarn. Very frugal.
Alright, all you pervs! The flash cards have pictures of people without their skin and stuff, not naked in the sense of all their "junk" showing. Sheesh!
As for the socks, they are knit with 4 double pointed needles and (in this case) Patons Kroy Sock - Stripes. Surprisingly, there was no pattern on the yarn band, so I went online to their website and got a very basic pattern for the socks. The variation in the yarn color makes the stripes!
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