Artisan Showcase Follow-up

Greetings! If you're visiting the blog for the first time because of the IRT Artisan Sale, welcome! Stick around, check out some free original patterns, and have a laugh at my expense as I ramble on about yarn, gardening, and life.

Artisan Showcase!

I've been a very busy knitter lately, trying to get items ready for the upcoming Artisan Showcase sale at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. If you're in the Indianapolis area drop by the Grand Lobby on Saturday, December 5th from 2pm - 8:30pm and Friday, December 11th from 6pm - 8:30pm to check out handcrafted items from IRT staff. Offerings will include hand-knit items (by moi), jewelry, holiday ornaments, and more!

The Return

Now that the wedding madness is long over it is high time I got back to this poor little blog. After several months of hiatus I've been ramping up my knitting again, mostly to churn out baby sweater after baby sweater for the endless string of friends and co-workers having babies these days. Never fear, I only have 5 more to make before November. Too bad at least one of these babies has already been born and I still don't have his gift done. Sigh.

In honor of my upcoming 30th birthday I have decided to take part in 101 in 1001. Several of my goals are knitting/craft related so I'll share those here.

59. Knit a winter sweater for myself
60. Finish spinning white wool
61. Post 5 items for sale in etsy shop
62. Make myself a skirt
63. Sell knitting at Blue Heron
64. Catalog yarn stash
65. Write a knitting pattern and post on blog
66. Finish Eat-Your-Veggies tee
67. knit 5 new projects from stash<
68. finish mohair neckwarmer
69. blog 1x/month on knitting blog for 1 year
70. Attend a knitting group 6x

Now, I'm technically not starting for a few more days, making my end date Thursday, May 17, 2012. If you're thinking of starting your own list you can use this calculator to determine your end date.

We'll see how it goes!

Encouraging Signs

One week in and my seeds have started to sprout! Even though I have a basic understanding of the science that causes plants to grow, every time something I planted from seed begins to appear I can't help but feel like it's a little bit of magic.

The ones in this picture are, I think, snapdragons. I am reminded why I should have labeled the containers: all sprouts look exactly the same at this point. But, I think that the snaps, lettuce, and possibly broccoli have pushed their little green heads up. The last two are even more surprising because earlier this week I accidentally knocked the tray these were in to the floor of the laundry room, completely spilling and jumbling up the contents. So I have no idea what is lettuce and what is broccoli at the moment. Ah well, I'll just let them grow and expect it will become evident which is which in the relatively near future.

GardenGate 2009

Spring-like temperatures have arrived here in central Indiana and my gardening projects are off to a great start! On Thursday, FH and I hit the local Lowe's to pick up some supplies.

On the agenda for this year are my old standbys: lettuce and peppers, both with seeds saved from last season. Since we're in a warmer climate now I decided to experiment a bit and sowed some of the lettuce indoors, some of it outside directly into a container of potting soil. The peppers will start indoors, of course, and I've started some extras in hopes that I can trade with co-workers and neighbors for a tomato or some compost.

We stopped by the Indianapolis Winter Farmers Market on Saturday morning to see what the Slow Foods heirloom seed sale had to offer. We were a little late so choices were somewhat limited but we picked up a packet of broccoli and a packet of pickling cucumber seeds to try.

In addition to veggies, this year I'm going to try for some flowers. I posted more about this on my other blog, but I am attempting to grow flowers for my June wedding (I am insane enough to be doing my own bouquets, boutonnieres, and a couple of assorted arrangments ... though we are not doing floral centerpieces.) I've got some calla lilies, ranunculus, anemones, sweet peas, and snap dragons in the works. Frankly I will be satisfied if they grow at all, so no worries if they don't bloom mid-June, but it would be so awesomely satisfying if I could use them for the wedding. I'm doing everything I can to weigh the odds in my favor (choosing a selection of flowers with bloom times from mid-May to early July so that an exceptionally cool or warm season won't screw me, staggering start times so that I have waves of developing plants), we will see.

Waiting for them all to grow is the worst!!! :P I am so impatient.

Clara's sweater

Hot off the needles is the Inca-Dincadoo Cotton Baby Cardigan from Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders. I made this one from Manos del Uruguay cotton (somewhere between one and two skeins, though I lost track because it broke a couple times while I was winding it.) This is a simple piece to work up and does not even require purling. It is knit in garter stitch, all in one piece from the back hem up and over to the front hem. Once it's knit you just fold it in half and sew up the sides/arms. My camera batteries died before I could get a close-up of the buttons but they have adorable little drawings of boys and girls on them.

This piece will go in the mail next week for little Clara Grace, the latest in a long line of babies born to friends. I think this sweater is going to be perfect for momma's little girl!

Edited because, while Knitting Little Luxuries is a great book it is not the book this pattern came from. Oops!

Christmas reveal!

Well, Christmas is long past but I am finally posting pics of the lone Christmas knitting project: the Dummy Clap shawl, featured on the knitting blog Knitting Up A Storm. This was a gift for my future mother in law. I made mine from 4 skeins of Berger du Nord Charmant, a 50/50 wool/silk blend.