On the blog itself and the nature of creativity

Blogging is hard for me, just as anything that requires planning and consistency is hard for me. I feel like missing whole months like I have means that I ought to start over with a more cohesive plan.

My tomato plants last year didn't result in any fruits. They took several months to flower, and then on most of the bushes, the flowers never turned into tomatoes, not even little green ones. Two of the plants got stepped on by an extremely careless 8-year-old brother-in-law, and were irreplaceably ruined. By the time the first little green tomato showed up on one of the surviving bushes, it was August, the majority of the plant was woody and stretched across my sidewalk, and, one bad day, I was so sick of watering it for such a disappointing result that I ripped it out and threw it away.  I was fairly regretful of that a few days later, since at least a few tomatoes might still have grown.  But I did not replant this year. My space is absolutely wrong for tomatoes. It's too small, it's got dust instead of dirt, and though every inch of my in-laws' landscaping has water drips, none of mine does and it's very hard for me to keep track of watering a plant that is ignored by everyone but me and dying anyway.  Plus, I have to cart out water from my kitchen, since all of the water outlets on the side of the house are taken by my in-laws' water systems.  So as my plants died, I felt even more isolated and lonely.  The mint took over the space altogether.

Swatching Saturdays: Alpaca Cloud

Today and for the past few days, I've been working on the swatch for my Featherweight Cardigan.  I'm knitting a 36 stitch wide swatch, planning a 4"x4" swatch.  I first tried on the recommended needle, then a strip of garter, then another block on the next size up or down, depending on the unblocked gauge of the first block, whether it was too large or too small.  This is the first 3" of the gauge swatch.

The first block is almost 4" tall, and more than 5" wide.  The first block isn't quite 4" because I got quite bored of knitting with the size 6 needle once I realized it wasn't going to work well for my gauge. My gauge, straight-off-the-needles, is 30 stitches per 5", which is mathematically the same as the gauge recommended, 24 stitches per 4", but the height isn't quite measureable because my kids knocked the stitches off the needles, and I didn't do a perfect job picking them back up.  I have really no way of knowing whether I've slipped some stitches or whether they're just incredibly tight, until I block it, because I can't really follow the individual stitches.

I was told that alpaca tends to grow, so the second swatch is a needle size down.  I really think my stitches are more even, but it might just be that I'm getting more confident with this yarn and needle combination.    The yarn is slick enough that it was initially hard for me to hold the needles and yarn without stitches falling out.

Eating the Garden

So I really, really like salad.  I like all of the fresh, green things. I like the crisp, white things. I like the red things with tons of flavor.  I like trying dressings and seeing which flavor overwhelms the vegetables, which brings out the brightness, which encourages bitterness to just be flavor.

I like eating my vegetables.  But I like eating fresher vegetables better, when the lettuce still has that sort of rubbery crunch, before it wilts in the refrigerator.  When the tomato is acidic and sharp, and the flesh is firm.

One of these days, my garden is going to give me the freshest vegetables ever.  If I can remember to water it.

Tomato Tuesday: Deeply Rooted

 The tomatoes from last year did extremely well. I'm very proud of them for the children they left behind.  The biggest one in this pot is a volunteer of the tomatoes from last year.  I pulled it because it was too close to the sidewalk, but it will go back into the ground soon.  The smaller ones are volunteers from Juliette's garden.  Since I got last year's tomatoes from Juliette anyway, they're distant cousins.

This year's tomatoes got planted, finally.  They waited in their little 4x4 cells until I was ready.  Their new homes are perfect: deep, wide, and filled with Potting Mix and Bumper Crop (potting soil and something manure-like.)  There's a tiny bit of dolomite lime at the bottom, mixed in to the dirt, at the suggestion of the cashier at the nursery.

Three well-rooted tomato plants, joined by a jalapeno, way at the end, by the rusted oilcan and the wooden bridge.  At least 60% of each stem, from the top of the 4x4 cell, is beneath the surface.  Tomatoes have the ability to turn their entire stalk into a root system, so I'm taking full advantage of that fact to give them the best roots possible.

On the right side of my front door, the mint keeps spreading as far as it can. I keep pulling roots out of the areas it's not supposed to grow, but it keeps sending out new roots and shoots.  Here it is crowding the new kid, basil.  

 I love mint. But it has no sense of propriety.

Swatching for Featherweight

Sometime earlier this spring I decided I wanted to knit a Featherweight, which is a cardigan knit from laceweight.  I chose Alpaca Cloud, a very fine laceweight made of baby alpaca.  I have Dill and Stream, and I'm planning to knit the cardigan out of Stream (a dark denim color).

Last Saturday, I started a swatch, before I bought the pattern, just to see if I liked knitting laceweight on size 6 nickelplated needles. I put the needles and yarn in my purse, and started at a baby shower, after I took it to the zoo but didn’t take it out of my purse. The next day, partly to show off, I worked several rows in church.

Today I measured what I had so far.  The stockinette section came out an even 5 inches, so stitch gauge is right on the money, but row gauge is a bit long, 12 the only problem I can see is to make sure arms don't grow too long, I guess. The fabric is airy, but with a sort of net-like effect. I feel like this is maybe a lighter laceweight? I like this yarn. I can see myself burning through miles of it.

The swatch has a garter border and a stockinette section inside. I cast on 40, for a more accurate check, and always knit the first and last 5 stitches.  The pattern page called for a gauge of 24 st/in and 36 rows/in, and my central 30 stitches measure an even 5 inches, which is exactly right.  I haven't gotten more than 2 inches into the swatch, and my row gauge isn't right (yet!) but it's on the side of too long rather than too short.  I wonder if alpaca blocks well.

Tomato Tuesday: Digging the Holes

Partly Saturday and partly yesterday, I dug the holes for my tomatoes.  During the process, I found three volunteers from last year's rotten tomatoes that fell from the vine before I could pick them.

Today I almost did nothing but the yarn sampler. Over 100 minis in the last 24 hours.  Which sounds good, until you realize that there are 500 minis in the worsted side. I have to do the exact same feverish pace all week to finish before Matt gets here.

WIP Wednesday tomorrow: Kwalla socks, a storied life.

Tomato Tuesday

This afternoon, I replanted a plant (some kind of oregano) that was drying out too quickly into a shadier spot.  I replanted it deeper, and put in hydration bottles (water bottles filled with tap water and rapidly plunged upside down into the dirt).

I have watered my tomatoes, and the first yellow flowers are starting to bloom.  It's almost worth having tomatoes just for the hopefulness of those yellow flowers.