I’ve noticed that I’ve got things on my ravelry cue that have been there since I’ve signed up. Otto aka “Bruintje” hasn’t been waiting that long but nearly as long. I started the first project in the middle of summer, finding a skein of natural coloured cotton and just going for it (you know me). Off course I ended up not having bought enough cotton and to make matters worse this particular cotton got discontinued while I was knitting like crazy. So Otto got put on hold.
We’re now months later and I’ve finished my endless shrug and a pair of amazing socks, so it was due time to take a look at Otto again.
I was really happy knitting him again, since it got me back into the whole “how did I do that particular increase/decrease?” again which was just fine after knitting “jersey” for two project in line.
Off course I deviated from the original description a bit, but not too much. Most of my thoughts I’ve added to my ravelry project so I’d advise you go look there. But the most important one wast the cast-on, which I changed to use this one: Emily Ocker’s Cast On.
And don’t forget “SSK” is not what my mom thought me which is “slip one, knit one, pull slipped stitch over knitted stitch”. For my bear project I’ve used the improved SSK.
As you might have captured from a previous post, I like growing things, I think it’s my rebellious nature that’s protesting against all the concrete around me. This does not always amount to a beautiful fully grown plant. But I like studying the plants every night to see if they’ve grown. With the current weather not being able to decide whether we’re going to need Noah’s ark (hot ‘n rainy) or whether we’ll need skis soon (cold ‘n shivery), I’ve been growing things indoor although my pot with moss on the balcony is surviving the moody weather just fine.
Experiment n° 1 : ginger
Well sadly my little ginger plant can’t be fooled into thinking it’s the right season, probably mainly due to the sometimes low temperatures emanating from the passive ventilation in my apartment. It’s something I can’t shut off (unfortunately) and is quite irritating since it’s placed on the window that is the most exposed to the wind and creates a cold draft in the apartment at times.
As a result my little exotic friend hasn’t grown since I took the last picture and is currently struggling to survive. I’m quite curious how the root has grown since I’ve planted it, so I might be replanting this lovely one soon. *edit* I replanted this lovely one this weekend, above you can see a picture of the new root of this beautiful ginger plant. The darker brown piece is the old piece of root I’ve planted, the greener piece of root has been grown since I’ve planted this lovely one.
Experiment n° 2 : pumpkin patch
Of the bunch of seeds I’ve planted, I had a total of 6 sprouts living very happily together in a tiny pot. So about two weeks ago I decided to replant the sprouts to give them more room to grow. Since then 5 of my sprouts died but one is living very strong and happily in a it’s new home.
When I was replanting the sprouts, I found that the seeds I had planted had nearly all or all split in two and the current plants were no longer attached to them, quite interesting really. As you’ll see in the picture, the roots had gotten quite long already, making it hard to untangle them. I probably broke some, which made so many of the sprouts die off.
Experiment n° 3 : strawberries
While I was walking back home with M. from stretching our legs somewhere along New Years day. I stopped all of a sudden near a fence, exlaiming “Hey look! Aren’t those strawberries?”.
Strawberries creep. They create a “tentacle” and grow a sibling at the end of it (I just found out it’s called a runner). Once the sibling starts growing the tentacle will disappear. And it was one of those tentacles with a sibling on the end of it I saw dangling through a fence.
My friend M. agreed it were probably strawberries and deciding it might be worth the try, I pinched off the little plant and planted it in a pot in my living room.
Since then my courageous friend has grown a new tiny green leaf and seems to be living quite happily next to my green giant of a plant.
After some reading on the web I found out strawberries are very susceptible to diseases in the soil and you should not just pick a strawberry plant and plant it like I did. Ah well, even if I can’t eat any of the eventual strawberries, I’ll still have fun growing them.
Experiment n° 4 : marigolds
After seeing all that green I wanted to grow some flowers as well. So I bought some marigold seeds (nl: stinkertjes, fr: œillet d’Inde). Why those? I remember mom telling me that they keep away certain insects that can be harmful for plants. So I planted the seeds next to my pumpkin sprout and that might have been a mistake.
The roots of the marigold emit an antibacterial substance which in fact keeps away the insect pests but also kills off certain plants… So I might be looking this up some more and then I’ll go save my poor pumpkin sprout from certain death!
I know past posts have been a succession of short drabble drips because I’m generally too tired to really blog anything by the end of the night. Which is the main reason I shouldn’t blog late @ night. But, I just wanted to share with you how happy I am!
I’ve been planning to send a little something that’s on my queue @ Ravelry to a faraway friend. But between asking her address and now, she had disappeared from my field of vision online (which is several months ago). Today I found her again (after some serious googl’ing) and she gave me her new address, which is so great. I thought I’d lost my faraway friend, I’m seriously happy I didn’t. And my package is nearly ready to send … just a pair of paws and ears and some little tweaks…
Anyway, I’m off ignoring my pc again.
See you soon.
My beautiful pair of Christmas socks are wrapped and ready to be shipped off! It feels so great to have finished these in such a short amount of time, it’s the benefit of not having worked a complex pattern this time. It’s the basic sock pattern my grandmother (and my mom) uses. I’ve wondered why they use it, because I always felt the need to discover something new. But I think my grandmother always used the same knitting pattern because it was fastest and I think that when you have to knit for 7 children, I think you’ll be happy that they’re done fast.
Having done those beautiful socks, there is no time to falter… It was nearly a tie between a beautiful bear and finishing the pair of socks that I’ve put on hold, and while the sock needles were still hot, I chose for the beautiful bear with the motivation to giftwrap this project as well.
I’ve started a second project as well, which will be dragged along everywhere I go. It’s a cardigan and while I made the calculations a few hours ago and knitted the first rows, I think I might frog the deal and calculate again. I fear that I might have been a bit generous with the dimensions… I think I’ll meditate on that during the night.
(and yes a half-stuffed animal does not qualify to be dragged along everywhere I go)
Anyway, off to bed. I’ll update on life very soon. I still have to share my field of pumpkins with you ;-)
* more freedom
* alt+f2 that isn’t a search
* less missing you
* more biking/hiking/going somewhere
* huge pumpkins and a mountain of strawberries
* many beautiful projects
* lots of smiles
and please make it stop raining!
My warmest regards,
Lisje
P.S. in a bout of rebellion I’ve installed Gnome3. I’m not sure. How is this supposed to be designed for usability? Maybe I’m getting old and rusty?
So I’m back in France after a way too short visit in Belgium. It was a short but very powerful visit and I have nothing short of a great smile on my face when I go through the memories. It was great seeing the Norwegian team! Too bad A. from the Belgian team was missing. But I’m sure we’ll meet again soon!
I came home late last night and didn’t get to unpack because I was tired and I had to get up early to go to work.
I however finished the first book of the Millennium Trilogy in the train yesterday and I my secret sock is coming along very well (you know where to look for them). Although I dropped not one but two stitches right before the train rolled into the station and you could hear a small but very powerful Belgian curse echoing throughout the train. But I managed to get the stitches back onto my needle before the train stopped (go me!).
To celebrate the start of a new day, I showed off my beautiful deskworm at work this morning… I confess I should’ve taken a picture of my deskworm guarding my pens en pencils @ work!
I’ve also been spotted with my new “tricotbag” on the bus!
And did I mention it’s cold in Nantes? Brrrr, I had the impression it was warmer in Belgium :|
