Kaethe saved this sweater . . .

I was at the tail end of knitting this sweater when my neighbor friend Kaethe called and invited me over for a "sewing circle" night at her place. The sweater was finally complete, and I just had to weave all the many ends into the sweater. With so many belt loops, that called for a fair amount of weaving. Sidenote: weaving in all of the loose ends is probably my least favorite part of any knitting project. Once it is all pieced together, I just want to wear it already!

So, armed with crackers, cheese, and several bottles of red wine (you may see where this story is headed...), I made my way across the street to Kaethe's. When she saw the sweater, she got so excited, and asked me to model it. While she poured me my first glass of wine, I was more than happy to show it off. I kid you not, after my first sip of wine, apparently, I was a little too excited as well, and a small dribble fell onto the front of my sweater! Catching the stain in time, a calm and collected Kaethe poured a small amount of salt onto the stain, and voila! The salt absorbed all of the wine, and the stain was literally gone within a few minutes.

I'd like to report that I wore this sweater to a party hosted by her a few weeks later, complete with a glass of red wine, and didn't spill a drop. See, you can dress me up and take me out.


P.S. This was a cheapie to make. A Patons pattern that I actually found at a Michael's store (I usually don't find much there that agrees with me.) And only 4 skeins of their Divine yarn, which ran me around $5.00 a pop.

There's nothing like losing...

Whipped up a cute little hat just before the holidays. Pattern from Louisa Harding's book Gathering Roses: Accessories. I've had the book for a few years now, and made several projects out of it - a purse and two hats. Romantic designs for hats, scarves, purses, and gloves. A lot of Harding's designs appeal to the "pretty girl" that I never get to be in my daily life. But hell, I can knit purdy if I can't look purdy all the time. Got the hat knit in short time. Wore it to Christmas down at my in-laws. And promptly lost it. Or maybe I should just pretend I have misplaced it. All I know is that it didn't make the trip from Plymouth back up to Boston with me. I got one good shot of it here, so I have proof it existed!

This is the same hat, pictured in the book, I believe in Louisa Harding's Kashmir DK yarn. It's done in a moss stitch, which gives the hat some heft, allowing you to play with the brim.

On a girls weekend down to Jersey to visit my friend Jess, we both decided to knit the same hat. We started the hat together, going over the pattern to determine any "bumps" before we left each other to complete it solo. Last Monday morning on my way to work, I got a picture mail on my phone from Jess, asking me if I knew any coneheads who needed a hat. Gauge gauge gauge, I guess. This hat runs a close second to my favorite funniest moments: people slipping or falling down.

My First Top Down Sweater

So I have been reading a hysterical knitting blog off and on for the past year: knitandtonic. The author, Wendy, has turned me on to the beauty of top down knitting. Instead of knitting pieces of a sweater separately, and seaming them all together in the end (all the while crossing your fingers and toes that the damn thing fits), you begin by knitting the neckline first, then sleeves, and finish with the body. At various stages throughout the knitting, you can even try on the sweater, to check to see that it's fitting! How novel.

And my favorite part is the nice, orderly seams created from top of shoulder to underarm, done with a series of double increases. Not a big fan of seaming, this method has won my heart. The sleeves have even been knit in the round (on 16" circulars) all the way down to the wrist to avoid any seams at all. I am a happy girl.

This green sweater is, indeed, my first attempt at the top down sweater, so I used an inexpensive wool from Lion Brand and large needles to make fast work of it. Will update you on the progress as I proceed down the body. Hmmm...to make it big and bulky, or to form fit the sweater to my wanting chest. ahh...decisions, decisions.

Oh, and if you are interested in trying this at home, I recommend you heed Barbara Walker's words of wisdom from her book: Knitting from the Top. The bible on this type of knitting, written in verbal format, is very easy to understand. Little to no knitting jargon... P1 wr st, psso, k tbl (2 times), *#!!@*$%%!!!!

If I Can't Be a Ballerina...

...at least I can wear their sweaters.

After a year or so, I have finally completed the ballet sweater! We weathered the storm of a moth invasion which destroyed a section of the sash, a failed search for a local "finisher" who didn't take six months to seam it, and a few (ok, many) glasses of wine as I converted the pattern from Speed Knitting: 24 Quick and Easy Projects.

I can knit and knit till I am blue in the face, but when it comes to seaming/sewing the different pieces together, I am nothing to write home about. It took the inspiration of a good friend all the way from Maui who flew up for our annual girl's weekend in Vermont, a boatload of patience and a toasty day in front of the fireplace to finally complete the seaming. Note to self: take a class on seaming/finishing. Or if anyone out there can point me to to a good website or book, it would be much appreciated. Hats of to Kate Starr for the expert finishing advice. One golden nugget of advice I took from her: you can hide a lot of mistakes in the armpits! Come to think of it, that may apply to life in general.

The Solitary Farmer's Market

Or maybe we should just call it a "farmer's table"....

This summer, one of our vendors that we market our cut flowers to, SAVENOR'S on Beacon Hill, approached us and asked if we'd like to try starting a farmer's market in an adjacent parking lot. The idea was that we could sell directly to the public, with no cut due to Savenor's, in the hopes that it would drive some Friday afternoon/post work traffic to their store. After much debate, Kara and I gave it the thumb's up. Savenor's GM, Juliana, had approached a few other farmers, but we were the only ones that were able to commit mid-season.

And I am glad we did! We set up every Friday from 3-7pm and were able to sell loads of zinnias, cosmos, calendula, gomphrena and sunflower bouquets, a few herbs such as dill, oregano, basil and sage, specialty vegetables like husk cherries, tomatillos, hot peppers, and pints of red and yellow pear tomatoes. We also had beautiful 'bright lights' swiss chard in electric shades of pink, red, orange and yellow, prisma red shallots, and beets. To round out our selections, we brought in some conventionally grown red tomatoes from Stasinos Farms in Bradford along with his peppers, eggplants, cukes, and corn.

We eventually got a Bittersweet Gardens banner, advertising our organic produce and letting folks know we grow locally in Chelmsford, Mass. We kept busy by consistently restocking the table, sleeving flowers, bagging produce, polishing tomatoes, etc. But by the end of the evening, when it began to drag a little, we threw down with a competitive game of "Operation," complete with end-zone celebratory dance moves. That damn buzzer still shocks the heck out of me when I goof on a funny bone extraction - which wasn't often, I'd like to point out. Hey Kara, better luck next year.

Flown the Coop

Spring is my favorite time on the farm for so many obvious reasons - the seeds germinating, the hopeful plans made for a more organized season, tilling the land with the tractor, transplants landing in the field, even harvesting my early crops in May, like radishes, lettuce, spinach and chard. While all of my best laid plans are swirling around me, mostly under my control, an entirely separate event is happening, also all around me...the birds and their new offspring that have entered the world.

Maybe I haven't been the same since reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. On the farm, we have sparrows, finches, red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds, the screeching killdeer, and the occasional hawk soaring overhead. Many of our neighbors have erected bluebird houses in an effort to encourage their population. It seems to be working, as I saw my first male this week.

Often, the birds make their way into one of the greenhouses through an open door or a tear in the plastic. They seek a warm and protective place to build their nests and rear their young. We find nests every year in the flowering hanging baskets and sometimes in the back of the heaters (<--pic.) This spring, I've had my eye on a small nest in the back of the heater in greenhouse five. What was an egg a few weeks ago became a small, featherless, breathing lump, and then a tiny, scared bird (sparrow or finch) with a few random feathers - one sticking up behind his head, a couple on his chest, and a few on his wings. All day yesterday, I kept checking his nest. His mother was never around during the day - probably out foraging for food. I knew she was returning to the nest as evidenced by the pile of crap (literally) piling up around the edge of the nest (see 2nd pic.) When I would peek in, his eyes would always meet mine and then he would dart his head around as if to say: "Where's Mom? What do I do? Human! Human!" On my third check yesterday...sadness and elation. He had flown the coop! He was gone, had made his first flight. And I missed it. Kevin, who was working in the greenhouse at the time, said he saw the bird come out. He flew so low and awkwardly that he almost flew right into Kevin.

So today, guess what I am doing at the farm? Hunting for another nest to spy on for the next few weeks. Maybe it's the city girl in me that seeks this fascination with the metamorphosis of nature. Or maybe I am just a simpleton? Ha!

Let them eat salad

I can't resist the shades of red and green in this lettuce mix I have been growing for years. It is the "cut and come again" type where you cut the leaves when young (approximately 2" tall), and it gives you another flush of leaves. In fact, I can usually get three flushes out of this mix.

Aesthetically, they are a beautiful accent in a salad. More practically, I snip and cut this mix to put on my sandwiches or wraps. Most recently, I have been growing these over the winter in the greenhouse and marketing them at the Boston Wholesale Flower Exchange (where retail florists shop.) I sow the seed fairly thickly in a 8"x5" rectangular peat pot. Once the seed is covered lightly with vermiculite, I water, stand back, and watch it grow. They need to grow on for about 3-4 weeks until they are a marketable size.

A note of caution if you try this at home: just be careful not to overwater. These get watered every few days. Because the seed is sown so thickly to get that nice "carpet" look, excess water has a tendency to pool at the base of the leaves, near the soil level, and the lettuce can and will rot there.