What's brewing at the farm...

Happy Spring! Early May brought some glorious happenings at the farm. Our planting efforts in the fall have paid off!

Garlic was up in late March and continued to grow strongly through May (the green growth in the foreground.) Behind the garlic, you can barely glimpse the low, blue grape hyacinth that was a big hit at the Boston Wholesale Market. And just behind them are the purple alliums that remind me of grape blow pops! They smell divine.

We also hailed the arrival of over 40 baby chicks in April. I ordered mostly laying hens: Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps, and Aracaunas. The Aracaunas are the chickens that lay the green and blue eggs. Looking forward to that! I also ordered a handful of beautiful bantams that i spied at the Topsfield Fair last year: Silver Seabrights, a Mille Fleur, and some red Old English Bantams. They have been a lot of fun to watch grow.

My stash revealed.

Yes, I am a little mortified. It's been hiding in three cabinets in the hallway. As I don't live in the hallway, I have been happily ignoring the growing stash of yarn that has existed there for the past three or four years.

My stash has told me a few things about me:

1. My taste is not as stellar as I thought. Evidence: the oh so soft but furry red and orange yarn in the upper right corner. (what was I thinking?)

2. I am a slow learner. I have many ones and twos of skeins that I bought early in my knitting career (8 plus years ago.) We all know you can't make much with one or two skeins. I am assuming I bought the one-sies and two-sies just because I liked the yarn, with no real plan in mind for them. Jeez.

3. I like a bargain. With many trips over the year to craft stores like Michael's for various other needs, like art supplies, I could never resist a trip down the yarn aisle. Thus, the handful of synthetic type yarns. I also went through this phase of :oh, I'm gonna make a huge blanket and therefore will need a lot of inexpensive skeins. I'll buy three skeins to start and then head back for the other 83.

I think my favorite bargain in the group is the black cotton bagged skeins that reads: "Factory Mill Ends." But hey, it's black cotton. I can figure out something to knit with that, right?

For all you fellow stashers out there, I hope this is somewhat comforting? And hey, if you see any of the onesies, twosies, or threesies here that you are interested in, please contact me. My next move is to cull this pile. I'd like to get rid of about a quarter of this.

Lastly, I'll share a little of the chaos going on in our apartment right now...I am nursing a chicken's legs back to health after a nasty bout with scaley leg mites. She doesn't want her cage and insists on living in the bathroom. The cats have abandonned their beds and now take turns sleeping in the hay of the chicken bed or the lobster trap that one of the neighborhood kids built for us. (Doesn't everyone need a lobster trap? huh?) And our bulldog has stolen the couch. Good thing I don't need to sit down today, as it will take me forever to put back this stash.

you can see the herringbone pattern, right?

Alas, I have completed what I thought would be a pretty basic purse, knit in a herringbone pattern. The pattern came from the book: Knitting Little Luxuries, a Louisa Harding book. Unable to find her yarn that is called for in the pattern, I found a remarkably similar colorway yarn from Plymouth Yarn called Shire Silk. While mostly a straw yellow color, it has flecks of orange, white and the occasional green, which gives this bag the "embroidered straw bag" look of the 50s.

So all the while I am knitting this bag, for some reason (like being neurotic,) I am not trusting that the herringbone pattern is being translated. I kept asking anyone who would listen: "you can see the herringbone pattern, right?" After approximately a dozen affirmative answers, I let it go.

Having finished the knitting was really only half the battle. I now had to embroider all those little flowers on. Guess I forgot about that when I got so excited to make the purse. Here, ladies, I will recommend cheating a little. If you look closely in the picture above, you will notice little red knit flowers with the yellow centers. I purchased those at a fabric store years ago (M and J Trimmings in NYC), and just sewed them on quickly. The same goes for the silk looking peach colored rosettes. The remaining flowers, I hand-embroidered as lazy daisies with embroidery thread. Yikes. The pattern recommends using skinny ribbon, but my fabric store did not have a very good selection of colors so I went with the embroidery thread.

The next step involved something new for me: fusible interfacing. It's basically just a thick, iron on fabric that makes the purse less loose and knit-like, and makes it more solid, stronger. I just cut it to shape and ironed it right on. Very simple, but it involved a few nervous texts to a girlfriend to confirm that was I was about to do wasn't going to ruin a week's worth of knitting and a weekend of tiresome embroidery.

Now the kicker. Lining the purse with fabric. A seamstress, I am not. Yes, I own a sewing machine. And on good days, I can even wind a bobbin and thread the thing. But beyond that, I am a little helpless. Thankfully, the purse fit under the foot and I was able to sew a straight line up and down with little trouble. I even got so confident as to put a little pocket on the inside. I've had it in my mind that I will be swinging this little straw bag with me up and down the streets of Paris in a few weeks, so I sewed a little passport pocket! (here's where you oooh and ahhh.)

It's definitely not a purse you would want to overload, as I don't think the handles could take the kind of weight I typically put in my shoulder bag/girl on the run/never know when you'll need those sneakers or tire iron in the city. But definitely can handle a small wallet, your lipstick (a girl's gotta look smart), keys, etc. I debuted my purse at girls scouts. One of the girls said: "I wish I was listening when you taught us how to knit last year." Ha!

Orchids orchids everywhere...

I just returned from a weekend down to New Jersey to visit a good girlfriend. She suggested we drive into the city and check out the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. I was kind of thinking, gee, I'd rather hang out in her apartment, drink some wine, knit a bit and catch up. Besides, I work with orchids almost every day. I rotate many into my clients' offices on a monthly basis. Mostly phaelenopsis and dendrobium orchids. And yes, I think they are lovely, but yeah, you could say the novelty has worn off a bit for me. I'm an ass. The show was jaw dropping. I should have known better.

I saw orchids in so many shapes and colors that I have never seen before, and probably won't see again for many years to come. I just so happened to have my camera with me, which rarely occurs when I really want it. I was a picture taking fool. Red orchids! I love the red. And a green the shade of gross dyed beer for St. Patty's Day! Blue, lavender, mango orange! All the colors you never see in your typical, widely available phaelenopsis orchids.

There were orchids hanging from the ceiling, leaping out of carefully constructed "living walls", and living on trees. If you look closely in the picture above, you can see the fuschia colored mass is nothing more than dozens of orchids hanging suspended above the pond. There were even fragrant orchids! Ultimately, this show was a truly a color-lover's dream.

The show's creator was inspired by the work of Brazilian landscape designer, Roberto Burle Marx. One of his more famous projects is the Copa Cabana beach site/boardwalk area. Burle Marx's bold use of colors and shapes in the landscape and his use of tropical plants in most of his designs fit the show well. Back in the day when many landscape designers/architects combined and pursued other talents (think Noguchi with everything from sculpture, set design to furniture design and landscape design) Burle Marx took to painting. One of his large paintings was on display in the main room. You can see a glimpse of it in the first photo above.







So, of course, after the show, I had to spend an hour in their well appointed gift store where I purchased some unusual tomato seed, a mango colored begonia plant, three plant books I couldn't live without, a small fern (that I will soon kill, don't worry), a journal, and a NYBG magnent for my mom. Oh, and of course, a red orchid! Finally I have a red orchid! Photo to follow in the next post, I promise.

Another Finished Project

I am embarrassed to admit to my 2 or 3 readers that I have not posted in so long because I could not remember my username or password to log into my blog. It's like searching for a lost object: sometimes if you stop searching for a while, then begin again with fresh eyes, it comes to you. Presto. I am back. The good news is that as a result of being gone for so long, I have many new knitted objects to share!

The sweater I have just completed is my first cardigan with a serious lacy patterned border. Looks more complicated than it really was. It was a Rowan pattern called "Cloud" from the Calmer Collection. An 80% cotton, 20% polyester fiber, this sweater is amazingly warm.

Confession time: you will notice there is only one button on my cardigan. It is VERY important to make sure that both left side and right side of your cardigan are knit exactly the same! As I tend to fudge my increases and decreases here and there, without really keeping score, one side is slightly off from the other. To the untrained eye, no biggie, right? But when you go to match up each of the 5 buttons, you can definitely see the difference a bit. Solution: one button near the waistline and the upper front lays flat, and no one's the wiser. Truth be told, I usually only button one on most of my cardigans anyway. So, voila!

P.S. My apologies for the rough self-photos. It's difficult to get a full shot of the sweater when you are trying to take the picture yourself, can't figure out the self-timer on your camera, hide the double chin (failed), get the sweater details, and keep the thighs out of the shot. Good times!

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.

Happy Mother's Day!

Would you rather have a gift that was bought for you, or made? Well, here's to hoping you said "made," mom.

This promised bag has been a long time in the making. Initially, it was meant to be a smaller, felted purse. But I goofed and used a super bulky wool. The bag knitted up HUGE....and I thought felting would shrink it down a little. It did, but not quite as much as I thought. I believe it's the periwinkle blue from Lion's Pride? Adorned with a green daisy and a few green rosettes, it is now a farmer's market bag, or hopefully a bag where you could keep your travelling knitting stash.

So, here's to my mom...who drove me to dance lessons for years, who didn't lose her shit when i refused to eat the sesame seeds on the Burger King buns, who allowed me to leave Ridgeview and go to Briarwood, and always made me the cinnamon crusts when she was baking pies. I love you mom, and promise to get my butt to the post office this week, so you can start shopping at the ever-awesome Farmer's Market in Kansas City. Or sneak over to Rodewald's to knit with your new bag in tow! Muah!

Spring is here!

The rain has finally halted a bit here in Massachusetts and the land has been tilled. At the farm this week, I got my Sugar Snap Peas planted, and I am thrilled! Planting the peas is always one of my first spring tasks, and one of the first times of the season where i get my hands back in the dirt. With the loamy silt beneath my knees, I hand planted the entire pound of peas. The side of your straightly held hand makes a lovely furrow as you drag it down the field. After soaking the peas in a bucket of water for a few days prior to planting, I trickled them into the furrow. Next, the soil on either side of the furrow was huddled on top of the seeds, tucking them into bed for the spring.

Now all I do is wait. And wait. And I check them. Anything popped up yet? No, not yet. Maybe another day. I wait some more. Anyone reminded of first grade and your milk carton seed project? What is it about the seed popping up out of the ground? The first little cotyledons leaving the safety of the seed shell to bear its first leaves to the world? It doesn't matter how long you've gardened or farmed...this shit never gets old.

A Belly Sweater with Room for Horns on your Back

So this sweater goes into the pile of losers. Embarrassing, actually. Historically, if I follow a pattern for a size S (32) sweater, I end up with an extremely, loose fitting pup tent in which a cozy friend could join me. So, I bared the elements, made some measurements and calculations, and designed a basic, short-sleeved, v-neck sweater. Ok, so maybe the sleeves were an afterthought after discovering that my armholes would only fit an 8-year old, but I was convinced they could save the sweater. And sure, the sweater is a little short. But again, I thought the sweater could be saved by pairing it with a cutesy, longer white slinky tank underneath. Maybe even something lacy. It could then fall into the "funky" category. Nothing is saving this sweater now. That is, unless horns on the back of shoulders comes into style. Ouch. My finishing techniques leave much to be desired.

A Little Gift for You

These little gifts of flowers were the centerpieces at a client's holiday party this year. So simple and clever (I can't take credit for this design...we found it in a magazine): chartreuse mums poked into a wet Oasis brick with a small pearl pin stuck in each center and wrapped with a red velvet ribbon. You should have seen the look on the freight elevator operator's face as I delivered the flowers. He just kept asking: "But what's inside?" I smiled coyly and said "Now that would ruin the surprise!"

My stash, my stash, my stash

I'll admit it. I used to hide it. Inside the large buffet pictured below. But I'm out now, baby. The psychology behind my decision to go public with my yarn stash: halt future yarn purchases. When the yarn is out, I can see what I have, get inspired and begin to whittle away at the stash with a different project every week, right? It's working. This weekend, I am starting a pretty little ballet sweater out of this orange-y red multicolor mohair yarn. So my advice, ladies...get the yarn out of the drawers, display it proudly. Or, if you have a husband looking over your shoulder monitoring every purchase: hide, hide, hide! Under the bed is good or perhaps a closet where anything domestic is kept, like the bucket and mop. We all know they never go in there! Where, oh where, is your stash?

Grey Cashmere Tank

My first sweater design as well as my first cashmere project! Balls-y, I know. But it turned out ok (I say with a big sigh and a sweep of my hand over the forehead.)

I used a 2-ply Mongolian cashmere from Jade Sapphire. Although I ordered it online from Loop, a great yarn store in Philly. The color was Pewter, and one skein (400 yds.) finished the small sweater! That doesn't happen often. The straps incorporate a navy, cotton plush brocade ribbon that I found in the garment district of NYC at M & J Trimmings, the best store for ribbon in the world. Yes, the world.

Ask my knitting friends...how many sweaters have I knit that don't come close to fitting? I'm not sure if I've had the bad luck of getting my hands on bunk patterns, or if my yarn substitutions and my math have not served me well. However, I recall two sweaters where I travelled the world to find the exact brand/weight of yarn called for in the pattern, and still failed; armholes too tight, neck too big, long sweater became a belly sweater, only appropriate for a young 20-something with a washboard stomach. Wait...strike that. No one should be wearing belly-anything in 2006. But alas. The entire experience has turned me into a budding pattern designer. Or in some cases, a pattern re-designer. (But all good ideas come from somewhere, right?)