My journey to a self-sufficient life

I have decided to embrace  the simpler life and become self-sustaining, my ultimate goal is to have my own hobby farm

 

Project #1 garden

The plan is to grow vegetables and flowers, I love to do research and plan but most of the time i end up thowing it all out the window and Going crazy with all the accesories i can buy. So this should be interesting, I’m hoping this time it’s not just about the novelty and I end up with a big whole in my pocket and a mound of dirt

 

I will be working on 2 gardens at a time

Garden A is in the front yard, already built going to the weeds right now, I’m going to fix it and start a flower garden

Garden B is going in the backyard, it will be a vegetable garden, this one will need to be built from the ground up, im going for a raised bed and am finding too many really cute ideas I want to build

 

I bought seed packets and a tray to start my seed, but I only have enough spots for my veggie seeds, I need to get another tray for my flowers

I was about to start clearing the weeds away today after work but it rained and delayed my plans to tomorrow. This week im hoping to direct sow most of my flowers and finalize my blueprint for the bed in the back. 

Photos!

I finally remembered to take pictures of some of my works in progress.
First the baby blanket for my first niece. I'm a little over half way done and I'm getting more inpatient with the blanket, Ive reached the dreaded Black Hole in knitting were you knit and knit and it doesn't look like its getting any bigger.  

 

 

 

 

 

my newest project, a dress from one skein wonders for sock yarn, I'm very excited since this ball has floating in my stash for a while waiting for the perfect project. I may add some other colors instead of having just a solid fuchsia dress ( not that a solid fuchsia dress would be bad).

D-BAG

THATS IT I HAVE REACHED MY QUOTA FOR NASTY PEOPLE TODAY.  My purpose in life is not to make you yell because that is the only way you can deal with frustration. I try to help but some people are beyond reason. I just want to say if it wasn't for THE PANOPTICON I would be huddled in the corner smashing the phone a la Office Space. Knitting and reading about knitting can soothe even the most frazzled soul.

Delivery

yesterday my KnitPick order showed up and I was able to finish my Rosebud shaw by tincan knits. It looks awsome. I have it blocking right now, I should take pictures before I take out the pins.

 Next up  I just started a entralock scarf since I can't find the one I make last year. I really liked the colors last year when I bought the yarn but now that its being knit, I'm not so sure. Its not terrible, the colors are just kinda muddy.

Now the baby blanket Sea of Dreams by Aimee Alexander, I think I'm almost half way so far, I love what its doing. the pattern is the perfect mix of interesting and simple that make it easy and fun to knit up. I'm so happy that my sister is having a girl now I can knit the girlie-est little things.

Wow so much has happened over the last year, I just mention a few things, I've done some knitting, embroidery, quilting and changed jobs, this year I'm hoping to do the same exept the job thing since this one seems to be way more fun.
later a list of my projects.

NEXT WEEK

Im so excited for next week, I signed up for 2 knitting classes. I have a class at Knitting Next Door on Monday. Its for knitting 2 socks at once with magic loop toe up. Then on Saturday I head over to Knitted Together for knitting 2 socks at once with magic loop top down. It may be a bit redundant but I dont really get out and knit with other, so its more of a way to meet new people. It should be lots of fun.

More

I have a new love in my life, I have found stamped cross-stitch. I still adore knitting but I have been cheating on it with a butterfly lap quilt. All I wanted was to go to Micheal's for some stitch marker and I don't know why but I ended up in the embroidery section. It was love at first sight, I tried to resist but the more I pulled back the more I fell. This is my premier attempt at cross stitch but of course I cant start small, I was seduced by the complexity, and I get more excited the more difficult it becomes. I can't wait to finish it, I don't know how I'm going to quilt it but I'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

I FORGOT I HAD A BLOG

It's been so long since I posted I'm surprised i remembered my password

Well to the knitting, recently I've had a bad case of sweater startitis. I've started and mostly frogged Amused, started and currently working on Cadence, and planned out Milly, Joanie, and an interweave pattern that I can't remember what its called. I've really been on a Knitty.com sweater kick as you can see from the 4 I started and planned for, and it doesn't start with these, I also knitted Tia, which i think came out pretty good but has a few flaws, and mostly finished Lia, have the sleeves left, I've been wearing it as a vest and I'm not sure when ill get around to adding the sleeves.

I have 2 Christmas gifts still in the works, standard rib socks for one of my cousins and the Destroyed Cowl. I have one sock done and 1/4 of the second one. I guess I actually have to work on it not just carry it around in my purse, who knew. I'm kinda regretting picking the Destroyed Cowl for Kelly, its just not working. I was impressed by the photo and had to knit it. I've put it in the corner.

I've also started my first shawl, I picked spring thaw shawl for my debut into lace and I'm really happy with it. yes it may have been a rocky start but I think I've found groove, the problem I had in the beginning was my over confidence with the project. i thought How hard can this possibly be, I've been knitting for some years now and i know how to do all the stitches, piece of cake. yes what I thought was true but I missed the simplest thing that would have prevented me from re knitting every row over again for the first 40 rows, MARKERS, why didn't it cross my mind, these little rings are the difference between tears and curses to smiles and praise.

Socks Done

this weekend i finished emily's sunday swing socks, after completing these i realized how much i really really like socks, before emily's i hadnt been knitting socks or much of anything for that matter. ill post a pic once i get one of Emily modeling them

last night i cast on another pair of socks, Easy Peasy ZigZag socks by julia riede

i tried to cast on Talia by sweaterbabe vest but was not meant to be, couldn't get gauge right so i abandoned that, and after numerous attempts at just casting on i gave up for now but later this week i tackle that again

Bad Dog

i have a dog named Xuxa, she loves yarn, she thinks they make great chew toys. i know this because if i leave a ball of yarn where she can get to it she will pull it apart. having aquired this information about my dog's preference for yarn, you would think i would be more careful in were i leave yarn.

last week i finished the first sock for emily and cast on for the second one at night, so i set the yarn under a pillow on my bed and went to sleep, the next day i went to work forgetting i had left the yarn within reaching distance of my dog, well when i came home i was told that she had found it and had thought it was a great idea to bring it to the living room, and the helpful people that my brothers are, they pulled the started sock from her and instead of walking and winding the yarn, they pulled it and broke it.

so now im debating whether to try and see if i have enough yarn to complete a second sock with what i have left or brake down myself and buy another ball. i dont have that dye lot # anymore so ill have to dig through yarn to get one that matches the best to the finished sock. i know emily wont mind if they are alittle off but ill know.

Xuxa has no remorse.

Sunday Swing Sock

down to the foot portion of the 1st sock and everything seems to be coming along smoothly, i was a bit worried when i read the pattern for the heel gusset. i had to take it very slow an check my work often to keep on top of when i needed to decrease and when i needed to work the pattern over the foot since they were on different counts.
i have also been working on a cardigan that im very exited about as it is getting cold here and i have never knit myself a sweater, well mostly it was because i was a larger size and it would have been much more expensive to make a garment that size, but now that i have lost weight i think this will be the 1st of many more sweaters.
the pattern is from a leisure arts #75132 Touchable Knits cover cardigan. i may end up finishing my cardigan before emily's socks, i mostly work on the socks when im out and work on the cardigan at home, and it may be that the cardigan is knit with homespun.

walmart has some vana's choice on clearance and i think ill go get some more to work up some sweaters i have saved on lion brand and ravelry. i bought 4 skeins of a dark green and i may go back to pick up some other colors.

Redo

i started to work on Emily's socks Sunday making the med size 64 sts, after i finished the ribbing and started on the leg pattern, i noticed it looked a bit wide, i just passed it off as just the look of the pattern because i usually don't knit socks in any pattern other than a plain 2x2 rib, and those have really skinny legs, but the more i knit the more it bothered me until i decide to try it on and yea it was too wide for me and Emily's legs are thinner than mine, i tried to tell my self it would shrink after i washed it and kept going to the heel, as that progressed it was getting too big and i finally faced the truth, i couldn't give these socked to her and my reputation as a knitter would be in ruins, so i frogged the sock and went down to small size 56 sts. so far it seems ok, this pattern is very easy to memorize so frogging it was not so heart wrenching. but i may change the heel flap to something sturdier, I'm not really a fan of a stockinette flap, ill see how a twisted rib will look with this pattern.

still haven't gotten yarn for Kelly's cowl but i may start swatching for my neck warmer. i have some hobby lobby yarn that i lost the band to so i don't remember the name or color but i did use it the last time i knit the neck warmer and it is incredibly soft. i think ill also need to remove some repeats to make the neck warmer fit like it should, i think ill put on the 1st neck warmer on and pin it to the right shape i want and see how many repeats to take out and also check my gauge before i mess with the # of sts so i don't get another neck warmer i cant wear.

1 Down

so i just finished Cyndi's armwarmers. i really like how they turned out normally doing a second project from the same pattern right after the first one is usually a disaster this one came out relativly unscathed.

emily's project did not come out so lucky, i frogging the begining of the sock and am changing to a differnt pattern, i think its time to bring out a knitty pattern that i have been thinking about doing, Sunday Swing Socks from knitty summer 09

My first post !

my knitting so far

arm warmers for Cyndi - 95% done ( need a thumb and weave in ends)
pattern - lionbrand sparrow fingerless gloves, yarn - bamboo & ewe self pattern gray
socks for Emily - 5% done ( just starting the ribbing on 1st sock)
pattern - plain socks, yarn - bamboo & ewe strips blue
cowl for Kelly - 0% done ( found the pattern, need to pick yarn and maybe swatch)
neck warmer for me - 0% done ( re knitting pattern with adjustments made)


these are the 1st projects Ive done that are not for members of my family.

next post - pics!