How I Plan My Garden Part 3: When do I start my seeds?

In Part 2 I decided what I wanted to plant, based on my big picture goals.  In Part 1 I took a good look at last year's garden to decide what I want to repeat this year, and what I want to change.  I'm ready to buy seeds.  I know what in planting and how many, but when do I plant?

Good news!  Starting seeds happens progressively through winter and spring, depending on the type of seed, not all at once.

Most seed packets include basic instructions around planting time, and many of these instructions reference your "last frost day" or planting before or after "all danger of frost."  Thankfully, that's an easy to find date.  It's the day in spring when you're likely to have one last frost before temperatures stay above freezing for good. Type your zipcode into a calculator like the one here at Dave's Garden and then take note of the date around the 30% chance, to be safe.  Once that day comes, you'll need to look at your weather forecast to see if it's really the last chance of frost, but for now it's a date to count back from so you'll have plant-able seedlings when the time comes.

I mark this day on a wall calendar, and mark every week before it, going all the way back to midwinter.  This way when I read, "start 6 weeks before last frost" I can easily flip to the week marked six and make note of which seeds need to be started then.

Last year I bought a nifty "perpetual calendar" from Fruition Seeds that gives space for three columns after each date.  Each column is a year, so I can easily move information over from one year to the next.  You can see entries here for two years, last year and this.

I sort through all the seed packs, find the information on when to start, and then write it down on that week.  This way, I only have to figure this stuff out once and then look it up each week, instead of counting on my memory (dangerous) or re-sorting through seed packs every week wondering, "do I need to start any of these today?" which would certainly take a lot of the fun out of this hobby.

Once they're all noted on the calendar, I physically lay the packets out in order of planting week.  Once they're in order, I put them back into storage in order, behind little cards noting the date.  Every week I check the calendar "what do I get to start this week?" and then go into the seed box to pull out a preset collection of seed packs.  I also write planting dates on the calendar, and hardening off dates 2 weeks before each planting date.

So what about seeds whose planting date references something other than last frost?  Like tomatoes, which are to be planted, "once the soil has warmed to 50*F" or "once the nighttime lows are reliably over 50*F."?  Sure, when the time comes I can read a forecast and a soil thermometer with the best of them, but without a time machine I can't then go back 8 weeks and tell myself, "time to start the tomatoe seeds."  This is where it's great to find other local gardeners.  Ask in local online gardening forums and in local garden shops,* "When is it safe here to plant tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc?"  

If you are starting with seedlings, not seeds, it's still good to organize your purchasing and planting around a calendar.  peas and greens can take some frost or even snow, especially if you're directly planting the seeds into your garden, but tomatoes and peppers need to wait until much later.  There's never just one day to put in the full garden if you're growing more than one kind of vegetable.  I find it's well worth it to spend a few hours on a winter holiday break to set up the calendar just once, and then follow the plan from there forward.

A few words about aquiring seeds:  Seeds last for years.  Don't feel you have to use up the whole packet the same year you buy it.  Store what you don't use this year for the future.  The most important thing about seed storage is keeping them dry.  Save silica packets (those little rectangles that say "do not eat") from shoes, vitamins, etc and put them into the same well sealed container as your seeds.  For really long lasting seeds, store the sealed container in the freezer.  How long seeds last depends on the type.  There are lots of handy charts for that, including this one from The Spruce.

If you are purchasing seeds, buy them from a reputable seed company or that local garden shop.  I've heard a lot of stories of people getting screwed buying seeds from amazon or ebay.  Personally, I wouldn't.

There are lots of free seeds in the world!  Starting with that packet you saved from last year.  Save the seeds you grow.  It's a huge topic, and the process can be very different from one plant to another, but tomato, pepper, and dried bean seeds are among the easiest to save and a great place to start.  You may also have a local seed library.  Ask around, do an internet search.  The added benefit of getting seeds that your neighbors have grown out and donated to a seed library is that you know for sure that someone has grown them successfully in your area.  I start the calendar process with the seeds I already own, as that helps me figure out what's missing that I'll need to find or purchase.

One last word about seeds:  you cannot accidentally buy GMO seeds.  Lots of seed companies state that they aren't selling GMO seeds, with wording that implies that maybe somebody else is, but in reality, GMO seeds are proprietary, and you need to pretty much be a farmer, and definitely sign a contract to buy them.  Please don't just take my word for it, after all I'm some lady on the internet you've never actually met.  Instead, here's an article from the garden professors, and one from gardening know how.  There's lots more out there if you're interested in searching for them.

I hope that this short series has helped you get on top of garden planning.  It can be overwhelming to narrow down what you want and where to start, but once you have a routine down it's very easy to adjust and repeat.  I'm especially hoping this is helpful to all the new gardeners of the last few years, and helps you enjoy more and worry less!

*Local garden shops, not the garden section of big box stores.  Why?  Because the employees there have to be ready to work in any department, and just because someone is working in the garden section that day, doesn't mean it's their area of expertise.  My career is in building costumes for theater, dance, and opera.  I'm an excellent tailor and seamstress, and right out of college I worked in a large corporate fabrics and crafts store.  I could have been a great source of advice for anyone who had questions about sewing clothing.  In two years, I maybe got that question once.  Instead, thanks to that guy Murphy, I got asked about glue, and embroidery, and scrapbooking, which I know nothing about.  My co-workers who could have answered the glue question got the clothing question on my day off.  So if you have a question in a big box store about gardening and the employee doesn't know, don't hold it against them.  You're probably talking to someone who is an expert in plumbing or paint.  Better to build a relationship with the employees in a local garden shop, who focus exclusively on gardening, and garden in the same region as you do.

How I Plan My Garden: Part 2, What Do You Want to Plant?

Part 1 talks about starting from an existing garden, but what if you're planting a new garden?  or your first garden?  Starting can be overwhelming, because we want everything!  Every flower, every fruit and vegetable and herb, and all the trees!  You probably don't have infinite space, time, and money to grow absolutely everything.  Yes, climate and light will eliminate some things from the list but to really narrow it down and still plant a garden you truly enjoy, you'll want to focus on what's most important.

This is the time to think about your big picture questions.  Why do I garden?  Why am I making this garden?  Recognize that you may have different answers for different gardens around your property, and ask them for each.  Give yourself permission to apply different priorities to each garden.  You don't have to make every one of them for pollinators, or strictly organic, or highly productive.  It's your garden.

What do I plant? comes from Why do I garden?  And Why this garden?

For Flavor  This is why so many gardeners start with tomatoes!  Grocery store tomatoes just don't compare to home grown.  If this is you, prioritize growing the fruit and veg that taste significantly better than store bought, and look for varieties whose descriptions mention excellent flavor!  If it tastes the same as what you can buy, you don't need to grow it.

To Save Money  We've all heard the jokes about the $200 tomato, but you really can save money by growing your own over buying.  If this is your goal, look for the most expensive items on your grocery list, and prioritize space for them in your garden.  I recommend growing your own herbs.  One bunch from the store costs several dollars, and I often can't finish a big bunch of parsley before it goes bad.  A pack of parsley seeds costs the same as that bunch and provides years of parsley...and speaking of seed...search for local seed libraries, where you can get a wide variety of seeds for free.  You can't beat free!  If you're more of a flower grower, look to perrenials that you only have to pay for once, and join any local gardening groups in person or online.   Gardeners often give away perennial divisions to anyone willing to come pick them up.

Even garden amendment can be free.  If your town collects branches and leaves, they may well have a pile of free wood chips and a pile of free leaf mold compost for the taking.  

Preserving the harvest can cover your needs for a full year.  You can replace most or all of your canned and frozen vegetable purchases, based on how you strategize your garden.

Save your own seeds to plant the next year.  I've never bought garlic because I save and replant some of what I grow each year.

For the Environment/Wildlife  This is a fun one, because there is so much out there for you right now!  Look into planting natives, and meadows, and permaculture guilds.  Even if you only prioritize planting for insects, you will benefit the whole ecosystem, because everything else up the food chain eats them.  One of the best things you can do for insect and birds is less.  Less cleanup, less cutback...who doesn't love doing less work and watching more life in the yard?

To Avoid Pesticides  If this is important to you, find one of those dirty dozen lists and prioritize growing anything on it that you love to eat and can grow in your climate.  For instance, bell peppers always make the list.  They are easy to grow in my climate, and I've never had a pest problem with them.  I'm working towards growing all of my peppers for the year, which also goes back to gardening to save money.  I overwinter my peppers, so I've maybe spend $15 in seed and soil over several years.  $15 buys what, a dozen or less organic peppers?  My plants have paid for themselves several times over, even with the cost of the lights they sit under for the winter.

For Family/Cultural Heritage  My father grew up in the southwestern US, and learned to cook Chinese food from a second generation Chinese friend/roommate.  When he moved to Western New York State in the 60s, he couldn't get the foods he had grown up with.  He came here as a young adult a year or so after his parents.  The story goes that he filled his station wagon with coolers full of dry ice and tortillas for his parents and every formerly southwestern friend they had made in the area.  In my childhood, Dad grew many varieties of peppers for both Chinese and southwestern cuisine that couldn't be bought here.  He also got seeds from owners of the local chinese groceries.  My Italian husband's grandfather was one of many Italian immigrants in our area who had the expertise to grow fig trees in USDA zones 5-6.  It's wonderful to grow our own heritage fruits and veg that aren't consistently available in stores.  Seed catalogues have vast offerings, and recently I've discovered a few companies that specialize.  Kitazawa Seed Company is over 100 years old and specializes in Asian vegetables.  True Love Seeds sells seeds from around the globe.  I heard abou them through Soul Fire Farm, an organization I support, who grow seeds of the African Diaspora for them.  These folx are growing peanuts in New York State!  That's some impressive heritage growing!

For Beauty  Grow some gorgeous plants!  Even food plants can be beautiful when presented that way and intermixed with flowers!  or just grow the foliage and flowers!  Just because I'm obsessed with food doesn't mean you need to be!

For Ease of Care  Let's be honest.  Some ways of gardening are back breaking.  I can't speak for you, but I want to live a long life, and garden up to my last day.  I've been reworking a lot around my garden to make it easier as I get older, trying to stay ahead of the curve.  I'm raising beds and widening paths.  Perennials are always less work than annuals.  Keeping up with mulching is easier than weeding.  Meadow plantings and forest gardens practically take care of themselves.  Each time I plant a new bed, I want it to be less work, and less environmental impact, than the lawn it replaces.

For Sense of Place  For me there is something about how gardening connects me to the seasons and the flow of time.  Native plantings also connect me to my place on this land.  Trying to plant so that something is blooming or harvest-able at each day through the year keeps me connected.  So does watching the birds, insects, and other wildlife.  If you have a harvest/bloom gap, look around your area for what others have blooming or ripe at that time and consider adding it.  Use your plantings as needed sources of shade, or wind blocks.  It's also ok to have times of rest in the garden.

To Experiment  In the age of "fake news" its nice to know that we can test nearly every gardening claim.  Someone says, "you have to put this in the hole when you plant tomatoes"  I can plant half of my tomatoes with "this" in the hole, and half without, and take note of yield and plant health over the rest of the summer.  My garden is my science outlet, and if that sounds exciting to you, keep your eye out for places you can do side by side comparisons.  They will help inform your long term success.

For Joy  Enjoy every bit of your garden.  Do the things that bring you joy, let go of those that don't,  If you're satisfied with what you have, don't listen to anyone who tells you it's "wrong."  If you aren't satisfied, visit other gardens, think deeply, find what you need, and if it isn't there yet, add it.  Happy gardening.

Replacing peat moss with PittMoss

 Recently, I've been looking for a way to replace peat moss.  I have been using it as a major component of both potting mix and seed starting mix.

I've found it difficult to really get good information on how sustainable the harvest of Canadian peat is.  I fully admit that intelligent people have and will come to different conclusions about it's sustainability, based on the available information.  I've decided to find something that I can be sure has a smaller environment footprint, and doesn't threaten an ancient eco-system.  

Lots of people have switched to coconut coir.  If it's working for you, great!  You have my blessing.  For me there are three reasons I'm not impressed.  One is that I've seen other gardeners do comparisons between starting seeds in traditional peat mixes and in coir mixes, and the plants in coir did terribly.  Downright sickly compared to the peat.  Second is that I'm not convinced that shipping coir halfway around the world is more sustainable than responsibly harvested peat from my own continent.  Finally, if coir can be a useful soil amendment, I have issue with removing organic soil nutrition from poor nations and further stripping their agricultural wealth.  

So yeah, that's a no for me on coir.

A few years ago I heard about a peat substitute being made out of waste paper near Pittsburg.  It's called PittMoss, because it's like peat, but made in Pittsburg, get it?  So right away that ticks some environmental boxes for me.  It's using a waste product, so not only is it not being harvested from a threatened ecosystem, it's also taking garbage out of the wastestream.  And it's being manufactured practically in my backyard compared to far northern peat bogs or Asian coconut trees.

I had to try it.

My garden is my science outlet, so I love setting up good, single variable, side by side comparisions when I have a question I want to answer.  I mix my own seed starting and potting mix in order to save money, have control over the ingredients, and make a lot at one time.  So my standard mix is: 1/3 compost, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 peat, and a small amount of ash to correct the acidicy of the peat.  Using 5 gallon buckets for the big components, an old tea cup of wood ash is enough, as pictured.

Mixed:

Then I mixed the trial version:  1/3 compost, 1/3 perlite, and 1/3 PittMoss Prime.  No ash as Pitt doesn't need the pH corrected.

This is the PittMoss Prime.  Up close it has some bits of color.

I started this trial on May 28th with my tomatoes.  I chose well matched seedlings in terms of size and color, two of each variety.  For each pair, one was planted into the peat mix, and one into the Pitt mix.  A little more than 2 weeks later, on June 14th, there was a marked difference in size and fullness of the plants in each pair.  The healthy plant is the peat, the stunted is the Pitt.  

Hm.  Looks like a lack of nutrition.  So I added a top dressing of two inches of compost (under the straw) to all of the plants, Pitt and peat alike.  From that point forward, the Pitt plants filled out and looked healthy.  They stayed smaller than the peat, but grew at the same rate from there forward.  Ok, so maybe this parallels the trouble I've seen with coir, and is evidence that peat moss contributes more nutrition than we tend to give it credit for.  The next step of my comparision was seed starting.  I continued to use the same peat mixture, but changed the Pitt mixture to:  1/2 compost, 1/3 perlite, and 1/6 Pitt, or 1 bucket compost, 1 bucket perlite, and 1 bucket half PittMoss Prime and half compost.

I thought for sure I had solved it--just needs a higher proportion of compost--but as I trialed seedlings side by side, they germinated at about the same time, grew to the point of their first true leaves, then while the peat seedlings continued to grow, the Pitt stalled out at this size.  These are thyme seedlings that illustrate this, along with another really interesting result, which is that when I plant 4-10 seeds in each mix, I am often getting one or two more germinating in the Pitt than in the peat.  So it's not bad stuff, but clearly there's something else the mix needs to be successful.

I was stymied, so wrote to the PittMoss company.  I showed them the pictures.  They said, "I'm going to have one of our soil scientists get back to you."  Really?!  A soil scientist?!  Woohoo!  The soil scientist was most interested in the tomato pictures.  From his email:

"From the photos it is apparent that there is a significant nutrient deficiency in the blend with the Pitt Moss Prime.  It appears by the purpling of the leaves that there is clearly a phosphate deficiency and possibly the small size indicates nitrate deficiency as well.  The fact that the compost increased the growth rate is significant.

"As a basis for what was likely taking place remember that PittMoss Prime has no inherant nutrient supply while it has a very high nutrient holding capability once the nutrients have been applied.  The blends of Plentiful and Performance have nutrients supplied in the formulation...When blending other material with PittMoss Prime it should be remembered that the high carbon content of the Prime will also require a high nitrogen addition to balance the demand...I susupect that by adding a good balance of fertilizers and or manures with some compost the end product will be similar to what we produce in the PittMoss Plentiful and Performance...If continuing to use PittMoss Prime I suggest both composts of good quality and some dehydrated poultry manure for the organic grower.  Otherwise soluble plant food..."

The carbon was tying up the nitrogen!  Of course!  So with that knowledge, I've begun fertilizing the Pitt seedlings with a dilute fish and seaweed fertilizer once a week.  This is standard practice for many seed starters, but because I use a mix with compost (a bit unusual for seed starting) I had been getting by without it.  Certainly not a problem to add it into my routine now.

After a few weeks of seaweed, the seedlings look good and are growing at a better rate.  In the case of my broccoli seedlings, the Pitt seedlings have completely caught up to the peat, and some are now bigger!

Blue pots on the left are the Pitt, right is peat.

Conclusions:  I'll continue this comparison through my seed starting this spring, but with the addition of fertilizing the Pitt seedlings with half strength fish and seaweed fertilizer once they have their first true leaves.  Based on the broccoli, I expect this to go well and think from here forward I will be using PittMoss for my seeds and container plants.  Next year I plan to trial the two different proportions of the Pitt mixture against each other.

2022 Update:  I did indeed do another trial, this time comparing a mix of 1 bucket each of PittMoss Prime, compost, and perlite, PLUS 2 tea cups of feather meal to PittMoss Plentiful right out of the bag.  Either/both of these worked beautifully!  The plants are much healthier this way and didn't need any supplemental liquid fertilizer.  I think this is because as the email from PittMoss soil scientist Dr. Bethke points out above, the additional nitrogen was needed not for the plants' direct use, but to balance with the carbon content of Prime.  Plentiful already contains the small amount of nitrogen I had to add to Prime, so from here forward it will be my go to, either on it's own or in the mix.  As PittMoss is getting more popular, it's nice to know that if they run out of Plentiful, I can get the same results using Prime as long as I mix two cups of feather meal (or other high nitrogen organic granular ferilizer) into every 5 gallons of Prime. 

If you do decide to compare one of these options to your old seed starting mix, I'd love to see your results!  Please share in the comments.

I've found PittMoss for sale from their own website, www.pittmoss.com from A.M. Leonard www.amleo.com and of course on Amazon.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Updated 7-7-20 as I have learned that a little more kneading makes a less crumbly bread, you can freeze dough, and a more active starter makes a better bread.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread--simple recipe first, long version is after

Remove starter from refrigerator at least two feedings before use.

Mix together in a medium sized bowl:

1/2 c starter
1 1/4 c filtered water

1 T honey

add:

3 c white whole wheat flour
1 1/4 t salt

stir with a spoon or spatula to form a shaggy dough.  Then knead 8-12 times and form into a ball.  

Seal bowl and rest for 12-24 hours.

* optional:   At this point, for a less tangy bread, knead in:

1/2 tsp baking soda

Form into a ball,, seal bowl, and let rise a few (up to 12, depending) hours until doubled in size.

Preheat covered casserole and oven to 425*F

Here it is again with pictures and step by step explanations

Inspired by Michael Pollen's book Cooked and several Science Friday guests, I started experimenting with whole wheat sourdough bread about a year ago.  I've played around with the recipe, and now that I have something that I like, and that gives me consistent results, I'm sharing it here.

First you need a starter, which you can make or purchase.  I don't honestly remember whose instructions I followed to make mine, but I'd suggest trying these from King Arthur Flour.

Once the starter exists, store it in the fridge.  you can store as little as a tablespoon.  Feed it 1/2 c flour and 1/3 cup filtered water twice a day.  Filtered or distilled water is crucial, because tap water is treated with chlorine to prevent microbes from growing in it.  This is great for our well-being, but terrible for sourdough, as it may kill the microbes you're working so hard to feed!

Get the starter out of the fridge at least 2 feedings before you plan to mix your dough.  Pour off the layer of alcohol on top (this is normal) and then feed with:

1/2 c all purpose flour
1/3 c filtered water

Keep the starter at room temperature, and feed every 12 hours.

To make the bread:

Mix together in a medium sized bowl:

1/2 c starter
1 1/4 c filtered water

add:

3 c white whole wheat flour
1 1/4 t salt

stir with a spoon or spatula to form a shaggy dough.  

This is what a shaggy dough looks like:

(I had to look that up the first time I read it in a bread recipe.)

Knead 8-12 times either on the counter or in the bowl.  Form the dough into a smooth ball.

*If you want to freeze your dough for later use this is the time.  Put it in a Ziploc, label it and freeze.  When you want to use the frozen dough get it out of the freezer and thaw on the counter.  Once it has warmed to room temperature, place it in a bowl to rise and continue to follow the recipe from this point.  When I get the starter out, I make as many balls of dough as I can and fill up the freezer.*

Close the bowl with a lid (Tupperware is great for this!) and allow to rest for 6 to 24 hours.  How long depends on your climate, your sourdough starter (it is different in different locations) and the time of year.  The yeast and other microbes in your sourdough need time to do their work.  Your dough is ready for the next step when it has grown and doubled in size:

At this point, for a less tangy bread, knead in:

1/2 tsp baking soda

Form into a ball, 

close the bowl with its lid, and let rest a few hours until doubled in size.

Place a covered casserole (the cool kids use a cast iron dutch oven, which does make a superior loaf) in the oven and preheat both casserole and oven to 425*F.

Once the oven is up to temperature, bake in the covered casserole or dutch oven for 35 minutes.

 before baking

after baking

Remove from the dish and cool on a wire rack.

You can test if your bread is done by holding it in one oven-mitted hand, and "thumping" it with the other.  A loaf that is fully baked will give a full satisfying thump. 

Sourdough is interesting stuff.  The wild yeast and other microbes in the starter are a combination of yeasts and microbes that were already living in your flour, and the yeasts and microbes in your kitchen.  This is why sourdoughs from different places will have a different flavor.  I brought my starter with me to my summer job, only a 4 hour drive away, and it was different there than at home.  I didn't taste a big difference, but it was much more active--generally lighter and frothier at my summer residence than it is at home.

Keeping this in mind, I encourage you to use this recipe as a launching off place.  Your kitchen is different than mine, and your sourdough will be different too.  Feel free to experiment with the amount of moisture in your recipe, resting times, cooking time, and anything else you care to play with.  A good scientist changes only one variable at a time, and records his/her methods and results each time!

Once you know how long your dough needs to rest at each step in your kitchen and climate, you should be able to bake bread any day, even in the middle of your work week, if most of your intervals work out to 12 or 24 hours.  I love that this recipe doesn't require a lot of time at any given step since there is almost no kneading, so while you make it over the course of 3 days (including starter feedings), it takes less than an hour of actual effort.

Here's the short and sweet version of the recipe, easy to copy and print and without the pictures:

Bake in covered casserole at 425*F for 35 minutes.

Remove loaf from casserole and cool on wire rack.

Guess the Fiber

Here I am at the farmhouse working at the festival.  I found a new "local" fiber I've never spun before.  It has spun up fairly soft and looks like it will bloom into a bit of a halo.  Any guesses as to what it is?  Please guess in the comments.

On Mistakes

The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes.  They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.

--from Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card

As a kid, school work came fairly easily to me.  I could usually get a B on my first effort, which left me free to go outside and play.  In high school I worked harder on the first effort and got A's, which left me free for drama club, odyssey of the mind, scholastic bowl, and other geeky fun.  It wasn't until college, where there weren't grades, that I was expected to go back into a project and turn in a second draft, or sketch, or sewing sample.  I was also expected to take risks and experiment.  If done correctly, true risks and honest experiment lead to failure, or at least unexpected results, half the time or more.  That means going back and trying again with new variables.  At the time, I hated making mistakes.  I saw them as failure.  If I had done better or known better, I would have gotten it right the first time.

After college in my professional life I still hated mistakes.  They felt like failure and I beat myself up over them.  This is a tough attitude to live with in technical theater.  In theater we experiment.  We also adjust the work on our little part once we see how it fits into the whole.  We get to a finished product in steps, and we definitely correct our errors.  So every time I got to dress rehearsal and got "notes" on my work, listing all the little problems that needed to be fixed for the next night, or changes that would make the costumes look better under the lights, or help the performers wearing them, it felt like failure.  If I was better at this I wouldn't get notes.

Luckily, I have come to understand mistakes better.  They're not failures.  They are part of a process, and only 1 step along the way.  The best thing about mistakes is that they can be corrected. It has taken a long time, but I now take joy in identifying the mistakes so that I can correct them.  I had to let go of the idea that a first attempt is the only attempt.  It is the first step, and it's purpose is to give me everything I need to get to the second step.  At work, I make things differently now, with the idea that each step is not being done to finish, but to put me at the best advantage for the second step.  And in aiming for a good process rather than an immediate perfect result, and being ready for mistakes, I make fewer.  Go figure.


I've been trying to teach my students this, while keeping in mind that I wasn't able to learn it yet when I was them.  I definitely see myself in my honor students, for whom high school was easy.  Unfortunately, school isn't life, and it turns out that being able to recognize and correct one's own mistakes has much more bearing on successful adult life than being really good at multiple choice test.  That's been a real let down, let me tell you.


I knit this cardigan years ago, but thanks to weight gain and an accidental trip through the washing machine, it has gotten rather tight.  It's a favorite, my first sweater where I started the process with dirty wool, and then washed, dyed, combed, spun, and knit.  So I'm not going to give it up, even if the buttons do gap.

But boy does that look crappy--and it makes me look fat.  My friend Becky had mentioned a knitting blog that went step by step through sewing grosgrain ribbon behind your button placket to keep it from gapping.  You see this all the time in store bought cardigans, especially the vintage 50's ones.  It finally clicked that I could go back and do this to a sweater even though it was already finished.  And boy was it worth going back in and fixing that, even years later.





This is the inside of each button band--buttons on the right and holes on the left.  I used a wide (about 7/8") grosgrain behind the buttons, then removed them and re-stitched them going all the way through the sweater and the grosgrain.  I used 2 narrow bands (1/4-3/8") on the buttonhole side running down either side of the vertical buttonholes.  Both were whipped in by hand and none of the stitching shows in front.





Much better!  Whether you call it fixing a mistake, or taking the next step in a project, the improvement is well worth the time it took!  At some point I'm going to go back into a number of my cardigans and do the same.

If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough!


--Miss Havisham in "The Well of Lost Plots" by Jasper Fford

I Tricked Out My MINI With Knitting

Hey, so have I mentioned that I got a new MINI Cooper?

I haven't posted in a while because we've been on our honeymoon. Not Chris and I, the MINI, Chris, and I. It's a bit of a debate about who gets to drive whenever we go somewhere.

MINI has always been a British car, and the new MINI Cooper definitely embraces that. Not just as a nationality, but also as a decorating scheme. You can order your MINI liberally sprinkled with Union Jacks from the entire roof top, to the rear view mirrors (all 3) to the valve stem caps, and everything in between.

Chris bought me the interior rear view mirror Union Jack for my birthday, before I even had the car. It was making the side mirrors look kind of naked and left out. I could have bought matching covers for them, but why buy what you can make yourself? I briefly considered paint, or glued on strips of ribbon, but then I realized that to really be MY MINI, they would have to be knitted.

In case you're not sure yet, I'm completely crazy. This is a completely crazy project, and you're going to be totally jealous of the results.

Let the jealousy begin:



note the stunning view of a garage on the Buff State Campus. What can I say, it's hard to find a picturesque parking spot most mornings.




As for crazy...the outer circumference is about 22" and a little over a hundred stitches. It's about 50 rounds of knitting, so really, a fairly small, seemingly quick project, except that I pulled out all the knitting stops for this one. In order to really get a good finished project, with a properly rendered flag that curves into 2 or three different parabolas, depending on what angle you view it from I used:

a fancy cast on for the center of a circle (don't know the proper name)
intarsia
intarsia in the round
switching between round and flat knitting
non-euclidean geometry or the semblance thereof
short rows



and dorset buttons.

For any non knitters to whom that list means nothing, this is what the work in progress looked like:




Yes, it's just as frustrating as it looks.

But they're small, and I'm small and determined, and it was oh so worth it to trick out my car with knitting.

And if you're thinking, "Aren't you worried someone will take them off in a parking lot," just don't say it to me. I've already heard it and no, I'm not too worried because a) they're on there really tight to make sure there's no chance of them slipping and blocking my view, b) few people will recognize the buttons for what they are and c) the side mirrors on a MINI are rather unique, so they would be useless to a non-MINI owner.

My next project for the car will be a Union Jack blanket.

New Drum Carder!!!!!!!

Recently my friend Mary Ellen made reference to the happiness that can come from purchasing something new. Not just anything, but think about when you were a kid and spent months saving up allowance for something really special. I remember spending about a year saving up for my first stereo, and I loved it from the first day I had it. It seems like something changed, either from childhood to adult life, or in our culture since then. Now it's more likely that Ill spending months paying off a previous purchase, instead of saving up for the future. The last thing I saved up for was my spinning wheel about ten years ago.

Unlike many spinner I only own one wheel. I do have some extra flyers, 3 sets of hand cards, and 2 sets of combs, but they were all acquired over 5 years ago, and one of the sets of carders was used and practically free.

So when a very slightly used drum carder came up for sale by a member of my guild, I decided that now might just be the time for a new equipment purchase. I didn't save up, but I'm counting this as my up-coming Christmas money, well spent. After spending about 3 years hand carding wool for my purple sweater set, I think it's high time I treat myself to this lovely time saver.

Behold, the Fancy Kitty Kitten Drum Carder:



The lovely woman who sold it to me decided that her life was too short for fiber prep, and she could happily spin prepared rovings from now on. I don't blame her--our guild has several very talented dyers who sell their work. I've decided that life is too short for hand carding. Either way, she was so over fiber prep that she gave me a bag of fibers she had planned to blend on the carder, and a partially finished batt.

The thing is that I like dying, and while multicolored rovings look great, and make for very attractive multicolored yarns, they necessitate very simple knitting. What I've discovered about myself is that the knitting is my primary goal, and I prefer to work with simpler yarns that allow for more complex knitting. I've made the mistake of trying to do colorwork or cables with visually complex yarn, and it just becomes a muddy indistinct lump that I spent a lot of hours on. So for me a drum carder makes it possible to buy a fleece and dye sections into related colors I can then card together for more subtle heathers that will still allow cables or lace to dominate visually. Or I can dye for individual skeins of closely related solids for a fair isle.

Of course this will lead to buying fleeces. But it saves me the cost of shipping and processing, which is what I used to do. And did I mention it saves me the time of hand carding to blend colors? Life is too short for hand carding.

So I ran home, put the drum carder on the kitchen table, cranked up my audio book, and started cranking fiber through.



I quickly discovered that I had questions, and that none of my spinning books had answers. How do I only own spinning books that refuse to address the drum carder beyond acknowledging it's existence?!?!

For instance, as I worked, there was a lot of fiber staying on the licker-in. I kept trying to remove it and feed it back through, but it kept ending up there. Then I realized that what was on the licker-in looked like this:



Could it be that unlike hand cards, drum carders separate out the neps and short crap? I checked the internet. The internet had way too much information, but it seemed to confirm that yes, it did separate this stuff out on purpose! So I stopped trying to undo the help the Kitten was offering, and put that crap aside.

I already know from my fleece study experience that I prefer to flick card first, removing as much of the short and tangled wool as I can, before either carding or combing. It seems the same will be wise with the drum carder, and produce the kind of smooth batts I prefer to spin.

Eventually, I made this:



and this:



with the fibers the original owner was so kind to pass along. I was a bit dissatisfied with dizzing the blue roving off the drum. Too much fiber was left behind, so I will probably tear the pink batt into strips or into a roving to spin. It was way too time consuming to diz off some of the roving, and then still have to remove a small thin batt of what was left. It will be much faster to remove everything together as a batt and then deal with it from there.

At this point I got excited and went off on my own. I love to spin cotton, and a little while ago a friend gave me this:



a bale of cotton. That puppy must weight 20 pounds. I was going to hand card punis from it, but that was going to take the rest of my life. The carding cloth on this Kitten looks just as fine as on my cotton hand cards, and if it all goes to hell I might waste, what, one or two ounces out of 20 pounds?

I didn't really find any guidance on doing this, but I was also too cocky to look. In the name of science, I experimented.

First I fed in the cotton in the usual way:



and about half of it stayed on the licker-in. Not good. So I added it the other way I'd been shown, directly onto the drum as I cranked.



This was much more successful. 3 or 4 times the amount added in only left this:



on the licker-in.

I removed the batt, split it, and recarded in thin layers a few times, just like with the first 2 batts.

Then I had to decide what form the carded cotton should finally take. A batt seemed too big and loose, and like it might fall apart before it ever got to the wheel, so I tried 2 things.

I dizzed off a roving which was generally frustrating. So then I tried rolling the batt around a knitting needle to make a puni, just like I would have done with hand cards.



I got 4 fairly thick punis from one batt:



as opposed to this mess of roving from the other:



I got in a little time on the wheel this morning, and as I suspected the punis are quite nice to spin from, but the roving is a bitch. If I wasn't an experienced cotton spinner I would have thrown the roving out the window! At this point I'll still spin it up just to see what I get, and keep examining how the 2 preparations work. I may try making the punis just a little smaller to compare, but by and large this will now be my go-to for prepping that bale of cotton.

So thanks very much for the drum carder! Now I need more time to knit and spin. I don't suppose I can do that this week instead of putting up the tree, making cookies, and cooking Christmas dinner for both sets of parents? I thought not.

Spinners guild reveals reasons ‘why ’

This was a really nice article published in the local "Bee." Unlike the Buffalo News reporter who interviewed many of the same people and got much of the information wrong, Naomi Spencer was really lovely and attentive, and wrote an accurate, interesting, and articulate article about our local spinning guild.

Spinners guild reveals reasons ‘why ’

Knitting and Beer, What Could Be Better?

I was recently asked, by a very young reporter, how long it takes to make something if you start by spinning the yarn. There are of course 2 answers to the question. There is the answer in hours, and there is the answer in years. Interestingly, these 2 answers do not work out to the same amount of time.

Case in point: I have finally finished my purple sweater set. Upon our third summer together, my friend Rachel looked at me working at my spinning wheel and said "Isn't that the yarn you've been spinning the entire time I've known you?" Lucky for her, I wasn't at a good point to let go and throw my niddy noddy at her.



How many hours did this set take? Well, I started with white roving: 2 pounds of wool and 9 ounces of silk. I spent a day dying the wool in 4 separate shades of purple and painting the silk in the 4 shades sequentially. The most time consuming part was that I then hand carded the 4 shades of wool into heathered rolags before spinning them. The combination of carding and spinning may have taken as much as 200 hours. It felt like longer. Then I knit 2 sweaters, that probably took about 100 hours (these are hugely estimated numbers). I think I spent about 10 hours making the lovely dorset buttons. So all told that would be 310 hours and a day.



How many years did this sweater set take? Well, as best as I can remember I started in the summer of 2002 or 2003 when I bought the wool in Delphi NY. I finished this past June. That's 7 or 8 years to complete a sweater set. Over those years I had 3 different "school year" jobs. We went through 4 costume directors at the Opera. I lived in 4 different cities/towns, had 4 apartments, got married, and bought a house. That's way more than 310 hours and a day.

After finishing in June, I figured I would put the set away until December, but we had such a weird summer that I wore it on July 1st and was quite happy to have it. Since that day it's been over 80 every day.

There have, of course been other projects during that time. In fact, anything on this blog or on my Ravelry page was made during that time. Plus there's all the other hobbies.

I love when my very different interests in some way intersect, overlap, or inform each other. Like how the garden feeds the rabbits and the rabbits supply the compost that feeds the garden. And the spent grains from brewing feed the compost feeds the hop vine makes beer. Or when Queen sings about relativistic time dilation. Or how when a math/science student takes costume construction I can point out that the balance points on a sleeve head are the 2 points on the curve where the second derivative equals zero. And now I have a new one: a knitted beer label. This goes way past drinking and reading while knitting for relevant hobby interaction. Check it out:

I'm quite pleased with the result, although I had to save it from an unfortunate earlier stage where the lemon looked like a cupcake. Some of my labels fall flat, but I've made a few in the past year or so that I'm really pleased with. The beer was good too.

I've Finally Done It

After years of planning and writing patterns down and then chickening out, I've finally put up a group of patterns for sale on the internet. Anyone can now knit or crochet a recycled t-shirt rug just like the ones I sell on Etsy and use in my home. You can buy one through the Etsy link in the left side bar, or through Ravelry by clicking this button: Why all the hesitation and procrastination? Well, I hate selling stuff. I still remember everyone who yelled at me when I worked retail, and that was selling stuff whose workmanship or undiscovered mistakes were not my responsibility. Now I'm putting stuff out there that I made. I am now directly responsible to the buyer. The biggest thing that gives me pause about all of this is that I know that some women can be really nasty, especially about buying things and especially about a perceived slight. There are women out there who will try to take down a dyer's entire business because they bought 2 different hand dyed rovings and felt they weren't a close enough match. I don't need that. I'm not sure what's wrong with us as a gender. It seems like a man who felt he hadn't gotten what he paid for would yell once, or punch once, or (in the case of the internet) post one angry comment, and then forget about it and go on with his life. Whereas a woman who feels cheated, at least one of the nastier ones, can spend weeks, months, or years stewing in that emotion and actively working to take down someone's entire business or even their life.
This idea isn't new to me. Look at all the stories of teenage girls whose boyfriend was "stolen." Read "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. No really, go read it. It's a great book. I'll wait here.

* * * * *

That one shows that it's especially bad to cross a rich white southern woman with nothing else to do.

So how did I finally overcome all this adversity and post the damn pattern? Well, I've now sold 8 handmade items on etsy and no one has demanded a refund. Over 30 people have knit the 2 free patterns I posted here on the blog and linked to from Ravelry. A few have asked me questions and all seemed to be able to finish successfully with the answers. One found a mistake in the pattern and pointed it out in the nicest way possible. No one died. No one even yelled at me. I hate being yelled at by strangers.

So I've taken the plunge. Four people have already marked the pattern as a favorite on Ravelry and 5 have viewed it on Etsy. We'll see if anyone buys.