First Pair of Socks - Done

I finished the first pair of socks today. It took eight days. Not too shabby.



These are for my sister-in-law, who specifically asked for some more socks because due to some medical problems, her feet and legs are so swollen she can't wear anything but the socks I made her for Christmas. I used my generic sock recipe, and added some extra stretch by doing a 2x2 ribbing for the entire foot, not just the ankle.

I started the second pair this evening, after I finished these. I'm not sure I can maintain this pace through several more pairs. Getting that first one done in a week required almost non-stop knitting for the first 4 or 5 days. But ... we'll see how it goes.

I'm pretty up to date on my other projects though - I even cooked one batch of Pennsic meals tonight and froze them with my Seal-A-Meal.

But then there's the pirate coat. That's a time-consuming piece of work, and I need to focus on it a little more if I hope to get it done by Pennsic.

I Rock.

I got so much done today! I made a huge dent in my project extravaganza. I knew I could once a weekend hit, and I had a whole day to work on things. (Yeah, I could have had two whole days, but this worked out anyway, and I'm happy).

I made the two t-tunics, and added the side panels to one dress.

That picture pretty well sucks, but it's the only one I took. The dress looks far better on me than on a hanger - the side panels worked out absolutely beautifully. So well, in fact, that if I make any more of these dresses, I think I'll put those in just for fun. The widening out of the strip on the bottom half makes the skirt nice and swirly and full. I didn't have the dresses with me when I went to pick out material for these side strips. For the green dress, I found this dark tan color material with brown flowers, and I knew it would work - and it does, the color combination of green and browns is really awesome. But for the purple dress, I couldn't find anything I was confident would combine well, so I didn't get the material to fix that one yet (or I'd have done it today). I will take a trip to the fabric store next weekend, and take the purple dress with me so I can pick out something complimentary.

The tunics - eh. I'm actually not a big fan of t-tunics, but they are something quick, easy, and requiring little in the way of material, when you need something in a hurry. I have had trouble with every one of these I've made with the neckline. I pretty well buggered up the blue one, but it doesn't look too terrible on me - most of the buggering up is more on the inside, where it annoys me but doesn't show too terribly much.

On the second one, the gray one, I tried a different shape to the neckline - instead of a circle, I made it more of a baseball diamond, with more straight lines. This worked out much, much better. I want to add trim to both of them - they're so very plain - but that's not something I'm counting on doing before Pennsic. I may have to just wear them plain this year, then spruce them up over the winter.

Then I worked on the haversack, and got it almost done.


I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I hadn't put much thought into it before I started it, and was just kind of making it up as I went along - and it turned out great. Note to self: quit over-engineering things. (the stuff I wing it on always turns out far better than the stuff I try to follow patterns with ... hmmm.). It's a little bigger than I meant to make it, but I decided it's actually a very good size. It's not too large, and it will be a great size for shopping days at Pennsic. I was going to make the straps by making a long tube, then turning it right side out ... but the canvas is kind of stiff, and when I tried that, I could not get it turned right side out. So I made a new strap, just a flat strip, which at first I was going to edge with bias tape. But I didn't have any, and didn't want to wait till I could go back to the store, so I decided make a trim strip out of some cotton material I had on hand. I'm really glad I did - it looks awesome. Better in person than you can see in the picture. It's a black fabric with little gray flowers on it, but the gray's kind of non-committal, so it tends to pick up the purple from the main canvas fabric, and almost looks custom-matched.

And yeah - this is a nice waterproof canvas I bought as 'scraps' from none other than Panther Primitives (home of my future pavilion) for like dirt cheap - I think the whole bundle I bought only cost a couple bucks, and I only used a fraction of it. They sell haversacks similar to this one pre-made for about $15 or $20, but I made this one for basically a buck or two. Rock. On. And while their pre-made ones are nice (my boyfriend has one, that's what got me wanting one), I do like mine better.

I have a little work yet to do to finish this, but I just ran out of steam today. I want to put the same trim on the front edge of the flap. Also, where the straps fasten on to the side gussets, at the bottom edge of the straps, I need to trim that with something - it just got left kind of bare and unfinished looking

Other than that, though, it's pretty well done. Eventually I'd like to do some embroidery on it, but that's another thing I'm not even attempting before Pennsic - another next-winter project.

Meanwhile, I'm only 10 rows and a binding off from finishing the pair of socks (started last Sunday - a pair a week would work well). I will probably finish them tonight if I don't fall asleep too early.

So, it was a great day for my projects, and I'm very happy ... I'm only one week into the 5-week marathon, and got so much done. This bodes well for the coming month.

Blah.

It's been a mostly (but not entirely) disappointing day. Last night I finished the heel of the second sock of this first pair, and was starting to cruise up the cuff, when I thought I'd made a huge mistake - I thought somehow my stitch count was off. I couldn't seem to figure it out last night, and company came over, so I put it away. Today we had company again, and it was evening by the time I got around to messing with it again. After way too much time trying to figure it out, moving stitches back and forth between needles, and unknitting half a row, I finally got it fixed. I don't know exactly what I did, but - it's fixed now.

I'm back on track tonight and about halfway through the cuff, but I'm really - really - tired and not planning to finish it tonight.

So I'm a little off schedule. My plan had been to finish this pair Friday night, so I could mail them Saturday morning, and so I could spend all day today taking a sock break and working on other projects. Had I actually done that, I think I could have knocked a few smaller things right off the list entirely, and been done with them - if not in just Saturday alone, at least in Saturday and Sunday both.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I stayed up way too late last night (and, okay, had a bit too much rum), so I was really tired, energyless and unmotivated all day today. As it turns out I got nothing done except fixing the sock, and doing 25 or so rounds of the cuff.

Oh well. Life goes on. There's still tomorrow, which will be a better day energy-wise, as I took a nap today, and am going to bed shortly. (and had no rum tonight)

What I hope to accomplish tomorrow is: putting the side strips in the green dress (project done); making the two t-tunics (project done); making a few headwraps (project done, depending on how many I get made). That would be a pretty good swath cut through the list. We'll see how it goes.

Of course, that's not good enough, I'm adding new projects. The neighbor has a cabin tent which I really liked - I like that style way better than my other tents, and wish I'd have gotten one of those instead of the several different dome-style tents I've bought. I like them better for several reasons, not least of which is that they look the closest to a medieval pavilion in a modern tent - square, with a peaked roof, you know.

He'd mentioned wanting to get rid of it, and since I can't get a pavilion this year, I told him I might buy his. I set it up in my yard today to check it out, and I think I'm going to get it. It's a little smaller than my other tents, but I plan to take less this year anyway, so I think I can manage. Then Greg came up with a good idea I'd like to try - sewing a canvas "cover" for the tent, basically just a simple structure that drapes over the external frame, ties on in a few places, and gets staked down. Done well, it could 'medievalize' the tent at least a little. And with a little more planning and sewing, I could even create a canopy front porch for it, as well.

But that's just another sewing project I don't know if I'm going to have time for, so ... we'll see.

But for tonight, I'm off to bed.

Some Progress, Major Disappointment

I am making moderate progress on my projects. I've been spending each evening alternating between knitting on the sock and embroidering on the pirate coat, and I got quite a bit done. The first sock is done, and the pirate cuff embroidery is going more quickly than I expected. Nothing else is getting done, but I can only do so many things at once.

My Pennsic project motivation, though, took a steep nosedive Monday. Last week I was toying with the idea of buying some type of lawn pavilion thing to transform into living quarters at Pennsic. I went out looking Saturday, and found this one I absolutely fell in love with - it was a beautiful gazebo / pavilion thing with a bell-shaped top.

I almost bought it, just spur of the moment bought it, it was so cool. But then I made myself take a few deep breaths and think it through, and after I did that, I decided it really wasn't a good idea. For one thing, it's all constructed from metal, with screws and bolts and the like - designed to be set up and left up, not easily portable to put up and take down for camping. It would be a mother bear to haul, set up and tear down for Pennsic. Second, it (and all the other lawn pavilions at this store) had warning signs on them that they weren't really designed to withstand extreme weather, wind, etc. Now, that does beg the question, what do they expect people to do with them in their yards when a storm is coming? As I said, these aren't the type of thing you would put up for a weekend, or easily dismantle every time a thunderstorm threatenend. Of course, having it blow down in your yard, or at Pennsic with all your stuff in it, are two different things.

But the third problem made the second problem not worth pursuing an answer to. The thing was not waterproof except for light rain. Well, anyone who has been to Pennsic knows that if we get by with only one deluge, that's a good year. There's no way this thing would have been dry shelter at Pennsic.

Yeah, I might have been able to try spray waterproofing on the fabric, and yeah, I could have heavily staked it down, and yeah, I could probably scare up a crew of people to help me put it together - but that was a lot of maybes, and the thing was $300. That's a lot of money for something that was so iffy.

So I reluctantly had to leave it behind, but it got me started thinking about how I could design and build my own 'pavyurtebo' - a combination pavilion, yurt, and lawn gazebo. I spent some time thinking, doodling, and mapping this out, and was coming up with some really good ideas (I thought).

Then, while searching for an online site to buy perimeter poles, I went to Panther Primitives, a well-known pavilion maker for SCA types (and others, come to that). Now, I have to tell you that since my first year in the SCA one of my dreams has been to get a "real" pavilion. But when I last priced them a few years ago, the type I wanted then would have cost well over $2,000. Not only did I not have the money, but even if I had, I couldn't justify spending that much on a tent I'd probably only use once a year. So I had scrapped that idea, and though I continued to look longingly at all the pavilions at Pennsic each year, I had assumed it was never going to be an option for me.

But while tooling around their site, I found a pavilion that I absolutely loved, that was very much in my affordable range. I don't know whether it's something they didn't have a few years ago, or I just didn't notice it because at the time I was interested in something different (I use to want a round pavilion, and this one's square; but my tastes have changed, and now I'd actually rather have the square one; good thing I didn't drop $2,000+ on the round one, then!). Regardless, I really liked this one, and could afford it, and so got extremely psyched about getting my own pavilion for Pennsic. The difference that would make to my camping experience is beyond description. It would just be a thousand times better.

Here's a picture of it, from their site:


(The stripes on the roof must be a custom thing those particular owners did, they don't automatically come that way).

Anyway - that ramped up my excitement about Pennsic in general enormously, and that's around the time I dived into committing to all these projects.

So Greg called the place for me on Monday, because he kind of knows the owner, but unfortunately it's too late to get one for Pennsic this year. They are backed up on orders as it is (always busy in the months before Pennsic) and I couldn't possibly get the pavilion in time.

I was majorly bummed. It really took the wind out of my sails for Pennsic. I'll still go, I'm just not nearly as psyched about it as I was when I thought I could get a pavilion. I'm back to not even being sure I'm going to spend the entire week there, or just drift in and out.

But there is one piece of good news - now that I know that there is a pavilion I like that's affordable, I'm going to get one. I just didn't see any point in throwing all that money at it right now, if I can't have it for Pennsic - why drop all that money right now on something I will get in mid-to-late August, and have no use for until clear next year? But sometime in the next six or eight months I will order this pavilion, to have it for next Pennsic - so there is that to look forward to.

Ah well ... back to the projects. I will continue to make socks, because that's got nothing to do with Pennsic, and I'll finish the pirate coat, just because that's the one coolest new piece of garb I have and I really want to wear it for whatever time I'm at Pennsic. After that I'll pick and choose what else I'm going to devote my time to, based on importance in the greater scheme of things, and go from there.

Yipes!

I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I think I may have just over-committed myself a wee bit. Ah well - I didn't commit to anyone else, just stuff I want to do myself. But let's just see what I have in mind.

Since I decided to go to Pennsic after all, there are a variety of things that need done for that.

1. Fix two dresses. I have two sleeveless dresses that I wear over chemises that are two of my favorite Pennsic outfits. I made them for my first Pennsic, but now - 6 or 7 years later - they've gotten a little - ahem - snug. I don't have a lot of garb as it is, and need all that I can manage to make wearable. So I decided to refurbish them by splitting out the side seams and adding a strip of complementary fabric down the side, to add width. I have the material to fix the green dress; I haven't bought the material yet to fix the purple dress.

2. Finish the pirate coat, at least enough to wear. I intended to do a lot of embroidery on it; then when I started and saw how tedious that was going to be, I backed off to just doing some embroidery on it. I've started the embroidery on one of the cuffs, so since it's started, I at least have to finish that part in order to wear it. The cuffs aren't sewn on yet, either, because obviously they're easier to embroider that way. The cuff design isn't large, but it is a rather intricate pattern, which I've only just barely begun on one of them. So I'd have to finish one, do the other entirely, sew the cuffs on, hem the coat, and find and install some type of buttons or fasteners. This is by far the most complex project I want to complete before Pennsic.

3. I need to make two t-tunics to go with pants I already had made from a year or two ago (which thanks to the magic of elastic and making things way too big the first time around, still fit), but had no tops to go with. I bought the material for those on Saturday.

4. I need to fix my sandals, or get them professionally repaired. They are nice, leather, Doc Marten sandals, but one of the buckles broke last year. I really need them for Pennsic; or I need to go buy a new pair of something (which I looked for last year and never found anything I liked). Without the sandals I'm forced to wear my boots even during the day, when it's so hot - and that's no fun.

5. I wanted to make a haversack - a medium-sized bag with a long strap that you can wear over one shoulder and cross-wise across your body. Greg got one a year or two ago, and it comes in extraordinarily handy when shopping, or going out for an evening when you might want to take your refreshment of choice with you. I bought a piece of waterproof canvas to make one last year, but ... um, yeah, never got around to it.

6. Whether I get the haversack made or not, I at least need some kind of a pouch. I've had half a dozen pouches over the years, and none of them ever really worked out just the way I had in mind - too small, too big, too bulky, too hard to get into, too heavy on the belt. I have to have something this year, no matter how simple it is.

7. I need to make some head wraps. This shouldn't be any big deal - just a large triangle of material. I'd like to hem it, but I don't strictly have to. This may sound trivial, but it's actually a very big deal to me. One of my worst problems at Pennsic is sweating my ass off, and my hair looking like hell. Yeah, I'm not usually very concerned about how I look, but this is different - this is me with my bangs plastered to my forehead dripping sweat into my eyes. That's not just 'not attractive,' that's downright gross. I've never before figured out a solution to it, as 'staying cool' just isn't an option. This year, I've decided to fight it by hiding it. I'm going to wear the pirate hat as much as possible, and just put a good head wrap on underneath it, and that'll be that for the day. This small thing will make a huge difference in my endurance of the heat, because half my battle with it isn't just the being hot, but being pissed off about looking like a stuffed, sweating pig. If I can at least look cool (both temperature-wise and fashion-wise), I'll be much happier. No one needs to know what's going on under my hat.

8. Other Pennsic stuff that needs done: food cooked for me. I want to prepare a bunch of one-dish meals, and freeze them with my handy-dandy Seal-A-Meal into single portion servings, so that my dinners will be simple boil-in-bag affairs, with minimal clean up.

9. Cook for Tyler. He eats a home-cooked diet, so I have to have at least two weeks, and preferably 2 1/2 or 3 weeks of meals prepared in advance for him and frozen - to have a buffer both before I leave and when I come back, so I'm not scrambling around at either end of my vacation. I'm not sure all this stuff is even going to fit in my freezer.

That was all more than enough to keep me hopping, but then there was the latest addition. About a month ago I found out my sister-in-law has some very serious health problems. One of the side effects of it is that her feet and legs have swollen very, very badly. She wrote me an email this morning to tell me that she could no longer wear any shoes, and even most of her socks are horribly uncomfortable, but the only thing she can wear which is comfy for when she has to go out in public (doctor's appointments and whatnot) are the socks I made her for Christmas, and she wondered if I could make her some more.

Well, of course! I was thrilled to be able to knit something for someone that would actually be truly useful and helpful! So I immediately ordered enough sock yarn online for 3 more pairs, then started a pair today from some sock yarn I had in my stash. (If she can't even wear shoes, just a couple pairs of socks aren't enough - anything less than 4 or 5 pairs isn't going to cut it).

But then I realized ... ummm, do all that other stuff I just listed, AND knit 3 or 4 pairs of socks - in the five - yes, five - weeks till Pennsic.

We won't even talk about how I have to bust major ass to get all my work caught up at the office before I can go on vacation, and that's going to be complicated by the fact that my boss is going on vacation a couple weeks before me - and he always buries me beyond belief when he goes on vacation. The point being, just when I most need the extra time, I'm usually stuck working copious amounts of overtime.

Yep. I'd say I'm highly over-committed.

But you know what? I really don't mind. I like being busy. I love a good challenge. I'm kind of excited about all this. This will be intriguing. Will I get it all done? Probably not. What it'll come down to is some serious prioritizing, making sure the stuff I have to do gets done (the socks fall into that category; because I really want to makes it a half to on this list), and then what I can't get to, I'll live without. I've done it plenty of times before.

At least I took one major undertaking off my plate today - and may be getting a literal dream come true into the bargain. But that's a story for another day.

Knitting; And More Pennsic Thoughts

I have been getting so much done this week. I'm not sure what the difference is, since I've also had to work over several days this week, but ... whatever, I'm happy. I've been getting stuff done around the house, and knitting. The right front of the cardigan is almost done! I could have finished it last night, but got sucked into watching the 'mid-season finale' of Ghost Hunters, and put the knitting down so I wouldn't make a mistake. (It was a good episode, too; wise choice not to knit during it).

Since deciding at the last minute to pre-reg for Pennsic after all, I've been doing a lot of thinking about that. There just doesn't seem to be any way to make Pennsic easy anymore. When I used to camp with another group, someone else was responsible for all the 'group camp' stuff - hauling it there, hauling it home, cleaning and repair, storing it. I did my part - I helped with setup and tear-down, but other than some work at the beginning and end of Pennsic, I was free to enjoy myself, and only had my own stuff to worry about getting there and back.

When I got together with my boyfriend it was a whole different story. He has his own camp, so I inherited all the stuff that goes with it, including responsibility for packing and hauling it there and back, sorting and storing it all at home.

It takes enough of one's own personal stuff to make a nice Pennsic - not just the usual and expected camp stuff- tent, bedding, clothing, cooler, food, and beverages, but all the extras that go with an SCA event: garb accouterment (belts, hats, pouches, scarves, baskets, etc.), decor (lanterns, poles, tikis, fuel, candles, banners, etc.). Then there's 'something to do for a week' - an important aspect to me, as due to the heat I rarely leave camp during the day: books, knitting, embroidery, a guitar, other stuff to keep me amused and entertained.

Now multiply that by two, because since we have always gone together, there's my stuff and Greg's stuff to get there and back.

Then add in all the group camp stuff, and it gets crazy insane: a common pavilion, tables for that; a kitchen pavilion (currently a huge carport), including another table, shelves, camp stove, propane, pots and pans, utensils, some way to wash dishes, a camp shower (the portable shower stall, the pump & tubing, water hoses), and all the group decor and things to make it comfortable and safe - sheet walls; lanterns, candles, and fuel; various ropes, tiedowns, and stakes; extra chairs; tools ... etc., etc, ad nauseam.

This is a lot of stuff for two people to be responsible for. Especially with only an SUV and a small pickup truck with a cap. And it's what's been making my passion for Pennsic wane over the past few years. I don't like having to put this much work into my vacation. Greg had a good point when we were talking about this recently: you need basically the same things whether your camp has 4 people or 24. We happen to have a very small camp, with other people who do not have the means to either haul or store the stuff themselves - so it falls all on me and Greg. If we had a larger camp, we might have more help, but we'd also have the hassles of a large camp - the personality clashes, the organization, and the land issue - with more people and a larger camp, we'd probably get thrown out of our current spot, where Greg's had his camp for umpteen years. So a small camp has its perks, but it also has it's downfalls when it comes to handling all the stuff. It would make it enormously easier if we had a trailer, but we haven't been able to afford one.

I don't like all the extra work. I liked the old days when I was only responsible for myself. Lazy? Eh, whatever. It is my vacation too, and I'm not inclined to work quite that hard on my vacation. I know if I had to have my own camp, I'd find a way to simplify things, whatever it took - I'd never haul and store this much stuff if I had a choice.

I know a lot of people put far more work than this into their camps, some people building entire things on site even. But one thing that makes a huge difference - they, and my boyfriend, are usually there for the whole two weeks. I am only ever there for one week. I've said before, if I could be there for the entire two weeks, the work involved might seem more proportionate to the time I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors.

This year's different all the way around. When I decided at the last minute to pre-reg, I only had a vague idea that I might drift in and out of Pennsic over the week, maybe going out for a night or two, then coming home for a couple days. Doing it that way, I wouldn't have needed to take a lot of stuff - just garb for the day(s) I was there, maybe a little bit of food, and one knitting project or book. I wouldn't be using any group stuff (kitchen, shower). I thought I might not even set up a tent, as for the few nights I'd be there I figured I could crash in Greg's tent. (Why we don't use the same tent even though we live together at home is a whole 'nother story - several of them, in fact).

I told Greg up front that if I went, due to limited time and the fact that I wouldn't be using any group stuff, I wouldn't be helping with hauling stuff there or back, setting up, or tearing down, and asked if he would mind my pre-regging with the camp, knowing that. (There is something in it for them - they get the extra land, for each person pre-regged you get something like 250 square feet of additional land). He said no problem.

But then the complications set in. Like dating or having kids, I began to forget all the bad and only remember the good of Pennsic, and began to talk myself into maybe going for the whole week after all. At first I thought I'd be as minimalist as possible, and started a 'new, improved Pennsic packing list' which was only about a half a page long. Then of course it grew, and now it's up to the usual two pages.

Sigh.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I know if I end up setting up a tent for the whole week, and plan to use any group stuff (like the shower), I will have to find time and a way to help with at least some of the set up and tear down. And inevitable hauling of crap. Which means I'm most of the way back to what I wanted to avoid. But unless I can pry myself away from going at all (which doesn't look likely), I don't see any way out of it.

Pennsic - it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We've got to find a better way to do this, one of these years.

A New Kind Of Pennsic Panic

Well, this is the first time I've done this. I've been going to Pennsic since 2001 (I think). (For those who don't know, Pennsic is the biggest annual SCA event - the SCA being that medieval re-creation group I belong to - Pennsic being a two week camping event every summer in western Pennsylvania). This was the first year since then that right up until the pre-reg deadline, I wasn't planning to go.

There were a bunch of reasons why I wasn't planning to go. My boyfriend, that I camp with, got scheduled through work for a week of training the same week (second week) that I always went to Pennsic, meaning he'd be there the first week without me, and I'd be there the second week without him. I suppose it should be doable, especially since he's always so busy that we often don't get to spend that much time together anyway - but it just didn't sound like as much fun. And there were other reasons, too.

But today was the pre-reg deadline, and throughout the last week it had been much on my mind. I was afraid that if I didn't pre-reg and didn't plan to go, then that week would show up, and I'd be really mad and disappointed that I wasn't going. Then I realized that I don't have to pre-reg to go. You can just check in at the gate. No camp gets land for you if you do that, which means if you're planning to spend the night someone just has to 'accommodate you.' But I figured I could work that out when the time came. Or sleep in my truck. (technically not allowed, but a few discreet nights, I thought I could get away with it).

But when today showed up, I began to re-think the whole thing. If I was pretty sure I was going anyway, why not go ahead and pre-reg (you save a couple bucks on the cost by pre-registering), give my boyfriend's camp my land, then when / if I do go out, at least I have a place I have a right to be. I could even set up a tent (something I wasn't even planning to do, just going to wing it this year, only planning to go out for maybe one night at a time, then come home).

So at the 11th hour, almost literally (8:00 p.m. on the last day of pre-reg) I finally did go ahead and do it.

And now I don't know what the hell I'm going to be doing for it. I have nothing ready. Usually by now I'm already well into my Pennsic planning, but since I'd been thinking I wasn't going, I didn't bother. I don't know what condition my garb is in, or how much I have that fits. I don't think I have a working air mattress. I have no plans about food or anything.

Yeah, and you know what? That's okay. I think part of the reason I got so tired of Pennsic is the insane 'pre-planning' and complication that went into it, only to usually have things all screwed up anyway. Maybe a year of just flying by the seat of my pirate coat is the best way to do it this year.

I had a grand idea a few weeks ago, but scrapped it because I wasn't planning to go. Now I'm not sure whether it's something I can still do, or even should or want to. Big Lots (and other places, but that's where I saw them) sell these cool lawn pavilions. I couldn't find a picture, but it's basically a metal frame with a pointy canvas top, and side corners of something made to look like wrought iron or something decorative like that. I was thinking about using one of those as my tent instead of a regular mundane tent.

Why? Lots of reasons. First, there would be more useable space. Being square and having a high roof, every square inch inside would be useable, as opposed to sloping dome tents, where there is a lot of space that is not conveniently useable. Second, I always get so freaking hot at Pennsic, and having this type of pavilion, I could open the side walls during the day and just hang out in my 'home' and have shade, with whatever breeze there might be making it's way through as well. Third, I'm antisocial, and like to spend a lot of time by myself at Pennsic. But with the heat, the only place I can usually do that is in the common area of the camp (the common shade pavilion) - and that always makes me rather angsty, having to be around people that much. If I had this pavilion, I'd have my own personal, private shady place to stay during the day, reading, knitting, napping, doing whatever I wanted. I can't do that in my mundane tent because it usually gets too hot inside, and because it's usually pretty uncomfortable, cramped, can barely stand up all the way, etc. It's just not a fun place to hang out for a whole day, like one of those lawn pavilions would be.

My concerns about them are (a) the cost, and (b) whether they'd be sturdy enough to stand up to Pennsic storms. It usually storms pretty good at least a couple times there, and although I'm sure these are meant to be set up and left up in one's yard for the summer, it still makes me nervous, whether a bad storm might come and the whole thing would blow away with my stuff.

I would also have to have tarps for the floor, and peferably decorative rugs to cover them with - which aren't cheap, I don't have, and would have to buy.

Well. That's something to think on, but doesn't have to be done this year. With my last minute pre-reg, my idea was to just wing it, and make it as simple and stress-free as possible this time around. So ... we'll see how that goes.

Saturday Rambling

1. The morning glories and moonflowers are growing fast - they are almost tall enough to begin enticing around the trellis. I don't know when (or if) they'll bloom, but so far they're doing great.
   
   



2. The black-eyed susan vines that I also planted from seeds are growing, too. Their job is to hang over the edge of this planter. We'll see how that goes.
   
   



3. The two geraniums that lived are doing great. No sign of the third one.





4. Daisies: One continues to do well. One that had been growing has now shriveled up and disappeared. Something is coming up in the spot where I planted the third of the daisies and had yet to see any sign of life. But I'm not sure if it's daisy that's coming up, or weed. Will have to wait and see.
   



5. I like the way the impatiens spread out and filled their space. The violets didn't do such a hot job, and look kind of thin and puny. Next year, for continuity, I may just plant impatiens all the way around the border of this bed.
   




6. I'm really going to have to see about giving this rose some more support.
   



7. I finally did some more knitting! This is the current status of the front right. (The front left is done).
   
   
   And the best news of all - Tyler's doing grand. (He had another run-in with eating something he shouldn't last week, but no drastic action was required, although a wee bit of panic did ensue). But he's fine, and we had a great day lounging around, napping, and just hanging out.
   
   
   
   And that's about it for today. I did next to nothing today. I didn't run errands, didn't go grocery shopping, didn't cook for Tyler. Just had a lazy day. And I'll probably go lounge in the living room, veg with some TV, and knit the rest of the evening. Which is all just fine with me. (but will make tomorrow busy).

Nothing To Say

Not a whole lot going on worth blogging about. But I can show you this.


This is a rose my dad got and planted for me one time. I have no idea what exactly it is, or even specifically how it's supposed to be growing. It doesn't look like a typical shrub rose, it's not a climber - at least, it's resisted all attempts to train it onto the fence. I tried tying it to the fence one year with string, but over time the string rotted and fell off, and it went back to this floppy state.

I think next year, or in the fall, I'll trim it back to about a foot high, and see what it does then. I know I did that one other year, and it just grew huge again that next spring. So it certainly won't hurt it. I'd like to trim it up some way that keeps it looking full and well-shaped, but I don't want to limit or stunt it's beautiful blooms.

Speaking of roses that live on despite neglect, this is another little rose my dad got me, a miniature that I think he just bought at Giant Eagle (our semi-local grocery store).

It's been in this spot for, I don't know, maybe 10 years or more, with little to no care. One year I remember taking pity on it and trying to feed it on something like a decent schedule, but I think I stopped halfway through the year, and don't remember doing it any other year. Yet this little thing blooms like this through the first frost and usually right on up till snow.

One early spring my dad accidentally cut it off with the weed trimmer. I was heartbroken, thinking he'd killed it, but apparently not. I haven't trimmed this one, since it's a miniature anyway, except that every year there are a few ends of stems that seem to have some winter damage, and I'll trim them off. But it's starting to get a little leggy. Maybe I should start covering it with something in the winter, and maybe it too would benefit from a cut back to even it up this fall or in the spring. It originally set several inches back from where it is now, but the main stem died off, but enough little new shoots came off of that to keep it going.

That's about it around here. I haven't been in the mood for knitting - a bad sign, but there it is.

Who Moved Ohio To The Mojave?

I'm telling you what, this is the hottest June I remember since ... I can't remember when. In fact, for years I've complained that June isn't 'summer' anymore because it's routinely cold - to me. I'm pretty cold blooded, and am not really happy unless it's in at least the high 70s. Often June around here is only in the 60s.

Not this year. It's been in the 90s every day for almost a week. Makes gardening challenging. Of course, mornings are good times for me, since I don't have to be at work till 10:00 a.m., and I get up around 7:00, I have a lot of nice cool morning time to play. Although this week even the mornings have been muggy and hot too.

But I did get a few things done today. I moved the fern. This is before (the fern's hiding back in the corner by the gnome) ...



... and this is after.


It looks a little wonky right now, in part because I didn't plant it exactly the same way it was growing. How it was growing was a natural form, but it got tweaked around a little in the move and looks kind of lopsided now. I trust it will straighten itself out over time.

That big bare spot behind it also looks strange to me, but I'm not sure I want to do anything with it. It is a mother bear to get back there to do anything (I hurt my hand and almost fell head first into the pond today trying to dig up the fern, and then dig up a spot to replant it, which is mostly why it didn't get positioned as nicely as it might have). I think I would do just as well to leave it alone, and hope that the fern eventually grows large enough to fill up and mask the space. As I trim the lilac, it too should 'shrub up' and fill its space a little better. If not, maybe I'll just find a big-ass rock to drop back there. Yeah. That'd do it.

I hadn't taken a before picture of this, but right next to the pond is my gas meter. It's an eyesore, and to make it worse the area underneath it, between the air conditioner and the pond bed, had become a catch-all for junk. It rarely got mowed, so it was mostly filled with weeds, a pile of unused and half-buried rocks and bricks, and lately an empty compost bag of yard waste, among other things. I cleaned that out today, raked it up a bit, and put down a bunch of grass seed. I'm hoping to get something to grow there yet this year.


But ... I have a new gardening adventure to try - building something! Here's the teaser ...


... 1x12s, spray paint, sanding sponges, and hinges. Hopefully tomorrow you'll get to see what it's destined to become. (Hopefully it will actually be what it's destined to become).

No knitting today - bummer. But I was taking advantage of the good weather, and my hands hurt way too much for that now.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

I have two geraniums now.

Yeah, those are two separate ones. The first one had a few stems on it when I planted it, but then seemed to die off ... and has now come back. The second one was the one I posted bad pictures of Tuesday - which looked like a dead stick when I planted it. Looks like these two are going to make it. I can't imagine when they're going to get big enough to look like real plants ... I don't know if they'll grow that much this year, or not. I'm sure they won't bloom until next year at the earliest. But that's okay ... watching something grow from such a tiny stick-like thing is pretty cool.

Just as cool are my morning glory seeds ...

... which came up so fast! It hasn't even been a week yet. I blame it on soaking them first, the compost, and a good dousing with Miracle-Gro when planted. It looks like the vines, at least, are going to do well. I don't know how well they'll bloom due to lack of sun ... but we'll see.

And then there's this clematis ...


It's not new, my dad planted this for me many years ago. Now most of the flowers look like this ...


... except for this one, which just showed up this year, and is part of the same plant ...


I don't know how that works, but I find it pretty cool.

I'm pretty excited about these developments. Nothing else really going on.

Geraniums! And knitting.

Check this out.


It's one of my dead-stick geraniums, deciding to live and breaking out. Yeah, I know, it's hard to see in this picture, but I know that's what it is, and not a weed, because one of the others looked like this when I first planted it, although it abruptly shriveled back into the ground, and I haven't seen any signs of life on it since. But this one looked as dead as anything, so if it could make it, I have more hope for the rest now.

Although it does make me wonder why I didn't just go buy one at a local gardening center. Well, assuming they had them, but this isn't that uncommon of a plant. Take, for example, one of the daisies ...


... it is growing. But this is all it is. Compared to the ones being sold at the local gardening center which are already more than 12" tall with daisy flowers on them.

Oh well. Live and learn. Although I'm not very sure my local gardening center would have all the varieties of things I will eventually want. And watching something grow from a dead stick into (hopefully) a fully grown plant some day is kind of exciting.

Greg built a vegetable bed.

And then we realized that we have bunnies living behind our property, not to mention Tyler-The-Dog-Who-Will-Eat-Anything. So we thought it might be a good idea to put up a fence.

So this is another new aspect to the year's gardening frenzy.

I have been knitting - especially the last two evenings, as last night I was just being lazy after the weekend's work, and tonight it's gently raining (I love it! Great for the plants). But there's really nothing to take a picture of. I'm about a third of the way through the second front of the cardigan, so it's chugging along nicely.

Speaking of which ... I think I'll get back to that.

I love summer!

It's been another one of those glorious weekends, playing in the dirt.

I did opt to take out the waterfall, so my pond's back to just a small fountain.


I will be working in that area behind the pond over the next couple weekends. My fern (currently clear back in the corner, in front of the gnome - you can barely see it) is doing very nicely ...


... last year, when I first planted it, it only had about 3 fronds on it, so it looked kind of puny. But it's planted in a very difficult place, in fairly poor soil (this was planted before I'd 'gotten' the whole conditioning of the soil thing), so I'm thinking about moving it up, right to the edge of the pond in that empty space where the waterfall base was. I think it would look nice there, hanging over the edge of the pond (and hopefully when it gets big enough, camouflaging the pump cord and maybe even the outlet box). The lilac's in the middle of a three-year serious pruning, in an attempt to get it back to being more compact and shrubby, so that it will bloom better, and the blooms won't be clear up on the top of it, 10 feet in the air. If I succeed, then anything planted directly behind it - like the fern is now - won't be visible in a few years anyway.

I didn't want to get rid of the waterfall components completely, though, so I moved them and did this.




I kinda like this, and I like having a second small water feature in the yard. As a bonus, Greg's kids can play in this one to their heart's content. They are fascinated with my pond, but I always have to disappoint them by telling them they can't play in it. Now they'll have a water fountain all their own. It's final resting place will be a few feet back from where it is now, and then we are going to plant some things around it, too, to give it a more settled, permanent appearance.

Meanwhile, back at the pond - I have that tall evergreen thing on the left-hand side. Its branches were growing all the way to the ground, but I noticed much of the bottom layer was half dead. Not to mention the big dead hole in the side of it where I pulled up one of the round evergreen shrubs which had been growing too close to this one.


While poking around I discovered this had a nice sturdy trunk, and I thought, if I trim off these dead bits on the bottom, it'll just make it look more like a little tree. So I did that, and opened up all this space underneath it - not only hopefully making this shrub / tree healthier, but making more places to plant stuff around it. (and I can decorate it for Christmas this year!)


It's not exactly even, because I didn't want to trim it clear to the top of the dead spot - it would have been too much. Hopefully over time that will fill in, or ... it won't, and I'll just have a lopsided tree.

There's a large oak sapling growing behind it, self-seeded from the other backyard trees. Since it's reached such a decent size I think I'm going to plant it out front. But I'm not ready to transplant it yet (that's a project for another weekend), so it's going to live here until I am.

I got my vines planted - morning glories (which bloom in the morning) and moonflower (which blooms at dusk) intermingled. Lisa was right - the shells on these seeds are so hard that they need something to help them along - cutting or sanding them slightly, or soaking in warm water for several hours, which is the route I chose. But then I didn't get to plant them Saturday, and didn't want to leave them soaking too long, so I placed them between damp paper towels for storage until today. I'd read that was a good thing to do with seeds right before planting anyway. It seems to have worked, some of them have cracked open and have tiny tips poking out, so that's a good sign.


We'll see how they do, direct planted in their new home. I don't think the spot gets nearly enough sun, so they may not do so well ... but that's okay. If not, I'll find something else to plant in that spot next year. It's all a big ongoing experimentation!

I bought a fern for the porch.


This is the hugest potted fern I've ever seen, and it was only $10. I love these airy ferns on the porch in the summer, it makes it look so tropical. When I've had these before, I usually just let them die off in the fall, because they aren't perennial outdoors here (I don't think, anyway) and I have no place inside to let it live for the winter.

I also bought another lined hanging basket, just because I love these types of planters (lined with the coco matting or whatever it is), but when I got it, had nothing to plant in it. Then I found a hanging basket of this calibrachoa - this is the same stuff I planted in the fence basket behind the pond, only that version was purple. I saw these and really liked them, and knew they would look wonderful in my new basket, so ... another planting.


I've invested a lot in annuals this year, which has it's good points and bad points. On the good side, they're relatively inexpensive, bloom profusely till late frost, and quickly fill out empty places, while waiting for my new perennials to take hold and grow. The only down side is that none of them come back the following year, so I have to do this all over again. I think it's a good trade for small areas and hanging baskets. Perennials are nice to fill larger areas, and as accents, but I think (with my limited reading about them, no actual experience) many of them don't have very long bloom times. Although it seems like they are starting to come out with more perennials that bloom for longer during the summer. The Johnson's Blue hardy geraniums I bought are supposed to bloom most of the summer till frost, as are the Alaska Shasta daisies. When choosing my first perennials, I tried to pick ones with longer bloom times, but as I move around the yard filling in different areas, I think I will be branching out further into the art of mixing plants with all different bloom times, to have a varied and changing garden throughout the year.

But I'll probably always use annuals for instant and constant bloom along the borders of beds, and for the porch planters and hanging baskets.

And last but certainly not least, Greg was busy building the third and final phase of the patio.

So there it is, all completed. That last bit is for us to stack our firewood on for the brazier. As far as I know it isn't getting built any larger, because the next big scheme is to put in raised beds from the end of the patio along the side of the garage - Greg wants to plant some vegetables.

My dream is slowly becoming a reality ... to have all but a few tiny patches of my backyard planted and pathway'd and patio'd and landscaped into my own little garden paradise. And when I get done with the backyard, I'll start on the front.

Hmmm ... I think for my next backyard project I'll design the 'knitting garden.' Speaking of which - it's 2:50 p.m., and my plans for the rest of the day consist of a shower, and some knitting.