Seeds for 2009

The seed catalogs have been rolling in ever since Christmas. I finally broke down last night and ordered some because there were two things I really wanted for my garden in 2009: golden beets and red dragon carrots.

I looked through the catalogs and decided to order from Peaceful Valley because their packets were $1.99, and they the price if you order more than 5 packets, and if you only order seeds, shipping starts at $2. It seemed like everything was meant to be. They had golden beets and dragon carrots from Seeds of Change in the catalogue. I picked out a few other things and then went to order online. Would you believe, that both golden beets and dragon carrots were out of stock! I checked on Seeds of Change, but their note on the dragon carrots says that there is no seed as of 12/31/08. What a bummer. After seeing the dragon carrots on Dan's site this summer I really wanted to plant them next year. So I paged through the other catalogs at my fingertips and found some Purple Haze Hybrid Carrots, and Burpee's Golden beets. They were more expensive and shipping was more, but I really wanted these two things.

Here are my new seeds for 2009:

Burpee Golden Beet
Purple Haze Carrot
National Pickling Cucumber
Tatsoi
Blue Lake Bush Beans (oops, I meant to order pole!)
Freckles Lettuce
Yellow Chard: Pot of Gold
Arugula

I'll be using these seeds left over from 2008 (and years past)

Bright Lights Rainbow Chard
Dark Green Bush Zucchini
Chantenay Red Core Carrots (though they didn't have a red core)
Danver's Carrots
Oak Leave Lettuce
Longstanding Bloomsdale Spinach
Romano Bush Beans
Lacinato Kale
Santo Cilantro
Bouquet Dill
Ruby Queen Beets
Cherrybelle Radishes
Catskill Long Island Brussels Sprouts
Sugar Daddy Sugar Snap Peas
There maybe more seeds in the jar that never made it on my list and I'll find them tucked in there come spring.

Also this year I saved seeds from my marigolds and nasturtium. I also saved a few tomato seeds from some heirlooms from the store but I'm not sure I have the set up to start them properly. Maybe I'll give it a try anyways. I do plan to have tomatoes and a few hot peppers, but will need seedlings. I'd like broccoli too but probably won't start it from seed either since I only have room for a few plants. The garden plan is still very much up in the air.

P.S. In writing this post I looked back at Dan's site, and he said he found them on Seed Savers Exchange. I checked there and they are available on that site, but I'd already placed my other orders. I don't really need purple AND red carrots in addition to the orange varieties still in the refrigerator from last year. So I guess Dragon Carrots will have to wait for another year.

Frost

It has been wonderfully wintery lately with plenty of snow and chilly temperatures. We've had fresh snow every few days since we returned from our Christmas holiday. I've received many seed catalogues in the mail, but otherwise nothing is happening on the gardening front. Instead I'm enjoying the new snow by cross-country skiing whenever I can get away from school right after the students leave. There's a short window since students leave around 3:30 pm and the sun sets around 4:30 pm. Luckily this week we start our winter sports program with the students and I'll be taking a group cross-country skiing Wednesday afternoon. I don't get quite as much exercise this way, but it is still a lot of fun.

On the craft front, I'm trying to get moving on my sweater I started back on the fall. I thought I was close to finishing the body. Instead,it has been a many rows forward and a many rows back lately. I missed a line in the pattern to start ribbing and so knitted all Saturday morning during a training, only to figure out that evening that the 50 rows had to be taken out. I already have my eye on another sweater pattern I'd like to try, but I need to finish this one first. I've also started a scarf for myself. The last scarf I made myself was sometime back in 2003. I'm over due for a new one. I'll post more about it when I'm a little further along.

Koolhaas Hat

I decided this Fall that after Christmas knitting projects finished it would be time for a new hat and scarf for myself. On our journeys over the Christmas holiday, we stopped in a Tuesday Morning store in Georgia. As we browsed, I found two skeins of lovely purple angora and wool yarn by Elsebeth Lavoid that was half price. I scooped it up.

After adding it to my stash on Ravelry, I looked to see what projects others had made with the same yarn. I found an intriguing pattern called Koolhaas with a waffle like pattern on the hat. I had to wait until we returned home to start the hat since I didn't have the right size needles along. As soon as we were home, I cast on the pattern. Today was a snow day so I got to finish it up.
The first time I knit through the ribbing and decided the hat would be too big. The last hat I made for myself doesn't fit snug enough and so I don't wear it. So I tore it out and started again with 88 stitches instead of the 104 in the pattern. I also used size 7 needles instead of 8 because I didn't want to go out and buy another set of needles. The pattern called for 4 repeats of the waffle pattern for women, but I made 5 because I really wanted to make sure that the hat could be pulled down to cover all of my ears in cold weather. The pattern is a slow knit because of all the cabling, but I'm happy with the way it's turned out. Best of all, it covers my ears!

Jaywalker Socks

Ever since I joined Ravelry back in April, I'd had the Jaywalker sock pattern down as one that I wanted to try. I just needed self-stripping sock yarn for the pattern. After making 9 pairs of mini-mittens, I had most of a skein of green, white & grey self-stripping sock wool left. As I knit the foot, it seemed baggy to me after making so many of the Francie socks, but it turned out just fine. The sock pairs turned out similar in their pattern because the yarn happened to be close in the pattern repeats when I started the second sock.
The past a pair of socks has taken me about a month. I started these on Christmas day, and finished them less than a week later, on New Year's Eve. I knit them so fast because we had lots of time sitting and visiting with family, and traveling in the car. In fact, I've finished up all the knitting projects I brought along and we haven't made it back home yet. Next Christmas I'll bring more knitting.

Here is a detail of the zig-zag pattern.

Sarah's Francie Socks

Sarah's Christmas present was these purple Francie Socks. I made them with Knitpicks Essential Kettle Dyed Eggplant. One sock has more of the kettle dyed look than the other, but it's not too noticable. She knew she was getting socks, so I asked her to measure her foot. She replied that she didn’t have a ruler yet and so she measured her foot on college ruled paper. She was 32.5 lines. :)

It turns out that I just have to knit the socks to where the arch shaping stops and then it’s time to shape the toe. When I made them for myself I was fearful of them being too long since I have rather small feet. I ended the arch shaping early. However after trying on my sister’s socks, I find that it would still work for me too. Next time I’ll finish the arch shaping for myself.

Since she's in China and can't model them for me, I modeled them for the picture below. I'm sure they'll look great on her feet too. The picture below is a more accurate representation of the color than the one at the top.
These took me exactly one month, I started them Oct 15th and finished Nov 15th. I think I'm becoming a faster knitter, and I'm also devoting more time to it during the week so that I can get projects done. I've waited until now to post them because I didn't want to spoil the surprise for her.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your family are enjoying a Merry Christmas!