༺ Thinking About Gardening ༻

As the sun warms the days, my mind is turning to thoughts of the upcoming gardening season. I reviewed my 2010 notes, remembering when I started planting, the wind and hail that took tender early crops, and the successful pumpkin vines. What will this year bring?

We are still enjoying food from last year's efforts. I cooked up the last two pumpkins yesterday, creating roasted pumpkin seeds first, then using the steamed pumpkin to make quick bread. Today I used last year's cucumbers in a pasta salad. The juice they were stored in gives the salad a nice zing. Salsa continues to be enjoyed, and the dried hot peppers bring spice to life! We recently ran out of onions and frozen carrots. Hopefully the 2011 season will allow us to put as much food by.

The garden has a new coating of compost, which gave me something invigorating to do on warm winter days. Shoveling, turning, and carrying heavy shovel fulls of compost is actually a pretty good workout! The rototiller stands ready to turn the soil, which is a sure sign that plants will soon be enjoying the garden soil.


I'm ready to get outside and put on gardening gloves. Last fall I planted some garlic bulbs, so I keep walking by the garden looking over to see if they are popping up yet. It is windy today, which warms up the air. I think I'll go take a peek at the garlic row right now !

♪ The Horse Hair and the Frog ♪

The violin bow hold is something of an art. Relaxed hand. Curved thumb. Bent pinky. Arranging the hand can be a gymnastic challenge to master.

My violin educational resources include YouTube videos made by people who seems to know what they are talking about. RedDesertViolin and ProfessorV are two that I have learned a lot from so far.

The geography of where each finger is supposed to be on the bow is explained very well in RedDesertViolin's video. Not only is the instruction good, the finger positions are easy to see and understand. Making my fingers do it is another story though ! In the above picture, my index finger is too far forward, and the pinky is certainly not bent. More to improve on !!

Violin practice sessions give me a number of things to work on. I have to learn how to hold the violin and how to get my left hand fingers positioned to play notes. I also have to focus on musical elements such as tempo, volume, and how to phrase notes with the bow. Plus, I need to strengthen the muscles needed to accomplish it all. After initial soreness, it is satisfying to see the muscles improving and helping me move as I need to.

ProfessorV's version of the same bow hold instructions reinforces what I need to learn. His voice is soothing and gives me hope that my bow hand will soon be doing the correct grasp !

(The bow string is made of horse hair, and the black part at the base of the bow is called the frog)

༺ Rose, Bouquet & Violin ༻

January was full of adventures here at the farm. I continued to work on my perfect goat's milk soap recipe, finally got some patterns written, and have started learning to play the violin !

The sound of the violin has always a favorite of mine. It seems sweet yet powerful somehow. I had played the clarinet in my youth, so taking on a different instrument sounded like something I could do. This violin was a find from Craig's List. It is a student model, but I think it sounds lovely. Some beginner books, DVDs, and many YouTube videos later, I'm actually playing scales and songs after only a few weeks. It is fun !!

My other recent accomplishment has been getting crochet patterns written for my popular roses and bouquet wraps. I had been asked many times if I offered these patterns for sale, so once I had a few weeks to give the task some attention, I finally got them written and posted in my etsy shop's pattern section.

I made this arrangement a few years ago after finding this pretty vase at the dollar store. I thought it was such a pretty ivory color with gold accents. Roses can be put in vases like this, or in bouquet wraps, or even just given as single stem gifts.

Next I'm back to working on soap. I have a good recipe with hibiscus and lavender flowers that I just need to get poured into a log mold and cut. That's my next goal for the winter !

❤ What Makes You Smile? ❤

This time of year one of my favorite things to do is to dig through my small stash of holiday decorations and wrapping materials in search of treasures. As I unwrap the breakables I am smiling and enjoying each of my little festive figures.

Each one brings back memories of special people and the happy times we spent together over the years. This Santa is ceramic but he looks like carved wood. I imagine he's bringing this pine tree in from the woods.

Here are my other Santa figures plus a cute Santa mug. We had a set of Santa mugs when I was a kid, and when I found a pair at a garage sale a few years ago I was so happy !!

Besides Santa figures I also enjoy Snowmen. My siblings and I usually made Snowmen as part of our day of play after a big snowfall. We also sledded and made snow angels. Generally we got very cold and got some exercise, but that's not the part I remember as much.

Snowmen look jolly and happy I think. They wear nifty scarves and hats, and have carrot noses. Here are my little figures, which each year remind me of all the fun snow can be.

I hope all my family and friends are enjoying their own holiday traditions this year and making lots of their own smiles.

༺ Knit Bonnet with Ear Flaps ༻

What are you working on this winter? I'm trying to knit my perfect dream hat !! Here is how it is progressing so far...

This is a prototype of the hat I want to create. It has some flaws, but also some great features. Let me explain.

An age-old problem I've always had with hats is that they usually completely flatten my bangs. Any regular beanie hat annoys me that way. Either that, or they don't keep me warm, such as a hood with flappy open sides. I want a hat that can be layered under a hood or bulky scarf, yet can stand alone when it isn't too cold outside.

I found some bandanna hat patterns and bonnet hat ideas. These seemed closer to what I was thinking of, so I decided I'd try building from a basic form and create just what I wanted.


This hat works pretty well. My bangs stay nice, it keeps my ears warm, and there is room in the back for my hair. I even found a nice acrylic yarn that is actually warm and not scratchy.


I do need to fix a few things. The flaps don't lay perfectly yet, and when putting it on there is a moment of confusion as to which side is the front and which is the back. These challenges are being worked out in my next attempt to knit the perfect dream hat !!

Someday when I've created a good model I'll list these hats in my etsy shop. Hopefully someone else out there is looking for a knitted aviator ear flap hat too !!

☂ Beanie Hat ☂

What to do with extra sock yarn? I'm trying a few projects, including using the yarn to knit a beanie hat. This one is knit on a size 2, 20" circular needle. I think I might try an even smaller needle next time to create a tighter weave. Knitting involves a lot of trial and error !

The pattern I'm using starts at the brim. I cast on 128 stitches, then joined in the round. After a rib pattern of K2, P2 for 5 inches, I changed to K4, P2. I'll continue this way for a total of 12 inches. Then I'll start the decreases for the crown.


I think next time I'll do a few rounds of Purl periodically to add more interest and to smooth out where the ribbing pattern changes. Every project just feeds ideas for the next, or so it seems !!

♪ I'm Expanding ♪

Nope, not in the weight department. Been there, done that !

What I do mean is that my etsy shop will soon feature more types of items. Previously my focus was only on crocheted flower products. I had patterns, plus finished flowers, bouquets, arrangements, appliques, etc. As my readers have seen, over the past year I have begun dabbling with knitting and soap making. So I decided my shop should start including more items from these new craft interests.

My shop name used to be "Crochet Bouquet'. To better reflect my product expansion I have changed it to "Fiber & Suds". Just to be clear, the suds part refers to soap, not home brewed beer ! Who knows though, that might be in my future.

It will take time to add knit and soap items to the shop however. Knitting takes a great deal more time than making crocheted flowers. I haven't decided what to post exactly, but it will come to me. The soap will be of the goat's milk variety, both scented and unscented. Soap has to age before it ships, so these products will also take time to establish.

So stay tuned and thanks for keeping up with all the crafty activity coming from our Colorado farm !