Planting dates

I decided that this year, I will do a better job of keeping track of planting dates, along with noting which company the seeds were from, and how they ended up doing/tasting. I set up a spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets.

This morning I planted seeds for chives, peas, radishes, dill, and a few hollyhocks. It's early, but seeds are cheap, so I figured why not?

Yarn ball winder

Look what I got for Christmas!

Crochet stocking

Right before leaving for my parents' house to celebrate Christmas, I grabbed some bulky red and white yarn to crochet a stocking for my dog, Chimera.

There was a toy in it on Christmas Eve. Thanks, Santa!

2015 goal review, plan for 2016

My goals for 2015 were set at a pretty low bar. I attained all of them except for visiting 2 alpaca farms, but I intentionally put those on the back burner. I'd still love to have alpacas on my future homestead, but 1) it's a much lower priority compared to raising produce, chickens, and rabbits, which are all much easier to get into, and 2) I want to live in the Tri-Valley, which is probably too hot in the summer for alpacas to be happy, so I might need to give up on that idea.

Let's set goals for 2016 which are attainable, but will force me to stretch a bit more:

• Implement a new marketing strategy for my dog training business each quarter. (This will be a challenge!)
• Watch at least 24 hours' worth of dog training DVDs from my stack. (2 hours each month - doable, right??)
• Observe or help with chicken slaughter, to gain hands on experience.
• Practice sewing/crafting with rabbit hides. I have a small stack of prepped hides but haven't done anything with them yet.
• Learn more about fiber. Hopefully take a spinning class AND see about volunteering on someone's farm on alpaca shearing day.
• Sew up the 3 pattern and fabric sets that have been sitting in my closet for a year. I just finished up a 3 day, intensive pants class at Stonemountain and want to make multiple pairs of pants from my new personalized pattern.
• Generally speaking, set aside larger chunks of time for myself, particularly for sewing.
• Continue cooking, gardening, crocheting.

Christmas crochet presents

Baylee Bear Cowl:

I modified the pattern to widen the bottom section, so that it fits loosely over the shoulders. I also used a different stitch (ripple stitch) to add texture to the hood, so it would be more interesting. This is for my sister, to keep her warm during Burning Man nights.


Basket Weave Headband:

This was also for my sister to wear to festivals. I wanted to make a headband that used some of the feathers my hens had dropped while growing up. I first chose the yarn to match these feathers from the Rhode Island Red. I used the basket weave pattern, then added small black beads and copper ornaments. I am so in love with the matching button with four marks, sticking up just like the four feathers.


Egg Cozies:

My parents and I like to eat fresh boiled eggs, usually 2 per meal. Now we can keep the extra eggs warm. I made this pattern myself. I kept the one on the left and gave a set of the one on the right to my parents.


Kitty Collars:

These are for my sister's boyfriend's 2 cats. I made the pattern myself. I think I'm going to write it up and try to sell it on Ravelry. (Though I need to take nicer pictures first!)

Recently finished crochet projects

They all needed buttons, but now they're finished!

Lacy Cowl:

This didn't quite come out right. When I brought the two sides together to sew the buttons on, I realized that the right side is taller than the left side. (You can see it in the top photo.) I have no idea how that happened. It bothers me enough that I might frog and redo this entire thing.


Petite Scarf:

It's okay. This was actually one of the earliest pieces I made; I just hadn't gotten around to putting a button on it.


Margaret Button Cowl:

Simple but warm and elegant. I've already gotten a number of compliments on it.


Crocodile Stitch Booties:

These are fun. The lighting here is terrible but the colors made a sort of pink camo print. My only problem with the pattern is that it asks you to tightly pull together 6 stitches to close the top of the slipper section, which is difficult to do and looks messy.

Zipper replacement

Last year the dogs chewed on my down jacket because I'd left it hanging over a chair with a few treats in the pocket. Surprisingly, they only messed up the zipper and did not actually put a hole in the fabric, which they mostly just licked. Yesterday I finally sat down to replace the zipper. The most time consuming part of this was using the seam ripper to remove the old zipper. I then proceeded to sew in the first half of the new zipper, and I was happy with my handiwork:

I even put a binding over the edge of the zipper. Good job, me!

Then it was time to unzip the new zipper and pin it to the other side of the jacket and I realized...

I'd purchased the wrong type of zipper. This one did not separate.

So I used the seam ripper to remove the new zipper as well, and put in an order for a separating zipper. Lesson learned.