Revenge of the Sock Loom

One of my most popular posts of all time is The Sock Loom: No Thanks. The post has sparked a lively online debate about this little device, which is supposed to allow you to knit socks with very little knitting ability and a minimum of counting and marking of stitches.  As I said in the original post, I found the thing to be nothing short of a torture device, with sharp edges that cut into my stomach when I hold it while I watch TV, and an annoying tendency to drop stitches and create a run no matter how loosely I wrap the yarn or how carefully I work it.

It has been suggested that I try some of the many plastic looms on the market.  Let me assure you, I have tried.  I just counted, and I have at least six round plastic loom, one long "racetrack" shaped loom, and a small wooden one whose purpose escapes me at the moment.  Although these are kinder on one's fingers and stomach when knitting, I still find it difficult to make anything other than a tube or a rectangle with these looms. Now, to be fair, most of my knitting with needles involves tubes and rectangles, but then why do I need a loom?

The thought occurs to me that I should think of my stock of looms as prepper supplies.  If the zombie apocalypse comes, I will have enough looms to put many people in the neighborhood to work.  I'm not terribly worried about running out of yarn, because, based on the knitters I know, I do believe there is enough yarn currently stored in existing knitters' stashes to keep the entire world supplied with sweaters and socks for the foreseeable future.  That is, if we can all figure out how to knit something other than tubes and rectangles.

So tell me (especially if you haven't weighed in on the original post), have you tried a knitting loom? Do you like yours, or is it old school sticks for you?

And the Rest of the Set-up

Forgive the rather impressionistic and broody picture, but this is to demonstrate that yes, I have a giant plant incubator sitting in my dining room.  And no, I'm not sorry.

I had to laugh at this thing; it's an indoor/outdoor standing cold frame that allows you to grow plants inside their own sheltered little environment while the weather is cold.  What it looks like is an old-school incubator like they used to use for infants born early back when I was a baby.  (They do a much better job today.)

The ultimate plan is to move this into the sunroom to shelter my little seedlings while we are on vacation this spring, then use it outside for a while to harden off my garden plants.  But right now, both areas are too cold for seedlings, so I'm putting my baby peppers and, soon, some baby tomato plants, in there with their heating mat to get a good start in life.

I'm completely out of my mind, I know.  But I love my plant babies.  :-)

Note:  I received a recent question at my Etsy store, where you can buy some of the seeds that I am currently starting, about whether it is too late yet to plant.  Generally, if you are in zone 6 and north, you can easily start your peppers this month and grow right along with me.  If you wish to do so, look for the Etsy link over at your right; don't forget to post pictures in the blog comments when your little plant babies get started too!

And So It Begins...

I'd like to say it hasn't been too bad of a winter so far.  There hasn't been a lot of snow yet, and we were lucky enough to get away over Christmas, so I was cruising into February feeling pretty good.  But some family emergency cropped up that was very stressful (things are much better now), and I am very glad to finally get back to planting seeds.

As usual, my first seeds in the pots are paprika seeds from my own plants.  (If you want to grow along with me, follow that Etsy link over at the right and you'll find the seeds in my store.)  The paprikas take a while to sprout, so they are the first to get going.

This year, I'm trying something new.  I've started my seeds in their larger nursery pots with seed starting medium,  rather than using the small peat pellets I usually do.  My concern is that the peat isn't providing enough nutrients nor enough growing room for the little roots, and I'm also hoping to avoid at least one repotting along the way.  Since every repotting does a bit of damage to the roots, eliminating one should help.

I also treated myself to a heating mat this year to help the plants stay warm while they sprout.  Previously, I relied on the position of the pots over my dishwasher, which keeps them fairly warm, but this year I wanted to experiment with the heating mat.  I have also purchased a cold frame-type "incubator," and I'll share that with you soon.

Here's hoping for healthy plants and big harvests, very soon!

When Spending is Saving

Living sustainably is a balancing act.  Often, I prioritize financial saving over other kinds of saving, but there comes a point at which is it unrealistic not to take the big picture into consideration.

Take our picture window, for instance.  Our house was built in 1965, meaning it is 50 years old this year.  And when we bought it, it had the original window in it -- it still did as late as last week.

The old window was single pane glass in a series of frames that had seen better days.  The wind leaked through the cracks, and we lost a ton of heating and air conditioning energy through that window.  We knew we needed to replace it.

Unfortunately, no company was willing to reconstruct the original window in a way that maintained the architectural integrity of the window for the house (including the angle of the "lights" and the cross pieces on the inside), or they still wouldn't maintain the architecture but wanted to charge us north of $10,000 to do the job.

Luckily, we found a company who would do the job for less than a third of that.  They offered master carpenters, good materials, and a great work ethic.  Our window is now energy efficient and architecturally compatible with the rest of the 1965 house.  We are no longer wasting energy, but we didn't waste money for the job.

If you are in the Dayton, Ohio, area, may I recommend Window Depot and Addis Construction.  Tell them FC&G sent you!