Double Agent - Individual Pattern Release

Due to overwhelming demand, Double Agent has just been released as an individual pattern!   You can now purchase this pattern separately or as part of the Fancy Foot Bags collection.

Available via Ravelry - $3.50 
or
Fancy Foot Bags Collection $15.00 

Fancy Foot Bags Sock Pattern Collection Now Available!

I'm proud and excited to announce that Fancy Foot Bags is now available for purchase via Ravelry.
The collection includes 5 sock patterns: Dance Lessons with McGonagall, Double Agent, Firewhiskey, Greenhouse 3 and Weep, Dive and Wail.

Those of you who purchased Firewhiskey in it's original release are eligible for $3.00 off the collection purchase price (no sense in buying it twice!). To take advantage of this discount, please enter coupon code: Fire upon checkout.

Available via Ravelry - $15.00

New Pattern Available: Salty Pup Preemie-Child Hat

There are some things you can just count on – a black eye, a torn-out knee in his new jeans, the frog he forgot in his pocket, and eventually, having to wash his mouth out with soap.  Then there are the things you’ll never expect, like the one hat he wears until it wears out (or is lost) that you made for him.  Down-sized Salty Dog for the chip off the ole block.  Very elastic, for comfort.  Fold it, roll it, wear it slouched; a hat for every little man.

Sizes:

Preemie 12-14” (Newborn 14-16”, 6 Months 16-18”, 1 Year/Toddler 18-20”, Child 20-22”)

Yarn Requirements:

Approximately 170 yards of worsted weight yarn.
Shown in Cascade 220 Heathers
(220 yards, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, color: 2423 Montmartre).

Recommended Needles:

Size 5 (3.75mm) 16” circular needle and a set of double pointed needles (DPNs) in the same size

Gauge:

22 sts = 4” (10 cm) in stockinette stitch in the round.
Change needle size to obtain gauge.

Supplies:

Cable needle, tapestry needle for weaving in ends, ruler and a stitch marker.  Row counter may be helpful.

Stitches & Abbreviations Used:

K – Knit

P – Purl

C4F – slip two stitches onto cable needle and hold at front of work, knit two stitches, then knit stitches from cable needle.

C3F – slip two stitches onto cable needle and hold at front of work, knit one stitch, then knit stitches from cable needle.

K2TOG – Knit two together

*rep around – Repeat instructions from * to end of round.

Notes:  Hat is knit in the round, rim up.

Available via Ravelry - $3.00

Sneak Peek: Weep, Dive & Wail

Weep, Dive & Wail

Another toe up design for my sock pattern collection coming in June, here's Weep, Dive & Wail.

The collection is in final editing stages, and will be available for purchase through Ravelry.  It will include a total of five (5) designs:  Firewhiskey, Dance Lessons with McGonagall, Double Agent, Greenhouse 3 and Weep, Dive and Wail.

I will be sending out and posting notifications upon release. If you would like to be directly notified, be sure to sign up for my newsletter or subscribe to this blog.

I'm very excited about this collection and can't wait to share it with you all!

Spring 2013!

It's been a long time since I posted an update - sorry.  What have we been doing?  Nothing too exciting, which is why there haven't been many updates.

We gave Chica a hair cut - that's always amusing.  Poor thing.  Doesn't even look like the same dog.

We made some changes to the garden this year.  The first major change being the re-working of the potato boxes.  We simply haven't had much success with them, so we deconstructed the boxes and used the materials to make two more raised beds with built in centered trellises.  We will be using them this year for peas, and will be able to rotate different crops into them in future years.  Each box gives us roughly another 7 square feet of garden.

Secondly, this year, for the first time, we are doing planned staggered plantings.  What does that mean?  That means we are putting in a row of beans every two weeks, staggering the peas every two weeks, and likewise, lettuce and cucumbers.  The idea being that we will spread the yield out over a longer harvest period rather than having 9000 cucumbers all in one week.  All of our past staggered plantings were entirely unplanned panicked re-seedings based on plant loss because a certain dog would break into the garden and either eat everything or have a grand time digging.  We won't name names.

Finally, we've made changes to the watering system - mainly out of necessity as there were many parts that needed replacing due to a certain dog eating the sprayers. Yes, the same one that ate the plants and dug in the beds.  This year John devised a system with a central distribution hub with controlled flow and no sprayers.  The idea is to reduce Haley's attraction to the garden and to reduce overspray and keep the water bill down as we expect to have to water longer to combat the drought conditions.  

With the severe drought continuing, we are losing trees and bushes, so we're having to remove things.  We lost our Pear and Cherry trees.  We've determined that we are not fruit tree people and we need to stick to what we are successful with - tomatoes and carrots.  Neither of us is upset about losing our junipers, however it is a lot of work, and we end up with large brush piles that we are banned from burning.  Generally, we let them dry and then use the materials as kindling in the woodstove all winter.  The dogs also gain hours of entertainment deconstructing our piles and scattering branches back all over the yard.  Stupid wood chucks.

With the gardening season comes motorcycle season.  John has already been on several long rides.  Yesterday we went on our first ride of the year together.  John took me East of Albuquerque to the town of Madrid, about 100 miles round trip.  The weather was perfect.  It was great to get out again.

I've been maintaining an active teaching schedule at the yarn store through the Spring, however I'll be taking a break from it over the Summer.  I want to regroup and develop some new class offerings for Fall and Winter.  I'm actively designing and will be releasing a collection of sock patterns next month.  This has been a fun project for me.  John has been wonderfully helpful, not only as my photographer, but as my design editor as well.  He has a great eye for elements and layout and lets me bounce ideas off him.  He couldn't be more supportive, and I couldn't be more thankful.  I'm seriously considering branching into producing a line of project bags as well as a line of hand-painted yarns.  My downtime from teaching over the Summer will give me more time to weight these options.  I also have plans to produce another pattern collection in time for a Fall release, but we will see how much canning season impacts that as we generally start making salsa in August, about the time I'll have to knit samples for photography.

Anyhoo... that's the news from Green Bin Farm.  What's new with you?

Look Mom, No Cable Needle!

So, I'm working on the last design for the sock pattern collection I'm releasing in June, knitting up the last sample actually, and it has a cable.   I've heard a lot about cabling without a needle, and I've attempted it a couple of times (literally, like twice) and it really "wasn't my thing," but on this sock, I decided to give it another go.  I'm in love!  I don't know that I'll be using this technique for large complicated cables on bigger yarns (I'll eat these words later, I'm sure), but for this project, it's the perfect answer.  What inspired me to make the change?  Needle clutter.  See, I like to knit socks on DPNs.  Yes, I've tried other methods.  Double Pointed Needles are my "go to gadgets" for socks.  But throw in an extra needle for cables and things start to get complicated.  I found on this particular sock that I felt like I was missing a hand and trying to juggle needles.  I also learned that I needed to loosen my tension slightly in order to cable by this method, but for the ease and speed, that was an easy concession to make.  Here is a great video demonstrating cabling without a cable needle should you wish to give it a go: