Adventures in Knitting

I have known how to knit for quite a few years but unfortunately my "skills" did not expand past knitting in a straight line. That is, I could make a mean scarf but that's about it. So years and and many dozens of scarves later I decided I need to get out there! Meet some new patterns! Some new techniques! I'm a nice person, I deserve to meet a nice winter hat or an adorable baby sweater.
So I did it. I ventured out into the unknown, knowing I may be disappointed and come home, alone. I searched many venues; magazines, the internet, my Mom's long lost patterns. Many things were too involved, being a newbie, I needed something simple - regular needles (none of this knitting in the round stuff), and if the pattern had 15 abbreviations before I got to something I understood - we let that one go too.
Finally I found my match. This baby right here. It takes regular knitting needles and basic skills: knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, binding off. The only issue has been trying to comprehend the directions. Every company/person writes patterns differently and sometimes I read something and think to myself, "what the hell did I just read? We are knitting and not taking apart a car engine, right?"
Aside from those minor road blocks it has been going very well! I've only had to back track and take out stitches a few times and I can generally see a sweater coming together.
I know you've been waiting in suspense for some progress photos so I won't make you wait any longer:
I know what you're saying, "um, this looks like three teeny scarves with two screwed up sides." You're right, this proves nothing of my new found skills quite yet. I promise though, this is the back and two front pieces of the cute little sweater I will bring with me to California. So I am on a deadline people! I best get myself knittin'!

A Trip for Two!

Do you see this face? Do you? Cause I get to see this face, up close and in person in two short weeks! (Click on the picture to see the fantastic drool puddle beginning on her mouth.)

Yup that's right! I bought myself a plane ticket to go visit this little lady where she now resides in sunny Napa, California. As you may recall, she entered this world in this somewhat less glamourous state Sorry to any readers out there in Idaho, but come on, this is Napa we're talking about!
So I am not only excited to see this:

Sorry, my sister JUST got a computer so now I have to catch up on almost 4 months worth of baby

But I am also extremely excited because The Boy is coming right along with me! He and I have been dating almost four years and other than my younger sibling, he has not met either of the others. So the awesomeness of this event is like gazillion fold!
Oh yeah, did I mention that my older brother will also make the trek up from San Diego?!
Monumental I tell you! Monumental!

This Week on The Pale Gardener...

After the MANY votes of my poll were counted, verdict says that the blog will be a nice mish-mash of information. Frankly guys, thanks for getting me off the hook because it is MUCH easier to write blogs about well, whatever the heck I feel like, than about gardening in late February. "So today I watered!" Yeah, not interesting.

So what do I hope to accomplish at some point this coming week? Blog plans include:

- Show you all my knitting skills while I continue to work on an awesome little sweater for this adorable little cutie!

- Share some stories about my fun trip to Maine last week.

- Tell of an upcoming trip.

- Enjoy Thanksgiving and family and maybe even get some awesome food shots up here afterwards.

Short work week for us lucky ones! I hope you all enjoy it!

My Real-life-Translating-to-Blog Resolutions...

Resolutions are sometimes an evil beast. You make these promises to yourself, are extremely happy when you accomplish them, but if you don't, pssh let down city here we come. So let's preface this post with the thought that I'll probably let myself down at least once.

*Sigh*

OK, now that I have that out of the way.

As my astute readers, I'm sure you've noticed and I've alluded to the fact that I am no longer in an apartment. So the whole, "what happens when you mix a garden lover with an apartment complex," thing isn't so much applying anymore.
So I said to myself, "self, what should we do about this predicament?"
Well, self must be in indecisive mode because she was worthless for definitive answers. But here are some thoughts about the where the heck I can go with this here blog:

- Still be garden-focused but now it can be more open-space gardening and include a disclaimer that gardening only happens here in the Northeast U.S. a few short months of the year, so be ready for random jibber-jabber?

- Rock the houseplant route for a while. There is something to be said about having all of your plants originally in a centrally, gas-heated, Southwest facing apartment only to move them into a wood stove heated (read extremely dry air), Northeast-ish facing house. That is quite the change for creatures of habit like hibiscus, begonia, etc.

- Go for a bit crafty. I have picked up knitting again (having a new baby in the family will do that to you). And I now have a place where I can use a sewing machine that isn't in a closet and I have a "summer" dress just itching to be made. (OK soo late on that one, but I can always wear it next summer, right?)

- Don't change a darn thing about the page and hope no one will notice.

- Mix it all into one! Hey, the cold winter is so on its way and I will need anything and everything to keep my sanity so whatever I wanna post, damnit, I will post!


What do you all think? What would you like to see? Or have you forgotten I existed and only clicked this page by accident?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Lunch Lady Patsy and Janitor Willie!*

Oh what's that? Halloween was days ago? I know. I just thought I should follow suit with the rest of my slackerness. Don't want to go changing it up too much on you guys! Whoa!

Tomorrow you can bet there will be a real, live, (not to be confused with the undead) post.
Promise.
Until then, please enjoy a picture of my little brother on Halloween. This picture brings tears to my eyes every time I look at it. That is how hard I'm laughing. I'm actually laughing at it right now. Please, do yourself a favor and click on Rodeo Steve to get the full-sized, full effect of his beauty.

*Bonus points to whoever picks out the sweet reference on our costumes (hint: you can only really see it on mine)

Pond Fun

If you remember way, way back to the Spring, (yes, I know, it seems absolutely forever ago, especially now that it's in the 30's when I wake up in the morning!) the E.S. Garden had a pond that looked like this:

My Dad modeling nicely for us

Now here we are, the middle of October and it looks more like this:

There is a pond in there, somewhere, I promise

So you might say it's a bit overgrown. The plan was to dig this out and make it into a nice little area with a bank and even an island! This was a project we just didn't get to this year. Mostly because it never dried up down there! Ever! The entire summer, that area was at the very least soaking wet. This is very unusual. Usually the froggies have long packed up and moved to wetter ground by July. This year I think we had a froggie family reunion going on in our pond! We must have had two dozen frogs in there at one point and some of them were no little teeny things either. I always liked walking along the path around the pond and hearing all the frogs in front of me jump into the water with a big *thunk!* as I approached their lounging area.
So the hope is next year we'll have a few weeks of dry land so we can dig out this here pond because darnit I want to iceskate on it in the winter!
The Boy and I recently took a peruse around the pond and snapped a few pictures in the process:


And here are our goof-asses enjoying some pond fun:

What do You Get When You Cross a Turnip With a Cabbage?

The rutabagas are one of a few veggies that did absolutely awesome in the E.S. Garden this year. They have been poking out of the soil like this for quite some time now but we were waiting for a frost to pluck any of them up to devour. They always taste much better after a good frost has hit.
Now, you may be thinking, "what the heck can I do with a rutabaga?" They are a bit obscure in mainstream cooking so I am always trying to find new ways to prepare the rutabaga. One of my favorite ways to cook them is to mix them with potatoes and make a mashed rutabaga/potato mixture. It's extremely simple to make.

Jess' Rutabaga/Potato Mixture o' Deliciousness

- a few potatoes
- a few rutabagas
(usually about half and half is what I like to do)
- cook them like you would cook potatoes to mash them
- add some milk and butter or whatever you like to add to your potatoes
- salt, pepper and some parsley
- mmm, mmm, you're good to go!

Any other favorite rutabaga recipes out there? Shoot em' my way, I'm always looking for ways to cook them, and as you can see we have quite a few to use for experiments!