Seamoss Forest Jumper - a gift of love

Here is an important post for me - my first ever knitted jumper (sweater, sorry I speak New Zealand now). 

Some people might say, why bother knitting a jumper?  You can buy a warm jumper for not very much money made in a factory.  But then that's what my gift would be - not very much.

First, when I visited home and my husband wasn't able to come - my sister showed me how to kettle-dye wool, and I chose then to make something for Shane. I wanted to choose both the blues and greens of the ocean, and also the deeper darker greens of the NZ bush (forest) - Forest Green, Avocado, Moss, Turquoise.  (To see the post on how Wendy kettle-dyed the wool with acid dyes, go here.  It was the way I showed my love for my husband who wasn't able to be there.



My sister also instructed me on how to knit the jumper when I got home - demonstrated circular knitting, which I hadn't done before, and showed me a diagram or two of Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system, and gave me a pattern based on this method.  I didn't really understand at the time, but took the info home with me.  I practiced and learned circular knitting on smaller projects, which I loved.  When I felt confident enough a few months later, I started the jumper.

(My sister-in-law Iris had also showed me her mother's old German lovely cast-on method as well on this trip, so I had learned some great tools.)

Here are the diagrams,  from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book - Knitting Without Tears:

 

Basically you use circular knitting to knit the trunk from the bottom up - knitting rib, then increasing by 10%.  You then keep knitting until you reach to just under the arms.  Then you put on hold 8% of the stitches (if there were 100 stitches around the girth that would be 8 stitches), which means pulling a large needle with some wool through them and tying a knot to save them until later.  

Then you put the whole trunk piece down, and knit the first sleeve from bottom (hand end) up to the armpit, starting with rib.  As you go you increase 2 stitches every 5th round so the arm piece gets fatter.  When you reach the armpit, you put 8% of stitches on hold (e.g. 8 stitches if it's 100 round girth) in the same way.  

Now this next part is really cool, and is how the sweater results in having NO seams except under the arms.  I had to call my sister to understand.  You put the whole thing now on the circular needles, both sleeves and the trunk, but not the cast off stitches, so that the outside of the sleeves and the trunk form one circle.  Then you just keep knitting upwards the one jumper in one piece - reducing in an exact location in front and behind arms.  That seam looking line from armpit to neck is a "reducing" pattern - not a seam.

Isn't that cool?

See, like this - the pink shows the circle that now goes onto your circular needles.

I had to do it to understand it - that's how I work.  But it also helps to have a knitting expert one phone call away!  I did have to "rip out" and reknit just about every section over again - until I did it right.  And it's still not perfect - I knitted this first jumper so tightly that I actually just barely ran out of wool so that I wasn't able to knit the back of the neck higher than the front as you are supposed to do at the end (you go back and forth at the back a few extra times before knitting the rib round the neck to finish).  I had to sew a little label inside so he knew which part was supposed to be the back of the jumper.  (However, Wendy says if it's knitted tightly it will last longer).

I knitted Shane's "NZ Seamoss Forest Jumper" on the rocks by the ocean while he fished, in the evenings, driving in the car.  Whenever he wears it now, he remembers all the love and effort that went into it - and that is the value of the gift.

 

 
The pattern I used for the NZ Seamoss Forest Jumper is on Ravelry in English here, "Joukahainen" designed by Kristel Nyberg - originally published in Finnish in Ulla 3/07.

To learn the German cast-on method of Iris Jones's mother showed me, see the video below.  It is a wonderful flowy method once you learn it - her mother's family knitted alot, and sold their knitting. Play it and practice it many many times, you'll soon get it - it is just a series of movements!  After each series of the movement shown, a knot is made perfectly on the needle.

Earthship Down

 

In 2005 a huge tsunami wiped out most of the population on Nicobar, Andaman Islands. Michael Reynolds and his crew went to help build housing after an urgent plea for help, as the needs of shelter, sanitation, clean water, were great. Earthship building, developed for people to be more self-sufficient for hard times in the future, was perfectly suited for these kinds of conditions.

This beautiful house is made from recycled materials - with earth rammed tires in a circle as the basis, then formed with bottles, concrete and earth.  It's a very independent little home as it collects rainwater from the roof, has self-contained sewage, and the biomass of the earth and tires regulate temperature.  This is a good idea at any time, but was especially useful for the urgent situation on the island after the tsunami of no utilities.

See above for a documentary about Michael Reynolds and creative and visionary architectural style - Garbage Warrior: Turning trash into treasure, a film by Oliver Hodge. 

 

Amazing Mazes Download

Kids  bored over the school holidays?  Try these:

Magic Elasmosaurus Maze
Click on maze for high quality image size.

Helicoprion Maze
Click on maze for high quality image size.

Primitive Shark Maze
Click on maze for high quality image size. 

Silly Snail Maze
Click on maze for high quality image size.

Nonnie's Gourmet Butternut Pumpkin Soup

After a frenetic summer, although my use of my energy in gardening is not very efficient yet - I have managed to store away a few huge beautiful butternut pumpkins grown from seed in my garden for use in the winter.  After feeding them with worm compost a few times, after they were grown I let their skins harden in the very strong New Zealand summer sun for a few weeks before storing them.

Today, I went down to my food storage room in the basement and found the largest one, after returning home from work, and made butternut pumpkin soup.  When cooked with some ginger, chicken stock I had made myself (was stored frozen), with spices added, a few vegetables from the fridge (a leek, a carrot), a bit of sauteed garlic and onion,  a dash of curry spices, and a small chunk of cream cheese melted in it - salted with natural mineral sea salt - it was awesome.  

As I cut the pumpkin up - the colour was bright orange, showing alot of good vitamin/food content.




Nonnie's Gourmet Butternut Pumpkin Soup

Cut up 1 large butternut pumpkin into chunks, and add to a huge pot partway with water, and some chicken stock, after the water boils.  (Try not to use too much water, so you don't have to pour too much nutrition away at the end.)

Cut up most of 1 leek (or whatever good green veggies you have in your fridge) and add to pot.

Cut up 1 carrot, add to pot.  

Peel a large chunk of ginger and throw it into the pot (to be retrieved later).

Put the lid on, for it to boil until soft.  

THEN cut up 1 onion, 1 large garlic clove, and a few slices of a hot pepper (I used a few slices from a large jalapeno pepper I had grown in my garden) and fry in oil until soft.

When the pumpkin and veggies are soft as well, it's basically ready to go.  Turn the elements off.  Take a look at the boiled pumpkin and veggies - guess how much water you should pour off so the soup won't be too runny.  (I would save the liquid you pour off in case you pour off too much.  This water has vitamins from the veggies in it - so it's better to add it back rather than new water.)  Then add the garlic/onion/chili mixture to the boiled veggies.  Fish the ginger chunk out.  Sprinkle curry spice across the top of the whole thing.  Throw in a few pinches of sea salt.  Now just blender it all up, one blenderful at a time - ladelling it in.

Pour the blendered soup into a different pot, adding a chunk of cream cheese to melt in the hot, new, vibrant and healthy orange spicy butternut pumpkin soup!  I put some coriander leaves on the top of each bowl of soup, and served with buttered soft white bread.

DAS clay

 

My elasmosaurus

  

Various creations

  

Troy Dale (7)

  

 Savannah Dale (18)

  Georgie MacDonald (7)

 

 

Even little kids can paint a shape from a mold (this is from a dragonfly cookie mould that Luke (5) pushed the clay into himself, and later painted by himself).

 

Phoebe Gibbins (5)

Terracotta coloured air drying clay.  We really enjoyed working with it - had a really good session.

It tends to dry out quickly when working with it – so have a bowl of water handy. (And toothpicks - and beads for eyes.) Very fragile until totally dry. Other than that, a very low-fuss clay for working with kids (and working with yourself.)

Paint with a high quality white primer first if you want your colours on the surface to be bright (I always steal a teaspoon of my husband’s expensive house renovation stuff.)

I also like how warm the terracotta clay looks, unpainted.  It reminds me of Etruscan art - they often used brown clay - full of warmth and life - compared to other cultures.  Even their art for burial focusses on life, not death. 

Sun Mother Wakes the World - an Australian Creation story. (Children's picture book.)

ADAPTED BY Diane Wolkstein    PICTURES BY Bronwyn Bancroft

Synopsis

The Sun Mother is awakened and comes down to the Earth.  The earth is still, with no colour, movement, or life.

Everywhere she goes, life flows after her - she goes into caves and wakes up life, which is reluctant to wake up until they see beautiful Sun Mother.  First the insects, then the lizards, frogs, snakes and fish, and in the coldest darkest cave the birds and animals.  (That makes sense to me, as it's a deeper pull from creation...) 

From the story:   

As Sun Mother entered the first dark cave, it was flooded with light. Witchetty grubs, beetles, and caterpillars cried, "Kkkkt! Why do you wake us?:

But when the crawling creatures opened their eyes and saw the beauty of Sun Mother, they followed her out of the cave. Insects of every colour and shape appeared, and the earth became more beautiful.

From the story:   

After resting, Sun Mother said, "My children, I woke you as a seed is woken in the spring.  Now that you are awake, I can return to my home in the sky."

Then, she returns to her place in the sky, and it is completely dark again.  The living creatures are all afraid for awhile - until they see her in the sky.  They soon realize she will come back, again and again in the sky.  But then they start to grumble, they aren't just content with life.  Sun Mother comes back and gives them another chance to change their forms.  They choose claws, or beaks, long legs for running...(platypus can't decide so chooses everything).  

I time Sun Mother gives birth to a daughter, Moon, and a son, Morning Star, to give the creatures light.  They give birth to twins - the first man and woman.

From the story:  

"Welcome, welcome!" Sun Mother said the first woman and the first man. "All around you are you relations - the grass, the hills, the water, the wine, and the animals. This is their place. Now it is yours too. Wherever you go, always return to look after your birthplace.

"Care for the land for the sake of your grandparents as well as for your children and grandchildren.  I travelled every step of the earth and it is now alive.  Just as I will visit the eath each morning, so you too must walk the land to keep it alive.

Then Sun Mother returns to the sky, continuing to keep her promise, bringing light to the Earth.
  

.... .-. ....

I always want to know how humans originally thought and saw the world, before modernization.  Before we lost our way as a people.

Ever since I heard of  "Dreaming", in Australian aboriginal culture, I've been fascinated and wanted to know what it meant. 

Recently, I got a children's picture book out of the library to read to the kids, Sun Mother Wakes the World.  Before the story, there is a description of Dreaming, and Dreamtime in it!



Diane Wolkstein in Sun Mother Wakes the World:
 
"The indigenous people of Australia believe that their first ancestors created the world and its laws.  They also believe that the world is still being created, and they call this continual process of creation The Dreamtime.  In order to enter into creation - past, present, and future - the people perform ceremonies during which they describe the Dreamtime in paintings, dances, songs and stories.

"Just as each of their ancestors appeared on earth in a certain place, which is called their Dreaming, so too the place where each person is born is called his or her Dreaming.  The birthplaces of the ancestors and the people living on earth are considered sacred.  Some people go on journeys (walkabouts) to look for their own birthplaces and the birthplaces of their ancestors.  On such occasions, they perform ceremonies to renew themselves and to keep the earth alive."

.... .-. ....

 About the illustrator (from her bio from an online bookstore):

Bronwyn Bancroft, a descendant of the Bundjalung tribe of northern New South Wales, is considered to be an important artistic spokesperson for her people. Her work has been represented in many galleries and collections throughout the world.

 She also illustrated Kun-Man-Gur: the Rainbow Serpent, which I had already discovered, and loved.

My tomato learning this year

 January

 Starting out fresh this year - lots of hay and baby tomato plants of a variety of jam tomatoes.  

The dream is to grow enough to make my own pasta sauce - enough for my family's needs one day.

  

Hay as mulch

The new shoots of grass that you have to weed out (or turn that hay patch over to kill them) are annoying - but it was cheap (and I could get a bale of hay as opposed to a plastic bag of pea straw - no packaging and cheap).  

PEA STRAW IS BETTER

 February

Plants growing - didn't have the bamboo poles yet so tying some plants to the fence in the meanwhile.  Even used a forest stick for one stake which worked well (lots of natural notches to find and tie to, unlike slippery bamboo poles).   

A useful notch

Almost too much learning and keeping up with the garden to report.  For the first time I really felt the pull of the land, I got a two month temp job filling in for an absent secretary, and then keeping up with the garden I had planted was a challenge.

This year I was inspired by Jackie French's gardening book,  The Best of Jackie French: A practical Guide to Everything from Aphids to Chocolate Cake, where she says, 'Don't prune your tomatoes or you'll get less fruit'.  She said you can let them ramble up a bank, or stake them.  So I decided to let them grow without much pruning, and let them explore their true vine nature.
 
I theorized that as long as I gave them nutritional (and enough gravitational) support, each new branch, like another plant, would produce as well as if it were planted separately.

  March

 

gravitational support

I solved the staking problem by utilizing a pile of very tall bamboo that we had resourced for the Stillwater Raft Race in March.  The tomato plants, as they grew, were staked organically, giving them support as needed - even using somewhat an idea I saw posted by Different Solutions where the bamboo is made into crosses with a cross bar laid across the row of crossed poles.  I used stretchy ties from old t-shirts to tie growing branches to the tent-like framework.


problems with my method

BUT this way of staking suffered from lack of sufficient planning - so while the plants were supported, it was hard to walk across through the crazy framework when it was filled with growing and easy to damage the tomato vine branches, and hard to access the tomato fruit.  And my veggie garden looked like The Blair Witch Project movie.

Also, the "vining off" became exponential - and especially with my decreased amount of time to spare - the vines nearly overcame me.  In the end, I had to go on as lateral shoot seek and destroy mission, which continues to this day.

solutions for next year

Next year, I can really envision this ordered, productive, lovely life - I can picture the fruitful, well managed rows of tomato plants - supporting a fruitful existence.

My husband said he will help me create an ordered structure of bamboo poles.  I will prune away until the main stalk is established (my friend Deb's idea), letting a maximum of three branches grow off each plant, properly staked to the structure (hanging from structure from stretchy ties - they seem to like that).  And I would rather have more, well-managed individual plants, than more hard-to-control branches.

But I am glad I got to see the tomato plant's true nature, and even that I made a few painful mistakes.  Now I really get it.

Problematic: multiple stalks rather than one main trunk

nutritional support

I kept saying to myself, I really have to fertilize the plants!  Weeks went by.

Finally, I got a few huge sacks of compost, and spread a small bucket load on every plant.


problems with my method

BUT this resulted in a huge infestation of whitefly, as there was too much nutrients at once!  Jackie French said about fertilizing tomatoes in her book, 'A little bit and often is best'.  So I got to see why this was important the hard way!  

Ew!

I had to fight, fight fight with Neem oil, and Neem granules in the soil, which did hurt the plants a bit the extent that I did it.  And the whiteflies are still there now on half my plants - and little white wiggly wormies still infests much of the soil.  And Neem is stinky.  (I did remove many green tomatoes to get red in my house before spraying.)  I also had a deep moment with a praying mantis who had arrived to bring balance into my garden.  I brought another in that we found in another part of our yard - to help maintain balance in future.

solutions for next year

Definitely going with 'little and often is best' for next year.

     = = = = = = = =

Despite the problems, I still ended up with many healthy tomatoes.  And a great deal of "tomato learning".

April

For an earlier post on how to prune laterals, go here.