This new blog is all about my first love, gardening. I contemplated just combining the two interests, knitting and gardening, into one on this blog but decided it was better to devote each subject its own blog. I began Brambleberries in the Rain last month and it took off way faster than I could ever imagine it would. It has swept me up and I have been having so much fun with it.

I hope I haven’t lost too many of my readers here. I also hope you will stop by and take a look at my new place on the net. I am going to *try* to make more of an effort posting here and attempt to juggle my time between the now 3 (!)  blogs I am managing.

My knitting has been rather unproductive these past few weeks. It seems I haven’t been able to find much time for it. Not to mention we are in the middle of a heat wave and I don’t particularly like to knit in the heat! I am working on a pair of self-stripping socks that is coming along.

So, please check out my new site and continue to be patient with me as I may have been MIA these last few weeks but I am still here!

I knew then and there that my knitting looked strange to others. I have suspected since I began knitting that I might look a little “backwards” to say the least. I just wasn’t sure if it would be noticeable to others until that day in the hospital. So, what exactly is this knitting confession that has given me a knitting in public phobia? Well, I knit left handed. There I said it. It is now out there.

Now, I don’t mean that I knit continental or anything like that. I really do knit left handed. I hold the working yarn in my left hand because I am a “thrower” and I work from the left to the right. Meaning I move stitches to my left needle as I work them off of my right needle. Completely backwards from how most people knit. In order to knit the way I do I have to knit the opposite of what the pattern says to do. And if a pattern has a chart I have to knit the mirror image of that chart. It is completely and utterly mind numbing and that is putting it lightly.

Why in the world would I knit this way? It has to do with the fact that I am indeed left handed and I (maybe stupidly) taught myself how to knit. Had I enlisted the help of a right handed knitter maybe I would not be in the boat I am now. After all, my grandma taught me how to crochet and she is right handed so I consequentially learned how to crochet right handed as a child.

I am hoping that this means there is hope for me as I am considering trying to learn how to knit right handed. I am so done with trying to read patterns backwards. I just want to be able to knit “normal”! I want to be able to just pick up a pattern, read it, and get knitting instead of having to flip everything around in order for me to knit it up correctly.

My husband, SET, thinks it is pretty cool that I taught myself to knit left handed but then again he is right handed.

I have had enough of the mind warping left handed knitting so here soon I am going to attempt to learn how to knit right handed. I am a little worried about the ole “old habits die hard” thing but am hoping that since I am a thrower and I throw with my left hand I might adapt alright. I’m at least going to try!

I have done many searches over the years for left handed knitting on the internet and there are a few interesting and helpful sites but not enough if you ask me. Knitty has a great article on left handed knitting found: here.

This link kind of cracks me up. It has great pictures for learning to knit and if you scroll down there are instructions for left handed knitting that state to hold the pictures up to a mirror and substitute the word right for left and vice versa. This is exactly why knitting left handed gives me such a headache! Your brain starts to flip flop after a while of that!

This site has some good general instructions for knitting left handed.

Then there is this great You Tube video that really shows exactly what left handed knitting looks like. It is exactly how I knit except I throw the yarn with my left hand.

So, in the meantime I will still knit happily away even if it is backwards. Once I attempt to give it a go with right handed knitting I will post my progress. I want to try it out here soon but keep putting it off….after all, I still can knit even if it is backwards.

Happy Knitting!

I found this post about blogging without obligation. Why I never thought about it like the way this post puts it I really don’t know. I mean really, what a novel idea, not feeling quilty about random posts. The more I think about it the more I agree on how to post for the sake of frequent posting really does effect the content of what I may blog about. I would much rather have really interesting infrequent postings than dull and rather pointless regular postings. Not to say that I plan on going months on end without a post but now I feel a little better about going a week or two (or gasp, three) weeks without writing anything.

I take what I write about seriously and want to have strong content in each and every post. So, from this day forward I plan on B.W.O. Thanks so much for understanding.

Now, on a side note: my poor knitting has slooooowed down. I am almost embarrassed to admit how many projects are just sitting right now. In fact the striped sweater and the striped cardigan for Princess A are both finished knitting, have been for weeks now, and just need to have their seams sewn. Ditto for the halter top. I can’t seem to get my butt around to blocking them and sewing them up (I never have liked sewing up seams in the first place which might be part of the problem). And this might sound a little nuts but this is how my brain works, I have several other patterns I am wanting to begin but I keep not letting myself because I tell myself I can’t until I finish the seams on those previously stated three! Oh, and the green garter lace shawl I am in the middle of is just sitting right now cause I am bored with it….

I am working on a new dyeing experiment that I plan on completeing this week and hopefully I can get some good pictures and will blog about it.

One last thing: I am so happy this week marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring! I am sick of rain! :-} 

This particular pattern comes from yet another library book I checked out (I swear one day I need to write a post titled “Ode to my public library”). This book is called Easy Knits for Kids by Family Circle. The pattern I found out of it is for a really cute little halter top that I wanted to make for Princess A. The pattern calls for a cotton acrylic blend so I figured I could probably easily substitute the corn yarn for the yarn the pattern called for. I took a picture of the pattern that is in the book so I can still see what the finished results are suppose to look like once the book has been turned in. (A picture of a picture, how crazy is that :-) ?!)

I just cast on the back of the halter last night. So far I really like the yarn. I have not had any problems with my needle poking through like the article at Knitter’s Review mentions. Although I am also using my circular bamboo needles that are rather blunt so maybe that has something to do with it?  The yarn is surprisingly very soft; it’s going to feel really nice in the summer which is what I am making it for. I am curious to see how it feels after several washings since it is both machine washable and dryable. I wonder if it will get softer after use. It really does feel nice. I actually wish I had ordered another skein or two because I think it would make some nice washcloths for the bath as well.

I will be sure to post more updates on this interesting yarn…..

They both went through their first washing together. I washed them on cold to help slow down any fading that might happen. When they came out of the wash I was shocked.  The pretty pale lilac color that I had achieved from the dye mixed with vinegar was now a muddy purple and the soft sage green that came from the baking soda mix turned a more yellowy green. I was not expecting those kinds of results at all! I was expecting some fading but instead I got total color changes. That tells me there is something up with my tap water since I had used rainwater to make the red cabbage dye. I am a little frustrated with that! Obviously my tap water ph is whacked or full of something that affected the yarn. If I dye something with rainwater how am I suppose to wash it when it gets dirty? Use rainwater?! I had previously checked my tap water’s ph by using those little test strips but I think they were no good because they wouldn’t change or show any kind of reading. Now I am wondering what exactly my tap water ph is for the yarn to change so dramatically.

A few years back I used to have a fresh water fish tank and I would test the water to make sure it was healthy for the fish. I had this little kit that would tell you how to read the results and what to do if your water was too high in ammonia or the ph wasn’t quite right. I’m thinking I might try one of those kits to test my tap water. They are easily found at any pet store and I know I’ll get decent results to tell me what might be making my yarn change color like it did.

The socks don’t look all that bad. Although I did like the colors better before they were washed. They are not as bright now. The pictures I am including in this post are before being washed and after. The pictures don’t show the color change in the green as well as but they do give the general impression of the change in the purple.

I bought a pretty simple 3 ring binder, some dividers, and some page protectors. I them proceeded to categorize all the different patterns into groups such as lace, socks, sweaters, diaper soakers, etc. Each category got its own divider and all the patterns went into their own separate page protectors. I like having the patterns in their own page protector because it keeps them nice and it is great for when I use the pattern. I just take the pattern out page protector and all and it doesn’t get coffee spilt on it or crumbled up accidently, you get the idea.  A few patterns are ones that I had purchased online that are PDF files. These are pretty nice patterns and I am thinking of printing them out on cardstock and them putting them in a page protector. I think that would be a great way of keeping them nice.

Like I had said, probably not very original of me, but I am rather pleased with it!

And because it’s just not as much fun without a picture, here is a picture of a view from my house a couple days back.

One of the books that I just picked up is amazing. I am not surprised though because I have another book by the same author that is equally as good as this one. I am talking about Knitting Never Felt Better by Nicky Epstein. I own the book Knitting on the Edge that is a great reference book for knitters. This library book, Knitting Never Felt Better, would be a great reference book on felting. It has great information on getting started with felting and shows excellent pictures of various yarns felted. What I really love though is it shows all sorts of stitch patterns and what they look like before and after felting. Things like felted cables are shown, something I never would have thought to try felting. Unless of course by accident! Equally intriguing are the before and after pictures of something called dimensional felting. This is where you take various objects like marbles and attach them around your knitting with rubber bands prior to felting. When you remove the marbles after felting you are left with the imprint of the marble. It sort of looks like the felted piece has bubbles. The pictures really inspired me. So much so that I think after Christmas I might give the dimensional felting a try.

I would love to give it a shot right now but I foolishly piled more work on myself by deciding this weekend that I want to give two people in my family a pair of knitted socks for Christmas. What was I thinking?! They live in another state so I have about a week to knock out two pairs of socks and get them in the mail so they can make it to their destination in time for Christmas. Sometimes I think I must like working under pressure since I always seem to do this to myself…..

Now if you will excuse me I really need to go get some socks knitted!

Yesterday I finished knitting this pair of mittens for my youngest son, L-man. He likes bright and crazy colors so these fit his personality perfectly. And I am hoping that considering how bright they are they will be hard to loose! Both yarns I hand dyed. The orange is dyed with annatto seeds. The yellow and green is the yarn that I dyed with marigolds that I posted about: here.

I struggled with finding a pattern I liked for these particular mittens. I ended up using the pattern from One-Skein Wonders titled Easy Mittens. The pattern does not have a ribbed cuff but I added a 2×2 ribbing because I happen to like that look and felt they would stay on an active nine year old a little better. I also modified the pattern a little bit more when it came to sizing because the pattern was designed for a woman’s hand not a child’s. Unfortunately, I had to measure his hand a couple of times and have him try on the mitten half way through to make sure it was fitting right. I say unfortunately because now he knows all about it and I really can not give them as a gift like I had originally wanted! He is excited about them none the less which is cute. Last spring he planted the marigolds from seed so the yarn that was dyed with them has a special meaning to him. I find that to be really cool! He witnessed the whole transformation from start to finish. Pretty darn cool I would say.

Eucalyptus is another herb I really like to have around the house, especially this time of year. It is so good for colds and stuffy noses. I am prone to sinus infections so I like to keep a bottle of eucalyptus essential oil on hand. When my nose is stuffy due to allergies or a cold I will steam my face with a few drops of the oil placed in the steaming water.

A simple salve can be made to which the oil is added and this can be rubbed on the chest to help with congestion. It is like a homemade Vicks vapor rub.  

Another thing I like to do with eucalyptus is to take some dried leaves and simmer them on the stove in some water during periods when everyone is sick. It helps to clear the air as well as make it smell good. You would not want to do this in one of your best pots though as eucalyptus is high in resin as well as it’s essential oil. I like to have a pot that is just for simmering herbs in.

One last thing about eucalyptus, it also makes an excellent dye. A little over a week ago I wanted to experiment and see what color I would get if I used dried leaves purchased from my local health food store to make a dye. The color you get from eucalyptus will depend on the type of tree, growing conditions, etc. You can achieve anything from browns to reds. Unfortunately I do not know what type of eucalyptus makes what color of dye.

 It is a very long process extracting the dye from the leaves of eucalyptus. I simmered the leaves in the dye pot for 2 hours and then let them sit over night. The next day I simmered them again for another 2 hours. Then I was ready to add my wool yarn. I used equal amounts of dried eucalyptus leaves and yarn. And I did not mordant the yarn this time as it is not necessary to do so with this dye. I simmered the yarn in the dye for 2 hours as well. Once it was done simmering I let it sit in the dye bath overnight. A very long dye process!

My end result is a shade of brown that I can’t quite explain. It has a reddish tint to it. Sort of like a rusty brown. It is nice. Although it would have been neat to see it turn out a little more red than brown.