2d(pn)6

I’m just going to put it out there that I play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).  I haven’t been playing very long (I am only on my second “campaign”) but I play enough that it was decided that I should have my own set of dice - preferably pink dice.  So we went on a trip to the game store in Barrie and I picked out some pretty cute dice that I can now infuse with my power so they can assist me on my campaigns.  I don’t actually believe that one can infuse dice with power, but my character does, so I’m doing it for her. ;)

I got my dice home and realized I needed a dice bag.  Thanks to my new addiction to Ravelry and all the geeky patterns within, I quickly found at least ten dice bag patterns to choose from.  Only problem - they all involved double pointed needles.

As with most new knitting techniques, I was intimidated to try using double pointed needles (dpn).  I’ve had a set of dpn’s for over a year, but five needles instead of two sounded a little to advanced for my abilities.  That is actually my line of thinking about all new techniques - they must be too advanced for me.  It is silly to think this way, as I have continually proved to myself that I am capable of learning new things, but I still have this hesitation to start projects that have new techniques.  It probably has something to do with my self-imposed perfectionism - that inner voice that is demanding me to “make sure you do it right.”  I just have to keep in mind that trying something new is amazing in itself and if at first I don’t succeed, I can try, try, again.

Thus was my experience in learning to use double pointed needles.  Even with the help of an internet teacher,  it took me three tries to get it right.  My first attempt, I had my stitches cast on evenly across four of the needles, but when I knit them “in the round” I did it in such a way that the needles didn’t come together in a square like they are supposed to.  Oops.  I pulled out the stitches and tried again.

This is wrong somehow...

My second attempt, I got the needles to form a square, but must have crossed my stitches, because it just didn’t look right. Plus one of the needles fell out of the stitches it was holding, which made me a little cranky, and without thinking on how to fix it, I just pulled the rest of the stitches out and prepared to try again.

Third time was the charm.  Something just clicked and I was knitting in the round as if I knew how.  Following my internet instructor's advice, I put a stitch marker on my first needle, so that I would know where the start of my “round” was.  I don’t actually own stitch markers but a twisted pink paperclip worked perfectly for my purposes.  This was incredibly helpful, as I can’t imagine having to remember where the round started - that sounds like far too much counting for me.

Much better...

I am really happy with how my dice bag turned out.  It is adorably pink for my adorably pink D&D dice.

The only problem I experienced with this project, is that by the time I finished, my left hand was cramped and achy from the hours of holding the square of needles.  Plus, the points on my needles are quite sharp, and the index fingertip of my left hand was actually red from repeatedly being stabbed with the right hand needle.  The next project I make with dpn’s, I am going to try and be more aware of how intensely/awkwardly I am holding the work in my left hand, so that I don’t end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.  As for the fingertip stabbing - I wonder if this is what people use thimbles for?  I just might have to get one.

Backyard Explorer - Sunny Day in Big Chute Edition

A few weekends ago my brother, brother-in-law, and I went on a road trip to some scenic spots in semi-northern Ontario.  I detailed our use of the new GPS system in a previous post, and thought I would now share some photos from our adventures that day.  Our first stop was Big Chute, a place my dad took us to explore when we were kids.  On the way there we saw a bear!  We also saw some pretty old rocks!  We walked around in places that signs told us not to!  We played safely and our rebelliousness actually made for some pretty fantastic shots!

 That is a freakin' bear...running from our car.

 A friendly sign greeted us.

Scenic Big Chute zone

Boats are lifted on this from one waterway to another.

The boats have to go up this massive hill first.

When boats come through, this area fills with water.

You're not supposed to play here - it's dangerous.

But look at me on that rock - I'm not scared!

The sign behind Bro says "Extreme Danger."

But he's not scared either!

This photo makes me think I walked on the moon.

Old rocks! Like billions of years old.

So saith the sign.

Everybody Get Together

Through the magic of the internet I found myself signed up to a social networking site that is specifically for knitters and crocheters.  Called Ravelry, it has been around since 2007 and Wikipedia says it has about 600,000 users.  Well, about 600,001 now.  I don’t exactly need another internet obsession in my life, but now that I have joined, I am so into it.

The hours that I have spent on Ravelry so far have involved setting up my profile and searching the countless patterns available to the community.  In the profile section, you get to list projects you are working on, post photos of finished work, have an RSS feed of your blog, list all the needles you own, and list all the yarn you have on hand. There is even a cool function that lets you save patterns into a page called the “queue”.   The queue lets you keep track of all the patterns you have found online that you want to try.  I already have nine patterns saved in my queue, as I spent the weekend searching through all the different patterns this site has to offer.  There are literally thousands, and many of them are free.  In my extended search I found quite a few patterns that are geek oriented (Star Wars, Firefly, superhero themed) and I’m excited to knit some geeky things in the future.  I put a pattern for knit Chainmail in my queue!  Is that geeky or what?

I haven’t engaged in the social networking aspect of the site yet, but there are hundreds of groups to join - everything from Tim Hortons Lovers to fans of Lord of the Rings.  I have only just grazed the surface of everything there is to find on Ravelry, and I have a feeling I'm going to be completely obsessed by the time I finish exploring it.

If You've Been Good...Pizza.

Overheard the other day at the grocery store:
Girl A: “You are not allowed to buy bread!”
Girl B: “Why not?”
Girl A: “You have a bread maker!!”

I have a bread maker too. I “borrowed” it from my Mom last year and have used it non-stop ever since. It is from the ‘90s so it doesn’t have any crazy settings, but it can make a loaf of bread in 3 hours or mix up some dough in an hour and 15 minutes. I love the dough setting because you can shape the bread into whatever you like (buns, dinner rolls), or even make things other than bread (cinnamon rolls, pretzels, pizza dough). Yesterday it was all about the pizza dough!


Pizza dough is as easy as it gets when it comes to dough - it only has five ingredients - flour, oil, water, salt, and yeast.

I put all the ingredients in the bread maker pot and let the magic begin.

Ta-dah!  Only an hour and 15 minutes later and I had my very own home made pizza dough!

Next, I spread the dough onto an oiled pan.  I don't have a pizza pan so I used a rectangular baking sheet which makes an awesome version of a 'party pizza'.

My favorite part of home made pizza is the toppings. You can add as much or as little as you want, so you are only limited by your tastes and what you have on hand.  There was a lot on hand today and I have a habit of going a little overboard when it comes to topping a pizza.  I end up with a deep dish pizza without it being an actual deep dish pizza!

On hand toppings: pizza sauce, onions, broccoli, jalapenos, olives, 

roast chicken (leftovers!), zucchini, mushrooms, spinach

And don’t forget the cheeses!

Parmesan and Mozzarella 

The recipe says the pizza should bake for 25-30 minutes, but this pizza was so overloaded with toppings that we had to cook it for 40 minutes!

 Believe me, it was worth the wait!

Home Made Pizza = Mega Yum!!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

For the past two summers we have grown our garden from already sprouted plants.  For some reason I thought it was too hard to grow vegetables from seed, so I would pick out the already started veggies that someone else grew (magically, I thought) from the store and plant them.  We would spend upwards of $70 on these pre-started plants, so this year we decided to see if we could grow our vegetables from seeds.

Our collection of seeds - veggies and herbs

Part of the motivation to grow from seeds came from our discovery of Jiffy Pots and Jiffy Greenhouses.  The greenhouses have 6 peat pellets in them where we planted our seeds in order to get them started.  Once the sprouts outgrew the greenhouse, we transplanted them into the Jiffy Pots, which are biodigradable pots that you can plant directly into the ground.  On planting day, no transplanting will be necessary, we can just bury each pot!  That sounds easy enough!

Greenhouse, Jiffy Pots, and peat pellets

This may sound really lame to say, but I am really fascinated that a seed can grow into a plant.  I took grade eleven biology so I know scientifically how and why it works, but watching them actually do it has been blowing my mind.  Just mix water, dirt, a seed, and some sun, and presto - you have a plant.  It has been a neat show to watch over the past few weeks.

 Bean Seed

 Bean spout in peat pellet, grown in the greenhouse

 Transplanted to Jiffy Pot

 Look at it grow!

 It is already getting big and is ready to be planted

So far my Jiffy Pot growing experience has been great.  Only four of the seeds we planted didn't sprout, and we planted well over 80 seeds, so I think those are amazing results!  Plus, even with the supplies we bought (greenhouses, extra peat pellets, all the seeds, potting soil), we have only spent about $40 this year on our garden.  We've spent a little over half as much as last year and we probably have five times as many plants.  Not only is growing from seed fun to watch, it also saves us money.  I love that.

Our current sprout collection

Our sprouts are ready to go into the ground and I am really eager to get them there.  We were going to plant our garden last week, but the weather forcast said it would be cold on the weekend - and it sure was - we got snow up here!  The weather is supposed to be warming up by the end of the week and hopefully we can get our vegetables planted then.  I have a feeling this summer is going to be great for gardening, and I can't wait to see what comes up!