Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Tomatoes & Plantlings

I learned a thing or two about starting seeds this year. If you start more seeds than you want plants, you will have LOTS of extra seeds. Sound obvious? Probably should be! Somehow I thought a few of them wouldn't survive.... :) But they did. After giving away about two dozen plants, I still have quite a few left - cherry, yellow and purple heirloom. I inherited three more larger tomato plants, as well as permission from the landlord to plant, so started a small tomato garden. 
I also found a great hanging planter tutorial and decided to give it a try. So far, I have only 2 2L bottles (since we don't really drink soda much!), so will need to find another to get my yellow tomato plant planted, but did the cherry yesterday and the purple today.

The cherry tomato plant is already flipping its little leaves over to get the sun! Currently these guys live under the porch on the north facing side of the house - we'll see if they get enough sun there or if I have to buy a shepherd's hook to put them somewhere better suited to growing :)

Three more of my tomatoes, along with tomatillos and habaneros, have a new home in our plot in the community garden, which is coming along well!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Who needs a teacher...

... when you have tutorials this awesome?

So as I said, I re-taught myself to crochet a few weeks ago. The entire process became infinitely easier when I happened upon Crochet Spot. You know how sometimes you go to look something up, and all you find on google are crappy YouTube videos and those terrible About.com links? No pictures, lots of words, not much help. This is NOT one of those sites.

Crochet Spot has awesome tutorials, step by step instruction, and a close-up picture of each step of each stitch. Brilliant! Everytime I find a new stitch, this is where I go to figure out HOW exactly to do it. Also, for you lefties, hover each picture for the mirror - left hand version. My only complaint - there's no index of all her "How To Crochet" tutorials. So I'm making one here (including hers and a few assorted others), as much for myself as for anyone who might find and read this post. Enjoy!

Getting Started:
How to Read a Crochet Pattern
How to Hold Yarn in Crochet
How to Crochet: Slip Stitch (sl st)
How to Crochet: Chain (ch)
How to Crochet: Foundation Single Crochet (fsc)
Another FSC tutorial from Snuffykins
"Magic Adjustable Ring" for Crochet in the Round

Regular Stitches:
How to Crochet: Single Crochet (sc)
How to Crochet: Extended Single Crochet (exsc)
How to Crochet: Half Double Crochet (hdc)
How to Crochet: Double Crochet (dc)
How to Crochet: Triple (or treble) Crochet (tc)

Increases & Decreases:
How to Crochet: Single Crochet Decrease
How to Crochet: Single Crochet Invisible Decrease
How to Crochet: Double Crochet Decrease
Another Invisible Decrease
I haven't found an "increase tutorial" yet - but as a general rule, just do 2 stitches in one stitch to add a stitch to the row.

Special Stitches:
How to Crochet: Front Post Double Crochet (fpdc)
How to Crochet: Back Post Double Crochet (bpdc)
How to Crochet: Tunisian Simple Stitch (tss)
How to Crochet: Tunisian Knit Stitch (tks)
How to Crochet: Popcorn Stitch
Loop and Nub decorative stitch Tutorials (from NeedleNoodles)

Ends:
How to Change Colors in Crochet
How to Finish off and Weave In Ends
How to Minimize Weaving In Ends
Joining Yarn: Russian Join

Other:
7 Tips for Consistency
Using Stitch Markers in Crochet
How to Crochet on the Opposite Side of a Chain
How to Find the End of the Yarn in a Pull Skein
Master List of Crochet Abbreviations