In The Tool Box: Proving Basket

I'm kind of hesitant to post this. I don't like to make bread making to seem at all complicated. Because honestly it isn't you barely need a bowl and an oven to make it but I am a gadget buyer and I bought a gadget.

Okay so gadget probably implies something a bit more technologically advanced but what we actually bought was a proving basket. Which is technically just a basket with a linen lining. It does have magic powers however. It makes the crust lovely. Just the right mix of crisp and chewy. We're really glad we bought it. We got ours from Sous Chef and I'd recommend it to anyone who makes a lot of bread. If you'd like to make bread without one I'd recommend that too.

In The Tool Box: Cobra Head Weeder and Cultivator

I am a child of consumerism. I wish I wasn't. I'm a smart person. Smart enough to know when I'm being advertised too, smart enough to know that I'm being sold a disposable life style practically all the time and smart enough to know that it isn't a good thing. I'm as self aware as I am smart though and I have to admit that part of me wants it to be true. Part of me want to believe that this product will revolutionise my life. Okay, not the whole of my life but the bits of it that the product is relevant to at least.

Sometimes I've been right: there's the Vitamix, MAC lipstick, a flattering overcoat, the iPad. Mostly I'm wrong as evidenced by Urban Decay nail polish, interchangeable knitting needles, and about half a dozen lifestyle books that I bought before I gave up buying lifestyle books.

I'd given the Cobra Head had a big mental build up. I saw it. I thought I must have it. I imagined all I could do with it. I grumbled at every task I had to do without it. I begged Stephen to buy me one. For the good of the allotment! And he ordered me one. From America. A whole other country.

It's covered in mud or it isn't a tool.

Therefore the question that this review seeks to answer is does the Cobra Head live up to the hype that I piled upon it. The answer is yes, hell yes. You could stop reading now and just order one but if three words aren't enough to convince you after suffering through my long rambling opening paragraphs read on.

The Things At Which I've Found My Cobra Head To Be Very Good At

I've been using the cobra head for almost everything since I got it but yesterday I set aside a test bed around 50 cm by 50 cm to display what the Cobra Head is awesome for.

This bed, in between the grass path and the wood that is holding some horticultural fleece down is full of weeds. It wasn't two months ago. The weeds are mostly annuals, young annuals, with one or two perennials that escaped the last weeding.

I could dig this over but I want to disturb as little of the soil structure as possible. Digging that small of a space would be awkward anyway. I could hoe but some of the weeds have gotten large enough to make that a pain, and I'd loose track of the perennials before I could get their roots out. Along the back are some willow cuttings that I need to be delicate around so large tools, again, aren't going to be ideal.

What I'd do ordinarily is take out the perennials, probably with a fork, take out the larger annuals with a hand fork and then hoe over the rest. Using three tools, a quite a bit of time and a lot of the energy I don't always have to spare. Instead: Cobra Head.

First the docks and dandelions. The Cobra Head is built for this, it's sharp end tunnels down and dislodges the root. At least enough for me to get my hands down there and pull. It is an efficient tool, disturbing as little of the surrounding area as possible which is great for my poly-culture hodgepodge of a planting scheme.

Then the larger annuals get plucked out, grab hold of the tops and the cobra head goes in just enough to pull the roots. After that I just scuffled the weed seedlings out as if I were hoeing, leaving them there to die in yesterday's harsh wind.

Then I dropped a pile of dead grass on it, which kind of screwed up the after shot and had no horticultural benefit as far as I know.

Finally I used the cobra head to put some new plugs in there. When the weeds pop up back around them the cobra head will be perfect for taking them out without harming the plants I want. All of that took twenty minutes or so, could probably have done it in less had I not been messing around with a camera.

I'm in love with my cobra head and I'm sure the more I use it the more uses I'll find for it. Unfortunately the only way you can get one in the UK is order them direct from the manufacturer, it's a bit of a pain but even with shipping with the US it works out fairly cheap. At the very least check them out, but you really will want to buy one.

In The Tool Box: The Workbook

It occurs to me that I never talk about process, I tend to ignore it in favour of posting about finished things. I'm trying to remedy this with a series of posts about the tools I use to go about my favourite crafts, in my kitchen or in my garden. First up is the thing that has saved my crafting life while I've been exhausted from work: the workbook.

the pencil case that accompanies all my knitting

Workbooks first hit my radar with Issue 6 of Entangled in Stella Lange's article Now Where Was I? I knew they existed before then but that was the first time I'd seen the process of workbooking laid out. I've been obligated to compete workbooks for courses before but my instruction was really nothing more than 'record your experiences', or 'journal' and sometimes I just want more precise instructions in my life. Even if I then turn around and break them.

totally stuffed full of silly bits and bobs 

What persuaded me to the practicality of workbooking though was the idea that workbooks simplify life, not add another thing to the to do list. In Stella Lange's words:

I don't have to think about my materials, or my tools, or the methods I have decided. I have all that noted down, ready to access... "I'm good to go"

 I knew that what was holding me back from knitting and sewing was that initial step. What was my plan? What needed to be done? Where am I now? If I could answer that question I could get straight to work. Spend more time doing and less time thinking. I do still think - thinking is what fills the pages of my workbook - but now I only need to do the thinking once. It's hard (yet not impossible!) to forget something when it's all written out.

Pens: tools of the trade

So on 8th August (according to my work book) I went to Paperchase with a £20 note and a bunch of stuff that would make writing in it a joy. I came home with my little orange note book, a pencil case to contain it and all sorts of fun stuff to go in it. First on my list was pens, one black, one purple and the pink was later acquired from my floor. Fine line with a chubby base, even my hand writing doesn't look too bad.

Sticky Arrows and Highlighters with faces.

Next I needed to mark what I was writing. Panda highlighters to highlight sections (as bellow) to show where my stitch markers are. Arrows with faces to show me which part of my instructions or my chart is making me sad, happy, shocked, tearful or whatever emotion winking represents. They are coming into their own right now as I knit a lace edged shawlette. If I can only knit half a row before needing to put it down I just move the marker and I'm able to pick it up again with only a few seconds stress about where I am.

Colours and faces mark where I am

Planning for new projects is whole new levels of fun now I'm sketching out and testing out colour combos in my workbook. One idea germinating right now is a version of this Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug in some of my own plant dyed yarns.

Bright colours!

The dying process has already taken three days but each process has been documented in the book so I don't get lost and so I can repeat it at a later date. More importantly I've had my sketched out and coloured in picture to refer to when the process is starting to look a little too long and I need a jolt of inspiration.

This is what we're aiming for!

I've dyed the contrast yarn already and a small sample of that went in the workbook with notes about the dye process. The yarn from my shawl is also in there along with it's tag. As well as being a good record of my knitting it's also a good reminder of how to wash my finished piece.

Stick it in, then I don't have to write as much!

The yarn is attached with tape, the tags with a pritt stick. Glue of choice for astronauts and school children alike. I got mine in a set of rainbow colours.

Seriously, if I have the choice of a silly colour I'm going for it

That is all for stationary but as I carry this around with my knitting I tucked a few other supplies in their for emergencies  Stitch markers, tape measure and the like. Scissors too. Things you always wish you had. Although none of them, it turns out have proven to be more useful at averting disaster than my workbook.

And your more traditional knitting tools

Okay so that is a good amount of stuffed into one small case but is it really worth it? After all I have a blog and an Ravelry account to keep notes. The problem is that isn't how I use my blog or my Ravelry account. I'm not going to make a note about some silly mistake I've made that effects the rest of my project  I'm not even going to mention I've started knitting something that might not get done. That would be mortifying.

Private record keeping is practical record keeping 

I'm incredible conscious that other people can see and read what I put online. I'm not a fan of admitting my mistakes, not when I don't have anything clever to say about them. But in my workbook I'm free to be my dyslexic, messy self. I'm presenting a more truthful image, which turns out to be a more useful image. The results speak for themselves. I'm a better knitter now.