baby plants

plants in the garden

I've got green stuff in the ground! That makes me happy. The Chinese cabbage and the broccoli and the regular cabbage and the peas, all of which I've been babying for weeks, they're all out in the dirt and hopefully they'll be enthusiastically growing. It feels so good to have plants in the garden (where they belongs) instead of in the house traveling from sunny window to sunny window. I'd have to say I tried to start the peas too early. We'll see if they make it ok. I'm very impressed by the chinese cabbage so far. It grows enthusiastically and as a person who loves to cook Chinese food this could be a new permanent addition to my gardening.

yarns

The light hank is 100% cotton. I always thought cotton would be really hard to spin. It's not. It's definitely more slippery than wool, but it isn't like I couldn't spin it. I haven't knit it up into anything yet, maybe a summer top? The medium is a coopsworth wool. EASY to spin. It is a bit scratchier than I'd like, but it was a joy to spin. Because it isn't super soft I'll probably use it for a blanket or something like that. I was a bit disappointed when it arrived in the mail, I ordered it thinking it would be more of a garment type of wool. Live and learn.

new garden beds

I was digging new garden beds and the chickens figured out pretty quickly that the spade was opening up new pathways to worms. It felt like "party in the garden."

dishrag

I've never liked dishrags, they are too big. I've always liked more sponge-size cleaning aids. At the same time I hate the sour/nasty/bacterial build-up inevitable in a sponge. I was looking at a website (down---to---earth.blogspot.com) and she was knitting (idiot easy!) cotton dishrags. They reminded me of my grandfather knitting the exact same type of dishrags after his stroke, in order to get control of his hands. So I was thinking how nice it would be to make my own dishrags and DUH it occurred to me to make them smaller. I LOVE THEM! I have a pile of them and can either throw them in the wash after use or hang them up to dry. AND they are 100% cotton so they'll just get thrown in the compost eventually. They are garter stitch, so it is a very bumpy surface for scrubbing. They work really really good.

Directions for making dishrags.
Get some 100% cotton yarn (Cotton and Cream is at Walmart, and it's cheap and it works perfectly). Using a set of #8 knitting needles (or #7 or #9), cast on one. Turn. Knit in the front and back of that stitch. Turn. Knit one, knit in the front and back of the next stitch, knit to the end of the row. Turn. Continue to K1, K in fr and back, k to end until it is as big as you want, I knit to approximately 3 inches (which for me was 20 stitches). Once it is as big as you want it to be start the decreasing, as follows- Knit one, knit two together, knit to the end of the row. Continue doing this until you only have one stitch left, then bind off. You're DONE! This is definately beginner's knitting, they churn out really fast.

warm box

I love low tech solutions to ongoing problems. For years I have used a heating pad for a place to set raising bread or incubating yogurt. The heating pads they now sell have an automatic off switch, so they just don't work that great as a warming pad for food. Here's a new solution-- a warming box, otherwise known as a cooler. A cooler is just an insulated box. If it has cold stuff in it it'll keep it cool; if it has warm stuff in it.... The pictures show a pot full of bread dough and a mason jar of very warm water. I put it in the bread dough and the hot water in the cooler, shut the lid and I've got the perfect warm spot for raising dough. I've also used this set up for making yogurt, it works perfectly.

angora

I love to knit. I adore knitting with soft yarns. These are both made of angora, which is bunny fur. I spun the yarn for both of these projects. DD#3 wanted fingerless gloves. They seriously look like bear paws with claws. They are so soft and yummy to wear. The intricate cable is going to be a blanket, or a shawl, or something like that. It is a complicated pattern I've wanted to do for years and I think it is really interesting looking.