More. Of. The. Projects

OK--where was I?  Projects.  Some short term, some long.  To continue

Getting the garden in.  Around here, the difference between "going to have a killing freeze tonight--too early to plant" and "it's getting too hot to plant" is about 72 hours.  So we've got zucchini, green beans, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and herbs in.  And yes--that's weedcloth.  Sigh.  I would love to be old-school hippie and just use mulch and get out there and weed--but we admit defeat.  Every year we vow to keep up with the weeds.  "We'll get up early and go weed the garden in the cool of the morning" we say.  We have finally faced reality  and admitted that there is no such thing as "the cool of the morning" around here.  In the summer, the temps are in the 80's by 7:00 a.m. (heck--the middle of the night lows are in the 80's) and the humidity will be somewhere between 95% and 100%.  You can barely breath in the mornings.
 Hence--weedcloth.

So that was a busy few days digging up the garden beds, hauling in the compost, planting seeds, and putting in sets.  Each plant gets it's benediction of a scoop of worm castings--which bring me to another ongoing project--my worms.



Last summer I was raising those adorable little armadillos, who loved earthworms, so I started a worm bin.  After the little guys left, I still had some worms, and I got rather fascinated by how fast they could turn shredded newspapers and scrap food into compost.  So now the bin o' worms is a permanent feature in the guest room (because--guess what?  Red Wrigglers are sensitive to heat.  They wouldn't survive outside)  Every couple of months I can harvest the compost.  Of course--I have to pick out the worms.  There's a trick to it--they don't like the light, so you take the bin outside in the sun and scoop everything into a pile.  Then, after they dig down, you scoop off the top until you hit worms--and then you let it sit again for awhile.  Eventually, like a bunch of fish in the middle of a drying-up pond, you get down to mostly worms, which you thank, take inside, and fill the bin with fresh bedding.

Random Spinning.  Every 4 or 5 years I get a chance to go to a fiber festival, and pick up spinning fibers that I can't resist.  Often I'll spin a sample, or a bit, and then it goes in the stack.  In a rare case of "finish-it is" (that isn't supposed to have a space but autocorrect won't abide by that) I dragged some of them out and turned fiber into yarn.  I have more--of course--but  sometimes I think the fiber is prettier than the yarn and I just want to keep it that way.  (Of course, now I have to decide what to make with this.)

Weaving:  I own a loom (several, in fact).  This does not make me a weaver, merely a women with looms.  I like the idea of weaving more than the reality.  Possibly because I'm not very good at it--because I don't practice.  My last weaving was a set of dishtowels for a gift almost a year ago.  But sometimes in the evening I don't feel like watching TV and it's a bit early to go to bed, so I thought I'd get a project on to have available to toss the shuttle a bit.  Eventually these will be placemats.

 The Really Heavy Blanket:  Our niece Amanda asked me if I could make her a "weighted blanket."  Well, I was flattered that she wanted me to make something for her.  Weighted blankets are supposed to be good to reduce stress--the all over pressure is something like a hug, with some massage tossed in.  The concept is not difficult--you sew two layers of fabric together, make some pockets, and fill them with weighted pellets (you have to have the pockets, otherwise you'll just end up with all the filling at one end).  In

practice, it gets pretty tedious--you sew a line of channels, put about a shot glass of filling down each one, then sew across to secure it.  Continue until you've weighted 150 (!) pockets.  Meanwhile, the blanket is getting heavier and heavier (it topped out a 14 pounds). I admit to a feeling of trepidation when I started--I had ordered the pellets and the 20 pounds of them came in a medium-sized flat rate box, bulging at the seams.  I could envision an explosion of pellets filling up my sewing room.

 I did get it finished--and I even slept under it last night.  I have to admit that I slept pretty well--but possibly not well enough to go through making another one for myself.  

Knitting Swircles:  Through an on-line knitting/fiber arts sort of facebook I came across some archeologists wanting people to do spinning/knitting samples.  They are studying 16th century knitting, specifically (very specifically--archaeologists are like that) the lining of knitted hats.  So they are asking volunteers to knit "swircles" (small round swatches) from various wools, and then trying different finishing techniques to see if they can stab a guess at how the linings were made.  It seemed like fun, so I'm swircle knitting (finishing--meaning washing, shrinking, and trying to raise a nap--will come later).

And I believe that really is all of the projects--for now.  There are more waiting in line . . .

Reading:  I'm being followed by Vikings!  On my own, I was reading about Norse textiles, and Njal's saga.  Then Smithsonian magazine came out with an article on Vikings, as did National Geographic.  Then, last night, Nova had a program on Viking swords.  To cap it off, I found out that Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite authors) just published a new book--Norse Mythology.   So of course I'm reading it.