Knitting

Spin Cycle and Begonias

August 27, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ADVENTURES IN WOOL

With the acquisition of my spinning wheel (I’ve named her Violet) last week, I inherited a bag – make that a sealed bag – of wool, unwashed, unpicked and really, really greasy with what must be lanolin. First time experience with raw wool. It smelled very sheepy – not a bad smell, just……sheepy. So, I did what anyone would do. I went on YouTube to see what you do with raw wool to make it spinnable and eventually, knittable. I washed it good with the recommended Dawn dish detergent; remember: Dawn takes grease out of your way, which it does and then rinsed it and ran it through the spin cycle a couple of times. Lucky for you, I documented its transformation.

Just out of the sealed bag, unwashed

After first wash, rinse and spin

After another rinse and spin, then out into the sun to dry

I’ll start carding it tonight, to hopefully begin its change from a fleece into sock yarn. I’m completely convinced that you can learn anything by checking out YouTube. Amazing.

Mr. Iknead is still firm on his NO SHEEP policy. Won’t even talk about it.

GREEN GROWING THINGS

A couple of my begonias are blooming and a couple more that I’d pretty much given up on have decided to perk up and promise more blooms. My mom loved begonias and I suppose that’s rubbed off a little. I love these colors –

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it. Horace Mann

Knitting

Potpourri (You’ve Been Warned)

June 17, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

WARNING

This particular post will probably be all over the map, the weekend was so fantastic and I have so much stuff to show; so, consider yourself warned.

GREEN GROWING THINGS

Now, truly, I’ve never, ever had the desire to garden, it always looked like so much work and fretting about what to plant and where and when. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. Give me real, live things to fool with, like babies or puppies or kitties. Note that plants are not under the category of real, live things. Honestly, I sort of thought that people who were really into gardening were, well, a little odd. Until now. I’ve done a complete 180 on the garden thing. Here’s how it happened. Remember how I’ve been cleaning out, going through and organizing about 18 years of stuff? Cleaning out the garage one day, I found a couple of seed packets, I for sure remember that one was morning glory seeds. Just for chucks, I found a couple of pots that already had dirt in them, stuck the seeds into the dirt, gave them a drink and sat back to see what would happen. And yeah, just like seeds are supposed to do, they came up! I was flabbergasted! Success! With that little confidence boost, I got some basil seeds at Wallyworld, bought some real potting soil, again stuck the seeds in, covered them up and gave them a drink. Another success! Amazing! There really could be something to this gardening thing, so, I bought a couple of begonias (my mom always loved begonias), set them out back with the rest of the growing things and again, settled back to watch. They grew! They bloomed! They grew so much I had to repot them! They lived! I learned why people garden – it’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s soothing, it’s just very, very cool all the way around. I am now a gardener. Who woulda thunk it?

Basil, Batchelor Buttons and a poor sad Begonia that’s doing oh so much better now

The Morning Glory that started it all

Red Hydrangea

So, I’m now “one of those people” and proud of it! There’s a lot to be said about getting your hands dirty!

JOSIE

While I was out documenting my new gardening obsession, I snapped a couple of pics of Josie Pug on a whim. Isn’t she beautiful??

WHAT I’M READING

Outstanding book and particularly relevant to me as I caught myself doing a lot of (internal) screaming while waiting in line – any line.

I love just looking at the gorgeous photos in this one.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Knitting

Botany, Zoology and Grandology

June 11, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

HAS IT REALLY

Only been a few days since my last post? The calendar says it was last Friday, the 7th, but my brain feels like it’s been a lot longer than that. Mr. Iknead and I did have a busy weekend, spending most of the day Saturday browsing our local nursery and Home Depot for new flowers, bigger pots and such. After (OMG) 34 years of marriage, we’ve discovered a mutual love of gardening (neither one of us has ever even tried) and have been so enjoying being together and learning new things. Does that sound as sappy as I think it does? We put out some begonias and coral bells, which I think are so beautiful even without blooms and put a large pot on each side of our front door with cuphea. Of course I love that especially – it has purple flowers.

Coral Bells

Begonia

Cuphea

IT WAS A ZOO

I had my last pottery class for the spring session yesterday, so Mr. Iknead, Bigmommy, Babymama and the grands all went to the zoo. Word on the street was that it was a blast and thankfully, Mr. Iknead took pictures.