Archive for May, 2011
* giant friendship bracelet
Posted on May 31st, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Experiments, Jewelry.
I found this “big friendship band” on Pinterest and was instantly struck with a mania to make one. The original is only $20 and is sourced by a fair trade group in Bangladesh, so I feel a little bit bad about stealing their idea. Looking around, there are several other examples of giant friendship bracelets (a rug! genius!)
I had a pack of 4.8 mm piping cord for who knows what forgotten purpose. I cut it into 4 2.5 yard lengths, tied the ends together, and got to it. The muscle memory on this is strong. I didn’t even have to look up the knot, and it’s been probably 15 years at least since I made one. It went super fast.
The resulting item is about 15 inches long (not including the tails) and looks completely ridiculous as a bracelet (this is the back, btw).
I’m thinking I might be able to use it as a handle for a bag or something.
* granny experiments
Posted on May 30th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Crochet, Experiments, Martha.
I whipped up a couple of test squares for a baby blanket project I’m contemplating. Lion Cotton on sale in Natural, Seaspray, and Paprika. Left side a G hook and right side an I, which was definitely easier to wrangle. I don’t know how they expect you to use the F hook recommended on the package. I also added an extra round of Natural on the right.
The pattern on the left is from the Martha Stewart directions, from which I first learned to crochet lo these many years ago. In fact, the (inverted) color scheme is from a project in the same article, which I was reminded of after someone pinned this photo on Pinterest.
I still have a couple of tiny thread grannies I crocheted before I lost interest. Wonder what else I could do with them?
I also consulted the instructions from Purl and kind of used a consensus pattern for the version on the right. Variables tested (left vs right): turn between rounds, don’t turn; no chain between clusters, chain 1 between clusters. Not a huge difference, but I think I’m going to stick with the version on the right.
Attic24 has a nice tutorial for joining squares as you go. Finishing is my baby blanket Achilles heel, so this is very appealing.
* garden problems and solutions
Posted on May 29th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Home and Garden.
Now that the garden’s finally gotten going, I’ve got to deal with some of the slings and arrows of spring: slugs, poor germination, wimpy seedlings, and weeds. And of course, there’s stubborn Miss Sue. This weekend was all about problem solving.
Slugs. That does it, slugs. You ate my lone artichoke seedling, and now you’ve eaten the replacements too. After reading Erica’s Slug Wars post, I set out some beer traps. So far no catches, but maybe they haven’t found it yet. I also placed pieces of scrap decking in my raised bed to catch more offenders to be fed to the chickens.
Germination. I’ve had pathetic germination this year from my beets, scallions, chard, and, worst of all, collards and carrots, which have not germinated at all. The collards I have given up on, saving the remains of my seed sampler pack for a possible winter crop. Erica had another helpful post on using burlap to help carrots along (Can you tell that I just rediscovered Erica’s blog? She is one of my old favorites and I don’t know why I ever unsubscribed.) Conveniently, Second Use had carts and carts of coffee sacks last weekend for like a dollar each. (We also found an awesome salvaged concrete-and-fiber planter that I haven’t decided what to plant in.) I pinned it down using garden markers. Fingers crossed that this batch takes.
Sad seedlings. I think I just don’t have the knack for starting seeds. This year I paid a lot more attention to getting them light and heat, and I hardened them off and everything. They looked pretty strong, if maybe a little bit leggy. About half of the ones I’ve planted out have shriveled, though, and the ones that are still growing have been outpaced by their direct-seeded neighbors. I think I will stick to direct seeding and purchased starts from now on. So far, I’ve bought artichokes, eggplant, and tomatoes, all from the local Fred Meyer, which has a surprisingly good selection of 4/$5 veggie starts.
Weeds. Stupid weeds. No easy solution for this one: just brute force. I’m also still pulling up seedlings from my turned under cover crop. The clover is especially persistent. The second prong of attack is to crowd them out with some pretty groundcover, like nasturtiums. My first planting of nasturtiums has mostly come up, so I just filled in gaps today.
Broody Sue. I locked the chickens out of the nesting box today. Lester had to find another spot to lay her egg, but I found it without too much hunting. Sue seems nonplussed and has not laid an egg since Wednesday.
Good things. It’s not all gloom and doom in the garden. Lots of the crops are looking great: radishes, lettuces, mustard spinach, broccoli rabe, and all my Asian greens. The peas are big enough to train onto the fence now. We finally hit 70° last week, so things are looking up.
* ranunculi
Posted on May 28th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Home and Garden.
I planted a whole bag of ranunculus corms back in the fall, but only two of them came up. But what a pair!
They are almost fluorescent.
I’m going to plant a bunch for next year.
* broody Sue
Posted on May 27th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Chickens.
I leave the chickens alone for 36 hours and Sue goes broody. Poor dumb thing.
Here’s a shot from the chicken cam.
I keep tossing her out of the nest box, but it doesn’t take long before she’s right back in. Tomorrow I’m going to put her in solitary and see what happens. It’s kind of amazing what a behavioral switch it is: her body is noticeably warmer, she keeps her feathers fluffed, she makes a funny little clucking noise.
* mosaic necklace
Posted on May 16th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Wants.
I saw this necklace in a shop in the International District a few months ago and regretted not getting it. Luckily, I had kept the artist’s card! The site is called Tenzome and she also makes them in green and blue. I’ve been getting compliments all day.
[picture from the site, which doesn’t do it justice]
I love the mix of materials.
* wall cabinet sticker
Posted on May 15th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Art.
I finally got around to putting up the vinyl sticker I got to decorate the plain Ikea cabinet we have in our living room. I got it from urbanwalls on etsy (the “large flower” design). Pretty painless to put up, and the petal design made it really easy to work around the corner like I wanted.
I cut the pieces that spanned the hinge or the gap between the door and the top. The rest I folded around the corners. It remains to be seen if the folded pieces will stay stuck, but so far so good.
* out and about
Posted on May 14th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Chickens, Home and Garden.
Big day in the garden since it’s super pretty.
- Collected the remaining daffodils
- Planted this mix of flowering annuals all along both sides of my fence
- Planted artichoke and eggplant starts that I broke down and bought last weekend since the slugs got my lone surviving artichoke started from seed :'(
- Ate my first salad of the season. Arugula, lettuce, 2 types of radish, and green garlic.
- Set out calcium supplement for the girls. I sadly dropped one of Sue’s eggs today and Lester started gobbling up the shell bits. I’ve been meaning to put out crushed eggshell as a calcium supplement for them, but have never gotten around to it even though I’ve accumulated like a giant bag of it. Poor things have probably been craving it, what with all the eggs they’ve been laying. I rigged up a feeder consisting of a small tupperware screwed down to a piece of leftover decking so it will be hard for them to tip over. After a few minutes of extreme suspicion, they decided to go for it. Sorry it took so long, chick-chicks!
- Started hardening off my squash, tomato, and cucurbits seedlings. They’ll go out next week.
* first radishes
Posted on May 8th, 2011 by maitreya. Filed under Home and Garden.
Finally! Something to pick from the garden. It seems like it’s taken forever to get going this year. Although looking back, my first radish last year was apparently May 17, so maybe it’s not as bad as I think.
One Japanese White Icicle and one Champion. I pulled a small Early Scarlet Globe too so we could have a taste test. The Champion seemed most like a grocery store radish. The Early Scarlet Globe was milder. The Japanese White Icicle had more bite and seemed to have an earthier flavor. All pretty good, though!
books I’m in
Categories
- Art
- Blythe
- Chickens
- Craft Room
- Crafty Links
- Crafty Review
- Crochet
- Cross Stitch/Embroidery
- Experiments
- Felting
- Fun with Lab Supplies
- Gocco/L Letterpress
- Holiday
- Home and Garden
- Inspiration
- Jewelry
- Knitting
- Martha
- Paper Crafts
- Projects with Instructions
- Random
- Resin
- Sewing/Fabric Crafts
- Toys (cat and kid)
- Uncategorized
- Wants
Blogroll
- a Stamp a Day
- Becca Stadtlander
- Cool Season Gardening
- ericamulherin.com
- Feeling Stitchy
- Frocks and Frou Frou
- Garden Mentors
- garden therapy
- Gardening in Seattle
- Hip Chick Digs
- Karen Barbe
- King County Seed Lending Library
- L I S A ‘ S – M U S I N G S
- Little Big Girl Studio
- Little Green Doll
- Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens
- Noodlehead
- Northwest Edible Life
- not martha
- Osborne Seed Company Variety Trials
- perdi o fio à meada
- Purl Soho
- Rake and Make
- Raspberry
- Salty Oat
- Seattle Urban Farm Company
- Sky Nursery
- Wee Wonderfuls
- Windy and Friends
- Wise Craft
Archives
- June 2019
- December 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- December 2017
- September 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- January 2016
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2013
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003