Mossy Cottage Knits

Sprinklers, Sharks and Jellyfish, Oh My!

In my family we have a phrase, “sprinkler watching,” which describes the act of sitting outside on a hot summer day, ice-cold glass of lemonade in hand, watching the sprinkler go slowly back…and…forth…back…and…forth. Nobody talks; you just sit there watching the sprinkler. There’s nothing inherently interesting about the sprinkler; it’s movement is just calming, hypnotic and irresistible.

The phrase “sprinkler watching” can apply to other things as well, like watching the flames in a fire, a crystal pendant in a sunny window, or the pendulum on a clock. I’ve now discovered that this phrase can even apply to knitting. I sit with a couple of (non-knitting) friends during lunch and I knit while we chat. I have noticed that my companions “sprinkler watch” my hands. Their eyes glaze over slightly and shift infinitesimally back and forth as they watch me insert the needle, wrap the yarn, remove the stitch, insert the needle, wrap the yarn, remove the stitch, insert the needle… The question is, do I use this power for good, or for evil? I say evil. Definitely evil.

Knitting Knews
Recently I took a class with Lucy Neatby, knitter and designer extraordinaire. Lucy has a unique training method whereby she has you practice seven or eight sock-knitting techniques all on the same sock “tube.” (I don’t know what else to call it; it starts out as a cuff, but becomes so much more.) My finished product – a sock “sampler” if you will – came out looking like a creature from the deep, a cross between a giant jellyfish and a megamouth shark. Judge for yourself…

Dye Garden Dyegest
We knitters pride ourselves on being able to make beautiful things out of two sticks and some string. Gardeners, like my K, may have it one up on us – they make beautiful things out of dirt.

Speaking of dirt, below is a photograph of the four (4!) yards of dirt K had delivered to her house for the dye garden. She calculated it took her 72 wheelbarrowsful to haul this from her driveway to the dye garden, which was, of course, as faaaaaaaar away from the location of the dirt pile as possible.

In the photo below, some of the dirt has been moved to the dye garden. Our alarmingly large-eared “daughter” is sitting with her toes right on the edge of the bed, because she’s not supposed to go any further. K equates this to when, as a child, she used to stand with her toes lined up right outside the door of her brother’s room, saying “But I’m not in his room, Mom!”

In response to Janet's question which she posted on 4/26, according to our reference books, the leaves of salal (gaultheria shallon) can be used to make a yellow gold color, and the berries can be used to make red to purple shades.

Posted by Ryan at April 30, 2003 02:29 PM