Mossy Cottage Knits

Gardening on a Budget, Part Deux

The Great Low-Budget Greenhouse Project continues. With astonishing rapidity, K made this sturdy shelf for holding plants, and is well on her way to making a second one:

She's also shoveling out the cow-poo-infused dirt so that we can venture into the greenhouse without our nostrils snapping shut like a submerging hippo's. Once she digs down to hardpan, she's going to lay a frame of timbers to attach the greenhouse to, line about 1.5 feet in from the timbers with gravel for drainage, make a brickstone path down the middle to absorb and release heat and to give us a place to walk, and install the shelves. She also has ambitious plans for introducing permanent sources of electricity and water but I say all in due time, all in due time. That's the difference between K and me: A week later, I'm still resting on the laurels of just having erected the dratted thing. Unzipping the door, walking in, playing "house" for a minute or two, walking out, and peeling open my nostrils is my idea of making full and complete use of the structure. K, on the other hand...

Knitting Knews
With reader and fellow-Guilder Janine's encouragement I blocked the cuff of the Acoma sock. The results were good, except for the green strip at the seam. It is irretrievably puckered. But Janine has offered to have a confab with me on Guild night and maybe give me some sage advice. Thank you, Janine!

The Crayon Bowl felted just okay. The walls are kind of weak. It truly does look like a semi-floppy hat turned upside down. And, yes, it has actually been on my head a couple of times, once perched smack on top in all of its magnificent "bowlness," and once flattened and angled à la jaunty beret.

Pictures on Monday (uh, but not of me wearing the Crayon Bowl).

Dyeing Garden Dyegest
Today I have the honor of posting a picture of the results of a reader’s natural dyeing efforts, namely, those of Janet, a multi-faceted Oregonian who is a cranberry farmer, natural dyer, and proprietress of KnitKits where she sells creative and charming knitted bag and tote kits.

Apparently Janet was inspired enough by my bracken dyeing experiments – and surrounded and overwhelmed enough by ever-multiplying fronds of bracken – to want to try the same, so here are her results. She spins a funny story of trying to do this the one weekend they had little, if any, water but, as she wrote, “There was all that bracken. What's a body to do?”

I believe the difference between the colors of these two skeins comes from the fact that Janet put one skein in the dyebath first, let it simmer for a while, and then decided she had enough dye color to warrant putting a second skein in. Janet, correct me if I'm wrong...

Janet has also dropped some hints about dyeing with alder cones next year so perhaps I'll have some more photos to post when that time rolls around. Hint, hint, Janet, hint, hint.

Monday, the interesting results of my experiments with the black walnut dye.

Posted by Ryan at August 8, 2003 08:47 AM