Stick weaving frenzy

Today after digging up, and presenting Gary with, what's left of the giant Russian sage, which he will plant behind his fence, I took a walk, then came home and sat. 

I read Brideshead Revisited, then listened to some Shedunnit, and woke some time later. Lunch was the last of the roasted potatoes, doused with lovely long red pepper, great hot but fruity flavor, the last of the baby broccoli and a patty of spicy plant-based sausage, all roasted together for about twenty five minutes. A few fresh dates for dessert. Good thing Misfits comes tomorrow, I'm running out.

Then I got into stick weaving mode. I experimented with drinking straws in case the Tuesday group expects me to know what I'm doing, a couple of ways. 

I noticed on YouTube one video where the weaving is done without the warp threaded through the straws. It was threaded in after the weaving.  I tried that, inserting the yarn to slide the weft threads onto it, and I don't recommend it. It was difficult to get the weft to slide smoothly and keep its tension. The sample is a bit bumpy. 

I set up with the warp threads in place before trying another way 

As you see, pretty bumpy results but worth trying just to find out.

Here's the stick weaving cast of characters 

This book is wonderful and I've recommended it a lot to people interested in a different, simple approach to weaving. It's had several printings, with different covers, but it's the same reliable teaching.

And here's the stick weaving how-to using actual purpose-made sticks. This is much easier to navigate with long warp threads than the straws. Straws work better for short projects.

I made the woven bag seen on my last post using instructions from this book, seen on the cover, and made the strap which goes all round the sides of the bag with my weaving sticks.

Then I wonder how about smaller gauge sticks, briefly thought of drilling bamboo knitting needles, but think they'd probably split.  Then my miniature making self suddenly realized: big sewing needles!

So I attached the threads through the eyes of five assorted needles and I'll try this tiny size with fine yarn, and we'll see.

Good day, and there have been some legal victories in the last couple of days.

I am now in the CeraVe owners group, thanks to Mitchell, and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm hopeful that it will help my rough itchy face. It looks okay but doesn't feel that way, just now.

And I'm impatient to get my new supply of checks since I now have three people waiting to be paid, including the contractor and a couple of individuals who shouldn't have to wait. The checks were shipped last week, but I guess the weekend and the holiday probably slowed things up.

Happy day everyone! Invent something, if possible, then you can tell us about it. And remember to resist in some real tangible way.

 

Domesticated folks, fall plans

 Speaking of domesticated animals

September, and fall is nearly here. I usually have some project for the upcoming season, but this summer's been so here and there with one damn thing or another that I don't have fall plans yet. 

Maybe it's a time to stop things, as a change from always embarking on them. Life keeps on presenting new embarking without looking for more. To be continued.

Chicken saga also continued. Gary and I saw a whole gaggle of chickens out pecking, which he loved. But he's dogsitting two granddogs, as well as Billie, and he's worried about the chicks wandering among them, not sure what would happen.

He tracked down the owners, turns out they've erected a chicken shed on their patio and they've had the chickens several weeks, but hadn't let them out. He cautioned them about our foxes and redtails.  Now he's looking around for greens, unsprayed, to give them. They're the granddaughter's pets  Never a dull moment. 

We worked on houseplants between catching escaping dogs, and eating a plate of chicken biryani, rice,  some very hot veg dish and that crisp spicy snack stuff Indians love. A neighbor brought it over to share.  

We reminisced about H and worried about her husband J and son J.  Gary started moving out stones ready to level for my new patio, and I pointed out the couple of self planted offshoots from the Russian sage that  he can have.

He and I are going to visit Hs widower next week. And there's my audiologist visit, and the knitting group and handsome son's visit, and the doors to be returned.  I don't think I have time for a project.

I did pick the last of the sweet peppers and roast them with olive oil and garlic powder, to crisp chips, to go with the last of the shrimp for lunch. Then I dropped the seeds into the container that used to hold the non potatoes. Maybe they'll sprout next year.

I pulled more dead foliage, so the garden is looking winter ready, or something. New sprouts of the crushed giant Russian sage have come up from the debris of the wall repair, right where my future patio will go. Gary has wanted one of these for  years, no longer obtainable. So he's going to dig up and transplant them, very happily.

In the course of pulling foliage I unearthed my long lost bird bath. 

Frogs have been known to occupy it when I've left an inch of water for butterflies.

The Chinese owner of the chickens sent over these leaves, doesn't know the English name for them. She makes a tea with them. 

Can anyone identify them? Hibiscus?  We both need to be careful to identify it in case it reduces blood pressure because of being on blood pressure medication.

I had a dramatic experience some time ago, ending in the hospital, after drinking delicious holy basil tea. It's used to reduce blood pressure, which I didn't know and I ended up with a serious overdose and plunging pressure.

Happy day everyone, do you have projects for the seasons? Aside from those grand ones like reading The Iliad, and the lesser known Anatolian poets, or maybe the care and feeding of neighborhood poultry.

Pansies and Russian Sage stepping up

I noticed, finally noticing stuff outside, must be feeling much better, that my winter pansies are still blooming happily, but a bit far from the window to really see.

 
So I hauled them to the outside of the patio door, Little Match Girl style, to look in at the lucky indoor plants, and remind the indoors that they'd better grow or they'll be outside...

And here's the cut down Russian Sage, from the front yard, getting a bit scruffy looking out front, but doing nicely in this group of dried flowers out back, the ones I failed to make into a wreath (!) and still smelling strongly of sage, even at this season.  It will spring up again out front, and meanwhile it looks a bit better out there now.

The birds love the dried flowers, and I've seen Carolina wrens swinging from them and pecking at what I suppose are seeds still in them.  So I imagine that if I'd manage to make a door wreath using them, the birds would have played it to bits in no time.


In the background you see in the ground the new one I put in this year, in the corner near the fence.  Not big enough to warrant cutting back, since it's sheltered from wind anyway.

What with the sage out back, and other herbs, and the spice bush in the other corner, I'm going to have a very scented garden in a few months.  A couple of Adirondack chairs might join them, too, from across the street, looking for a new home.