In February 2019 I made a wind spinner from wire clothes hangers and plastic string cut from water bottles. The original post is here: https://crittersandcraft.blog/2019/02/11/recycled-bottle-wind-spinner/
The wind spinner spun for about six years before the fishing line holding it up broke. I did not hang it back up. I do like the shape I made with wire, but the application of the plastic string was more hassle than it was worth.
For all you do, for all you’ve done, for all you gave, thank you.
I’m a little obsessed with the corner-to-corner crochet method. I’ve been making 7×9 inch rectangles for Warm Up America with scrap yarn, but I have even smaller lengths of yarn and wondered if I could connect small C2C squares.
I used a wood K crochet hook, which has been working well for my Tunisian crochet experiments, but was a little too big for this project. I do like the idea of the connected squares, so I’ll give it another go with a smaller hook.
On another rabbit hole, C2C crochet can also be used to make pixel art blankets. It is fun to scroll through the images, except the AI ones, those are frustrating and should all have disclaimers.
I told my plant friend (who is also a singing friend) how I’ve been researching the African violets and how well the ones I have are doing, and she sent me home with a new African violet and two leaves from a miniature African violet! The collection grows!
I also found out that once a plant has lost its identity and name it is called a NOID, or No-ID. There are so many named varieties (16,000 according to the African Violet Society of America FAQ) and African Violets bloom differently under different conditions, which makes identification of a named variety impossible by visual means. A hybrid plant is named if it comes from a traceable named source. Most big box store African violets are not named, according to the AVSA. So I will be learning the descriptive terms and use those to describe my violets. I like that there are so many varieties, and they are growing well for me.
I am rearranging the plants in my home (to make room for more African violets), and my aloe plant had become quite tall and rangy, but had new growth underneath. I cut off the larger plant and processed it with the intent of collecting the fiber.
The gel scraped from the inside of the leaf is very viscous. I did save the clearest sections from the center in a mason jar, but the rest I wiped from the counter with a dry paper towel because water just makes it more slimy. I rinsed the skins and will let them dry before trying to comb out the fiber.
I do love aloe vera gel for sunburned skin, and I read that if you rinse the gel well it is edible. Aloe latex is a substance that is next to the outer layer and can cause an unpleasant laxative effect if too much is ingested. I can’t even get past the idea of the feel of the slime in my mouth, so I think I will stick to topical applications.
