Here is a closeup of my jewel orchid’s bloom.
It is not as showy as other orchids, but I’m still excited that I found a setup in which it will bloom. It is in a small mason jar full of live moss, and capped with a large clear acrylic upside-down vase, in a southern facing frosted bathroom window. I add water maybe once a month.
It isn’t a very difficult “Where’s Waldo” photo, but she wasn’t trying to be subtle. She was trying to get to me to make me stop singing. I was standing at a music stand facing the piano, working on warm ups, and she gets quite perturbed when I even sound like I’m working on overtone singing. I can actually tell when I am using my full resonant voice because she comes over to yell at me (it is definitely not with me). Actual overtone singing and she will come from anywhere in the house to get me to stop.
Here is another square done from the book Granny Square Flair by Shelley Husband.
How long did it take you to notice that the center circle is showing the wrong side? I didn’t notice until all four outer circles were stitched in and I had started the connecting stitches. Sigh. I’ll put it in an obscured spot in the final garment. Or call it a design choice.
When we got home from our trip, Missy the dog was the first to greet us, turning inside out because she thought we had left her forever (our eldest had to work so couldn’t go on the trip, so the dog was well cared for). Izzy and Sophie the cats were chill, more like “you were gone? make a lap.” I did see Thor the cat for a little while, then he popped up in the catio window with a present.
On our five-day road trip I spent time in the car twining and nålbinding a small oval basket from the lotus fiber that I hackled before we left. Once I had an oval shape for the base by adding increases only to the curves, I stopped increasing to build the walls.
Even though I hackled the fiber and removed many of the shorter fibers, the lotus had more and there bits everywhere. The fibers are hair-like and itchy. Luckily I keep a lint roller in the car because I had to use it before every stop.
To finish the basket I wrapped the twine around the top rim twice to give the edge more strength.
The basket had a bias twist and was a little wonky, but sturdier than I expected.
When we got home, I gave the basket a plain water soak and the twist relaxed, making quite a nice little container once it was dry.
This project took me roughly 18 hours, but it was very satisfying to twine for a while then stitch for a while. I was originally thinking to make this into a base for a project bag, but since it holds shape, I think I will keep it as a small basket.
Critters and Craft 