Put a fuzzy bed in the sunlight and it will sprout a cat. Even if it is an unconventional bed.
I was a little concerned yesterday when the cats would have nothing to do with the new bed. I’m glad baiting the bed with sunlight worked.
Sunlight bait
Author: Caryn
Fancy cat bed
Ok, so this is probably the silliest I’ve ever made, and that’s saying something. I repaired the broken leg in an old side table that had been used as a bench (yesterday’s post), and rather than tempt fate by putting a solid top back on, I made it into a cat hammock.
I had a pink fuzzy blanket that had already been cut into for another project (we couldn’t find the fabric by the yard, so bought a blanket), and sewed a two sided mat. I stapled the mat down to the table top, over the central opening. I then sewed a long tube of the fabric, stuffed it with polyfil and sewed that down on the mat. It is quite the sight. The cats are not too sure of it, so I put it beneath the front window where it will get some sunlight. I’ve sequentially put all three cats on the bed; all have rejected it. I’ll give it some time.
Leg repair
One of my neighbors put out an upholstered stool on the side of the road. It had elegant curved legs, but one of them was broken. I picked it up and glued the leg back on.
There was still a large gap in the leg after I fit it together.
I bought some Apoxy sculpt modeling compound, which is a two-part epoxy clay that hardens without baking. I bought the color called “bronze” because I was inspired by the Japanese method of Kintsugi, or making a visible gold repair. The “bronze” was not metallic at all and actually was a fair match to the stained wood. Huh.
I removed the water stained upholstered top and found something interesting.
This little piece of furniture has been many things. At one point it had a rattan top that had been cut out. I’m guessing the rattan was original and this was intended to be a side table. Then there is a round of staple or tack marks around the old rattan groove, which I assume was the second and maybe even third life of the piece. When I picked it up, it had green velvet fabric stapled to a plywood board, that was then screwed in place from underneath.
I have no doubt that those legs would break again if someone sat on it. So what to do with elegant legs that can’t take much weight? Oh, I came up with something, and it is probably the silliest thing I’ve ever made. I’ll share the results tomorrow.
Ginger experiment
I bought ginger root intending to make Singer’s Tea, but left it in the plastic bag for too long and it started to grow.
I have tried placing the root in water (yeah, this has happened before) but the water quickly grew mold and the root didn’t do well. This time I thought I would do an experiment with water storing crystals, with the idea that it might keep the root moist without drowning it. And it looks cool.
Wow do the “crystals” absorb large quantities of water. I thought I was being conservative with the amount of dry crystals, but they absorbed all the water I put in the container, and I had to scoop some off the top. I did add some Miracle Gro fertilizer so there are nutrients in the medium. I placed the root into the container and placed the container in the front window.
I’m not holding much hope on this experiment. The ginger shoot is not radiating happiness in its new container, but we’ll stay the course for a couple weeks to see what happens.
Update: this does not work. The ginger starts to grow, then withers.
Casting on
I have cast on the Helix scarf from Spin Off magazine! I did make a modification, casting on thirty seemed very narrow, so I ripped out (only a couple rows) and cast on 50 instead. I adjusted the short rows to alternating 20 and 10. It turns out that I really like short rows, and the wrap and turn method. Izzy the cat doesn’t mind being on my lap as I knit, but Thor the cat thinks the yarn smells really good and keeps trying to take off with it, or chew on my circular needle.
Critters and Craft 