Where there is prey…

On By CarynIn Insects

I was quite confused when I saw Queen butterfly wings caught in the foliage of the Gregg’s Mistflower as I walked by.

Photo description: Queen butterfly wings at an odd angle surrounded by Gregg’s Mistflower plants

I stopped to look and saw that the butterfly wasn’t just haphazardly hung up, it was in the grip of a large Praying Mantis the exact color of the leaves. I had stumbled upon the predator mid-meal. Here is a video short.

The Carolina Mantis was completely unconcerned how close I was with my phone. If I had passed by a minute later, I would have only seen the butterfly wings on the ground, and not the camouflaged mantis.

Sock progress

On By CarynIn Craft

I’m trying a new-to-me sock pattern that dates from the World Wars and was distributed to help with war relief efforts. The spiral pattern creates a stretchy fabric that conforms to the heel without having to stitch a heel. For soldiers this meant a longer wearing sock, since the heel rotates and takes longer to wear out than a designated heel. For my family, my youngest has trouble lining up a heel on her foot, so this is a potentially frustration-saving accommodation. The stitch pattern is easy, but does require paying attention. The body of the sock is a 4×4 rib, but offset one stitch each row, which is what forms the spiral. I’m using Cascade Heritage Prints yarn, which is self striping.

Photo description: spiral socks in progress, knitted as a pair on two 2.5mm cable needles with Cascade Heritage Prints yarn, with a 1×1 rib cuff

My spiral is not forming the tight twist that I have seen in vintage pictures, and I’m hoping that when the socks are finished and blocked, I’ll get the right structure. If this does work for my youngest, I see many, many spiral socks in my future.

Throwback Thursday: library sign

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In October 2015 I was volunteering at my kids’ elementary school library. They had stacks of old dust covers for books and we had the idea of making a library sign using the colorful printed paper. I selected portions of book covers with coordinating colors and made each letter of the word “library” a different color of the rainbow.

Photo description: large paper based letters spelling “library” and two cartoon owls made of book dust covers and chip board hanging on the wall of the library office
Photo description: closeup of the letter “R” showing how many individual book covers were used for their colors, and outlined with black chip board

I did write on the back of each letter the names of the books that went into making up the color. The owls were made to coordinate with a backdrop of a collection of owls that was already displayed at the library.

Negative volume

On By CarynIn chickens

Not that it has been awhile since I was able to fill the chicken’s dust bath, but the volume in the tire was negative.

Photo description: old rubber tire used as a chicken dust bath with the inside soil level below the tire and surrounding ground level
Photo description: approximately six gallons of dust bath mixture (wood ash, soil, and diatomaceous earth) added to the tire bath

There is room for another batch or two of dust bath mixture.

Iron in the ash

On By CarynIn chickens

My folks visited and Dad burned some of our wood pile to make ash for the chickens, since we actually had an allowed burn day. I haven’t made ash in over a year because of time restraints and burn restrictions. As we shooed the spiders and geckos out of the iron cauldron I use as a fire pit, I noticed a large flake of rust fall off. I don’t want the chickens eating that, so when the ashes cooled, I used a fishing magnet to remove the metal.

Photo description: fishing magnet covered in ashy bits of iron, more ash in the cauldron in the background

I dredged the ash with a magnet four or five times before I was no longer collecting large flakes of iron.

Photo description: iron cauldron with about two gallons of ash, and a small metal bucket with about two cups of iron flakes

There is still iron in the ash, but small enough grains that it shouldn’t cause hardware stomach in the chickens. Hardware stomach is where the farm animal eats wire or nails or some other metallic object, and the object damages the digestive tract, often leading to death.