I was taught young to always shake out my shoes before putting them on, especially if they have been sitting outside. The caterpillar trying to climb in my sneaker when I was checking on chickens was a subtle reminder why.
Caterpillar shoe invasion
Oh, that and snakes, which are now coming out from their winter rest.
Blurry picture of a rat snake, probably wouldn’t fit in my shoe, despite how skinny it isRough earth snake, ten of these would fit in my shoe, non venomous, but very wiggly
Here is a short of the rough earth snake, which is so wiggly because it was having trouble getting traction on the sidewalk.
Oh, and the scorpions, which would be an ouchie shoe find. And rocks, which also hurt, but don’t defensively pinch or sting. But spiders bite. Basically, always check your shoes before putting them on.
In my Grandma’s stash of knitting supplies, there is a stack of bobbins she made from plastic containers. I decided to follow suit, and make more bobbins from my used plastic lids.
Grandma’s bobbins (left), commercial bobbin (bottom), ricotta cheese lid (right)
There are no signs of tracing on Grandma’s bobbins, I’m not sure if she wiped them off, they wore off, or she made so many she didn’t need to trace them. I need trace lines, so I used a thin sharpie to outline the commercial bobbin.
Tracing the bobbin onto the lid
I cut out the traced design with kitchen scissors.
Cut out bobbin
I think cutting was a harder task for Grandma; the plastic she used was much thicker than mine. It is a visible reminder that plastics manufacture has changed, and products are using less plastic per item now.
Grandma’s plastic (left), modern plastic (right)
Despite the thinner material, my new bobbin works great to organize the extra bits of thread I’m accumulating as I warp my Inkle loom.
The picture is terrible, but frankly I’m surprised I obtained any image at all. There was a nuthatch outside on the coop looking in the house, then a ruckus behind the curtain that caught the cat’s attention. I pulled back the curtain to see a second nuthatch in between the screen and the window on the inside. I snapped the picture just as the bird dove down into the cat’s claws. I pulled the cat off and the bird rocketed back out the hole in the screen, through the catio bars, and off to freedom. That was quite the excitement for one morning, thank you. I’m very thankful I didn’t have to chase the bird through the house. I’ve seen some insects come through the flap I sewed into the screen so the cats could access the catio, but never a bird!
I’ve had this as a purse project for a couple weeks. I wanted to make a flower garland, and I wanted to use crochet (which is still my top choice for an easy-to-pick-up, easy-to-set-down project). I chose pearlized cotton from my stash. I was sad, but not surprised, that all the green is gone, but the multicolored blue did a fine job for the leaves.
Crochet flower garland in process at my favorite coffee shop
I started by making the flowers with white thread. These are made with five petals crocheted into a magic circle, each petal is a chain 2, double crochet into the circle, chain 1, slip stitch into the top of the double crochet, chain 2, slip stitch into the circle. I made subsequent flowers along the thread because I didn’t want loose bits floating around my purse. When it came time to crochet the vine and leaves, I would clip off a flower and add between leaves (which are similarly constructed to the flower). I neatened up the white threads ends later by weaving them in and clipping.
Long strands with flower bobs enjoy getting tangled. I didn’t have an extra bobbin, so I tore off a side of a tissue box, rolled it into a tube and tucked in the ends. This allowed me to wrap the ornery lengths around it to keep them neat, and the tube served as a holder for the 1.00 mm crochet hook I was using. Not pretty, but effective.
Finished garland
For the final flower, I joined in the start of the chain to make a continuous loop. Now the garland can be doubled and used as a head band, or looped and worn as a necklace.
We planted one Gregg’s Mist Flower in the front garden. We tried a different variety of mist flower previously, but they didn’t take well, and didn’t attract butterflies. These are growing well and nearly every time I walk by, I see a butterfly! Hurray!
Butterfly on Gregg’s Mist Flower
I believe the butterfly visiting in the photo is a Painted Lady butterfly.
