I finished spinning the one ounce of Dottie the goat’s mohair, and made a practice circle with the resulting yarn. I used the Finnish 1+2 or Mammen stitch, and am practicing circles because I like making hats. And circles are useful as dish separators, so all my practice still turns out something useful.
I brushed the back of the circle lightly just to see what happens. The result was soft and fuzzy!
I received this tube of rubber in conjunction with a ceramic garlic grater. I love the grater, but was unsure what the tube was about. Until I popped a clove of garlic in and rolled it under my hand. The peel came right off! It is now my go to tool when I have to peel garlic. Such a funny little tube that works so very well!
Good thing it is useful, because it is rather lopsided.
I decided to practice my nålbinding by making a rag rug from a fitted sheet that had worn out. I cut off the elastic, then tore the sheet into 1” strips. I wound each strip into individual loose bundles so they didn’t tangle together. Using the Finish 1+1 aka Oslo stitch, I worked the strips into an oval rug form. I was eyeballing where increases needed to go, so the end result is kinda funky. I had to block it (get it wet and lay it flat to dry) to get it mostly flat. Although it took me a month to make, I admit that I only did about three strips in a sitting. If I make another one with the top sheet, I’ll twist each strip, and evenly space the increases. I did find that I like to chain the increases, rather than stitch into the same stitch. I like the texture better. So lessons learned. And it will still keep feet from getting cold while someone is brushing their teeth.
On the chicken side, the weather is cooling down. It is still hot, with highs still in the 90s, but the chickens spent all day outside today. How do I know? The foot bath inside the coop was clean, and the one outside was filthy.
Seriously, spinning is like magic. You take bits of fluff and with a stick of wood, turn it into infinite varieties of useful stuff. When asked what superpower I would want, my answer is usually to be able to make things from nothing. This is pretty darn close!
I found an awesome book on spindle spinning: “Respect the Spindle: Spinning Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool” by Abby Frequemont. I love that she provides scientific information on spinning, and enough description that I can use it to improve my spinning. (I should still find a class on spinning, but this at least gets my hands moving!) She also recommends trying many different spindles and has exercises to help improve spinning.
I’ve been practicing with small colored scraps of wool, and spinning with mohair is different, but I like how fuzzy it comes out. I really like crocheting and nålbinding with single ply yarn, but I’m definitely missing something about the process, because this single ply doesn’t act like store bought single ply. Now here is more magic. You spin two strands of single ply together in the opposite direction and the twists balance each other and hold together better. Ok, so not magic, but super cool science.
I really thought that my rotating meal worm drawers would yield a batch of large worms every two weeks or so once I had it going. But right now I have large larva in nearly every drawer. So today I started picking out the large worms to feed to the chickens. There are also beetle eggs hatching in the beetle drawer, but I think I’m just going to let those become beetles. If they survive the adults. I do separate the pupa when I find them.
My yield certainly isn’t what I thought it would be. I’m not sure if I didn’t start with enough beetles, or the house geckos have been getting in and having a smorgasbord.
We’ll continue the experiment for awhile because, frankly, it is hardly any work at all. I add wilted lettuce leaves for the beetles, and carrot peels and pieces for the larva, both of which are abundant at my house. I switch drawers once every two weeks, which entails putting oatmeal and/or corn meal in a drawer. It would be more work to take it all down.
