Pending Projects

My current project list is a bit, um, scary. And it does not include books to be read or job stuff. Perhaps this is why blogging has fallen by the wayside?

Knitting:

• Mitered Square Shawl
• Alpaca cardigan
• Backpack
• Northern lights scarf
• Zaurball shawl
• Emerald sweater
• Cover for lumbar cushion
• Lace vest from takli spun cotton

Wood burning:

• Kitchen table
• Cabinet knobs - Kitchen
• Knobs hall
• Earring frame
• Sideboard
• Desk
• library boxes
• Library stool
• Plant stand table
• Laptop tray table
• Bat house
• Vintage box with metal strap
• Box for interchangeable needles
• Camp stool
• Mirror frame for master bath

Gardening:

• Rock wall
• Move remaining rock to back yard
• Dig out grass in NW corner
• Plant white lavender along wall
• Add yarrow and another lower plant along front of house
• Move leopard plant to back yard
• Terrace upper end of back yard
• Build small deck for tea house
• Prune dead limbs off lilac
• Prune mock orange
• Dig out grass in backyard
• Lay out path in backyard
• Acquire and spread mulch in backyard
• Prune shrubs under porch
• Install drip in backyard
• Terrace lower end of backyard and install pavers
• Repaint back porch
• Buy bench for lower end of back yard
• Paint mural on back fence
• Acquire and install rush fencing along chain-link
• Repair gate
• Repair concrete front steps
• Repair concrete back steps
• Plant solar lights
• Repair and reinstall broken siding piece

Inside big jobs:

• Finish scraping kitchen floor
• Paint kitchen walls, ceiling, cabinets
• Replace hall bath sink
• Prepare walls and paint hall bath
• Tile hall bath floor
• Replace master bath sink
• Tile master bath floor
• Paint master bath
• Replace light fixture in master bath
• Wash all windows
• Replace cracked garage window with stained glass

Other projects:

• Outfit picnic basket
• Sew picnic blanket
• Sew and block print canvas slipcover for couch
• Make duvet cover for bedroom
• Rehem bedroom curtains
• Make slipcovers for library chairs
• Organize Yosemite pictures and format book
• Organize fiber room
• Finish tweaking Country Craftsman Wheel
• Mount niddy noddies on wall

On another note, I am testing out Blogsy iPad App, so just ignore the picture and link:

Purplefuzzymittens.blogspot.com

 

Posted with Blogsy

Preparations

I've been caught up in preparations for an upcoming trip. Armed with a recommended gear list I have tackled the likes of REI and Amazon, slowly accumulating a small mountain of items. The trip is an awesome 7-day raft trip through the Grand Canyon, so I can't afford to forget anything important. Yet the maximum allowed luggage is 25 lbs. Tricky.

It is going to be HOT in the bottom of the Canyon, so at least the requisite clothing will be lightweight.  Several folks have recommended taking a sarong for light-weight bathing suit cover-up around camp.  I whipped up a standard-size one on the sewing machine and, after experimenting, decided I didn't like the tight knotting or resultant slippage.  So, using an old nightshirt as a basic cutting guide, I whipped up an extra-loose dress out of lightweight cotton. It counts as my first attempt to sew more than a skirt, bag or trailer curtains. 

I will be taking the Nikon Coolpix AW100 and handful of extra chips and batteries. In case the spare batteries are not enough, I have acquired a cool little gadget called the Solio Bolt (cheaper from Amazon). It is a pocket-sized solar charger. It only outputs through USB, so at first it was going to be unusable for the camera batteries. With some searching, I found a battery charger that can be powered by USB. Neither is speedy, mind you, but a workable backup.

Aware that many of the 17 other family members on this trip will be bringing identical cameras and REI-sourced gear, I have pulled out that wonder of modern science, the Sharpie.


First I put my name on my camera. Then I decided to customize my green duffel bag. It wouldn't help much to put my last name on the bag, since at least 5 of the other rafters will have the same name. And there is another Amy on the trip. I went for pictures instead.  (For much more elaborate Sharpie Art, check out the official blog.)

 
Should be useful to identify the bag in the airport, too. There's still plenty of ink in the Sharpie, but I draw the line at labeling my underwear.



And here's a shot of Saturday's harvest from the garden.

Prickly Harvest

One of the jobs of summer is to harvest whatever I can from my small slice of property that might make an interesting dye experiment.  Every evening after work I go out with my basket and pull off any Coreopsis blooms that have opened.  No doubt my neighbors think I am nuts, since every time something blooms I snip it right off.  The lavender and the Perovskia are safe, since last summer's experiments proved them to be disappointing in the dye pot.  I am looking forward to the blooming of the 6-foot tall sunflower plant that volunteered in the back yard.  It is covered with big flower buds and I hope they open before I leave for my upcoming raft trip. One bloom is open, so the rest should be out soon.




Tonight, after denuding the Coreopsis and the Lingula in the front yard, I tackled the Mahonia in the back.  Let me be clear, I would never have planted the stuff.  It is a vigorous invader from next door.  Mahonia, also called Oregon grape is the plant equivalent of a rabid porcupine.  At first you think, "that's kinda cute" but approach it and you will soon learn it is well protected by painful prickliness.  Any attempt at removing the stuff requires massive gauntlets and high levels of determination.  Then it grows right back. 
Its nickname of Oregon grape is due to the purple berries it produces during midsummer.  Last year I missed harvesting them.  I am determined to try for the blue-violet dye they are purported to produce when used in an acid dye pot.  So I bravely tackled stripping the ripe berries from the plants that are taking over the east end of my backyard.  Garden gloves were too unwieldy - the small berries rolled right through my fingers.  I managed to collect a rollicking 8oz of berries, frequently interspersed with "Ow!", "Ooh!" and other unmentionable phrases.  For every 5 berries collected another 3 dropped down into the bushes.  I eventually gave up from too many punctures, but may attack it again tomorrow.  On the positive side, the purple stain on my hands is persistent, even after a vigorous scrubbing.

All of my harvested plant bits get put into plastic bags and stowed in the deep freeze, far from curious felines.

Much mulch

Much mulch
Originally uploaded by Purple Fuzzy Mittens

This is what I am doing during the holiday weekend. Hint: Don't buy mulch the day after a rain storm - the cedar absorbs the rain and the bags get really heavy.

More Purple

It's a good year for the lilac:




The mock orange and the Scottish broom should be blooming soon. Then my favorites - the lavender.

Snow in the garden

The Friends in my Garden

Sadly my work life has recently been overshadowing my home life, thus I haven't had much to blog about. This weekend I managed to break away a bit and spend an hour or two in the garden. Although the lavender blooms have faded a bit with the 100 degree weather, the garden is still abuzz with bees. I dug out a few ginormous weeds that had taken advantage of my absence and added a few rocks to the nascent wall.

When I look at my garden I am reminded of some special folks. When I first moved into my house, Linda gave me the yellow Potentilla. She said all desert gardens should have potentilla. I am embarrassed to say that I nearly killed it twice before it settled in and grew back. It is a spunky little survivor.

The lemon thyme is blooming. It reminds me of my friend Laura, who had it growing in the front yard of the little house she renovated, before moving out to Red Rock, and ultimately to Oregon.

One of the enthusiastically overgrowing Russian sage along the front of the garden was given to me by Sharon, who dug it out of her own yard. The Russian sage, along with two more varieties of lavender, have grown into a fragrant hedge. The ground around them is deep purple, covered by cast off blooms.

And of course the lavender reminds me of my mother, who loved the fragrance and the exotic culinary touch of herbes de Provence that could be made from the dried blossoms.

What I could do with the help of a few hundred serfs...

OK, so it is not the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Egypt. Just the Minor Wall of My Front Yard. I have managed to put in an hour or so of shifting stones after work each night. Turns out I was absolutely right in my suspicion that dry stack walls are harder to pull off then they look. The problem is that you tend to quickly use up all the conveniently rectangular stones, then are faced with all the funny shaped ones. And one little knobby bit on a rock can leave it wobbling precariously or stubbornly refusing to fit into the space you just know it should fill admirably.

Still, for my first attempt I am learning a lot. For instance, tomorrow I am running out at lunch to buy a chisel.

Progress

The foundation stones have been placed and backfilled. Now the tricky-artsy job of fitting stones begins. Note: Rocks are really heavy.

Way behind

No, I have not dropped off the planet. I have just been totally consumed with non-bloggable activities. These include work, and ... well, mostly just work. This totally busy time will pass, but for now I have to shoehorn in other activities were I can. I was going to comment on how unnaturally hot it was. Then I was going to comment on how unnaturally wet and cold it was. Now it is pretty much normal, so there isn't much to say about it.

I did manage to finish the white cotton sweater, except for sewing on the buttons - hand sewing even something as simple as buttons is something I actively procrastinate.

My most treasured progress has been on the foundation ditch for my rock wall. It will be a low dry-stack wall, so I dug a ditch about 10 inches deep and spread sand in it. The sand is to give a nice level surface for the first rank of ledger stone. In a flash of inspiration I used the "car-weight" sand bags that were taking up space in my garage. I used to put these bags in the back of my pickup each winter to add traction. Now I have a heftier 4-wheel-drive, so the sand can go to a higher (or lower) purpose. And tada! I have more space in my garage! I need to pick up one more bag of sand, then I will be able to start moving rocks. I hope to place at least a ceremonial first stone this weekend.

Meanwhile, with absolutely no help from me, the garden has sprung to life. The lavender has sent up bloom stalks, the curl-leaf mahogany have become proper willowy shrubs, and, after a severe pruning, the Perovskia have filled in with dense crops of new leaves. Every year since I bought the house the pink peony has given forth exactly 2 blossoms. Sure enough - 2 more this year.

On the knitting front, I have frogged the recycled-sari-silk bag and restarted it to my own pattern. It will be handbag-sized using squares on both front and back and a shaped strap that forms bottom, sides and strap. Hard to describe, but I have a vision. I'll post pictures if it works out. The surprise project I have previously alluded to is still in progress, so no pictures of that for now.

That is about all for now. I'll take pictures of my ceremonial first rock. Maybe I should break a bottle over it....

Mid-May update

You may have noticed that I have not said much about fiber stuff lately. Partially it has been due to inactivity, or rather over-activity in the work half of my life. And partially it has been due to my working on a not-posted-until-it-is-gifted project. I have been taking pictures of this project and will post all the details later in the summer.

There are 2 other in-process projects I can report on:

First, I am mostly done knitting a simple white summer cardigan out of some French purl cotton I bought ages ago at a Stitches West vendor booth. I am using the Summer Cardigan pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. The plan is to have the cardi to put over a sundress I will be wearing to a wedding in July (hot for the ceremony, but air conditioned at the reception). Oddly enough, when I washed the swatch it came out noticeably whiter, which will suit the outfit perfectly. Just need to finish a sleeve, then do the button bands.

Secondly, perusing the Knitty.com archives I came across the pattern for a bag called "Unbiased". It calls for 11oz of recycled sari silk from Tibet. By happenstance I have 2 skeins (12oz) that I bought several years ago in a little imports store in Yachats, Oregon. I have many special memories of that trip, so a bag made from this yarn will be both a handy knitting bag and a treasured memento. For now the project is my carry-along knitting. When finished, I can use it to carry along other carry-along projects.

One more fiberish note: After a long period of resistance, I have allowed myself to be swept into the world of Ravelry.com. My spot on the waiting list came up today and I have set up my profile. An initial look-around tells me I could spend days inside. Although I don't expect to index all of my needles and fiber stash (it is enough to be a librarian by day) I do expect to find lots of tips, patterns and inspiration.

As for the garden, I finished spreading mulch in the front yard (all 60 bags of it!), trimmed back last year's bloom stalks from the Perovskia and Caryopteris, and have dug the first dozen feet of foundation trench for my rock wall. After all that work I celebrated by adding a garden ornament to the lavender bed.

mulch

Water-wise organic gardeners learn quickly that there is no such thing as too much mulch. It keeps the moisture in and the weeds out. Many desert gardeners use gravel between their plantings. I prefer cedar mulch for several reasons. As it breaks down it adds acid to the soil (something much needed in my neighborhood). It does not hold heat like gravel or reflect the heat onto the house. It holds moisture better than gravel. The cedar oils are naturally insect repellent. It is easier to change out should I change plantings. The color is warmer. And, importantly, it is far less likely to kill my back. The only down side is cedar mulch's defiance of the law of conservation of mass - it somehow disappears over time. (Yes, I know my front yard is not a closed system, but it doesn't appear to be piling up at the downwind neighbors either.)

I replenish the cedar twice a year. In the spring I add a thick layer and in the late fall I add some around the more sensitive of the plantings to give them a little insulation. This weekend was spring mulching time. I spread 40 2-cubic-feet bags of western red cedar. Since each bag had to be shifted onto a cart at Home Depot, then shifted into the truck, then shifted out of the truck, then moved to its end destination, I figure I have moved a cumulative of 320 cubic feet of cedar mulch this weekend. And I am not done. I need at least 6 more bags for the front yard, and a bunch for the back yard. Spreading mulch is labor intensive and sniffle producing, but it lends a fresh clean look to the yard. Sort of like a fresh coat of paint.

Once the mulching is done I will have no more excuses to avoid starting on the rock wall.

In other garden news the lilac has started to bloom. Lilac experts say that a heavily overgrown lilac should be pruned back to its optimum over three years. Lilacs only bloom on new wood, so an overgrown lilac won't bloom very heavily. I started the 3-year pruning process last year and it looks like I will be rewarded already with lots of almost-purple flowers. In the front yard, the first green leaves of the Salvia reptens have appeared to quench my fears that they might not come back from the winter. Each year they die all the way back to the ground, so I anxiously await the first bits of green peeking through the mulch.

Spring has Sprung

Mother Nature is granting northern Nevada with a few days of unseasonably warm weather. Two days of temps in the 80s and, wonder of wonders, on a weekend! It would have been a crime to stay indoors! Sadly I have lots and lots of work to accomplish before Monday morning rolls around. Yesterday I took the laptop out to my "outdoor office" in the back yard and labored under the boughs of the gloriously blossoming cherry tree. Knowing Sunday would require an entire afternoon inside a building, far from even a decent window, I soaked up as much spring ambiance as possible. Today I go to work (Kleenex in hand to deal with the, um, overabundance of spring ambiance) and will toil at the computer with visions of cherry blossoms in my head.

Brief Oasis

Spring is slipping in and will pass faster than an otter into the waves. The busier I get, the easier it is to miss the special moments in the sun. Luckily I have friends like Allison who provide the occasional calm oasis of spinning and laughing in her wonderful garden! Here are a few pictures from last Sunday.

Camouflage

Can you spot the hidden goldfinches? A whole flock is hanging out in the winter skeleton of the mock orange. Despite the drippy, snowy, frigid weather they are sprinting back and forth to the thistle socks on the back porch. Only two quail have been so brave, scuffling around below the seed feeders. There is also a scrub jay, sitting on the fence, ready to do battle with anyone who dares to raid his suet feeder. No one has shown up to take the challenge. Too cold and drippy, I guess.

Quail Graffiti

Quail scribblings from my backyard:


Roughly translated, I think they say, "Fill the birdfeeders already, Dammit!"

Lots of Lavender

All that lavender hanging to dry in the garage was starting to drop a rain of fragrant bits every time I opened the garage door (purple rain?). It was past time to finish processing, so last night I spent all evening stripping the dried "buds" off the bundled stalks. By the end of the evening I had clogged sinuses, crunchy flooring, and most of a bucket full of soft purple lavender "buds". They are not really buds in a botanical sense - more like dried calyces (plural of calyx), but who's counting?
This picture is from before I finished sifting out leaves, etc.

Tonight I divided it up into paper lunch sacks. I didn't want to use plastic in case there is any residual humidity that could cause them to mold.


Like any good farmer, I did a careful weighing of my harvest. All told, I ended up with 34.9 oz. That may not seem like much, but it is way more than I expected. Plus I also have lots of bundled stalks to use as fire starters.

Fragrant Harvest

Summer is finally over in Reno and a storm is on the horizon. Although cooler temperatures and a bit of rain are definitely welcome, the prediction meant I needed to harvest my lavender right away. I spent all yesterday evening harvesting the flower stalks, then tying them up in bundles to hang to dry. I had to give up at midnight, with one more bucket to go. This is the first time I have had my own harvest of, well, pretty much anything. It is amazingly satisfying. (Ignore the fact that I went to bed with my house looking and smelling like an explosion in a potpourri factory. There is always the weekend to clean up and air out.)

The string I used was something I call "Battalion String". Back when I worked at Texas A&M University the student newspaper was delivered in bundles with huge amounts of cotton string wrapped around them. Being of an environmental mindset, I was outraged at the overpackaging and took to collecting it for future use. I have been carrying around that big box of string for 16 years and have used it for all kinds of things. Eventually I hope to incorporate it into a rug. Meanwhile, I can feel smugly 'green' as I harvest my organically-grown, low-water-use lavender and tie it up with recycled string.

Someone is bound to ask what I plan to do with all that lavender. Some goes to my Dad for the making of herbes d'provence, some will go into sachets to discourage moths in my wool stash, and the rest will go to Sharon for incorporation into her fabulous hand-made soap.