A Vacation Garden

In my quest to go through my vacation list, I was able to check off another item: Plant a flower bed. I have a flower bed that has been neglected for the past 6 month growing wild asylum and marigolds. I was determine this week to condition the flower bed and plant some nice summer flowers. I haven’t had much of a “green thumb” in the past, especially since I’ve been working full time. Yet, I want to try again to celebrate the color in my life.

I made a trip to Home Depot and picked out some very colorful Gerber daisies. Without knowing much about the care of such plant I purchased about 8 pots of them in a variety of colors. These flowers seem to have a life and personality of their own. I’m not kidding! Since planting them I have found that they don’t like much direct sun and they are very thirsty. After a few hours in the intense sun they start to droop and wilt. If I notice this in time, I give them a drink and once the 12:00 noon shade hits them they perk up, straightening their flower stems and opening their flowers like a “happy smile” that daisies are known for. Luckily, they only have direct sun for about 6 hours and the rest of the day they are in shade. They are aptly named “Gerber daisy” because they are so cute and beautiful like a cute Gerber baby and need attentive care. They are going to be my “babies”.

Ravelolympics progress

I’m almost done with the main body knitting of the cotton Sampler Vest. I have a few more rows of the right front shoulder and will be starting the Button hole band. I have found, however, that this project has not been the greatest to watch the Olympics with. I have made repeated stupid mistakes that were easily fixable. However, the Olympics has been getting more exciting and often distracts me when I need to concentrate on my project. I really enjoyed the Swimming Freestyle Relay Final last night! It was so exciting! Go USA!!!!

Spinning

I mentioned before that I have all of this mohair fiber and was feeling, as I washed it, that I really needed to do something with it. The staple length was about 6-7 inches and I knew it would be impossible to card with my drum carder. So I decide to flick it open with a flicker brush and spin from the open locks. I wanted a very soft yarn so I set my spinning wheel to a low ratio about 5:1 on my Joy Spinning Wheel. I treddled very slow to make a very fuzzy low twist type of yarn. One of the disadvantages of this is that it tends to fall apart easily. I wondered if I could set the twist in singles, but thought that with the low twist it would not keep the yarn together. I decided to 2-ply it to make it a stronger yarn. After setting the twist, it ended up into a lovely soft yarn with lots of luster. WOW! I still trying to figure out what I will make out of this. Any suggestions? :) Yes, it feels as soft as it looks!