Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted and this one isn't going to be much of a post but at least I can say I am still here.

Working on a design for the journey shawl. Hope to have a picture or two to share in the next week or so since I will have lots of knitting time in the car in the near future.

Garden is growing like a banshee and the cotton plants are looking very good. I still have 4 plants, 3 are green cotton and 1 is standard white. All of them have doubled in size since we got the thunderstorms earlier in the week. Joe at work says they love the nitrogen in the rain. Don't know if he is right but they certainly like something about God's watering over mine. That's ok, I prefer God do the watering as well :o) .

Hubby has been gone for the last week working on a cottage for a friend so I have had to keep the home fire burning on my own. Thankfully he is back.

Getting ready for vacation now, probably won't post again until we get back. Check back in a couple of weeks, I hope to have some awesome pictures to share from Maine.

Let the Journey begin

Last night was the second official meeting of the Journey to a Shawl group at Sip N Knit and the first I was able to attend. Journey to a Shawl was an adventure I heard about through Maple and Cary. If you would like to learn more about the Journey click here. Originally I was going to make the shawl from yarn I purchased some time ago and I have even started that shawl as mentioned in a previous post. But the more I thought about what this is suppose to be...a journey, trying something new, expanding ourselves together...I decided that I should at least try the spinning part of the journey. So last night I took along my spinning wheel instead of my knitting. When I purchased my wheel Alisa threw in the roving and spinning you see at the base of the wheel. It is a beautiful shade of purple which is one of my favorite colors as attested to by the blue purple tiles and purples walls in the background of the picture. She had spun everything you see and decided it wasn't the hobby for her. My plans are to finish spinning the roving and then using my spinning and whatever I need of Alisa's to knit the shawl. This is definitely not lace weight yarn so I am also studying some shawl patterns to get the general idea and then I will come up with something I hope will work with the yarn I have.
On other subjects, I have 3 cotton plants doing really well and 3 others I am hopeful will make it. I lost a couple of them within the first days of being moved outside and yesterday my husband accidentally uprooted one while he was weeding. Luckily it was one of the questionable ones although my last red one that was still hanging in there. He quickly replanted it but the odds are not in it's favor.

Summer vacation has begun for the kids and boredom is looming for them. I need to get the chores list done for them as well as the summer olympic games. And for anyone who is curious about the summer olympics, this is a boredom chaser we started 2 summers ago. Each year we come up with silly games/contests the kids do during the day and then record their progress. Hubby and I try to make sure we note the events recorded through out the week and praise the progress. I will even do up award certificates at the end of summer. Amazingly, each child usually receives the same number of awards. Previous years events have included # of free throws made out of 100, best golf score using the miniature golf course we created in the back yard using empty frosting cups, number of puzzle pieces placed, pages and books read, etc. It is a fun way to get the kids to keep in practice with their sports, keep them reading or just stop boredom.

Off to check on the garden and cotton and then spend some time studying the shawl patterns.

Growing cotton in Michigan

About 9 months ago I got an opportunity to buy a used Louet spinning wheel which I jumped at the chance to purchase. Spinning wheels are one of those things that have fascinated me since I was a small child. Through the Middle of the Mitten group I have also met wonderful ladies through whom I can purchase wool, alpaca and angora roving for spinning but even with these sources I wanted to have my own source of spinning material. I thought about rabbits or a goat but my husband wasn't keen on the idea and I admit I don't really have time to take care of animals. So I found a used copy of the book 'A Weaver's Garden' by Rita Buchanan which tells how to grow many plants for fiber. Flax and hemp are mentioned as being very easy to grow in Northern climates but the preparation of the plant for spinning was somewhat involved, not to mention growing hemp (or marijuana) is illegal and I don't think they would allow my wheel or needles inside the cell with me.

So my next choice was cotton. But I live in Michigan, definitely not cotton growing country but
nothing ventured, nothing gained so off I went to investigate using my trust worthy tool, Google. I found an article by Nev Sweeney describing small scale cotton growing. He described how he had broken several rules of cotton growing but was still successful in his endeavor. With Nev in my corner I found a source for cotton seeds at www.earthlyseed.com (Google again), purchased some peat pots and potting soil and away I went.

Placed the planted seeds on the windowsill about mid March.
It took 2 - 3 weeks for the first little guys to poke their heads out.

At about 10 weeks after planting, I moved the plants from the windowsill to the screened in back porch to prepare them for the fluctuations in Michigan's weather and at 11 weeks I moved them to the selected location in the yard.



Like a hen with her chicks I have been checking them at least daily making sure that they are doing ok and nothing is disturbing their growth. If all goes well I will have 3 kinds of cotton to play with by September, a standard white variety - Upland, a green cotton and Nankeen - a red cotton. Gotta go check on my babies now.