"Plant Phase........."

This week must have been my phase for taking photos of some of our plants. I'm sure there will be more later, too, since I just brought up a couple of pots of amaryllis bulbs that have been hibernating down in the garage. Hopefully, they will be sending up growth shoots, preferably flower stalks, soon.

Yesterday, edible fruit, today, food for the spirit. What is more wonderful than having a plant begin flowering in the middle of winter?

This plant was a tiny cutting that we'd received from Don's cousin Kim, when we'd gone to his family reunion (on his mothers side of the family) back in July 2008. Seriously, it was nothing more than a few sections of "leaves" that had been rooted in a little paper cup. It stayed in that cup for a few months growing and setting good roots, until I transplanted it into this small plastic pot (seen here in the photo). Kim had taken numerous "cuttings" earlier that summer so she could offer them to everyone at the reunion. The cuttings were from a Christmas Cactus that belonged to their grandmother, Grandma Anderson.

This is how the Christmas Cactus looked at the end of October, 2008.

When it was big enough, I was transplanted it into the ceramic pot. This photo was taken in February, 2010 because it was our FIRST blossom.

I took this photo yesterday of it once again beginning to bloom. Truthfully, I am surprised that we get it to bloom at all. According to what instructions I have read, we're supposed to make sure the plant does not get more light than natural daylight, so it either is supposed to be placed in a room not used at night, or a "box" is supposed to be placed over it as the sun goes down. Yeah......like THAT is going to happen. ;)

The wonders of plants.......they work for us! :)

"How Does Our Garden Grow? Our Aero Garden, that is....."

Our Aero Garden is growing very well, thank you. Once I decided to push/pull the growing cherry tomato plant stems to the sides and back, they grew better. Any leaves that get too close to the grow bulb will burn, so I figured if I'd left them "as is", they'd burn and that would be the end of it. The other possibility was the plants would get too little light when pushed off from directly underneath the bulb. My solution seems to have worked and they're thriving, so evidently the strong light available from the bulb works fine with the supplementary weak, natural winter light that they get.

A close up of the "Red Heirloom" cherry tomatoes.......

And one of the "Golden Harvest" tomatoes.

More Red Heirloom tomatoes developing slightly "outside" the stronger influence of the grow bulb.

I'd hoped since the main plant was spreading out and getting more leaf surface exposed to the grow light, any stems which reached outside the main growth area would still produce. Thankfully, that seems to be a reality.

Especially in this case. These Golden Harvest tomatoes are the furthest away from the grow bulb and also the furthest from the window with its supplemental natural daylight, but seem to be developing nicely.

Truthfully, our Aero Garden isn't a big producer of fresh vegetables, but it has brought so much enjoyment to us......a daily "bright spot" of growth. ;)

"From Yesterday......"

As promised, here is the post which shows the pair of finished socks using the technique of "dyeing a double stranded wound ball", instead of a loose skein.

Although, my intention of knitting them while at the CSM gathering fell through due to the weather. I drove as far as the other side of Verona, not sure that I should continue as the roads were snow covered, the wind blowing and creating drifts, when the decision was sort of made for me. The big SUV that was in front of me went into the ditch, but continued its forward motion, and came back onto the highway again.......that was enough for me and I took the next exit, turned around, and drove home. ;) So this pair of socks was knit in the comfort and safety of home.

I posted this photo of the dyed yarn yesterday, but thought it would be best to have it again to remind you of the colors.

The colors show a bit bled out due to the lighting, but I wanted to show you the inside of the mock rib. It is stretched out due to the weights hanging on it. The weight creates tension on the yarn so it can be knit, keeping it on needles, rather than popping off.

A side view showing the knit leg of the sock and the hung hem, which seems to flare out at the end. When it is taken off of the machine, the hem will lie flat.

The finished pair of socks. I believe the blending of color intensity was more subtle in my 2nd attempt using this dye technique, creating a smoother blend and less dynamic patterning than the 1st pair of socks using the dyeing technique, which I posted once again below for comparison.

Obviously that even while using the same dye technique, it allows some variation in how the pattern of color will work. I like the results seen so far from using this dye technique and will explore its possibilities further. :)

Comments or suggestions?

"Dyeing Another Ball of Yarn.....

I dyed another skein of yarn using the new technique of a double stranded ball. This photo shows the difference between the outside dye intensity compared to the inner ball.

After re-winding the lighter cone to have the darker dyed yarn to begin the sock, both cones are now ready for knitting on the CSM.

I am going to a CSM gathering at a friends house outside of Mineral Point, WI, today. I will be using these cones for knitting a pair of socks and will post them tomorrow.

"Dyeing Yarn in Ball Form....."

My thanks to Shirley, from whom I buy my undyed sock yarn, who told me about this dyeing method. This is my first attempt using this method.......and I like the results. I hope you find this post interesting and informative. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions. I had more "fussing" with the yarn using this method, but I so like the results, I feel it is worth the extra effort.

The sock yarn that I buy comes in skein form, so I had to wind it from my yarn swift onto my Strauch Jumbo Ball Winder. Coming from the skein, I could only wind it "single strand", so after it was done that way, I had to re-wind it again, pulling the single strand from both the outside AND the inside, so I ended up with a double strand ball of yarn. I needed a double strand so that when it was dyed, the 2 strands dyed similarly, which would give me socks that looked similar. If I'd dyed the ball as a single strand ball, the 2 socks would have been VERY different, as you will see in a later photo.

The ball is then laid on its side in the dye pot. The dye bath water level was brought up to the center of the ball. I started out with the darkest dye bath, Black, but I think next time I use this method (probably today), I will begin by using the lightest of my chosen dyes.

The dye bath was heated and allowed to simmer until the dye was "exhausted" or taken up into the yarn and the water returned to clear.

Next dye bath used was Brown. The yarn ball was turned to allow the brown to dye another section of the undyed yarn.

After following the same process as the black, and the water was clear after the brown dye, I added Sky Blue dye and turned the ball for the last time, covering the rest of the undyed yarn.

Here is the dyed ball draining in the sink. I did let it drain until it was cool enough to handle without burning my fingers, then "lightly" squeezed it to get some of the excess water out. I wanted it dry enough to be able to wind it back up into skein form so that it would dry easier and quicker.

My skein winder ready wind the ball back into skein form. The ball still held a fair amount of water, thus the towel and it sitting in a bowl.

The dried skein. As you can see, there is a wide range in dye intensity. What happens is the yarn closer to the outside of the ball soaks up more of the dye than the inner ball, creating a blend from dark to light. The "blend" will be easier to see in the following photos.

Once again, the skein had to be wound into ball form. It was still double strand and had to be divided into 2 balls of single strand, prior to being wound onto a cone for knitting on the CSM (circular sock machine). The following photo shows how light the colors were from the center of the dyed ball.

My set up for unwinding 1 ball and turning it into 2 balls of similar size.

I had to sit and pull a length of yarn from the lower ball, separating the 2 yarn strands, then wind those singles into ball form. It was a slow process but surprisingly, it worked quite well. As the yarn was pulled from the lower ball, it twisted and could have been a problem, but patience was the key to my success. The twists relaxed as they were pulled higher away from the ball, and any yarn that twisted back onto itself, only needed a slight pull to undo and separate. As I said, it was a long process, but an uncomplicated one.........done slowly. Hopefully, history will repeat itself when I next do it. ;)

The 2 single strand balls, still connected. I left them connected as I planned on weighing them to get a total weight, then singly, so that I could unwind some yarn from one to the other, if needed, to even them out.

Total weight was 94 grams.......

When weighing each ball, they each came to 48 grams. They had separated evenly so I did not need to do any adding or subtracting of yarn. Yes, I know that 94 divided by 2 is 47, but neither ball showed any variation when weighed. I'm sure a better scale would have been more accurate, but this is what I have.........

After cutting the yarn, I then used my Silver Needles Cone Winder to transfer the yarn from ball form onto a cone. I wound 1 cone, beginning with the outside yarn of the original dyed ball, and the 2nd cone, beginning with the inside yarn from the original dyed ball. As I mentioned earlier, there is quite a difference in how much dye got to the center versus the outside of the ball.

I decided that I wanted to have the darker yarn as the top of my socks, so re-wound the lighter cone.

The finished pair of socks shows the blending from the outside darker yarn to the less dyed center. As I said earlier, I am pleased with the results and look forward to trying this method again. Hopefully, I will be as successful with the process as I was this first time, and not have to say it was all "beginners luck".

If you can think of any way that will make some of this process easier, please suggest it. :)

"Baguette's....."

Knowing yesterday that I didn't have any photos for today's post, I decided to take some of the bread I was baking. Interesting stuff, eh? ;)

Sourdough bread with sunflower seeds, shaped in baguette form. This photo is after its 2nd rising in the bowl

I've been putting my bread to rise in the oven, usually after a short warm up period, then shut off. I say "usually", but on Tuesday I was multi-tasking, making bread and vacuuming (I know, I am shocked about the vacuuming part, too!) and turned the oven on to take the chill out of it, set in the bread to rise, and totally forgot about it until I heard the "ding" of the oven hitting the desired temperature. Sigh.....yes, panic set in but it was too late to do anything about it except allow the loaf to bake. Surprisingly, it seemed to work out fine. It doubled its height and baked to a golden brown. It definitely had a heavier feeling to it though. I decided to just slice it thick, store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, and use it for garlic toast/bread. We had some of it last night and it was fine. I might make some croutons with it, too.

So, all that to say that I was careful yesterday to "slightly" warm the oven without the bread in it. I then set the baguette pan in the warm oven to let the bread rise its final time, bringing it out when I felt it had risen enough, and to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees (and to take this photo, too).

The finished loaves.......they rose a bit more in the first few minutes of baking, too, so they are slightly bigger than when they went into the oven.

Having given both loaves to neighbors, I can only hope they were as tasty as they looked and smelled. I bake bread more often than I need to sometimes because I want to use up some of the sourdough starter that Claire and Sean gave me for my birthday last year. It has to be fed daily which causes it to grow in volume, leaving me 2 choices......use some for baking, or take some out and store it in the refrigerator. My preference is to use it fresh.....hopefully, my neighbors prefer that, too. ;)

"Knitting for a Friend...."

No, this is not about any knitting I did, but of Maniphone's. She sent me a couple of photos of a scarf that she knitted for a friend of hers.

Henry, her son and fantastic model, shows it off. Brilliant colors, aren't they?

A close up.......

I'm sure that Maniphone's friend is going to be VERY happy with her gift.

My thanks for the photos.