Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Have you ever seen a maidenhair fern in bloom?

They look like little white crowns!

Table is 29 inches tall- Around 40 inches from top of pot to floor.
Have you EVER seen a maidenhair fern BLOOM? 
Until today, me neither!
I'm making note of all factors in this post- I have no idea what prompted Miss Fern to bloom, but my assumption is that she is very, very happy.
She is 4 years old.  At 2 years, I divided her and repotted. (People who "divide" maidenhair ferns are laughing as they read this.  The rest of you need to know that you need an axe to divide the rootball.)   She lives between two north windows, and next to a hot air duct. She's probably rootbound.  We are a week after the summer solstice. 
The blooms are clusters on spikes off mature stems.  Each bloom is about 1/8 inch across.  It has 6 curled-back petals, one each behind 6 gold-pollen tipped anthers.  The blooms on this one are all near the top of the pot, so if you hang your fern, you will miss the blooms, probably.  

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

KoolAid to the Rescue

Bargains.  I love 'em.  They engender a feeling of contentment in me.  Like I deserved them.  There are some iconic fiber-related bargains that have really made me warm and fuzzy for years.  The $10 Lendrum wheel.  The $5 Singer 155.  
A more recent bargain was a box full of wonderful cone yarn (fingering weight) that is 50-50 wool and cashmere.  Yup.  I scored cashmere.  For around $10 a pound.  Warm and Fuzzy.  
A plus B = ??
I have several colors that are very nice.  I have a couple colors that will come back around in 5 years, and I'll still have this yarn, so it's safe to wait.  I have two full cones of pink.  Hot pink.  Saturated hot pink.  Even if hot pink comes back around, I won't be wearing it.  
I wanted to work out some socks and take down some tension numbers so that I can whip up  a right sized pair of cashmere socks at any time downstream from now, with no need for future swatching.  Naturally, I reach for the hot pink.  I can spare it.  I would off a couple of 50g skeins.  
Then I spied the bag of koolaid packages in the drawer.  Well, why not.
This is what you get with 6 cups of water, 4 packs of electric blue lemonade, and 100 g. of hot pink.


Cooking yarn and Kool-Aid




Not the evenest dye job, but a color I can live with.


  I am feeling warm and fuzzy.