Finished Object Roll Call: July 2015

Knitting/Crocheting

Mielie Vest: This is a Me-Project. I had an urge to make myself some things lately. It was a long haul(not as long as some other projects....) but I'm super excited to use this in the coming fall months!

Black Socks: After the last pair of socks for me ended up too small, these are take two. These ones honestly feel a little big, but I'd rather too big than too small.

And two Christmas presents. Yep, that makes 7 out of  16 are done. And #8 is on the needles. 

Sewing

I finally finished this full sized quilt. It came back from the quilter... awhile ago. I got the binding on and all done. It will be up on the Etsy page soon!

This is a mug rug for a swap. The unicorn is a little wonky, but I'm learning! 

If you'd like to see the FO's in progress, as they are completed, and some other random bits and pieces of life, follow me on Instagram!I also do GIVEAWAYS on Facebook.  You should go 'like' the page, be sure to be following it too! 

Aloe Take Two

I discovered my first attempt at propagating aloe didn't take a few weeks ago. I set out to try again, this time with a few tweaks to the process.

1. I used a larger leaf. The other leaf I used was rather small, and just the tip of the leaf. This one I decided to try using the entire leaf.

2. I cut the leaf with a knit at an angle, as instructed by one youtube video.

 I also let the leaf 'dry out' before placing it in the soil. Many websites recommended allow the aloe to form a 'callous' on it's end before putting it into the soil. This is what mine looked like.

All the websites said the callous would be white, but mine wasn't. In fact the callous formed about 24 hours after the cut, and everyone said to wait 2 weeks for it to form. I waited two weeks, but it never changed the way it looked after the first 24 hours. 

3. I 'treated' it with honey. Honey is a natural anti-bacterial, so to avoid rot from bacteria attacking my aloe and to avoid buying 'root growing mediums' or 'root powders', I went with organic honey. I already had it on hand and at least one source said it would work just as well as the commercial stuff.

4. Instead of lying it in the soil, like some folks say you should do, I placed it upright in the pot. Like some other people say you should do.

And that's where I'm at. It's planted, upright, with honey, in a pot after waiting two weeks for it to 'dry out'. I will keep you all updated on how it goes in the future! 

p.s. I'm quite enjoying my little experiments. 

Propagation Update

Here are the spider plants. I think they look bigger, maybe. They have definitely rooted. I found a website that said you can tell if a transplant has rooted by gently tugging it. I tugged, nothing happened, so they are rooted!

Here's the bright green plant. I think it has rooted. At least at each end, but not the middle. The tug trick pulls the middle, where the big leaves are, up but not the two ends. At the tip that was growing has gotten bigger, so that's a good sign right?

I was concerned about my reading...

This summer as I've been reading and recording the books I've been reading, I became slightly concerned with the amount of books I was reading. You see, I love reading and I read a lot. But according to my calculations, I am behind for the year.

Yes, I have not read as much this year as I have in years past. And it worries me. Odd, yes, but reading is something I love to do and if I allow myself to stop doing things I love, I become a very different, not so great, person.

Then a lightbulb went off in my head. I have been reading a lot more than is showing up on my books page.

As of this month, I have edited (which means I read them entirely) 34 books and papers on fivver. While some of them were 2 or three page papers, some of them were unpublished novels of over 100 pages.

So, while I feel like I'm behind with my reading, I think I really am not. I haven't kept track of page numbers on fiverr, but it should be near 1,000 pages in Word. The next step for me is to keep going, so I can build an awesome portfolio. Maybe one day I will read for a living!

Three On

I like knitting. I love it, in fact. I can't get enough of it and really wish there were more hours in the day for me to knit.

It's a bit unusual that I only have three projects on the needles right now. Yes, you heard right. Only 3. That has to be a record of some sort, I mean, I usually have at least 5, sometimes up to 10 going at once.

I've only got three on right now because I really wanted to finish projects. I like starting them, and I like working on them, but for awhile there I felt like nothing was actually being accomplished. Now that I'm down to three, I want to cast on again.

But not really.

Two of the project on the needles currently are blankets. And blankets take a long time for me. I really need to finish one of them, since it's been on the needles for over a year. It needs to be done and I can't have other things like new sweaters and Christmas presents distracting me from getting these big projects done.

I'm trying to determine if I'm more productive with less projects going on at once. I've heard rumors of folks who only have one project going at a time. I mean, they can actually cast on a project and NOT start any other project until they finish their current project. That's pretty dang impressive if you ask me.

If I cave and start casting on.... well. I guess it wouldn't be that bad because I still have a lot of Christmas presents to do. And I really want that new sweater.

An Experiment

I like plants. I like gardens. I just like them.

Currently we don't have an outdoor space and I thought I would be okay with it. But, the further we get into our lease with this place, the more I notice that I miss having an out door space. So what do I do?

I decide to see if I can propagate some plants from the plants at my preschool. I had to move my pots from our neighbors patio, so I threw some of the bigger ones out, and thought that a couple of the smaller ones would work well for houseplants. I'm about two weeks into this project currently. Here's a couple of pictures of the plants as they are right now.

I don't know what type of plant this is, but it's a nice bright green color. I had one back in Utah that my mum tried to kill repeatedly, but never succeeded. 

These are Spider Plants. I'm super hopeful on these ones, because they were shooters from the original plant and already had started their roots out the bottom. After some research, I found out that Spider Plants are supposed to be really good at cleaning air, reducing the need for filters. 

I know, this looks like just a pot of soil. Look closely. There's an aloe leaf in there. According to the internet,it will eventually start roots out one side the side facing down in the soil, and the other side will grow the new plant. 

These are some rescued succulents. They have been around since before our trip at the beginning of June and are looking better than they did before. I'm calling them a success so far!

This is a Baby Jade. It's supposed to be easy care (like the succulents and aloe). This is another plant that I chose because it was a shooter already developing roots and looking for a place to grow!

Finally, here's another picture of the first plant. That little stem coming up out of the soil wasn't there when I first tried to propagate it. I think it's a good sign, right?

The succulents and Baby Jade are in the living room, and for now the rest are in the Craft room on the windowsill. I will move them around once they all get established a lot more. While they are baby plants still trying to get their roots in and start actually growing, I will keep them all right in the windowsills.

I also am attending a class on propagation in the next week, and will hopefully learn some good pointers to help these plants all grow up and be awesome!

Christmas In July Giveaway!

Alright folks, I'm running a Rafflecopter giveaway over on Facebook. Go check it out and enter!