Call me frugal, creative, cheap....but the thrill of getting something from nothing (or close to nothing) never fades....
Ever since I have been knitting socks, I have been SOOO reluctant to give up the small ball of extra yarn that is usually left over. I finally bit the bullet and decided to do a
Beekeeper's Quilt, and so the first hexipuff rolled off the needles...
I am only stuffing them with the tiniest bit of fleece...actually the leftover stuff I scrape off the drum carder and save as stuffing for fiber projects such as this...
And since the gardener in me so COMPLETELY finished with winter, I just had to be doing something green and food related, so I fished the scallion ends out of the trash and planted them. In just a few weeks, we have this:
It's not the first time I have tried this, but I had forgotten about it, so I was reminded by
this blogger, and it just happened to be on a day I was using some scallions! I use much more of the scallion than she, so my ends were not much more than 1/2 inch, but it worked!
And here in Zone 5, it's about time to start thinking about seeds, so I planted leeks and onions, which need a good amount of start time before they get set out in the garden. We made these little "greenhouses" with leftover containers with our 4-H group - what a great way to capture sunlight and warmth...not to mention easy transport to the garden when it is time for transplant...
This year I started
American Flag leeks. ( Love leeks.....so good in soups! ) And the larger container has two types of onions:
Copra, a good yellow storage onion in half, and
Ruby Ring, a nice red onion in the other half. The boxes are set in a window with southern exposure, and which happens to be close to a heater vent, so it actually gets warm enough to germinate seeds. (The rest of our house is kept around 62 degrees, and I often have to break out the heat mat for seeds...)
Spring is in 16 days and 2 hours....does it seem desperate that I know that???
8 comments:
Psst. If you knit from the toe up, you won't have as much leftover sock yarn! ;-)
Our house is even cooler than yours, especially on the end with the south-facing windows (our bed/bath). No wonder I have no success starting seeds....
STILL trying to get me to commit to toe-up....I like that. But I am so married to top-down, that I just can't seem to give it up. Besides, I have so many socks to knit, I need to be able to do them without thinking too much - that's top-down, baby!
Old habits die hard, but once replaced, the new habits can be just as easy. But my hat's off to you for knitting so many socks, period! My sloooow socks (using the yarn you gave me) are taking a LIFETIME!
Love the little hexie. I never thought about using left over fleece from the drumcarder for stuffing. I've got buckets of the stuff. I've been using the store bought stuff and I hate working with it.
yes, I have to recycle my scallion ends!
I stopped buying the store fleece once I saw the rif-raf that was left on the carder after batts came off...I mean, you have to clean it between colors anyway, right? I have such a collection, I can usually find a color that goes with the project, and it is so much nicer (and cheaper) than the poly/chemical stuff...
Regarding the Beekeeper's Quilt . . . OH, NO! I do NOT need to start another project! But they are so darn cute, and would be such a great "take along" project, and addicting to make, I'm sure. Arrrrgh!
We're Zone 4 so you're a bit ahead of us as far as getting seeds started. But I sure am thinking about it. On my To Do List today is to make out a chart of the dates to start different seeds. Fun, fun, fun!
I love the beekeeper's quilt! I have 'amassed' about 40 hexipuffs which, at this rate, will garner a quilt in about 30 years. But it's a great use for those little bits of yarn. I started the toe up this year and I like it! I am trying to work myself into the two-at-a-time but that might be too exciting for me. Great idea on the scallions - especially because they are so pricey!
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