Tiarasaurus Knits (and gardens)

As of Sunday night, two weeks after the first wave of planting, only 16 seedlings had yet to sprout. Nine of those are the alpine strawberry. Two are lavenders. Two are chocolate bell pepper. Two are rosemary. Can't remember the other two. . .

Click on the photo below for a better view of the 60+ baby plants so far.





I also bought an avocado tree on Sunday. Home Despot had Haas treelings for under $20. I've been wanting an avocado for a long time, but unable to find some of the specific varieties I was seeking. So, for now, I'll be happy with this. (Now I just need to get it planted in one of my wooden barrels before it gets too unhappy with its roots jammed into the 3 gallon bucket it came in!)

This rug (below) was handknitted from the wool of 18 merino sheep as part of the Flock project . A comment on another blog says that the artist used custom made needles about 2 meters long.

What I want to know it, how did they spin wool so huge? Also, how does one run a v acuum cleaner over cables?

From the thistlecovefarm blog



Anyone who knows me has not doubt that if I had lambs, they'd wear sweaters too!

Flash Your Stash is coming up on April 1st. I'll be out of town that day, but I think I can still participate if I compose my post ahead of time. I wonder if I'll be appalled at how much yarn I have already amassed?

I'm feeling the inklings of wanting to knit again. And I've begun re-reading the patterns for projects I've already got yarn for. And also looking around on the internet for additional inspiration.

I found this site in Portuguese, and I sure wish I could read Portuguese to learn the details about the great things in Dina's blog

Overnight, 3 pepper plants and one more artichoke sprouted. That makes 50 seedlings, and 26 remaining pots of dirt. It started raining like crazy here this morning. So the newly planted peas should get plenty of water.

Seeds were planted one week ago today in peat pots, and incubated with plastic hoods while sitting on a seedling heat mat. The seeds in the black tray on the left have yet to sprout, and are still covered with the hood when not posing for photos. The close-up on the right features the tomato and basil seedlings.


Bottom left are peppers and herbs. Bottom right are the zukes, cukes, gourds, squash, and pumpkin. If you look closely, you'll see that a few of these sprinters are beginning to show their first true leaves. While the smaller seedlings are still sitting on the heat mat, but outside of the hood, I've removed the bigger-leaved plant tray from the heat mat to try and prevent them from getting too "leggy".

Three varieties of peas were planted directly into the ground today. Before planting, I soaked the seeds in water and innoculant. I'll post a photo as soon as there's any green showing above ground.

I've been slacking on both knitting and blogging. But I think that's about to end. I finished the bear hood last night. Photos to come. And I'm fired up to resume work on the FSM hat.

Also, I'm going to put up some photos of my other current hobby: gardening. I've been spending time each day gazing at my new little seedlings as each pops out of its tiny cup of soil.