Saturday, May 4, 2019

Seed Starting Gesneriads

Starting Seeds of
African Violets, Streptocarpus, or Sinningias
Members of the Gesneriad family of plants

These are the basics

These seeds types are all very, very tiny, resembling dust. Although very small, and handling has to be done carefully, once sown, they take little care until they germinate.

1. I use a basic soil-less mix to start all my seeds. You may also purchase a soil-less mix specifically made for seed starting.

2. I fill a small pot or seed pan with the soil-less mix and then place it in a bowl or container of water about 1 inch deep. This is to dampen the mix, and it is left in the water-bowl until the surface of the soil is damp.

3. I place the seeds into the palm of my hand, and then hand-place the seeds onto the “soil” mix, but you may find it easier to lightly tap the seeds out of their packaging onto the soil. The goal is to place them just on the surface without having them all in one spot.

4. They are NOT covered with “soil” but left to sit on the surface.

5. I cover them in a couple of different ways. The easiest way is to place the pot or pan in a gallon-size zip lock bag, and then place the container in good light. They should be in bright light, but not direct sun, and it is best if they are in a warm area, 65 to 70 degrees.

Another method I have used is to convert a ten-gallon fish tank to a germinating tank. Using a dry tank, two inches of damp clean sand is placed on the bottom. The planted seeds, already in their pots as prepared above, are placed on top of the damp sand. The tank is covered with the typical lighted full cover for the tank when using it for fish- with a fluorescent light. I keep the light on in the tank for 12 hours a day. If the dampness of the sand is kept at the right level, no additional watering is needed. The combination of the light, moisture, and a closed environment, allow almost carefree germination of many seed types.

Gesneriads can take from one week to several weeks to germinate, so I make sure I have allowed plenty of time before giving up on a seed batch. Once they have germinated, when they are about 1/8” to ¼” tall, I either move them to individual one inch pots, or re-pot them into a square, shallow pot to grow on. I keep them covered at first, and slowly expose them to being uncovered by removing whatever cover I have used for an hour a day over several days. Soon you will have lots of little plants!

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Making Your Own Knitting Needles

In 2014 I had to make a short circular needle to use in a sock pattern I was writing. I had thought I had made a video about making these needles, but perhaps it got lost on an old hard drive. I do have the photo, and I used bamboo pieces and tubing.

The photo is from November 4, 2014

I am at it again, only this time I am making large size needles. Sizes 35, 50 and 70 are only available in limited forms commercially. I am making longer double points, circular, and possibly straight needles. One material you can use to do this is in this video: link

I will be posting photos of my size 35 bamboo/clay needles, hand-carved needles, etc. as I finish them. I have even made some square needles.

Below: rough cutting the tips of a cut/divided vintage snow shovel handle, for double point needles in size 50.

Make sure to wear Kevlar carving gloves and keep the wood in a vise, to prevent cuts from the saw jumping.

New Videos:

Making Bamboo Knitting Needles (Size 36)

Making Large Wood Knitting Needles 2

Working on Size 70 Wood Circular Needle

Making Size 70 Double Point or Single Point Needles - Easy

Luceting 3 Strands of Worsted-Weight Yarn Specifically for Large Needle Knitting

Below are photos of my finished needles in sizes 19 (foreground) and 70. The size 70 have tips of clay.

Friday, March 8, 2019

Boye Round Loom Teddy Bear

I came across a video on day by a person who calls herself the Loom Muse- she has a video up for a simple pattern for a loom-knit teddy bear. I have previously made a bear with sewing, and have a patchwork bear my grandmother gave us as well as a Vermont Teddy Bear. I also have several small teddy bears, so when I saw this pattern, I thought it would be nice to make a loom knit bear.

A couple of notes- this is an easy pattern. The bear IS adorable. I followed her pattern fairly closely, only changing things like my cast off and sewing pieces together. What I will do on the next bear: I will make the arms longer and perhaps the body shorter, more like that "Silly ol bear" Pooh (I forgot, I also have several Pooh bears.) The Muse herself has re-done her original pattern, but the first one is so easy, I decided to stick with it. I may also in the future use three strands of yarn instead of two.

Here are her videos:

How to Loom Knit A Teddy Bear

How to Loom Knit Teddy Bear Revamped

(including her advice on gauges-slightly different from mine, as she doesn't define yards as "weights")

Here is my first attempt at a bear on looms (you might not know I have been loom knitting for over 12 years, but have never made animals)

My Bear's name is PB - (Pink Bear, but also PeeBee because I was swarmed by bees when I was 5 and the medication, well, yes, made me pee alot. I remember my mother making me a Pink Bear and we named her PB)

I did not use plastic eyes- I embroidered the eyes and nose. I also feel that perhaps the woman who wrote the pattern doesn't have the same needle knitting experience that I do- I am not saying that to criticize her, she seems very talented. But I started with needle knitting before loom knitting and sometimes that experience is a plus when adapting patterns. I may even make this bear on needles with the exception of the head, but even the head could be made on needles. My mother, an expert knitter, always followed written patterns exactly, and so her bear would have been like the bear above. I probably even have the original bear pattern around here somewhere because I have all of my mother's knitting patterns.

I used Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo acrylic worsted-weight yarn in "Perfect Pink". The pink is not for the recently used "Pink Power" theme, but for my (c) "Pink Neelix" patterns. A pink Neelix (c) is what your mother might knit for you, as first influenced by Neelix of Star Trek Voyager and the blankets his mother knit for him. You can find that reference in Star Trek Voyager, Season 4, Episode 24, in the first couple of minutes, when Neelix refuses to give Tuvok his sleeping blankets.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Knifty Knitter and Boye Round Knitting Looms

I watched a video today that compared Knifty Knitter circular knitting looms against Boye circular looms. The video is very informative.

A little history on my circular knitting-I had every type of circular loom about 10 years ago, and still have my sock looms. I had switched over to circular needles for quite some time, and don't have any circular looms right at this minute.

I have been making flowers with flower looms, and actually used a potholder loom to make a very large square flower design. I also decided I would try some circular looms for larger flowers, and found some second-hand Boye looms on Ebay, which should be arriving today.

In the meantime, I watched the video above and figured I would end up looking for Knifty Knitter looms because of the complaint about the peg scoop at the top being a little frustrating. But , then I remembered why I am actually using them, and the scoop is an asset, and the fact that the pegs come out is also an asset. I can remove pegs to make different shape flowers.

So, in my case, the Boye looms are better for my use. This ties in with my preferring the vintage Boye Interchangeable needles over modern sets. People may complain that the needle tips loosen, but that hasn't happened to me but once, and the thicker, old, cables keep the stitches more consistent that skinny needle cables.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Kid's Spool Knitters and Rugs

There is a great advantage to some kid's spool knitters. If you look at the distance between the pegs, this is the stitch length. Those knitters meant for very young children often have pegs spaced further apart than other knitters. Not quite as long a stitch as a corker, but longer than a Knitting Nancy. This is an advantage when planning braided rugs that will be sewn on a machine.

The longer stitch length gives a slightly more loose knit strand, which makes the braid for a rug slightly more flat. It then fits more easily under the presser foot of a machine.

Below is the pink rug I have started, using a blue plastic kid's knitter. I have three jumbo skeins of Red Heart Super Saver Acrylic in "Perfect Pink"and am making a rug for a bedroom.

The knitter is about an 1-3/4 inches high and has a distance of 3/4 of an inch between the four pegs. I found four of them together on Ebay.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Earth-Friendly Landscape Design

Through my seizures I have taken a direction of renewable-re-usable art.  I have been a knitter since age 5.  I am creating knitted panels for canvas, knitted elements to represent trees and plants of landscape design.

I love pen and ink and all aspects of painting and drawing. However, to make graphite, you need to strip mine, to make charcoal you need to burn trees. Where does our art come from? Our thinking, and not age-old ways of making art supplies.

People drew with charcoal because it was left over from their fires. By using yarns, some commercial, some acrylic, and also handspun, I can use art supplies over and over again. Life Is Fragile, the earth is fragile.

I am using knitting boards to knit the canvases. I am using flower looms to make design elements of trees and flowers, just like my pen and ink landscape design, except I won't be wasting paper and I won't be using the chemicals that inks use.  It's as earth-friendly as I can get.

I currently spin my own yarns-using what most Americans see as "disposable wool fiber (opting for commercial yarns), I can give the sheep, alpacas, and goats a place to have their products used.

I currently have several commercial yarns to use up, but after that, all my landscape designs will be in handspun fiber. I am using a hand-made wooden charkha to spin the wool. I will have to photograph each design before re-using the elements,and will use digital instead of film

These are the looms I am using to make double-knitted "canvas"

Flower looms are most often used with yarn, and other than hand-spun (black and cinnamon alpaca included) embroidery floss makes a durable design element. Below photo is with yarn and a frame of crochet and are currently for another project. Pen and ink is more like floss flowers.

I encourage other Fine Artists, used to working in ink, acrylic, or oil, to consider working in yarn and natural fibers. Not to be a "fiber artist" per se, but to take your talent and make it as reusable and earth-friendly as possible.