Motherowl asked me if I would host a study group for making nettle yarn. I know some of the bloggers that I follow have already tried this with varying results, but since I like to get my own hands-on failures I’m going through with this project anyway. So I’d love for everyone to chime in, newcomers as well as those who already have the t-shirt. The more info we can gather in one place, the better!
This time round I’m not going to dye with them, and I’m not going to drink them either.
A couple of articles in the latest issue of Väv (a Swedish weaving magazine) talked about nettles and their uses as spinning fiber. Traditionally they’re harvested from August (some say midsummer), but one mentioned “before flowering” which they are doing now.
Some strawberries moved, some liberated from the worst crud. And a couple of struggling asparagus.
The other day as I began weeding, after running the sprinkler half a day (we hardly got any rain at all), I was attacked by a swarm of tiny flies. It was truly a whole cloud of them and only while I was working the soil, nowhere else in the garden, not from just wandering around for a looksee. I wonder what’s up with that.
Normally I don’t get much help gardening apart from lawn mowing, branch removal and that sort of thing. But since absolutely nothing was done last summer due to our bulding project and a miserable spring, I convinced himself to get out the tiller, appointed two beds where nothing had survived and asked to have the roots and crud raked away. And look what an amazing job he did!
Finally we’re getting somewhere and suddenly I have a lot of yardwork to do! 😉
