I can’t go
back to Franklin
Here is the
current state of the Pakokku sock. It’s called Just Figs, I think, and is meant
to pool but I would call that more self-striping. Nice, undoubtedly. That's a Strong-Fleegle heel, top-down obviously. 64 stitches.
Here is a
completely new non-knitting topic:
Chilli-growing
I bought
the big plant in Waitrose in (I think) January. It had quite a few chillies on
it at the time, both green and red. The green ones turned red, both sorts got
eaten, the plant flourished and flowered – but the flowers didn’t set fruit. Even so, it is fun to grow something so cheerful and responsive.
I read
about chillies on the internet and discovered that I should mist it daily, to
aid germination. That sounded far too complicated, so I started blowing at it,
gently, as I bent solicitously over it in the morning. And I began to get some
new fruit – quite possibly, of course, a response to the increasing light
rather than to my puffs. I brought a pot-full of soil back from Strathardle
last weekend, and re-potted it.
But there
is an article about chilli-growing in the current issue of my old fave, Kitchen
Garden Magazine. Misting is again recommended, and this time I thought, why
not? A mist-er is just a plastic bottle with a squirter
attachment, available in several varieties from Amazon, so I ordered one and also some chilli fertiliser: most house-plant
fertilisers have too much nitrogen in them, I learn.
The little
box to the left in the top picture contains three new chilli plants which I bought at Tesco this
week. The idea is to get a nice pot and some potting compost and grow one of
them on a bit for our downstairs neighbours who have recently spent months (and
untold thousands) re-doing their house, including the construction of a
conservatory with underfloor heating for the cat. A chilli should do well
there. The new little plants are called “Apache” and said to be hot. The big
plant was unlabelled, except as “chilli”.
Those socks are looking very interesting - and did you know that Rowan is apparently about to put out a sock yarn, hand painted with mohair in it according to Knitters' Review? It gets an excellent write up. Unfortunately it is also expensive.
ReplyDeleteThe 'to pool or not to pool' tendencies of the yarns are greatly affected by stitch count. If you increase or decrease the count by even one or two....the pooling will often come or go!
ReplyDeleteYou will find the mister useful if you ever need to press knitting with a dampened cloth - just put the press cloth on the work and spray before pressing - it adds that little extra steam. I keep one for that purpose, and I also have one of those tiny atomisers that are sold in the chemist for holding your airline-acceptable amount of toiletries. This is handy for damping very small areas that need pressing while sewing.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that the misting, and blowing, probably move pollen on the air currents, thus resulting in fruits. We had a dearth of pollinators here last summer. Many squash and eggplant had numerous flowers, but no fruit. I will try to get the kids to blow on them. Fun for them and perhaps a better harvest for us.
ReplyDeleteI also bought a chilli plant in Waitrose just after Christmas. I use a small child's paint brush to move the pollen from one flower to another and have a good crop of green chillies growing. The entire plant is growing vigorouslyl and I had thought about repotting so thanks for the tip about the low nitrogen compost.
ReplyDeletejust a note, its best to use potting soil for a plant in a pot as dirt (as in from the ground) is denser (it has a lot more room to drain etc) and may have critters you dont want to introduce into your home... potting soil is specifically designed to have more nutrients for a plant whether indoor or not.
ReplyDeletealso intrigued by your sock - i am doing toe up and fleegle strong heel - turned last night and am in the home stretch to knit up the leg. and then start the mate
ReplyDeletenext must find nice yarn for a pair for mothers day ... and figure out what size without her finding out what i need it for.
My mother used to tickle the blossoms....!
ReplyDelete