Author Archives: Megan

I’m Obsessed With Weaving

Posted in Weaving, What I'm Making by

I think the title says it all, but I am truly madly deeply in love with weaving (but not that Savage Garden song. Okay, maybe a little). I’ve been weaving like nobody’s business. I even signed myself up for a weaving challenge on Instagram (follow The Weaving Kind on Instagram if you want to participate. Or just follow them, they post beautiful weavings).

When I first started knitting, I really loved chunky yarns and pretty much wanted to buy them all. But I’m not so much in to knitted things using chunky yarns. I mean, I do like them, but I definitely prefer little dainty stitches. Anyway, I’ve discovered that I love love love weaving using chunky yarns. And even more, I love throwing in really, really chunky roving to add some textural interest. Anyway, I thought I would share my most recent weaving, which I am absolutely over the moon about – it is hands down my favorite weaving to date.

Chunky Wool Wall Weaving

This one was woven using an extremely chunky yarn (same used for fringe) and then natural undyed roving of the exact same color. The funnest part was twisting and pulling the roving to give it that cloud look. And this weaving is so unbelievably soft. Clearly I am most drawn to natural colors for my weavings, but I have been doing some experimenting with more colorful weavings (I’ll share those another time). I’m pretty much counting down the minutes until I can start another weaving.

Speaking of challenges, the fabric for my April/May Wardrobe Architect Challenge should arrive this week. Yes, I haven’t even started that project yet. I’m excited to get back to my sewing machine for a me-project, but I do wish I were an octopus that could sew, knit, and weave at the same time. And a clone for gardening? That would work!

What I’m Growing: Prairie Crocus

Posted in 2015, In The Garden, What I'm Growing by

Spring seems to really have arrived this week – things are greening up nicely and the trees are getting their baby leaves. And one of my favorite early perennials, the prairie crocus, has made an appearance! The prairie crocus has many names: pasque flower, prairie anemone, prairie smoke, wind flower, and I’m sure I’ve missed others. It is always the second flower to appear in my garden (the small crocuses I included in a post a couple of weeks ago are always the first). I made it a point to plant my prairie crocuses in my front yard, close to the public sidewalk so that I would see them every time I came home, and also so that passerbys could enjoy a bit of early spring color.

Prairie Crocus Pasque Flower

Prairie crocuses are actually a native plant in my area because I live in (you guess it), the prairies. But they are also native to the rest of Alberta, including the woodland areas, mostly in sandy soil (I grew up in the woodlands, near the Sandhills, so these flowers have always been familiar to me).

It seems silly that this plant would be called a crocus because it actually isn’t in the crocus family at all. It is an anemone. Of course, this won’t stop me from calling it a prairie crocus. But it does make you wonder how it got the name – I read that settlers referred to it as a crocus as it reminded them of the early crocuses back in Europe.

Apparently the plant is also quite poisonous if consumed, although I have read that parts of it were once used to make concoctions that would remedy muscle pains. In addition to this, parts of the plant (I’m unsure which parts) were also used to stop nosebleeds and draw out infection in cuts and boils.

I think my favorite thing about the prairie crocus is that it is a cute little plant with ferny leaves and flowers covered in these tiny silver hairs. The leaves don’t show much of their faces until the flowers are spent, but the flowers turn into starburst-like seedheads, which I really love. The plant itself is a stumpy guy and stays fairly compact – mine haven’t spread at all and don’t get much taller than 6-8 inches. Although, I have noticed a few new plants popping up at work in the garden, presumably from seed that was blown by the wind, but those beds are barely mulched, so I can see how they would spread in that situation.

These plants are also very drought tolerant, making them perfect for sunny, hot beds. The photo above is from my garden, but the photo below is from the dry bed at work where these flowers have spread quite a bit. I couldn’t help snap a photo of them early one morning this week.

Prairie Crocus Pasque Flower

I purchased my plants from a local garden centre, but I’ve read that they are easy to start from seed. Don’t take these plants from the wild though as they will not grow back – but feel free to take some seed if you do see those in the wild.

Seeing these flowers appear has made me so excited for the rest of my perennials to start blooming – next will be the double flowering plum and my tulips. Unfortunately I heard a rumor that it is supposed to snow some time over this weekend but I’m hoping that is a lie. Regardless, I am planning on throwing in my lettuce, spinach, radish and pea seeds. Sometimes you just need to ignore the snow and do what you’re gonna do.

April Etsy Shop Update

Posted in Herd of Cats, sewing by

For some reason sales have been slow since Christmas – I’ve had a few custom orders from people I know personally, but my Etsy shop has been pretty dry. Luckily the dry spell came to a close over the last week, which was good because I had been slowly working on a few new aprons to add in, so timing couldn’t have worked out better! These new patterns have been added in to the shop now:

Herd of Cats Aprons April 2015I’ve been doing lots of product experimenting lately as I’ve wanted to expand my shop for quite awhile with new and different products. So those will be coming in slowly over the next couple of months as they are perfected! Look forward to things like pillow covers (with Liberty of London and Nani Iro fabrics!), shoulder bags, and embroidered items – I’m so excited!

And remember that time about a month ago, when I wrote that I wasn’t planning on selling any weavings? Well, it turns out that I really, really love making them. And I have limited wall space. And I was getting lots of encouragement to sell them. So I decided to list a few of them in a new Etsy shop to see what happens. I’ll be posting more details on that, including a link to the new shop, within the next couple of weeks.

P.S. I’ll be back on Friday with a garden related post!

Feel free to visit my Etsy shop, Herd of Cats, even just to browse! 😉 Thank you for all of your support!

Yarn Swift, The Smartest Purchase This Year

Posted in Products by

Maybe the title of this post says it all, but trust me, if you are a knitter, crocheter, weaving, whatever, save yourself hours of frustration and swearing and just buy a yarn swift. I really don’t know how I got by until now and I have no idea why I resisted. I think it was because I just didn’t want to spend the money. Also, I’m not really into the gimmicky things. But I had a few Etsy sales in one week, so I decided to treat myself. Plus, this seemed to be a legit time saver, unlike my long gone Slap Chop. I’ve been doing a ton of weaving lately so I’m going through wool like crazy – and untangling that crap like nobody’s business. Sometimes I feel like I spend just as much time untangling my yarn as I do weaving (I’m being dramatic now).

Yarn Swift

Naturally, my next purchase should be a ball winder, but I actually don’t mind balling yarn by hand now – it is actually very relaxing (I know, I’m weird).

I bought my swift online from Knit Picks (it got good reviews, plus free shipping) and so far I have no complaints. It is sturdy and beautiful and I just want to ball yarn all day (not really).

On another note, I appear to be back from the dead and feeling somewhat normal again (I haven’t been that sick for at least a couple of years). So I’m hoping to be able to get a few things done in the yard this week, as well as get around to adding a few new items to my Etsy shop. Yay for feeling normal again!

Casual Fridays Part 6

Posted in 2015, Casual Fridays by

I haven’t done a casual Fridays post for awhile – and since I’ve been under the weather this week, I just haven’t really had a chance to do much in the way of gardening, or cooking, or crafting. But I have had lots of time to sit around reading the internet! Here are a few things I found around this week that I really enjoyed:

1. You Grow Girl on Earth Day. I was driving to work on Wednesday morning and as I listened to the radio hosts talk about Earth Day, I definitely found myself rolling my eyes and groaning “Yes people, let’s give the earth its very own day along with National Cat Day or Secretary Appreciation Day”. But that’s not really what it’s all about – and this article really resonated with me.

2. 30 Surprising Stars Who Were on The X-files Before They Were Famous – I can’t say that I am at all excited for the upcoming X-files reboot, although I was a huge fan of Seasons 1-5. I’m not saying that I won’t watch the new episodes given the opportunity, but I’m not having kittens over here. I’m not usually a re-poster of these types of internet articles, but I did enjoy this one. My favorite not-so-famous-then-but-famous-now appearances were Giovanni Ribisi, Bryan Cranston, and Luke Wilson. Also, Michael Buble?! Who knew.

3. The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo last weekend had record breaking attendance! I’m definitely not a crowds person but I attended because I really, really wanted to meet the boys of Beverly Hills 90210. And I did! And I touched all of them! Haha. But seriously, Jason, Ian and Luke did a great panel (I wish it would have been longer!) and I was pleased to find out that they are all very nice and down-to-earth people, thankfully not crushing all of my teenage dreams.

4. I’ve been thinking about getting one of these mini patio greenhouses for a few years now but I’m still waffling. First of all, they are a bit pricey, and second, do I really need it? I already have a greenhouse in my back yard, but it is primarily for growing hot peppers. I think a mini greenhouse would be ideal for growing things like eggplant in a brighter/hotter part of my yard (I’m actually thinking right on my upper deck), but I haven’t had any success with eggplant in the past, so would it be worth it to try again? Feel free to chime in if you have any experience with these greenhouses, or if you think I shouldn’t even bother. I’ve also thought about building my own similar greenhouse, but I just don’t want to take on another project, especially since our growing season is so short already, I kind of just want to enjoy it and focus on ripping out the remaining sod in the front yard. I guess I have a problem committing to a large-ish purchase like this that may or may not yield results.

5. I’ve been reading along with Banjo’s Daughters and I’m really, really enjoying it. You need to start right at the beginning though – but luckily the archives do not go back very far yet!

I’ve been trying to post gardening photos on my instagram as much as I can. This week I am over the moon with my tiny dwarf tomato seedlings (pictured below) – they are the most adorable! These ones are called Red Robin. I grew them last year and while they aren’t exactly anything extraordinary taste-wise (better than a store bought baby tomato, but not as good as most of the other varieties I grow), I do love them because they are petite and grow a million tomatoes on one tiny plant. Plus, I am doing an experiment with them this year which I will explain in another post.

Red Robin Tomato Seedlings

Aren’t they just the most adorable?! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!