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Thursday 28 July 2016

Lovely weather for slugs

The slug population of my garden seems to be immense. I am doing a nightly slug patrol, aided by mr/mrs tiggywinkle, and still they come. A slimy tumescent tsunami of mainly black keeled monsters. I need free range nocturnal chickens, about a thousand!!

This living in a cloud is perfect for them but hey ho that,s how nature is, the weeds are growing faster than I can pull them out and luckily the veg is not too shabby either. I did manage a decent strawberry harvest and the apples are looking good. If we get some sun there will be blue berries also, the wild blackberries are full of fruit and given some sun I will be stashing them away in the freezer. My rhubarb is prolific and the plants that I grew from seed are marvellous, both in volume and taste. In fact they are growing so well that I will be moving some of them in the autumn to give them more room to spread.

I have reached halfway on the shawl Linus and will post a pic tomorrow, I am almost at the top of my jumper sleeves and have the next project lined up. The crochet blanket motifs are unchanged, I am in no hurry to finish it. I really want to save this for the winter afternoons, radio 2 playing or maybe an audio book in the background. This is not a project for in front of the telly, I may be making another blanket from Lucy's blog, Attic 24.

I have been podcast watching again, socks in particular. I am hovering between dpns, short circular and magic loop methods. I have a set of dpns and a pattern and yarn so will be trying that out first. Then there is top down or toe up, and what about crochet? Kathryn from Crafternoon Treats has crocheted some and they look amazing. Then heel shape "Fish lips kiss" who would have thought it and what about a "whirlwind toe". There is no wonder that I can not make my mind up, and that is before I consider what brand of needles to use. As for the yarn Oh My Goodness, what a selection, I am in serious danger of becoming a yarn junkie. There are some wonderful small businesses out there dying yarns for socks that look good enough to eat. Then there are the spinners, I want to spin.
On that note Deb from the wool shop has a contact who spins and maybe, just maybe we will have a little demonstration one Tuesday.
I have used a drop spindle before, but that was at primary school. We had raw fleece and went right through the process to spinning and knitting our yarn. Of course I remember very little about it, but if I can relearn those skills, and hone them, there is fleece to be found at reasonable prices.

So many crafts, so little time. I need to live for another 50 or so years I think. But bearing in mind that my word for the year is time. As in taking time to enjoy I am happy to toddle along enjoying each day to the full.

My friend M, who lives a few houses down from me had a problem in her garden. There was a fairly large corner with a very elderly shrub, dying slowly, we had a chat on Saturday about it. Sunday morning she tootled off to buy some pinks and compost. Monday morning I loaded the wheelbarrow up with some manure, a fork and trowel, three potted shrubs that had no particular home in my garden. I added some self seeded Lady's Mantle and a Hydrangea cutting that had made a nice little plant.
I trundled this down the road and 20 minutes later the plot was transformed. M had removed the old shrub, dug out the roots and forked it over with the compost added.
We decided on the planting plan and then added some manure to the soil mix, in went the plants and each had a good amount of water to settle them in.
I walked past this morning and all is looking good, I will take a pic and post as soon as the mist lifts.

Today will be a knitting and sewing sort of day, finish the sleeves and get the bag linings sewn, possible get the bag handles sewn as well.
       I am still waiting for the bamboo handles!!

Maybe today, touch wood.

Any how the lap top needs to go on charge so,

                    TTFN                              Pam

16 comments:

  1. We know the slug battle oh so well. Hubby has done nightly patrols for a couple of weeks and feels we may be winning, though goodness knows where they keep coming from. Looking forward to seeing the photo of revamp xx

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    1. I am convinced that there is another world where slugs are bred to be sprinkles over our gardens just as darkness falls.

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  2. Pam you are always so busy, I'm glad you enjoy so many crafts, it's a great feeling to get something finished.

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    1. I have to be busy otherwise I will be eating chocolate. I do like a finish but I also like a beginning, and sometimes I have 2 beginnings to each finish.

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  3. Yes there is just isnt enough time to do all the things I would love to do, I will just have to be happy with my lot, slugs I hate them, I walk around with a pair of old scissors in my pocket and every one I see gets chompped in half, touch wood I have not had a serious problem in the growing area with slugs.

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    1. Perhaps the altitude does not suit them quite as much. ;D

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  4. Hi Pam, I'm really impressed with the socks you are knitting. Would you mind answering a question?
    For the long socks did you use chunky wool? And what gauge kneeled?
    I've got the book, but needed to check. Thank you.

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    1. I used James C Brett Lakeland liteweight chunky yarn on 6mm needles. They knitted up very well, there is a slight "fuzz" to the yarn and it did not split or ravel up into knots. I aim to try some other yarns out and will post as and when.

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  5. Hi Pam, love the socks, have the same book. What weight yarn did you use for the knee socks and what gauge needles?xx

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  6. Goodness me....I didn't think there were enough slugs left for anyone else with the disgusting amount that seem to be currently residing in my garden. What I want to know is....why do they never eat the weeds?....lol-x-

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    1. Just like children they would rather go straight to pudding and miss out on the boring main course.

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  7. You are so energetic, it shames me. Hate slugs, so glad we don't have any here.

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  8. I love knitting socks two at a time toe up or cuff down on magic loop. Once I started magic looping I realized I never needed any other needles-I can knit straight or in the round on any size item. I love addi turbo socks and turbo lace needles for magic loop. Right now my favorite pattern is Hermione's Everyday Socks which is free on Ravelry. It is so satisfying to work two socks at a time. They match perfectly and if you are using a striped or patterned yarn (Regia & Opal are my favs) you can get perfectly matching patterning as well. A perfect summer knitting past time.I look forward to seeing your next jumper. You are so right. We need more years for all the creative pursuits available. Thanks for all the inspiration!

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  9. So many crafts to do and not enough time. My mum was always trying new things. She even went to a spinning club. She bought a full fleece to spin and planned to dye it then knit it up into a jumper. Unfortunatly she had to give it up before completing the the spinning of the fleece,and now it's just stored away and the spinning wheel is gathering dust. I often sit on the chair when I go round so that gets a regular dusting.
    Snails are our biggest problem, yuck. I'm on a loosing battle with them with a small playng field at the back of us and beyond that soma allotments.
    Carolx

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  10. Slugs are top of my most hated garden pest. I kinda like the snails! But the slugs ugh
    Sometimes I get up in the morning to find a trail in the kitchen. What puzzles me is this trail, starts, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM. HOW???

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  11. I have had a real infestation of slugs too this year and lots of little black insects not sure what they are. I too am on a mission to learn how to spin, but there are just not enough hours in the day.

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