Month / February 2021

by princesshotflash

Thrifting for repurpose, redo #3

I hope the “third time’s the charm” comes true as this is my third time trying to post this. I’m starting from scratch deleted what was left of the post. I’ll try and keep is short.

I went out thrifting on President’s day, looking for fabric and yarn for my inventory for my Etsy shop (opening in March). Yarn selection was a bust, just a bunch of bland acrylic yarn. But in my roaming for a good deal, I spied a knitted top hanging at the end of the ladies dresses.

“Hmmm. This looks interesting.” as I walked up to it.

The frogging (knitting term for ripping out) begins

It looked hand knitted but had a Free People tag. It was linen, cotton, and rayon blend yarn of worsted weight. It was unravelling at the shoulder strap and I guess that what it got put back on the rack. Unravelling is good sign as I just want the yarn and would be taking it apart. The price was $8.49, less than one skein of this type of yarn and I probably get at three skeins worth.

In the end I bought it for $8.49 plus 25% off because of President’s day and good 360+ grams of yarn.

By the way, I google this top and it was originally selling for $148. I think I got a good deal, don’t you think.

by princesshotflash

Back to Knitting. . .

For a bit. I needed a project I could finish in a short amount of time without help from a tutorial video.

  • Graham
  • Barley #1
  • Barley #2

Hats, beanies, toques whatever you call them are my quick go-to project for something I can accomplish in a short amount of time. And that’s what decided to do. I used Graham by Jennifer Adams and Barley by Tin Can Knits. I’ve knitted both these patterns before and loved the easy of the pattern and the look of the hats.

All the yarn was from my every growing stash and a frogged cowl that I didn’t like how the stripping was looking. The striping turned out better on the hats.

In the end, I knitted four hats, 1 Graham and 3 Barley and I satisfied my need to finish something. The hats are on their way to Hawaii Pacific Health Cancer Center for their clients to wear during treatments.

  • two strand knitting
  • close up of ribbing and pattern
  • Barley #3
Got a little fancy on the last hat.

Side Note: My dad have been receiving treatment for Lymphoma at the Hawaii Pacific Health Cancer Center and the care has been great. I wanted to give back in return in my appreciation. He is feeling well and continues singing, drawing and entertaining everyday.

by princesshotflash

Gardening Adventures

I started this post on 11/24/2020 and it had two words in the draft all this time, “My grand”, and nothing else till not. And sad to say my veggie garden is in similar shape.

My first attempt at planting seeds, I put a few seeds in a starter pots with seeding soil. I watered them everyday and put them in a sunny but cool spot. Well, out of two pots of eggplants, I got 2 seedlings and only one looks like it is doing well. And the shiso, nothing sprouted. Sad.

Uncle H’s radishes and my color sketch

A couple weeks later my cousin brought over radishes from her dad’s garden (Uncle H), and was laughing about how he planted his seed. He liberally spread the seeds in the garden and a lot of the sprouted and this was from thinning out the radishes. I decided to try Uncle H’s technique, it couldn’t be worst than I did.

First to tidy up my new veggie garden of weeds, and “sigh,” cat poop. A stray neighborhood cat was using it as a litter box in the area that I decided to plant. I scooped out the poop, weeded, and spread a layer of coffee and cacoa grounds in the bed to keep the cat away. I read cats dislike the texture and smell of coffee grounds and we save our grounds for the plants, it works out perfectly. Once there garden was clear, I planted my kale who was looking pot bound and the Waialua pepper plant I got from the half price rack at Lowes in the top bed, daikon seeds and a papaya seedling (birds brought the seedling to us in returns for morning papaya from my mom) in the lower bed.

Using Uncle H’s technique, I planted one generously seeded row of daikon.

daikon seeds spouting

Just in case you were wondering, Waialua peppers are a hybrid of a jalapeño and the daikon that I planted are long white Japanese radish. I use a lot of that for pickles for our meals.

Haha! It worked! Both the coffee/cacoa grounds to keep the cat away and Uncle H’s technique. Now I’m patiently waiting to my veggies to goodies for our meal with them.

At 6 weeks in, leaves are beautiful and I’m just starting to see the white tops.

More gardening adventures to come. I’ve been spending much more time outside in the garden. Twice a day, weeding session to get the yard back to what it was like when my dad worked on it. And I started a science experiment with some dying orchids. That’s for the next post.