this year's garden

This year I'm focusing a bit more on the garden.  Giving it some more structure you might say.  I'm still going to have "the three sisters" (that's beans, corn and squash), tomatoes, lettuce, kale, leeks, brussel sprouts, hot peppers, strawberries and a bunch of herbs.  I'm blocking out the gardens with bricks and plan to lay down some pea gravel on the pathways to reduce mud and weeds.  Sheet mulching is my friend, and free newspapers for me to do it make even more friends ;-)  I may put some amaranth again because it was so pretty at the back fence but it didn't yield as much as I had hoped.  I'd need a field of it to feed me for more than a couple of meals, darn it.  Same with the quinoa

Now that's the back garden.  My flowers are slowly expanding.  The Echinacea came back nicely and I should be getting some daisies from my mom, herbs from Diane, and peppermint from David.  Now if I can just get the water collection system up and running.  Why do most things have to cost money?  No fair :-P

warp weighted loom project

I just finished taking my lozenge twill/ broken diamond twill off of my warp weighted loom.  It's being washed gently after taking thorough measurements for warp and weft density, width and length of the fabric and amount of shrinkage.  Not as perfect as I would have liked but I learned a LOT on this project which makes me very happy.  I still have a nice size piece of weaving to use for its original purpose.  A front apron for my viking age costumes.  That'll be a cool demo/teaching piece.
I'm in the right range for threads per inch of that time although on the lower end of course.  My next plan is to do a simpler weave with my hand spun, which should give me a finer fabric than using commercial yarn.