Walden Pond in Danger

I just saw this news item today and it made me very sad. Apparently 27% of the flora that was present at Walden Pond when Thoreau wrote is now gone or rare and on the way out. This dying out apparently is being caused by the slight changes in temperature.  I’ve also read and heard that in many woods, trees are dying because of a growing infestation of pine beetles. The beetles are apparently thriving because of warmer climates and warmer winters.

There are people that will claim that change is natural. Nature changes all the time. I still cannot help but think… Nature or cosmic events were traditionally the catalyst for the great changes past on this planet, and for the first time one species (us) is sentient and had/has the power to prevent and delay/stop this all from happening.

If you think about it the gravity of the situation (climate change) really dwarfs all our petty politics and culture wars.

Dye Party Extravaganza

Don't drink the Kool-aid. Use it for dyeing

I had a yarn/fabric dying party yesterday with some friends.

I have more pics of the finished yarns I need to share but here are some of the original batch of Kool-aid dyed yarns we finished yesterday afternoon. The Dye party was a huge success. We used my old kitchen microwave to set the dyes in the yarn and fabric. All items were wrapped in microwaveable plastic bags and zapped for about two minutes and then two minutes again to set the dye.

The Kool-aid dyes worked suprisingly well especially with the superwash wools. We also did a batch of acid dye yans/fabrics. I did dye some dupioni silk which turned out quite well. I discovered that my Eco wool didn’t take dyes very well. probably because there was excess lanolin there even after a thorough washing with synthropol.

I will post pictures of those as soon as I get the time

Rinsing set dyed yarns & fabric in a bucket

More yarn photos:

Cascade Eco Wool in Acid Dye Colors

My Sock Yarn in Blues and Brown

Too much going on or am I just too lazy to blog?

Ms. Ciprilla

Well, apparently I’m too lazy to write too, so I’ll just share with pictures and maybe a few captions. I’ll say one thing though. I’m glad we did this when we did with the economy being the way it is.  I love the countertop best of all. We sort of splurged (well for us it was a splurge) on it because I figured things  being the way they are we will probably not move out of this house for a while.

This is a very odd shot of our Kitchen before the cabinets and counter. My husband took the photo:

Kitchen island before

A better view

Here are the after shots (I’ll have to get more shots when there’s better light – we still need to install some tracklighting):

Food Pantry near the sink

Kitchen shot

Countertop next to the fridge

Lovely countertop on the island