More Uses for Old Materials

As the garden is just plugging along doing its late summer thing, there’s not much to write about. So, I’m going to go back in time almost a year and tell a tale of recycling.

It used to be a pool, now it’s an arbor.

As I’ve detailed in previous posts, my Shaker garden was created almost entirely with materials salvaged from an old pool that was in the backyard. The only things we had to purchase were plastic to line the plywood and soil for the raised bed. Extras like mesh netting to keep the rabbits out and all the nails, screws and other fasteners were repurposed from previous projects. There was quite a bit of wood left over from the pool after the garden was built.

Still some wood waiting for another project.

My husband was able to make work benches in the basement and the garage from pieces of the pool. He also made a wonderful grape arbor. Behind the garage there is a pair of grapevines. They were just growing on the ground and climbing the nearby trees when we first moved in. So last October he decided to make an arbor for them. He took some of the longer boards from the pool and made four uprights and a top frame. He then used his circular saw and a chisel to make notches for the crossbeams on the top of the arbor.

He then dug four holes at the back corner of our garage and we worked together to square the thing up. The vines themselves were more toward the center back of the garage so once the arbor was set he guided them to the nearest upright. Then we waited through the long winter until spring when the dormant vines woke up again. The vines must have liked the arbor. By the middle of June, they had crested the top and began winding their way through the crossbeams.

First grapevine buds of the spring.

Little leave and grapes in early May.

Look at those vines go!

We let the vines grow with little care. We tucked them up into the arbor occasionally but otherwise did nothing special to them. We found that Japanese beetles really liked the grape leaves. Since we had no plans for the vines and the beetles seemed content with the leaves rather than chewing up other plants around the place, we let them go. The leaves are a nice shape for dolmas, though. I’ll have to get on them next year before the insects do.

Japanese beetles are destructive but rather pretty.

The grapes themselves are nothing special. If we really wanted grapes to eat or make into jelly or whatnot, we would probably pull out the vines and plant different ones. As it is now, the vine is more of a decorative thing and I like it that way.

Past-ripe grapes.

A lovely sight from my back porch.

And the birds like it too!

Fashioning Cold Weather Fashion

It’s finally gotten cold enough out to break out my furs.  Fur is probably one of my biggest guilty pleasures.  I just love the look and feel of real fur.  Yes, I know that animals died to make the stoles and collars I adore so much.  That is why it is a guilty pleasure.  To help assuage my guilt, I only buy vintage fur.  My rationale is that by wearing something made from animals that were killed well over half a century ago, I am somehow bringing more meaning to their deaths. 

One of my vintage fur finds.

Several years ago I found this wonderful fur capelet at the Salvation Army.  It was in fairly good shape when I bought it but, after several wearings and once lending it to a less-then-gentle acquaintance, the shoulder began to tear apart.  I tried to mend it and thought of getting a big flower broach or something to cover up the spot but it had gotten to the point where I no longer wanted to wear it.  Maybe it was my upbringing, but I cannot stand to throw things away if they are still potentially useful.  Only the shoulder of the capelet was torn.  The rest of it was still in beautiful shape.  So, instead of trashing it, I recycled it into scarf.

Too much damage to cover up.

I carefully removed the satin lining and examined the fur.  A lot of the hide had dried out and was in worse shape than I anticipated but I still was able to salvage some nice strips.  I cut the lining to match then sewed everything back together again.  I made some bows with extra bits of lining to cover up some of the less-attractive seams.  I think it turned out well for my first time working with real fur.  It’s also wonderfully soft and cozy.  Perfect for these single-digit winter days!

From capelet to scarf.

Also while pulling out more winter accessories I discovered that I did not have a hat to go with my red coat.  I have a great burgundy wool cloche that I knit a few years ago that clashes horribly with the coat but I really like the look of it.  So, I decided to make another in black.  I couldn’t find the pattern I originally used but I had no trouble finding several new patterns on ravelry (I love ravelry.com!).  It took two evenings of knitting in front of the tv and two trips through the washing machine and then, voila, a black felted wool cloche hat!

Knitted cloche before felting.

 

Final felted cloche.