[teaser] the beauty of growing

 I'm going to post some of my projects with plants. Relax, it's not about my experiments, although this is an experiment. :p

I'm playing with plants and use them for decoration. Let's just say, I found the beauty of watching my plants grow. I hope you will find that beauty too.

Wait until I have enough time to arrange my photos (and in the meantime, also waiting for my plants to grow).

Tie dye

 My second chance of playing with tie dye.

We went to a tribe in Taiwan called Shi-bi, which actually means canyon or stone wall. They have a fabric art center, where we went for a tie dye experience.

This time, I tied it like this:

and this is after the cloth was dyed, before I opened the knots.



And this is the result:



I think I should do this again sometime :D

tiny cactus can be pretty too

 Lately, I've been fond of a song called Ugly from 2NE1. One of the sentence was "Just like her I wanna be pretty."

So, under that theme, I learned from a cactus park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, that tiny cactus can look pretty too.

What you need is:
- a tall glass, or any size that can fit the cactus
- colorful stones, or you can change them with colorful sands
- chopstick, to put in the cactus
- spoon
- and a cute cactus in a small pot. The size of the pot that I am using is 2.5 cm (diameter).



First, put in the stones, any color you like, until it reached about 1 cm thick.



Put in the cactus, and carefully put it in the middle of the glass.



Start to add in more stones, using any color you like, and carefully not to drop the stones on top of the cactus, because it will be difficult to remove.



Redirect the cactus using chopstick when needed.



Stop adding stones until the pot, soil and bottom part of the cactus is fully drown in stones.

  And voila!

another victim - recycled yarn

 Made from a pants given by a friend.

Maybe I'm going to make a bag. I should've been able to transform the trousers into shorts, but it was too late, so... I'll see what I can do with the top part.

The victim

The victim of the hat :p

rib hat: finished!

the express gift already finished.

I finished knitting the hat yesterday, but I have to wash and block it first. The material dried quite quick. In only 6  hours, it dried perfectly (maybe because it is 100% wool?). So, I'm not sure whether the blocking was successful.

the hat, oddly shaped even after blocking

Hope Fishball like this hat. It's a bit oddly shaped, I added pom pom since I felt the shape of the hat screamed pom pom loudly. I made it slighly longer than Fishball's head because I thought it would be useful during winter, you can still pull down the length, to cover more of your face, or pull down to the back of the neck, and cover it with scarf to keep warm. Europe is not that friendly during winter, right?

the gift

recycling t-shirt: Yarn

Since I moved to Taiwan, I have to admit that my awareness of reduce, reuse and recycle has greatly increased. I believe, the habit of the Taiwanese society, along with the encouragement from the government had supported the development of the care towards the mother nature.

One of the great advantage of staying in a dorm that is occupied by rich Taiwanese student (I'm not rich. I chose this dorm because the school encourage me too, and I'm too busy to find a cheaper place to stay), is that they like to discard clothes. Some of my PJs are second hand from those discarded clothes. I even found a contoured/ergonomic pillow, carpet, hot water jar, etc. for my room. Well, most of the discarded - yet still usable - stuff is t-shirt.

I've been wanting to do this since a long time ago, but I can't do it with my tees, even the one that I already owned since 1997. I am dreaming to cut and recycle the tees into a usable yarn.

A week ago, I found the victim in a carton box in front of the elevator. So whoever has this shirt before, be happy, it will be useful for quite a long time.

First, I cut the part that I want to transform into yarn

Second, I cut that part into small vertical cuts and the width was approximately 1.5 cm (or about half inch), but left one end uncut for about 2.5 cm (one inch).

Third, I cut the last strand of the vertical cuts, and the cut should be diagonal.

Fourth, continue the diagonal cut to all the next vertical cuts until all the cuts are done.

Fifth, pull the t-shirt strip. since mine is a bit fragile, I did it by holding the connection seams between front and back part of the original t-shirt, so that the seams would not be destroyed. Stretch the strips until the sides of the strips curled (usually inward).

And the yarn is ready for use.

I'm thinking about making a mop by crocheting the yarn. Whaddayathink?