Herbs and sewing

I have a few passions, sewing, herbology, and my family. Thats about it I guess, oh and reading anything new. Lately I have been doing a lot with herbs, I have purchased a huge amount of them and have about 40 new tinctures making. I bought some osha root, and old American Indian herb. Used by many herbalists for a variety of things. It has a loamy smell, its almost primordial. It feels neat, and leaves black on your hands. The only way to cut roots in order to cut them and tincture them, you have to soak them in water. The root was hard and brittle before I soaked them, but became spongy and easy to cut. Ginseng was a bit more difficult and even after twice as much soaking, was tough to cut.



Tad and Nathalie have both graduated to my sewing machines, Tad has learned to program. Today Nathalie made a breakthrough with back pack sewing, she likes to make little ones for her "babies." She usually sews the straps on afterwards by hand, today she came running to tell me that she has figured it out! Put the straps on the back peice first then sew front right sides and turn! She has made 1 proper since then.



The sweater on her is a new raglan sleeve wool jersey, its not washable wool so I will tag it. Sometimes guests help with laundry and end up shrinking things... I do have some washable wool items, but this isnt one. She was shutting her eyes in each picture, couldnt get a good one.