I started these lavender plants when we first moved to this house, 8 years ago. That first winter I winter-sowed a crazy amount of seeds. The English lavender did well and I planted it in a few spots along the rock wall.
Over the last couple years, I've dug up a few small divisions and tried putting them around in some new places. Those plants are still small but growing. Progress is slow but the new plants did produce flowers this year.
I grab a handful at a time and snip without much deference. It only take about 10 minutes to do all the plants.
Back inside, without a fan, I sweat at the table while I stripped the lower leaves from the stems and bundled them together for drying. I was fussy at first, trying to group the stems together by height, but after an hour, grumbling and drenched in sweat, I reached the "Oh F- it! I don't care!" moment and started bundling them faster.
And then I hang them upside down in the basement stairwell to dry:
I'll be making simple sachets and picking over some of the buds for culinary use. I made lemon lavender cookies last year that were the bomb. I'll try the recipe again and try to perfect it- I would like to enter them into the fair this year.
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I finished the mittens last night! Knit the thumbs, closed the gaps, sewed in ends, blocked... now I just have to wait for them to dry and then do the duplicate stitching.
I have a pile of yarn that I want to wind for misc projects but I'm traveling for work tomorrow. My plane knitting will be socks... but what pattern? I think a solid color with pretty cabling would be nice.
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