Honey, I Shrunk the Net!

Yesterday I stretched out the net I made for our hops vines and repaired it. I didn't use the netting gauge I had made it with. I just matched the repairs to the size of the meshes I already had.

When I climbed up on the roof to lash it to the roof support, as I stretched it out, I found it had shrunk in the wash! The net that I made to be as wide as our west windows and to hang just below them is now about a foot narrower and shorter than last year.

Oops. I guess I'll have to make myself a note (and a slightly smaller mesh stick to match), and make it larger again after I take it down in the fall. I'd go out and get a picture, but it is chilly and sprinkling rain, and I'd have to show you our weather-beaten west windows, the ones that get battered by winter storms and summer sun. Which is to say, the ones in the most need of a paint job. I'll wait until the hops vines have colonized them a bit more.

I don't know what strain of hops they are. My husband is a home-brewer, and had had no luck with hops roots he ordered through the mail. Then one day we were taking a walk on the neighbor's property kitty-corner to our own, and I spotted them growing wild over an old shed/storage building. When my husband went to his house to ask permission to dig some of them up and transplant them, he (the neighbor) said, "Is that what those things are? They sure are hard to kill! Round-Up didn't do it."

They are very vigorous, and would like to take over. They make great shade for that window, and sometimes they even sprawl on the roof and keep it cool. And in the winter they are pretty easy to cut down. I just hit them with the lawn mower when they try to spread out of bounds. I wish myrtle was this easy to control.

Not much knitting yesterday, just a few of the plain rounds on the Pi doily. I am definitely starting to see the advantage of putting a lace pattern in those plain rounds to keep myself alert! And now I've started to think about a half-circle Pi shawl, but at this stage it's just one of those ideas simmering on the back burner of my brain.