Monday, August 13, 2012

Lucet patterns

While doing some research on making friendship bracelets I ran across a link for making cordage with a lucet. I have done this in the past and still have a small lucet. I did not find many patterns to cut a lucet so I made some up for the public at large.
What is a lucet you say? It is a wood, bone, plastic forked tool to make decorative cord, for clothes for decoration, to use an bracelets, etc.


You will need to click the image to get a full size picture to print. I put a few measurements on the image to help you size it as needed.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

GARLIC WARNING!

Warning: Garlic oil is a non-selective insecticide, which means that it will kill beneficial insects (such as lady bugs, who are natural predators of aphids) just as well as it kills bad bugs. It's best to keep as many beneficials around as possible. This spray should only be used if you haven't seen any beneficial bugs in your garden. A nightshade recipe, won't harm beneficials, so you should use that if you have some beneficials in your garden.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Hard Water and Insecticidal Soap

Here's an interesting fact I came upon while researching homemade insecticidal soaps, but probably also applies to commercial insecticidal soaps also.

The minerals in hard water react with the soap and create soap scum instead of insecticide. Just like in your shower, if you have hard water. So always use pure water to mix with your insecticidal soap. I saw somewhere that Calgon™ or similar product could be used to soften the water. I would think distilled water would also work well.