cloth & yarn, comfrey & plantain

A small cloth collage came together from bits and pieces collecting on the sewing table. I foresee much pleasure in my immediate future because sewing with linen is one of my own personal seven wonders.

I've been making a few healing salves with herb-infused oils I made up last fall. The golden one is comfrey root salve and the green is plantain leaf salve. Some people mix the two together but I usually follow the tradition of making and using simples for medicinal purposes -- that just means using one single herb at a time. This way I can tell which plant works best for a particular condition.

Comfrey contains allantoin, a constituent that stimulates cell proliferation and augments wound-healing both inside and out. It's fast-acting -- so much so that it shouldn't be used on a deep wound until it has begun to heal infection-free on its own. A plus is that it guards against excessive scar tissue from forming. Applied to the skin, a comfrey salve, compress, or poultice can also help relieve pain from bone fractures or muscle strain.

Among its many uses, plantain is a healing, soothing skin herb. In the form of poultice, compress or salve, it can be used on burns, cuts, and rashes, including eczema and psoriasis. And if you get a bee or wasp sting, pick the nearest plantain leaf, chew it up and apply your spit poultice to the sting for immediate relief. Or just use some plantain salve.

Plantain leaves produce a gorgeous green so it looks like I'll be making a dye-bath with them next summer.

I'm still knitting the Hitchhiker. Also, going deeper with fresh turmeric root and fresh ginger root and I'll write about that next time.

Here is a little bit more detail about salve-making. It's the strangest thing that I wrote about turmeric at the end of this post too! Ha.

Happy weekending and may delightful synchronicities abound!