Friday, January 23, 2015

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!




15 comments:

  1. Thanks for the information about salves - I went to your link as well. It's winter here but I'm thinking I should collect some plantain leaves and grow some comfrey in my herb garden.

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  2. love piecing little found cloth bits together....and linen cloth is wonderful as is linen thread.

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  3. Love the bitty bits of cloth. The big circle reminded me of our hike when J. picked up two pieces of the same broke rock...I said, "Oh ya its a puzzle rock". My kids loved to find those. Your salves are beautiful! Haha And useful of course. And you can dye green! Wonderful.

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  4. great little cloth beginning. i really want to try the salve thing.

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  5. http://feathersfromheaven.blogspot.comJanuary 24, 2015 at 7:43 AM

    love the post and the inspiration!

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  6. I Just want to thank you for the inspiration that I consistently get from your posts. Comfrey has always been a favorite herbal of mine as well...and salves are such a wonderful thing....

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  7. Wonderful post. You are a wealth of natural knowledge. I am very interested in healing salves and you make it so easy. Looking forward to your next post on turmeric and ginger root. I do enjoy a cup of hot tea everyday with fresh ginger root and honey in it. I haven't been sick all winter with many people around me very ill.

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  8. Susan, plantain is easy but plan well when bringing comfrey into your garden because it will never leave that place! :) Which is a good thing.

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  9. Deanna, oh I need to get some linen thread. I don't think I've ever used it in my whole life.

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  10. Thanks, Nancy -- I like that -- puzzle rocks! Will keep that in mind as I stitch this puzzle moon. Or maybe it's a puzzle rock now.

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  11. Jude, I hope you do, it would fit your handmade lifestyle.

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  12. Feathers From Heaven -- thank you and I like your name!

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  13. Hi Marie, thank you so much for your nice comment! :)

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  14. Kathy, I like reading about what you use herbs for, too! -- and wouldn't surprise me a bit if your daily cuppa is part of the reason you've been protected.

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  15. That's a really good point about the herbs... I'm really loving my salves this year, they smell so good.

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