Tag Archives: Spinning

Fiber Artistry and Equipment, Homesteading

Finished Objects and UFO’s

March 27, 2014 mountaingmom Leave a comment

I didn’t think it possible to finish Estelle before the cold spring ended, but since we keep getting blocks of frigid days, even some light snow, indeed I did. I really wasn’t too pleased with it right after I finished it, but a good blocking helped immensely. It feels softer and drapier, the sleeves are long enough and I didn’t stretch them, the band up the fronts and around the neckline lay much better. I am glad it doesn’t button, because yet again, I knit up 2 full sizes larger than my bust size and it would pull if it had buttons. Yes, I did a gauge swatch, several actually since I couldn’t get gauge with the recommended needle so I fiddled with several size needles before getting gauge. Estelle is a Quince and Co. pattern, made of Quince and Co. Lark in Delft color.

Yesterday while it was blocking, I sat and moved buttons on the last cardigan I made, the V necked cardi from Ann Budd that also seemed small when complete. I had purchased some very fine Raku fired clay buttons for it and managed to lose one when I took the train to Northern Virginia to babysit during semester break. After carefully moving the top one down to the missing space and putting retaining buttons on the backs, I broke one putting my coat over it last evening. Now instead of 5, I have 3, the broken one can be reglued, but I fear they just aren’t sturdy enough for the sweater. I purchased some different buttons on my way to knitting last night, so I think I will reblock that sweater after I take the pottery buttons off and then put the new ones on tomorrow.

Sorry for the fuzzy shot, I can’t find the original and copied it from my projects folder on Ravelry.

The Honey Cowl has been repaired and I have almost used one skein of the yarn for it. I think using half of the second, which would make it the yardage for which the pattern requires will make it too wide for the circumference. I’m not a fan of bunchy garments around my neck, so I may bind off at the end of this skein in another row or two and use the remaining skein for mitts or a hat.

My Addi Sock Rocket needles came and I went back to work on the never ending socks, Socks for the Plane is the pattern and I can only knit about two rows with the size 1 needle before my hands ache. I think they really will be never ending. I only need a few more inches of cuff to be done with them and I will have completed my first toe up pair, though I have enough yarn left to make them knee hi socks.

I am adjusting to my new spinning wheel and have been spinning the undyed Shetland wool. I’m thinking about folding her up into her backpack and going to the spinning group today, I haven’t been in several weeks.

The only other UFO is a reknit of a shawl that I adored when it was finished, but I carelessly left it on my chair one day when our German Shepherd was younger and she chewed a half dollar size hole right in the middle. I frogged it and started over knowing it will be somewhat smaller due to the loss of the short strands on each side of the hole. I’ll post it when it is finished again, but it is a throw in my bag and take in the car project and we have no trips planned, so it may be a while.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment, Homesteading

Productivity

March 22, 2014 mountaingmom 1 Comment

The short spring of this weekend allowed Jim to take a 175 mile motorcycle ride. While he was out enjoying the weather in a way he enjoys, I got to work outside, which I enjoy. My chickens’ run expanded from 50 linear feet to 175 linear feet. The main body of the run more than doubled and I created a 6 foot wide attached run that goes down one of the long sides of the garden. My hope is that they will help keep the weeds and bugs down from that difficult to mow area.

The main body of the run now also provides a fence half way along one of the shorter sides of the garden and gives them access to a pile of old compost. They spent a good portion of the afternoon dust bathing in that pile and digging for bugs. I wonder how long it will take them to make this area barren of grass too. Putting weeds from the garden will be a much shorter walk now.

After coming in totally worn out, I stopped and unpacked my new spinning wheel. I was so glad to see that as a folding wheel, it came mostly assembled and already packed in its travel bag. There was very little assembly to do and I was soon able to take it for a short spin with a bit of undyed Shetland wool. There are 4 ounces of it to be spun, dyed and turned into something beautiful.

I love life on our mountain farm.

Homesteading

Spin cycle

March 21, 2014 mountaingmom 1 Comment

The Vernal Equinox found us yesterday with clear sky, warmer temperatures and wind. It was too windy for Jim to ride, too windy to want to tackle adding ventilation holes higher in my coop, too windy, but so welcome. Today is warmer and calmer. We have three beautiful days as the calm before the next predicted snow event. I get anxious each year to start being outside more, to dig in warm soil, to plant, but truly, it isn’t safe to put much in the ground here other than cold weather crops until Mother’s Day, so I have to wait. I did start my peppers and some of my tomatoes in flats yesterday. I ran out of medium before I ran out of pots and seed.

My new spinning wheel arrived at the shop yesterday, but alas, it isn’t open on Wednesday, so I am meeting the owner in town today to pick it up. I’m excited to put it together and give it a spin.

Today the chicklets are 2 weeks old. I keep waiting to go into the basement and find them everywhere as they are developing feathers and starting to hop and flap higher up the sides of the brooder.

Socialization continues with them, with “The Hand” that appears over the side of the brooder and then teases with wiggling fingers, rings, or a small pile of their food to teach them not to fear me. I don’t handle my birds except when necessary like Wednesday night when 3 got out of the pen while I was out and couldn’t get back in to coop up for the night. When I arrived home around 9 pm and went over to close up the coop, I found Cogburn and two of the hens in a pile huddled together where the fence joins the coop nearest their ramp back inside. Each was picked up, slightly ruffled and put inside on a perch none the worse for wear.

Because of the lack of a spinning wheel and to try to have my sweater finished before the storm next week, I have been knitting only on Estelle. Last night I finished the second sleeve and picked up and knit the first 2 rows of the feather and fan band.

I am pleased that it will probably be finished tonight. Then I have to figure out where the marker goes in my honey cowl and how much of a row I have to tink to get it back on track. My sock needles that I ordered are in route, so I can finish the never ending pair of socks. My yarn came from Quince and Co. to make the Lola Shawl in the issue 9 of taproot magazine and I still have the Unplanned Peacock Botanical dk skein to make into something beautiful that will show off it’s wonderful colors.

We are off to enjoy the spring day, Jim on his motorcycle, me to pick up my wheel then work on the coop and run, maybe get a real gate in so that they can’t escape again unless I let them out. I also need to relocate some of the extra hay that seems to have all worked its way downhill to the end of their run, putting too much mulch around the peach tree and shrub in the run and none up where I enter their pen.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment, Homesteading

“Uncle” already

March 16, 2014 mountaingmom Leave a comment

Will it never end? Winter that is. The predicted winter storm has already started, several hours before anticipated and it did not start as rain as predicted, but rather a slushy mix of precipitation.

When I went over to check egg production progess for the day, I don’t want them to freeze as the temperature falls, this is where I found all of the hens. Huddled under the coop wondering when this cold white stuff is ever going to end. At least with the lengthening days, their production is up a bit, getting an average of 6 per day instead of the 4 from mid winter.

The newbies are now a week and a day old and are starting to show signs of tail and wing feathers. The more feathers they grow, the less I worry about the loss of power killing their heat lamp.

I didn’t get around to my laundry and dishwasher detergent making session a couple of weeks ago, just made my lotion bars, but this morning, I realized that I was seriously low on laundry soap and out of dishwasher detergent, so I pulled out the recipes and went to work. I was surprised and pleased after finishing it and calculating the cost, to find that it will cost me less than $.06 per load for laundry and about $.07 per load for the dishwasher. Since I make my own soap, I know what goes into it and added to it only washing soda, baking soda, and borax for the laundry powder, I have an economical product that lacks any of the sketchy ingredients and it is safe for the front loading HE washer. The dishwashing powder costs slightly more per load as the citric acid is a tad pricey, but that mix is only borax, washing soda, citric acid and salt, again an economical product without the sketchy ingredients and safe for the dishwasher and the septic tank. Yes, the process takes about 10 minutes because I have to hand grate the bar soap, but I have a huge jar stored on the mudroom shelf, plus a small container on the washer and one to take to my son next month and I only made half of the recipe.

As the temperature is falling, the stew is simmering, I’m going to light the woodstove and fireplace and sit back and see if I can finish the second sleeve of my Estelle sweater that I am knitting of Quince and Co. Lark yarn.

I can’t spin as I packed up my wheel and shipped her off to her new home in Michigan and my new one won’t be in until late in the week.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment, Homesteading

The Return of Winter

March 3, 2014 mountaingmom Leave a comment

Spring is coming, we know it is by the flocks of robins, the few springlike days we have had in the past couple of weeks. The past two days have exceeded 60ºf ), absolutely delightful weather. The weather encouraged outdoor time, to clean the chicken coop, to give them free range time, and to allow Jim to take a jaunt on his motorcycle.

Yesterday afternoon it clouded up and by evening, it was a steady cold rain with the temperatures beginning to drop to the current 28º (-2º) and headed for tonight’s 8º (-13.33º).

By the time I awoke this morning, the rain had turned to sleet, then snow. The snow is falling steadily and accumulating.

The weather prognosticators are warning us of 6 to 12″ of snow, depending on which source you choose to believe. I’m hoping for a much lower amount and a return to the weather of the weekend, but it looks like winter is back and here to stay for at least another week. I’m ready to do more than think about the spring garden. Instead, I will knit and spin, make a warm comforting stew for supper and sit tight.

What I’m knitting, Beaucoup in Happy Feet, a light baby sweater for a spring baby, and Honey Cowl of Green Dragon Terminator color is Heat Wave.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment, Uncategorized

Neglecting friends

February 20, 2014 mountaingmom 2 Comments

As I have posted before, we don’t travel much, but somehow have found ourselves away from home as a couple for more than 40 days this past year, plus another couple of weeks where I alone went to help out one or the other of our kids for a few days to a week. This has cut into my friend time. My friend time is going to Knit Night on Wednesday night or Spunsters (my spinning group) on Thursday afternoon. This week we aren’t snowed in, we aren’t away from home and I committed to going to both groups and enjoying the company of those friends.

On Knit Night, we meet at a local coffee shop, they kindly let us take over a huge table from about 5 pm until we go home. Most of us buy dinner, we sit and socialize, share patterns, trade yarn, tell tales and knit. The core group is the same with assorted others that come when they can and we always have a good time. A couple of the husbands will come and sit off at another table and read or if our group isn’t too big or too naughty, may sit with us for a while.

The Spunsters, meet in a conference room at the local library. Some bring their wheels, some knit or crochet, do finish work on weaving projects or just sit and visit. This group is at the mercy of the conference room use and sometimes we convene at someone’s home for a potluck.

Both groups challenge me to keep learning the fiber crafts and to improve my skills and socialize. The spinning group has many fiber raisers and we help out during shearing times which is a season that is starting.

My current spinning project is a full pound of undyed Sheltland Wool. I don’t know what it will become. We will have to see how many yards of yarn it becomes then I will decide and dye it for a handknit, homespun project.

My current knitting project is a cardigan sweater for me, the pattern is Estelle from Quince and Co. with their Lark yarn in Delft blue. This is a cute pattern with a ribbed empire waist and feather and fan bands down the front and as a bottom band. Their yarn is a delight to knit.

Then queued up is a cowl, either the Honey Cowl or the Basic Lace Cowl from this Unplanned Peacock dk weight in Botanical colorway which I bought after one of my knitting friends and I saw a very colorful weather map of the potential winter storm aimed at us. We enjoyed a playful banter with Natasha, the owner/dyer of the yarn about the beautiful colors.

It is great to reconnect after a fall and winter of absence and sporadic opportunities to see these friends.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment

Collections

January 19, 2014 mountaingmom 1 Comment

I don’t generally post more than once a day, but I couldn’t resist this one. As I was reading a blog that I follow, http://divineknits-infiknit.blogspot.com/ she had a post entitled “You collect what…?” a discussion of the various types of collections that people gather and what each of these types of collectors are called. That post sent me back a bit. As a kid, I collected postcards when we traveled which was not varied and involved an annual trip to a mountain retreat and a spring or fall trip to the Outer Banks for a camping. Then in my late 20’s, I took up snow skiing and those trips were more varied, we wore knit caps on our heads then instead of helmets, and I started collecting the little souvenir pin badges from each ski resort and wore them on my knit hat. The postcards are long gone, the badges might still be stashed in a drawer, but I no longer buy them when we go to a different resort.

But I do collect, functional but beautiful things now. I do not want clutter about our home, but I love handmade items, so our home is a collection of hand thrown pottery, functional items. All of our dishes, mugs, service pieces, canisters and crocks to make pickles or hold cooking utensils are pottery. As well as candle holders, pitchers and platters.

I also collect baskets, many that I made, or were made for me by a friend that I crafted with, several that are ones purchased by artisans in organisations that are attempting to aid poorly compensated artisans to a fair wage. But they don’t just hang around, they are used lovingly to gather produce or eggs from the farm or to store fiber and yarn.

And I can’t forget the fiber and yarn that I spin and knit into beautiful garments to wear or gift.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

Fiber Artistry and Equipment

Selfish knitting

January 3, 2014 mountaingmom Leave a comment

The holiday knitting was completed, the baby set, the finger puppets, 3 pair of kids socks, the scarf for my sister. That one required that I first spin the wool/silk blend, ply it, then knit the scarf.

Now it is my turn. A couple of years ago, I purchased a 3 13 ounce bag of wool/silk blend fiber from Green Dragon Yarns at a fiber festival. The color way was called Tidal Pool, predominately teal with other seaside accent colors. This bag of fiber has been in my stash since then. Today I decided to spin it into a single. Santa brought me a new wool coat for Christmas, so I don’t always look like the marshmallow man when I go out in my ski coat. My Ruby scarf and hat look great with it, but I wanted choice and decided that this new yarn to be is a good color.

I know there isn’t enough to ply for a hat and scarf. Recently when looking for yarn for the baby outfit, I purchased two skeins of Green Dragon Yarns fingering weight called Cypress.

The colors looked very complementary and though I have never plyed homespun to commercial yarn before, I knew it could be done and decided that was an excellent way to extend the homespun and make a yarn that would look great as a hat and scarf.

This is one skein of the plyed result. This is about 245 yards of yarn. When the rest is plyed, it should be enough for the scarf and bottom couple of inches of the hat, with the crown just the Cypress color.

The scarf is The Yarn Harlot’s pattern, One Row. Homespun Scarf. The hat will be a new design utilizing her stitch pattern from the scarf.

Mountaingmom

Tag Archives: Spinning

Finished Objects and UFO’s

Productivity

Spin cycle

“Uncle” already

The Return of Winter

Collections

Selfish knitting

Farm life, knitting and spinning, cooking and family