I beg to disagree. The summer chore list was long this year. Many major projects needed to be done to preserve the integrity of our house, to have a garden that required less maintenance, and to get a coat of stain on the coop to try to extend it’s life. Spring was spent getting the garden ready with new boxes from reclaimed wood, filling them with soil dug from old beds, compost, and some bagged soil. Paths were lined with weed mat or cardboard and about an inch of mulch placed over it. The beds are fine and fairly easy to maintain as most are sturdy enough for me to sit on the side to weed. The paths needed several inches more mulch, but buying it by the bag is neither economical nor environmentally friendly, I need to find a load or two of woodchips from a tree service and have it dumped to move by wheelbarrow.
The house needed all 4 sides of the garage, the east wall, the north dormers, and all surfaces of the roofed front porch powerwashed and stained, as well as staining all the raw wood from the deck rebuild two years ago. Son 1 and grandson 1 got it all powerwashed and Son 1 stained the east wall, the walls of the garage, and the dormers. Hubby and I got the garage doors done, but the porch was still in need. Thursday, we decided to try tobegin to finish everything but the railing and floor which take a latex stain, probably a mistake years and years ago. While hubby stained the posts, I did the ceiling. Friday, we set up again, and got the front porch log wall, the windows and door frame done. Today we started on the deck. Hubby did the upper work while I did the frame underneath and outside parts from an 8 foot ladder. Most of it has been done, but there are still the joists under the floorboards that were not on outside edges that probably should still be done, but it is going to have to wait for a few days. Our arms, necks, shoulders, and backs are screaming.
We still need to get the floor done, the railing also. I guess in a few days, the remaining joists under the deck floor will get a coat of stain too. The chicken coop has had wood repaired, but it still needs to be stained too. The list is getting shorter, but isn’t done yet.
We live in a Village in a county of only about 15000 folks, but are closer to a town in the next county than to our county seat where Walmart has run most of the local business out of business. The town is a University town and other than a couple grocers, fast food, and CVS, it is locally owned businesses.
Several years ago, Main Street and College Avenue were renovated, with brick sidewalks, old style lamp posts that each have two hanging basket hooks and a flag pole holder. In the spring, every post is adorned with baskets overflowing with flowers, the medians are planted with flowers and a crew maintains them with weeding, pruning, and watering regularly. The flag holders hold flags for various events. For the local high school football games and graduation, each has a flag that has BHS for Blacksburg High School. On national holidays, American flags are displayed. Virginia Tech flags for their home football games. International flags when the University is celebrating international events.
This is the town I moved into while our house was being build and while hubby was still across the state until he retired. We consider it our town. It is where the Farmer’s Market is, where the restaurants we frequent are located, and a small single screen movie theater that has been there since my father was a student here in the 1940’s.
This afternoon, we spent a few hours staining the ceiling and posts of our front porch and after all was done and cleaned up, including us, we went to town for dinner. About once a week since the weather warmed and we can dine outdoors, we have reinstated that into our lives. On Friday nights there is live music on the hill in the first photo.
We love the local feel of this town and the opportunities for plays, concerts, and sporting events if we feel the urge through the University. The adjacent town to this one has all of the big box stores and chain movie theaters, so if we can’t find what we need in town, it is a short drive over.
As we sat with our drinks, awaiting the service of our dinner, I pulled out a spindle and did a bit of spin in public time. My spindles are often pulled out around town for a spin time. Sometimes it draws a question or comment, sometimes I just see someone watching from a distance, tonight, one of the ladies from my spinning group and her hubby arrived to dine on the same patio. Small towns, the best.
An archaic term that means to set aside; to save. The term was used in many old households to mean storing and preserving of provisions for the cold non productive months. Before the introduction of home freezers, much of this putting by was drying, salting, smoking, fermenting, and canning with procedures that give the USDA shuddering nightmares.
And now we have the huge grocery stores that ship in “fresh” produce out of season from thousands of miles away. Produce that has been genetically altered to make it shelf stable for far longer than it takes to move it across the country or from other countries to your table. And commercial canning allows aisles of produce of every description packed in metal cans lined with suspect plastics for your ease in food preparation. So many people, don’t even know how food is grown or where.
I have always in my adult life had a garden of some sort, if only a few feet of tomatoes and peppers off the patio of a townhouse, and I made Pomegrante jelly once a year with my Dad, an afternoon that I looked forward to every year as we improved on the technique each year. But when we bought our farm property and I moved across the state to work for the last few years before retirement and to help with babysitting so Son 1 and DIL could work on our house, or spending an evening or weekend day helping put up interior siding, making floor wax, or other assistance I could provide, my outlook on food changed. During this time, I discovered a program that Virginia Tech was doing where the entire Freshman class was assigned a book to read for discussion. The year I moved, the book was the recently published, Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver about her family’s attempt to eat only local, seasonally available food that they grew or could purchase at their local Farmer’s Market. I purchased the book, devoured it and it changed my whole outlook on the food system. Son 1 and DIL had put in a huge garden on the farm, and once living here, I have added fruit trees, vines, and canes as well as chickens for eggs. I made a point to get to know the vendors at our Farmer’s Market, what they provide, how they manage their farms, and what will be available when. I maintain a much smaller garden than the kids put in, located many wild berry patches, learned to make soap and healing salves, and set a goal to “put by” as much as I can to reduce our footprint and reduce the amount of food and other goods that come into our home from thousands of miles away, packaged in containers that may or may not be recyclable.
Not everything that goes on our shelves or in our freezer is grown here, but it is grown locally if possible. Meats, cheeses, vegetables I don’t grow, fruits when mine fail. Beans and peas are frozen in the spring and summer. Berries and fruit are turned into jams and sauces. Tomatoes are canned as pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or tomatoes to be used in chili or other recipes. Hot peppers are canned, pickled or dried to be used throughout the year until the next crop. Sweet peppers are diced or sliced and frozen. Butter and cheese are stockpiled during the productive season for the winter, most of the meats are available year round. We tend to eat more seasonally now, not to the extent that was accomplished in the book, but certainly more so than before I read it.
Once of the produce vendors at the Farmer’s Market has a CSA program with different tiers. The one I chose, I get to select what I want in the quantity I want as long as I spend a certain amount. Right now eggplant is in season. I can’t grow eggplant to save me. Everytime I plant it, the flea beetles feast, so I buy mine from them. I’m not a fan of frozen eggplant, but making a casserole and freezing it, or fermenting a few jars of it when it is available is an option. The same for asparagus, I don’t like them frozen or canned, so they are enjoyed in season and a couple jars pickled for later.
Last week’s CSA had two eggplants in my selection. One was made into Eggplant Parmesan made with locally made parmesan and mozarella. Half was eaten and enjoyed, the second half frozen for some other meal in the future. The second eggplant is being fermented to enjoy on a pickle plate or on a salad.
The eggplant ferment needs a smaller jar. Off to the basement to see what is available. Not everyone can grow their own, but we can all make an effort to support what is local, to support the farmer’s you can get to know.
My Facebook memory posts for the past week have shown baskets of goodies from the garden, canning of berry jams, pickles, and other staples. We got peas from the early garden, but not nearly as many as last year for the freezer. I pick beans every couple of days, but only a couple hands full at a time so not as many of them going in the freezer. Some of my peppers aren’t any larger than the day they were planted and two died. There are two in pots in the herb garden that are doing great though. One bell pepper in the garden has a green pepper on it, it is a red variety, so I hope it will continue to mature and ripen. A couple of the hot peppers have started to get some size and I see flowers and the beginnings of tiny peppers. They will thrive when the weather cools some.
This was a gardener’s mistake. Using the Square Foot technique and Florida trellis system, I thought I could put 3 ground cherries, 3 bush cucumbers, 3 tomatillos, and 3 Cilantro plants in a 4 by 6 foot bed. I’ve only harvested two cucumbers.
The ground cherries don’t like to be trellised and have sprawled everywhere, the cucumbers are vining outward into the comfrey and the bed where I pulled the onions, and I can’t stay on top of trellising the tomatillos which are full of fruit and blooms. The cilantro was forgotten in the jungle and is about to set seed, so I guess I should pull it as I use very little coriander and I don’t want it to self seed there.
The popcorn and bush Hubbard squash are thriving while the cabbage worms are doing in the kale and cabbage at the end of that bed.
More of the pullets are laying each day and a few of them are getting some decent size on them. The two hens in with them layed 14 eggs in 9 days, today a total of 7 pullet eggs and 1 hen egg in the coop. The six mature hens in the Palace have produced only 11 eggs in the same 9 days total. It is frustrating to feed them pounds of feed each day and get nothing in return.
The bean beetles are devouring the bean leaves, the second planting has all germinated and not quite as densely planted. Maybe a third planting will go in where the onions were, if I can get the cucumbers to redirect up the path.
Though my beds that I made are nice and sturdy, there aren’t enough wood chips in the paths to keep the grass and weeds out. The new asparagus bed did not produce a single sprout, I think the crowns from Home Depot may have been old and dried out. The old bed is still thick with the ferns. I will make another attempt in late fall or early spring to move some of them to the new bed and try to finish digging the old bed out. It will likely mean no or few asparagus next year.
I need to seek out a load or two of wood chips and hire a teenage grandson to help me spread them several inches thick on the paths.
The walled garden is filling in nicely with the perennials that I planted there, but I am going to have to remove or at least thin the comfrey or it is going to take over and choke out some of the other plants. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to remove once planted.
The cultivated berries are drying on the canes as fast as they develop. Though we are getting pop up showers frequently, it isn’t putting enough water in the ground. I will go to a local pick your own berries farm to put some in the freezer, probably not making much jam as I eat very little of it. The tomatoes and tomatillos as they begin to ripen will be put in bags in the freezer until there are enough to make a batch of sauce or salsa. There are many green tomatoes and the plum tomatoes are beginning to ripen. Since I planted determinate varieties this year, they will all ripen about the same time and when they do, the kitchen will become a sauce factory. With Son 1 and DIL having their own nice gardens now and a freezer for storage, I won’t need to can quite as much for the two of us.
I think I am going to be overwhelmed with apples, pears, and the first peaches and as we don’t eat cobblers or fruit pies and there is only so much applesauce and pear sauce we can consume, there may be lots of fruit fall for the deer.
I haven’t done any living history since March, but next weekend, an opportunity is there. Saturday is at Wilderness Road Regional Museum, and Sunday will be small group tours of Ingles Tavern at Ingles Ferry (the Ingles of Mary Draper Ingles fame) by reservation. I can’t do both and will do the Sunday at Ingles Tavern, not taking a wheel, just a basket of fluff, my tools, and a couple of spindles. I can sit in the shade of one of the huge trees or walk around and spin while groups come and go.
Conversation about this opportunity also initiated discussion about doing a class of some sort at the museum. As I have already done salve making, and spinning, we will offer an old fashioned lard soap class to be taught by me at the museum on August 12 from 5:30-7. Information will be forthcoming on their Facebook page and website. There will be a small cost to cover materials, but you will go home with a bar of soap and the museum will have soap to sell once it cures.
After such a dry spell of not doing any of these activities, I love that this has presented itself to go along with the Heritage Day sponsored by Montgomery Museum on August 21, where I will demonstrate spinning on spindles and a wheel as well as vend, and the following weekend getting to go to a fiber retreat, visit with friends, spin, socialize, and set up a table of items to vend.
In the meantime, I’m finishing up a square for my blanket, not a wool I want close to my skin, so definitely not on an edge. I love when I finally have enough stitches to knit it on to a 16″ needle instead of doing magic loop on a 32″ needle.
And I gave up on the mitts, frogged them and am using that yarn to knit a small shawl.
I will get back to mitts using finer yarn and a single ball, it was getting so tangled I made an error that wasn’t worth the effort to try to fix since I only had about 2″ of the mitts done.
The Tour de Fleece challenge ends today with final posts due by Tuesday morning, mine is already in and tomorrow we start a mini challenge to go through the end of July. I have 8 beautiful ounces of Falklands wool, I will begin a spin on it with one of my Jenkins spindles to finish out the month, maybe be able to use it during August, and it will go with me to the retreat. I don’t want to use it for the demonstrations as it is a dyed braid and I generally use natural colored wools for demonstrations and washed locks if I am going to card or comb as part of the event.
On an unrelated side note. When I went to gather eggs this afternoon, I checked the potato patch and dug up 4 medium egg sized Kennebeck potatoes that were roasted with rainbow carrots, kohlrabi, and chicken breasts for dinner. It looks like it is about time to dig that bed and store some spuds for good eating. I also bought a couple of pounds of red beets at the Farmer’s Market yesterday and boiled them to have the first of the season beets. I don’t know why I don’t grow them myself.
I began making soap many years ago after a friend who makes great soaps offered to teach me. Have I thanked you lately, Cat? A great afternoon spent and a batch of soap to keep along with some of the necessary tools and a new skill came home with me that day. I subsequently have taught a few other folks to make soap and make sure they go home with some supplies, a batch of soap, and a new skill. I can’t count how many batches I have made at this point, but it is in the dozens. For the past three days, I have made two batches a day. I limited it to two because I wanted to use the loaf molds, not wanting to spoon soap batter into shaped molds, so I was having to wait 24 hours to unmold, wash the molds, dry them, then make two more batches. I have only had a few epic failures, one when I forgot and measured by volume instead of weight, one when I used ground cinnamon as a colorant and the soap seized, and one of yesterday’s batches for unknown reasons.
Five successful batches curing in the guest room.One epic fail, no that isn’t french toast in syrup.
I could tell that this batch wasn’t quite right as it took forever to come to trace and even then, the consistency was off. It was a batch of Goatmilk, Oatmeal, and Honey soap. I know the goatmilk powder was old, but used it as I didn’t have any fresh milk (I have used the powder before), maybe the match between the temperature of the oil and caustic liquid were off. Whatever the reason, this batch separated and is still caustic. The container will be well wrapped in newspaper, double bagged, and disposed of, it is unsalvagable. If I want a batch of that type of soap, I will have to purchase more goatmilk. I wish I had checked it before we went to the Farmer’s Market.
All the equipment has been cleaned up to store away, it may come back out if I can get some goat milk. The equipment sits out overnight so the next day I am cleaning up soap, not caustic soap batter. It is easier on the hands and the septic system to do it that way. There are two pots, the immersion blender, a couple of plastic scrapers that get wiped down with newpaper or paper towels and allowed to saponify overnight.
Day before yesterday, I noticed the onion tops were folding down so the onions were pulled and left on the soil surface overnight. Yesterday, pop up storms were forecast, so the onions were gathered and brought into the garage to finish curing. It was a nice mix of red and yellow onions, some as large as softballs, some barely larger than the bulbs that were planted, two that were showing some stem rot were peeled, cut, and used in two subsequent dinners. Yesterday also produced the first two cucumbers. I guess pickle making will occur soon. Last year I made so many fermented and refrigerator pickles that the weight of the jars, broke the 13 year old support glides that hold the produce bin in the refrigerator. That part was ordered and I replaced it, but I guess this year, most of the pickles will be canned so they are shelf stable to keep the weight off the refrigerator shelves.
As soon as all of the stems have dried and the skins have papered, these will be moved to the basement shelves to join the garlic that was spread on the hardware cloth shelf down there yesterday.
When I began raising a few chickens for our eggs, I started with too many and ended up with a lot of randy young males, thus learning that “freezer camp” was the solution. I kept one young rooster so we could maintain a sustainable flock without having to purchase chicks and I banded their legs so we could keep track of ages with the idea of never keeping more than a dozen birds at a time. A few years ago, after having several batches of chicks hatch and all of them falling victim to predators of some sort, some as tiny chicks, some as “teenagers”, I decided to just keep females and replace them every two or three years as their egg production dropped. This was the year to replace them and “all” pullet chicks were purchased in February. By May, it was clear that two of the pullets, the two Oliver eggers were roos, not pullets. I enjoy the female birds, most are friendly and the pullets are beginning to lay small colorful eggs now, but the two young roosters are driving me crazy. A crowing rooster first thing in the morning doesn’t bother me, these two compete all day long every day. I’m ready for them to be gone. They are beautiful birds, but oh so annoying. When the pullets were reaching the point where I thought they would begin to lay eggs, I put two of the mature hens in with them to help teach them where to lay each day. When freezer camp time occurs soon, I have to get them back out of the coop and into the Palace with the roosters and other mature hens. I thought this would be easy, but they are also Olive eggers and in the coop at night, I can’t tell them apart from a couple of the Marans. They have green legs, but the Marans have black legs and they can’t be distinguished by flashlight, both have black feathers, and some of the Marans have the gold necklace. This may be a challenge, but the coop really isn’t large enough for 15 birds. It really isn’t large enough for the 13 pullets.
Events start up in August, two of them within a week. Trying to get goods for my shop prepared requires beginning early as soap takes a month to 6 weeks to fully cure and it takes time to spin and knit items. My focus in the first half of the year has been on spinning challenges and not a lot of items have been knit, a mini shawl here, a hat there. This month’s theme was to challenge ourselves to spin, ply, and create an item. To challenge myself, I learned a new technique called Ply on the Fly where you spin singles and ply immediately. Learning this produced a thicker yarn than I usually spin and ply, but it was perfect for knitting a hat. A bit of left over yarn from knitting blanket squares gave me enough to add a couple of stripes.
In my scrap bin, I uncovered most of three skeins from spinning for the Shave ‘Em 2 Save ‘Em event, parts of those skeins were used in my half hap shawl that I knit. Those three wools coordinated well, so I used them to knit a cowl.
And then divided what was left from them to knit mitts two at a time, so I am shuffling 6 balls of wool.
The past two days have also been spent making soap, a project that I have neglected since last November. Yesterday I made 20 bars, today, 20 more, and tomorrow, at least 10 more will be made, perhaps 20 more. Prices for the ingredients have increased dramatically. Some of the oils were provided by Son 1 and DIL in part in payment for soap I made for them and in part as a gift and that helps.
I have been striving to eliminate non biodegradable disposables in packaging my products. One of my favorite moisturizers is Cocoa Butter which because of it’s crumbly texture is difficult to use, but a bit of formulation experimentation, I came up with a lotion bar, but it still would crumble when it got thin. I found some cardboard tubes and created lotion tubes that apply like a deodorant stick and do not crumble.
Each tube holds 2 ounces and when used up, the tube is biodegradable.
With a supply of herbal salves, some yarn, and products being produced, I hope I will have enough to make a nice display. I will have to slow down my Breed Blanket square making and focus more on items for the shop. The blanket already has 31 squares which will make it 40 X 48″ and there are still 5 months so a minimum of 5 more squares to make. That would be a 48 X 48″ blanket even if I only make one a month.
We are in the period of summer where we can count on a pop up down pour sometime during the day. Thursday started out rainy with Elsa hopping by but cleared by afternoon for a very pleasant walk. Yesterday it rained in the morning, cleared for our walk, then clouded up and rained some again. Today was gorgeous, then it clouded and poured for half an hour. It is still gloomy and drizzling, but will probably end before dark. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday look like copies of today.
Before the day turned wet, a friend came over and we sat on the front porch for a few hours in the pleasant breeze and spun and knitted together. She had a couple new spindle to show me and let me try one, I had a couple new to me ones that she was going to take one home to play with. I demonstrated plying on the fly which I just learned for the month’s challenge and she taught me Norwegian purling. I expect we both will hit up You Tube in each other’s absence for more practice. It is so nice to be able to be with someone outside our home again. The only reason we were on the porch was because it was a beautiful day, not too hot, and with a breeze.
Last night I finished knitting a square for my blanket from the Helsinge wool that was sent to me with a spindle from Sweden. I love the variation in color and had hoped to get two square from it, but only got one with enough wool left over to add to a hat.
I’m now knitting a square from wool I finished at the end of last month and didn’t get it knit and spinning Navajo churro which is spinning fine, but is not a pleasant next to your skin wool and it has lots of coarse hairs from it’s double coat. It is typically used to make rope or in traditional Navajo blankets.
Today, since the hens have been locked in for a couple weeks and egg production had improved, I gave them free range time. The only egg I got was the one layed before I turned them loose. I guess I will search the spots around the house to see if they hid any. More of the pullets are beginning to lay, at least 5 of them are laying cute little eggs that take 3 to equal one hen egg. The Marans has darkened hers up and a tiny light brown pair appear. The Easter egger that lays the blue/green egg is beginning to have a decent sized one.
Mature Olive egg, Marans, Buff or NH Red, and Easter Egger.
I am toying with moving one more mature hen to the actual coop which will put 16 in there, 3 of them almost 3 years old before we send the rest of the old ladies and the two rowdy roos to freezer camp. Maybe the pullets are going to overwhelm me with eggs once they are all laying and I will regret adding to that coop, but those three aren’t producing a lot and they are pretty colors.
While my friend was here, I was demonstrating an exercise and ended up with an ouch. Something in my back behind my hip popped and now is sore walking on stairs or unlevel ground. No pain when not in motion, but lifting is also uncomfortable. I’ve been sitting on and off ice all afternoon. I guess I should take an NSAID too.
Our mid day walks are brutal with temperatures in the mid to upper 80’s, no breeze, and humidity that you can swallow. Working in the garden is equally unpleasant. Tomorrow is supposed to be pleasantly cool, but may rain.
When I went over this morning to let the pullets out, I noticed mature beans on the bush beans so grabbed the garden tub and went over to harvest so more will develop.
It is a start. We enjoyed some with dinner and about 5 meals for two were blanched and frozen. It was already too hot to want to be out there, but some weeding was done, the bolted lettuce pulled and tossed to the pullets. While I was out there, I heard the “egg song” and watched a young New Hampshire Red strut out of the coop. Until day before yesterday, only the two Easter Egger pullets were laying, one a green egg, the other blue. I found a tiny round, yolkless, thin shelled brown egg that had been laid beneath the coop day before yesterday, but today there were 4 pullet eggs. The two Easter Eggers, the NH Red, and a Marans.
The Marans egg is larger than the other three but she hasn’t gotten the dye machine mastered yet. It is light brown and chocolate brown both.
This afternoon as it clouded up, tempering the sun’s beating down, I tied up the tomatillos that are full of blooms and small fruit, and stirred up the surface of the bed that had peas in it, pulling the grass that was already forming. Just as I began to plant more bean seed in that bed, it began to rain, just enough to cool me off and soak my jeans that I had donned to use the line trimmer around the garden and in some of the paths. That job was done and the beans planted and the rain stopped. The sprinkler is on the garden now so the onions will fill out and the new beans will get watered in.
Last night, I finished spinning the first half of the Havre on the 9 g Finch. The little spindle has more than double it’s weight in spun yarn on it in the photo.
It looks much darker than it is as it was a nighttime photo under the table lamp. That ball was removed from the spindle and the second half spinning begun. When I finish it, I will wash it all at once and knit a square or two for the blanket.
It is definitely summer in the Virginia mountains. Hot as hades one day, cool the next. Rain that lasts minutes and dry spells that mean the grass doesn’t have to be mowed as often. I struggled to start the gas mower so I could mow the new grass and chop of the straw that mulched the seed til it grew, but I couldn’t get it going. After dinner, I succeeded and gave it a trim. I may need to gently rake the straw away or the maurading hens will dig it all up. They have been penned up for about 10 days now to let the grass grow and because I was frustrated with trying to find where they were laying their eggs. With them penned, I have been getting 3 of 4 nearly every day.
At 8 a.m., Grandson 1 was put on a bus home to get ready for his next adventure, his first away from home camp. He and his Dad messaged me when he arrived. That means readjusting to meal prep for two seniors instead of two seniors and a 16 year old boy that eats more than the two of us combined. It means our walks are a bit slower as we aren’t trying to keep up with his long legs and teenaged energy. It means doing the mowing and other chores on my own again. We do enjoy having him here, for his companionship and certainly for any labor he provides. It means hubby doesn’t have his Ping Pong competitor to harrass him into games twice a day.
He got our lawns mowed twice, on the “go cart” as he calls our riding mower, did Daughter’s twice with her AWD mower (while her teenager was visiting his other grandparents), helped me refill the huge hole that was dug to get the septic pumped, toting the 40+ pound bags of soil, mulch, and the animal feeds that were purchased during his visit. That area is now reseeded and grass growing except in the edged bed filled with large pots of blooming perennials to mark where to dig next time. He helped me make prestaining repairs to the chicken coop. We didn’t get the staining done or the deteriorated chicken tractor totally dismantled, but some fun had to be tossed in to his visit. There were a few walks and hikes, a bike ride, some basketball time, a pool visit, and a couple of cookouts at Daughter’s house, one with fireworks and S’mores. And lots of beating Granddad at Ping Pong.
In spite of activities with him, I managed to fulfill one of my spindle challenges and I’m working on the other. The “July” challenge actually coincides with the 18 days of Tour de France, so began in late June and ends in mid July. My challenge was to learn to ply on the fly (Ply at the same time you are spinning), instead of creating turtles or balls that are wrapped together then plied in a second effort. With that yarn, then create a finished project. I could have spun it and used it for blanket squares, but wanted to further challenge myself to get both done. The TdF yarn was thicker than I normally spin on spindles and it became a hat.
It ended up being about 56 g of yarn spun and 43 g of it went into the hat. I made two stripes of yarn left from blanket squares as I wasn’t sure I would have enough of the other.
Toward the end of May, I purchased a small spindle from a gal in Sweden. She mailed it promptly, but it sat in customs in the US for the month of June, arriving here finally on July 1. She packed the spindle in enough Havre wool for me to make a blanket square, which was such a nice surprise and wonderful gesture. She had seen a blog post where I mentioned the Breed Blanket. She had washed the fleece herself.
When I finished the hat, I began combing and carding the box of wool, making rolags to spin. In the past two days, I have continued the Ply on the Fly with the Havre, getting it fine enough for a blanket square and have spun 11 g of it on the tiny 9g Finch spindle in which it was packed.
As soon as there is enough spun, I will wash the yarn and knit a special square for the blanket. Thank you, Lisa. With much of the month of July remaining, all of that wool will be spun and knit, then I will move on to a second breed of Navajo Churro that arrived in a trade for some wool that I had too much of. I love these groups. They are great social contacts, enablers to keep spinning, and provide challenges to keep me active in that skill.
Cabin Crafted 