Author: Cabincrafted1

Spinning, not the exercise class

I have been spinning fiber for about 4 years now, starting with a drop spindle and switching to a wheel a couple of years ago. My first wheel was a restored Ashford Traditional that I bought from a friend who had restored it and learned on it and then won a new wheel. I learned on it, using it for a bit more than a year, sold it to mutual friend who is a fellow knitter that wants to learn to spin. When I sold it, I bought an Ashford Kiwi 2 as I wanted a double treadle wheel and used it for nearly a year and sold it to get a wheel that travels better for going to spinning group and for taking when I go to spend a week babysitting with a grand. My new wheel which I have only had for a few weeks is a brand new Kromski Sonata. Getting the new wheel inspired me to work through some of the fiber I had collected and have made undyed Shetland wool yarn that is for sale at Greenberry House (www.greenberryhouse.com) in Meadows of Dan. Then I finished 3 ounces of Merino, spun for a friend.

As spinning is going well, I decided that I was ready to start expanding the yarn making process and wanted to mix some of the Alpaca fleece that I have with some wool that I have, so I bought a set of hand carders from Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. (http://www.strauchfiber.com/) as she is a spinner in the group to which I belong. I have started blending the Caramel colored Alpaca with a light and dark Blue Faced Leicester wool.

Today Jim and I took off for a drive and ended up at Olde Liberty Fiber Faire (http://www.olfibrefaire.com/). From that I came home with a big red cloud of hand carded Tunis wool and a bag of dark colored Finn X Jacob to spin and a small pot of garnet red dye to try my hand at dyeing my own yarn.

Once I feel that I have a good handle on these skills, my goal is to buy a whole raw fleece, wash it and hand card the locks for spinning into yarn to dye.

I’m sure Jim would have rather spent the day wandering around the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Fest that we passed and watched literally hundreds of motorcyclist headed in that direction, but he spent the day with me.

Tomorrow, my wheel, hand carders, a suitcase packed with clothing, yarn and fiber are headed off for a week of babysitting in Northern Virginia while he stays home and critter sits the 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 20 chickens. I am leaving him with homemade stew, chili, and goulash so he doesn’t have to eat out each night.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm, and off of it when we take a day trip.

April 12, 2014
A Moment from the Week

Warm breezes,

Blue sky,

Dogs playing,

Perfect day to sit and read on the porch.

April 11, 2014
A Tale of a Lone Hen Protector

During his sleep last night, the lone hen protector had a terrible dream. Cogburn ruffled in his dream, but couldn’t awaken enough to figure out what was going on. In his dream, one at a time, his ladies were disappearing, until there were only three. But he knew he had nine, what on earth was going on. When he awoke this morning, he was startled to see that it wasn’t a dream at all, his coop only contained three of his ladies and a new wooden structure that obstructed part of his kingdom’s perches. He crowed mightily, hoping that the aliens that had abducted his ladies would return them.

Once the tall lady came out to let him out of his coop and give him food and water, he was even more distraught as the aliens had returned his ladies, but alas, he couldn’t get to them. How was he going to protect them from the shadows in the sky?

Then to make matters worse for him, that tall lady crawled into the coop with strange and noisy objects in her hands that didn’t look like food to him and she made lots of noise and commotion in his castle. When she was done, ten small noisy creatures invaded his castle, but he couldn’t get to them. What had happened? Some nearly invisible force field prevented him from surveying his domain and chasing those interlopers away. His beautiful queenly lady that lays the green eggs entered to survey the situation as well, she has always been a curious sort and as the tall lady had piled deep new hay under her perch, she made a nest, but the tall lady kept fussing at her and finally stirred up the nest she had carefully arranged. When the tall lady stirred up the nest, she was in the coop and this upset her king.

Since his kingdom seemed to be totally disrupted and this tall lady seemed to have something to do with it, he decided it was his noble duty to attack her, but when he rose to strike, she raised this long hard object and pushed him firmly away. Being rebuffed and defeated, he decided the only thing he could do was crow at her until she left.

It bothers him greatly that his other ladies seem to be doing fine without him in the other castle, they are even giving the tall lady their daily gems in the new and foreign nests she built for them. What’s a king to do?

April 10, 2014
Moving Days

We have a streak of warm days and mild nights ahead and the chicklets have gotten way too big for the brooder. They are able to cope in the garage without a heat lamp now and get absolutely frisky if taken out in the sun or on a really warm day. They clearly need more space before they start pecking each other. I hung a “Baby Block” toy/feeder in their brooder to try to help and put two perches in there, but they need more room.

They can foul that cage is less than a day. Preparations were made today to do some moving around.

The coop is 4 X 8 feet inside, discounting the 6 nesting boxes attached to the outside of one wall. Since the plan is to leave only the 2 Buff Orpington hens and the 1 Americana hen and possibly Cogburn, but I am leaning toward removing him as well, I have created a divider that will give the 10 chicks 2/3 of the coop and the 3 hens will have 1/3 with 2 nesting boxes for nighttime and egg laying. After they all go to bed tonight, Jim and I will remove the other 6 hens and Cogburn, maybe to the chicken tractor and temporary run.

This is going to stir things up in the pecking order. I installed two nesting boxes in the chicken tractor today, but I anticipate the girls going on strike and either not laying for a while or laying their eggs on the ground. After the coop is opened tomorrow and the remaining 3 hens go out to eat and drink, I will use the staple gun to erect plastic poultry fencing over the new framing and to close off the 4 remaining nesting boxes and the chicks will be moved into the coop. They will be able to see the hens, but for now, they won’t be able to leave the coop. After a few more weeks and some growth, I will make a passageway for them to leave the coop, but scoot back to safety if feeling threatened. For a while, they will have food and water in the coop with them. Once they are large enough to share the coop and run with the big girls, the netting and framing will be removed and they will share the coop. My goal is for the hens to sit eggs for future chicks, but that will either mean keeping Cogburn or another rooster, or buying fertilized eggs and slipping them under a broody hen for hatching. I’ll have to make that decision before eldest son comes in late summer to put the hens in freezer camp.

April 9, 2014
Pet Peeves
- To place an order in a restaurant and have the server come back later and tell you what you ordered is not available while your table mate’s order has been started.
- Having the driver in front of you change lanes without a signal, or worse, go from the left lane to the off ramp with no signal right in front of you.
- Automated voice services on all business phone numbers with no clue how to reach a real voice.
- Waiting in a bank for the next banker (not teller) and have the banker walk by and say they will be with you in a moment, then minutes later, walk by you and out of the bank to lunch while you still wait.
- In a store, find the item you want in short supply on the shelf, ask the clerk to check for more, find out there is plenty in the stockroom, but the stockroom clerk informing you that they won’t help you and to come back the next day.
- Sticky foods like peanut butter packed in jars with shoulders so you can’t get it all out or clean the empty container.
Did I experience one or more of these in the past day or two, of course? Are there more, oh yeah? What are your pet peeves.
April 8, 2014
On a Spinning Roll

I’m on a roll. In the past couple of days, I’ve spun 185 yards of natural white Shetland wool. The yarn weight is DK to Sport weight depending on which chart I use, it is 12 WPI (wraps per inch). As I want both skeins to be 100 yards, I am spinning the last 2 ounces of the Shetland. Anything that is left after skeining them, will go to my Funky Fiber skein that will eventually be a throw for cold nights.

This is the first 100 yard, 75 g skein, waiting for a wash.

Part of the last two ounces on the wheel.

The growing Funky Fun skein of various fibers and colors.

The hours spinning have cut into knitting and reading time. I have been on the same book for over a week and progress on my shawl seems to only happen when we are in the car. Even retired, there just aren’t enough hours to do all the fun things that I want to do.

April 7, 2014
Spring has come to the mountains, finally!

We are enjoying mountain spring at last. Days that are mild enough for long sleeves or a light sweater, nights still cold enough for a coat, but signs abound that Old Man Winter has finally moved south, way south.

Peach blossoms and green grass.

Garlic growing in the garden beds.

On one of my surveys of the outside of the house, I have found many Preying Mantis egg cases, two on one of the spent deck plants from last year.

They will be carefully cut off and placed in the new plants on the deck and we will try to catch the day they begin to emerge. It is interesting to watch the tiny 1/2″ long critters creeping around on the plant leaves.

Sunshine today and though it is only in the mid 50s outside, the 4 week old chicks got some sun time.

They are just past the dinosaur stage and look to have nearly all of their feathers. When out in the sun, they jump and flap, chase each other around the water trough that was their brooder. Today they went back into one of the wire dog kennels, but this time in the garage as they kept tipping the water and spilling it into the trough and the pine shavings were getting too soggy too quickly.

Tomorrow we are expecting heavy rain most all day, so Jim and I will go to the lumber yard and purchase the wood and a roll of chicken wire to create a coop divide. By the end of the week, the chicks will occupy half of the coop, perhaps still with a heat lamp for another week or so and the other half of the coop will be the two Buff Orpington hens and the Americana hen. Cogburn and the rest of his harem will be moved at night into the temporary pen and chicken tractor, tricked out with a new nesting box to keep them separate from the chicks and to isolate them until the day in July or August when they will be permanently removed from the flock.

After a few weeks of adjustment and a bit more size, the coop divider will be removed and the chicks will have to learn the pecking order with the three hens that we will be keeping.

April 6, 2014
Rest and crafting

Yesterday was a rainy damp day, still warm, but too wet to do much outdoors. In the late morning we drove over to the Blue Ridge Parkway and south to Meadows of Dan. The outing had two purposes, one to see the renovation progress on Mabry Mill, where they have done some repair on the holding pond, rebuilt the old mill wheel and are repairing the sluiceway to the mill. This is a favorite spot for us to take visitors, the mill is scenic, in fact, several communities throughout the USA use the picture on their postcards which is amusing. There is a blacksmith, a carpenter that makes ladderback chairs and other objects, a tiny cabin filled with looms and spinning wheels, walking paths along the creek through Rhododendron thickets and other native plants. The grandchildren love to drive over for part of a day. The visitor center displays local crafts and sells buckwheat flour, corn meal, and corn grits in commemorative cloth bags. Each fall, we drive over before they close for the winter and I supply our pantry with these products, sold very reasonably and milled locally.

This is a prior trip much later in the summer and with a grand helping to do a Flat Stanley shoot.

The other reason for our venture was to take a small supply of my handspun yarn to Greenberry House, a delightful yarn and gift shop in Meadows of Dan to be sold with her other handspun yarn. She will be selling some of my yarn in her shop. She sells mostly local handspun yarn, fleeces and rovings, with just a bit of superwash or acrylic commercial yarn for local charity knitters. The gift shop has local handthrown pottery, canned jams and preserves, jewelry, handmade glasses cases and other fabric items, and a few old collectibles. The shop is convenient to pop off of the parkway. The town also has the Poor Farmer’s Market with more gifts, fresh produce, local cheese and butter, and the biggest display of Lodge Cast Iron cookware I have ever seen as well as a deli counter where you can get sandwiches and cold drinks. There are a couple of restaurants and several other shops as well. It is a good stopping place if you are traveling the Parkway.

The adventure got my creative juices flowing and when we arrived back home, I spun almost a full bobbin of a very fine single of Shetland wool, natural white. Once I have two bobbins of it, I will ply it, measure and decide if it is going to stay natural white of dye it. Perhaps it will be knit into a gift or set aside to be taken to Greenberry House for sale.

My car knitting and break from spinning knitting is a shawl. The edge pattern is from Lola Shawl by Carrie Bostick Hoge in Issue 9 of “taproot” magazine, one of my favorites and one of only two to which I subscribe. Her shawl pattern is a triangle and out of worsted weight yarn, I don’t like the way it ripples around the neck and shoulders, so I am modifying it to make a squared shawl using 6 stitch increase every other row and will use her leaf pattern border at the bottom. I prefer a shawl/scarf that does not have to be pinned or held to keep it on. The yarn is Quince and Co., Lark, the color is Cypress.

Today is sunny and a bit cooler. There are a few things to be done outside, but at least a couple of hours will be spent with friends at Green Dragon Yarns, knitting and socializing and maybe buying some more fiber to spin.

April 5, 2014
A Moment from the Week

The real harbinger of spring in the mountains, Forsythia and greening grass.

April 4, 2014
Sore Muscles, Stink buds, Silly puppies and Showers

Our beautiful 3 days are over and rain is expected for the next two days followed by cooler weather for a week, maybe winter cold weather. It is probably good that it is too wet to work outdoors today, my sore achy muscles need a recovery period. Though we have a treadmill and hand weights in the basement rec room, I am much too sedentary during the cold months, enjoying walks in the snow or on a crisp clear day, but certainly not getting the exercise that I get during the growing season.

We have had the chickens for just over a year now and it has been about a year since we put the coop in place, unleveled and poorly fenced. Late last spring, eldest son came to do some work with us and he helped me level the coop the best we could using car jacks and a 6 foot pry bar to raise it up on blocks. The fencing has evolved from a small square of poorly erected garden fence to the present design of a much larger rectangle with 4 foot wide runs that extend down two sides of the garden, forming a large L at the end of the rectangle, welded wire fence on heavy T posts. After the coop was in place, I saw a design that ran a 3 foot wide run all the way around a garden with the coop and the compost bins at one edge. Unfortunately, the coop couldn’t be placed where that would work at the time and now that the area is leveled near the bins, the coop can’t be moved, so it will have to be as it is, though that design also serves to keep deer out of the garden.

Every fall we are invaded by these nasty pests and a few wasps. They manage to get inside in spite of the windows being shut and locked and all winter I capture and destroy them until I think that most are gone, then April arrives and they crawl out from under window sills, behind baseboards and who know where else and again we are over run. They are a major pest in SW Virginia and seem to be getting worse. You can’t squash them and vacuuming them can only be done with a vacuum with a disposable bag as they live up to their name, Stink bug. Last night I must have captured at least 20 and several more this morning. They don’t fare well in soapy water and can easily be knocked into a paper cup of it to be flushed away. They are an invasive species and seem to have no natural predators here.

This is our 210 pound puppy’s favorite position. His breeder says that his father does the same thing. Such a silly dog. Surprisingly, the German Shepherd in the background chose to gnaw on a bone instead of attacking him as she usually does when he rolls over like this and she can get the upper hand.

Today is going to be a quiet day of rest and recovery. The dog hair needs to be vacuumed, but other than that I am going to read, go to my spinning group and fix dinner. After 3 long days of hard labor, I think that is enough.

April 3, 2014