Cabin Crafted

Category: Fiber Arts and Equipment

  • Time to uncoop

    It has been 6 weeks since our self isolation began, since we have been able to sit with and hug our kids and grands. This week, I was supposed to demonstrate at the museum for classes from one of the local schools. In a week, we were supposed to go to 2 plays at the American Shakespeare Center with Son 1 and family and bring eldest grand back for a weekend basketball camp. In two weeks we were supposed to take 3 of the grands to Great Wolf Lodge for two nights, their Christmas gift from us. None of that will happen. Nor did the trip to see Son 2 and his family, including our youngest grandson who we haven’t been able to meet, but we did get an adorable photo of him with two of his sisters.

    Very little additional work has been done on the garden since digging up the mint. I hoped that the Carolina Wren would return to her two remaining eggs, but she has not, so when we have a day that isn’t raining or under wind advisories, I will finish weeding the box she was in, work more on the mint that is popping up everywhere there was a piece of root left, and dig out the area for the corn and climbing beans. We are still about 3 weeks from last frost date and we had a frost Sunday morning that nearly did the begonias in because I didn’t cover them. It also damaged all the asparagus tips that were up and made them inedible. There are more sprouting, so a few days from now, they can be harvested if it doesn’t freeze again. It is supposed to be cold tonight, but not cold enough for frost and we have a wind advisory again. I tucked the begonias up against the house and covered them with a beach towel.

    The dogwoods on the mountain are blooming and seeing them and the elderberry flowers on my walks is a pleasure.

    The hummingbirds are here and frequenting the feeder in the front. A red bellied woodpecker has started feeding on the suet cake hung with the feeders in the back. Compared to the tiny songbirds, it looks huge, though I know they are only a medium sized woodpecker. I’m still not hearing the owls at night which is a spring and summer pleasure.

    When I’m not cooking or baking, I am spinning on the spindles. Working to get enough spindle spun yarn to knit a sweater for me. It slows my production by not using the wheel. The tiny Kuchulu turkish spindle by Ed Jenkins is my favorite to play with, but I can only get about 42 yards of yarn per cop on it.

    Kuchulu in front is about 2″ diameter, the middle one is a Lark, the back one a Wren and they are both about 4″ diameter.
    My isolation mini skein collection.
    The shawl is coming along when I knit. I am on the second skein and not until I uploaded this did I realize how neutral the colors were.

    I worry about the small local businesses that have had to be closed and whether they will ever be able to reopen, but also worry that reopening while the virus is still spreading will just cause a surge of cases and more deaths. It is a frightening time.

  • Today’s Walk

    Today was a glorious spring day. Tomorrow is wet and cooler again, then we warm up to spring for a while. Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, I transplanted the Calendula seedlings, some in the bed with the volunteers, some in a big pot on the deck. Also the Echinachea was given a partial bed and some in the same big pot. A few sprinkles of marigold seed were added to the pot and one of the flower beds. I want flowers, lots of flowers to brighten our days. It is still way too early to move the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos out to the garden, but the spinach starts were added to one of the half barrels that have lettuce, radishes, and Chinese cabbages in them. There are a few other spinach plants that were direct seeded in one of the beds with peas, but most of them became victims of the hens the first time they got in the garden.

    Since dinner out isn’t an option anymore and since Eat’s Natural Food Store, one of my favorite local businesses, is providing email ordering and curbside pick up, I resupplied on Yogurt, nuts, herbs, and a selection of Mediterranean goodies like olives, hummus, Dolmas, and Feta. Tomorrow I will make Pita bread and we will have Greek salads and hummus with Pita for dinner. Since I don’t have to cook any of it except the Pita, it is almost like dinner out.

    This evening, before the rain and wind resume, I wandered our hills again. Each adventure out has something new to see. I could hear one of the neighbor’s cows bawling well away from the road and spotted 3 of the spring calves trotting in her direction. I didn’t get a photo of them today. The recent wind had brought down a dead limb that the woodpeckers had really worked over.

    When we had our perk test done for our septic during pre-construction, the soil scientist told us that we had really good soil because we were on the leading edge of an alluvial field from the last ice age. When you walk our road, you can see evidence of it in the huge scattered, eroded rocks.

    On our way home from the grocery pick up, we drove across the top of our field to see how the grass for hay is coming along. It is so emerald green now. It will sprout seed heads which will brown off before it is mowed and it will either green up again if we have rain or remain brown for the rest of the summer. This is looking west back toward the orchard, coop, and house.

    One of the bluebirds was visiting the feeders this evening.

    I was hopeful that they got one of the nesting boxes by the garden, but it appears that both are occupied by tree swallows again. On the hillside in the distance, you can see the trees beginning to leaf out, and the very green shrub in the rock pile directly behind the bluebird is Autumn Olive. It is an invasive shrub that was deliberately introduced to the state as an ornamental shrub for landscaping. You can’t kill it my cutting it down, it has to be pulled up by the roots. On my way out to walk, I started the tractor for the first time this spring. If I can get a pin for the hitch, I will use a long piece of chain that we have to wrap around some of them and pull them up this spring. They can be burned after they dry and the hay has been mowed.

    Whenever we go out away from home, not often recently, but I always carry with me a small knitting project or a drop spindle. My favorite one to take is one of my newer ones, the diminutive 2″ spindle in my last post. Because it is so small and fragile, I worry about breaking it, and today, I emptied a small 3″ diameter by 3″ tall round tin that had tea in it. It is the perfect size to fit the spindle and a couple ounces of fiber and is protected in my bag in the car.

    My spring walks are improving my stamina. The road is not flat and the hills are not gentle. When I started earlier this spring, I would have to stop and catch my breath a couple times. I still slow down on the steepest part on the way back home, but I no longer stop.

    Until we visit again. Goodnight from the mountains.

  • Self sufficiency to frustration

    My brother, after reading about our dryer issues, did some research on a possible quick fix. I was willing to try it, so the dryer was pulled out, unplugged, and the grime that built up under it vacuumed and wiped away. The vent hose was unhooked to pull it out farther and the access port opened on the side. It got a thorough vacuuming inside, but the reset button in the video wasn’t there. Oh well, it is now clean. The vent hose was cleaned out and reattached, it was plugged back in and I had to use the side of the washing machine and the log wall to monkey climb back out. The rack dried clothing from yesterday, though washed and air dried, still had a lot of dog hair on it. I guess the dryer does more than dry the clothes. I tossed hubby’s undies, tees, and socks in the dryer with a slightly damp kitchen towel to try to soften them up and remove hair, and jostling the dryer around must have done something because the clothes were warm when I opened the door.

    Before I tackled that job, I tried to put the new belt on the riding mower. There is a nice diagram to show how each pulley interacts with the belt. The belt was removed from the cardboard sleeve and it didn’t want to straighten out. It was twisted in thirds and so stiff. Back in the house to Google how to deal with that and back out to fight with it more, since Google was not helpful. It told me how to put it on, but not how to relax the tight bends from it’s packaging. I got the belt on the deck pulleys, but can’t get it around the engine pulley. I guess I’m going to beg the neighbor’s help and keep my social distance.

    Tried to get the gas mower started to mow around the edges in the meantime, but no go on that either. I’m afraid to even try the weed wacker. I guess I should have taken all three pieces of equipment to the shop last fall, but I didn’t. The dryer will require a call in if it quits heating again. But not until this virus subsides.

    There was a time in my life when these little frustrations drove me to a solution, but somethings just require help.

    Since I can’t mow and it is too windy to garden again, I have spent a lot of quality time with my spindles.

    The weekend is nice, maybe one of the mowers will be working and the wind will die down enough to work in the garden.

  • Rain and chill

    The porch thermometer showed 47 f (8.33 c) when I got up this morning. In the damp, it felt colder. It is down to 40 f (4.44 c) by late afternoon. It was 85 f (29.44) on Sunday, quite a difference. And it rained all day long. As I was putting the finishing touches on dinner, there were snowflakes mixed in with the rain. It isn’t supposed to freeze tonight so I am not bringing in any plants.

    When I was a kid, on cold, usually snowy days, Mom would make vegetable beef soup. I remember lots of cans being opened, but it was comfort food on a cold day. This morning called for hot soup tonight. As I have become the master of extending a small amount of meat to multiple meals, I pulled about a half pound of stew beef from the freezer, thawed and seared it in hot oil, threw in a handful of chopped onion, celery that I had chopped and frozen, some fresh parsley that I had frozen, a pint of homemade broth, water, and a boullion cube and set it to simmer around noon. At the same time, I mixed up the dough for another artisan loaf, this one full of rosemary and left it to rise. As the afternoon when on, checks on the simmering stock and beef and how the bread was rising were made. Mid afternoon, a couple handfuls of Pequino beans (a small red heritage bean) were tossed in to cook and finally chopped potatoes, carrots, some frozen corn, peas, and green beans added and allowed to simmer for another hour. During that hour, the pizza stone was preheated as the oven heated to 550 f and the bread folded a few times and allowed a second rise and bake. The aromas in the house were delightful.

    A hearty, belly warming meal with half a loaf of bread and 2 quarts of soup left for lunches in the coming days. It looks like we are going to go through slightly more than two loaves a week plus some buns while we stay at home. I hope the flour holds out.

    The day between food prep was spent spinning on three of the Turkish spindles. A different fiber on each.

    When I went to the fiber retreat in late February, I got two skeins of lovely yarn from the hostess. It is a blend of her goats’ mohair and wool. Last night I started a curved asymmetrical shawl and though I went up a needle size from the recommended, it still feels like too dense a fabric for my taste. I am debating continuing or ripping it out and finding a different pattern for the yarn.

    It is very soft, so I may just keep going. Tomorrow is a repeat of today as far as weather, then it starts another warm up and a few dry days so maybe more of the garden will get prepped for planting in a month of so.

    Daughter brought over the belt for the broken riding mower and some chicken and household supplies she had picked up for us. We stood across the garage and talked for a little while and it was so hard not to go give her a huge hug. She is working from home and her kids are at home due to closed schools, but their Dad is still going on site to work and comes to see the kids, so being around them is not possible for now. Tomorrow, I will put on gloves, sanitize what needs to come inside, put the chicken feed in lidded buckets and go through the strip and wash routine again so that neither of us get sick. Nothing she brought is perishable.

  • A few days ago, I posted about the feeding station for the birds. This morning when I entered the kitchen and looked out, it wasn’t there. Upon closer examination, the pole was pulled over, the feeders emptied and some minor damage. It doesn’t look like the doings of a bear, but probably a raccoon climbed the pole and was too heavy toppling it. All the sunflower seed and the new suet cake were gone, the suet cage bent and the lid ripped off. The pole was stood back up and anchored with rocks as the fork like prongs that stabilize it in the soil are bent, the feeders cleaned up, repaired, and refilled. I guess one of my new evening duties is going to be to go out and gather the feeders and bring them in to the garage for the night from now on.

    Yesterday afternoon, I did go out to work on the fencing and realized that it is too much for me to do by myself, so instead, I finished rebuilding the garden boxes. Several years ago, I purchased cedar raised bed boxes from Home Depot. The box assembly as a grooved post and the boards fit in the grooves. That assembly did not hold up well. I have been taking them apart, and using outdoor deck screws, fastening the boards to the outside of the post, making the boxes slightly smaller but sturdier. One box needs leveling before I can finish filling them with compost to planting. If I ever succeed in getting rid of the mint that I foolishly planted in one several years ago, there will be a blank spot in the garden as I removed that box to make mint removal easier. The box failed to contain the mints and mint is in the aisles and beginning to appear in adjacent boxes. Lesson learned.

    The area to the right of the lowest box and barrels will be a corn patch. I rarely plant corn unless it is popcorn in a three sisters garden, but decided to try some sweet corn this year.

    The peas are coming up nicely, I am happy to see. Still no sign of spinach and the flat started in the house several days ago is also not germinating, it might be a poor batch of seed.

    With the warmth comes the Carpenter bees. I had left the traps up overwinter and dumped the contents early this week. They are already filling up. We don’t usually see them until mid May. This is indeed a weird year for the climate.

    As the day cooled and the sun was low, I took my walk down our rural road. Nothing new to see, the calves were not where I could see them from the road, but I did find a branch with many shelf fungi on it.

    Once dark has fallen, I retire to my easy chair and knit or spin. My current project is a lacy skinny scarf out of hand spun wool and silk for my daughter. It was in my lap along with my needle case and I realized that they nicely coordinated.

    I am determined to get at least one run of fence between the chicken pen and the garden stable today so that I can let the hens clean up that side of the garden area. The forecast is for it to get into the 80’s today in March.

  • Finishing Day

    Today was chilly and gloomy outside, no incentive to go out and play outdoors. The American Shakespeare Theater had a performance by their travelling troupe on the Blackfriar’s stage via live stream with no live audience on Facebook today of Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. I had seen a different troupe perform it on that stage live with eldest son a family a few years ago and very much wanted to watch the performance today. There were so many people watching it that the stream was choppy and the words weren’t with the mouths. After about 30 minutes, I logged off of it disappointed. Son 1 said it improved once the viewers dropped to around 1300, but I had quit by then.

    Instead of sitting here on social media and news, I shut down all electronics and went to my sewing machine instead. About a year and a half ago, we joined Son 2 and his family in Hawaii for a week of their 2 week vacation. One evening, we went to Polynesian Cultural Center to the various exhibits and later a luau and show. During the afternoon, the two older grands wanted to take a ukulele lesson and even before the lesson, begged for a uke. While they were taking their lesson, hubby and I purchased them one with the Hawaiian Islands etched on the face. We wanted to have a talk with them about sharing and impress on them that it wasn’t a toy prior to giving it to them and presenting us with a dilemma of how to keep it hidden until we could do that, while walking around the park and waiting in line for the luau. The same shop had bags that were made at the center and one that I liked was deep enough to hide the box, so we purchased it for me to use for the remainder of the trip. The bag had a single diagonal twill tape strap and the bag was too deep to be useful for much else other than the purpose for which it was purchased. I have looked at several solutions to make it more useful and recently purchased some prequilted fabric to use to modify it. Today, I cut about 4 inches off of the bottom, made backpack type straps from the black quilted fabric and made it into a useful backpack.

    When that was finished, I took the sample scarf that I wove on my Christmas gift rigid heddle loom to practice various weaving techniques, crocheted a loop and took one of the deer antler toggle button that daughter in law had made for my use and for sale and turned the scarf that wasn’t long enough as a scarf into a cowl/shawlette.

    I was on a roll. I had a woven strip 8″ wide and about 19″ long that I had plans to make into a bag. I had purchased some gray subtle print fabric to use as lining and got to work making the bag. The strip was steam blocked, the lining fabric cut to size, edges pressed, and it was sewn to the woven strip. I am currently knitting I-cord for a strap from some dark gray Shetland hand spun wool and it will be sewn to the sides to close them up as soon as the I-cord is long enough.

    I haven’t decided whether to add a snap closure of just let the twisted tassels on the flap hold it down.

    It has been a productive day.

  • UFO’s

    In crafting terms, that is unfinished objects. The past week has been finishing those WIP (works in progress), making the UFO’s, finished objects. There was a skinny scarf on the needles for daughter and a hat that I started in mid February. Both were worsted weight hand spun yarn. Both are finished and blocked (though the photo is prior to that occurring). The hat went into the shop. The scarf is sitting here as I try to figure out how to get it to her without contacting her or her kids. It may get mailed.

    One of my travel projects became a stay at home project, a narrow triangular scarf, pattern is Easy Goes It by Finicky Creations. The yarn is Lollipop Yarn, Whirling Dervish sock weight that I won as a door prize.


    Each block of the blocking mats is 12″, so the scarf is nearly 6′ long and about 16″ deep at the point of the triangle. It was made with unknown plan. I have too many knits in similar colors for my wardrobe, but it is washable, so a potential gift for a family member or an addition to the shop.

    Now that all the needles are cleared, another skein or two will be tackled, a hat with a cabled frog in apple green is planned for the shop and a lacy skinny scarf for daughter. She wears lots of black and white and uses the skinny scarves to accent her work outfits without adding too much weight and can help keep the back of her neck warm from air conditioning drafts.

    Spinning for an hour or so on the drop spindles to make the fiber last as long as possible is part of the daily activity.

    I’m about halfway through reading The Dollmaker. It is a book I have wanted to read for a long time. The copy I am reading is from eldest son’s extensive library and is a paperback that is older than he is, so it is yellowed and fragile, but care is being taken with it and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It will be returned to their library next time we are able to visit.

    The seed starts are doing well. I’m awaiting a series of warmer days to sow some lettuce, radishes, and some direct sowed Chinese cabbages. I have three half barrels that held herbs last year that are close to the back deck, they are going to be my salad garden this spring.

  • Slow I go

    My favorite knitting needles developed a flaw, a major flaw. The nickle plating on the brass tips wore off of the needle I was using on a scarf for my daughter. I fear that the set purchased from Amazon were seconds as they were about $30 less expensive than the same sets from online yarn shops. Amazon agreed to allow me to return them and refund my money. I ordered a new set from a well know national yarn store and now must await their delivery. I can work on one of the three projects I had on needles using a wooden circular needle I had on hand.

    This has provided more time to spin on my spindles. My two favorites are a pair of Wrens, turkish spindles by Ed Jenkins. One is cherry, the other Osage orange. The Cherry one has a substantial cop of plied silver Shetland wool, the Osage orange had just been removed from the smaller cop of dark gray Shetland wool that was a sample that came with the spindle.

    Lately, I have spent much more time with the spindles than with my wheel. I spun a braid that was about 4.5 ounces on the wheel while I was at the retreat two weekends ago, but this is the production on the spindles, plus another mini skein of the silver Shetland that must be in hiding tonight.

    Everything here were samples that came with spindles or with fiber purchased from independent shops, except the silver Shetland. I am working my way through a pound of it. It is delightful to spin, especially on the spindles.

    I had made good progress on getting through my stash of fiber before I went away. I scoured some Cotswold and brought it home, carded some Jacob that I had previously scoured. Then at spinning last week, one of the spinners brought a huge bag of various fibers that she wanted out of her house, FREE. I came home with two of her offerings. I will continue on the spindles, but some time needs to be spent on the wheel or I will run out of places to store my wools.

  • Success

    After returning from the fiber retreat on Sunday, I dedicated most of my at home craft time to finish weaving the scarf that I warped last week. I had spun a beautiful skein of fingering weight Romeldale CVM roving that I had purchased from my friend and local shepherd at Sunrise Valley Farm, Gail Groot. It was soft and even, but not enough to do an entire scarf. An online friend, Ellen Sakornbut, of Fiber Curios on Etsy has some lovely fingering weight mill spun yarn of 60% Shetland Lamb and 40% baby Alpaca that coordinated beautifully with the CVM.

    After the above photo was taken, I repaired the lead row, I had failed to shift the shed after inserting the spacer, so I pulled that one and pushed the next one up firmly. The loom was warped with both yarns and the weft weave alternated the two yarns in 8″ long blocks.

    Tonight I cut it from the loom, it is 5’8″ long plus 4″ fringe on each end. It is slightly more than 7″ wide.

    After the fringe was twisted, this photo was taken before it was soaked and laid out to block and dry overnight.

    It is soft with the beautiful yarns. I hope it finds a home with someone who will love it and enjoy it.

  • Fun times, Fun folks

    I left early Thursday morning in light snow to travel west to my weekend retreat. These retreats are to quote a friend who was there, are like family reunions but with people who aren’t related. This one was smaller and I got to know a few folks who were only names and faces at the other larger ones. Because this retreat was in Jonesborough, TN, many of the folks that attend these events live there, or within an hour of there, so we had a variety of drop ins for a morning or afternoon, and the organizer couple, plus 4 or 5 that were there most of the weekend. We had real snow, a few inches worth on Friday and it was beautiful, and warm enough that it didn’t stay on the roads for more than an hour.

    We had dyeing lessons, fleece scouring lessons, machine carding reminders, knitting, weaving, socializing.

    Today when I left for home, it was sunny and mid 50s. My car stayed parked at the B & B where 3 of us stayed all weekend. It was only a few blocks walk to the event location. When I got ready to move my frosted over car this morning to the site so I could pack up my wheel and basket of fiber, I noticed a very low tire. Before I packed up, I pulled out the little compressor that runs on the car battery and reinflated the tire, but it took so long that the compressor drained the battery enough that the car wouldn’t start. I got jumped, loaded and headed for home around 1 p.m. It is just about a 3 hour trip if uneventful. There was a wicked accident just after I got back into Virginia. A large pickup truck looked like King Kong had grabbed the front and back bumpers and twisted it and a flat bed tow truck was way up the embankment skewered by a tree. That had brought traffic to a very slow stop and go roll and added some travel time.

    Looking at my weekend’s production, it looks like I spent more time socializing than spinning or knitting.

    There was too much good food, too much junk food, lots of laughs, hugs, and fun. I am renewed, restored, and ready to return to routine. I so appreciate my love being willing to stay and critter sit so I can do this a couple times a year.