Cabin Crafted

Category: Fiber Arts and Equipment

  • It didn’t happen the way we planned

    Son 1 left for his dwelling and job at 6:40 this morning, arrived there on the bus, train, and his bike and let us know he made it back. Son 2, who owns his on medical transport business ended up on an ambulance today due to employees calling out in the snow/ice storm the coast of Virginia received, so they couldn’t come.

    While Daughter, Son 1 and grands were here on Friday for lunch, they taught me to use Zoom so I could join in the Zoom session that my Jenkins spinning challenge group does on Saturday afternoons and I did join them for about 35 or 40 minutes yesterday. It was delightful to see live faces and real voices of people that I have communicated with online for the past couple years. There were only 16 of us but one was in Germany, two in the Netherlands that are “neighbors” close enough to walk to each other’s homes, and from one coast to the other in the US. Such fun, I will try to join them more often at least for a while each Saturday.

    We took another cold walk on the Huckleberry as it is the only route we usually do that isn’t still covered in ice, and snow flurries are supposed to happen tonight for a couple hours, but I doubt it will amount to anything. I can’t remember the last time snow and ice was still on the ground a week after it fell here. After our walk, I followed through with the plan to bake bread and make soup that was to be for a dozen or more, but just made less, and Daughter and her two came over to share the meal with us. Hot Herb and Onion bread, fresh cornbread, and a pot of delicious soup for a cold winter evening. We sent them home with the extra milk and juice purchased in anticipation of more family here, and one of the two loaves of Herb and Onion bread. There is still a part of a loaf and part of the cornbread for us to enjoy over the next couple of days.

    I continue to work on the dark wine colored fiber that hubby gave me for Christmas. By spinning it on the spindles, I can enjoy it for longer, make a finer yarn, thus more yardage and then enjoy it again as I make myself something warm to wear and enjoy. The January challenge as I mentioned before, changes every couple of days and today and the next two are just to spin at least 2 grams a day and take a photo. While bread rose, then baked, and soup simmered, I sat in a sunny spot in the dining room and spun my bit for the day.

    It isn’t quite as dark as it appears, but I waited until dark to take the photo.

    There is some babysitting in our plan later in the week, first at their house, then bringing them to ours for a couple of days. Last time I did this, the kids and I got snowed in for a day. I hope I didn’t just jinx us.

  • How to spend a snow day.

    It started hours later than predicted, but the snow is quickly covering the ground and roads and the “Winterstorm Warning” is still saying at least 8″ maybe changing to sleet later today, with the heaviest bands yet to come.

    The woodstove is burning and will continue throughout the day and tonight if I can drag myself down to the basement to stoke it in the middle of the night.

    Though the house isn’t any cooler than usual, with the wind blowing outside, it seems colder and I am ensconced in my chair, wrapped in the wool shawl that I spun the yarn for a couple years ago for the Shave ’em 2 Save ’em event, then knit into the shawl, and draped in my Breed Blanket that I spun last year on my Jenkins Turkish spindles and knit for the year long challenge. A cup of hot tea, my spindles and wool, and I am set.

    The chili and stew will be saved for rewarming if the power goes out and homemade pizza was on the menu for lunch while there is power to cook it.

    An after lunch quick trip to dump compost and give the hens thawed water and scratch grains in their coop and gather eggs before they freeze, allowed me to see that the cover is now about 3″ and still falling fast, from an easterly direction so drifting into the coop through a drop window that doesn’t close fully.

    The wild birds are flocking to the feeders, Nuthatches, Titmice, Chickadees, Wrens, Finches, a couple of woodpeckers, and a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that should be much farther south by now. I took a short video, but can’t get it to load.

    So far we are warm, hope to stay that way. It is so quiet as it gets when snow mutes the outdoor sounds.

  • Sunday Olio

    Olio: a miscellaneous collection

    I haven’t done an Olio in quite a while. They are easier to do when more activity occurs outdoors, and this definitely hasn’t been a week for that. With snow twice, temperatures rarely getting above freezing and even dropping to 8 f night before last. With hubby gone for several days, I have literally stayed in and kept the homefires burning. The wood stove is in the finished basement and though it makes that area too warm, the warm air drifts up the stairs and warms the upper reaches of the house above. The winter setting for the thermostats is 68 during the daytime hours and with the stove going, it will show main floor temperatures of 72 or 73.

    Today is warm, going up into the upper 40’s and it is raining, all day long according to the forecast.

    The remants of snow will disappear today, but it is going to get cold again tonight and stay cold but sunny for several days. It is winter.

    I did make it to the Farmer’s Market yesterday, and the donation center. Though there were some icy spots on the mountain road, the highways were clear and dry and the new car handled it nicely.

    With hubby gone for those days, lots of soup was made and consumed in single serving batches. There was a half loaf of sour dough bread from a Farmer’s Market vendor that was enjoyed with the soups. My cooking will return to the fare favored by hubby now that he is home.

    My time was spent spinning on my spindles some and working on using up the bits of yarn left over from making the blanket last year. Those bits are becoming bulky hats, the first one sent home with Son 1 after Christmas. The second finished last night.

    They are a great way to use up the small yardage as 4 strands are held together and when one runs out, another is added in, making a marled look. The pattern calls for the purl or “wrong” side out. The first one looked better on “right” or knit side, this one is kind of interesting on the purl side.

    My time was also spent with cleaning, organizing, and destashing unused items. A box of random clothing, bags, and household goods was taken to donation. and a major overhaul of my craft area that still needs more work. I think shelves that have bags of fiber will be cleared and the fiber stored in a sealed plastic bin and yarn in another so only tools and books are on the folding and fixed shelves. I am putting myself on a “low fiber” diet, no more fluff in until what I have is used up. A lot of the natural colors are being spun a bit at a time to make a second, probably small blanket. The remaining square that was too small for last year’s blanket will be the center of a log cabin style blanket.

    The rest of my spinning time is starting on the 4 ounces of gorgeous Marion Berry colored BFL wool that hubby gave me for Christmas. It is a gradient dyed pair of batts and I plan to spin them in the gradient to make myself a large scarf.

    After being housebound for days, I’m looking forward to sunshine tomorrow even if I have to bundle up and get outside for a good, not icy walk.

  • Another year is closing

    Today marked the last Farmer’s Market of the year, as the next two Saturday’s are holidays. It also means that some of the vendors are finished until spring and I will miss being able to do the bulk of our weekly groceries locally sourced, regeneratively and/or organically grown. There will be a few vendors through the winter when travel from their farms allow and some products still available, but it is always sad knowing this marks the beginning of real winter.

    Today was also the last Holiday Market as well and this year I didn’t participate for several reasons. There are more and more vendors selling similar products, and competition is good unless your handspun, handknit hat is competing with bulky knit acrylic one. And the uncertainty of Covid sent me in a different direction last year, slowly spinning on spindles and knitting a blanket for us instead of product for sale, so my stock was low. And the cost of participating was too great for my stock availability. I limited my events to three at Wilderness Road Regional Museum, and one outdoor event at Montgomery Museum this past year and not until I was fully vaccinated. At times, I wonder if that adventure should cease and just donate my time spinning at the Museum or heritage craft events without vending. With this in mind, some of my equipment is being sold off and keeping only that which I love and use. Now with the new variant spreading like the wild fires of the midwest and western states, we are again wearing masks even in crowded outdoor venue, and I guess will stop going in restaurants again for a while, though that had only resumed occasionally.

    This week hasn’t felt much like winter, with warm daytime temperatures and mild nights, but tomorrow is supposed to be more seasonable. Today it is raining, yesterday too, but we squeezed in a walk only getting a light shower during part of it. I don’t think we will get one today. We won’t have a white Christmas this year, but it may be cold enough for a fire in the fireplace. We won’t be totally isolated from our family this year either, but still only a tiny gathering. We were so fortunate to be able to meet up with Son 2 and his family week before last and enjoy their children.

    One of my hydroponic gardens has not been doing well, so this morning, I broke it down, totally cleaned it, reset the plants that were growing and started some new salad greens. The other one has gotten off schedule with maintenance power outage by the power company and power flickers due to wind. I may put both of them on an easy to control power bar with a timer as the internal timers on the units can only be reset by getting up very early and restarting them and they don’t run for the same number of hours.

    I will end this not very positive missive with a holiday photo.

  • What a ride

    It is done. What a joyous ride this past year has been on this delightful project. I spun 26 breeds, used 25 of them, knit 43 squares but one was too small so finished it is 42 squares. It is spun entirely with my Jenkins Turks, plied entirely with them also, and put together with Jenkins spun yarn. It was a stress free goal, let me try wools I had never heard of or handled along with many I already loved. One huge thank you goes out to Lisa who started following my progress after I bought a Jenkins Finch spindle from her destash. She is in Sweden and sent me the spindle packed in Helsinge wool. When I posted about it in my blog, she sent me enough more to make two more squares with it, then when I mentioned in my blog I needed darker squares for the last two months, she sent me Jamtland and Gotland lamb. There are two Jamtland squares and one Gotland lamb square in the blanket with more to spin for another project, so she provided 1/7 of the fiber for the blanket. Now I need to find a new project. There are lots of small balls of left over yarn from this project that can be used.

    As I knit the squares, I pinned tags of the breed on the squares. Tonight, hubby helped me make a chart in order by row and I removed the tags. A larger chart, perhaps a photo of the blanket with each square labelled on the picture will be made and taken with the blanket when I go to do demonstration spinning.

    The last two squares were knit on Wednesday and Thursday in the car as we travelled part of the way across the state to meet up with Son 2 and most of his family for an evening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Winter Wonderland. This gave us the opportunity to chat with the adults and their oldest daughter and get to know the younger ones better while also meeting the newest granddaughter. They have a beautiful family. The oldest wasn’t with them because he was near where we live at a multi day swim meet. Today we went by the aquatic center hoping to run into him, but there are 1000 swimmers so only the ones scheduled for time blocks are there. His mom sent us approximate times he will swim tomorrow and Sunday, so we will go back and watch him compete.

  • Results

    I found a cookie recipe for a shortbread cookie with chopped cranberries and orange zest and in the picture, they baked to 1 cm thick rounds, lightly browned on the bottom. I followed the recipe exactly, the dough seemed a good consistence, it was rolled into the log in parchment paper and chilled for several hours before slicing and placing on the parchment paper lined cold baking tray and put in the oven at the proper temperature. They took about 3 minutes longer than the recipe called for and they spread out to very thin shapes that had to be cut apart.

    Shortbread is one of my go to cookie varieties that I make plain, topped with dark chocolate and toffee cumbles, and I thought this. Usually, I press the dough into a lined 8″ square pan and I wish I had this time as well. They are tasty, but so soft they don’t hold together well and may not be appropriate for my planned use. There are still cranberries, I will need another orange, I have the butter, sugar, and flour, so maybe I will try again and press them in the 8″ square pan to be cut into squares after fully cooled. I need a sturdier cookie that can be put in a tin or covered and kept overnight for an event.

    My December breed, Charollais for my blanket is spun and almost all plied so I can knit it into a square. The rest of that wool will be used in Gnomes, a cowl or hat stripe. The second wool for the month is a repeat, but is a very dark gray, much darker than the two samples spun before and it is a lamb fleece. This wool is Gotland and I found the lighter gray samples rather coarse, but this lamb is so soft, it will make a pretty last square.

    This was taken last night before plying began and before the smaller spindle of Gotland lamb filled up. I need to start a second spindle of it and get it spun and plied as well.

    Though I am unhappy with the cookie results, I have thoroughly enjoyed the year long project of sampling breeds, spun on my Jenkins Turkish spindles, and knitting them into squares for the blanket. Soon the 42 squares representing 25 breeds will be fully assembled and shown off here. It seemed so strange to spend Saturday spinning on my wheel after a year almost solely using spindles.

  • Last Vending Event

    Today, I had the opportunity to set up my shop at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum Noel Nights Heritage Barn Bazaar. Dressed in my period outfit, with a spinning wheel for demonstrating spinning. The Bazaar was from 3 to 7 and I arrived about 2:15 to set up and was able to choose my spot. Outside the barn where we were set up was a trio of fiddle, banjo, and guitar, and inside the museum were other musical performers.

    You never know what is going to be popular at an event. In the fall it was yarn and knits. I was sure the holiday soaps and Gnomes were going to be the popular items tonight but it was guest soaps and salves. Only two holiday soaps and 1 gnome, but also a scarf and fingerless mitts sold. It was a fun afternoon and other than holiday soaps and yarn, not too much stock left and I love setting up in this old barn. If Cabin Crafted is going to continue, some of that yarn will have to be woven or knit for next year and more wool spun.

    Over the past week, Christmas gifts were wrapped except for a couple that have yet to arrive and a few small items for stockings. When I arrived home tonight and unloaded the car, the closet in which all of my stock and display items are stored was cleaned up and organized as most of the items were out giving me a clean start. Over the years, my set up has morphed and some early items no longer are used and removed. Some of them had already been sold.

    Tomorrow, we will go with daughter and two grands to the Christmas tree farm. I guess our tree will go up a week or so earlier than most years. Later this week, we get to meet our newest granddaughter and see her siblings and their parents.

    The holidays are coming. The house is decorated (except for the tree). I hope this will be a no stress holiday.

  • Another Sunday on the farm

    This week’s 24 seconds from the front door is gray, gloomy, bare trees. The weather prognosticators are warning of snow flurries and wind tonight and tomorrow morning. I guess it is that time of year. I’ll lay the two fires in case we lose power.

    It has been a fairly productive week getting ready for the Heritage Craft Barn Bazaar on December 4th and finishing this month’s official square for the Breed Blanket Project. A cowl was knit, soaps and salves finished, photographed and put on the website, a square of Jamtland wool from Sweden was combed, spun, and knit into a beautiful, soft, dark chocolate colored square. More of that fiber is being combed for another square and while I am prepping it, I am spinning Zwartbles, a Norwegian wool that is also dark chocolate to become a single square.

    A very Christmasy skein of wool was plied yesterday and wound off this morning. It is BFL, an extremely soft wool, spun to fingering weight and about 267 yards of yarn.

    With the onset of “winter” here this weekend, I will lay low, spin, try to finish a knitted gift, cook a nice hot meal for dinner and perhaps sit by a fire with a cup of tea.

  • Holiday’s approach

    November is birthday month in our family, two grands, stepmom, nephew, daughter, and me, plus Thanksgiving. November and early December are the months that various Holiday Craft Markets occur, ones I participate in and ones I visit looking for gifts. I hate to shop, maybe abhor is a better word and some years I have a genius idea for the grands, not this year. They range in age now from 16 to less than a month. I have done fleece blankets in favored themes with books, hoodies and books, hand knit hats and books, but I’m out of ideas. I don’t know interests of them all and I’m trying to match age to known interests and still keep a reasonable budget. I am at an age where I don’t want more stuff in the house and have been making regular donation runs, and a shared yard sale with daughter, so I’m no help in answering the “what do you want” question to me. I want my family around me. I want visits to and from them, I want to know they are all healthy and successful, that they are achieving to their abilities.

    In the spirit of the holidays, I will have two of our children and two of our grands for Thanksgiving dinner, right in the middle of the birthday week. And I am preparing for the only Holiday Market in which I am participating this year. My soap supply was basically depleted and to make some more holiday festive, I made three batches this week, actually 4, but one was a nightmare failure that set up too quickly and the colorant did weird things to the round bars. There are squares of goat milk, oatmeal, and honey soap with a “frosting” layer of finely ground roasted cacao blended in to a little, round bars of rosemary scented soap with a bit of green colorant blended unevenly (on purpose), and traditional shaped bars of peppermint scented soap with red colorant marbled in. I am working on a buttoned cowl in light mint green Merino handspun wool, and over the past week infused comfrey I grew into Avocado oil and made tins of salve to add to the other salves available. There will be hats, fingerless mitts, a couple cowls, some mittens, and a couple shawls and scarves available for people to purchase as gifts.

    Along with these efforts, I am knitting a little stuffed frog to go with a book, spinning wool for my Breed Blanket Challenge, and actually cooking and prepping in the kitchen, not just making products. At Farmer’s Market last week, I purchased 3 good sized Daikon radishes, a white, a red, and a purple and they are fermenting on the counter for kimchi, my favorite kind of kimchi.

    The peppers tented with heavy plastic did not survive the three nights in the mid 20’s, the greens are hanging in there, maybe they should be tented later this week when the temps are again going to plunge. It is nice to be able to pick some fresh goods still from the garden and salad and herbs from the hydroponics. Some of the lettuce is beginning to get bitter, so I should restart those cells with a new batch of seed. Winter is coming, life moves on, I am glad to be able to still preorder some produce from the Farmer’s Market at least until the middle of December, and get meats, breads, some cheese year round. Projects need to be done, so back to work.

  • Autumn left, winter arrived

    For a few days anyway. Yesterday we got our walk in right after lunch, just in time for the front to roar in with wind, falling temperatures, and rain, much rain. We missed the tornado threats, thunder, and lightening that happened a couple counties to the east. Fortunately, we recently got the garage cleaned up and organized enough to put both cars in, so we didn’t worry about blowing branches or the threatened hail that never occurred. Today is 22 degrees (F) colder than yesterday, the wind is howling, it has alternately been thick and gray with light rain and partly sunny, but not long enough to plan anything outdoors. To go out for a few minutes, a jacket and wool hat were added to the wool tshirt and wool sweater I already had on. It is going to stay very cool and mostly wet for the rest of the week. We have seen our high today, 49 f (9.4c) and we may see our first frost before next week ends. It is well past the average for here and the garden is done except for a few winter greens that can be covered easily.

    The cooler weather has me knitting and spinning. A new very soft cabled Merino hat was added to the shop, an ear warmer cabled headband is being knit from the remainder of the skein. Most of a braid of Ruby Red soft BFL wool has been spun and it will probably become a scarf.

    Another 4 ounces of an alpaca/ coopworth blend is also being spun, but I don’t know what it will become.

    I did update the photos of the fingerless mitts and the “sideways” gray hat in the shop photos, see the link at the top of the blog. I still haven’t warped the loom to weave the wide scarf/shawl with the Calypso colorway skein I spun on the wheel to figure out how long it takes to spin 4 ounces.

    It should weave into a gorgeous garment with the navy flax warp.

    There are more squares to add to the breed blanket, but I think I want to do one more before I add another row. That will leave only one row of 6 squares to get done in November and December. I wish it was easier to crochet them on the blanket as it would be nice to have it in my lap with the chill of the current weather.

    We are seeing some color change in the leaves, but the wind is ripping them down like rainfall. Another two or three weeks and the trees will be bare until spring. Such is the progression of the year.