That Beats All!

Just as I finished the previous post, I got up to plug in the batteries.  I looked out and it is snowing! 

It Must Be Time!

Time for the Snow Tire and Daffodil Festival!  It has been really warm and windy, and now the new front is supposed to bring a mixture of rain, sleet, freezing rain, ice, and who knows what.  I worry about ice on power lines more than anything else.  I do need to recharge two of my batteries before then.  Isn't this crazy.

Blogger is again not letting me upload photos.  I wish they would get their s__ together. 

I finished one pair of the commissioned socks, and I am on the heel of the second sock on the second pair.  I want these to be DONE!  I am so over the sock business.  I am dreadfully behind in my inventory for the fiber show in April.  Oh, well.

I am also spinning along on the merino I got from HandHeld.  It is gorgeous stuff.  I am almost finished with the second skein's singles.  Then plying, then DONE!

I have had a minor little bug, and my head is full of fluid.  I mope around from room to room, but I am not sick enough to go to bed.  If I am in the front room, I knit.  If I am in this room, I spin.  I did lie down a little while yesterday and read my good book. 

It is really dark outside.  I hate the waiting part of a storm of any kind.  There is a frenzy at the bird feeder that is a telling sign that weather is moving in.

Not a whole lot going on.  It is that time of year where the anticipation is more exciting than the actual weather.  It isn't Spring yet, but soon.  We have had a bit of rain, which bodes well for us.  We are still in drought, but hopefully we will have a wet Spring to help out.  I am debating about planting Spring greens-lettuce and spinach.  I have seed potatoes, but not yet on that. 

Noodles has really been hunting lately, but so far he hasn't brought any kill into the house.  Today he is curled up in bed.  I bet his leg aches.  Mine does. 

Stay safe.  I am going to plug in some batteries and line things up just in case.

It's Winter Again!

I hate to complain, but it is winter again.  Yesterday I was sitting out on the deck in short-sleeves and knitting.  Today I am bundled in my wool and staying indoors.  The front came in from the North and brought bitter wind with it.  I know I shouldn't complain with all the messy weather everyone else is getting.

We were supposed to get snow this week, but it never made it to my yard.  Tonight is a chance of some more, but I am of the opinion of "Wait and see."

In the meantime I have spun the most luscious merino that I bought at my LYS, HandHeld Knitting.  I bought two different rovings to combine into a "painterly" skein.  I divided them into halves, and the first half is on the blocker as we speak.  I will get a pic as soon as I can.  I still have to spin the second half, but I am on it.  It is sitting in the chair in front of the spinning wheel.

I have put all knitting aside to complete two pairs of socks that were commissioned by a friend of R and H.  I am thrilled to have turned the heel on sockie 2 of the blue pair, and I am going slowly on the second brown striped pair.  I am so ready for this to be done.  I have lots of knitting to do, and this has put me behind on that.

I will be a vendor at a show in Missouri in April, and I have to get moving on my inventory.  That is why I am behind in the knitting.  I am doing fairly well on the handspun yarn part, but still need more variety.  I decided last night to spin some white skeins (bare naked) and not have all dyed skeins.  I don't know if people will like them, but I think probably it will give more choices.  I can always dye them later if they don't sell.

I am getting a little bit nervous about going on the "road" again.  It has been many years since I did that.  Then I was a production weaver and sometimes spinner.  Now I am so not into production work and I am primarily a spinner.  I will only do "one of a kind" work now.  No more production work.

I also am not going to become someone's personal knitter.  I am only doing these socks because of her friendship with the kids.  I did my friend G's vest because he is a close friend and he appreciates my work.  He has a lot of my hand knit stuff, and he takes care of it.

I have had a little stomach bug this week, and that has been a bit of unpleasantness.  I have only been two places to get it-the grocery store or the weaving guild meeting.  So I have been close to home this week and not going out.  I still have occasional queasiness in the stomach, and I eat crackers to get over it.

I read there is a new virus now in Great Britain.  Great!  Keep telling me about all these new viruses!

I did make a batch of scones this week, so I have them in the freezer now.  I really like this recipe that my friend C gave me.  It is easy, fast, and delicious.  I put cranberries in it.  Yummy!

I have finally made a decision to start baking bread again.  I may not make the best in the world in the beginning, but eventually I will get back to what I used to do.  It is part of my decision to know the ingredients in my food.  I have lots of stuff I have saved over the years, including my baking stone.  It will all be good!

So here I sit in my studio with the soft hum of the heater going and Patty snoring in her chair. The wind chimes are tinkling outside in the wind.  It is time to turn on Netflix and start spinning. 

It will soon be time for Spring.  I think we are just anxious to get going, and the poor plants don't know what to do here.  The skunks are moving around quite a bit now, and I have seen hawks dancing together in the air.

Soon March will be here and we will actually be anxious to get warm again.   Have a good weekend!  

Things Are Strange Here!

I woke this morning with a light rain.  I know that some time I did hear thunder way off in the distance, but this was a light Spring rain.  Is it late March yet?  Not according to my calendar.  I have bulbs already sprouting above ground.

Also I have been opening my door and airing the house more.  It is glorious to sit out on the deck on the south side of house in the sunshine.

I also have been watching my two neighbor hawks swirling around in the sky calling to one another.  It is truly love in the air.  Last year they mated right in front of me while sitting on the white oak tree.

I am experimenting with a black bean dye.  I have been reading a lot about using this bean, but never considered it.  Suddenly I have to see what can be done.  I have soaked the beans for 48 hours.  I strained off the liquor and now it is sitting and settling. 

I am premordanting my wool (BFL).  I know I made a B in chemistry a long, long time ago, but I am not a patient chemistry geek.  Normally I just throw in some mordant in the dye pot and hope for the best.  This time I am actually trying to do it right.  I measured the wool, measured the alum, measured the cream of tartar.  I simmered for one hour.  I am now letting it cool in the mordant bath.  This is taking way too long for me, but I am trying to do it right.

In the meantime, I am soaking the beans in more water.  The first soaking only gave me 2 quarts of liquor.  So this will probably be a weak dye-maybe.  So I am going to strain off the next soaking and add to the dyebath when time comes.

So far I don't know what will happen.  I know there are gray spots on my counter.  The liquor looks like blackberry juice to me.  Supposedly I am going to get a blue color.  We'll see.

This is part of my road to dyeing with natural dyes more this year than the chemical ones.  It just takes a long time and big ole mess to do it.

I have to go check on my wool.  Let you know how it comes out.     

It Rained!

Yesterday morning when I took Patty for a walk, it was warm, muggy, and it certainly felt like a storm was coming.  There were Peepers making noises, calling up the rain.  My head hurt, my back hurt, and I felt every ache in my joints.  A storm was coming!

Sure enough, about 10:30 am I heard distant rumblings of thunder.  I hurried Patty outdoors to get a potty break before the rain.  I know she hates storms.

Then the gulley washer came.  This was a real Spring-like storm.  Winds howled, rain gushed, and it rained all the day and into the evening.

I lost all cyber communications at 12:30 pm.  I have a bundled service for internet, t.v., and landline.  It was all gone.  I did not get these services back until this morning.  It was a long, quiet evening of knitting, reading, and a little bit more spinning.

Strangely I never felt any tornadoes nearby.  But there were some tornadoes south of us.  Those storms headed East, and it is the same storms that got Georgia.  I think they are heading further East today.

The weatherman said tonight that the amount of rain was significant.  We got the most rain in one day that was last recorded in 2011.  We are still in severe drought.  But it was a good rain.

Oh-and this morning we had some kind of snow event for about an hour.  It was weird snow pellets.

Now it is really cold, windy, and normal winter weather.  This is supposed to last two days, and then another warm-up is coming.  SIGH!

I finished plying my BFL today.  I will wind it up on the skein winder tomorrow, wash it, and block it.  YEAH!

And I got an order for two pairs of socks.  I am knitting as fast as my little hands will let me. 

I am also half-way through with the last kitchen towel on the loom.

So some progress is happening.

Snuggle up and keep warm.

Another Dreary Gray Day!

I have been a very poor blogger lately.  I seem to be working constantly on spinning, knitting, or weaving.  Yet-there seems to be little of interest to show.  I finished my winter sweater.  It fits perfectly, and I like it a lot.  The targhee brown wool is perfect for a tough-wearing sweater.  It is my go-to favorite sweater to wear now.  The pink is my handspun from my stash.  I did not remember it being varied colored, but there it is.

I did make one of those pretty little bags in the Jane Austen Knits Fall 2012 issue.  I used leftover yarn from stash.  I lined it with a soft fabric from an old dress.

And I did a little bit of dyeing.  This is kota (Navajo tea) that has been languishing around in my stash of dye materials.  I did two batches of wool, and the second has a softer duller yellow.  The fabric was the cloth I used to strain out the bits of dyewood.  So I washed it, and after ironed it is in my pile of hand dyed fabrics.  I poured some of the dye liquor into a gallon jar and added some silk fabrics I had in a pile of stash fabrics.  I left it to dye in the sunlight for three or four days.  They are very nice, too, and they are now in the pile of hand dyed fabrics.

I am on sockie two of another pair of socks.  I am knitting a sontag, and I have started a pair of fingerless mitts with some handspun yarn I found in my stash.

I finally kicked myself in the butt and finished the kitchen towel that I hated on the loom.  I then found some larger yarn in my drawer of dishcloth yarn.  I finished that towel in one day.  I am going to finish one more towel and get the loom free to do something fun.  I will have 4 kitchen towels, and one of my friends wants the last one.  It will have some funky colors in it that she likes.

I sold a pair of socks on my website!  And I have an inquiry about some of the handspun yarn.  Whew!  I guess I am waiting for lightening to strike, because not much has been happening there. 

My lesson today has been about Flickers.  I know them as large woodpeckers that are sometimes a nuisance.  One cabin I lived in had a flicker that beat on the wall every day at the same time-very early in the morning! 

When I looked out my back door today I saw a large bird that was pecking along the ground.  It was much bigger than the robins out there.  I got my bird book and sure enough, I was right, it was a flicker.  I have never seen them peck on the ground.  As I was reading the description, habitat, etc. in the bird book, it mentioned that flickers are the only woodpecker that pecks the ground.  It was searching for beetles and larvae. 

My other lesson is harder for me today.  My friend CF came for an overnight last night.  She drove from Jasper, and left her dog here.  She met her daughter in Fayetteville for a night at the symphony.
This morning when we pulled up the covers, her dog had "dug" a spot on the quilt.  It will need major repair.  Sigh!  My friend OSM's dog peed in three rooms with carpeting.  Now this one dug a mess into my quilt.  Sigh!  Sigh! Sigh!

Something came into the backyard last night.  Noodles woke me up with caterwauling at the back door very early at 5 am.  Patty would not leave the house after the initial pee break.  One time I took her out, she shivered and shook and ran back onto the deck.  Noodles has been outside patrolling all day.  He has been watching the edges of the property and smelling everything.  He comes in, roams around the house, and then he is back outside on his duty rounds.  My friend's dog went all over the back yard with her nose down smelling.  I did find some scat in the middle of the yard that looks like small mammal-maybe raccoon or possum.  I found coyote scat last week, but that is not so unusual.

So I guess that is all that is new and exciting around here.  Another dreary weather day.  We have been unusually mild while elsewhere it is freezing.  We were to have some rain today, and we haven't.  It is reported that we are to have a Spring-like storm on Tuesday.  Maybe, maybe not.  The birds have been feeding in a frenzy, which is a sign of weather change.  I believe them more than the weather man. 

So back to plying.  Have a good week!

I Am Worried About Blogger

I have been trying for days to upload some photos, but I guess Blogger has nixed that idea.  There isn't a link to post photos.  There is a link to post files, but no photo part.  I will figure it out eventually.

I had two glorious days of dyeing, and I wanted to show those.  I got up at midnight and put the Kota (Navajo Tea) in the pan to soak overnight.  Late the next morning in glorious sunshine, I started making my dye.  The first straining looked really promising, and I boiled the parts again.  I poured both of those liquors in the big dyepot, and away we went.  I did not think I had much to dye with, since there was only 4 ozs of dried twigs and flowers.  I chose a small dab of Rambouillet that I had, and it is a beautiful golden yellow.  I dyed two skeins of JO Sharp wool that has wool, silk, and cashmere in it.  It is a beautiful golden color.  I also loved my straining cloth that had some really yellow and golds in it.  I decided to wash it and put it in my pile of handdyed cloths in the sewing room.   Enough for one day.

Next morning, I boiled up the dyestuff that had been soaking overnight again.  It was still a strong yellow.  I poured out a gallon jar of the previous days dyebath, and I set it in the sunlight with some silk remnants that I found in the sewing room.

When I poured the dyebath into the dyepot, it did not look as strong as the previous days dye.  This was the third boiling, and I knew it was iffy.  So I dug around in my stash and I found a small amount of merino roving, and soaked it.  I got a lovely browny gold color.  Very subtle and pale.  But very pretty. 

I am trying to use up my natural dyes and get back into that habit again.  I only had one problem with it all- I had a full-blown allergy attack.  I had this similar problem with rabbitbrush.  I don't know if it is a plant that does not grow around here and my body does not recognize the pollen.  Or if I truly am allergic.  Who knows?  It won't stop me. 

Since my friend OSM came to visit last Fall, I have been thinking a lot about food.  I know I think about food a lot anyway.  I think because I live alone, I have the tendency to pop something out of the freezer or make myself a sandwich, or maybe eat some fast food.  Anything to get it done and over with.  I do cook for myself, but usually it is such a large amount in a meal that it isn't that interesting to do.  What I do when I crave something is make it up, and then freeze the leftovers.  Then I can pop it out of the freezer and instant meal.

Well, with her body's reaction to the toxins I decided to think about this more seriously.  So since then I have been cooking more and popping stuff in the freezer.  I cook a whole roast, and then I have 4 or 5 meals prepared.  I cooked up some chicken legs the other night, and that was three meals. 

I found something on the internet the other day about not eating foods that have more than one ingredient on the label.  I think what they meant was watch for the unpronounceable words that indicate chemicals added.  So I have been mixing my own herbal blends and storing in glass jars.
I made waffles yesterday, and I enjoyed that tremendously.

I have been thinking of breadmaking a lot lately.  I used to make bread all the time.  Even when I lived alone.  But I have gotten a bit lazy.  I guess also I can't eat a whole loaf of bread before it is bad.  I also have a huge sack of bread cubes from the last two loaves of bread I made.  So that hasn't gotten out of the thinking part.

I made up a batch of bread pudding, but that barely touched the sack of cubes.  So until that goes down, I won't entertain breadmaking.

I am also concerned about the flu going around.  I am not going to WalMart unless it is a dire emergency.  I went 6 weeks ago, and it was awful then.

I know it sounds paranoid, but I don't like going out to public places any more.  I listen for anyone coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and blowing their noses.  Sanitary wipes are my friend.

Yesterday I was bored with the sock I am knitting.  So I got some of my stash leftover sock yarn and made a really cute cat toy.  I put catnip and batting inside.  It took about an hour and a half.  It was so cute and odd looking.  Noodles just looked at it and walked away.  I even squeezed it to put out the scent.  Nope.  Hmmph!

Nothing else new.  Off to the grocery to stock up for next cold spell coming Sunday.  This week has been tolerably nice.  We had a bit of dampness that I guess is called rain.  Less than half an inch.  It just makes the clouds hang around, dreary, and damp.  There is wind too.  So those warm temps that were mentioned by the weatherman are not coming true. 

Still spinning on the BFL, but found two tiny bits of odd stuff that I am plying together.  It won't be much, but I may make a stuffed toy or something small. 

I have got to figure out this picture thing on Blogger.  It just is irritating.