Tying on a pretty blue warp

This is 2 strands of 2/8 cotton, one dark blue and one a lighter blue, tied on to the previous warp.  The sett is 8, and it is just a simple tabby weave.  I did all the math using numbers for less loom waste since I was tying it on, but then looked at the wrong spreadsheet and wound off the warp as if I needed the full amount of loom waste.   I guess I will have sampling room.

This was super fast to wind on.  Not a single knot, twisted thread, no Kevin interference, nothing to slow down or mess up the process.  Of course my man was at a golf tournement, so there were few distractions.

Gosh, I do like these colours.  I was excited to see how they looked with the dark blue jersey warp I was planning on using.

Well, the warp barely registered at all using plain weave.   I tried a thick and thin weft, using the doubled warp thread combination as the thin.  It was fussy and made for sloppy selvedges, plus it didn't bring out the warp at all.   I went back to the plain tabby.  After a few inches I realized that the rug was boring in plain blue.  I started randomly adding a few partial shots of various other colours, which breaks up the sea of boring blue nicely.

There is enough warp for at least 2 rugs, so I have time to think about the second rug.  If I re-sley for a sett of 12, the warp would be likely stand out better, but I'd have a narrower rug unless I added more warp threads.   Only lucky 13 inches woven so far, so I've a bit of time before I need to make a decision. 

The jersey is easy to work with, although I'm taking a bit of care to avoid stretching it when I throw a shot.  It packs in nicely and densely.  It is making a soft rug.   One way or another, this is a much better use for that ugly blue jersey sheet. 

Apple Jelly

 I checked several different 19th century cookery books for apple jelly recipes, sticking to the 1830's, since the apples came from the Lockhart house at Westfield.  Generally, jelly and jam recipes seem to be similar, in the vein of 1 lb of fruit to 1 lb of sugar or 1 pint of juice to 1 lb of sugar, but a few recipes have slightly less sugar for apple jelly.   The Cooks Own Book (1831) suggests 14 oz of sugar per pint of juice.  That works out to about a 1:1 ratio of sugar to juice.   The recipes also use lemon juice or peel.

I used 3/4 cup of sugar to each cup of juice.   The apples weren't very tart, and I was worried that the extra sugar would be just too sweet, plus modern canning info suggests that is the right amount for less tart apples.

Then they say to cook the apples until soft.   My problem was that the Lockhart apples didn't really get soft. They were hard, hard, hard and then all of a sudden, they were apple sauce, all thick and goopy and trying to burn to the bottom of my pot :(    So when the instructions said to strain off the liquid, there was no liquid to strain.  I think that if I had strained them at the above stage, when the apples were still quite firm, but a few were starting to soften, it would have been perfect.

None the less, I lined several bowls with colanders and cloths on the limited counter space.  I filled them up with the thick, goopy apple sauce and set them to strain.   It took hours.   I had 3 big bowls set up like this one, plus a small mesh strainer over a 4 cup measuring cup.   I had 4 1/2 cups of juice in the fridge before I left them for the night and by the morning I had another cup or so.  

The apple sauce then became breakfast for the chickens.

I used 4 cups of juice.   As there was a bit of sediment on the bottom of my juice container, I just strained off the clear juice and left the not so clear juice behind.   I added the sugar and the lemon juice.   While the waterbath canner was heating up, and my jars warming, I started boiling the jelly mixture. 

It probably took less than 10 minutes for the jam to set up.  I tested a couple of times but I knew when it was done because the mixture suddenly changes slightly.  The bubbling froth is somehow a bit viscous and feels different when you stir it.   I had spoons chilling on a bowl of ice and when dipped in the jelly and set back on the ice to cool, they showed the jelly was set.

I poured the jelly into jars, sealed them and popped them into the hot water canner for 10 minutes.  I figure that getting a good seal and lessening the risk of botulism is worth the time, energy and effort of the few minutes in the canner.

I got only 4 cups of jelly, plus enough to put on some toast for a snack.  It is a lovely, pale amber and quite clear, considering how much I pounded and squeezed those jelly strainers.   Better yet, it is really tasty.  Not in your face flavour like raspberry jelly, but a softer, milder flavour which hints of things autumnal.

4 cups apple juice   ( you could use unsweetened bottled juice too)
3 cups sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon

I think I want to try this again!

I almost tripped over Kevin last night.   Someone  forgot to put the vacuum hose away and since he was a kitten, it's been Kevin's favourite toy.  He still likes to sleep in it if he gets the chance.

Processing the garden

 Half a bushel of tomatoes, canned and in the pantry - yes

One bottle did a weird thing, when it foamed up with about an inch of watery, white foam at the top.    You could see the bubbles rising from a tomato core as it was cooling.  I've never had that happen before, but then I also usually put up plum tomatoes and these are just regular ones.  Still trying to find an answer but I tossed out that jar of tomatoes, just in case.

 Cutting old t-shirts into continuous rags for rug weaving - yes

Without even bothering to cut up anything but the body of the shirt, each t-shirt yields about 15-20 yards of continuous rug weft.   I think it is well worth the bit of time and a great way to re-use old, worn t-shirts which would otherwise be trashed.   But, we don't wear out our t-shirts fast enough to keep me in t-shirt yarn, so unless I can convince others to save them for me.......

Making apple jelly - yes, maybe?

Yesterday I picked some apples from the Lockhart farm house at Westfield.   I picked a bit over half a grocery bag full, which is all I could reach.  Today I have chopped them up, with the intentions to make apple jelly.   You know the instructions for processing the apples for both jelly and home made pectin are remarkably similar.   Guess what I seem to be getting? 

I will wait for the end results after hours upon hours of endless dripping of the cooked apples before doing a more complete post on what hopefully will be focusing on success and not what looks to be shaping up to a complete turn around on my results.

Spinning and garden colours

I was thrilled to get this rug off the loom.  I'm still not happy with the colours, even after a few days.   This is definitely a good lesson learned.

On Friday, I spent half an hour trying to get tickets to a concert.  The website kept coming up as busy, or tickets were sold out, but judicious reloading the page, finally got tickets, albeit in adjacent rows, but I prevailed.  Especially happy because the tickets are where everyone wanted them.

The garden tomatoes are ripening.  Because the kitchen has been ripped apart this weekend, I've tossed them in the freezer instead of canning them.  It's fast and easy, because you don't have to blanch and peel them.

Last weekend, our guild was asked to demonstrate at the Ingersoll museum at their harvest festival.   Carol and I offered to spin, which garnered a good bit of conversation from visitors as I used a wheel and she used a drop spindle.   It was a lot of fun.  The museum was beautifully set up and a lovely place to visit.

I took a bag of lovely white fibre; white Falkland roving from R.H. Lindsay.

This is a corner of my deck.  The colours and blooms are lovely, but the Rudbekia and the lushness of the Coleus scream that autumn is coming.  

Clasped weft rug and more.

More Rugs -    Mainly, with this rug, I wanted to clean the used 8 dent reed I'd purchased.  It isn't rusty, so I figured a run over with steel wool might make things worse than better.  Instead, I just threaded it up and started weaving.   The previous rugs I've made were at a sett of 6, which is what some others have suggested, as well as what made sense with a 12 dent reed. Oh, yes, I'm using imperial measurements here, so inches, not centimeters.

Anyway, I had purchased some fabric and had 4 yards of each.   Not enough fabric of either for a solid colour rug, but enough for stripes or in this case, clasped weft.  Because the weft is doubled in each shot, I cut the strips at 3/4 inch wide.  Of course I was using a single sided printed fabric so  tried to be careful about keeping the print side out.  It wasn`t successful in a few shots, but was pretty good thoughout.   What I really noticed about the slightly closer set, was how much the white warp influenced the fabric colours.   Really, at a sett of 8, you could use warp stripes to your advantage, where they wouldn`t be nearly as visible at a sett of 6.    The white really adds a more pastel element to these fabrics.

I`ve never been fond of clasped weft.  I don`t really like the look of it.  Perhaps because it is a more modern feel than I prefer.    I stopped this rug sometime after 45 inches of weaving because I really was tired of how fussy this rug was.  It would be much easier in solids or plain yarn, where you didn`t have to keep the thin strips folded,colour side out, each and every shot.

This is a bright green duvet colour that I found at the thrift store. One side has a rather hideous, and very dated print, while the other is that bright green.  By cutting it in continuous strips, it is adding nice dots of colour in a random but pretty pattern.    Here the white weft, isn`t nearly as overwhelming as the above rug and it does tone down the bright colours nicely.  The strips are 1 1/2 inches wide.  It is making a slightly thinner fabric than the above too.

Interestingly, there are several resources that suggest thinner strips and more of them because they pack in more easily, but so far I haven't notice much of a difference, except that the fatter strips are easier to work with.  They are faster to cut, faster to wind on the shuttle and far easier to keep the colours nicely situated.

Oh - about the reed - almost nothing came off it, it was pretty clean :)
At some point I will need to sit down and finish the ends of all these rugs :(

Fresh Off the Loom

Not washed, no hems or bindings, just freshly cut off the loom!  

Double Binding technique -   it is a block weave, on 4 shafts.  I found this threading and tie-up in The Big Book of Weaving first, so I used it.  It makes and interesting rug.  Other samples suggest a taquete block weave threading, which I'll use next time, along with bigger blocks, and better colours.  However, it was a sample and I used thrift store sheets, so colour choice was limited.












The yellow rug is using the above threading but a tabby treadling.  I cut the rag strips 1.25 in wide, which nicely got rid of the baby print.  The fabric from the crib duvet cover and 2 curtains was very good quality though, so I'd hoped it would make an interesting all over pattern.

The green rug, which I cut off the loom as I was pretty sure I didn't want to make another of these.  I pulled a couple of inches of warp out to make it a tad thinner, as it was catching on the unused heddles.  Then I re-threaded the whole warp with the double bind weave, as above.  If I were a tad taller, or at least with a longer reach, threading from the front would be much more enjoyable.  Unless I grow a couple of inches in the near future though, it is a bit of an awkward process.

I used a couple of leftover bits of quilting fabric to weave off the last bit of the warp.  The fabric didn't go nearly as far as I thought it would.  The double bind weave technique uses a lot more fabric than plain weave.  It makes sense since you are pretty much covering one weft strip with another.   If I can find some strap webbing in the right colour though, it will make a loud bright and cheerful shoulder bag.

Kitchen Update

When the cupboards were removed and more layers of wall coverings stripped off, we found this opening which was obviously a window before one of the many additions were built.   Knowing about the time of this particular addition, it could have been filled properly with insulation, but instead the previous owner used old blankets and sacks of straw.  No wonder we had a mouse problem!   Ick, ick, ick...

The walls are stripped now and this is the very first layer of wallpaper.   It depicted several different human figures and at least one boat.

This picture shows at least 4 of the layers of wallpaper of the 5 or 6 which have been stripped off.
The kitchen has now been totally disassembled.   My sweetie assures me that putting it back together will take much less time.  I hope so...