Percy's Rug

 Percy and Christiana gave me two shopping bags of old t-shirts to use for weaving rugs.  Usually I cut my rug strips into continuous lengths.  This gives large sections of a particular colour and because you can trim and overlap the ends, you get a fairly uniform texture.

  This time though, I cut the strips into loops.  I stretched the loops and then looped them together randomly.  This creates little textured knobs where the loops are joined, but also gives an interesting colour variety.  I decided to try this for two reasons.  One, I wanted to try something new and two, I didn't have a backup selection of shirts in those colours, so regulated stripes was a little bit risky for symmetrical results.

I've decided that I really like this technique.  The rug was fun to weave.   The loops are easy to interlock, you stick one loop inside the other and then loop it back inside itself and pull.  The only issue was of course the helper kitties who saw grand opportunities to play with lengths of t-shirt loops.  

I started out by trimming and overlapping when one shuttle ended and I started a new one.  However I realized it was much easier to just pop the new shuttle through the ending loop and then slide it through the looped end of the new length.  A quick tug and the lengths were joined seamlessly.

I wasn't sure how many loops I'd need.   One t-shirt didn't work because I don't think it was cotton.  When you stretch the t-shirt material, it lengthens and curls in on itself, making a great weaving yarn.   This shirt material didn't do that.  However, the rest were perfect.  I had enough, with a couple of t-shirts left over to use in another project.

I have to say that weaving is a good task right now because it requires some concentration and thought.   It is weird and stressful times out there these days and focusing on an encompassing project is not a bad thing.  

Inside and Outside

 I made sourdough bread.  It turned out perfectly.   It had a crunchy crust and a soft, open crumb.   I had tried a new to me formula for making bread.  I passed the info on to my daughter who makes bread too and she sent me a photo of another perfect loaf of bread.  It's good to know that the recipe will work for more than just me.

 This is the brown cotton ready to process.   I found a green cotton skein that I hadn't finished up, so I popped it into the pot at the same time.    When I did my Master Spinner, we had to wind the skein onto a specially prepared PVC pipe that had holes drilled in it.   I did this for all my class samples, but it was a pain.   Now I just toss the skein in a pot.  I've not noticed a ton of difference.   You are also supposed to add a bit of baking soda or something to make the water a bit alkaline.  Although it is supposed to help the processed colour last, I've not noticed a lot of difference, so I don't always use it.   After photo coming as soon as the skeins are dry.

 The chooks have been locked up since early last fall when we had the raccoon issues. They've been itching to go outside as the light has increased, with much noise, clucking and admonishment every time I go into the barn.   Since I'm pretty certain Mr. Raccoon has moved on, and since the hubby is out boiling sap again this weekend, I let the girls out.  Oh, they were happy and content chooks.

I pruned the gooseberry bush.  I started a bit last year but wasn't certain what I was doing.  It was so overgrown that I was a bit worried.  I am not sure it had ever been pruned and it's probably 30 or 40 years old.  There are a lot of videos out there.  Most I saw were from the UK and many had plants which seemed to grow from a central stalk, which didn't apply to my shrub. I couldn't fathom trying to work that out with this overgrown gooseberry.

  Finally I found some instructions on how to prune my type of gooseberry.   I did worry a bit about taking off too much of the old growth, but the more I cut, the more young growth I found.   This is after 2, yes 2 wheelbarrow loads of clippings.    I could take a bit more, but I think I will leave it like this for this year and see what happens.   I've been suggesting that we need to dig it up and replace it for a few years now, but we've never gotten around to it.  This is my maybe we can salvage it attempt.   The fruit is small and a lot of work to clean, but I like gooseberry jam.  Gooseberry jam isn't something you can just buy in a shop around here. But if pruning will help increase the size of the berries, then Yay!

Pysanky Supplies Kudos

It's the time of year when I start writing Pysanky.  I may have started a couple of weeks early this year, but last year I felt rushed.   My daughter was running into the city, fairly close to the Ukrainian Store, so I had her pop in and pick me up some dyes.   They carry the traditional dyes, and a couple of brands which have a larger variety of modern colours.  This year though, they have a new brand of traditional colours.  I had my daughter pick up a few of the new traditional dyes to try them out.    The blue is quite intense, but the pink that I'd tried, took me 40 minutes, or maybe more to soak to get a quite pale colour.   I thought maybe there was an issue so I contacted the company.

I'll have to admit that the response from Ukrainian Eggcessories was amazing.  I messaged the company on the weekend and on Monday, they popped, not 1 replacement packet but 2 in the mail.    The difference was quite noticeable.  The top egg is dyed with the first packet of pink dye, which was called Cream Soda Pink - yum.   It took 40 minutes of soaking in the dye to get that colour.    The bottom egg is with a single packet of the replacement dye, again Cream Soda pink - yum.   This is after 5 minutes in the dye.  

(As an aside, Cream Soda is a pop/fizzy drink flavour, which in Canada and apparently no place else in the world, is dyed a lurid pink.  The rest of the world gets clear Cream Soda.)

I'm super impressed with the other colours I've tried, and the replacement packet of pink is a gorgeous colour.   I will have to say I'm sold on this company and next year, I intend to order my Pysanky supplies from Ukrainian Eggcessories.
With customer service like that, I think it's a no-brainer. 

However, this isn't a disparagement of my usual source of Pysanky supplies.  They have a nice supply, their service is good and I would highly recommend them to anyone going into the city.  However, having a reliable mail order supplier with great customer service, means I don't have to go to the city, or get someone else to do it for me.  That's definitely a win in my mind.

 I hung my laundry out the other day.  It was sunny and mild.  I love the first day I get to hand laundry.   The sheets smelled wonderful.  I love that spring, outdoor, sun-kissed, fresh air smell on the laundry.

Syrple time and Kevin Update!

We put the sap buckets out last Sunday because the weather forecast a week of weather which should have been great for sap production.  Unfortunately, it was colder and wetter than forecast, so we didn't have as much sap for the first boil, as we normally would like.   We generally get 10, 5 gallon or 23 l buckets for the first boil.  We only had 6 and a bit.   Friday was wet and miserable, so the pans didn't get on the fire until Saturday.    The nice thing was that the weekend weather was pretty nice, and Sunday was spectacularly nice, all sunny and warm. 

The only other time that we didn't have a full amount of sap, left us with a small bit in the pan, which came to temperature so quickly, that it burnt before I got it off the stove.  However, this time, Al brought it up close to 219 outside, so it wasn't a hardship for me to finish it off.  However, it got a bit hotter, so the syrup is quite lovely and thick this year.   We only got 2 litres from our first boil, so I don't think we'll come close to last year's syrup quantities.

Photo of Keven, in a sun spot, pretending to be a nice and cute kitty - He might be cute, but none of us think he is remotely nice.

The end of many things

A stupid spammer hit my blog comments so I had to change some of the settings.  My apologies if it's a bit inconvenient, but spammers... ugh!

 The Weaver and Spinner guild challenge for the winter and spring was to choose a holiday card, take some colours from it and make something.   The card I received from my daughter this year was white with black and red.   As I didn't have any black thread on hand, I chose to spin instead of weave.   Here is what I came up with.  Black, Red and white Merino, carded into rolags and spun with a long draw.  It's a fluffy, airy yarn.  It was a fun project.

 I cut the pickup inkle project off the loom at 84 inches.   I could have done another 10inches maybe.  It would have taken a bit more effort for iffy results.  There is a lot of take up on the grey, skinnier threads and not quite as much on the thicker red threads.   Every once in a while, there was a hiccup in the pattern and the non-picked up threads would show in the wrong place, or pop up where it shouldn't and that was despite re-weaving it.  By the last couple of repeats, it was obvious that the tension differences were just becoming a bit of a regular issue when weaving.   So, instead of letting myself get frustrated, I chopped it off the inkle loom.   This is not a project to get frustrated over.

The ramie is spun and plied.  I have a bin for my spun cellulose fibres.  This includes cotton, linen, ramie and bamboo.  One day, I'll have enough of any one of those fibres to weave something.  Until then, I just keep tossing in spun skeins.

I'm whipping the edges of the hooked rug and I'm looking for a new project.  Hmmmmm, what to do next?

I've some Ramie top on the wheel right now, in a lovely colour called earth.  It's a really nice brown and because it is ramie, it has a bit of a sheen.   This top has been really nice to spin, although when I stopped last night, my non-drafting fingers (the ones holding the fibre) were black with either dirt or excess dye.  Still, the yarn should be quite nice when done and any dye or dirt will get washed out when I wet finish it.


I'm still plodding away on the inkle loom with the pick-up pattern.   I did the math and I still have 2 weeks to go before I finish, if and only if, I manage to do my 3 inches a day.   I'm guessing that there will be a few days it won't happen, so it will likely be closer to 3 weeks.  

I had a single skein of a white tweed yarn which was exceptionally ugly.  It was bright white with some dots of colour and it looked totally wrong.  I dyed it a grey which in reality is a bit darker than this photo.  I started making mittens with it.  The first mitten was almost done but every time I looked at it, I saw fingerless mitts instead.   I ended up ripping back the first mitt and changing it up.  There are a bit shorter than I normally make fingerless mitts.  I usually like them to come up past my knuckles, to keep my fingers warm.  However I've found that when they are that long, they don't lend themselves to activities like spinning or playing the banjo.  So these shorter ones allow for those sorts of activities easily. 

I need to set up a Pysanky work station, so I can start on Easter Eggs this year.   My daughter was in the city, so she stopped by the shop and picked up a few dyes that I needed.  There was a new brand out, the same price as the basic dyes so I got her to get a few so I can sample them for differences.   I'm wondering though if they are just the traditional dyes, repackaged.   Different colour names, all with a Canadian cultural theme, but with the similar price point and a similar colour selection, it could be the same dyes, in a different envelope.

Pick-up Ikle - Tedious but impressive

 The banjolele strap is all fixed up, reassembled and re-attached to the uke.    I ended up shortening it after washing it up because it really was too long in the first place.  It seemed sensible, since I'd already had it taken apart.   I decided that I could live with the small amount of width shrinkage from the washing as once assembled, it didn't slip in the hardware. It works fine, and there are no ill effects from Kevin's mistreatment of the strap.   I know you're supposed to hold a regular uke in your arms while you play, but the hooks on the head of the banjo-uke press into my arm making it uncomfortable, plus it's a little heavier.  The strap makes a huge difference in comfort.

 We had a weavers guild challenge to bring a greeting card or Christmas card to a meeting and then decide on a project using some of the colours in the card.  The Christmas card I had was black, red and white.  I didn't have any black thread in the cupboard, and wasn't going to order anything in the near future, so I decided to spin instead of weave.  These are some of the rolags that I've carded from black, red and white merino.   It's spinning up into a rather nice, subtle, tweedy yarn.

I warped up the inkle loom to play with pick-up.   I'm using 2/8 cotton for the ground threads and 4/8 for the pattern threads.   Right now I'm managing about 3 to 3 1/2 inches an hour.  My loom weaves a band about 108 in long, so it's going to take a while if I decide to finish the entire band.    It's not difficult though, but definitely fussy.  It requires much counting, so it's not like a plain weave band where you can chat, or watch a video or something, while weaving.  This band requires concentration and about 35-40 hours.  

We have a guild with a bunch of super-enthusiastic beginners this year.  I know if I use it for show and tell, someone will say I should sell stuff like this.   But really, if it takes 35 hours, how much would I have to sell it for to make it worth my while?  and Who in their right mind would pay that much?  LOL!!!

In other news, the blanket I was working on is stitched up,

hemmed, wet finished and how in use.   It is cozy to cuddle up under and when there is a nice day outside, I'll drag it out and hang it on the line so I can photograph it.  Right now though, there are 3 cats curled up on it, which is the best seal of approval.  However it also means I can't access it to take a photo, without getting those same 3 cats ticked off at me.  I figure while they're sleeping, they aren't getting into any mischief and that's a win in my opinion.

  This is Phil looking out the window at something moving about outside.  He enjoys looking out, but he doesn't really want to actually go outside anymore.   He seems to be happy in his warm, safe environment, with lots of food, water and cuddles.