Weaving and cooking adventures

 I had a huge post all planned out about cooking on the Happy Thoughts Range, or wood cookstove that I was using at Westfield.   It was Thanksgiving Day, and due to the local fair also being held, it's usually fairly quiet that day in the village.  I brought a number of pumpkin based historical recipes to cook and thought I'd have a ton of time to take photos.  However, everyone seemed to show up.  It was crazy busy, with really nice, interested and friendly people.  It was a great day, but so busy that I had no time to take photos, or to even get all of what I planned cooked.   Next day there is the Pumpkin Festival and it's a ticketed event, so people will be streaming in all day, but not all at once, which should be easier to deal with. 

I did however get the tea towels off the rigid heddle loom a couple of days ago.    There was more shrinkage than I expected with a sett of 20.  They are definitely soft and drapey, due to the fact that I couldn't get PPI for the weft tight enough.   But they are are much closer to the towels I weave on the floor loom or table loom than I'd expected.   Using two heddles, was a tad slower, but once you got the rhythm and order of the heddles, it wove up quickly enough to be satisfying.  After wet finishing they are 16" x 27".  Once hemmed they'll be 16" x 25.  Smaller but acceptable for a tea towel.

On the Rigid Heddle loom now is a wool scarf, with a hand painted yarn for the warp.    Next time I think I'd make it a longer skein to paint, so I could get longer colour changes, to make it more like a serendipitous plaid.    It's pretty enough, although they are not my favourite of colours.   I'm trying to hunt down the photo of the painted skein.  I must have take a picture of it, but I can't remember when I dyed this.   It was beautiful in the skein though.  It was a large skein, Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, which comes in a 227g (8oz) skein and is 100% wool.  It's lovely to work with on the Rigid Heddle loom and dyes like a dream.

We had family Thanksgiving yesterday.   I was tasked with bringing turkey and apple pie.  I changed the apple pie to a pecan and a lemon pie because my son's girlfriend is allergic to apples.  However, it turns out it was only raw apples and the thing she's allergic to is destroyed by heat, so apple pie would have been fine.   This is a tiny pie I made for testing, with the leftover pastry and filling from the pecan pie.   I used maple syrup instead of corn syrup for the filling and it was sublime.  Expensive, but soo delicious.   The pecans alone, for the 2 cups that I needed cost over $10.  Definitely a special occasion pie!  The lemon pie was just a slightly adjusted old fashioned lemon meringue pie recipe but without the meringue, since that wouldn't hold or travel well and I'd made the pies the day before.   I added a bit more lemon zest and a bit more lemon juice for a slightly more tart pie, which people slathered with whipped cream since my daughter had whipped up a vast amount for the 3 pies which appeared on the table.   I tried the vegan pumpkin pie, which tasted fine, but had the texture that felt more like it was under cooked.  I'd have added a bit of cornstarch or something to make it less like an almost raw pudding texture.  It was a commercial pie and the crust was inedible: soggy and tough.  My guys are spoiled with good pies :)

Rigid Heddle with 2 Reeds and cooking!

On the rigid heddle loom right now, are a couple of tea towels using 2/8 cotton.   The sett for a tabby weave with 2/8 cotton should be 18-22 epi.   To get that range with my rigid heddle, I'm using 2 10 dent reeds, for a sett of 20.   This has been an interesting experiment, using double reeds.   The way this particular one is set up, is to use both reeds at the same time, as they are threaded in alternate order.  This is giving me a sett of 20.  However, even with beating with a closed shed, I'm having a hard time getting 20 ppi.   It is a few picks less than that, and not ideal.  I'm hoping it will be fine and just make for a soft tea towel.   This was relatively quick to dress the loom.  It took me a bit of time to get started because there is some definite technique needed to make weaving with 2 reeds on a rigid heddle loom easier.

I made a batch of plum jam.  I usually make it with prune plums which come out in late summer.   When you first start the batch up, the cooking plums have a rather odd yellowish colour.  If you chop them up a bit before starting the jam, the skins will not only release their colour, but start to dissolve into the jam, making it a lovely purple/red colour.   I'm a bit sad that I ended up using pectin for this recipe, because I don't normally do so.   It was however, weirdly 32⁰ C, with a humidex of  over 40 C and we don't have AC.  The kitchen was so uncomfortably warm that I used the pectin to make the jam, rather than risk the plums going to waste.   The result is a lot more jam than I needed and a bit sweeter than I usually get.   It's still yummy though.

 

Hearth cooking again on Sunday past.  I was making gingerbread cookies on the griddle.  Not so much of a success this time as I let the  griddle get too hot.  The cookie dough was also a bit soft, so started to burn before I could flip them.    Live and learn

In the dutch oven, is a loaf of pumpkin bread, from an 1854 recipe.   I wish I'd taken a photo of the bread itself, because it was a beautiful, round braided loaf.  The interior was a pale yellow and it had a lovely taste.   

Next Monday I'm cooking at the Misener House, which has an amazing cook stove.  It has 6 burners, a functional oven and throws lots of heat to keep the little house warm.   I'll be cooking up pumpkin goodies for the staff Thanksgiving potluck on Monday after the village closes.

Colour in the garden and dye pot!

 The weather prognosticators said today was the first day of autumn.  It's like Mother Nature flipped a switch.  Yesterday was warm and humid, 27C feeling like 32C with the humidex.   Today the high is 15C, feeling like 14C because of the stiff north wind.  Welcome to fall!   

Carrot Bouquet

My son pointed out that I'd canned about the same amount of tomatoes that came from our garden this year, as I've done in years when I had to purchase them.  I only ever processed one batch at a time, so it felt really easy, compared to two full days of canning.   Now that I've figured out where the tomatoes do best in the garden, I'm hoping I can repeat this.   I still have some herbs and celeriac in the garden, and kale I guess, but other than that, the garden is ready to put to rest for the winter. 

 I planted some carrots in a planter on a whim.  I've rarely ever had success with carrots, so I was thrilled a couple of days ago, when I pulled them up.  Not huge carrots, but they were planted late and the pot didn't quite get enough sun.  It was enough for a meal for the 3 of us though, which was pretty fabulous.  The purple ones are interesting, but just orange carrots inside, with a purple skin.   The yellow and white ones though are tasty.   I'd certainly purchase a packet of just those seeds, rather than the mix, if I could.

 

We had a dye day at our weavers guild.   It was a small group of us as 50% of our attendees had to cancel due to Covid or injuries.  However we had fun and it turned out to be an informative day.  I learned that 80% of white alpacas are born deaf, which I definitely didn't know.   We also found out that some people mis-represent their fibres for sale.  Another participant had a warp wound from what she was told was baby alpaca, and it was this crazy bright yellow with luster.    She painted a gorgeous warp - I wish I'd taken a photo of it, in amazing autumnal colours of various greens, oranges and burgundy.   However after she steamed it, virtually all the colour washed out.    So upsetting!   A later burn test of the fibres suggest that it is a man made fibre and wouldn't be able to be dyed with our dyes.

Painted wool with Procion MX dyes

Because there were so few of us, and we had lots of dye, we were using bright colours.    I had 2 50g skeins of sock yarn - 75 %wool/25% nylon which I wound into large skeins using the backs of chairs.   I wound them separately, but dyed them laying them side by side, to get mainly matching skeins.   

It won't be self striping as I didn't make a large enough skein and had too many colour changes.    But it's pretty.  The colours turned out beautifully.   I was a little worried about the purples because in the garage light where we were working, it looked more brown to me.   It's perfect though.  This will be fun to knit and fun to wear!

 

Here is a quick picture of cooking "muffins"  from an 18th c recipe at Westfield.  They weren't full of holes, more bread-like.  However they were tasty and light.   They were delicious with jam.  It's been a while since I've cooked at the historical village, as the summer was so hot and muggy.  It was fun to get a chance to do it again.    I'm currently researching recipes for the next time I'm there.

Knitted Pumpkins (pattern included)

I volunteered to make some knitted pumpkins for a fundraiser.  I've had to hone some skills for these.   First was needing to make I-cord for stems.  I've always found I-cord a pain to make.   If I'd had a spare wooden thread spool, I would have just pounded 4 finishing nails into and made a corking contraption, like we made as kids.   Sadly, thread only comes on plastic spools now, so that was out.   After some experiments, I went out and purchase short double point needles, which work much better.   I still don't "like" making I-cord, but at least it's fairly quick now.     It took me a few tries to get the stem length right.

Interestingly I've found out that  the pumpkin stem is called a peduncle.

The pumpkins themselves are made mainly from scraps of handspun, with a  bunch of dyed leftovers.   I was told that they didn't care what colour the pumpkins were.

I had to actually learn to crochet properly.  I've crocheted for ages, but didn't really like it better than knitting.   I'm still pretty sure I wouldn't crochet a sweater, but the leaves are my reward for making the I-cord, since they are quick and fun to make.  I realize they are more like an apple leaf than a pumpkin leaf, but I haven't figured out a pattern for a pumpkin leaf yet, that isn't complicated.

I now have 15 of these things made. I make the stem first, then the leaf.   Lastly I make the body, gather and stuff it and sew on the bits.  It seems to be the fastest way to make them.   This is my evening " hubby is watching the telly" activity.  On a good night I can make a couple.  My record is 3 completed pumpkins.  Mainly though I'm happy with 1 completed pumpkin and maybe a start on another.

The pattern is simple-

Cast on 36 or any reasonable multiple of 3 stitches on 3 double point needles.   36 stitches makes a small pumpkin.  If you want a larger one, cast on a few more stitches, but always a multiple of 3.   

Sometimes I put a marker on after the first stitch. If you don't mind having to check or knit half a row after you think you've ended, you can tell the starting point by the yarn tail that is hanging.   

I knit 24 or 25 rows or so.  If you've put on more stitches, you'll need to knit more rows.

Cut off a long thread, about a yard, or just under a meter.   Thread a darning needle, or tapestry needle onto the long thread.   Move the stitches from the needles onto the thread.  Pull tightly, slip the needle through the live stitches again, secure with a few stitches, and knot.   Thread the needle through the centre point of the gathered stitches, so the thread and needle are hanging from the outside.  

Pull a puff of fibrefil, that is larger than you think you need and stuff it in the now cup shaped pumpkin.  Push the needle through the centre of the pumpkin and fibrefil to the open top.  Start gathering the edge of the pumpkin.  (This is the cast on edge)  As long as you don't have too large a gathering stitch, it doesn't really matter if you do every other stitch, every couple.   They should be even though.    

Now pull them tight.  Again, run your thread through the edge of the gathers to pull them tight.  I add a few extra stitches, making the stitches that show tiny  and larger under neath.  Knot.

Thread the long thread from the centre top, through to the centre bottom and back to the top.  Pull to squish the pumpkin down a bit.   Again secure the thread with few small stitches, knot and weave the end in.

Stem: - 

3 or 4 thread I-cord.  When casting on, leave an end long enough to stitch the stem on to the pumpkin. - Knit 1 inch or so.   Secure the live stitches by running the working thread through them and knot, weaving the end in.   Then using the long cast on tail, secure it with small stitches to the centre top of the pumpkin.

Leaf - (american terms)

 Crochet a chain 6 stitches long.   Slip stitch the live stitch to the first stitch.   

Chain 2,  double  crochet 5x 

Chain 3, slip stitch the live stitch to the first chain of the 3

Double crochet 5X

chain 2

Slip stitch the chain to the starting point of the original chain.

Close the centre hole with the cast on end.

stitch to the pumpkin with the other end.

weave in the threads

You need to put the stem on.   You don't have to bother with the leaf if you don't want.  They look just fine without it.

What's happening these days?

The socks with the really yummy yarn are coming a long.   It's a waste to do them in plain stockinette stitch, but they are so soft and thin, I'm not unhappy with them.   I did the eye of partridge heel.   It doesn't fit my skinny heel as nicely as the regular old slip stitch heel, and it's fussy.   I won't be doing that heel for my own socks again.  It is pretty though, so it has that going for it.

I love the whole process with this yarn.  It has a lovely twist.  It isn't splitty.  It's soft and lovely to handle.    I love the colour.   It comes in a whole range of colours and varigated colours, which weren't in the little shop where I found this.   They had a very small selection of the Holst Garn Highland.

The tomatoes are ripening well this summer.    I've been canning them, one batch at a time.   I may not
have to do my 2 day canning marathon this year, with purchased tomatoes because every couple of days I get a canner load full and am done.   This is an enjoyable way to do it.    I've only had one jar not seal properly and it ended up on some mac and cheese (real, not boxed) for supper and was really good.

 The yellow tomatoes are a variety called Yellow Boy ( I think).    They are really delicious and work nicely in a sandwich.   My son in law has a basement set up for starting his tomato plants so I happily benefit from his generosity, when he passes some my way.  

This scarf is on the loom right now.   I pretty sure I don't like it.   The yarn weaves nicely although it's an acrylic that has a soft but a bit plasticy feel too it.    When I bought it, the store lights showed the orange as a bit more softer and toned down and not this bright pumpkin orange.   I'll weave it off as it's a fairly quick weave since the yarn isn't sticky.   I'm really not a huge fan of orange though, at least in broad stripes like that.

On top of this bright orange fiasco, I needed a tape measure quickly, so borrowed the one from this scarf.   Then I shoved it into a project bag with the socks when I was volunteering and needed some handwork.  I forgot to put it back on the loom before I started weaving again.   I didn't notice that until I had advanced the loom several times.  Now I have no idea how fabric I've woven, or how long the scarf is.

Brad Paisley Concert

So frustrating!   We had a windstorm last weekend and since then our wifi has been in and out.   It's been cutting out for hours at a time and then poof, like yesterday and until 2 minutes ago, it's been fine.   Our service is generally really good, although slow because of the nature of rural wifi in our area.   So this is just frustrating.    We checked and a critter did not eat through the cable this time :)

  First a note that these concert photos aren't mine.   I have an old phone with an outdated camera, which has never done low light settings well.   Now it's starting to not take good photos unless it's outside in daylight.   However, we went to the concert with friends and one of them generously forwarded the photos he took, and said I was welcome to use them on my blog.

Last weekend we went to see Brad Paisley in Niagara Falls.   He was playing in a small venue at the casino.   We'd had seats in a larger hall, but they'd cancelled the concert.  They'd rebooked the concert, and I managed to get the presale code, so we had decent seats -  front row mezzanine/low balcony, so we got to sit the whole time, which my hip really appreciated.   The venue was a great way to see a concert.  It held only about 1500 people.  The seats were comfortable and the sound was great.  The only bad thing was that there was only one person on the merchandise stand, which meant for a very long line up.  

  It was an enjoyable concert and Brad Paisley put on a great show.   We stayed with friends who are amazing hosts.  We played a bit of Irish music, ate lovely meals, saw the show together with oddly enough, getting seats right beside each other despite purchasing them separately.     It was a fun end to our holiday week.

It was my first time at being in a casino.  I hadn't expected it to be rather like being in a mall.   Since my only experience with seeing a casino was from the telly, it surprised me how dark and how many gaming machines there were.    I didn't play but hubby did.  He played a penny machine and came out $10 ahead. I can't say that I'd go to a casino for fun though.   I'm happy enough to keep that $5 in my pocket, bird in the hand and all that.

 

I Made A Thing!

 I haven't done a whole lot of sewing lately.   With being locked down for months at a time, then distancing and it taking 2 years for things to open back up, I had no real need to sew.   No historical clothing needed.   No real life clothing needed.  No crafty things to make other than some masks and things like that.   

Finally I bit the bullet and ordered some patterns.   The indy patterns I purchased come as PDFs, which means no shipping charges or waiting for them to arrive.  The downside is that you have to print them out.  I'm sure there is a printer that does the large architectural copies, but I've only really found easy access and superb service from a smaller print shop, that doesn't have those capabilities.  As well, a couple of the patterns seem to only have the print at home option.  Since the print shop does an amazing job on those, always spot on for sizing, quick and at an acceptable price, I cut and paste or tape each little bit of the pattern to make complete pieces.  Not my favourite job, but better than waiting for items to ship and hope they get here in good shape, or arrive at all.

So far I've most of a new skirt made and an apron which just needs a few inches of hand stitching to finish it. There are a couple of t-shirts, a new historical dress, 2 new skirts, and some dress/tunics on the list, with fabric ready and everything.  

 However I needed a small purse for an outing, so I also made this.  I'm ticked off at myself, for not adding pockets in the lining.   I always do that for all the bags that I make, so I have a place to store my keys, and change for easy access.   I'm pretty happy with the overall results though.   However I'm not sure I like using it.  When I add my phone to it, it's heavy.  Yes, the phone is a big, old clunker, but it still works so I'm not feeling the urge to upgrade.  But I don't feel the weight in a cross body bag.  No time to make a new one though, since I need it today.  I guess that is the ultimate test though, if it does what I need it to do, when I need it.

New socks on the needles, even though I didn't plan on knitting any more.    I needed something to do

while I was watching the telly, so grabbed some sock yarn and started knitting.    The yarn is amazing!    It's soft, superwash, has an amazing colour and knits up beautifully.  It's quite fine and has a nice twist, so would have show a fancy pattern nicely.   However, I ended up just knitting a plain vanilla sock, which I almost never do, because I didn't have time to find and print out a pattern.   I had to restart the sock twice.  The first time because the yarn is so fine that I needed to add a few stitches to the cast on.  The second time because a needle slipped out when I was taking it to use as some busy work when volunteering and I couldn't pick up the stitches as they were too small.  However the third try is a charm.  I did an eye of partridge heel which is pretty.   I had to add an extra 6 rows to the heel flap to get it close to square.  It's still not, but it does fit when I put it on, so all is good. It's Host Garn Highland yarn.   So soft!  So pretty! These are definitely not chunky boot socks!