Nature's Promise Revealed

 

Last Crocuses - such a pretty colour

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, I light a candle to help light the way for longer days.   We've had a rather dramatic winter this year, with the winds, lake effect snows, and variable weather.  It was an abnormal winter for us and after several fairly mild winters, this one really seemed to hit us with a vengeance.   Finally though, with a few glitches in between and weather that the prognosticating rodent (ground hog) said would be an early spring, we finally have evidence that spring may truly be on its way.

The crocuses or croci if you prefer have bloomed.  Yesterday these few were in their prime while the rest have faded.  Only one of the Siberian Irises came up this year and that was during an ice storm, so it didn't last for long.  But the leaves and greenery for many other spring plants have started to push forth from the finally thawed ground and are showing the promise of spring.

The daffodils started just when the crocuses first bloomed.  In the beginning, they were just tiny green sprouts.  Now though there are early flower buds which catch attention and the longing for spring flowers.   I usually try to buy a pot or two of forced bulbs in the spring, but there weren't many in the shops this year, catering to those of us who desperately need that early hit of spring.  Now of course, with daffodil flower buds starting to show, it's worth the wait for them to mature.

My iced over kitchen window

The weather  has not been all favourable this spring.   Areas to the north and east of us were hit with a major ice storm.  We were lucky enough to miss out on the first one but a smaller second one hit us a couple of days later: not even enough time to recover between the two of them.   The area police were issuing warnings to people to please slow down on the high ways.  Hubby's co-worker took 30 minutes to cover what was normally a 10 minute drive.   We had lots of power flickers and a short outage, but quickly resolved, unlike areas in the rest of the province.  Everyone I talked to were thankful for that, and dismayed about the havoc that the storm wreaked elsewhere.  With rain, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, more snow it was a few days to hunker down.   I can't remember seeing the snow plow go down our road multiple times  in April, plowing the snow on the road, the shoulders and laying down salt to try to keep the roads safe.

Lone Siberian Iris

Today though, the sun is shining and the winds have finally eased off.   I was able to go outside to practice the banjo yesterday as I found a sheltered spot which was warm enough and while I could hear the wind around me roaring through the trees, it didn't hit the spot on the deck where I was sitting.  Today, I let the chooks out and might even bundle up a bit and take my tea out to the deck.

Mother Nature sometimes is delayed with her promise of spring, but she's never failed to produce it yet.  That darned groundhog though, I'm sure spent weeks rolling around in his den, laughing at us all with his faulty predictions this year, that we all so desperately wanted to believe.

What I did this weekend.....

I've been collecting all the leftover roving bits for ages now.  Some of the bits and pieces are leftover from my master spinner course.  Others have just accumulated over time.  Not all of them were really nice bits.  Even when properly stored, wool fibres can become somewhat compacted from time.  There can be temperature changes, humidity changes,  maybe some pressure from being stored in a bag or container and being squished a bit.   So some of the fibres were compacted, some were old, and there were a bunch that were in perfect condition.   I decided to dig out my blending board so that I had something to spin at the next spin in.   I will say that this is definitely a preparation where really nice, perfectly processed fibres work up so much nicer than a few of the compacted and neppy bits I ended up using

I had 3 shades of blue, 2 of which I'm pretty sure were dyed in an indigo vat and were probably leftover rovings that I tossed in to use up excess dye. There was some pale yellow, a rusty orange and a rusty red, some pinks, and purples, some green mohair locks which later became green roving when I realised I was sitting on it and some icicle nylon sparkly stuff.

I filled this basket full and forget to take a photo of the basket full of rolags.  It was quite impressive and very pretty.   It takes a lot longer than you'd think to fill a basket with blending board rolags.   I started just after lunch, took a 20 minute tea break to stretch, and then when I started running out of blue rovings, I realised it was 5 pm and time to start dinner. 

  I was getting 3 rolags from each loaded blending board.   I used to get 4, but decided to try one less.  The rolags were a bit larger and more substantial but not a single one broke or lost its structure.   I also didn't load quite so much on the board which made it a little easier to work with.

Since I'm running out of prepared roving in my stash, I was happy to have these to play with.   Spinning friends were quite complimentary about these.  I will say that the basket full was quite pretty.

Spinning the rolags was quite quick and pretty easy.   Except that this is where the quality of the fibre prep really shows.   Any of the areas of the rolags with the nicely prepared fibres were a dream to spin.   Hardly any effort was needed and they almost spun themselves.   The areas with the slightly compacted rovings, despite doing my best to loosen them up, require a bit of effort to get a reasonable bit of yarn.   In a few places, instead of being able to do the long draw, I had to do a short forward draw to get a consistent yarn.   There are a few bits that are uneven; even reversing the twist and trying to pull out the slub, didn't help.

Regardless, it was quite quick to spin.  I think because of the wide variety of fibres and the few that were compacted, it's a bit thicker than I'd planned.   It was just too difficult and not fun to spin any finer, so the plied yarn is about a worsted weight or maybe an aran weight yarn.  Not what I wanted, but it allowed me to chat with the girls while spinning the first bobbin- so there is that.

I'd been concerned that with the around of orange and rusty red in the mixture, that there was a high risk of getting a bit of undefined browns or greys in the finished yarn.   Not so though!  The yarn is manly dark blue, with smaller areas with the other colours showing through the barber pole effect of the plied yarn.   It's pretty enough, but after all that work, I really don't have that much yarn to work with for an end product.    If I'd made a finer yarn,  I was thinking about using it for a vertical stripe or stripes in a scarf.  It's really too thick for that I think, so maybe enough for a hat or save it for some rug hooking project.

 

An early spring hike

 It snowed again.  I woke up to low, lead grey, snow clouds and a wintery sky.   There was a light dusting of snow on the ground.   It doesn't feel like spring today!   Yesterday was another cool day, however we had a short reprieve from the incessant wind.   We took advantage of that and went for a hike.  The trails were in pretty decent shape all things considered, with only a few muddy and slippery spots.   That made it a rather nice day out.  I was worried I was over dressed, with my parka and a hoody on underneath, instead of the liner jacket, my double wool toque and thick wool mittens.   However, it was cool enough outside, just above freezing that I was comfortable the whole trail!   

It wasn't sunny, although the forecast suggested we should get some sun.  It was however, brightish out, which was nice enough.   The dark, foreboding skies we've had most of the winter do get a little bit much sometimes. 

The river was flowing fairly quickly.  With all the snow melting over a few days and some rain in there, and now more snow, I was amazed that it wasn't higher than it actually was.  It's usually this brown, silty looking water.  The difference with the view in the springtime is that you can easily see the water.   Once it warms up a bit, the foliage from the trees and the ground plants will obscure the view because they are so lush and full.

This white birch and a yellow bird house were the real spots of  brightness on the trail today.  Even the new growth of the pine trees didn't show brightly enough on this dull day.   However, the walk was pleasant enough and the terrain wasn't difficult due to icy or slippery, muddy conditions, so that has to be considered a win.   It was great getting outside for a bit too, without being scolded by birds.   Also, I saw a robin!   I haven't seen one at home yet, and they are another sign of spring.  

This is a true sign of spring.   A small patch of crocuses started blooming a couple of days ago.  They made me very happy.

The daffodils and tulips are just starting to grow, with their green leaves pushing up from the ground just a few inches.  The hyacinths are still under a small patch of leaves and snow - snow that I'd missed, along with the snow on the other side of our fence line!   Please go away snow!

After a lot of rain and wind, which gave us all sorts of weather warnings, we've had a couple of nice days.  Today was so nice, I went outside on the deck to read for a bit.  It was still quite windy so eventually I had to put on a sweater.  I don't think I got that much reading done, because the birds were continuously berating me for being outside instead of leaving them to the buffet of bird feeders.  Lots of chirps, clucks and shrill warnings while I was sitting quietly reading, lol.

While many of the birds which visit us during the winter have gone back to wherever they spend the good weather, our bluejays, mourning doves, cardinals are still with us.  The grackles are at a reasonable level this year, but I think only because I missed filling the feeders the day they returned.  We have red winged blackbirds who only eat at the feeders until there is other food available.  There were a couple of cowbirds, some finches or sparrows and the woodpeckers, who don't care if I'm on the deck or not.  

I also spent time watching the trees.  We've missed maple syrup season all together this year because of the odd spring weather.  The maple trees are starting to flower, so syrup season is pretty much over.   We've got a few bottles set aside for a situation like this, so we won't do without.

The snow seems to have finally melted.  Yesterday there was still some snow at the edges of the fields around us.   The frost is gone and moisture is draining aways.  It was bad there for a while as there was no place for the snow melt to go and we had water over good parts of the land around the house.  That was a pain to deal with for sure.  Not just puddles, but massive puddles flooding the barn and making for muddy, squidgy, slippery walking.  It wasn't bad outside today!

I took a break from making the little comfort dolls.  I dug up a skein of bamboo/wool blend sock yarn.

 It's a tad heavier than some yarns, but not by much.   I can make 2 pair of shorty socks with them as long as only one pair has heel tabs and the other just has a cuff.  I love the colours of these.  In discussions with a friend, apparently some people don't like the cuffs to show.   I really don't care as comfort is more important to me.   I'm still undecided on the tabs vs the little cuff.  Last summer I don't think I noticed a difference between the two.

I made these on my Circular Sock Machine, a Legare 400, which is over 100 years old.  While I'd love a new machine, maybe a NZAK - New Zealand Auto Knitter, I don't have the $ saved up right now.   However, my old girl, while sometimes being a little fussy, still works a treat.

I've been doing a lot of spinning lately.   Having a group of gals who meet once a month to spin together has really helped get the spinning mojo boing again.   While I've been spinning off and on since my Master Spinner program, I've been mainly spinning cotton and other oddly technique specific fibres.   Getting back to spinning real wool took a bit of time to reconnect with my skills.   

This is Finn sheep wool.  It's a good staple length to spin easily and is relatively soft.  I only have just under half a kilo of it, so maybe I should have spun it a little finer.   The bottom skein is what I was working towards.  It took a bit of time and practice to get to how I wanted to be spinning.  Mostly though, the slight differences in the skeins won't make a difference to its use.   If I can get more fibre, I'd like to make a sweater.   Otherwise, maybe I'll find a local shepherd and pick up a fleece to play with.

Hints of spring

Finally, we've had some weather which has allowed for the snow to start melting.   This leaves the snow, especially the snow banks dirty and grey.   I love this because I see it as a symbol of hope of the incoming spring.   

The ground is still frozen though, so the melting snow is running off into the lowest areas.  Luckily we have some drainage in the farm land around here which helps those areas.  It hasn't been warm enough for the frozen water in the ditches to melt though, so the snow melt is running over the frozen ground, making for a very muddy top inch of soil and grass.   It won't last though, because a few more mild days are forecast which should help a lot.  Right now though, much of this water is running right into the barn, making parts of it a frozen mess.

I've made some more of the comfort dolls.  A friend and I took a field trip to a yarn store in a nearby town, which was highly discounting sock yarn.  It was $.97 a 100 g skein!  There were limited colours available but I still purchased a good few skeins.  What there weren't though were solid colours.   My friend dug down and found some of this pink, which she passed one skein on to me to make more comfort dolls.  I thought it might be good skin tone, but it's very pink.  Instead I managed to make a pig girl.   I didn't have a crochet hook small enough, so making the hair was not fun at all.  Still, I'm hoping someone will love her.

I've almost finished spinning up the cashmere merino singles.  There is only a handful of roving left, but my bobbins were full.  Not having access to the deck and table where I usually do my dyeing, I tried a different technique in a roasting pan.   It was not a huge success.   I managed to label my black dye as brown.  I wanted brown.  I also should have diluted the dye a lot more.

I soaked the yarn for several hours.   I chose not to add vinegar to acidify the water, which I would do next time.   I lay the skeins in a roasting pan, and squirted and dabbed dye on the yarn, in what should have been short runs of colour.   I then added the vinegar and water to do a low water dye on what I hoped to be similar to a painted skein.

Nope, the dye ran, and the black which should have been brown, dyed all the white spaces I left.   Because I didn't dilute the dye enough, it's much darker than I'd anticipated or hoped for.

Look at the lovely blue sky though! And the snow is melting.  You can see the grass in spots!   I don't feel bad about the dye experiment because there are hints of spring today and it is glorious!

 

Winterlude ...

 

A break in the storm systems and a few moments of sunshine.  We've had so much wind thought that it still felt like it was snowing.

This is our pond, although it took a few minutes for me to identify the photo under all that snow.

Hard to tell this is a large pine tree!  

We've had a couple of days of mild weather though, so we've had some melting and the snow has compacted a bit.  This means the gigantic snow bank that the snowplow made, is no longer blocking the view of oncoming traffic, which is nice.  After a couple of fairly mild winters with minimal snow, this winter has been a bit of a surprise.   The longer days are nice though.  Sunset isn't until about 6:30 pm,  and I don't have to put my car lights on when I leave the house at 7:45 am, so yay for that!   It gives hope that spring is on its way.  I do believe though that the local prognosticating rodent, Willie, a groundhog from the Bruce Peninsula, is laughing away in his burrow, with his call for an early spring.  We're still waiting for suitable weather changes to tap our maple trees.  

A stormy week of projects

 We've had 3 major snow storms in the past week.  While I know other areas of the province have loads more snow, we've had more snow than we've had in years.   We've had so much wind this year, which keeps the Great Lakes from freezing.  This in turn causes lake effect snow, on top of whatever system works its way up or across to us.   Then with the wind, even when we don't have snow, we get blowing snow, like today with blowing snow warnings because it's affecting  roads and visibility.   I'm really looking forward to spring and getting back to some sort of routine that includes something other than staying home because hubby took my car to work since it's better on the icky roads.

But while stuck at home, I've started spinning the merino/cashmere/silk rovings.   It's easier to spin the rovings processed and dizzed off the drum card thicker than the commercially processed rovings which are much easier to spin very thin.   

It' been interesting because I'd been spinning cotton for demos and to finish up my stash for ages now, and have had to rethink my spinning technique to slow down and be more mindful of not over-spinning the wool blends and wools.    I have one bobbin full and started on the second one.  I plied a sample, and didn't like the results.  I think instead I'll spin it all as singles.  I'll dye it as singles and then weave a scarf with it.   Otherwise I'll end up making mittens and it's almost spring and unless I manage to lose all 3 pairs that I still haven't lost yet, I won't need another pair of mittens this year, no matter how soft and yummy they'd be.

I've been busy using up some scrap sock and fingering weight yarn on the CSM.   There is a spring
crank-in which gathers up requested items for donations.  Last year it was comfort dolls that went to the Provincial Police to give out to children in trauma situations.   The group donated 80 of them and they had given almost all of them out during the next 6 months and have asked for more.   So I started making a couple for my donation.   I'm running out of sock yarn scraps though.  I thought I had more, because I'd saved up a bunch from many of the years when I'd knit socks by hand, but having used a lot last year, there aren't many left.   I'll make what I can even if it's not as many as last year.  

 Last year I had a skein of  generic browny fleshtone which worked well for people dolls of no specific race.  This year, I've not found any skin tones, and only had a bit of leftover greys.  I've used the greys to make a couple of bears or cats, because I can't tell what they actually are.  I had a couple of leftovers in a bit larger amount so have made some very colourful bunnies.  They seem to work better in crazy colours than the bear/cats.

I made a bear snake today which had 3 bears in it.   It's called a snake because it's a long tube of projects.  You can make sock snakes too, which are socks knit one after another and not separated until you are finishing them.  There are 3 bear project in between a double section of waster yarn, with a ravel cord in between each bear, so it's waste yarn, ravel cord, waste yarn, bear legs, shirt, head, waste yarn ravel cord - and so on..  It means you only have to set up the CSM once for multiple projects.

 That is the last of the grey in my stash, which I'd been using for fur colours.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do next.  There is no cheap yarn locally, and what yarn there is, if it's remotely affordable for charity work, it's in vivid, bright colour mixtures, which I don't think I can turn into bears.

Please note- that ginormous bag of stuffing I bought last year, is almost empty.  There is a good chance I'll need to buy more!  Yikes!