Someone crop dusting started up their helicopter at 5:30 am. They were 2 fields away so the noise was unexpectedly loud. They were finally done at almost 9 am before they headed off to wherever. It was a day for a nap!
I was outside gardening when I noticed the sky was this intense blue. I snapped a photo and a few minutes later it had lightened up to its more usual paler blue. It was a great colour and reminded me of the skies when I was a kid, living much further north.
Our guild dye day was somewhat disappointing. We had two options and you could do both. Nature dyes, with 4 different pots and weak acid dyes, because you could easily paint a warp or a skein while we waited for the nature dyes to take.
I pre-mordanted all the wool for the natural dyes with 10% alum. We had easily 2-5 times the dye materials to WOF ratios so there should have been lots of dye pigment available. The only issue we really had was that there wasn't enough power to keep all the pots simmering on the hot plates. The walnut dye went outside in the sun. The madder ended up in a crockpot and the dandelions on a hot plate, which never got past a very low simmer. The stinging nettle went inside onto a stove, was forgotten about and ended up bubbling gently and happily away. Until this combination, we kept blowing breakers. Hindsight being what it is, we should have moved another pot or two to the inside stove and left one on the hot plate in the garage. Live and learn. The stinging nettle was an experiment and I'm pretty happy with that colour. It was a lovely green. I left this one 48 hours before rinsing and it's a little darker than another sample that I'd seen which was rinsed shortly after being removed from the dye pot.
I got him to move and thought my yarn was safe. The next day though, I found that particular skein on the ground and in a bit of a tangle. When I wound it into a ball, I found it was now in three pieces. While I wasn't too happy with it, I wasn't surprised. I was much happier than the cashmere skein which I'd found in a thousand tiny little pieces and was totally unusable. I used to keep my drying yarn safe by setting a towel over the top bar of my Fanny loom and hanging it there. I recently gave away that loom though, and didn't even think about the K issue. Obviously a chair isn't a safe option.
I forgot totally about the fact that I also finished up 4 hats. These are double toques, which are meant for the very cold weather. One is small and will go into the gift bin. One my husband claimed immediately and 2 others I kept for myself. I wet finished and blocked them both. The grey one took a weird turn when I got it wet and swished it slightly to even up the knitting. It stretched out. I tossed the two, and a shawl I knit over the summer into the washer for a few minutes. The hand spun blue and white hat was perfect after a few minutes. The grey shawl was perfect but the grey hat, knit with the leftovers from the grey shawl, was fulled up and required much stretching while pinning. Totally odd.
However, here is why I dislike blocking knits in the cold weather.
They worked up so quickly and easily that I am thrilled with that sock yarn. It was nice because I made a pair of socks with some cotton/wool blend yarn that I received in a yarn swap some years ago and they are a bit harsh. Maybe they'll be nicer after washing them a few times.
The prognosticating rodents (groundhogs) in the area all predicted an early spring, but this has been a bit ridiculous and unexpected. The weather has been so unseasonably warm the past week. Some people have even started their syrup/ sap collecting. We discussed it, but decided to wait. The last time we put our spiles in early, we had a great start, but once the daytime temperatures drop to below freezing the tree starts to heal. So instead of having to re-drill holes, we're waiting and hoping that we get some colder weather to stop the sap running for now. Then we can tap our trees later in the season.
It was warm enough to hand out a laundry, albeit a small load. That blanket is beloved by Dion kitty. He wasn't impressed that it was shiny clean and smelled all fresh and outdoorsy. He gave it a long stare and then had to be enticed on to it before he settled down for his nap.
We were totally stunned and hadn't expected to lose Phil at all because a few days ago, he was his normal self. An xray showed his lungs were full of fluid, so much that there was barely any clear area and it had pushed his esophagus along his spine. The vet said that the pupil size differences suggested that this was an incurable virus that he'd picked up as a kitten and that there was no cure, at least that is available here. We had to make the difficult decision right then. We really weren't prepared for this and had no expectations that we wouldn't be bringing Phil home.
Phil was my lap cat. He slept on my legs almost every night. Many days he demanded that I let him nap on top of me in the afternoons, which lead to a lot of novels being read, with a cat snuggled on me. In the winter he would crawl under the covers at night. He'd figured out that if he wiggled his head up near the pillow, so that his head wasn't under the blankets, he could sleep there for hours or all night.
He chose us as a home. One summer we kept seeing an orange cat around the property for a few weeks.
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| Supervisor Phil asleep on the job |
They were both sweeties and didn't act like feral cats. We thought they may have been drop offs, which sometimes happens in rural areas. They were both well socialized and accustomed to people. They fit into our family perfectly. Phil was such a character that he was best friend to all of his chosen people and shared his affection freely. He was a helper kitty, curious and liked to supervise everything. I will miss him thinking that every skein of yarn was his to play with. I will miss his cuddles, his charm and his personality. This loss will be difficult to get over as it just hit us without any notice or time to prepare.
RIP Phil, and safe trip over the rainbow bridge.
We've had day after day of wet, grey, dreary weather. I'm looking forward to later in the week when we're supposed to get some sunshine. I've been trying to move some plants from the old raised beds in preparation for the new ones being built. I'm half done, but it's been too wet to finish up for almost a week now.
Twice now I've seen a bald eagle flying over us. They are huge and fly very fast. At least they fly quickly when the crows appear out of nowhere to chase them away. We also heard an odd bird call the other day. We were in the garage and this odd trilling was very loud. It was a sound I'd never heard before. I popped out to see what it was, as it was definitely close, and there in the tree was a Raven. Then several crows appeared and chased it off. I checked the Raven call on-line and it was exactly what we'd heard. I've seen it a couple of times since then as well. Large predator birds overhead does make me a little more careful about letting my chooks out though. The hens don't like the wet weather though, so I don't feel quite so badly about keeping them locked in for the day when it's cold and rainy.
The plaid shawl is finally off the loom. Really, I got busy and chose to do something other than weave. It's pretty and I love the look of the plaid, but it is really a pain to weave. It's a very subtle combination of colours. More subtle than I'd have normally chosen. I'm not sure what type of lights were in the shop where I purchased the main colour. It looked grey in the shop. I realized that it would be very dull unless I had an accent colour. I found the same yarn brand at a local store, and thought the grey they had was similar to the one I had at home. It wasn't. While there was lots of contrast at the local store with their grey, mine is a different shade. Maybe that's why it was on super sale! So back to the store to pick up the yellow, to give the whole look some definition. Regardless, I do like it. It's 23 inches wide and 72 inches long, so a good size for a shawl.
I'm thinking it's time to warp up the floor loom and give it a go. My hip is healed up enough and as long as I don't over do it, it should keep any swelling and inflammation down according to the surgeon.
There were a lot more people checking their phones during the concert than I normally see. That was because it was game 5 for the Maple Leafs playoff hockey. When that winning goal was won, right after that song ended, the crowd spontaneously erupted in "Go Leafs Go", which was particularly funny. It lasted until he acknowledged the play off game win and thanked people for coming to the concert instead of watching the game.
Gratuitous cat photo of Phil, who sometimes gets cold and dives under blankets until he gets warm. At night he either sneaks totally under the covers, or he just sleeps at your side, with his body under the covers and his head either on, or near the pillow. He'll sleep that way for hours, but only until he's warm if he's completely under the blankets.
There is an issue though, that proves to stop my hooking completely. I set up the frame, tighten the rug down the rug. As soon as Phil notices, he watches until I reach for my hook and wool. Then he flies up, and settles under the frame for a nap. Silly kitty...
On the plus side, using this frame when there isn't a cat hiding under it has made the border hook quite quick. The first 3 sides are almost complete, so Yay!
After a huge fiasco when I ordered my Pysanky dyes this year, I've finally been able to start writing the eggs. I'd ordered the dyes at the beginning of February. The store sent them, but neglected to send me the promised tracking number, so I didn't know they'd been sent, and apparently delivered. However they weren't delivered to me, despite the shops insistence. Finally they sent me the tracking number, which enabled me to use the post office's miserable virtual assistance, to find out that they had put the wrong address on it. It was back to the store, where they said that they'd resend the packet, and then decided that they should charge me a second time. I was nope, I'm not paying twice for one package because you made the mistake. I had to dig up all the documentation for them, to see that I had indeed paid, and they were "oops, it slipped my mind". Needless to say, as much as I've purchased from them before, I'll be searching out a new supplier and only using this store if I actually go to the city to shop in person.
The sap is running. We have some buckets out but I think it's too early. Hubby is happy with the timing though and since he does most of the boiling down, his opinion has a bit more weight than mine. He took the buckets down yesterday afternoon because a big storm was blowing in, with snow, snow thunder and winds.
The storm dumped almost 30 cm of snow on us: heavy, wet snow. It took him all morning in a couple of shifts to clear the driveway and blow out paths to the bird feeder and barn. Today the skies were blue and the sun was shining. It was hard to believe that they said we had blizzard conditions for hours last night.
I belong to a rug hooking guild. Next year is it's 50th anniversary, and the club is doing a huge show at the art gallery. There are going to be 2 rooms, one for the history of rug hooking in our area and the other to showcase members rugs. We have some spectacularly talented rug hookers. I'm a rank beginner in comparison. However, most of my rugs are my own design. There's one in particular I've been asked to finish up as it's a bit of a different design. I drew my own pattern and dyed much of the wool used for it, so it unique in a number of ways.
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| Phil sleeping on the rug while I made tea |
Unfortunately, the drying time is an issue. One thing about this rug is that the cats have taken a liking to it. With all the wool blankets I leave all over for them to sleep on, it's curious to me as to why they've taken a liking to this particular rug. All that needs to be finished is the border. I started on it and set it down to go make tea and came back to find Phil had settled on it. He was probably awake but refused to open his eyes and move. He'd settled in quite nicely.
Because of the way I'm working this, I'm only gluing on the sequins onto the side that I'm hooking. During the drying time, Kevin has decided that this rug was a good place to nap. He would move if I chase him off, but he was sleeping nicely and the rug needed to dry until the morning anyway, so I left him to his dreams.
Argh, it's been crazy busy around here. The past weekend was the weavers guild sale. We had amazing participation from members willing to come out to man our booth. It was part of a greater community art sale. The location has been moving around for a number of years, even before Covid, and sales have been pretty iffy at times, depending on the spot. One location was well attended by a huge number of people who commented each time we tried to engage them, that they were only here for an afternoon out and to look. It was so frustrating. This weekend though, the location was such that the people came ready to shop. Even though they shopped at all the different booths, it was lovely to see the artists happy at the sale.
There were a couple of potters with lovely wares. One was a little too softly coloured, with their good smaller and pastel glazed. The other however, had pieces with lots of cobalt, white and copper glazes with beautiful shapes. There were mugs big enough for my tea mug. Since my currant tea mug has suddenly acquired a chip in the base, I was getting worried about it breaking and not having a replacement. One of those lovely mugs came home with me. I really liked the cobalt and copper look, but the mugs were smaller, so I came home with a white and cobalt mug, big with a nice shape. I got to have one cup of tea in it to test it and then hubby put it away.
I've been on a weaving binge, although my hip has complained excessively. With the sale on the horizon, I had a commission for blankets. They had to be done before the sale though. I'll admit that one night we ate frozen chicken burgers for supper, and another night I made a quiche in the name of expediency so I could finish the projects. Much crazyiness ensued for two weeks but my family was okay with it. Blankets were finished in time and handed off to the new owner. That was a sigh of relief.
Yesterday morning I put a scarf warp on the rigid heddle loom. I went to the sale at Spinrite and they had this kid mohair/silk on for $3 a skein. It's absolutely lovely and I wish I'd purchased more. This one is about 8 inches wide. It's very soft and weaving up nicely.
My research suggests that mohair needs to be woven with a wider sett, to keep the fuzzy halo, soft and not itchy. It's supposed to catch and and can be tough to weave. It's weaving beautifully however. I read that mohair yarn that is 1000yds per 100g, should be sett at 7 or 8. I'm using my 7.5 reed, so I'm hoping it will be good. It's certainly pretty enough.
This is Phil and Dion, the feral kitties who chose to live with us. Literally, Phil (on the left) hung around all summer, then screamed at me one day when I went to hang laundry when the weather was cooling. I looked after him and the next day he brought Dion with him. They didn't leave. They are now spoiled house cats. They sleep together when the weather cools down.
In the cold weather, Phil really likes to be warm at night. He wakes me up so that I can lift the covers and give him a space to crawl underneath. A lot of times he seems to decide to spend the whole night there, so he slips his head on my pillow so his body stays warm. I've woken up and he's in the same place he was when I went to sleep. If he's just cold though, he just curls up underneath the blankets. Once his nose and feet are warm, he hops out. Believe me, sometimes his feet get cold to be felt through jeans and long johns, so I can understand why he wants to warm up under the covers.
It's been a very "interesting" few weeks. First, I inadvertently clicked the update to Windows 11 button, and over about 5 weeks or so, it slowly downloaded, on our very slow, rural wifi. It changed all my settings, and mucked up all sorts of things. It took me several weeks to get it sort of back to normal. Then it did an auto update, and now it turns off my wifi periodically and then the button to turn it back on disappears, creating havoc as I try to get it back. Fun Times!
So, we have tapped our maple trees. We had appropriate weather to put the spiles in and hang the buckets, but a 2 day windstorm put a kybosh on that. We had to wait and of course the day after we got the sap buckets out, the weather turned cold again. Finally it warmed up and the sap started running. But it's too warm now, and the sap has stalled to almost nothing. We're leaving the buckets up, hoping that it will restart. Otherwise, we'll have a very small production of maple syrup this year.
The boss had to take a weeks holiday, as in he absolutely had to use it up, so he took off this week so he could get things done around here, and do a couple of sap boils. He chose this week over next because of the longterm weather forecast, which changed for the worse about 2 seconds after he confirmed his choice of weeks. He didn't get to boil sap at the beginning of the week because it's been too cold to run. He was able to start yesterday, so he'll only get one boil done on his week off.
On Monday, the TV died. I was in the middle of playing Animal Crossing and I left a villager's house and emerged into darkness. A few minutes later of trying every sort of reboot and suggested fix, it was totally gone. So hubby dragged up the old TV which was sitting in the basement. It worked when it was put down there, but didn't work when it was hooked up this time. So after I went grocery shopping, he headed out to replace it.
On Tuesday, my cute little car needed some routine work, an oil change, some brake work and a belt replacement because it was about time to do that. It was over $800, which we were happy enough with. On Wednesday, my son's car needed to go in so he borrowed my car to get to work, and called us up before he headed home to say the new belt was shredded. That meant a call to the garage, who immediately sent a tow truck, offered to send a car to pick up my son and if necessary an offer for a loaner vehicle. Then the next day they told us they'd made a mistake in installing it, and how they fixed it and the car came back to us. We were so happy in how quickly and efficiently they dealt with the problem. The cute little car is purring now.
So now it was Thursday. We had to do two trips back and forth to pick up cars because we needed to make sure there was at least one car here that could do a long trip, as the truck uses too much gas and it is making odd, unsettling noises that we don't feel safe doing long trips with.
Today we had to purchase a new electric stove!
It's not been much of a holiday week as it was just a tad too stressful. We probably could have taken a nice vacation for what it cost us this week for just routine stuff, that always seems to happen at once. There is a Fibre Festival in a nearby city that I was considering attending. It would have been fun, but after all the expense and stress of the week, that just isn't happening.
Yes, and that rear windshield wiper that we got an estimate on fixing, won't get fixed for a while as to fix it was another $850 as everything was a brand specific part. How many thousands upon thousands of dollars would it cost to build a car from scratch, using stupidly over priced replacement parts from the dealer?
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| Cute Cat picture to make things better! |
My son dragged out the cat tunnels we'd put away ages ago. I think that the cats were less enthusiastic about them at the time, and we were tired of tripping over them. So now we're tripping over them again, but one of our gingers was so happy to have this one out again, that he immediately ran in, played for a bit and then had a nap, inside the tunnel. The two gingers love the tunnel right now. They spend a good part of their waking hours running through and back and forth. Today though, they were both waiting to ambush the other kitty. However, there are 2 tunnels, and each cat was in a different tunnel. That didn't work out at all and I just watched them trying not to laugh too loudly, because it was funny watching them check for the other.
We popped out to see where a local farm produce vendor had moved their stand. It used to be one large one, but it's been moved into two locations with smaller stands. On the way home we did an impromptu hike on one of the short trails we passed by. The river was flowing nicely and so pretty. This lovely wild rose shrub was in full bloom. Someone and their kid or kids had painted rocks and left them around the trail. It was fun to find them. I loved that while some were painted with some skill, others were obviously painted by a younger child and they were put out as well. That made me very happy.
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. 
