Colours of March

March is normally, grey, snowy and windy here... but the seasons have been confused lately, with last summer sort of passing us by and this winter missing us completely. Regardless, the unseasonably warm March weather has been welcome and the sunshine a blessing. I welcome the warmer weather because I absolute love hanging my laundry outside. It's one of those weird housekeeping tasks I enjoy... not tossing it in a dryer, but hanging it on the line. I'm happy to have a clothes line again!

Two weeks ago, I was able to hang my laundry out. It was a glorious day and while it was still below freezing when I hung it out, it was warm enough to do so. My rule of thumb is that I won't hang it out if my fingers stiffen up and get too cold from the temps. On the farm though, the neighbour was always a tad disdainful that I stopped in late October and didn't start back until the spring, as she hung hers out all winter!


Just a few days ago, it was already gloriously warm in the morning when I hung it out! And no snow! I was at the farm yesterday and they still had just a bit of snow, but then it's neither here nor there since they had snow fall on Saturday and we had it as freezing rain Sunday morning.


The only things in bloom yet are the Maple trees. Somehow I think it is too early for them to flower, but they are already! I loved the colour of the sky at this moment.



Because nothing is blooming yet.. the daffodils have only just awoken from their winter slumber and have stretched only about an inch towards the sky, I had to go with some artificial colour this year. Pots of forced Hyacinth bulbs have been on sale this year. They are one of my favourite bulbs for both their colour and aroma. This one was sitting right beside my loom. mmmm

Toe Grafting

Or Stupid Kitchener Stitch...

It was nice that a certain Lord Kitchener, commander of some sort in the British Army figured out a way to seam sock toes so that it wouldn't irritate the tootsies... It's the part of sock making that I dislike the most. It should be the exciting bit at the end, because once it's done, you can wear the sock... but I find it frustrating and fussy.
I finished one of the green socks on the weekend. It's the sock yarn I dyed myself with acid dyes. I was pleased with the skein right out of the pot, happy when it was re-skeined into a normal sized skein and am thrilled with how it knit up - no colour pooling at all! However, I had to unstitch that stupid toe grafting 3 or 4 times before I got it to a level of acceptability. I should have expected it, since I had to tink a couple of rows at one point and go back with a crochet hook at another to catch a rather annoying slipped stitch that was irking me to no end. I'm still not totally happy with the toe grafting, but I know when I have to live with the results so I won't be doing it again.

I've always avoided trying the toe up sock method. I like the order in which a cuff down sock is made and I like doing heels that way as well, but I think the next pair will be just that! Toe up.. Sorry Lord Kitchener, I'm just not using your stitch on the next pair!

Weaving through distractions

It's been a week of distractions..

First, I had offered to make up a display board for the local Weaver's and Spinner's guild recent demo. It took longer than I had expected. Among other things, I changed my vision halfway through, which is not a good idea. I dragged my wheel and the inkle loom to the demo as well. When I dug out the little loom, I realized it had a half finished band on it and the warp had stretched. It took a bit, but I wove it off and re-warped it just in time for the demo. Now just to get this band off and ready for the next inkle project which will be a strap for a felted bag.

The bag is the loom waste of the shawl project. I had a bit of the weft thread leftover, so I just did plain weave all the way to the end of the warp. Off the loom, the tabby was a firm fabric which really had little drape to it. After sewing it up, I tossed it in the washer and watched it carefully so that it would full up enough but not too much. I almost got distracted and let it go on a bit too far, but it's still good. Hopefully this week, I'll be able to pop a lining in it and once the strap is woven, it will be a nice, albeit somewhat small bag.

The shawl is off the loom. I'm really happy with it. It turned out as nice as I'd hoped for, even nicer perhaps. It's soft and drapey and the colour combinations worked as I'd envisioned them as well. Going with the twill, used more yarn and thus a bit of a narrower shawl, but it was the right decision. It is a much nicer piece than if I'd used a tabby weave. Of course I could be biased, since I am rather fond of twills anyway...

Then of course, were several beautiful days when I dragged my pup out to snuffle in the sun's glorious rays, while I squelched through the melting snow and mud with intentions of picking up sticks and other bits. He did make things a bit more difficult at times when he noticed I had some of the larger sticks in my grasp. He would jump up and bite the sticks and nudge my hand. Apparently larger sticks are to be thrown and retrieved rather than put in the ever growing pile of sticks.

My girlfriend, who lives halfway around the world, sent a Christmas pressie, which due to a timing delay, got here on Monday.. Isn't it pretty! It's soft, squishy, beautiful, yummy sock yarn in a very pretty colourway. I found a set of sock needles for sale from someone's stash at a spin-in today, so I nabbed them so I could have two pair of socks on the go at once. My rule is finish the pair on the needles before I start a new pair, so that the single sock doesn't languish forever in some sort of sock void. However, I had no rules about 2 pair of socks being knit at the same time. That's not cheating too much is it?

We unfortunately missed Winter War. This time we realized we'd not had a day out just to ourselves in a while, so we took the day to do some running around to various places to do some planning, research and window shopping. We went to various stores looking for various kitchen design ideas. We were supposed to go out for lunch, but the restaurant we chose closes between lunch and dinner. We'd missed the window of opportunity so headed home. On the way, DH decided to pop into a local car dealership to do some of the research. We've been planning a second vehicle for a while and one on our list was in the lot that day. We went for a bit of a test drive - always fun.... and picked up this today :) Not quite the little run about I'd anticipated....

Weaving, Dyeing and more

How 'bout those Canadian Hockey players.. eh?

In between Olympic excitement, I managed to get a few things done. I was able to weave off the cat blanket almost to the very end of the loom waste. In this case it didn't matter as it wasn't going to throw the measurements off that much. There was only 10 inches between the end of the blanket and the knots on the back beam. I was hoping to use some of it up, just because I was a bit short of yarn, but getting that much out of it makes me pretty happy.

I divided the length of woven fabric in half and hand stitched it together along one side. It was time consuming but really easy to just pick up the weft loops back and forth. It makes a good seam for a blanket. Hemming was done by hand with some leftover grey thread, so it doesn't show. I wet finished it in the washer for a few minutes and that quick wash really softened up the Briggs and Little wool. While it will be durable, it isn't scratchy. That's a win win situation. I believe it has passed the most important inspection test.. The cat seems to like it well enough.

The wool I dyed at the outside winter demo with Regia is washed and dried. The Red is from Madder extract and the yellow is dried Weld and frozen Golden Marguerite. The night before the demo, I boiled up the two together in a stainless steel pot and let it cool and soak overnight. In the morning I transfered it to a bucket and at the event, it was heated in the rivet plate iron pot.

I tossed my last bit of Madder extract into my basket on a whim as we were leaving the house. I wouldn't normally use extract to dye with at a medieval period demo, but I had nothing else prepared for emergencies. It was a good thing as the young lads were indulging in a bit of horseplay around the firebox and toppled the tripod with the yellow dye after only two skeins.

After we cleaned up the mess, one of the lads was helpful by collecting snow to melt for a new dyepot, with the madder extract. We secured the pot on a trivet, instead of the tripod and these lovely reds popped out of the Madder vat. I can't tell you how much extract nor how much water was used because it was 3/4 pot of melted snow water and a sprinkle of extract. Pretty results though!

I've had to replant the parsley, chives and basil plants from the little peat starter pellets into larger containers. The basil smells so yummy. I can't wait for it to grow larger enough to use. The rest of the seeds came in with one small disappointment. The Amish Paste Tomato seeds weren't available due to a crop failure. Since I won't put an order in for only one packet of seeds, I'll just have to keep looking on various store racks for replacement paste tomato seeds.

There is a new project on the loom. It's pettable and yummy. That's all I'll say about it for now...

Colours of February

February has been a month of up and down temperatures, with lots of grey skies. Spring is on it's way though. You can feel it in the air. The buds are starting to swell and the tips of the tree branches are starting to just change a bit in colour, from dead brown to pinkish or goldish in colour, because the sap is starting to run. We've actually had a few temperatures which get just past freezing and the sun finally feels warm.

A February sunrise. It was around 7 am, maybe at bit earlier but not much. The dog doesn't normally like to go out in the morning while it's still dark! The sky was purple, pink and beautiful.



It was a cloudy, grey day. All of a sudden, the sun's rays broke through the cloud cover, reflecting off the barn and silos. The magic lasted only a few minutes unfortunately.




A visit to my friend's farm to check out the new addition. Pachino the Shetland ram is checking out the camera. What a sweet face! His coat is dense and crimpy.... pretty boy!




Chicken and Leek soup, cooked over the fire. There are sausages in the smaller pot and peppered apples just peeking at the bottom of the photo. This was a winter Saxon/Viking demo and that was our lunch! The rest of the photos are on a friend's camera, so I'll have to wait until I get copies of them to use them. It was fun but cold.

Plying and Playing in the Dirt

Yesterday I spun Shetland wool. Today I spun Shetland wool. Tomorrow I'll be waiting for the propane guy to come repair the hot water heater. (Washing dishes with water heated in the kettle wouldn't be so bad if the ancient sink stoppers actually worked. As it currently is, you have to be really fast to get the dishes done before the water trickles out.) Then I'll hopefully get to head out to a friend's for the afternoon. When I come home, I'll do some spinning. I'm now about 2/3 the way through spinning. Is that light at the end of the tunnel?

This afternoon though, I took a break from spinning and played in the dirt! I tried some winter sewing. You know how the bird seed germinates into beautiful flowers or leftover tomato seeds grow to be volunteers in the garden? Well supposedly winter sowing helps this natural germination along. In plastic containers to be mini-greenhouses, I poked some drainage holes and dumped in some dampened soil. I planted a few seeds in them, sealed them up and stuck them outside. Theoretically this will stratify if necessary and get the plants growing in a natural cycle. There are Dyer's Greenweed and Elecampane in those containers. I really only need one more Dyer's Greenweed bush and only as security as I'm not sure one survived transplanting. The Elecampane is a Zone 3 plant so will hopefully do well with this technique. I've extra seeds to start early inside or in the greenhouse to compare with. I may end up with a gazillion plants if it all goes well.


I did a small planning survey of the garden space and I may have bigger plans than planting area. If I sort of shift my 2 new raised beds and fill in the middle walkway that I left, I think I can do it with some intensive growing techniques. Hubby doesn't like that idea as it will be much harder to weed. Do you think he'd notice if I filled in the 4 foot by 30 foot walkway without mentioning it to him?

I found my sourdough starter which I haven't fed in a few weeks. I've several different ones which I've kept going for nearly a year. Unfortunately I haven't fed them lately. I dumped out most of one and have re-started it. It seems to be fine. Herman, my second one, may not make it and I might have to start that one all over again. Herman made the absolutely best pancakes, so I'm hoping he survives.

Re-potted Chives for your pre-springtime growing pleasure!

soon to be blues and projects

How could I forget? My big seed coup for this year was to procure a packet of Dyer's Knotweed. Also known as Japanese Indigo or Polygonum Tinctorium, it's another dye plant which gives blue and grows well in our climate. The seed is hard to find and tends to be rather expensive when you do find it. It will give a lot of blue dye though; more than Woad but less than true Indigo. I am hoping to be able to save the seeds this year. It flowers late in the season, when light levels are declining. Unfortunately this also means that we start getting frosts. Last time I tried it, the frosts and cool temps stopped the flowers before they could even open properly!

On the loom.... Finally.... This warp was wound ages ago and been waiting for me to get around to dressing the loom. It's Briggs and Little wool that I got at the KW Knitter's Fair. I sort of guestimated what I'd need and slightly understimated. Somehow I thought I'd get a blanket and a shawl from what I'd purchased. Instead, I'm getting the blanket and a slightly smaller one than planned at that. It's a 4 shaft, 10 thread birdseye twill found in M. Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book. The yarn is 100% wool singles. It will be woven in one long piece, cut in half and the two sides sewn together to make up the desired width. My loom is only 36 inches wide and really, that is about as far as I can conveniently throw a shuttle. In order to get something wider than my loom, I need to either weave double weave or piece it. Double weave gets me only a tabby as I only have 4 shaft. While it would have been less yarn but it wouldn't drape as nicely. Since this is a cat blanket.. yes, for the cat to snuggle.. You see he doesn't like sitting on laps. However if you snuggle under a wool blanket, sometimes he forgets that you are under it and snuggles up the the blanket which is on your lap. It's the only way to get a cat snuggle in my house!

Spinning.. more shawl yarn for Tammy's shawl. This is just about 1300 yards of it. That's about a third of what I need. Believe me I've been spinning for what seems like days. Well that is a bit of an exaggeration - only 4 or 5 hours a day for more than a week. Depending on how long it actually takes me to spin the shawl yarn, will depend on what order it makes it onto the loom.

Oh and the Parsley has germinated and the chives are almost ready to re-pot! Yay for growing things way to early in the season. Fresh chives sprinkled on a baked potato or omelet. Yum!