On Cats and Gardens and Other Projects

 Yesterday my poor kitty was unhappy.  He's fairly routine oriented and his routines have been pretty much shattered of late.  I woke up yesterday to a kitty who I think was showing major signs of separation anxiety.   At one point he was actually hanging on my arm and trying to pull me toward him.  This is a cat whose human touch needs are fairly minimal.    He wanted non-stop attention and even when he'd settled a bit, if I'd move away from "my" chair, he'd give me the evil eye and stare at me until I'd sit back down.   If I didn't he come beside me and fuss.   This morning however, it has paid off and he seems to be back to his old, active, talkative self and his routines are back in place.  Now to deal with a day and a half's worth of emails and other chores.

I started a new pair of socks.  The colourway is nice enough, though I'm not sure about the pastel greeny blue colour.  If I were dyeing it, I'd have likely used purple there.  The last pair of 3/1 ribbed socks I made with 64 stitches, turned out a tad looser than I like, so I made these with only 60 stitches.  Of course they are a tad tight.  I 've had to redo the toe 3 times already, so this one better work.  I could have left the last one as it was a fitting issue.  However then the socks would have fitted my daughter, rather than myself.

Cotton seedlings are on top with the large, round leaves.

I found the small packets of cotton seeds that the Master Spinner 2 class had been given.   There were green and white cotton seeds.  Because we live in a cold climate, where cotton cannot be grown as a crop, there are no issues with growing coloured cotton here as it won't contaminate anything.  They'll pretty much be house plants anyway.. big house plants hopefully and with any luck, set a few bolls later this fall.  I've no expectations that they will produce a lot, but I hope they'll grow and survive long enough to produce something.  It could be a fun experiment. 

I'd planted Wild Indigo, but nothing has germinated.  Some Weld has germinated, but I don't know whether it was purchased seed or donated seed as I planted both.  Woad, both regular and Chinese are growing and Dyer's Knotweed seed has come up although somewhat unevenly.   The Purple Calabash and Black Cherry tomato seeds did nothing, but the Black Krim, Red Robin and Orange Sun Salad toms are doing well.  I'm a bit disappointed in the germination of the peppers as only 3 hot chili peppers germinated out of 9 pots and only 7 of the mixed colour sweet bell peppers.  Coreopsis, some herbs and some buttercrunch lettuces are doing well.  It's still too early to plant the cukes, pumpkins and zuchinnis.  Anything else I need, I'll buy.  I planned that in this year as the allure of garden centres is always too much for me to ignore.

The fabric store was having a sale of cotton yardage for $6 a metre.  I loved the black print and have been eyeing the blue with brown dots for a while.  They went nicely together and I added the others.  The little square print is an animal print which I would normally avoid like the plague, but it had the right colours and was the only thing I could find that worked.  I would normally not choose these colours for myself, but I've found that stretching colour choices can be a very good thing.   I've been wanting to make small project, just to practice machine quilting skills.  It's easier on a small quilt.  This will be a table topper, just under 1m in size. 

The blocks are half done. They still need trimming before I can assemble them.   The colours are pretty and work well together bu for the life of me, I cannot think of where I would put this piece.  I guess I'll have to wait until it's done.  I am a little ticked because although I measured at the machine, the seams are a tad too wide.  The 8 1/2 inch blocks will have to turn into 8 inch blocks.  I wonder if they still make feet compatible with this old machine as a 1/4 inch foot could be useful.

Socks and Dye days..

 A dye day had been planned at our guild, acid dyes on  protein fibres.  Long skeins for self striping sock yarn was one of the suggestions.  I was going to dye roving, but decided that spun yarn would be easier.  I started spinning the roving and realized I'd not likely be done in time.  I ended up purchasing some suitable sock yarn and skeined it into the required huge skeins on my warping board.  I did two, one 15 yard and one 12 yard skein.   Then I packed up my skeins, dye gloves, apron and checked the time I had to be there, only to find that the dye day was the day before and I had missed it.  sigh...

I did finish the bright orange socks last week.  Just when I realized that I wasn't making any progress whatsoever, on the second sock , I also realized that I hadn't knitted in a couple of days. I picked up those needles and they seemed to knit themselves.  I wonder if there are knitting elves who come to one's house in the evening to finish knitting up the easy parts of socks.  That's certainly what it felt like.  I had planned on doing the long repetitive knitting at meetings, but I ended up mainly have only the counting parts to do, which is at home knitting.  I can knit repetitvily and still pay attention, but when I have to count, it's time to pay attention to only what I'm doing.    They are certainly going to be sunshine for my feet on grey winter days.

I did get the superwash merino sock yarn spun.  I have approximately 320 yards, so I'm hoping it is enough.  I should know by now that for handspun sock yarn, I want more than 100 grams per pair.  I have more roving, so I can always spin more if I decide I want the margin of safety.  I had been worried about the yarn  being too thin.  I adjusted my thickness and while it means there are a few yards of not perfect yarn, the rest is a suitable size for socks as a two ply.

The end of March ..

March came in like a lamb and limped out like an old, faded lion.  We got snow and cold, blustery weather, but it wasn't horribly frigid cold, nor incredibly blustery or a huge dump of snow.  It was just icky.  I woke up and the cold frame was covered with snow and a bit of ice.  We had sleet, hail, ice pellets and a little bit of snow, which looked horribly out of place on a lawn which is almost green and almost long enough to need mowing in places.

The poor daffodils looked so sad.  All the incredibly early blooms were bent to the ground.  Were they doing so in a desperate bid to go back to the safety of the rich,dark earth and their cozy little bulbs or just huddling away from the nasty weather?  

The few peas I got into the garden early, liked this weather.  They have already germinated and are a bit more than an inch tall.  I'd love to get the rest of the peas in the ground, if the chooks would let me.

  The chooks were out and about in the snow.  It was starting to melt by the time I'd let them out.  Still, it was such a change from the glorious warmth of the previous weeks.  They were only putting one foot down at a time and holding the other up as if they'd stepped in something horribly yucky and uncomfortable.   They spent half of their day huddling on the deck, hoping I'd pop out and give them treats.   It was a good day to cuddle up with a book and a cup of tea, that's for sure.

Then the other day, on an errand day, I happened across one of my horrible "ooh shiney" type weaknesses.   I can look at a whole slew of antique crockery and what speaks to me is Lusterware.  It's not horrible old, nor horribly collectable and it tends to be rather inexpensive.  But I do love it, in it's variety of colours and patterns.   This small set of 6 cups and sauces was very well priced. I've not yet seen a pattern in this deep blue.  The colour is gorgeous and the pattern is unique and charming.  I was smitten and I'm happy to say, even with the new addition, there is still space in the china cabinet.

What a difference..

What a difference a day can make!  In this case,  the weather.   We've gone from summer-like weather, hot and sunny to waking up and finding the pond iced up!  The weather is much more seasonable, but the sudden cold temperatures certainly was a change.     Because of the mild weather, we had to clean up the pond and start up the pump much earlier than we've done it before.  Usually at this time of year, the pond is still frozen over.  Thankfully the icicles and frozen, slippery rocks only lasted a day.   After a cold, blustery few days, it's warm enough to hang the laundry again, but now they are calling for snow flurries by the weekend... not unexpected this time of year, but most unwelcome.

 Mister Garter Snake has been sighted again this year.  He's been seen in the greenhouse as well as around the garden.   There have been mice in the greenhouse over the winter, and there doesn't seem to be any now, so I'm guessing the snake or snakes have had some good meals.  Either way, as long as they don't hide in places where I'll find them by accident, they are welcome to the heat and humidity in there, especially if they keep the mouse population at bay.

 The first orange cabled sock is done.  I was a tad concerned that it would take a long time to finish one sock and that I'd loose interest get distracted before I got to the second one.  However, when I think about it, it was still a fairly fast knit.  It sure is cheerful and bright!  It will be the perfect pair of socks to wear on a cold, grey, wintery day; sunshine for your feet!  Now to get to work on the second one.

The guild is having an acid dye day, mainly with the idea of making self patterning sock yarns.  I was going to dye roving, (I still might) but then I got it into my noggin that it would be easier to spin the yarn first.  I have a bunch of superwash Merino mill ends, which really work better if they are carded first.  I carded them with the drum carder to make nice, fluffy batts and started spinning.  I realize now that I should have added something a bit sturdier to the superwash Merino, as it's very slippery.  While incredibly easy to spin, I started spinning during the inevitable hockey game and while watching the home team lose once again, I didn't notice that I was spinning much thinner than I wanted.  I sampled a 3 ply and it was still too thin.  I was able to spin it to a more useable diameter once I started paying attention.  I don't know if I'll just deal with the almost half bobbin of too thin yarn and try to pair it with something thicker to make a useable amount of sock yarn or if I'll just turn it into some embroidery yarns and re-card and spin more yarn.   Either way, my skein of hand spun sock yarn may not be ready for dye day and I will have to resort to more mundane resources, which luckily, were on sale this week!

Crazy Early Spring

We've had delightful, unseasonably warm weather.  It's felt like summer, day after day.  The ground has dried up, much yard work has been accomplished and some gardening.  I've gotten some of the peas planted.  Even if the weather turns cold, they'll be fine as they prefer cooler weather and are quite hardy.  The lettuces in the cold frame are starting to germinate.   With the long range forecast for a warmer than normal spring, I broke down and started many of my garden seeds a week early.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but it can mean the difference between leggy, overgrown seedlings or having to re-pot them before planting. I checked and I've enough larger pots should I need to go the second route but even getting plants in the ground a week early could make a huge difference to garden results.   I've still a few things to plant.  Curcurbits (cucumbers, squash etc) only need to be started a few weeks before plant out date, so I'll wait until my normal time for those.   

In this crazy weather, flowers which should be blooming a month from now, have graced us with their beauty.  I popped out to do some errands this morning and came back to this show in the front of the house.  So pretty.  The flower beds in the back have dried out and the sandy soil has been a hit with the chooks.  They've sunbathed in a good portion of the back beds, decimating most of the perennial flowers there.    I'll be fencing in my gardens soon enough I suppose, just to keep the chooks at bay.  Yes, it might be easier to fence the chooks, but they'd be unhappy about it for sure!


I've had a few false starts on projects lately.  I wanted to have a not quite plain pair of socks on the needles.  However the patterns I chose, turned out to need more concentration than I was willing to put into them.  First the colour I chose didn't show the pattern up and I couldn't easily follow it.  The same pattern in a different colour showed up fine, but required me to constantly think about it.  When outside, trying to keep the chickens from drinking my tea, while I was knitting, proved to be too much of a distraction to keep up with that pattern.   These pretty orange socks are using Cookie A's BFF.  I've done it before.  It's an easy 6 row pattern with only a couple of odd pattern rows at changing points.  It makes a lovely sock, pretty and useful everyday type pattern.  The only slow row is the cable row, every 6 rows.  Not so bad and suitable for dragging to meetings and knitting outside while shooing chooks from one's tea!

Friday Night Spinning and "stuff"

 I'd decided to devote my Friday night to finishing up projects, or at least finishing up a project.  Mainly, I wanted the blue merino off the wheel.  So Friday night, I hunkered down and spun blue yarn.  I filled the rest of the second bobbin  by the end of the evening.  I'd hand carded most of the roving, but I'd been finding some of the rolags were getting very neppy, so the last little bit, I simply pulled strips from the roving and pre-drafted it.  It wasn't quite as easy to spin, but there were definitely less neps.  Saturday night, during the hockey game, I plied.  I decided to use the jumbo flyer on the Minstrel.  It took the whole Leafs hockey game, the Montreal game shoot out and a bit of whatever was on next (I didn't pay attention), to fill the flyer.  I was tired of plying by then.  This morning, I wound the blue yarn onto my niddy noddy and have this gorgeous skein of 533 yards of Merino, dyed with Japanese Knotweed.

Last weekend, I dug out an old window which we found when clearing the little barn to make space for the chooks.  My sweetie cut the pieces of scrap wood and a couple of days ago, my son assembled it for me.  The new cold frame is now a fixture in the garden.  I've planted some lettuce, mesclun mix and spinach.  Hopefully we'll get some early salads out of it.   I have to be careful when propping it open for venting as one of the chooks likes to hop in and scratch around in there.  There are two more windows and enough scraps to make a second cold frame, if this one proves useful.

I think that the unseasonably warm weather has jump started our spring.  It's like everything is almost a month early already.  We have Crocuses blooming, all two of them.  The rest seem to have vanished.  If the hungry chooks didn't eat them, then our resident squirrels did.   I'll have to remind myself to plant more this fall.   The Daffodils are starting to set buds and should flower soon, if the weather doesn't cool off.   The Maple trees are flowering!  I love the look of the flowering trees.  It's one of those signs of spring I look for.  Of course, normally I don't get to spend the whole day outside in short sleeves and a sun hat, admiring the trees while doing yard work.  It's a lovely and rare treat to have a late winter, since it's not yet spring, like this!

Colours of March 2012

 We're having crazy warm weather here.  On this day last year, we had a temperature of 2C and today, we got up to 16C.  Yesterday the garden beds were dry enough to start raking, although it was still too wet to start on the grass.  Not only did the back flower bed get raked of the pine needles that fall over the winter, but twice this amount of brush from fallen branches, unwanted buckthorn and wild plum saplings got removed.  I even pruned the raspberry canes today, noting that there was a lot of winter kill, despite the mild temperatures, probably due to lack of snow cover.

  I found a partial bag of potting soil in the greenhouse, so I planted a few seeds of three kinds of onions.  I'll plant more green onions in a few weeks, so that we can harvest them successively.  The Spanish onions are a long season storage onion and the White Welsh Perennial onion is a new one for this year, being a green onion which grows back year after year and is self seeding.   It's too early to plant too much more without a cold frame, hoop house or other protection.

 With the warm weather and sunshine, the chooks have found places to dust bathe.  It's the oddest thing watching them fluff their feathers, roll in the dirt and then shake it off, like a wet dog shakes water.   I tried to tell the girls, this was where I'd planted my Dyer's Coreopsis, but they didn't seem to care.  I'll start some in pots and plant it there when they've found another, more suitable spot to dust bathe.

Checking out the fields behind our house.  You can see the pasture in the foreground is still dormant, but something at the very back is starting to green up.   I swear we have trees ready to leaf out already and that doesn't normally happen until May around here.  As long as the pear trees don't flower early, it's all good.   With a pretty much guaranteed chance of frost yet this spring, I'd rather not lose the pear crop this year.


I love the fresh, bright colour of the greens on the pine trees in the spring.  Against the blue sky, it is a most beautiful colour combination.  Later in the year, those greens will seem much darker and dull.