Backus Mill Reenactment

On Sunday we went to Backus Mill to watch the war of 1812 reenactment.  The conservation area had opened some of their historical buildings.  The last time we were there, the mill was closed.  This time it was open and it is full of old mill equipment.

It doesn't seem to be set up as a functioning mill would have been, but there is a lot of old flour processing materials.   The water wheel and old dam still work as well.

One of the buildings is set up as a museum.  The displays inside are really well done and it was an impressive building to explore.  

I found this old knitting needle mounted on a display.   It is made of wood and in really good condition, although there is no age range listed, so it might not be horribly old.  It is pretty neat though.

One of the log cabins had been set up and used as a tavern on Saturday night.  It was really well done, with tables, lanterns and candles, as well as a lot of interesting old items for decor. 

The British army was out in full force and after a dasterdly murder of the Red Coat leader during the parlay, the American army was turned away and the town was saved.

The bright red coats of the British Army sure stand out in the battlefield.  I wonder who decided that red was a good colour to protect the soldiers?

It was a fun afternoon.

New Fleece update

I've been pulling a lot of locks from the new fleece.   I only have 6 pieces of screening to make washing envelopes from though, so I've been trying to do 2 lots per day.  It is still pretty slow going.  Once in a while I put a couple of handfuls of fleece in a lingerie bag to bulk wash. 

packets of fleece locks ready to wash

This is the screen packet of locks ready for washing.  The safety pins keep everything tucked in nicely.  The locks stay in place and don't move around.  The screen lets water and soap in, and the gritty dirt and lanolin out.

We've had a few nice days and the fleece dries quickly when I can get it out.  However there have been a lot more rainy days of late and then it has to dry inside.  Even with the rack, it takes a bit longer to dry inside.

So clean and quite soft!

Once the locks are dry, I've been flick carding them.   Sometimes I go outside and flick card a whole bin of them at once.  It is a nice way to spend some time outside in the nice weather this time of year.   But on the rainy days, I just flick card as I'm spinning; one lock opened and one lock spun.   I don't know if it takes more time this way, but the cat doesn't get nearly as involved, which is always a good thing when spinning.

The end result has been a lot of this.  These are fine singles which will be plied once I get the 4th bobbin spun.  I'm almost there!

Big Box of Fleece

I needed a fleece for my Level 6 in-depth study project.     I had a few requirements for this fleece.  It had to be medium or medium/fine, with a 4 inch staple, and hopefully fairly free of VM and not dripping in lanolin.   It is much easier to find a raw fleece in the spring, right after shearing.  The reality is, that I couldn't find anything much local.  Eventually, I decided to take a bit of a risk. On Monday,  I called up the Canadian Co-op Wool Growers Premium Fleece Division, Eastern location in Carlton Place   I ordered 1 white fleece, 30-32 microns, 4 in staple length.  Jim, in the warehouse was most helpful.  The fleece was packaged and shipped on Tuesday.  Yesterday, I received notice that I could pick up my parcel at the post office today.  I will say that was a bit of a wait and an exercise in patience.

This is what I dragged home this afternoon.   It wasn't overly heavy but it was a bit bulky.   It did took a bit like whatever was inside, was trying to get out!  I checked the packing invoice before I opened the box.   The fleece weighed in at 14lbs!

This is all I could see when I flipped over the box flaps.

I tipped out the fleece and tried to unroll it.  As you can see, I was unsuccessful.   It was a huge pile of fleece - you know, 14 lbs of it.  I'm pretty sure it was rolled up nicely to begin with, but with the compression and trying to get it out of the plastic bag, the fleece got a bit twisted around.

It is a lovely fleece.  That crimp is throughout the fleece.  The lock structure is great throughout the fleece.   There is a bit of VM in a few places, but not ridiculous amounts.     I pulled a lock to check crimp, strength and condition.  This is a bit dirty on the outside but the tips are stable, and really not much VM at all.

I pulled 3 locks from 3 separate places on the fleece.  I swished them about in hot soapy water a few times, then rinsed them, rolled them in a towel to absorb the excess water, and laid them outside to dry.

Wow!  Did they ever wash up nicely.   Super white, no staining, and still strong.   I can't wait to spin up a sample of this fibre.   Did I mention that it was $3 lb, plus shipping?  While I fully agree with supporting small flocks, sometimes a lovely, huge and quality fleece at a great price is a nice treat!   Would I order from them again? You bet I would, in a heartbeat.   Now I'm wondering if I should try the Western Division, to see about one of those lovely, clean, fine Western range fleeces.....

Guess what I'm doing for the next week or two?  Yup!  I'm washing fleece.

Open Tart of Strawberry

Mrs. Beeton's Open Tart of Strawberry or any other kind of Preserve


Super simple and requires only 2 ingredients - pastry and jam


The recipe even has an illustration showing the type of tart pan which was recommended.   Totally not the one I used, but the modern tart pan was the only item close enough in my cupboard. 

The recipe calls for puff pastry scraps.  My puff pastry was in my freezer instead of with me at the Westfield bake oven, so I quickly mixed up a short crust to use instead.   The recipe also tells us to cut out some stars or leaves from scraps and bake them separately, to put on the finished pie.  These are easy to do.  After you've rolled and covered your pan, gather the scraps into a ball and re-roll them.  Use a cookie cutter or a knife to cut shapes.  Bake them for just 4 or 5 minutes, until cooked through and just starting to brown.   Any extras can be coated in cinnamon and sugar before baking, for a super yummy treat.

With the short crust pastry, I rolled out enough to cover the tart pan.  I used a fork to prick a lot of tiny holes in it about 1/2 inch apart. This is to keep the pastry flat.  The bake oven was fairly hot, about 400° F.  It took about 10 minutes to bake to a lovely shade of brown.  When it was cool, I spread on some Raspberry Jelly.    I used the little leaves to decorate the tart. 

Not only is this a pretty tart, but it was really delicious.

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management - 1856

Open Tart of Strawberry or any other kind of preserve.

Ingredients – Trimmings of puff-paste, any kind of jam

Mode – butter a tart-pan of the shape shown in the engraving; roll out the paste to the thickness of 1/2 an inch, and line the pan with it; prick a few holes at the bottom with a fork, and bake the tart in a brisk over from 10 – 15 minutes. Let the paste cool a little; then fill it with preserve, place a few stars or leaves on it, which have bee previously cut out of the paste and baked, and the tart is ready for table. By making it in this manner, both the flavour and the colour of the jam are preserved, which would otherwise be lost, were it baked in the oven on the paste; and besides, so much jam is not required.

10 to 15 minutes

Seasonable at any time

 

Bags, Sweaters and Cookery

The Oxford Weavers and Spinners have a meeting place full of looms, which are able to be used for both individual projects or guild group projects.   This little boho bag is one of the group projects.   A loom is warped up and ready to go, with multiple projects.  You can come in and weave off a project or two at your own pace.   I was lucky in that there was nobody ahead of me in the queue.  So I popped into the guild one morning and wove this off.   If I hadn't had to unweave the pattern bit, which I did in the wrong colour the first time, I would have been done in an hour.   As it was it took 1 hr, 20 min. and that included a bit of chatty time with another member.   It took much longer to assemble it and sew on the strap.
 


The Guild is offering a class in making these bags at the Woodstock Fleece Festival in October.  No experience needed as there are two different projects aimed at different experience levels.

I've had to do a bunch of waiting around lately.  Instead of a sock project, I decided to mix it up with a cardigan.  This is the Shaker Rib Cardigan from Boyfriend Sweaters.   It's an easy to knit pattern and perfect for sitting around waiting for appointments etc.   

I've wanted to go to Fort York for ages.  It always seems to be closed when we visit Toronto though.  This trip it was opened and we spent a couple of hours there.   While it is an interesting site, I found it a bit disappointing.   The only tours were on the hour and we missed it by 5 minutes.   The only people doing any interpreting were a small and very loosely rehearsed fife and drum group.  The drummers weren't bad but the fife players kept hitting wrong notes and had difficulties in keeping time.   The Georgian kitchen was closed.    Really, Old Fort Erie was a much more interesting and enjoyable tour.    However, the gift shop had a decent variety of cookery book facsimiles.   These four books came home with me.   It sort of made up for the disappointing afternoon.

Gluten Free Baked Donuts

These are my favourite quick baked treat. They mix up quickly with no fuss and they bake just as quickly.  They aren't really donuts, since they are baked and not fried, but are pretty close.  However, these are gluten free, dairy free and fairly low fat.  They mix up quickly and bake in just a few minutes, using a donut cake pan.   Because there is no oil in the batter, they will go stale a little more quickly.  Really though, how long will a batch of 12 small donuts last anyway?  They go so nicely with a big mug of tea.   nom, nom, nom

1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/3- 1/2 cup almond milk


Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir well to blend the Xanthan gum.   Add the wet ingredients and stir to completely blend.  The mixture should be a little bit thick and not runny. Lightly oil the donut cake pan.    Scrape the batter into a large ziplock bag.  Squeeze out the air and close the bag.  Snip off a bottom corner of the bag and use as a piping bag to easily and neatly fill the donut indentations in the pan.   Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes or until the little donuts spring back when lightly touched.

Let cool -

Glaze - 1 cup icing sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 tbsn water or enough to make a fairly runny glaze.  Dip donuts, set on a cake rack to dry.   Put a piece of paper toweling or waxed paper under the rack to catch the drips for easy clean up.

Chocolate variation -  Use a scant cup flour and add 1 1/2 - 2 tbsn real cocoa powder.   I sift the cocoa in to get rid of the lumps.   Omit the vanilla.

To make them with real wheat flour  - omit the Xanthan gum and use all purpose flour in place of the gluten free flour.

Just bits and pieces

The bottom kitchen cupboards are all assembled.  We painted the interiors with the amazing paint, which brushes on streak free and gives are really hard, smooth surface.   Not so surprisingly, it is made for furniture and cabinets.  I did all the cutting in, you know, the corners and funky bits while my sweetie got to play with the cute little baby paint roller.  It didn't take long to paint the cupboards which will have shelves, but those drawer cupboards too forever.   Only the sink cupboard remains to be finished up and put in place.  I'm not sure we can do that until we know what we want to do for a counter.  As we had to go to a slightly smaller sink to fit in 2 corner cupboards, I am not sure we can actually install it until we have the new sink and the new counter.      The face fronts and doors are still to attach.  Most are cut and some are assembled.  I've been assured that it won't take long.   

I've knitted up some of the dyed yarn from the fibre reactive dye project in level 6 Master Spinner.   I only used 4 of the 5 skeins as the darkest colours really were very similar in intensity.  I had to knit the blue mitt twice though, as I was 3 stitches off for the body of the mitt.  It made enough of a difference in the fit, that I felt compelled to make it better.  I still have a gazillion ends to sew in though.  Those 3 missing stitches translated to about 24 inches of yarn which needed to be added for each colour.  That means almost twice as many ends to stitch in for the blue mitt than the red.

When Kevin was a little tiny kitten, he loved to play with the vacuum hose.  He would tumble over the hose, whether it was sitting there or in use.   Eventually he would tire and fall asleep wrapped around it.   We still have a hard time putting it away though, because it is one of his favourite places to sleep.  No matter where we try to hide it, he finds it and snuggles down for his naps.