Interesting Hiking

We've been hiking a trail which is about a 25 minute drive from home.  It's not horribly long, but it has lots of things which make it interesting.   It's a circle trail, it has educational spots to explain the local wildlife, pollinator plants, the local lime industry etc.   It has a dog park, several look out points, picnic spots and sie trails so you can wander around on a new trail every time you go.  It runs alongside the river part way, which has been most interesting.   

Lately, we've been seeing a lot of chewed and knocked down trees.  These aren't saplings but trees which are at least 30 cm in diameter and bigger.

As there are no wildlife signs for beavers posted, I wondered if muskrats could do this sort of damage.   There is was a lovely little grove poplar or aspen trees just when you enter the trail.   All the big trees were either chewed down, or in the process of being chewed.

We were there on the weekend and we saw this!  It seems to be a beaver dam under construction.   Since it's in the Thames river, I can't imagine the beaver having the ability to dam the whole river up, but he could have a nice sheltered home for the winter.

I wonder if the people who take care of the trail, will let the beaver stay?  It's made for a lot of curiosity, and interesting conversation over the past few weeks.

We've been having picnics at this spot, overlooking a man-made lake for  water/run off control.  It's spectacularly beautiful and makes you feel you are in some sort of wilderness area.   I spent a fair time watching, what I thought was a muskrat, playing in the water.   I wonder if it was the above beaver instead?   I didn't have a camera with a strong enough lens, to capture it from where I was and my phone would only show little ripples.    I didn't think I needed a 300mm lens or bigger, but I've found a number of situations where it would have been nice to have.

Here is the lake and lookout from a different vantage point, the last time we visited it.  The snow has all melted now, fallen a second time and melted once again.  Except on our deck, which gets no sunshine during the winter months.  

Yarn Chicken for the Win!

 Sometimes you lose, and sometimes you win!  Yes!  The grey and self-patterning socks I just finished, I lost and and ran out of the grey, a few rows before I switched colours.   This time, I won, with about 60 cm, or 2 ft. to spare.   Happy me!

  I dyed this yarn several years ago and it sat in the bin.  The yarn base was a tad thicker than I prefer, and thus a bit less yardage.   I used a waffle weave pattern for a change from my usual 3/1 ribbing for every day socks.  I wasn't sure if I liked the colour when skeined, but once knitted, it's quite nice.  A very pumpkin sort of colour, with a bit of orange, a bit of copper and a bit of green.

Scarves off the loom

 We don't have a local yarn or fabric store here.  There is however, a large mill ends warehouse, where they have a large stock of regular yarns, quilting fabrics, sewing fabrics, as well as the over stock and over run items.   It's the one place where you can buy last year's hockey logo t-shirt for $5 and full price yarn.   Their sales though, are often really good.   I got 10 yards of brocade there last year for $6.   I was after some tapestry for a pseudo carpet bag project, which I didn't find, but got the brocade instead.  They put fabrics and yarns on sale regularly, with bright yellow tags.   Once in a while they then put those on for half price.   I found a bunch of gradient shawl skeins at one of those sales.  These are knitting yarns and can be a tad delicate to weave with.  I tried one, which was peach to deep burgundy or dark red.  The contrast was too much and the scarf which got the lighter weft, just looked wrong. 

  Next time they had the sale, they still had some of those gradient skeins.   I found 3 different colourways with much less contrast.   This is my favourite so far, in browns, greys and yellows.   Not colours I might normally wear, but very pretty when woven up.   I just got these off the loom this morning!  These ones are cotton and acrylic.    They are a tad longer, running between 74 and 79 inches in length and they are 6 inches in width.   

These are the mauve ones, although I'd call them purple.  They colours run from white, grey and a variety of purples.   They are quite nice, even though there is a bit more contrast with these.   

I have one more set of scarves like this to put on the loom.   They run from grey, green to purple.  I just noticed the grey in the skeins today, so my fingers are crossed, it's not too bright with the other colours.   The nice thing about these is that they appeal to people who are afraid of wearing wool, or can't afford the really soft commercial wools, silks, alpaca, etc.    I can sell these for less money because the materials are far less.  The downside is that the skeins are not easily replaceable, so all of this is single, unrepeatable runs.    It would be too expensive to purchase this yarn at full price though, and make the selling price too high to be worth it, as I don't think they'd sell at a similar price point to a silk blend or wool scarf.

Once these scarves are done, I will have a bag full of the leftover yardage from a run of different colours and yarn brands, all in a similar weight.  I'm thinking of running a few scarves off with a mixed warp and maybe a black weft.   But that goes on the project list and who knows which one will get woven off next.

Sometimes it just doesn't work -

I made a steamed pudding today.   I used a recipe from the 1832 edition of Cooks Own Book.  I've had great results with every recipe I've tried from this book, so had high hopes for this one.  I had suet in the freezer and all the ingredients on hand.   I did have to make the bread crumbs myself this morning, but the rest were simple.

Fruit Suet Pudding

250g flour

125g bread crumbs

125g minced suet

6g ground ginger

 100g dried currents

4g salt

3/4c milk

The recipe was pretty straight forward.   Mix everything together, pop into a pudding bag and boil for 2 hours.   I used a pudding mould, as I didn't have a pudding bag or cloth, or even any muslin on hand.

 After steaming, the pudding popped out of the mould beautifully.  I was thrilled until the puddles of melted suet also poured out.  Ick.

The whole pudding was saturated with fat.  Touching it left a greasy mess on my fingers.  The small bite that I ate, tasted heavily of fat and currents.  The fat overwhelmed even the flavour of the ginger.   It left my lips soft though, not needing lip balm, despite today's cool windy weather.

A simple slice was as unappetizing to look at as it was to eat.  The fat glistened on it.  It literally dripped.  I was amazed it held together too.

I don't have enough experience with steamed puddings to know what I did wrong.   I'm wondering if maybe my bread crumbs were not dry enough, as I did make them that morning.  I'd not had time to leave them to get completely stale, so partially dried them in the oven before grinding.  I weighed everything for accuracy, but I may have done something wrong there.  At any rate, the pudding was inedible by humans.  

 The chooks loved it though!

  

Dyed superwash merino.  I got the white roving on sale ages ago and just found the partial packet hidden behind something.  I did a quick dye pot earlier this summer and just started spinning it a couple of weeks ago.   This was the prettiest part.  The rest of the roving is spinning up green.   It makes sense since it is mainly yellow and blue.   I sort of missed that one.

I had one 50 g skein of the self striping sock yarn and one 50 g skein of the grey.     I didn't have quite enough to match the toes. I thought I had some scraps left from another pair of socks, but they weren't in the sock yarn bin.    I knit to the very end of the grey and had to make the one sock toe a few rows bigger than the first one.

I bought a bulk package of this sock yarn ages ago at an outlet tent sale.   It is pretty when worked up.  Our water though, is iron heavy, so they tend to dull quickly, with an orange cast to them.   I had to re-knit the toe on the first sock, not one, but three times because I kept making it just a bit too big.   I chalk it up to a learning experience as it's been a while since I've knit socks for myself.   

I just took 2 of these scarves off the table loom.  They are made with knitting yarn that was on sale and then half price of the sale price.   It's a gradient yarn for those one skein shawls.   By using the table loom, I can keep the tension from abrading the yarn.  This is because it has a new and yummy stainless steel reed and texsolve heddles.  Plus it's easier for me to control the tension since I can't ratchet the tension up like on the floor loom.  It makes a nice, soft, drapey scarf and I can sell them for a bit less than the wool, or wool/silk blends.  This one is cotton and acrylic. Some of the other yarns I've tried have mylar or shiny threads in them.   They work although you have to be a bit more careful.  I've found twill works better than plain weave.   You need to keep the beat light as the yarn does stretch a bit.   Also, the one I made which ran from pale peach to burgundy had too much contrast.  The purple is nice as is the one on the loom now, which is browns and other sandy colours.

RIP Cat

 So yes, we had a cat named Cat.  His name was actually Mu, as in the Greek letter, but when he was young,  he was the only cat we had, and whenever anyone commented on him, or his whereabouts, it was always something like "Where is the cat? or Has anyone fed the cat?".  One day we realized that he responded to the word cat.  He'd look up. Sometimes he'd come when he was called and so his name changed to Cat.

He was almost 20 years old.  He was really my daughter's cat.   She was a good cat mom, but suddenly found herself in a situation where she had to work 2 jobs and I think she was still taking classes at uni, and Cat was still quite young.  He wanted attention, but she was really only home to sleep.   She came home for Christmas, and asked to leave him with us for a couple of months, while she got back to a normal situation.   Of course we said yes, but when she left to go back, we couldn't find Cat.  He was in hiding and had determined he was staying where he was.   As soon as she headed out, he popped out of hiding.  For years afterwards, she come home and he'd hide.  It was kind of funny.

He was a good cat.  He was playful for many years.  He loved playing with a hand under a blanket.  When we lived in a home which had a gap under the bathroom door, he would play for ages just chasing a finger back and forth in the gap.   He had no idea how to play fight or wrestle, but he'd chase a guitar string around the house if you pulled it along.

 When I had my hip replacement, he parked himself on my new hip and stayed on top of the incision until the staples were removed, when he moved to my feet.  Two days later, when the little staple marks had healed, off he went back to his normal routine.   He regularly looked after me like that.

He didn't like strangers, thunderstorms or mice.  He'd run and hide.  Except for when the farmer next
door was combining.  He'd sit on the table, looking out the patio doors, watching that combine go back and forth, with no fear at all!   

He crossed the rainbow bridge on Sunday night. He will be missed.  He was handsome, caring and a very good pet.  

Supporting Our Local Fall Fair!

 A friend asked me if I'd enter some items in the local fair.   It was cancelled last year and was scaled back this year, still due to Covid restrictions.    There were far fewer classes than other years, to help keep contact risks down.    However there were weaving classes!  I do like to support local events, so of course I'd enter something.    I entered 3 items.   I had a couple of others in mind, but they were for jams, preserves and such.  I wasn't sure I had the time to get them ready, so I went with just the crafty ones.  I really wasn't expecting too much because I've seen the entries in other years and there is an amazing array of talent shown at the local fairs.

I think I did okay though.   I didn't feel right about taking any prize money, especially when times are lean for the local Ag societies, so I asked for my winnings to be donated back.   

This is my rug hooked with hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn.   I really didn't expect this to win at all because in past years there have been some pretty amazing rugs shown.   The second place rug was technically perfect and had absolutely gorgeous colour choices.   The gal who hooked it said she was happy the judge took into account the hand dyed and spun yarn.
 

This wasn't the scarf I was going to originally enter.  I had one with a lovely hand painted warp, but I'd taken it to a meeting to show off and left it in the tote bag.  Of course I hunted high and low and couldn't find it.  I entered this scarf, wool and silk blend, in a bumbaret weave structure.   It's interesting but not quite as striking as the hand painted warp.  Still, I'm happy with it.   

And yes, I found the missing scarf almost as soon as I got home from dropping off my entries.

These placemats were a last minute decision.   It wasn't in the weaving section, but the general crafts.   They are made with a commercial yarn.   I thought they'd go in my kitchen, but the colours don't match.   But they are machine washable and durable, every day sort of placemats and it must have meant something to the judges.   There were some cute appliqued Santa placemats in second place.

So hubby also had the winning bid on a silent auction item and we took home a dry wall lifter for doing ceilings, for the grand total of $35.   He was pretty happy about that!

I was happy to get to hear one of the John Denver impersonator's sets.  He was really good!

I will have to say that local fairs are becoming fewer and fewer.  There are a few big ones which are well supported, but many others struggle to survive!   Next year, please go out and enjoy the fall fair events in your area, even if they are sometimes a little old fashioned.  The livestock competitions are fun.  There are often lots of activities for kids, fair food and more.  You can ohhh and aww and sometimes giggle over the entries in the homecraft divsion and see farm crops, veggies and giant sunflowers.   Sometimes they get the 4H clubs to do educational displays, which can be awe inspiring, when you realize that these are kids showing off some amazing skills and knowledge.