A good start to May

We've had a very slow time easing into spring.  We've had snow storms, ice storms, wind, rain and cool weather.  We're even still loading up the wood stoves because the evenings are cool or uncomfortably damp.  However, that doesn't seem to stop Mother Nature from keeping things from happening.    There is a green haze on most of the trees.  We have baby leaves!   The oak trees and a few other very late  leafing deciduous trees aren't quite there yet, but they never are this early.   Some of the flowering trees are in bloom.   We always have leaves on most of the trees by Mother's Day, and despite people's worries about the trees leafing out late this year, it's happening just like it should.

I got my little tray of watercolour paints out and played around with some new techniques to make non-wintery scenes.   I've played with flowers, winter scenes obviously because I paint my Xmas cards, and have started experimenting with summery scenes.   These 2 worked out well enough that I'm happy with them, but I'll practice some more. While I've seen a few sunsets like this one, with pale colours, many of ours tend to be a bit more dramatic with deep oranges and purples.  Sunrises though, often have pale pinks and lilacs, if you catch the right time.  They are fast and the colours don't last all that long.   I decided to send out a few birthday cards though, so I figured I should practice about bit for summer cards.

I've been spinning up some of the leftover bits and pieces from my "stash" of leftovers from over the years.   This is some green ramie.  I had purchased 1/2 lb of it, and spun up maybe 3/4 of it and left the rest.    I remember it being quite slippery and an effort to spin.   Obviously my skills have developed because instead, it's just effortlessly sliding off my fingers into lovely, fine singles.    I should have divided it into two equalise pieces of roving before I started though, so I could have spun two bobbins for plying.  Instead I'm going to have to much around with either guessing or plying from a centre pull ball.   While that is how I first learned to ply, I've found over the years, that you have to be very careful when plying fine yarns from centre pull balls, so that they don't collapse in on themselves and tangle before you finish plying.  It's been fun to spin though, because I don't seem to have to really think a lot about it while spinning.  It means I can chat or "egads" watch the hockey game at the same time.

This is my friend A's dog Teddy.   While he's getting older and a bit greyer, with thinning fur, he still blends remarkably with the rug.  He's exactly the same colour as the rug and in the right light, and angle, the parts of him that are his original colour really could be the rug.   He's a sweety and a very cuddly dog with his kids.   Today though was funny as he was sleeping when I arrived for spinning day and he didn't notice for about a 1/2 hour.  Then of course, as the good watch dog he is, he made sure to let everyone know that I was visiting.. too funny.

A Quick Holiday

 

This part of Manitoba is really, really flat.

We took our holiday early this year.   We went to Winnipeg and despite a few warnings from friends that there wasn't a lot to do in that Central Canadian City, we were busy pretty much all the time!  It was a mostly fabulous holiday.  The piece de resistance would have been a BTO concert on our last night there, but it was rescheduled due to a Winnipeg Jets play off game.   That was a bit disappointing, but in no way made the trip any less fun and interesting.

We visited the Royal Canadian Mint and took the tour.  It was super interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable on the process.  We were told the story of why we have a loonie one dollar coin rather than a voyageur canoe one dollar coin, the story of the worries about spyware in the first painted coin, which I totally remembered it from it being in the news and more.   They apparently use a different process now.  I missed the glow in the dark coin , with the Aurora Borealis which glowed.  That was cool.

We saw the Leo Moi sculpture garden, which was nice because it wasn't too long.  It was the day we arrived, had had a very early start, put in almost 8000 steps just in airports, and had the stress of a misplaced piece of needed identification, which was found.  So we meandered through the garden thinking that in the summer, it would be so pretty.  The sculptures were interesting, and it was a nice break before we could actually check in to the hotel.

We saw the last Winnipeg Jets game of the year.  It was my first NHL hockey game although hubby has seen a few.   It was really fun and though I did miss the commentary you get on televised games.  

The Manitoba Museum is a natural history museum, which was well done despite being under construction.   We missed the planetarium, which we wanted to go to, but hadn't thought we'd need more than 3 hours on the parking meter.   However there was a great display on a reproduction 17th C boat called the Nonsuch, which was built to celebrate the 300th birthday of the Hudson's Bay Co.   It was hand built in England using original plans,  shipped over to Canada on a boat, sailed around in celebration, and finally retired in the museum parking lot where they build a building around it.   It was an amazing display and I probably spent a bit of time there.   The information on the development of our planet was also where we spent some time.  I will admit to hurrying through the bat cave..ugh... small flying things...

The Aviation Museum of Western Canada was fun.  It was bright and we happened across a volunteer who wasn't involved in school trips, who answered lots of questions and gave us a lot of information about the planes.

The Assiniboine park zoo took the morning and a bit.   Despite a lot of exhibits under construction or the animals not out because of the weather, it was well worth the trip.   A few of the enclosures were small and probably not really large enough, but others were well done.  The polar bear display was one of the well done ones, and the seal display was fun.   I highly recommend the short movie in the Journey to Churchill Pavillion, which was captivating and awe inspiring. 

We went to see the Mennonite Heritage Village, but it was still mainly closed.  We got to tour the inside galleries and wander around the site, which was pleasant.  We got permission to peer through windows.  On the way back to Winnipeg, we stopped at the Centre of Canada monument, because how could we not!

This was a great trip and there was much more we could have done if we had the time and energy.   We had so much fun!

More Hints of Spring

 

It snowed yesterday, all day.   It snowed 2 days ago as well.  It snowed every day this week  but Tuesday.  So far it's not snowing today either.  The fields and gardens were covered in snow this morning.  Thankfully most of it has melted and there are just a few patches left.  There is snow in our driveway too, which is odd as it is a sheltered nook.

We're supposed to keep our snow tires on until the middle of April and its springs like this which make us appreciate them.  It's supposed to be spring, and the cold weather and snows suggest it's not quite there yet.

I found these crocuses hidden by an old barrel that had been used as a planter eons ago.  Usually it's hidden by lilacs, mallows and an as of yet unidentified fuchsia perennial so I don't really notice it.  There is a lilac growing out of it, so it's going to be difficult to remove the old barrel until it completely falls apart.  Still this little patch of crocuses was a joy to see.

I was also surprised by  this tiny patch of Glory of the Snow blooming.  Two days ago it was just a few green leaves just starting to show.  With yesterday not even getting above freezing in temperatures, I thought it could be next week until they bloomed.

The squill or Scilla is also starting to bloom.  I love the dark blue of the flowers.  There are so few true blue flowers that I find these special.   They are early bloomers for sure.   The planting instructions suggest that they need well drained soil.  They have volunteered themselves, and moved to the bed in front of the barn and chicken coop, which is where all the snow melt and run off drains in a winter and spring like this.  Hardly well drained, yet still they bloom.

 The ground around the whole place is still soft and boggy in places.  I've worn my wellies more this spring than in ages, just because a) I found a new pair that are acceptable and b) the ground has been soft, wet and squidgy for weeks now and not fun to walk on or wade through, depending on the day.

I've spun 100 g of this gorgeous pink yarn.  My friend A gave it to me and I've decided that I'll make a pair of mitten from it.  It's a colour of pink I really like and mittens will mean I get to wear them for months and months next winter.   I've 2 bobbins of it.  I haven't decided if I want to ply them together, or ply it with another colour.  I'd prefer not have barber pole striping on the yarn though, so I guess that suggests what I should do.

I'd like to knit the mittens in pink and grey, but I only have grey Icelandic on hand right now.  Icelandic is a dual coat, so this one has a very soft, pale grey undercoat and a darker grey outer coat which is fairly harsh.   It's a striking fleece, but I'm not sure I want to deal with it right now as it still needs washing and processing, which seems like a lot of work for a pair of mittens.

Nature's Promise Revealed

 

Last Crocuses - such a pretty colour

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, I light a candle to help light the way for longer days.   We've had a rather dramatic winter this year, with the winds, lake effect snows, and variable weather.  It was an abnormal winter for us and after several fairly mild winters, this one really seemed to hit us with a vengeance.   Finally though, with a few glitches in between and weather that the prognosticating rodent (ground hog) said would be an early spring, we finally have evidence that spring may truly be on its way.

The crocuses or croci if you prefer have bloomed.  Yesterday these few were in their prime while the rest have faded.  Only one of the Siberian Irises came up this year and that was during an ice storm, so it didn't last for long.  But the leaves and greenery for many other spring plants have started to push forth from the finally thawed ground and are showing the promise of spring.

The daffodils started just when the crocuses first bloomed.  In the beginning, they were just tiny green sprouts.  Now though there are early flower buds which catch attention and the longing for spring flowers.   I usually try to buy a pot or two of forced bulbs in the spring, but there weren't many in the shops this year, catering to those of us who desperately need that early hit of spring.  Now of course, with daffodil flower buds starting to show, it's worth the wait for them to mature.

My iced over kitchen window

The weather  has not been all favourable this spring.   Areas to the north and east of us were hit with a major ice storm.  We were lucky enough to miss out on the first one but a smaller second one hit us a couple of days later: not even enough time to recover between the two of them.   The area police were issuing warnings to people to please slow down on the high ways.  Hubby's co-worker took 30 minutes to cover what was normally a 10 minute drive.   We had lots of power flickers and a short outage, but quickly resolved, unlike areas in the rest of the province.  Everyone I talked to were thankful for that, and dismayed about the havoc that the storm wreaked elsewhere.  With rain, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, more snow it was a few days to hunker down.   I can't remember seeing the snow plow go down our road multiple times  in April, plowing the snow on the road, the shoulders and laying down salt to try to keep the roads safe.

Lone Siberian Iris

Today though, the sun is shining and the winds have finally eased off.   I was able to go outside to practice the banjo yesterday as I found a sheltered spot which was warm enough and while I could hear the wind around me roaring through the trees, it didn't hit the spot on the deck where I was sitting.  Today, I let the chooks out and might even bundle up a bit and take my tea out to the deck.

Mother Nature sometimes is delayed with her promise of spring, but she's never failed to produce it yet.  That darned groundhog though, I'm sure spent weeks rolling around in his den, laughing at us all with his faulty predictions this year, that we all so desperately wanted to believe.

What I did this weekend.....

I've been collecting all the leftover roving bits for ages now.  Some of the bits and pieces are leftover from my master spinner course.  Others have just accumulated over time.  Not all of them were really nice bits.  Even when properly stored, wool fibres can become somewhat compacted from time.  There can be temperature changes, humidity changes,  maybe some pressure from being stored in a bag or container and being squished a bit.   So some of the fibres were compacted, some were old, and there were a bunch that were in perfect condition.   I decided to dig out my blending board so that I had something to spin at the next spin in.   I will say that this is definitely a preparation where really nice, perfectly processed fibres work up so much nicer than a few of the compacted and neppy bits I ended up using

I had 3 shades of blue, 2 of which I'm pretty sure were dyed in an indigo vat and were probably leftover rovings that I tossed in to use up excess dye. There was some pale yellow, a rusty orange and a rusty red, some pinks, and purples, some green mohair locks which later became green roving when I realised I was sitting on it and some icicle nylon sparkly stuff.

I filled this basket full and forget to take a photo of the basket full of rolags.  It was quite impressive and very pretty.   It takes a lot longer than you'd think to fill a basket with blending board rolags.   I started just after lunch, took a 20 minute tea break to stretch, and then when I started running out of blue rovings, I realised it was 5 pm and time to start dinner. 

  I was getting 3 rolags from each loaded blending board.   I used to get 4, but decided to try one less.  The rolags were a bit larger and more substantial but not a single one broke or lost its structure.   I also didn't load quite so much on the board which made it a little easier to work with.

Since I'm running out of prepared roving in my stash, I was happy to have these to play with.   Spinning friends were quite complimentary about these.  I will say that the basket full was quite pretty.

Spinning the rolags was quite quick and pretty easy.   Except that this is where the quality of the fibre prep really shows.   Any of the areas of the rolags with the nicely prepared fibres were a dream to spin.   Hardly any effort was needed and they almost spun themselves.   The areas with the slightly compacted rovings, despite doing my best to loosen them up, require a bit of effort to get a reasonable bit of yarn.   In a few places, instead of being able to do the long draw, I had to do a short forward draw to get a consistent yarn.   There are a few bits that are uneven; even reversing the twist and trying to pull out the slub, didn't help.

Regardless, it was quite quick to spin.  I think because of the wide variety of fibres and the few that were compacted, it's a bit thicker than I'd planned.   It was just too difficult and not fun to spin any finer, so the plied yarn is about a worsted weight or maybe an aran weight yarn.  Not what I wanted, but it allowed me to chat with the girls while spinning the first bobbin- so there is that.

I'd been concerned that with the around of orange and rusty red in the mixture, that there was a high risk of getting a bit of undefined browns or greys in the finished yarn.   Not so though!  The yarn is manly dark blue, with smaller areas with the other colours showing through the barber pole effect of the plied yarn.   It's pretty enough, but after all that work, I really don't have that much yarn to work with for an end product.    If I'd made a finer yarn,  I was thinking about using it for a vertical stripe or stripes in a scarf.  It's really too thick for that I think, so maybe enough for a hat or save it for some rug hooking project.

 

An early spring hike

 It snowed again.  I woke up to low, lead grey, snow clouds and a wintery sky.   There was a light dusting of snow on the ground.   It doesn't feel like spring today!   Yesterday was another cool day, however we had a short reprieve from the incessant wind.   We took advantage of that and went for a hike.  The trails were in pretty decent shape all things considered, with only a few muddy and slippery spots.   That made it a rather nice day out.  I was worried I was over dressed, with my parka and a hoody on underneath, instead of the liner jacket, my double wool toque and thick wool mittens.   However, it was cool enough outside, just above freezing that I was comfortable the whole trail!   

It wasn't sunny, although the forecast suggested we should get some sun.  It was however, brightish out, which was nice enough.   The dark, foreboding skies we've had most of the winter do get a little bit much sometimes. 

The river was flowing fairly quickly.  With all the snow melting over a few days and some rain in there, and now more snow, I was amazed that it wasn't higher than it actually was.  It's usually this brown, silty looking water.  The difference with the view in the springtime is that you can easily see the water.   Once it warms up a bit, the foliage from the trees and the ground plants will obscure the view because they are so lush and full.

This white birch and a yellow bird house were the real spots of  brightness on the trail today.  Even the new growth of the pine trees didn't show brightly enough on this dull day.   However, the walk was pleasant enough and the terrain wasn't difficult due to icy or slippery, muddy conditions, so that has to be considered a win.   It was great getting outside for a bit too, without being scolded by birds.   Also, I saw a robin!   I haven't seen one at home yet, and they are another sign of spring.  

This is a true sign of spring.   A small patch of crocuses started blooming a couple of days ago.  They made me very happy.

The daffodils and tulips are just starting to grow, with their green leaves pushing up from the ground just a few inches.  The hyacinths are still under a small patch of leaves and snow - snow that I'd missed, along with the snow on the other side of our fence line!   Please go away snow!

After a lot of rain and wind, which gave us all sorts of weather warnings, we've had a couple of nice days.  Today was so nice, I went outside on the deck to read for a bit.  It was still quite windy so eventually I had to put on a sweater.  I don't think I got that much reading done, because the birds were continuously berating me for being outside instead of leaving them to the buffet of bird feeders.  Lots of chirps, clucks and shrill warnings while I was sitting quietly reading, lol.

While many of the birds which visit us during the winter have gone back to wherever they spend the good weather, our bluejays, mourning doves, cardinals are still with us.  The grackles are at a reasonable level this year, but I think only because I missed filling the feeders the day they returned.  We have red winged blackbirds who only eat at the feeders until there is other food available.  There were a couple of cowbirds, some finches or sparrows and the woodpeckers, who don't care if I'm on the deck or not.  

I also spent time watching the trees.  We've missed maple syrup season all together this year because of the odd spring weather.  The maple trees are starting to flower, so syrup season is pretty much over.   We've got a few bottles set aside for a situation like this, so we won't do without.

The snow seems to have finally melted.  Yesterday there was still some snow at the edges of the fields around us.   The frost is gone and moisture is draining aways.  It was bad there for a while as there was no place for the snow melt to go and we had water over good parts of the land around the house.  That was a pain to deal with for sure.  Not just puddles, but massive puddles flooding the barn and making for muddy, squidgy, slippery walking.  It wasn't bad outside today!

I took a break from making the little comfort dolls.  I dug up a skein of bamboo/wool blend sock yarn.

 It's a tad heavier than some yarns, but not by much.   I can make 2 pair of shorty socks with them as long as only one pair has heel tabs and the other just has a cuff.  I love the colours of these.  In discussions with a friend, apparently some people don't like the cuffs to show.   I really don't care as comfort is more important to me.   I'm still undecided on the tabs vs the little cuff.  Last summer I don't think I noticed a difference between the two.

I made these on my Circular Sock Machine, a Legare 400, which is over 100 years old.  While I'd love a new machine, maybe a NZAK - New Zealand Auto Knitter, I don't have the $ saved up right now.   However, my old girl, while sometimes being a little fussy, still works a treat.

I've been doing a lot of spinning lately.   Having a group of gals who meet once a month to spin together has really helped get the spinning mojo boing again.   While I've been spinning off and on since my Master Spinner program, I've been mainly spinning cotton and other oddly technique specific fibres.   Getting back to spinning real wool took a bit of time to reconnect with my skills.   

This is Finn sheep wool.  It's a good staple length to spin easily and is relatively soft.  I only have just under half a kilo of it, so maybe I should have spun it a little finer.   The bottom skein is what I was working towards.  It took a bit of time and practice to get to how I wanted to be spinning.  Mostly though, the slight differences in the skeins won't make a difference to its use.   If I can get more fibre, I'd like to make a sweater.   Otherwise, maybe I'll find a local shepherd and pick up a fleece to play with.