taking off on a tangent

We dipped down into the single digits last night...burrrr.... The woodstove has been cranked up, and I took advantage of the blower heat by washing up some Alpaca that I had in my stash, and putting it on the wooden window screen to dry. It only takes a matter of minutes and it is finished.

Once it was washed I just had to sample it. Well, I couldn't just let it sit there and look pretty in a basket! It spins up easily.

I ran the hand cards over it lightly, once or twice, and from there I rolled it off onto a size 17 knitting needle, and spun from the end of the "cigar". Here is a close up with the infamous dime shot on the Quebec wheel.

I've also been experimenting with a new toy. Grace let me borrow her Inkle Loom so I could learn about sheds and pick up patterns. I am having fun.

Too bad there are other responsibilities in life that cut into my fiber time. When creative ideas run wild, I find it hard to think of anything else. Right now I have about 6 projects that are in progress...and still more percolating in the background. I keep taking off on different tangents....

phenological events February 2008

1st - ice storm
11th - observed 26 eagles
in one area, 10-20 feet above
the river
13th - ice storm
23rd - 8" snow
25th - cutting blackberry canes
26th - observed 29 eagles
along river towpath

late winter chore

The ice around here makes it difficult to traverse anywhere other than those areas which have been "treated". Even the cat has fallen on her bum! In spite of the extra balance it requires to navigate outdoors, some chores won't wait. Trimming last years canes out of the Blackberry bushes, is one those chores...if you haven't yet done so, now is the time. The sap will soon be on the rise, and you don't want to wait tooooo long.

My bushes are the Navajo Thornless Blackberry variety. This makes cutting out the canes a little bit easier and you don't have to fight the bush as much as you do when you cut the red raspberries (sometimes we don't always do that...) At any rate, looking for the spent canes is not that difficult, they readily show themselves. They are not as colorful and vigorous as the new ones.

You can see by the photo, it is the cane that I am holding that will be cut to ground...Another way to identify the spent canes involves looking at the other end of it, for any signs of spent blossom or fruit.

Although these canes are self-supporting, we do trellis them. It makes it easier when picking, but harder to deal with when cutting them back. Each cane must be "un-trellised" as well as pruned. I save some of the new growth "prunings" for the bunny...she loves them! Any extras, are set in the woods for the Whitetail, who gobble them up in a forenight. When the job of cutting the canes is complete, the trellising of the new canes begins...I saved that job for another sunny day...it can wait.

more tracks

We had another snowfall over the weekend...enough to bring the shovel out. It sure was pretty.

The sun came out the next day and the melt, which has already started, continues to send water from the mountain top down to the river valley.

The sound of it is wonderful, the change of the season is certain now. Winter is slowing loosening it's grasp.

I've been noticing some pretty big tracks again. The woodland creatures are waking up, and they are most likely hungry.

If the chickens are let out to browse, they must be let out in the mid morning hours and put away in the early afternoon...and still we take a chance.

wip walk

It was a very cold and frosty, but sunny day today.

The sun was playing with the surface of the water on the river. From my vantage point, it made for interesting patterns and contrasts. I didn't walk very far just a short jaunt down to the river and back. The wind was cold and cutting. My head, however, was nice and warm because I was wearing my new bunny fur hat!

Anne from Wooly Wonka Fibers has been having a WIP Wednesday over on her blog (wip-that is work in progress for all you non knitters). A few weeks ago, I noticed she was knitting a beautiful pattern that she had designed. She was knitting it out of Bison, and she called it the Belle Starr hat (after the infamous female outlaw). When I first looked at it I imagined I would want to knit it. Soon after that, she offered it as a free pattern. Thank you Anne! (You can find the pattern on her blog, or on Ravelry.)

I decided to knit my Belle Starr hat out of my handspun angora. Pure Angora hats are often to hot for me, but done in this lace pattern, the holes provide a little bit of ventilation ;-)

The pattern was quick and easy for me to knit. While I was knitting it, I wondered if it would fit properly, especially around the brim. I always love that moment of truth when a hat is off the needles, and one tries it on for the first time...perfect!

I may have enough angora left to knit a pair of fingerless mitts....

I will be wearing my hat outdoors later tonight...be sure to look for the eclipse!

slow melt

There are eight whitetail that are walking past the riverrim these days. They come to nibble at the bits of grass that we have exposed with our snow shovels.

The days have been warm enough to melt some of the icy snow cover, but the freezing nights are delaying the process. It is a slow melt.

On closer inspection of this photo, I noticed a whitetail with a sense of humor...

...blowing a raspberry or expressing a sense of disapproval at the photo op....

some shetland

Remember that Shetland Fleece that I received from Cathy? I have been working on it.

If you really want to see some interesting notes on Spinning Shetland, be sure to have a look at Leigh's Fiber Journal. I have been so impressed with the work she is doing, and I have been learning a lot about the breed from her writings. I am grateful that she has recorded her findings....

This is my first experience with a Shetland Fleece. I had nothing to physically compare it with, so I did some reading.

What I learned....

I'm working with what I believe to be a dual coated, or beaver fleece...(one of 3 main fleece types recognized by the NASSA)...it fits the criteria

1. Staple length 6-10 inch range
2. Outer coat is hairy, inner coat soft and downy.

Once I had scoured the fleece, I tried sending it through my drum carder, but was not happy with the results. First of all, there was still lots of Vegetation to be picked out and secondly, the inner coat seemed to be forming neps. While the dual coat can certainly be spun together, I was not satisfied with the spin. By this, I mean that the spinning process was not enjoyable to me because the neps and VM were causing slubs and intrrupting the flow and the rhythm of my spinning.

So I choose another method of preparing the fiber for spinning. It involved a teasing tool. Eventually, the tool wound up being C-clamped directly to the side of my Ashford.

Most of the inner coat was removed with this method of preparation. I began to set it (the inner coat) aside, and will (at a later date) put this through the drum and see if the resulting fiber is more to my liking. It still contains some of the outer coat...you can identify it by the thickness .

Once the lock was teased, the spin was joyful!! Drafting and drawing the fibers out of the lock was effortless....

...resulting in a nice plied yarn that measures 22 to 24 wraps per inch...a lace weight perhaps...with an unknown destiny...

Although, I am listening carefully....it has not yet whispered to me what it wants to be when it grows up....

happy valentines day

winter weary woods
sing me a love song of spring
half past February

the rim

there was a momentary break of winter, that gave us a melt and rain and high water on the river. but now the cold is back, and waters recede, and there is the shelf along the rim.

you cannot really notice the beauty of the shelf from a distance, but walk alongside the riverrim for awhile, and it will captivate you.

i counted 26 eagles in one spot along the river yesterday. they were all sitting in low hanging trees along the edge of the river. most were with 10 to 15 feet from the surface of the water. i wonder if this behavior has anything to do with the frigid air temps we have experienced over the past few days.

Ice Queen Version B

During the blocking process, I discovered not one, but two dropped stitches...that were running away with wild abandon. I managed to grab them with my crochet hook and somehow ladder them in such a fashion that you cannot see where they happened...can you? I hope not.

The chickens didn't recognize me when I wore the Ice Queen outside today. They are used to seeing me in my trusty earflap hat. I will save the Ice Queen to wear for trips into the city, where her beauty and subtleties will be appreciated...

Version B fits me better than the previous version A that I had knit earlier. I believe this is due to the fact that on the first one, I didn't use the correct yarn. Romi, the author of this pattern, addressed this recently in a blog post (do go and have a look at her purple ice, lovely!)

I realized that the wool fiber that I had used for the first one did not block out as beautifully as this one, which used the Alpaca/Silk blend from Ball and Skein. The Alpaca/Silk also has a fabulous drape. I have a smattering (appropriately) of yarn leftover, and enough beads to do another someday.

So thank you Judy, and thank you Romi...Ice Queen has been a pleasure to know!

Project Notes:

Pattern: Ice Queen by Rosemary Hill

From Knitty.com

Yarn: Arequipa
Hand-dyed Alpaca/silk
Lace Weight
over US size 8 needles
with foil lined crystal seed beads, applied with the "floss" method.

threshing and thrashing

The Ice Queen is finished (ok, except for the blocking....and pictures to follow...) It is a good thing the Ice Queen is complete..as it seemed that each time I worked on it, bigger and bigger ice storms were happening. Really. The night that I was working on the beaded picot bind off, the skies produced this...

Nice sized hail, eh? Bigger than peas, not as big as dimes. Seeing the hail reminded me of a winter task that needed attending to.... thrashing or threshing, both words would be correct. Anyway, my edamame soybeans that I grew last summer were in need of a good beating. These soybeans are the kind that you pick and eat fresh from the steamed shells. I had saved a few rows to dry and plant this year.

Much easier to thrash than stringbeans, the shells of these soybeans opened up with just a hint of a beating. I sorted and winnowed, saving a few to plant this spring...along with some choice beauties to throw into my sprouter.

In a few days, they will turn into tender edible sprouts to garnish my salad along with the radish and broccoli seed sprouts from my personal seed bank. Yum. This time of year I get a taste for something fresh and GREEN. And these are the prettiest shades of green, are they not? They remind me of another task that awaits....

Did you know that wikipedia defines thrashing as~ "Someone who keeps changing their mind (especially about what to work on next). A person frantically trying to execute too many tasks at once (and not spending enough time on any single task) may also be described as thrashing."

With Ice Queen off my needles and this sock yarn in my stash, there is no danger of thrashing going on here...I know exactly what I want to work on next.

ice queen ...frozen in time....

Seed beads in my bowl

So, knitting away on the version B of Ice Queen continues. It is enjoyable. There are many more beads on Version B, when compared with Version A. Each seed bead that is applied, is like an individual ice pellet that has fallen from the sky. This past Friday, we had an ice storm. And the seed beads fell from the sky.

Ice pellets on my snow shovel.

The beginning of the endless beaded picot bind off has started.

These stitches can't be hurried along. The fact that I am enjoying the process tells me that it could take even longer. My Ice Queen seems frozen in time....

Sansevieria

Have you ever seen Sansevieria blooming? Well I have...

It is amazing to me that this plant knows where it came from. It is summertime in Africa now, and my Sanseviera knows this...so they bloom. They send up their 20' long spike full of flowers and buds.....their heavy perfume fills the house each night. The scent is unusual, unique, and there are times I find it rather obnoxious in a paperwhite/hyacinth sort of way....or maybe even a rotten bananna. The fragrance is said to include approximately 69 compounds.

You might know this plant by it's common name....mother-in-law's tongue. I've read that it is called this because of the paralyzing effect that it can have on ones vocal chords...I would not recommend trying it....

These plants have been with me a long time. They are very tolerant of neglect, and poor memory. As you can see they need to be repotted. I don't want to invest in the cost of new pots. And after I repot them, they will not fit on my windowsill anymore. I will have to find a new spot for them to live. We have been having this discussion since last fall (you talk to your plants, right?). They have not informed me of their choice of a new location yet...excuse me, that is not entirely true. They did suggest that they would be quite happy to sit on the stone hearth beside the fireplace where they would enjoy sufficent light and space to grow even larger. There is just one problem, my Great Wheel lives there, and it doesn't have any intention of moving out anytime soon.

The Sanseviera are pressuring me to get busy and pay attention to them. They threaten me that their roots will break the clay pots like they did last time, forcing me to deal with the situation. The latest effort to coerce me? See for yourself....