Pinus Strobus

I live among these towering pines. I love them. Sometimes I feel very small when I walk past them. I like to notice them and breathe in deeply when their refreshing scent fills the air.

Lately, they have been dropping their needles... sending their golden arrows soaring to the ground. Sometimes the needles land softly in my hair, but mostly they land on the ground, making a blanket to keep their feet warm under the snow that will surely fall this winter.

I have read in a book by Euell Gibbons that you can make a tea out of the pine needles. I've never done that. But if I did, I would be getting a source of vitamins A and C.

I've also read that white pines used to be harvested and made into masts for ships. Sometimes I imagine these pines sailing out in the ocean, far from their homes in the mountains. I imagine the trees that were cut for ship masts must have been tall and straight.

When I was in elementary school we studied the Native American Indians. One of the things I learned about was how they measured how tall the trees were. I still use this method sometimes when no one is watching....you have walk a distance away from the tree, then stand - facing away from the tree- with your legs apart and bend over, and look under your legs and up...until you can see the top of the tree. If you cannot see the top of the tree then you have to find a different spot..but when you have found that spot, then you measure the distance from where you are to the base of the tree, and that will tell you the approximate height.

When I measure these pines, I figure them to be about 100 feet tall. The Mr. says he thinks they are about 80 feet. Either way, they seem like giants when you live under them. Unfortunately, we have noticed that one of them that is near to the cabin has died, and needs to be taken down...hopefully before it falls down!

cut length

Started working on the 5 foot triloom. I am weaving with cut-lengths, and have turned the loom to the side to make it easier.

The yarn was given to me in the form of roving...(thanks Judy) It is a blend of her goat's (Storm) mohair and Border Leicester and has a beautiful sheen to it with many different shades of gray, and a soft and lofty hand. It is pleasing to touch, and enjoyable to work with. I am also using some black Finn that I blended with my angora. It should be a soft shawl, and warm.

It rained most of yesterday. The woods smell fresh and like pine. We had our coal delivered (5 ton of pea), although I don't think we will use all of it this winter. It is getting more expensive and harder to get each year, so it does not hurt to get a little extra.

The black cohash has lost most of it's seed already, which is unusual to me, considering that last year it held it's seed throughout the winter.

T is for transition

transition - an event that results in a transformation

This year has seen events that have resulted in transformations along the river rim and in my personal life as well. I learn from my surroundings how to transition. The edge of the river changes constantly as ebb and flow dictate.

The plants and trees along the river bank have to be strong so that the flood waters don't erode them. And so I too, need to be strong when life and events test endurance. Faith anchors me like the roots of the tree are anchored to the shoreline. I am living in the riparian zone.

The river, like life, is ever changing. It changes it path throughout the years, as time and events devise the course.

It takes patience to watch and see what that course will be.

bad habits

This is the second time that I have had to stop the knitting to spin up more yarn for this project! I really should learn to check my yardage before I start a pattern....

fruit of the vine

It is good to have friends that share their bounty... (thanks for the pulp- Judy, thanks for the grapes- Grace!)

I've been making these grapes into jelly and juice. It has been a good year for grapes. These clusters show it, but you can only imagine how they taste.

When I pop a grape into my mouth, I am transported back into time. I think I am about 5 years old, and I am standing in my grandparents kitchen. My grandparents grew grapes. I remember being able to look outside the kitchen window and watch them ripen. This was at the instruction of my grandfather..."go and take a look at those grapes and see if they are ripe yet"...he would tell me.

As a child, the grapes always looked and smelled better than they tasted to me. They tasted sour, and it wasn't until my grandmother added all that sugar and turned them into jelly, that I enjoyed them. As an adult, I love the tartness of the skin, wild and tangy!

My grandmother used to seal her jelly jars with paraffin, which is no longer recommended because it sometimes fail to be airtight. So, I seal my jars with lids and an open kettle bath.

Nicrophorus

I suppose some people don't like to look at certain dead creatures, and so I warn you ahead of time that you may not want to see these photos of a critter and some bugs.No fiber in this post...so you may move along if you are not interested in seeing what goes on in the woods. Kitty sometimes hunts and brings little trophies (dead critters) home. These are placed on the back steps for us to admire. Sometimes, I get busy, and cannot "clean up" after Kitty as soon as I would like. This morning, as I was making the coffee, I noticed one of Kitty's trophies on the steps, and made a mental note to "get to it". The day began to get busy and it was mid afternoon when I glanced out the window and noticed that the trophy had moved! And was still moving! It looked as though it was trying to crawl off the steps!

I kept my eyes on it as I finished doing some dishes, and watched it roll over and heave itself off one of the steps. Ok, enough, I was heading out there to see what was going on. It was Silphidae, one of the staphylinoid beetles.

I had found another type earlier this summer...This one is also known as a Burying or Sexton beetle. They bury the carcass ...and then use the food for their larvae.

For a moment I thought I had found the endangered Nicrophorus americanus...but on closer identification, well, I'm not sure which one it is. Due to the markings behind his head, I'm having trouble identifying him.One thing I am certain of, I will leave the "clean up" of this critter to the other critter. I just have to figure out where to hide it where the chickens won't find it.

abc along...s is for..

S is for spinning,

silk,

in the sun,

on a Sunday.

This silk roving is from Carol Weymar, the silkworker. I had originally ordered it last spring to use during a workshop that I was going to teach. Sometimes, life gets in the way of our plans, and so I had put it away. Recently, I came across it when I was looking for something else. I am glad I did......

harvest moon

"Come a little bit closer...

Hear what I have to say .....

Just like children sleepin .....

We could dream this night away. .....

But theres a full moon risin .....

Lets go dancin in the light.....

We know where the music's playin ....

Lets go out and feel the night." ....

....so begins the song Harvest Moon by Neil Young. I have been watching this harvest moon rise over the mountain for the last 3 nights. It is beautiful. My camera cannot capture its beauty. When we went out to feel the night, it was beautiful too. So mild, yet crisp...the smell of the hearth fire burning...the quiet rush of the river water...night time.

The Full Harvest Moon is always the full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox. This year, it comes to us in October.

I went looking online for harvest moon information, and learned about moon trees. How have I lived for these many years, and not known about moon trees?

For more full moon info..check out full moon fever...

Vadmal Bag

 

And I use the word "vadmal" loosely..it may not be actual or true vadmal (wadmal).

 

 

According to the little bit of information I was able to find online, Kerstin Gustafsson explains in her book Ull (Wool) that there isn't any given measurement, but cloth will be called vadmal when it is so tightly stamped that no warp or weft threads can be pulled out of a cut edge.

 

 

Gail Lambert writes in her thesis (The Taxonomy of Sweater Structures and Their Origins) that valmal is a woven and then felted fabric, and was once accepted internationally as currency.

 

 

I was able to find a page that indicated that in medieval Iceland and Norway, wadmal was a standard item of barter.  Six ells (or about 6 yards) of wadmal were equal to 1 eyrir, 24 grams of silver: 8 eyrir made a silver mark.

 

 

I found out that wadmal cloth was woven on the warp - weighted loom..my bag was woven on the triloom..so...I guess it isn't really historically correct...sorta faux vadmal..

 

 

Project notes:

 

The fiber for this bag was spun from Icelandic Sheep raised by Susan Mongold Briggs.  Purchased in the form of a batt from Tongue River Farm.  This fiber could not be nicer, I was extremely happy with the quality.  It was so beautifully prepared, that it begged to be spun on my Great Wheel.  I spun singles on the Great Wheel, and then plied the singles on my Ashford Traditional.  I then wove 5 triangles on the 3 foot triangle loom.  Four of the five were woven normally, with the fifth triangle using a closer sett.  This was achieved by doubling the strands on each nail.  Then the triangles were positioned in the fashion of the bag.  The pieces were then slip- stitched together.  The size before the fulling process was a 23 inch square, and afterward it measured 13 inches by 14 inches.  I then scissor trimmed the flap to a size and shape that I found suitable.  The straps were made by spinning the double ply in Navajo ply fashion, and then fingerlooping a braid that was handstitched onto the edges of the bag.  The button was fashioned from a branch of a maple tree, that I shaped and hand finished.  A smaller piece of fingerlooping that was braided with the double ply, serves as a button hole.

finishing up

 

Today was a day for bunny chores.  Autumn is a good time for an overhaul of the hutches..and we recently put a new roof on Jack's hutch...but the inside needed a good cleaning.  He watched from the safety of the wire cage while I used the propane torch on the inside of his hutch.  I like to use the flame to burn off any little critters that may be hiding in the crevices.  It also burns off any stray hairs that have accumulated on surfaces.

 

 

When I was finished, he received some fresh hay and a treat of a few branches of blueberry bush to munch on. He likes blackberry branches too, they were not nearly as colorful as the blueberry.

 

 

Lakota received a clipping and gave me a nice basket full of wool with a 4 inch staple.  I could have waited to clip her, but I wanted to keep her on a 3 month rotation. 

 

I am almost finished with the Icelandic bag, and needed to fingerloop another strap. One just didn't seem like enough.  I made the straps to be worn over the head and across the chest. 

 

first fire

Ok, so it isn't October yet, and today we did this...

 

it was just too dern cold and the heater kept kicking on.

 

There are frost warnings for these parts, so a trip to the garden was in order...a few last minute clippings of Sweet Annie to dry.  Sweet Annie smells great when you dry it and arrange it in the bathroom.  That way, every time someone takes a shower-- the steam brings the fragrance back.  My Sweet Annie grew everywhere this year, there are still heaps of it to be cut.

 

 

Bunches of chocolate mint, pineapple mint, and the mainstays of peppermint and spearmint were to be harvested for tea...living in the river valley, the frost may miss us....but one can never be to sure, and I wouldn't want to miss out on a cup of tea...

 

We went over to Charlie's to get our hay for the winter.  Only seven bales this year, but it sure smelled sweet and looked great.  Charlie has the best hay....or so my rabbits tell me...

 

Repairs to the hen house were also completed.  We needed to fix the window pane that the roosters had knocked out.  It went back in without any trouble, so while I was at it I re-calked the other windows.  Next time I need to remember to lay down tarp before I start.  There were little bits of white dried calk laying around...and I had to clean up every last one of them.  Sometimes the girls are curious, and I wouldn't want them eating any of the calk.

 

 

Another sign of the season is the hens that are molting.  They drop their feathers, much like the leaves drop off of the trees.  In a matter of weeks, they will have grown all new feathers...just in time to keep them warm for the winter.  While they molt, they don't lay any eggs...their bodies use the extra protein to grow the new feathers.

 

 

They always look beautiful when their feathers are full.  The cochins are enjoying the late afternoon sun while it lasts...

enjoying the process

I think it is fun to incorporate something old when making something new.

 

I've decided to make the straps for my bag using a technique from the 14th century called fingerlooping.

 

 

The fingerlooping braid on the right was my first attempt.  I made it using 7 bowes..3 on one hand and 4 on the other.  It is a simple braid to make, however, I was having trouble getting it as large and as long as I wanted for the straps on my bag. 

 

I couldn't sleep well last night, I blame that fingernail of a moon that is currently in the sky.  At some point, when I was tossing and turning, I started to think about how I could make the straps longer.  I had the idea of making a chain link, and then fingerlooping each link separately.  Today, I tried out the idea.  It worked out well.  I can hardly see the link in the finished braid.  Once I block it, I expect it will disappear.

 

 

This picture shows how I was able to make the braid twice its original length by using the link idea.  I believe you could continue to add links to make the braid as long as you want.  I did have to tie the lengths in certain spots to keep the links in place until I wanted to braid them.  I did this in the same fashion you would use to tie a skein.  To make the braid wider, I simply used a navajo ply on a two ply, and made the same braid.

 

As for the first braid that is to small??  I decided to use it as a design element (ahem)..that is what I like about making up my own designs, I get to do whatever I decide!

 

 

Oh, that maple leaf that I had needlefelted in the corner of the bag, the experiment didn't turn out as I expected.  It lost some of the detail in the fulling process.  I guess I could have gone back into it and redefined the leaf, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it looked to trite.

 

I like to set my projects up where I can see them as I work on them.  I move them around the house, sometimes in the living room, sometimes the dining room, or the kitchen.  I like to change the light on them, seeing how the project looks in the daylight, as well as indoor lighting.  It helps me to make decisions about what I want to do.  I have changed several things on this bag already, but I am enjoying the creativity of the process.

autumns in

This sunflower is a late bloomer in my garden.  I did not plant it, not this year anyway.  I planted a package of these a few years ago, and this one was a volunteer.  I will try and get to the seeds before the goldfinches get them, so I can save them to grow next spring.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the dark petals.

These tomatoes were a gift from my friend Judy.  I will be saving the seed from these as well....that is if I can resist the temptation to eat every last one them first.  They have such wonderful flavor!  They are an heirloom variety..going by the name of Riesentraube, which translates to "bunches of grapes" in German.  I am told that they are also well known in Hungary, going by the name of "goat's tit" ...well, they do have a sort of distinctive nipple on the end now, don't they?  I also read that they are used to make wine. I can imagine it would taste pretty good.

 

 

This weekend marked the fall equinox.  I was not aware of the exact moment, I didn't keep a record of it this time...but I am aware of the light, the days and nights being almost equal.  It won't stay like this for long.  The leaves were falling off the trees and tumbling over the grass today, and although the temperature was mild, autumn was blowing into town.

 

 

I made time to work on a bag that I have been weaving on the triloom.

 

 

I have been piecing it together, and decided to add a leaf to it with my felting needle.  I'm not sure how it will come out after I am finished processing or fulling it.  It is an experiment.

woolly bully

Found this forecaster today, and close examination of the specimen seems to be saying that we should have a fairly mild winter, with a cold spring.  This forecast would only be for my local area.  Your mileage may vary....as do the markings of your woolly bear caterpillars.

 

Actually, it looks a lot like the woolly bear I saw last year.  However, there have been years when I have observed woolly bears looking totally black, and the winter was severe.  Maybe there is some truth to the folklore....or perhaps like some experiments indicate, the color and size of the woolly bear's stripes are due to where it lives and what it eats.

 

At any rate, I have more fun watching the woolly bear than the weather channel...and none of it will matter, come next spring when Isa Isabella will emerge.

falling leaves

 

It has been raining most of the day, a soft misty rain that is making the garden bow down to the change of the season.  The weather tempts me to put on my muckers and go for a walk.  I am not enjoying dealing with the mounds of paper that clutter my mind as well as my workspace.

 

 

I notice some wild turkeys outside my window.  I need some fresh air, and give into the urge to leave the numbers and letters for the peacefulness and freshness of the world outside my window.

 

The garden is drenched. I hear the river and the streams shushing,and the chipping of the yellow warblers that are eating the seed heads of various plants.  Each time I try to take their picture, they are gone. They are so small, and so busy all the time.

 

 

When I returned to the house, I wanted to procrastinate even more...I knew I should be working on things that needed attention, but my hands were now cold and wanted the comfort of the angora/alpaca blend that I have been knitting.  This blend is so soft and warm.

 

 

I am making the falling leaves scarf from Spindlicity.  I like the pattern, it is the second chart pattern that I have followed, and it moves quickly.  Even though the yarn has a nice halo, it still lends itself nicely to the pattern.  Maybe I'll have a cup of Earl Grey and knit a few repeats...rainy days slow me down....