Halfway Down

"Halfway Down"

by A.A. Milne

Halfway down the stairs

Is a stair

Where I sit.

There isn't any

Other stair

Quite like

It.

I'm not at the bottom,

I'm not at the top;

So this is the stair

Where

I always

Stop.

Halfway up the stairs

Isn't up,

And isn't down.

It isn't in the nursery,

It isn't in the town.

And all sorts of funny thoughts

Run round my head:

"It isn't really

Anywhere!

It's somewhere else

Instead!"

*** "Halfway Down" was taken from When We Were Very Young, by A.A. Milne.

Just A little Bit Of Handspinning

Hello my friends! It is good to be back with you. Today I had occasion to drive through some very pretty countryside that I do not normally see so early in the morning. There were so many opportunities for photos, and had I not been on a time schedule I would have stopped multiple times. When I first set out there was mist rising off of the ponds and lying low in the hollows. The landscape looked so pretty in the early morning sunlight.

I did take the time to stop and snap a picture of this barn. I've always liked the setting it is in; winter, spring, summer, autumn, storm or shine, it always looks lovely.

There were a few cows loitering in and around the barn, and they stopped their munching to stare lazily at me for a moment, before going back to eating their breakfast.

Add caption

And now on to the hand spinning. Remember last time I showed you several spindles with spun singles?  Well these are the completed skeins of yarn. They were all spun as a single, wound into a  center-pull ball on my nostepinne , then the ends were plied together to make a two-ply yarn. The yarn weight is probably a light worsted, I have not checked the wraps per inch yet so that is just a rough guess. I find that since I was not spinning as much this past spring, I seem to be a little rusty when it comes to spinning certain weights. Or perhaps I am just not used to how this merino behaves. It seems to fluff up a great deal when it is plied and the twist is set.

"Orchid" 

 I wrote down the formulas for all these colorways and I hope to be able to successfully duplicate them in the future. These are all the 1 ounce samplers.

"Lagoon"

"Delphinium" 

Even though I dyed some colors I might not normally like, I find that I liked everything I dyed, simply because each roving was a lengthy process and became a work of art. Thus it is with each yarn, there are certain colors I might not usually pick, but the fact that I dyed the roving makes the yarn quite fascinating to me. Each is a work of art and I find that I can display them for quite awhile before I feel inclined to knit anything with them. Currently these three yarns are in a decorative bowl on the piano.


On another note, the previous post I did was my 200th post! I was quite astonished to realize that. 
Perhaps it is time for another giveaway! I'll keep you posted. 


For now, take care and have a lovely day!

Catching Up: Fiber Updates

 Hello Everyone! It has been far to long since I was here with you. This beginning of this summer started with a bang and I feel like I have been going, going, going, non stop. As of yet, things have only slowed up a little. But it looks as if things should calm down soon. 

A few weeks ago I was a vendor in a fiber festival. The weeks leading up to the festival were very busy for me. I was unable to pick my fiber that I needed to dye until quite late, and then we went on a family Holiday. So by the time I got home, and had free time to spare, the festival was only two weeks away! I amassed all my supplies and took a day to mix up my dye stock. Then I started dyeing!

 It took almost a week to kettle dye and hand paint 14.5 pounds of Merino wool. Initially I did not even think I would get it all done, though I was hoping too!

I dropped into bed exhausted at the end of each dye day, tired of steam, vinegar and standing all day. But every morning I was ready to get back at it and as each successive dye day dawned, I would have all sorts of fresh ideas rolling around my head of color combinations, techniques and other ideas I wanted to try. It was interesting to see how color-wise on some days there seemed to be a common theme, and other days it was all higgledy-piggledy.  It was such a fun process and I enjoyed myself tremendously.  If I could dye fiber two or three days a week, every week, that would be happiness indeed. It is a wonderful creative outlet and there is no limit to the what you can do with a little bit of no-how and some practice.

 I use the Greener Shades Dyes to dye all my fiber. All of the colors, other then the Coral Reef Aqua, are non-toxic and do not contain any heavy metals. It was the safety of these dyes that attracted me to them. They still are made up of chemicals, but they are much safer for you then many dyes. I do all my dyeing in the family kitchen, and I do not want to inadvertently harm someone with my dye solutions. I use regular white vinegar as a mordant, but for some of the colors it would be better to use citric acid, especially for the Coral Reef Aqua. I am still a little nervous about using the Aqua, but I am just careful when I measure it out, and I wear gloves and clean up thoroughly after each batch. But back to the citric acid. I need to find somewhere to buy it in bulk, because for certain colors and mixtures I find I like the results best with the citric acid. 

 At the fiber festival I picked up another half ounce of Sunshine Yellow. I discovered I use this color the most with my mixtures, I ran out of my yellow on the last dye day! River Blue runs a close second, I'll have to restock on that one soon. I was gifted the lovely red bamboo and merino roving show above. And the purple and green merino roving was what I received in the Vendor-to-Vendor Swap. I always like doing the vendor swap. It is fun to prepare a little bag of goodies to enter, and equally fun to see what you receive in return. 

 Despite the busyness of life, I have found time to do quite a but of spinning in the last few weeks. I have been spinning up some of my little half ounce samples of colors I plan on repeating. And I have also been working on some of my 1oz sampler rovings as well. The above picture is a half ounce.

Half ounce

1 ounce Lagoon

My Mum is spinning this roving up. Aren't the colors wonderful? 

1 ounce Orchid

I have finished yarn waiting to be photographed. If it is a nice day outside tomorrow I'll have to take the skeins out and take some pictures. I have been spinning on one of my smaller drop spindles. It still has a fairly thick whorl though, so it is a good weight for what I am doing. I am trying to spin all of these samples up at a similar weight, that way if I wan to use them together in a project I can. 


Well it is late, and I have lots more to update you on but I am quite tired, so farewell for now ,my dear readers!

Spinning Beaded Yarn With A Drop Spindle

 Two weeks ago I stopped into a local fiber Mill to check out the set-up and see how they processed their fiber. I was planning on placing a wholesale order with them and since I was in the area I figured it would be nice to check-out the mill. It is always fascinating to see the workings of a fiber mill. The amount of fiber they move through on a regular basis is simply amazing! While there I purchase a little bag of felting fiber. The staple length was long enough that I was able to card it up into rolags for spinning. I only had one color that   
I could not use. This one was set aside for needle felting, or perhaps for making felted soap.

 For quite awhile now i have been wanting to try my handat spinning beaded yarn. I did a search online to study various methods of bead spinning. Everything I read was tailored to spinning beaded yarn on a spinning wheel. But I figured with a little finagling I could probably make one or more of the techniques work on a drop spindle. I picked the method that seemed easiest for using with a drop spindle. First I strung a small handful of 6/0 seed beads onto a spool of cotton quilting thread. The thread was going to be used as the core of my yarn. I set the spool of thread on my lap, picked up one of the rolags and began to spin, using the thread as my core. Every 10-12 inches I would pause in my spinning and slide a bead up the thread to the join where my rolag was attached, and then continue spinning. I'll have to include a photo of this in my next post concerning this yarn. 

 At the time of taking this pictures I had spun about two roalgs worth of Romney. I added that to the beginning of my yarn for another lighter color in the mix.

I am VERY excited to see how this yarn turns out! Seeing as this is a new technique for me, and that there was no beading directions for the drop spindle, I'm kind of winging it. and seeing what happens.. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I am not sure if I am going to bead approximately half of my fiber and then ply my two ends together, or if I'll bead it all and ply it together, or bead it all and ply it with something else. I'll keep you posted!


Right now I am on a road trip, headed out of state to help our friends with the children while they are at a conference. Thanks to my new notebook, I am able to blog as we drive. Blogging on-the-go is a new experience for me, I find I am enjoying it. 


Any new techniques or tips you have learned recently? Be it spinning, knitting, crochet, or sewing....I would love to hear about it!
That's all for now. Take care my friends, and I'll be back with you soon.

Spring: Part 1

This year spring arrived early because of our bout of warm weather a month ago. In between we have had some cold days, but overall it has been very spring-like and altogether lovely. It has been nice enjoying such a lengthy, drawn-out spring. 

The pictures in this past were taken over a couple weeks, going from oldest to newest. I was on my way back across the state and everything was beginning to burst into bloom. There were photo opportunities everywhere, but I was on a schedule and could not stop very often. However little unexpected chances arose, such as these gorgeous flowering trees in the walkway by the music store.

About a week ago I started working on the raspberry patch. Because of the early warm weather the weeds have gotten a wonderful jump, thus it was not a pretty sight that met my eyes the first time I went out there. We have clay, and in-between rains the ground gets as hard as rock. So after a rainfall, and as soon as the slippery, clumping clay is remotely workable, it is best to rush out and get things done before the crazy winds on our hill dry the ground back out. Sometimes if we do not have wind the ground will stay soft longer.
I did some weeding, raked away a great deal of dead rubbish from last fall and then called it quits because I was in need of thick gloves before I pruned. I came back a few days later with two helpers and got more weeding and raking done, as well as pruned back dead  and/or wild growth. The patch is not quite ship-shape. But it is looking pruned and respectable. Every time I scoop the boys beans I spread a bucketful or two around the base of the raspberry canes. Alpaca beans are mild enough that you can use them straight in your garden. There is normally some straw interspersed with the beans, but it will help keep down the weeds and eventually decompose and add nutrients to the soil.

Crabapple tree

Apple tree.

Maple tree.

The leaves are coming on ever so slowly, but each week the hazy green in the distance deepens and the woods look fuller. The field behind us has been planted already. Corn. Not at all a happy thing for me, as well as other members of our family. We were never allergic to corn, but something about this new GMO corn is not good for our allergies. Lets just say for about a month and a half some of us can not even go outdoors comfortably, nor have the windows open in the house. Its a relief when we can get away from the corn and are able to breathe without sneezing constantly or having running eyes.

The Applemint has spread and is doing nicely. It is almost impossible to eradicate it, (short of a huge excavation and some sort of poison I suppose!) so everywhere we have been it has done nicely. But here with all this lovely(?) clay, it grows huge and happy. It is nice for tea, however we haven't dried a whole lot of it in recent years. Though I do believe I will try drying a bunch of it this summer. My Mother and my sister-in-law both make soap and it would make a nice add-in to certain scents.

Windfall & Mounty

And now on to the animals on the farm! The alpacas are doing well, there have been some temporary modifications to their living arrangements.....

.......And for a while there they were not sure how they felt about it.  But now everyone is settling in nicely and getting used to the change. Meet our newest members.....

.......Guinea Hens!

The ladies are about 6 months old. We purchased them from my Aunt. Due to her other animals they were not very compatible on her farm. Her poor bulldog pup had to be on a leash and was getting chubby from lack of exercise. Not to mention they can be a little noisy when alarmed.
But so far we've not had any trouble with them. They have to be kept enclosed for awhile, so they get used to their new home and do not try running off. They are all just starting to lay, and we get four or five eggs every day. It is a nice steady amount. Not enough to give eggs away very often, but also not so many as to overwhelm us. Guinea eggs are different from your standard chicken eggs. They are quite small, we've heard two guinea eggs equals one large chicken egg. To me they just look like small chicken eggs. The shells on the eggs are quite thick, they feel like little rocks when I hold them in my hand.
The ladies do not have names as of yet. It is not like we will be able to tell them apart! But we do like to name our creatures. 

The first time let the ladies wander around the boys pen Mounty has tried to chase them. But he and Windfall both are learning to listen. After getting after him, he has since left them alone. Sunday while I was taking care of the guineas water they escaped out the barn door behind me. I had not had that happen before and I was envisioning them flying over the fence and escaping entirely. Mounty instantly went on the alert and let out a little hum, taking a step toward them. But I firmly told him no, and after watching them a moment he went back to eating. Windfall ignores them unless they are let out in the lawn to eat grass and bugs. Mother did that once, last week, and he was quite agitated. I don't know if it was because he thought they were somewhere where they didn't belong (since they are usually kept locked up) or if it was because he wanted to be outside his fence. The grass is always greener you know....

That is all the farm news for now! 

Next up:  a new (for me) spinning technique!

Catching Up

I have a new design in the wings and I am so excited about it! Last September I was visiting my sister-in-law and somehow did not have a project to work on. I can not remember now if I forgot to bring something, or if it was simply a case of finishing up what I did bring along. Either way, my hands were empty and I needed a project. She rummaged in her craft room and came back with yarn, needles and the stitch dictionary and basically  said "design something". So with plenty of quiet and spare time on my hands, a new pattern was born. I only knit the left mitten, then it got put on the back burner as other projects came along. This week I puled it out and sorted through my notes, determined to make a go of it and finish it off. I'm pleased to say,as of this evening, I finished the mitt! Well, all except the top part of the thumb. I need to jot down how to do it, as I failed to make thorough notes on the first time around. 

While visiting a new yarn shop this week I picked up this yarn for a test knit of my new pattern. The yarn is "Rustic" by Cascade Yarns, Fiber content is 79% Wool 21% Linen. I purchased two skeins as I am hoping to have enough yarn left over for a complimenting accessory. I am looking forward to sharing more with you about this project in the near future.

I have several Christmas presents that I never showed you. The first being this adorable hat. I knit this for one of my sisters. 
Yarn: Handspun Blue-Face Leicester
Pattern: Kim's Hats from "Last-minute Knitted Gifts."

Up-close detail of the hat.

Jillian & Bilbo

Christmas 2010 I made Jillian as a gift. She was made out of hand carded, hand spun Alpaca/Angora yarn,
Christmas 2011 I made Bilbo as a gift. He is made out of hand carded, hand spun Merino/Corriedale/Dorset/Angora yarn.
Pattern: Loveable Toys from "Last-minute knitted gifts.
The rabbits are quite different from each other, because of the differences in yarn. Jillian is more soft and floppy, and thanks to lots of angora, she has a nice fuzzy halo. Bilbo is soft but sturdy, with a nice firm hand. He does not have nearly as much halo as Jillian does, seeing as I did not card as much angora in with the the rolags.
I suppose it could also be due to the fact that he is only 4 months old, whereas Jillian is over a year old and has had time to grow fuzzy.

Bilbo

Such a sweet little face!

The boys were exceedingly interested in the goings-on of the photo shoot. I do believe they thought the rabbits were edible. I couldn't get a single photo without the alpacas in the background! Not that I minded though. They are inquisitive fellows, and so sweet.
   

Difference in ears.

I also made a pair of wristlets for another sister. These are from one of the older issues of Spin-Off. Though at this precise moment I do not remember which one. If anyone wishes to particularly know I will gladly look it up. This is the fourth pair that I have made. They only take a small amount of fingering-weight yarn, and work up very quickly. The only modification I made this time was to lengthen the ribbing.


Next up: Spring updates!


For now, farewell my friends!