In which we speak of the Pumpkin Spice Stole

Hello my friends! Lately we have had quite a few grey, leaden days. For awhile it felt as if spring was in the air. We have certainly had an odd February! Lots of rain, very little snow, temperatures varying greatly...Last week we had another snow fall. It was a thick, heavy sort of snow that covered every little branch and twig.

Very pretty, indeed. I didn't take any pictures of the snow until the next morning. By that time the thick cover was gone, though it was still snowing and quite pretty. See what I mean by grey??

Snow covered field.

This was around 4:30 in the afternoon. I went outside to feed the alpacas and took my camera along in case there were any good photo opportunities. It was quite chilly so after feeding the boys I quickly snapped a couple of photos then hurried back inside. We get a good deal of wind on our hill and sometimes I feel like I'm about to blow away! It certainly makes cleaning up after the alpacas an adventure. 

Heading back indoors I'm greated by the heavenly smell of hyacinths in bloom. These gorgeous flowers just keep growing and growing. Their wonderful smell permeates the surrounding area. It is a nice touch of spring amid all the grey.

Last week I pulled out my watercolor supplies and did a small 5x7" painting as a birthday gift for a friend. The original is one I painted a few years ago when I was just learning to paint by studying various books. I painted my new "Clothes on the Line" with a hint of storminess to the clouds. It looks like a cool, autumn day with the wind picking up and a storm rolling in.

I was quite pleased with the way the painting turned out considering the fact that I painted it in the evening, when the lighting was not very good. I picked the brightest corner of the living room and set up station. Normally I do not paint in the living room, but it was necessary at the time. I am actually quite pleased that my set-up worked out. Now I know for future reference that it Is possible to get enough lighting to make a decent painting on a dark winter's eve.

Pumpkin Spice Stole

Speaking of winter evenings, this is what I am often working on by the stove late in the evening. A cup of tea and I am all set to go for a while. This is the "Tibetan Clouds Beaded Stole" by Sivia Harding. I started my stole shortly after Christmas. The yarn was gifted to me by my sweet sister. I was so excited to have this large lace project to work on. I've been taking my own sweet time knitting it up, savouring the process so to speak. There were about 3 weeks total where I did not pick it up and work on it. For awhile there I just needed a change of pace, and then at one point this month I was so sick that I did not want to knit. But other then those few delays the Pumpkin Spice Stole (so named because of its lovely, rich pumpkin-y color) is growing steadily. I do find that the beading is sometimes rather tedious. But this is my first big beading project and its taken me awhile to get good at it. I was so slow in the beginning, but now I feel like I can fly along at a fairly good pace. If it were not for all those little beads I'm sure the stole would be done by now. But the beads really make the project, and despite the slow process of individually placing each bead, it is fun to do and the finished results will be well worth it!

Only last week I finished the first "wing" of my stole. Chart E is repeated eight and a half times so by the time I got near the end I felt like I had it memorized. It should make knitting the second wing a breeze. Chart E does scrunch up a good deal, and the ending charts are all puckery. But I am sure it will all block it beautifully in the end. That is the beauty of lace, taking a scrunched up piece of knitting, blocking it and then seeing it transform into a delicate  and gorgeous work of art.

That is all I have to share for this evening. I have a busy week ahead, what with my sister-in-law hosting a gals get-together for the ladies of the family, traveling I need to do later on this week....whew it is making me tired just thinking of what needs to be accomplished in the next day or two. However I am looking forward to the times of fellowship ahead, as well as the opportunity to be a blessing. 

In the last month and a half we have been able to get together with many friends, as well as make some new friends, we have had some wonderful times of fellowship and have been blessed, refreshed and encouraged. Family and friends are truly a precious gift from God!

May you have a wonderful and cheerful  week, wherever you are!  

I Am Back!!!

 I thought I would share a few spinning photos with you today. I know it has been quite awhile since I shared any spinning. The last two months I have not done as much spinning as I would have liked. These photos are of some of my fall spinning projects. The above picture is of Merino roving that I hand-painted May of 2011. It was a roving I intended to sell, but it was such a lovely color that I could not resist and finally ended up spinning it. I took it with me as a special project to work on when we went on family "holiday" this past October.

I still have a little bit left to spin, maybe a quarter of an ounce? I had the outlandish idea to turn this roving into a four-ply yarn. More then once in the process I rued the day the thought ever occurred to me! Why? Because it was rather a trial when plying, and because it was spun so thin it took FOREVER. (hence why I still have a tiny bit left to do!) I divided the 4 ounces into one-ounce sections. Then I spun up an ounce at a time, winding it off into a center-pull ball when I was finished. When I had two ounces spun, I took the two center-pull balls and plied all four resulting ends together into one yarn.  I ended up with 4-ply fingering weight yarn.

The above spinning project was used for  Christmas gift. I knit a small rabbit from the book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and used the resulting yarn for the ears. I carded together white huecaya alpaca fiber and gray angora rabbit. It was a super soft blend, just perfect for the inner ears of a little rabbit! I'll have to share pictures of some of the Christmas knitting I did.

 Remember the pictures I shared of my first time spinning locks? Well this is the resulting yarn. I have not used it for anything yet, I still think it would make lovely crocheted flowers.

My first 4-ply yarn! Its so soft and lovely.

TeesWater locks, plied with commercial lace yarn.

Bunny Ear Yarn

Bunny ears: in progress.

I took my yarn outdoors to take pictures. It was a beautiful fall day. The sunshine was lovely, though the wind was a bit brisk. Windfall wanted to be a part of the photo shoot apparently!

So that is it for my fall spinning update. Well, I am off to go feed the boys. Around 4:30pm they start getting antsy and wanting their supper. Today is a beautiful, sunny day, just like when the above pictures were taken. I might have to take my camera out and snap some photos.

Happy 2012!

Hello my friends! It has been long time since I was here with you. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Year. We did not do much to celebrate the New year. Just after Christmas we picked up a flu bug from a relative. It was not your typical flu bug as it took some of us out of comission for up to five days. Needless to say our New Years eve was quiet, we all went to bed early.
Thankfully everyone is recovered and back to their normal schedules now.

Leading up to Christmas I was extreemly busy with preperations for the holidays, which included finishing up Christmas gifts. Regretably I  am unable to share photos of the gifts I made or my current projects. Lord willing I'll be able to share some pictures in the near future.

Now that the rUsh and busyness of making Christmas projects is past, I feel like I can relax and breathe again. However that is not completely the case as I have some comissioned knitting to finish up this week.
I'm excited to be back at my winter knitting/spinning projects. I have 2 pounds of walnut dyed alpaca calling my name! I still need to card it all up and then spin it. I would like to do the carding and spinning yet this winter. my other large project is my bed quilt. Sizing is somewhere between full and a queen. I have been working on appliqueing a vine all the way around my first border. I finished that just yesterday and I was able to pin on all the previously prepared leaves. Turning under the edges of the leaves and basting them was quite the time-consuming pocess. I am thankful that I got them all prepped late summer/early fall. There are thirty four leaves total. As of this morning I only have 2 leaves appliqued. I need to get a move on or I will take a month to applique the leaves! I am planning on quilting by hand with perle cotton, #8.

In knitting I am currently working on the "Tibetan Clouds Beaded Stole" by Sivia Harding. The pattern is found in the Knitter's Book of Wool. For Christmas my sister kindly gave me 5 skeins of Knit Pick's "Gloss", fingering weight in the Masala colorway. Masala is a rich, pumpkin spice color. And as such I have decided to name my project the Pumpkin Spice Stole. I have made it as far as Chart B and am about ready to switch from dpns to circulars.

That about catches you all up on what I have been working on lately. I'm off to make a spot o' tea and have some lunch. It a grey, gloomy sort of day, with rain in the forcast. The perfect sort of day for hunkering down by the fire with tea and some knitting.
I pray you have a bessed day, my friends!

Dyeing Raw Alpaca With Black Walnut Dye

This fall I embarked on a walnut dyeing adventure. Previously I explained how I collected the back walnuts and removed the husks to make a dye bath. Soaking the walnuts was a long process. I did two batches at two different times and each batch soaked for 2 weeks. I didn't dye up the alpaca right away as I was still in the process of washing the fiber. Speaking of which, I hope to explain in the near future how I wash raw alpaca fiber. I know there are all kinds of methods out there for prepping alpaca fiber, though this summer when I looked up "how to wash raw alpaca fiber" I didn't find many satisfactory options.

These pictures are from my first time dyeing with walnuts on Wednesday, November 18th. It was a chilly, windy day. And though the sun was shining I was very thankful for my little fire and a cup of cocoa.  To prep my walnut dye for the dye pot I strained it through a cloth and fine mesh strainer. I filled the dye pot with the strained dye. I also put some of the husks that had been soaking into  a pillowcase, knotted the top and tossed it in the dye. My outdoor fire was set up as follows: 1. I stacked bricks 4 high and 5 deep, per side. I placed a couple bricks on top of the grate on either side as a safety precaution to keep things from sliding about. 2. I spread a generous helping of pebbly sand underneath my grate and a little overflowing out to help keep the ash and coals contained. 3. Then it was time to collect kindling. We have silver maples down in the field that drop an abundance of twigs and branches whenever there is a stiff breeze. Which, by the by, happens quite often here. In addition to the branches I also rummaged up some hardwood scraps from out in the wood shop. These were a great help as they had a longer burn time then the branches.

 

I had a good fire crackling while the dye bubbled merrily for an hour. When the dye was close to being done went inside to prepare the alpaca fiber. This is where I made my first Mistake Of the Process. I had a pound of alpaca fiber washed and ready to go. I divided it in half and stuffed (yes, I said stuffed *blush) it into my two mesh bags. On later reflection I realized that wasn't my best plan. I did dye again this past Monday, which was Dec. 5th. For that batch of alpaca I put approximately half a pound in each bag only this time I stacked them in three neat rows with tips all pointing the same way. Before putting the locks in the bag I enlisted help to fluff out the tips and tails of the locks. When they get washed they get a little smooshed together, and I figured the locks would be less likely to felt if they were fluffed somewhat.

My second Mistake Of the Process was not letting the dye cool down somewhat. I soaked the bags of fiber in hot water prior to adding it to the dye. But I forgot that the dye was boiling hot. So consequently I felted the fiber just a little. When I dyed with walnuts on Monday I let the dye cool down until it was warm, and I soaked the fiber in the same temperature of water before quickly adding it to the dye pot.

The fiber bubbled over the heat for an hour. Then I let the fiber sit in the dye for six hours. After the fiber had soaked I brought in and rinsed out the excess dye. For the first batch "slightly felted" translated into some back breaking time over the sink as I pulled the locks apart and rinsed them, trying to make sense of the jumbled mess I had created. Two hours later...it was all tidy and laying out to dry.

This is my first batch of walnut-dyed alpaca locks. So far I have not had time to photograph my second batch. The colors turned out different, but as it will all be carded together then spun and knit, I don't think it matters much.

The white locks in the foreground is the natural color of the alpaca before it was dyed with walnuts. I'm hoping to spin up my two pounds of fiber and have enough yarn to make the Oatmeal cardigan from Spin Off. That will be a project for later this winter though as I have many Christmas projects in the works right now. The next week and a half will be very busy indeed!

Well I hope you have enjoyed this little look at dyeing with black walnuts. If you have any comments or questions don't hesitate to drop me a line. I always love to hear from my readers!

Thanksgiving Knitting and a little bit of Spinning

My Thanksgiving knitting and spinning projects! More details to follow soon.  The brown yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, in the Fedora colorway. The multi-colored yarn a skein of kettle-dyed yarn from www.michiganspinning.etsy.com I have been very happy with both these yarns. The yarn on the spindle is a blend I carded this week. I took a random bump  brown roving from the sample pack I purchased this summer and carded it up with angora. It spun up quickly and now I am navajo plying the single. The yarn itself is a brown heather with gold, green, and mauve running through it.

 

This yarn is my first go at lock spinning. I spun up two different colours of dyed Teeswater locks and then plied the single with a commercial lace-weight yarn. I'm not sure yet what I'll make with it. Perhaps crocheted/knitted flowers or other embelishments? 

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Greetings my friends! It has been awhile since I was last able to post and I must say I've missed it very much. Here on the home front we have been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tomorrow being Thanksgiving we are cleaning  house and beginning our meal preparations. The menu for Thanksgiving dinner is as follows:

Turkey with stuffing & gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Beet, Carrot & Apple Salad
Cranberry sauce
Dinner Rolls
Grasshopper pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie

We are looking forward to spending time with family and reflecting with gratitude on the abundant bessings God has bestowed upon us.

Meet Our New Suri Alpacas, Windfall & Mounty!!!!

Yes, this is the new adventure which I spoke of in my last post! About a month ago we got two male suri alpacas.  It was a completely unplanned venture, and came about rather suddenly. But we all talked it over and prayed about it, and a couple weeks after the fact, they arrived in their new home!

This is Mounty. He is 6 years old and a shy little guy. He is quite stocky in build, and about a head shorter then our other Suri boy, Windfall. Mounty was pretty skittish when we first got him. Within a day or so he had calmed down quite a bit and we were able to feed him grass right out of our hands. He's adjusted beautifully to his new home.

And this is Windfall! He is 7 years old, and clearly the alpaca in charge! As I stated above, Windfall is a head taller then Mounty. He's built differently and is not stocky at all. The front of his legs are covered in tight curly locks so we are anticipating some beautiful curls on him when his coat is grown out. Windfall lets us pet him on a daily basis, which is lovely. 

Mounty

Mounty in the background. Windfall's curly legs in the foreground.

Windfall.

Windfall, background. Mounty, foreground.

Windfall.

Mounty.

Looking at the two above pictures you can see the difference in the boys builds. Even though Mounty doesn't have the tight curls that Windfall dose, he still has a soft and beautiful coat. I think his fiber will be amazing to spin!

We are so excited to have alpacas, it is such a blessing! They have been quite the learning experience so far. Despite everything we previously knew concerning alpacas, nothing compares to owning them and encountering little situations that arise every now and then. There are more alpaca farmers in the area and we were able to get lots of advice and some help from a young couple who live not to far down the road. He has also offered to do our shearing come spring, and since they live close by the cost for shearing will not be as much as we had anticipated. What a blessing!

The boys LOVE to be hand fed fresh grass. Their enclosure is temporary until the spring when we can put them out in a bigger field. So consequently they keep their little patch of grass nibbled short. Fresh grass by the handfuls is always a treat and the crowd against each other and sometimes us in their haste to get to it first. Normally two of us go in the enclosure to give them their treat of grass. Windfall is quite the piggy and tends to steal Mounty's treats and grain if allowed.

I look forward to sharing more about our suri boys as we sally forth on this new venture!

Spinning Romney and Walnut Dye.

Happy Autumn my friends! It is hard to believe that October is almost over! Only one day left. This month has flown by. I have not accomplished quite as much in the fiber arts as I was hoping to this last month as we have been busy preparing for winter. The garden is cleared of produce though we still need to pull out plants and burn them. We also started on a new venture that has taken up quite a bit of time, I'll be sharing that in my next post! We had a beautiful week and a half of Indian Summer weather this October. It was amazing to have such warm weather for so long in October, we spent as much time outside as possible! I was picked up my Romney again and started working on it during our Indian summer. I finished carding all the Romney locks and now have a bag stuffed full of rolags. I also started spinning up the rolags into this yarn. This is a project that I am taking my own sweet time on as it is for me and doesn't need to be done at any particular time.

I still am completely happy with my purchase of this Romney! It was a joy to card up the locks and such a pleasure to spin as well! 
The other big project I have going right now is walnut dye. My brother and I saw a bunch of walnuts scattered along the side of the road and stopped to ask permission to pick them up. The gentlemen said to take all we wanted so we picked two grocery bags of ripe, green walnuts.

I let them sit over the weekend as I was busy and a few of them ended up going bad. I was following the instructions for walnut dyeing in the Spin Off Summer 2011 issue. I wore old clothes and gloves as I did NOT want brown hands for several weeks. I used an extra paving stone and hammer to pound off the husk.

All the good husks I tossed into one of our big metal tubs. The few bad pieces I had I tossed into the fire pit to be burnt.

And the nuts went into a basket to dry and later be cracked!

Despite the fact that I wore gloves, a little bit of walnut juice somehow managed to leak into the glove and my finger was slightly brown for days! I ended up putting some slim plastic gloves under the heavy gloves to protect my hands. 

I put just enough water in the tub to cover them. The next step is to let them soak for a week to a week and a half. We ended up going on a short family Holiday so my walnut dye will have been soaking for two weeks come tomorrow. I have three more grocery bags of walnuts to prep tomorrow. My Dad found a place where we can get as many as we need, and can come back next year too! Such a blessing as we have had a hard time finding somewhere to get decent walnuts. The walnuts that my Dad brought me look amazing! They are huge, and almost flawless, they look like pears! I'll probably end up soaking them for two weeks as well because I want my dye to all be of the same strength. Though I suppose if I mix it all together in one big batch it won't make any difference. My end goal is to dye up enough of the alpaca fiber that I was given this summer to make myself a sweater. I'm hoping to make the sweater this winter, but that might not happen as I'll have to spin all the fiber up still! Right now I'm just trying to get the dye made up while the walnuts are fresh and available, and the fiber dyed. Maybe after all my Christmas presents are done and set aside I can focus on making some sweaters!

After The Rain

A few weeks ago, when our grass was still green and the leaves had not yet started changing, we had a fierce thunderstorm with lots of rain. When it quit I was able to take some lovely after-the-storm photos.

At one point the double rainbow was arched all the way across the sky, it was stunning!

It was a gorgeous evening, with such interesting clouds and lighting! Everything was bathed in a mellow, golden light.