Adventures in fiber

2014
03/17

Category:
quilts

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From Head to Toe Block of the Month (BOM)

I walked into the studio this morning and as it was too cluttered for me to work, I started by folding and putting away some of the fabrics.

Then I spied this box of bags on the floor. These are the BOMs that I want to do this year. The artist puts together a block for each month, and if one actually gets each one done by the month , one will have a finished top by the end of the year. Since I am now two months behind, I decided to end the cleaning and start on one of these BOMs.

From Head to Toe A knitter’s Gifts by Denise Russart is one of the BOMs I planned to do.

I pulled out the fabric and finished the March block as it was straight piecing.

The February block is applique, so is only pinned together so far.

2014
03/16

Category:
Knitting

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Spinning

The electric Hanson Spinner is wonderfully small and portable. It is a dream to spin on and will go as fast or as slow as I wish.

The black wool here is from one of the Angora rabbits. It’s a bit tricky to spin as it doesn’t have the little hooks on it that wool fiber has. So it needs to be spun thin and with lots of twist so that it will hold together. After spinning, it will need to be plied with another spun fiber. I’m thinking I’ll use either alpaca or wool as pure Angora is too warm for our area.

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I was going to show you dog fur being spun, but it is hiding from me at the moment.

2014
03/15

Category:
Life

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Delightful day of rest

The dogs believed there was something to protect us from at 3 AM. You know what that does to the rest of the night’s sleep. However we were protected from whatever and so slept in a bit.

We had an invite to our daughters and son-in-laws place for lunch as his parents are here visiting from Florida. His dad makes an awesome stir fry which we had with the potato salad we brought for lunch. Then it was time to walk off the meal. We went to Seward Park on Lake Washington for a good walk and what did we see? This young one.

It’s a lovely park with this nice wide, paved road for bikes, skates, walkers, whatever — beside the lake.

And here is a photo – just in case, you’re interested – of Paul Allen’s Helipad boat on Mercer Island in Lake Washington.

After this lovely day, it was back home to feed and water the farm creatures

2014
03/14

Category:
Sewing

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Lemons or lemonade?

Remember the jeans I was embroidering on Sunday. Today, I tried again and the machine shifted twice throwing the pattern off and making a mess of what I was trying to do. The pattern takes 2 hr. 20 min for a sew out, and next time I will use a simpler pattern. The jeans weren’t worth the added hours it would take to remove the bad embroidery as they were only $15 at Costco and that wasn’t enough money to let ruin my day. So what to do?

I took them off the machine to the cutting board and will have a new pair of shorts for summer instead of a long pair now. And I have the other leg to use for making a pair of doll jeans.

Life is short and lemonade sweet

2014
03/13

Category:
Foods
Garden

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Greenhouse Springtime planting

LOOK! The banana trees I feared were frozen are returning! See the little shoots. I have 4 pots that I replanted last year from the tree I had and they all are sending up new shoots. Of course without heat in the greenhouse, I’ll not have bananas, but it’s fun anyway. And yesterday and today I took my knitting out to the greenhouse and sat and knitted a bit. The weather in there is humid and warm like Hawaii. So pleasant.

Today was another beautiful day. We had a lovely walk in the park and worked on planting a few seeds. A bit difficult to see, but those are seedling trays I planted lettuce, several varieties of tomatoes, cabbage and will plant more in the next couple days. I need to plant lots of seeds, because I’m not great at getting seedlings started.

And just look at all the Swiss chard I picked that is still growing from last year. I will pick kale tomorrow.

2014
03/12

Category:
farming
Life

TAG:
farming

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CHICKENS and CHICKS

What a lovely day!!. The sun is shining and not even a sweater is needed outside. When I went to the kitchen, these lovely blooms greeted me. Did they read the sign? They bloomed at Thanksgiving and now again. I love it!

Look how stunningly beautiful each blossom is!

And when I went outside, this is what I found. Apparently these chickens had each claimed a pot in which to sit.

After lunch we went to the store – to get more babies as we need more eggs for our small clientele.

The first are Polish bantams and the second are hopefully silkies. They weren’t sure nor were they sure of the sex of any of these. So all six of these will be a big surprise. I am looking for some little silkie girls. The Bantams are just for fun.

This bucket has the Silkies and the black Austrolorps

Here are the (black) Wyandotte and the Araucanas (sometimes called Easter Egg chicks) I’m all ready for a fun summer. Somewhere I want to find time to tame these chicks so they are more friendly adults.

2014
03/11

Category:
Garden
Life

COMMENTS:
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Repositioned geese

One goose in particular would like to bite and stay attached to anyone entering his domain – meaning the back yard. Apparently this is why.

Buy why did she/they put them down the fence line and then move over to the garden to start a new nest? We absolutely cannot co-exist while she sets on the nest for a month. So if we are to have a garden this year, they must move.

They were moved and the eggs with them to the area where the bunnies lived this past winter. There is a very shady side (where I put the straw and eggs) and the sunnier side. It is a U shape and I’m guessing they will build a new nest on the sunny side. But if she gives up that’s okay with me as well. The main thing now is that we are once again safe and really they are safely enclosed as well.

2014
03/10

Category:
Knitting

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2014 Socks #2 finished!

I’m a bit hard on the toes of socks and these socks are 100% wool. So I added a thin strand of 75% wool, 25% nylon along with the yarn I’m using, which will increase the wearing time on them. It does make the toes a bit thicker.

This thin stranded yarn is made to add to toes and heels to prolong their wearability and can be obtained at knitting stores.

You can see how thin it is compared to the yarn I’m using

READY TO WEAR!

2014
03/09

Category:
Life
quilts

COMMENTS:
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Seam Ripper Day

I may have taken out more stitches than I put in today – at least it seemed that way. Can you relate to any of the following?

I started an embroidery. Then the machine jumped and I didn’t catch it right away, however, I’m going to finish it and try something creative.

Then I did a practice buttonhole for my jacket which went great, but the real one didn’t. I have now taken that out and decided this might be a day better spent doing something else. So, after some chocolate and since I really want to end the day on a happy note, I’ll show you a quilt that I finished this past year and hung on the wall. It’s bright colors cheer me each time I walk past it.

2014
03/08

Category:
Foods
Life

COMMENTS:
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After church dinner

This is the photo I promised of a Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke). It is very knobby and this one still has lots of dirt attached. Sometimes a knob has to be cut off to wash all the dirt. I used them in the salad sliced thinly as “water chestnuts” however, next week I plan to cook some as potatoes.

Today we invited 5 guests for dinner to get to know them better. We enjoyed Broccoli Quinoa, roasted cauliflower, roasted squash, corn, tossed salad, zucchini bread, and regular whole wheat bread with hummus. We didn’t have dessert as we rarely have room left after eating a good meal.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

I walked into the studio this morning and as it was too cluttered for me to work, I started by folding and putting away some of the fabrics.

From Head to Toe A knitter’s Gifts by Denise Russart is one of the BOMs I planned to do.

I pulled out the fabric and finished the March block as it was straight piecing.

The February block is applique, so is only pinned together so far.

The electric Hanson Spinner is wonderfully small and portable. It is a dream to spin on and will go as fast or as slow as I wish.

.

I was going to show you dog fur being spun, but it is hiding from me at the moment.

The dogs believed there was something to protect us from at 3 AM. You know what that does to the rest of the night’s sleep. However we were protected from whatever and so slept in a bit.

It’s a lovely park with this nice wide, paved road for bikes, skates, walkers, whatever — beside the lake.

And here is a photo – just in case, you’re interested – of Paul Allen’s Helipad boat on Mercer Island in Lake Washington.

After this lovely day, it was back home to feed and water the farm creatures

I took them off the machine to the cutting board and will have a new pair of shorts for summer instead of a long pair now. And I have the other leg to use for making a pair of doll jeans.

Life is short and lemonade sweet

And just look at all the Swiss chard I picked that is still growing from last year. I will pick kale tomorrow.

What a lovely day!!. The sun is shining and not even a sweater is needed outside. When I went to the kitchen, these lovely blooms greeted me. Did they read the sign? They bloomed at Thanksgiving and now again. I love it!

Look how stunningly beautiful each blossom is!

And when I went outside, this is what I found. Apparently these chickens had each claimed a pot in which to sit.

After lunch we went to the store – to get more babies as we need more eggs for our small clientele.

The first are Polish bantams and the second are hopefully silkies. They weren’t sure nor were they sure of the sex of any of these. So all six of these will be a big surprise. I am looking for some little silkie girls. The Bantams are just for fun.

This bucket has the Silkies and the black Austrolorps

Here are the (black) Wyandotte and the Araucanas (sometimes called Easter Egg chicks) I’m all ready for a fun summer. Somewhere I want to find time to tame these chicks so they are more friendly adults.

One goose in particular would like to bite and stay attached to anyone entering his domain – meaning the back yard. Apparently this is why.

Buy why did she/they put them down the fence line and then move over to the garden to start a new nest? We absolutely cannot co-exist while she sets on the nest for a month. So if we are to have a garden this year, they must move.

I’m a bit hard on the toes of socks and these socks are 100% wool. So I added a thin strand of 75% wool, 25% nylon along with the yarn I’m using, which will increase the wearing time on them. It does make the toes a bit thicker.

This thin stranded yarn is made to add to toes and heels to prolong their wearability and can be obtained at knitting stores.

You can see how thin it is compared to the yarn I’m using

READY TO WEAR!

I may have taken out more stitches than I put in today – at least it seemed that way. Can you relate to any of the following?

I started an embroidery. Then the machine jumped and I didn’t catch it right away, however, I’m going to finish it and try something creative.

Today we invited 5 guests for dinner to get to know them better. We enjoyed Broccoli Quinoa, roasted cauliflower, roasted squash, corn, tossed salad, zucchini bread, and regular whole wheat bread with hummus. We didn’t have dessert as we rarely have room left after eating a good meal.

(DH was concerned that I not show the people as recognizable since I hadn’t asked for permission. What is the rule on this? Do you know?)

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