Author: denisemor

This time of year we get a little bit of everything, weather wise. This past week has held both summer-like temps and crazy thunderstorms. It makes me very thankful that the last two days have been mild and suitable for garden work, because there’s always a ton to do!

Seedlings are on heat mats and under lights in the hoophouse. Tomatoes have popped, but peppers are still incubating.

Yesterday I planted out beet, carrot, and parsnip seeds and started cabbages in six pack trays.

Today I spent some time trying to tidy up the hoophouse- addressing the accumulation of scum (pollen?) on the exterior.

It’s a messy business, and you can see clearly in the photo exactly how far I can reach up the sides without a ladder. I think that if I take a stepstool out there I can probably get a couple more feet before it curves away too far. So that will be phase 2.

Around the garden- daffodils are looking pretty and perky

And out in the pasture, the sheepy girls are as well-

Haven’t had a chance to do any more shearing yet, but hopefully soon.

And- wonder of wonders- I finally have gotten my Esther Candelaria blouse off the needles!

But don’t get too excited yet 😉 – I think I might have screwed up the split cuff on the last sleeve. Hard to tell right now, but the placement of the opening might be off. If it’s too obvious or annoying when worn, I might have to do a little re-knitting.

Even if that is the case, though, I need to start planing a new project. The dark Daphne yarn is kind of calling to me. Will have to take a look at some patterns and see if I can find a suitable candidate.

In the meantime, I’ve got another band going on the inkle loom. A combination of embroidery floss and pearl cotton warp, and silk weft.

Also just started looking into card weaving, and happened upon this cool technique called speed warping. Video link here for future reference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjpiYF4DAbE)

Alrighty- I’m off to browse patterns and contemplate my yarn stash.

Take care, folks.

Last week I was down in Seabeck, WA at a retreat organized by my local spinning guild.

It was a lot of fun- and not as long a trip as I expected. Maybe it helped that the journey was broken up by a ferry ride (Edmonds to Kingston). Oh- and we also stopped on the way down at the Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. That’s always a treat!

The conference center was really cute and homey. I thought I’d taken a picture of my room in the Inn Annex, but can’t find it, so here is one ganked from their website. Mine didn’t have a desk, so there was a little more floorspace.

And here are a few pictures I took of the property- the inn from the front

The meeting house where we spun and hung out

view from the meeting house-

Cute little building along the pathway to the meeting house

I brought Moto the e-spinner, and gave him and his battery pack a pretty good workout over the course of three days, spinning a variety of things, but mostly Daphne fleece that I had carded up into rolags.

I didn’t do any plying while there, but since I’ve been back, I’ve gotten caught up and mostly cleared my bobbins!

Little bit of everything going on in that pile! Daphne, Dottie, Esther, romeldale from last year’s Wonderful woolies sale, Spincycle superwash merino-

Everyone except Fiona- but I am excited that this year her fleece seems to have turned a corner. Less scritch, and more crimp. I just made a bit of a start with shearing this morning, and it looks really promising.

She’s still got her long outercoat, but even that seems a bit finer and softer than previous years.

While I was at it I cleaned up a bit around Daphne’s neck and chest, too. Her fleece is really interesting, and very atypical for an Icelandic sheep, I think. Tight curls over most of her body. A bit looser and fluffier around the neck.

That’s what’s going on in my little world.

Hopefully by this time next week we’ll have germination on tomato and pepper sprouts.

Fruit trees are done! Woot! Big Apple got off easy this year- no big cuts. Just the standard deadwood, thinning and shaping.

and after a couple years of transition, the fig has successfully transformed from a tree to a multi-stem shrub, which will hopefully result in a better breba crop of figs.

Also prepping garden beds- compost, weeding, cleaning up perennials, and planting potatoes and leeks!

Where garden meets wool work: dye plants! I dug up the madder that I started from seed a couple years ago and harvested the roots-

There weren’t as much as I would have hoped, but I needed to make space for veg, so times up for the madder plants. Will make for some fun dyeing later on this summer 🙂

Still working on the rainbow band. Will maybe have pics next week.

Take care, folks and be good to each other-

March has arrived, and garden work has commenced in earnest. It’s been great yardwork weather, and I’ve found it really satisfying spending time outside and getting things order.

Fruit trees out back are pruned

as are all the roses

but there’s still a lot of work to be done on Big Apple

Today we distributed a bunch of our compost around to various growing locations-

Looks like a really nice rich, well-cooked batch. I’m hoping that it will set us up for a productive garden season!

I’ve also chosen my tomato varieties for the year: Cuor di Bue Albenga, German Pink, Jaune Flamme, Brad’s Atomic Grape, Cherokee Purple, Martino’s Roma

I’m starting seeds a little later this year, as last year I think that my peppers and eggplants got off to really slow starts due to cold weather. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only early March, even if it’s been 50F outside the last couple of days!

Indoor pursuits are coming along as well- Candelaria is well on it’s way to having one sleeve

Another band completed-

And dove into the embroidery floss stash to come up with a plan for the next!

Bringing a little rainbow energy to the band weaving this week. 🙂