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My Blue Heaven

denisemor 2 June 25, 2016June 26, 2016

I stayed home this past week.

Didn’t have a real agenda. Just needed a little time to slow down and do homestead type stuff.

And I did.

I picked raspberries and cherries
Weeded in the garden
Trimmed sheep hooves.
Mucked out the sheep shed.
Sat around chatting with sheep and chickens
Washed fleece
Did some yoga.
Listened to a lot of sports talk radio
Baked a cherry pie
Spun
Carded
Spun some more.

Then, I dyed.
And not just some instant gratification koolaid dyeing (that happened earlier in the week).

This time I pulled out the big pot, and started an indigo vat.

Gimme an I!
Ordered more natural indigo powder from Earthues in Seattle
Gimme an N!
Selected and reskeined yarns to be dyed/overdyed

Gimme a D!
Washed up a bunch of Griff’s last fleece

Gimme another I!
Hit the internet for a refresher on the process
Gimme a G!
Assembled all the necessary tools and ingredients (lye, thiox, pH test strips, gelatin, thermometer, big washtub, etc)
Gimme an O!
Dove in and started my stock solution.

It was overcast, so I set up under cover of the breezeway

I had a little bit of a hard time conclusively determining the pH because my test strips kept turning blue, but I used gelatin (because I oculdn’t find hide glue locally) as an additive to the vat to help protect the wool fibers from the alkaline solution. It seems to have worked pretty well, as everything feels like it is still in good condition.

Indigo is a little tricky, but it has the advantage of not requiring a mordant, and the results are aMAzing!

St. Cecilia’s First Bloom

denisemor 0 June 19, 2016

I should have taken a bunch of photos today- the sun came out and everything is incredibly lush from all the recent rain.
I’ve got roses and raspberries and cherries all coming on so fast, blueberries not far behind.
Pretty heady stuff.

But I was was satisfied to just take it all in today. The only photos I took were of my new rose, St.Cecilia.

A valentine present from The Man, she arrived in the mail earlier this spring.
I’d always wanted this particular rose because of the really lovely fragrance-

David Austin Roses website describes it as “very strong and both remarkable and unusual; an English Rose myrrh character with lemon and almond blossom.”

Wish the photo was a scratch and sniff so I could share it with you.
She’s off to an awesome start 🙂

Chicken Report

denisemor 0 June 12, 2016

The not-so-baby chickens moved into the pasture a couple of weeks ago.

They are acclimating ok, but as expected, the old grumpy chickens are not being especially welcoming.

The two chicken populations are mostly keeping to themselves, but occasionally they cross paths and much fussing and squawking ensues.

And,,, it’s kind of looking like we might have a couple or three roosters in the bunch.
Here are the candidates-

Bertrand

Stumpy

and Mr. Speckles (because he didn’t have a name and he’s a Speckled Sussex) 🙂

Was hoping I could capture a little bit of the crowing and posturing going on out there, but everybody was pretty cooled out this evening.
Here is a little impromptu footage from the pasture.

Also started reading another sheep-keeping memoir this week

I’m not very far in yet, but it looks promising.
I have a little bit of stay-cation coming up in a week, so maybe I’ll just save it for then!

Hot Hot Hot

denisemor 0 June 5, 2016June 5, 2016

Best to stay in the shade

and munch apple branches.

Or hide in the house and play with wool.

You might remember that I kind of have a thing for Zauberball.
Zauberball makes great socks. But it also makes awesome cowls.
I give you…….ZauberCowls. 🙂

Fun, eh?

Also been trying out a new hat pattern- Honegart by Stephen West

I’ve always liked earflap hats, and this one is nice and thick and squishy with the garter stitch and the honeycomb cabling.
Gotta be ready for when those cooler days come back around!