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Last weekend I was down near Lilliwaup, on the Olympic peninsula with some knitting friends for our annual retreat. It was a beautiful spot, right on the Hood Canal

I didn’t think to take many photos, but this gives you an idea of the view from the deck. Just gorgeous. And a fair bit of wildlife activity- lots of eagles, an otter, seals and a couple of Minke whales, which I’d never heard of before.

On the way down we stopped off at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. It’s such a treat to see what she’s go going on there, and I always come away with some spinning fiber in a fabulous colorway. I should have taken a picture of the braid, but I was in vacation mode and not really thinking about documenting stuff. But I think it was this one- which is called “Autumn Leaves”. My seasons are out of synch apparently, but it called out to me.

I chose to chain ply it to get a nice squishy chunky yarn and preserve the color changes.

And, I made (another) start on the JUiST sweater project. For some reason I’ve had a hard time getting this one going properly. Between the gauge adjustment, new cast on, new increases and such, I’d been struggling to get it launched. But I think I’m on the right track now

Since that photo, there was progress made, un-made, and re-made.

Today I did a quick soak and block of the inprogress yoke to make sure that the shoulder shaping is in the right place (because it’s hard to tell when it’s all scrunched up on a circular needle). And i think it’s ok.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to rip back again at some point. That seems to be the theme with this project.

Meanwhile, out in the pasture, Dottie is actively resisting being sheared. She’s being very elusive, and hasn’t given me any opportunity in weeks to lay hands on her. Looks like I’m going to have to get sneaky and set a trap to catch her up in the shed. (Just tried to get a picture, and she wasn’t up for that either)

Things are really heating up in the hoophouse-

Eggplants (+zucchini)

Melons (+zucchini)

This little jalepeno is probably the biggest success of the overwintering experiment- really coming along nicely

The overwintered tomatoes seemed to be off to a pretty good start early, but have been suffering from some powdery mildew of late. I’ve pulled one of them, and been trimming leaves and spaying with neem oil. Trying to keep it in check, but might have to yank the others if it threatens to spread to the new plants. Also just pruned the tomatoes and pulled some of the self-seeded chamomile to try and ensure that there is good airflow.

I’ve still got two Ananas Noir tomatoes to get in the ground, but I think they’ll have to hang tight in pots until the snap peas have done their thing.

I’ll sign off today with a short video of a cool waterfall that we visited on the trip back from Lilliwaup- If you’re ever in the Dosewallips area check it out- it’s quite scenic, and not too far a walk from the road

Have a good week folks-

I have a plan- and just in time for my upcoming knitting retreat!

JUiST (pronounced “Yoost”) is a top-down, seamless pullover with a slanted contiguous shoulder construction.

I’ve spent some time this week familiarizing myself with the pattern and doing some swatching to practice some new-to-me things that are in the instructions: Crochet cast-on, German Short Rows, and a new kind of increase. Here is my (2nd attempt) little increase swatch

Feeling pretty good about that. Also did a dry run of the collar area, to make sure my gauge calculations worked out (working a larger size to adjust for my gauge being significantly different from the pattern).

And yesterday morning I dyed the Dottie yarn that I’ll be using for the project

I especially love how the peachy orange shade turned out

It was one skein short of a home run- I’d kind of forgotten how the Wilton’s blue dye can split, and I did have some of that happen on that one color

So I think I’ll do something lese with the blue- perhaps overdye with red to go violet on the whole thing, or some sort of speckle effect, but it will likely sit out this project.

In other news, garden is coming along well- I’ve got almost all the veg in the ground, with drip and soaker hoses in place. With the heat of the last few days everything seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. But these temps really wear me out.

I think this afternoon I’ll be hiding in the shade, eating a rhubarb (+ a bit of ginger) pop.

So much rhubarb this time of year! Next batch is Rhubarb/Cherry+ hint of almond. Like rhubarb cherry pie on a stick.

Have a great week everyone-

A couple posts ago I mentioned that I was busily carding up Dottie’s 2022 fleece and spinning it up into DK-ish singles.

I’m still at it (haven’t been able to quite keep up the pace I set early on) but I do have a sweater project idea coming into focus. Was originally thinking I’d make it in her natural silver, but yesterday I got the dyeing bug.

I made up a set of little mini skeins (about 15 yds each) and pulled out some food colors to play with-

And within 10 minutes- they looked like this

Talk about instant gratification! The colors are so deep and intense on her steely grey shades. I just love the effect. You can see in the photo below how the colors look on the white yarn I’d used to tie the skeins for comparison.

Now I’m thinking about going all in on color for the sweater project. Not stranded this time- just stripes, to keep the fabric really light. Swatching quickly ensued.

I love the interplay of the colors on the purl side. This might end up being an inside-out sweater.

So many questions tho- how to organize the colors? use the dark grey as the base, or just revel in the flashiness? To be continued-

Out in the hoophouse, I’ve got tomatoes, melons, cukes and eggplants in the ground.

Still holding the peppers on heat, giving them a little more time to gain in size before they get planted out. But everyone is repotted and making good progress

With fewer tomato plants overall this year, I had a little extra space and thought I’d see if our would zucchini benefit from a more controlled environment this year (away from slug pressure).

Also, peas are starting to flower- so hopefully not too long til we’re rolling in sugar snaps! Woot!

Have a great week folks 🙂

In the last three days we have lost two chickens to crop issues.

I had Rock, our lead rooster, in the special needs unit for almost a week since we noticed he seemed to have a blockage. I spent a lot of time nursing him through it, and I thought for a while that he was showing improvement. But ultimately my interventions were unsuccessful in breaking it down or dislodging it. I did a bit of an exploration after he passed to see what the nature of the blockage was, and it appeared to be just a mass of fibrous material, like hay or straw.

Here is a picture of the handsome boy in better days

We are down to one rooster now. Mr. Pink is carrying the rooster-ing load all by himself.

And then just when I thought that I had one of my little Amberlink girls back on track, I discovered today that her sour crop problem was back with a vengeance. As soon as I picked her up she started regurgitating a lot of nasty liquid, and in the process, she aspirated some of the fluid. It wasn’t long be fore she started having trouble breathing. Ugh.

I’m not sure if there is something we could be doing to guard against these sorts of issues.

Any chicken advice y’all might have is welcome.

In other news, I’ve made a start shearing the sheep, but still have a long way to go. Fiona’s fleece is pretty much a loss, but I need to get it off her to give her a fresh start. Right now her haircut looks really silly, but I’ll get her cleaned up inthe next couple days.

And Esther is really motivated to be rid of her heavy coat if it means getting some good rubs and scritches. A bit of sweet talk and massage got me as far as her neck and shoulders yesterday afternoon.

That’s enough for now.

Garden update can wait til next week, I think.