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I took the past week off work, and enjoyed just having some unstructured time around the homestead to read, garden, and play with wool (not necessarily in that order).

No real agenda or specific goals. Just being outside, hangin’ with the critters, and reveling in the arrival of summer.

I did, however, get a few things done-

Wool washing- that’s the last of this year’s clip (left to right: Daphne, Fiona, Dottie). All washed and sweet-smelling!

Time behind the wheel- (the Spindle Cycle wheel- focus on Dottie wool with the new larger whorl)

Finishing up my experimental stranded vest-

The vest just came together yesterday. Put some binding along the shoulder seams and back neck for structure, and finished the reverse stockinette edgings. And it’s a good fit! Not bad for a project that started out as a cowl 🙂

A nice little side-benefit I discovered to doing a steek on the full length of an object is that by changing colors at the site that you plan to cut, you can avoid having millions of loose yarns to weave in at the end! Nice, eh? I’m pretty pleased with how that whole thing worked out. I might even make another one soon, this time on purpose, with steek stitches built in to the plan from the start.

And just today I got around to doing some dyeing. I had hopes of maybe doing an indigo vat this week, but hadn’t planned ahead, and didn’t have all the necessary materials. So i dove into the stash and found a few old packets of Gaywool dyes in various shades of green to play with

In the hoophouse, things are starting to come along- picked my first little cukes yesterday, seeing some baby ‘maters coming on, but it feels like we’re a little behind compared with the last couple years.

The borage and calendulas are going nuts, tho- so the bees are happy. And I expect that if the bees are happy, then I will be happy eventually. I just need to be patient. And so far, everything looks really healthy- not seeing any indications of that fungus that plagued me last summer, knock on wood.

And my favorite roses are blooming

St. Cecilia and Emma Hamilton are making a strong showing, but Jude the Obscure suffered a lot of die-back this winter. Hoping he’ll recover as the season progresses. Keep a good thought!

If peonies in bloom signal the arrival of summer, then I think that we’re finally there (maybe?)

And it is suddenly almost 30 degrees warmer in during the day than it was a week or so ago. Crazy stuff, weather.

Things are finally kicking into gear in the garden and hoophouse, though I wonder if some of the peps are ever going to catch up. Might have gotten stunted by the late cold temps. Only time will tell, I guess.

Taking advantage of the sun today to get a little fleece washing/drying done- Daphne’s curls look so sweet all fresh from the bath 🙂

An exciting development on the equipment front- The Man helped me out with a mod to the spindle wheel, adding another speed-

So now I’ve got two ratios: 29:1 on the small pulley, and 21:1 on the larger.

Also was pointed to another really good video about the Rio Grande Wheel and the flip technique in the Ravelry Spindle Wheel group- just going to drop the link here for future reference: https://vimeo.com/106008863 It’s long, but the spinning technique bit starts about 23 minutes in.

So here is the Spindle Cycle (new name I’m trying out) in her current configuration

Oh- I also made some significant progress on the afterthought-steek vest. I succeeded in color-shifting the wool/mohair sweater to a slightly more yellow green with the help of a marigold dye bath, and have seamed it to the stranded vest front.

It’s finally coming together! Next step, figuring out what kind of finishing to use on the edges.

Esther likes to lay down in patches of bare dirt, which always results in her fleece being really muddy.

Her fleece also doesn’t seem to shed water as well as the rest of the gang, so every spring he has a kind of greenish tint. I have to say, this year, if it was anyone else, I might have just pitched most of it in to the compost.

But she is such a sweetie. And I know that she cleans up well. It just takes some work.

As soon as I got it off of her this year, it went into a bin to soak.

After many changes of cold water over the last couple of weeks, I finally gave it a hot wash.

This is it’s current state

Slowly coming around, I think. First batch still has a bit of grease in in, so might need another wash. And there is some discoloration, but it will still be a good candidate for dyeing. It’s a good thing her wool is so strong and relatively resistant to felting!

In other news- I’ve taken on a custom spinning project that has me busy sampling and documenting-

I do love sampling and playing with new fibers. This is Daisy, of Marietta Shetlands. Aiming for a DK-ish weight. I think once I get the specs dialed in the spinning should go quickly, as the roving is really quite nice -even and open. Working on Moto for this, so I can be sure of what RPM I’m working at for different versions- and also because I can reverse the direction of twist at a push of a button (some samples I’m spinning S and plying Z, just to see if they behave differently when knitted or crocheted).

Was out in the garden earlier, trying to get a handle on weeds, but it started raining steadily again so I came back in to play with wool.

Everything in the hoophouse seems fairly copacetic, tho in a bit of a holding pattern. Outside, cabbages, onions and garlics seem to be holding up ok, but beans and squashes look so sad. Hope they can hold on for the sun and warmer temps that are supposed to be on their way this week-

Sorry to have skipped out on the blog last week, but I was off on my annual retreat! Was nice to get back to Maxwelton Aerie on Whidbey Island, after having traveled further afield last year, down near Brinnon, on Hood Canal.

While there is no longer a yarn store in Langley, we made a quick stop on the way down down the island at Sea Bre’s yarn shop in Coupeville, which was quite busy, as apparently there was a Puget Sound local yarn shop tour thing happening that weekend. I picked up a couple ounces of some yummy Malabrigo fiber as a special vacation treat.

I took my lateral treadle spindle wheel and some of that bargain Romeldale with since I’ve been having so much fun lately working on my Rio Grande flip technique.

Also made progress on some Zauberball socks that I figured would be a pretty safe social knitting project.

Saturday, we stopped by the Bayview Farmer’s Market, and were excited to see a mobile yarn vendor in a panel truck identified as the “Wool Wagon”. Beautiful yarn. I very nearly bought a skein of sock yarn, but resisted temptation on this occasion.

Sunday, we checked out the Tilth Market in Freeland, and came across Windy Indigo Farm, with yarn and fiber for sale. This Romney wool was so lovely and unusual that I had to try a bit. Reminds me more of Shetland in color and texture, and should be interesting to work with.

And since I’ve been home, I am pleased to report that, as of this morning, I’ve finally completed shearing!

Dottie put up quite a fuss this year about giving up her wool, and I had to bring in reinforcements (The Man) in order to get her finished up safely. But now the wool clip is officially in the bag.

Onwards to washing! I’m perpetually amazed at how dirty Esther gets her fleece compared to everyone else. All her wool needed to go straight into a cold water pre-wash where it will hopefully release some of it’s yuck and make it more manageable and usable.

It was kind of a long process, but I think she’s pretty pleased about being freed up from her heavy, stinky coat.

Have a good week, folks!