Category: Blog

I might have mentioned a few times that we’re big fans of the Great British Bake off.

It has inspired The Man and me to try lots of new things in the kitchen- but we’d never attempted the notoriously tricky Macaron.

Well, this week, an unfortunate accident over at Schoonover Farm resulted in me filling in for Donna at a virtual baking class with one of the show’s contestants, Dan Beasley-Harling, and the recipe of the day was Rose and Raspberry Valentine Macarons!

(Thankfully Tom is recovering and home from the hospital now. And macaron delivery is scheduled for later today, just in time for the Super Bowl 🙂 )

It was a unique technical challenge! The Man got all my ingredients prepped and equipment staged, and I felt a little bit like a TV contestant- but having the guidance of someone experienced with this particular recipe really helped.

It took me a little longer to get mine dried and baked than most other folks- perhaps because of our cool damp conditions (a hair dryer on low helped get them over the finish line). So I finished mine up after the zoom session ended. But they appear to have worked out. I haven’t actually eaten one yet, because, according to Dan, the 24 hour maturation period for macarons “is not optional”. Who knew!?

Thankfully I have lots of other things to keep me busy while I’m waiting to sample the goodies. Like……

My Felty Yellow Chicken friend

Made lots of progress on this girl in the last few days, and am really excited about how she’s coming together. Wings aren’t attached yet, as I’m thinking I might do more embroidery embellishment, which would be easier to manage while the wings are separate. Here are the colors I’ve selected.

Will then do something similarly fanciful with her tailfeathers.

And, I’m also making pretty good progress with the Griff Smokeshow vest.

It’s quite enjoyable to work- and I learned a new thing with this pattern- Ysolda’s One Row Buttonhole, which is pretty ingenious. I’m feeling like this is going to be a really nice layering item for the wardrobe. I do love a good vest!

Have a great week everyone-

With the Unspun Sweater pretty much wrapped up, I finally given myself permission to dig in to Thea Colmans Smokeshow vest.

When I first acquired the pattern back in Dec, I was thinking that I’d use the Chone yarn I have in my stash. But when I dug it out and took a look, I realized that it was not all the same weight. About half two-ply DK, and half 3 ply worsted. So I went back to the drawing board.

I had a big ole hank of DK-ish yarn that I purchased from Abundant Earth fiber at the St. Distaff’s Day spin-in last month (mill end, irresistible deal ) that I thought I might be able to use. At a total of 12 oz, it might have been enough itself. But doubled, it was a little too heavy.

Then I remembered that I had a long neglected sweater project that was still on the needles. Autumn’s End. It’s been sitting in a bag since 2016, and I’ve known since at least 2018 that it wasn’t going to make it to the finish line. So this week it got frogged and repurposed.

It’s nice that this Griff yarn gets another chance to contribute to a sweater project. I’d felt bad for keeping it sidelined for so long. Held together, the yarns achieve gauge and have a nice texture, too. Substantial, but lofty.

So this morning I made a start! Cast on is complete, and ribbing is underway.

A good place to be. Ever since I started using the Norwegian purl technique, I just love ribbing.

Feels good to have this underway. I’m still not exactly sure how long I’m going to make the body. The pattern is written for a cropped length garment, and I tend not to wear tops that short, but I don’t want to substantially change the character of the vest. I might just lengthen it by a couple inches.

The other thing I started this week is my tribute to Yellow Chig.

I’ve pulled out the chicken pattern that I started working on a number of years ago (how time flies!)

I was so pleased to find that I could fit all the pattern pieces one piece of Esther felt that I made last summer

I dyed the felt a bright sunshine-y, Yellow Chig color, and it’s currently drying outside. I hope I can remember how I assembled the prototype!

Have a great week, folks 🙂

Yesterday I was down at the 2024 WSU Country Living Expo ’24 in Stanwood, teaching a Wool Processing class to a great group of fiber-curious folks. As I mentioned to attendees, class materials and video resources that I developed a couple years ago for the zoom version of the course are available here.

Once I was done teaching, I enjoyed some lunch, and then hit the trade show and found some local goodies to bring home-

That’s 4 oz of Tunis wool roving from Fuzzy Britches Fiber in Stanwood, and 3 lbs of blackberry honey from Bruce Bowen Bees in Mount Vernon.

Also picked up a silly T-shirt from Hazel Blue Acres in Arlington.

They had these shirts made for a 5 K they hosted at their farm last year, and I just thought the little jogging blueberry guy was super cute.

Later in the afternoon, I pulled out a spinning wheel (Sophie, the trusty traveller) and hosted a mini spin-in kind of thing in a corner of the gym, adjacent to the trade show. Was just a few of us there, but we generated a fair bit of interest, and it was nice to spin and chat for a while. I’d brought some fun, blendy batts which resulted in these two pretty skeins

And with that, Expo ’24 is a wrap! Thanks to everyone who came out. It’s always a lot of fun 🙂

Earlier this week I had to say goodbye to my good friend Yellow Chig. It seems silly to be broken up over the loss of an old, mostly blind chicken, but I had grown quite attached to her over the years. She was kind of a special case. A sweet, feathery ray of sunshine bopping around the garden.

It’s been so cold that the ground is still frozen and I haven’t had a chance to bury her yet. Hoping I can maybe do that later today.

Ideas are also coming together about a Yellow Chig memorial project. Thinking along the lines of felt, with embroidery embellishment. More on that later.

That leaves Speck on her own in the hoophouse for now. Not sure how she’s feeling about being a solitary chicken. I expect it will be easier in better weather when she can range around the yard.

Despite the chicken drama, I did manage to finish the unspun sweater this week-

I’m really pleased with how it turned out! As I was knitting the body and sleeves with the carded Alice wool (which was still kind of greasy) I was a little worried about the texture. But it washed up beautifully, and feels lighter and fluffier now. I also was a unsure of how I was going to fix a ugly smudge of oil or grease or some thing that somehow got on the sleeve I was working.

Gah! Crubbed even before it’s gotten worn!

I decided to just knit on and address it afterwards, when I was washing and blocking.

It turns out that my handy Tide To Go pen was effective on whatever crud had gotten on there. I wonder if there also being natural sheep grease left in the might have helped with the stain not penetrating the fibers (?) Anyway, it all came out in the wash. Thank goodness. A fresh start for the Unspun Sweater (neckline finishing question tabled for now).

Have a good week folks-