Category: Blog

Still January

But just barely 🙂

February will mean pruning fruit trees and roses, and starting garden seeds.

But in January, while things are still dormant, I have an opportunity to push back against the blackberries.

I’ll never manage to eradicate them from our property, but I try to at least set them back a bit each winter, because it’s amazing how huge they can grow in just one season.

Beautiful blackberry-pulling weather here this weekend. Sunny and cool. I made quite a bit of progress.

Now its just wisteria and salmonberry duking it out along the back fence. If I didn’t intervene, who do you think would win the territory battle? Worthy adversaries, I’d say.

(oh hey! there’s some sheeps in the background there- hi sheeps!)

In wool news, I’ve got a new hat-of-the week, again with a new motif from the Alterknits book

Not quite done and dusted, as I played yarn chicken and and came up short, so had to rework the last couple rounds. Another strong pattern contender, tho- and easier to memorize than the one a couple weeks back.

And I’ve been playing at the carder again, blending up some pretty batts to get me back behind the wheel(s)

The ones on the left are multi on a grey base, and the one on the right is on white. Sunshine and shadow.

So that’s about it here- oh, except that I got a menacing message through my contact form from someone who claims to have hacked my site and downloaded the database. Apparently if I don’t pay them a bunch of bitcoin within 72 hours bad things will happen. I think it’s BS, but if FullyFleeced is down on Wed, (after their compliance deadline) I guess we’ll know I was wrong, eh? At least I’ve got a backup.

Have a great week everyone! 🙂

Whew!

First, thanks to everyone who came out for the Expo. Was a really fun day and I appreciated all the interest in prepping and spinning wool! ( anyone looking for the video bits from last year’s virtual wool processing class- you can find them at http://fullyfleeced.com/basics-of-wool-processing/ )

Was my first time in the new Stanwood High School building, and it is truly enormous. Nice that we were able to be in the same classroom the whole day, but hauling wheels and equipment in and out kind of wiped me out. In future I will be sure to make better use of the 4H helpers for that sort of thing.

Between morning and afternoon classes I had a chance to check out the trade show, where I picked up some neat stuff.

Local Honey from Bruce Bowen Bees ,

Artsy animal print notecards from Skagit Animals In Need

And, it turns out that one of the vendors, Skagit Gourmet Mushrooms, is right down the road from us! Chatted with Mark for a bit about the various types of ‘shrooms he grows, and came home with a King Oyster growing kit. So excited to get started with it

A good day all around, but rather exhausting. So today I hope to relax and re-charge.

Have a good week everyone! 🙂

Preppin’

This weekend is all about prep. Garden and Expo

On the garden front, I’m updating my garden spreadsheet and planning seed starting dates

Weather has been pretty mild lately, so I’ve also been moving around some compost, and tidying up in the hoophouse.

On the Expo front, I’m getting tools (wheels, combs, carders, etc) and materials (wool! lots of wool!) together for my two classes “Basics of Wool Processing”, and “Yarn from Scratch: Handspinning on a Wheel”. Will be the first time 3 years that the event is held in-person, and in a new Stanwood High School building to boot! Should be fun 🙂

And in some spare moments I’ve been playing with a new motif from a book I received as a Christmas gift – Alterknits Stitch Dictionary: 200 Modern Knitting Motifs

I especially like how the pattern worked out in the crown shaping- lucky accident

Lots of promising designs for allover patterning. Will see if any of them resonate strongly enough to become my new go-to.

Have a good week folks!

Colors and Textures

I’m not quite done weaving, but realized a few days ago that I had some discrepancies in tension across my warp, so thought I’d take the bit off that I’d already woven and tie it up again to finish up the last yard or so. I think it mostly had to do with using a variety of different yarns in the warp. Some are a bit stretchier than others. Here is a sampling of the different sections of my woven cloth, pre-washing-

I think my favorite bits are with the blue and natural black weft. I’m washing and drying it up now. Got about 6.5 feet in length I think, about 17 inches wide. The edges are a bit wonky, but I love it so. Feels amazing.

Now the question is, what does it want to be?