Category: Blog

This morning I helped The Man with an item from the To Do list- re-tensioning the wire cross-bracing on our pasture fence. These wires take a lot of abuse from the sheeps, who like to lean in on them and do their scritching, and eventually end up coated in stray wool fibers like so

Being wrapped in gunky felted wool isn’t a big deal, but they tend to make the wires slack over time, which defeats the purpose. Here is a picture of our lovely, new well-tensioned wire

and the gang of sweet sheepy culprits who will no doubt start rubbing their booties against it as soon as our backs are turned. 🙂

In Marjolaine sweater news, sleeving is believing!

and the sleeve colorwork detail-

It’s really coming together! Hoping to have a matching second sleeve finished in a few says.

Then when the cool, rainy weather finally comes (forecast is saying end of this week?) it’ll be ready to wear.

Can’t wait some good PNW precip to clear the smoke from the air.

Yesterday the opportunity to shear Fiona presented itself, so I grabbed it.

I thought that it might be a good idea to reduce her bulk a bit, and it will be a while yet before the temps are freezing-ish. Thankfully, she was onboard with the the idea. She was exceptionally cooperative, right up until I got to about her hips. Then she started getting a little antsy. But we pushed through, and have a bin of lovely fleece to show for it.

While you can see some of her taupe-y color in the photo above, this one captures the texture a little better, I think.

I was so pleased to see that her wool had grown in a lot softer and finer over the spring/summer, as her previous fleece was quite coarse. So this is a big improvement, texture-wise. Locks are about 4-5 inches long. Should be nice to play with.

And in sweater news, the body is done! Finished it off with corrugated ribbing this morning and set it out for a quick block

Here’s a little closer look at the fabric- I love how the Dottie yarn fuzzes up a bit when washed. Feels so nice 🙂

And out in the garden, pumpkins are coming into their own. Just pulled a couple of pretty Jarrahdales out in order to get at the potatoes, whose patch they had invaded

And starting to think about overwintering some hoophouse plants. Lemon verbena will be coming in the house, as well as a few pepper plants. Watched a video the other day about overwintering tomatoes, and so I thought I’d give it a go while I’ve still got some viable shoots to clip and get rooted.

If you’re a longer-term reader of the blog, you might remember back in 2014 when I modified my lateral treadle spinning wheel by fixing a knitting needle in the orifice of the flyer to make it operate as a spindle wheel.

Since The Man built Moto, my electric spinner, to use the same flyer the lateral treadle wheel hasn’t been seeing as much use as it required swapping the flyer out from one machine to the other.

I’d been thinking for a while that it might be nice to have the lateral treadle wheel be a dedicated spindle spinner. Not having to drive the whole flyer would mean less resistance/easier treadling, and potentially higher ratios if we used a smaller whorl. I recently brought the idea to The Man that we might design a permanent spindle attachment for the wheel.

And so, I give you Spindle Wheel mod V2!

With the new assembly in place, I think that it’s working at about a 25:1 ratio. It’s quite comfortable for long draw. Been practicing with some random carded fleece bits and trying to get my Rio Grande Flip technique back, but so far, I’ve had the best luck spinning and then winding on like you would with a walking wheel.

Here’s a closer look at the new spinning head

and here is the sample yarn chain plied up (on Moto). Soft and squishy woolen-spun goodness 🙂

In knitting news, progress continues on Marjolaine, despite a brief setback earlier in the week.

After completing and blocking the yoke, things looked good, so I just continued on according to the pattern, casting on underarm stitches and knitting the body. But it kind of felt like maybe there was too much fabric.

A quick try on about 3 in inches down confirmed my suspicions. Seemed like it was kind of flaring out, when I needed it to be slightly tapering. Thankfully, I’d left in a lifeline at the last charted row. So I ripped back and started again with a new plan. This time I cast on only 10 new stitches under each arm (rather than 18) and decreased 1 stitch per pattern repeat around the yoke twice, three rows apart (-22 stitches). Once that was complete I started waist shaping, decreasing 4 stitches every 6 rows.

Just did another try-on, and it looks like I’m on the right track. So glad I ripped back when I did. 🙂

For a quick try-on, now that the yoke is complete!

And we appear to be on-track! woot!

While I was at it I thought I should probably do a quick blocking of the yoke to yet a true sense of the gauge in the colorwork. That way I can see if I need to change needles to keep things consistent in the rest of the body and arms, as those will be plain stockinette stitch in Dottie’s silvery gray.

After a nice relaxing soak, sweater is basking in the late summer (officially Fall now, I know, but it’s in the low 80’s here today) sun.

Hopefully it will dry quickly and I can get it right back on the needles without losing my momentum!

And in garden news- the pears are in! Our funny ancient little pear tree really outdid itself this year, and we’ve been working hard to get as much processed as possible before they start going to mush. Such a short window with pears!

The Man just made that pear cake this afternoon, and the whole house smells amazing. 🙂

And I’m pleased to report that Survivor Chig is out of her bandages, and on the verge of going back to the pasture.

Here she is hiding in the rhody forest, trying to avoid being fussed with

She’s not thrilled about the chicken saddle (the model with shoulder protectors) I’ve got on her right now, as it’s got an elastic strap that goes around her neck. I might have to change it out for a less restrictive model before she goes back to the pasture gang. But I’m really relieved that she’s healed so well. Here’s hoping she transitions back without incident.