Category: Blog

Was a lovely day at the Alger Market- a few hats and skeins found new homes, and I acquired a small collection of lovely ceramic vessels from Jeanne the potter

They coordinate so beautifully with my late summer reblooms from Jude the Obscure and St Cecelia. 🙂

I also made quite a bit of progress on a scarf I’m knitting (free pattern Free Spirit by Aistė Butkevičienė)

I don’t often knit scarves, but this was a request from the person who whose sheep provide both this gray and the white fleece featured in last weeks post). It’s a really fun pattern to knit- a little knit, a little purl, a little cabling without a cable needle, and easy to memorize.

And in the garden- a couple of exciting developments

First Ananas Noir tomato to ripen. From the top-

and the bottom

But check out this interior!

And I am really excited about this big pumpkin I’ve got going in the new garden bed. About 16″ in diameter now and growing so fast!

I put him on a bed of washed wool for good measure, to hopefully keep him safe and happy.

And I wanted to give a shoutout to the zinnias in the hoophouse, who are overperforming like crazy

They are over 4 feer tall now, and just keep on branching and blooming. The bees and all my other pollinator friends love them. I had no idea zinnia plants got this big.

So that’s it folks. I’ll sign off with a short clip of hanging in a spot of shade with Yellow Chig and Boo Kitten as the weekend winds down

Have a good week folks!

A couple weeks ago I was gifted a fleece.

Said fleece was enormous. 2 years worth of growth (apparently sheep would not accede to being sheared last year). And embedded with a fair volume of wood shavings.

A fair bit of it went into the compost straight away. Perhaps more of it should have. But underneath it looked fairly fine and crimpy, and since it was a two-year fleece, there was a lot of staple length. It seemed like it might be worth putting some time and energy into.

The only thing I could do with it right away was to throw it in a couple bins and let it soak. I was hoping that might get rid of some of the dirt and loosen it up a bit so I could get a better sense of how felted up it was.

It seemed like it was working ok at first, but then the weather got really warm and the fleece got quite stinky.

This was a major setback, as The Man forbade me from bringing it into the house to wash.

So I let it soak for another week or so, changing the water a couple of times.

The smell was better, but I didn’t want to push my luck, so I setup my propane burner and dyepot to wash it outdoors.

THis is what it looked like post-soak, awaiting a hot bath

and after it’s bath

After the wash, it was time for phase 2 de-crudding

Here’s what stayed

and what was trimmed and tossed

The real transformation, however, happened on the combs

After that, it was smooth sailing. Mighty Red is making quick and pleasant work of spinning the combed top

which I’m then chain plying on Moto

I do so love a fleece redemption story 🙂

And as promised last week, update on Cherokee Purple tomatoes

We’ve harvested a few so far, but I think they were more productive last year when they grew in cages, rather than trellised.

And Blot Peppers are starting to show interesting colors, but I think that they are still a ways off from being ripe.

Alrighty, I probably ought to go out and do some watering.

Have a good week!

Was a warm day out at the Alger Sunday market- a bit of a challenging environment for wool sales. 😉

But was nice to be out and have a chance to chat with folks about the sheeps and their fabulous fiber- and also to have a bit of quiet crafting time. I brought along a long-dormant project, my locker hooking sample

And I made quite a bit of progress! It is very close to being a pillow, or maybe a seat cushion.

Garden update-

Tomato lineup- clockwise from upper left: large Italian, German Pink, Orange Paruche, Blush, Black Cherry

Cherokee Purple are just starting to color up, as are Blot peppers. More on those next week

And I found my first Weinlanderin bean!

Also, I’m pleased to report that I got my hay. Boo Kitten is so happy to have her sweet-smelling highrise hangout back, and I’m relieved to have sheep food put away for the winter.

Have a good week folks!

But I’ve been trying to make good use of the mornings, before the full force of the sun is upon us. Making sure everyone has fresh cool water and trying to stay on top of garden chores.

The garden, of course is going nuts with all these heat inputs- so that’s the focus today. Standby for photo-overload 🙂

Also noticed this morning that Black Cherry tomatoes are starting to show some color.

Also wanted to share a photo of a new-to-me plant that I got in a seed swap this spring. Malabar Spinach. So unusual and beautiful.

and my Weinlanderin beans are flowering. Aren’t these just the sweetest little flowers?

ok, that’s probably enough for now.

Forecast is promising a cooling trend starting tomorrow. Low 80’s will be such a relief!

Have a good week folks-