Category: Blog

February is the longest short month.

Still winter, but so longing to be spring, it is time to prune, and start seed, and amend beds.

The ritual of pruning has begun. I usually start with the roses. Rugosas need a hard cut,

where other varieties require a bit more of a plan, with decisions about long term shrub shape and size in mind.

Then the fruit trees. The last few years we’ve just kind of let our giant cherry tree out back do it’s thing- but it’s developed some sort of leaf spot issue, and i think this year we need to do some thinning and try and get it back under control. That will be a two person job.

The “getting the big ladder out” grand finale of pruning is our King apple.

And here is the tree I think of as the Sheep Apple (because I use it’s new growth as sheep treats throughout the summer) complete with a robin shopping for the perfect nest location, and sheep wondering what I’m up to 🙂

Seed starting will hopefully begin later today or tomorrow with onions and shallots- and maybe poppies.

And I’ve found a local source for mushroom compost, so I’m excited about that. Hoping that I can arrange a pickup of a trailerload maybe next weekend. The volume of our homemade compost is down some since I don’t have chickens contributing anymore, but I’d probably need an external source anyway, as I’m hoping to reconfigure/extend my planting area this year.

It’s still pretty chilly outside, but I feel better, and less anxious about the general state of the world, when I can be outside working. Seedlings and buds on fruit trees work wonders for my psyche.

As does knitting, which is like watching something grow right under my fingertips. Twining cable stems, in a vaguely mushroomy natural color.

Coming along nicely. I’m just a few rows shy of the 4th buttonhole, and the beginning of the V neck shaping.

Not much spinning this week, but I took stock of all the little blendy skeins I’ve been spun up over the winter-

They make a nice little collection- no immediate plans for a project, tho. they might just need to cure a while in the stash.

Have a good week, folks-

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 🙂