Category: Blog

Hey y’all. Sorry I missed you last week. Was down on Whidbey for the first knitting retreat since 2019!

Was awesome to be back at the Aerie- a great place to gather and hang loose.

I got a little bit of knitting and spinning done, but mostly it was just about reconnecting with my knitting peeps. 🙂

On the way down I stopped of briefly in Coupeville to visit Sea Bre’s Yarn which is newly renovated and really lovely. Picked up a smidge of Schoppel Edition 3 (like Zauberball, but a little thicker) in the Tante Emma colorway. I just can’t resist that stuff. Also popped into A Touch of Dutch for black licorice.

Saturday we ventured out to Langley, and on the way found we were just in time for the Bayview Farmer’s Market. Lots of beautiful and interesting wares, but you probably won’t be shocked to see what caught my eye

Yep. Sheep Art.

You had me at “Hello”. 🙂

So those little cuties came home with me and now adorn my home office wall.

We also checked out a very new Yarn shop in Clinton- Skein & Tipple. Originally thought we might stay after yarn browsing to enjoy a cocktail at the bar, but it turns out that the shop is super tiny and only operates as one thing at a time, with a half-hour intermission to reconfigure itself in-between. I picked up a little tiny pair of circular needles (size 2, 9″ long) to add to my toolbox, but stayed strong and resisted the hand-dyed yarn selections.

It was only after I’d returned from my weekend adventure that I realized that my yarn and needle selections were perfectly matched, and cast on for a pair of mittens.

I have since finished that first mitten, and based on the weight of it (26 grams) and the remaining yarn (26 grams), I might just use every last inch of this yarn!

It’s been cool and rainy since my return, so I’ve been knitting in the hoophouse, where the peas are enjoying being sheltered- and finally putting on some pods

And tomatoes and peppers are making incremental process, waiting for summer (or even real spring? ) to arrive

So that’s the scoop. Mittens in May. And hopefully more sunshine on the way(?)

Have a good week everyone-

This morning I thought I was going to finally get the rest of our shearing done.

And it was going pretty well,, but then Dottie lost patience with me.

So now she looks really silly/scruffy

But we’re SO close to done.

Afterwards, I spent some time sorting Daphne’s washed fleece by color and separating out the felted bits.

To my surprise, there wasn’t as much felting as I originally thought. She grew a really nice fleece this past year!

And I already have a bit of it carded up-

It might be the year for a Daphne sweater project!

And out in the garden, things are moving along despite the recent cool, wet weather

Greenstalk is filling out

Maters and melons getting established in the hoophouse

I’ve also planted okra, eggplant and peppers (Blot and Sheepnose Pimento), all equipped with makeshift protective shields for the time being.

Still have some more tomatoes and jalapenos to get in, but waiting for them to get a little bigger first.

Also, peas that were planted a while back are finally grown and flowering-

but there haven’t been a lot of pollinators around. I’ve made an attempt to manually pollinate them, but waiting to see if we’ll get any pods.

🤞

Though shearing is (still) not complete, I have started in on getting some of this year’s new wool washed up and processed.

I was originally thinking that most of Daphne’s fleece was felted, but was pleasantly surprised upon washing up a couple batches that it’s just kind of bound up, and should be mostly spinnable after a bit of hand-picking and teasing apart.

Her wool is a lovely range of grays, with sun-bleached curly tips. Longer locks in the rear, and some really long guard hair. Definitely a fleece with character. And softer than her two previous fleeces, so that’s interesting

I think this might be what I take to my knitting retreat at the end of the month to play with.

And while I’ve only gotten the rear-end wool off of Felix so far, I’ve already washed and carded that bit.

It’s totally different from Daphne’s, fine, but with a fairly short staple. Has some tender tips, but I’m getting a pretty good result spinning it fine (woollen, long draw) and chain plying it into a dk-weight yarn. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the rest of his fleece off him soon.

There’s just something about this ball of Felix yarn, with its swirl of windings and fuzzy smile that makes me want to grab some needles and crank out a swatch 🙂

Alrighty folks- have good week!

Just got back from the Alger Garden Swap. It’s always nice to visit with folks, and diversify the varieties I’m growing in the garden. Found homes for a lot of may extra starts (tomatoes, peppers, melons, cukes, eggplant), and came home with a wide selection of new-to-me things!

Black Cherry tomato Large Italian tomato Orange Paruche tomato Blush Tomato

Purple Cauliflower Zinnias (white and salmon colored) Strawberries Borage Tomatillo

Cayenne Peppers Chamomile Mammoth Sunflowers Poppy seed Mixed runner bean seeds

Also learned that there is a seed company up in Bellingham that I wasn’t previously aware of: Uprising Organics

Cool, eh?

Squashes are all planted out now with the potatoes in the new bed just east of the hoophouse.

Cukes are planted in the hoophouse, alongside some broccoli and peas that got an early start inside

And I just noticed that the peas are getting ready to bloom! so not long ’til we’ll have tasty sugar snap pods to munch on!

And right next to them are staged the rest of the starts for this year’s garden- peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, celery, dill, fennel, okra.

Now that I’ve got 7 varieties of tomato going (with a swap planned for 2 more), I’m realizing that I probably can keep fewer of each than I originally thought. So I’ll probably need to re-home a few yet.

And in wool news, I got Dottie partly sheared last weekend, so she’s walking around with a mullet.

Hoping she’ll let me finish the job sometime soon, before she crubs up all that lovely fleece.

I also continue to play with color on the drum carder, and have a spin of the week for show and tell- actually two, but wrapped up together. It struck me as a kind of tropical combo.

Whew. I’m beat. Have a good week everyone-