Category: Blog

The garden has actually been calling for a couple of weeks now, but I’d been letting it go to voicemail while I concentrated on woolish things 🙂

The weather has been unusually sunny and warm for April, and so everything is coming on really fast- including the weeds. And I kind of missed my opportunity to get the raised beds under control by solarizing with black plastic, so this weekend I had to put my back into it.

That cartful of weeds used to occupy the bed and a half behind it now nicely turned and awaiting compost.

Mmmmm. compost. This nice aged-to-perfection pile had been my holding spot for a trio of volunteer cedar trees over the winter. Getting them planted in the pasture is another item on the garden to-do list.

Compost liberated from it’s dense covering of weedy squatters and moved to garden beds. Also spread it around raspberries and roses. Was like handing out goodies to all my garden friends.

And speaking of snacks for friends- I noticed that my Therese Bugnet rose was starting to leaf out pretty good- looked very tender and tasty.

She is such a robust rose- I think related to rugosa, but not as prickly, and spreads like crazy, so I have tons of it. Provides good sheep snacks all summer long!

On the wool front, I am excited to say that I just carded up a sample of Daphne wool, and it is lovely

There’s not a ton of it, because a fair bit of her fleece was felted, but what I have is going to be a lot of fun to play with- gray, brown, black- with mahogany highlights.

And, The Shepherd’s Teo scarf just came of the needles! Will have a finished photo for next week once the ends a re tucked in and it’s blocked.

Stay safe, and Knit On!

Stay safe, and knit on!

Here in WA, we’re under a Stay Home order, which has just been extended to May 4. Non-essential businesses are closed, and many people are out of work. I am really fortunate to be able to work from home, and so have been doing that for the last week and a half.

It’s pretty amazing that the university is still operating- with almost everyone working remotely. We have so many technological tool available to us now to keep us connected, both to co-workers and data systems.

So I’ve not had much direct contact with the outside world recently.

That actually isn’t too hard on me because I’m kind of an introvert, and I’ve got things to keep me busy here. But I feel compelled to keep up with the news, and that does take an emotional toll.

Saturday, based on the recommendations of the CDC, I dove into the fabric stash to create some masks for The Man and I to wear when we need to venture forth for essentials.

So were covered there. I actually wore mine out in public for the first time today when I went into town for groceries. Was kind of odd, but many other folks doing the same. Good to see that people are taking precautions.

I also took some time this weekend to give myself a little fiber pick-me-up, in the form of a little dyeing. I pulled some Frank & Felix 2019 out of my vacuum-packed wool stash

and dug out the Abundant Earth Wool Tinctures I’d been saving for just such an occasion!

I also did a batch of Black Cherry Kool Aid, just to round out the color pallette 🙂

So fun and satisfying- and now I have a fresh batch of colors to blend and spin! That’s about 7 oz of each color. No plan for these yet. Just dyeing for dyeing’s sake.

And I wanted to share another little thing that made me happy this week-

This is the lone seedling to emerge from my rose seed starting experiment that I started last October. Just started to get real leaves, and got upgraded from the seed tray to a real pot on Friday. 🙂

Alrighty. that’s about all I’ve got for this week.

Stay Home, Stay Healthy, and Knit On!

Here we are, saying goodbye to March already.

It’s been a crazy month, what with the virus concerns and social distancing and all. Thankfully there is lots to do here in the spring, and being busy helps keep anxiety away.

This morning when I went out to do my sheep and chicken routine, I found that the sheeps had gotten themselves shut in the shed overnight. The gate must have blown shut in the wind or something.

But what a lucky start to the day! They were all collected up for me to do CDT shots and deworming. I also got a start on shearing Felix and Dottie. 🙂 So here is the current crazy hairdo status out in the pasture.

Business in the front, party in the back!

In knitting news, I am finally making headway on the Teo scarf for my friend The Shepherd. He wanted a really simple scarf, stockinette with a garter stitch border. Once I started and got a few inches in though I realized that it was’t going to be quite as straightforward as I thought.

Grrr. Row Gauge.

So I ripped back and started again, this time working the stockinette on a size smaller needles. So I’m doing the center part on size 2s, and the garter edges on size 3s. It’s a little fiddly, but I’m getting the hang of it.

It’s looking good so far- though I might do a quick in-progress steam block to make sure it lays flat. Feels good to finally be making progress on this-

Knit on, and stay well!