Back home

Wow! We drove back home on Sunday in a constant downpour of rain. They were predicting 40 to 50 mm of rainfall and I believe they were right.

 

We had a wonderful weekend. Visiting our son is always a pleasure. He's a fine young man making us proud. I'm coming to accept that he's going to live his life 'down south'. But it's not so far that we can't visit regularly and catch up with each other.

 

Of course, the highlight of the weekend (for me at least) was the Woodstock Fleece Festival. This is a somewhat smaller scale gathering of vendors but I was so impressed with the high level of quality and mostly with the creativity of some of the vendors.

When you work in isolation, it's refreshing to see other people's work. I came back home very inspired.

Of course, I did do some shopping but showed great restraint again this time.

 Little things, gadgets that I've been meaning to get for quite some time.
A pom-pom maker in two sizes, some T-pins and stitch markers in many sizes. But I was mostly happy about the Wonder Knitter. I'll be able to show O how to use it. She's 3 and really wants to knit with me. This might be something she'll enjoy.

 Even though I make lots of soap, I loved this one with the felted roving around it. Perfect for Christmas (which is just around the corner by the way!).

 Some fun stuff to add to my batts. The hand dyed firestar on the left is really sparkly and a little will go a long way. The Sari silk and fun yarn can be added to the crazy batts I want to make again and the gold cotton/metallic thread will be used to ply those crazy yarns I want to make.

 And of course, some lovely fibre.
I'm mostly proud of myself for not buying the usual green/blue blends that I always reach for.

I'm planning on making this outing a annual thing. I really enjoyed it.

Weekend pleasures

With hubby gone to get the trails to the hunting camp ready for the hunting season, I have a weekend all to myself.

Saturday was a pj day...all day! The animals didn't mind my sloppy self one bit. It somehow feels more relaxing when you spend a whole day in your pjs, don't you think?
But lots got done.

I started my day with some spinning...of course.

Last week, I hand dyed some roving I had originally purchased to felt around my handmade soaps. This stuff is not super soft but will be great for mitts and socks.

A mixture of red and yellow dyes gave me a mixture of pink, orange and coral. Funny how we see no reds and no yellows, all the colours blended together and I really like it that way.

 Not knowing any better (remember I am a new spinner), I did not do much pre drafting and I had a bit of a struggle to spin it.
But nevertheless, it is an improvement over my first skein. A bit more even... not all over even but better.

I also navajo plied this yarn. So it's a three ply. I didn't measure how many meters I have yet but it was close to 125 grams.

I had also dyed some roving in shades of blues and greens.

 This time, I did lots of predrafting and the spinning of this just flowed. I spun all of this yesterday between other things I did around the house. I will let it sit a few days before I ply it. I have not decided if I will do a 2-ply or a 3-ply again.

 Here is the spinning I did earlier this week. I told you, I am quite obsessed with my spinning wheel. I have a bit of a knot in by belly at the moment, because I don't have anymore fiber in the house! Any enablers out there?

 Preserving beets is an annual thing at our house. We like them done quite simply. No added spices. Just thickly sliced, pickled in sugar and vinegar.
I cook the beets between 30 to 60 minutes. I know the beets are cooked when the skin come off very easily. (just put one beet in cold water and test it to see).
I then slice them up and drop them in Mason jars. Fill the jar with the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar. Close the lid and voilà, beets for the year.

 I made 14 lbs of beets this year. A few of these jars will make their way to the hunting camp for the boys to eat up. The rest will be for us to enjoy all year long.

Dogs are enjoying the beautiful fall days we are having. Lots of sun but still cool enough to be comfortable.

(Bella, Anouk's daughter enjoying a quite moment in the sun)

Next weekend, I'm going to the province of Québec for a girl's weekend at friend's cottage. How great is that?

It's what's on the inside that counts

It all started with wonderful Fleece artist kit that I purchased from my LYS last month to make a pair of Thrummed mittens.
The kit has a great handpainted worsted weight yarn and kid roving dyed to coordinate.

Thrummed mitts are actually a Canadian thing. They have been around for a few hundred years in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Bits of fleece were added to the inside of knitted items to add warmth.

After several false starts (a.k.a. frogging), I finally settled on a technique to make the thrums and to thrum a stitch by following the instructions from Biscotte and Cie.
Another great tutorial can be found on Hello Yarn but I did not follow that technique to knit the thrums.

I found that it's best to make a few dozens of thrums at a time.

After knitting a 2 ½ inch cuff, I started to insert thrums every fourth stitch and every fourth row. 

Even the thumb is thrummed.(try saying that three times in a row!) Looks really great on the outside, wait till you see what's on the inside!

How crazy is that? 

Over time, the thrums will felt to eah other and to the knitted mitt to form a warm felted layer on the inside of the mitten. But to help things along, I intend to wet the mitt and start the felting process by gently rubbing with a bit of soap and hot water, just to make sure that the thrums are lined up properly and don't felt in lumps...I would hate lumps on the inside of any mitts.

I intend to make more of these. Too much fun.