Fiber Dying - Painting Colors Everywhere

I spent yesterday playing with color.  The first superwash roving I call  "Sunset".  It is similar to a colorway that I did last year that produced the spun yarn pictured on the right.  The colors may seem garish in the fiber before it is spun but will blend into something totally different when spun.

This one is three colors of blue.  It makes a medium to dark yarn when spun.  The picture below shows what it looks like when it's dry.

Then I dyed some Silver colored Shetland from my ewe, Velvet.  The first color is Mountain Aqua.  The picture on the left shows it wet in the dye pot and on the right after it dried.















I so enjoy playing with color.  It's so exciting to see how it looks once it's carded and spun.  Colors pop out that you never expect.

First Transparent Apple Harvest

Today I am so excited!  After 5 years of waiting, I was finally able to harvest my first Yellow Transparent Apples!  I used to be able to get them from the you- pick orchards when we first came here.  But like many varieties of our produce, these were phased out in favor of the Lodi Apple that had a longer shelf life.  Then even the Lodi was phased out in favor of Jonagold or Early Gold apples.  I have to say here that I liked none of the other apples for applesauce like the Transparent.  They may not have a very long shelf life but they make the BEST applesauce of all in my opinion.  An heirloom apple that cooks down into perfect applesauce with no pureeing necessary and a tart under flavor - yum!
                                                             
Some of my first adventures in canning were with this humble  apple.  We were living in a tiny, one room log cabin with a wood cook stove that made the interior almost unbearable in the summer when we had to burn the stove to heat hot water for a shower.  So I did my canning in the front yard on an old wood cook stove that my cousin had found in a miners shack in the desert in Nevada and had hauled up and given to my Dad when he was setting out to build the cabin when he retired.  It was definitely a no frills model, with six holes and a water jacket sitting on concrete blocks.

I would sit on an old camp chair and hand peel each apple with an old potato peeler and slice and core each apple and float it in a bucket of lightly salted water to keep them from turning brown.  The yellow jackets would swarm - so much sweetness and moisture to attract them in their end of summer frenzy.  My daughter - just a year old at the time,  took great pleasure playing with the apple slices in the bucket, poking them with her little fingers and giggling as they would pop up again to the surface.  Such adventures we had!  Amazing how the smell of a box of apples can bring it all just flooding back like it was just yesterday.....

So today I climbed up the ladder and picked.  I got about 22 pounds - not bad for a trees first shot at producing fruit.  At least I don't have to can with the yellow jackets anymore but sometimes, I miss that old cook stove.  It now resides in a homesteaders museum.  Heirloom apples....YUM!!!

                                                                                                       

Dying and Wool Washing Adventures

Wee One

I know it's been awhile since I last posted here but that's how it goes in the busy season.  It may be still in the 90's outside but the angle of the sun is already transitioning into fall like patterns.  When the angle of the sun shifts, I always feel like I need to hurry up and get anything done that needs to be taken care of outside.  So I have been picking and washing fleeces like a crazy woman.  As of today I am half way there.  Three down and three to go.  Picking and washing isn't my favorite part - I prefer to get on to the fun part which is the dying.  So.....I kicked myself in the behind and got an early start this morning and got "Wee One's" fleece washed and spread on the rack to dry.

So I figured after all that stinky hot work I deserved to reward myself with the part I really enjoy.  Even though it was later in the day than I'd usually begin a hand painting dye job I weighed out a goodly amount of Merino Superwash top and had it soaking while I finished up the last batch of Wee One's fleece.  By the time I had it rinsed and spread on the rack, I was already visualizing what colors I'd paint with today.  Since I had been listening to a version of a Prince song performed by Michael Hedges, I figured that purple would be the order of the day.  So here it is.....Purple Rain.

It's been a long day.....this gal is ready for a cuppa tea and put my feet up!  Here's to hoping that it gets completely dry by the time it gets dark!

Wand Weaving & Lavender Harvest Continues

wands drying on my chandelier

Yes - I am still in the throes of harvesting Lavender.  I am a little more than half finished with the cutting from the field.  It's beginning to become difficult to find a place to put all of this bounty to dry.  I usually cut the flowers in the late afternoon to insure that they are not damp so they will dry well.  Then I spend the evening weaving the wands.  So far I've woven about 20 wands.  With the cooler and wetter weather we had this spring and early summer there sadly won't be as many wands this year as many of the stems are short this year.

Once all the flowers are harvested and dried, then I will remove the dried buds from the stems and then sift out any impurities and I will have plenty of dried lavender to fill my sachets with.  It's always non-stop around here in the summertime.

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Roddy before Shearing

Today was the first in a long line of fleece picking days.  I finally got a day without too much wind and I was able to start skirting and picking fleeces in preparation to getting them washed and dyed before the summer is over.  Let's face it, some years are easier than others and for those of you that don't know sheep up close and personal, let's just suffice it to say that if there is a thistle, burr, pine needle, or pile of pitch that can be rubbed up against, laid down in or rolled in - sheep will find it.  I am convinced they do it just to mess with us - they look so well - sheepish when confronted with scolding over this very subject!  I personally think they are very smug about the whole thing - but then again, my particular small flock are a bunch of bonafied characters!

Roddy's Fleece on the picking rack

Wonderful long staple length of the fiber

Of course because I am getting a late start on this job, these fleeces are pretty bad as far as vegetation goes.  It took me about 4 hours to pick through this one.  I always start with Roddy's fleece because he is my favorite of the lot.  I have a special affinity for him as he is the one who wants nose kisses every day and lots of ear and neck scratching.  Let's face it though, picking fleeces is stinky and greasy and although I don't find the smell bad, many folks do.  It's always best if the only one I associate with after such a chore is the sheep and then, even the aloof ones that tolerate me at best, will come up for scratches seeing how I smell so darn good....just one of the gang!  Now that my sheep duties are complete for the day, it's on to the Lavender patch for some more Lavender harvesting.  I have to admit, that smells a little bit better than Roddy!

Lavender Harvest Begins

I harvested my first basket of Lavender flowers last evening after the sun finally moved off and I could stand to be out there.  I have a big patch of Lavender - around 40 or so mature plants and  several smaller ones that I set last August.  I try to expand by at least a few plants every year.  The smell is so heady that it is almost over powering in this extreme heat.  Another few days, and I will be able to cut the long stemmed varieties and begin weaving my Lavender wands.

This batch will be stripped of it's leaves, and made into bundles and hung on wires in my craft room to dry.  Once they are dry, they will be stripped from their stems, sifted many times to remove any leaf or stem particles and then the dried buds will be stored in gallon glass jars, ready for sachet making or adding to soaps.  Like everything on the homestead, it takes time, effort and patience.  When it's almost 100 degrees out it takes self-discipline too - I don't know how many times I have to kick myself in the butt to get out there and get started.  But the funny thing about that - once I get started, it flows along and I enjoy the work.  Doing the task at hand is less difficult than talking myself into it!  Now I'm off to get those bundles made and hung up.....time's a wasting and produce waits for no one.

Strawberry Love

It's been awhile since I posted here.  I am in the throes of my busy season.  We had such a late start to summer with all the chilly damp weather.  Normally I would be finished with the strawberry harvest but I am still plugging away at it.  This is week 2 and to be honest, my legs aren't one bit happy about all that "bent" work for hours at a time.  It also doesn't help that all of a sudden we are having a heat wave following all of that rather cool weather so I haven't really had time to acclimate to the warmer temps.  I have been averaging about 15 lbs. every day but the berries are smaller this year too since we didn't have the sunshine they needed at the proper time.

I love the sweet smell of strawberries when I am picking.  There is no substitute for the real thing.  I have never smelled anything that was supposed to be strawberry scented that even remotely comes close to the way they actually smell.  The taste is so wonderful when they are warm from the garden and so juicy that your hands turn red from handling them.

Yesterday was my first round of Jam making.  A good ten hours on my feet - the house damp from the steam from the hot water canner as I processed the jars.  I love seeing the lovely dark red goodness shimmer in the line of jars cooling on the folded towel on the counter.

  Strawberries are always the first canning of the season for me and I still find it so exciting even after 30+ years of doing it every summer.  I have my own traditions as I prepare to begin this task - I ask a silent blessing on this endeavor and then load the stereo up with Joni Mitchell CD's - the early ones like Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, and my favorite, Miles of Aisles.  The tunes help to make for light work and remind me of my younger days as a Hippie when I would dream of having the homesteading life that I was lucky enough to eventually create for myself.

  There is a part of me that comes alive as each piece of fruit passes through my hands.  I am the quality control.  I decide which berries are perfect enough to put in my sugary brew and which ones will go to the chickens.  I wonder as I work, how many lifetimes I have done this dance?  How many times have I marveled at the beauty of how the berry grows, the artful designs that present differently in each berry as it's cut.  I think of how lucky I am to know such goodness that can't be bought in a store.

I feel so much Gratitude that I am so blessed to experience the grace of knowing my food - investing it with loving care and knowing that nothing that is imbued with that kind of energy could ever do me or my family harm.  Strawberry Love....