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Yesterday, my friend Lisa and I went to the sweetgeorgia open house. I am amazed at what Felicia has done in only two months – the studio was filled with bright, beautiful yarns, roving, and weaving. Of course, I couldn’t leave empty handed:
bfl roving and a little silk sample
I realize that there’s a lot of pink in this blog…I guess this is my pink phase. I’m usually not attracted to pink but when it’s this saturated and juicy looking, I can’t resist.
And my own handspun? I knit it up, as promised, into a little lace baby hat. It’s not really baby-soft, but I haven’t spun any merino or silk yet.
As some of you know, I recently started spinning. I wasn’t sure if I would like it. I learned how to spin short draw and worsted weight and, after fiddling around with a variety of fibres, I sat down and got to it last weekend. I spun and plied most of a handpainted blue-faced leicester roving by Yummy Yarn and was pleasantly surprised. Ok, that’s an understatement – I am so proud of my first handspun skein that I go look at and fondle it about every half hour.
spinning on my borrowed wheel
my first handspun - cotton candy coloured bfl
So I’ve found that I really like spinning, and I really like the end result. I know that many people learn to spin because they can’t buy the kind of yarns they like to weave or knit. This applies to me to a certain extent, but I think I spin mostly because I just want to make something. Typically, now that I’ve had a taste of spinning, I want to dye my own fibre before spinning and knitting it. It likely won’t stop until I’ve raised the sheep, too. I tell you, I should have been in big business – it’s horizontal integration at its best.
Now all I have to do is knit my yarn up into a little hat to see if I got the twist right. I’ll post it as soon as it’s done. In the meantime, so happy was I at my spinning success that I put down a deposit on my very own Lendrum wheel! There’s a wait period of several months, but I’ll happily spin away on my borrowed wheel until then.
Those of you who know me know that I love pickles.
Michelle and I made pickles about two months ago. That means it’s about time to open up those babies and do a taste test! These ones were made with lots of whole spices, as you can see, plus a fiery chile in each jar.
And while we’re on the subject of food, a few weeks ago when we were in Summerland, Camilo and I walked down to the lone walnut tree on my parents’ orchard. Most of the walnuts were gone, eaten by birds and bears. But we managed to collect a few pocketfuls.
These walnuts still need to cure to develop their flavour, but I still had some from last year that I ground up for a maple cheesecake crust.
The hulls of black walnuts can be made into dye that will give a range of colours from greeny tan to dark chocolate brown. Apparently the leaves can also be used. I’ll give this a try one day when I have more room to make a mess.
