Week 26 of 2025

This week I dyed some fibre in preparation for Tour de Fleece (starts July 5th this year) -

The bottom two are BFL dyed in two different colour ways to be spun together, and the top fibre is some leftover Merino.

Photos from Around -

The vegetable garden.

My son brought home so many different annual flowers (I don't usually plant too many varieties), the yard is full of colour now. These are just some of the different petunias.

Beautiful metallic Dogbane beetles on some wildflowers.

Poor Molly had to suffer through some grooming - she is clean, with short nails now.

Happy hens!

The canola field surrounding our home is stunning.

32ºC yesterday and GingerSnap! was hot. He was inside most of the day, but loves it outside.

The chicks have really changed this week - they are two and half weeks old.

Miss Maggie is smart to stay inside when it is hot.

Spot those German Shepard ears! Molly lays down and waits for someone to throw her ball, but we have to find it first.

All the best!♥︎

Week 25 of 2025

A couple works in progress this week -

I am working on the third part of the Feldmark by Martina Behm, knit with some handspun yarn.

These are my regular toe-up socks, but I added a simple stitch pattern - Andalusian Stitch. It is a 4 row stitch pattern with 3 rows of plain knit and 1 row of knit 1, purl 1. It makes the knitting more interesting without behind too complicated, and I think it works great with the stripes of the handspun.

 

Week and a half old chicks have just started getting little tail feathers.

All the best!♥︎

Week 24 of 2025

Not much time for crafting this week.

The garden is growing well, and all the plants are planted now. My youngest child works at a commercial greenhouse, and a perk is that he was given some plants that didn't sell. 

I start my own plants in the winter and usually just buy a flat of impatiens, so it has been a huge treat to have different plants this year.

We also added three more chicks to our flock - here they are at 1 day old (three Berg's Brown).

Five days old and they grow so fast - they have little wing feathers now. 

They run around flapping their wings, then need a rest.

The big hens are happy with watermelon trimmings.

Miss Maggie took up her old spot right away.

GingerSnap! wasn't too sure at first but now he finds them interesting.

The cats keep me company in the garden - Miss Maggie found a shady spot under the rhubarb.

GingerSnap! in the perennial bed,

and the bird bath.

All the best!♥︎

Week 23 of 2025

This week I made an "Unwritten Scrap Puzzle Pouch" -

The pattern is from a Making Zen 2025 workshop from the previous week, by Selina Ben (on Instagram).

Made with 5" squares it is perfect for weaving bobbins.

It was fun to make, a great way to use scraps, and I see lots of potential for different sizes and more embroidery.

Pets - 

The only time Miss Maggie seems to tolerate GingerSnap! is when she is waiting for food.

Miss Maggie resting on a new little bed.

GingerSnap!.

Getting a nibble from Molly.

Keeping me company in the garden.

The hens free ranging in the woods.

Molly rolling in the dandelions.

All the best!♥︎

Week 22 of 2025

Not much time for crafting (and the couple of knitting projects I started I didn't enjoy), but I did get the garden all planted by the end of May (yesterday)!

The vegetable garden all seeded and transplants in.

There is a lot of haze in the air from forest fires.

This year we added a new perennial flower bed (the one in the distance) and I also finished moving plants around.

Now I should be able to catch up on the jobs that have been neglected for the past few weeks.

Photos from Around - 

Another Killdeer nest (I don't know what happened to the last one, hopefully these make it).

Poor Molly had to be drugged for a trip to the vet, so she decided it would be nice to sit for a while in the middle of a walk.

All the best!♥︎

 

Week 21 of 2025

This week I finished knitting a pair of socks-

Just simple 58 stitch socks, knit toe-up, two-at-a-time on a long circular needle. 

I tried something new for this pair - they are striped socks.

Made from this fibre - a BFL/Nylon blend that I dyed.

I divided the fibre in two and spun it two different ways. The top skein is a regular 3 ply yarn, which blends the colours, and the bottom skein is chain ply yarn (a different way to make a 3 ply yarn), it keeps the colours clear (more details on my Ravelry project page).

It was an interesting experiment.

Photos from Around -

Gemma is the smallest, and one of the sweetest hens. She is the one that suffered the most frostbite this past winter - she lost most of her comb and a bit of one waddle. I am sure they are all happy for the warm weather now.

You can just see Molly trying to nibble on GingerSnap! as he was trapped under a little chair.

Here is Molly and her other best friend hanging out while I was working in the yard.

A very calm morning (a relief after the high winds last week).

All the best!♥︎

Week 20 of 2025

The only creative thing I finished this week was building some rustic log fences with my husband -

We have so many dead trees in the yard, and I wanted something in the flower beds for the plants to lean against, so my husband and I built a few small sections.

It was also time to divide some perennials, so we put in a new flower bed.

Temperatures at the beginning of the week reached record breaking 37ºC (almost 100ºF), and by the end of the week it was down to almost freezing, plus lots of rain (you can see standing water in the edge of the flower bed), so I was glad to get some yard work done.

I do have a simple long term weaving project on the go (something I can just go and weave on when I have a few minutes).

My handspun striped socks are almost finished.

Photos from Around -

I managed to get a photo of one of the queens when we did hive checks this week.

She is the long bee right in the centre of the photo - everyone gets out of her way.

The Killdeer nest has four eggs.

I hope they survive - with all the rain we had the nest is surrounded by water - she is well camouflaged sitting on her nest.

The two cats went through the cat flap into the garage and Molly waited a long time for them to come out - she didn't realize that the big door was open and they probably escaped that way.

All the best!♥︎