Week 42 of 2025

This week I finished the body of the crochet cardigan I am making -

I am not really following the pattern now, so if the sleeves don't work it could be a vest.

We finished harvesting the garden this week -

Here are the beets - trays ready for the freeze dryer and jars of pickled beets.

We had so many carrots this year, more than we could store in the fridge, so I tried some new ways of preserving them. Freeze dried, pickled, and pressure canned slices - 1L & 500ml (quarts and pints) jars (plus lots more to eat fresh).

Tried out a new hot sauce recipe this year too - it is tasty, and such a nice colour (I used three different types of peppers - cayenne, red jalapeño and Aleppo).

The three baby chicks are so curious - they were following GingerSnap!, and one bit him!

He wasn't too impressed.

All the best!♥︎

Week 41 of 2025

No time for crafting this week!

It was a week of canning and preserving garden vegetables - the shelves are filling up and canning should be finished soon (it is a lot of work, but I am glad during the winter).

Also a week of cleaning (living on a dusty gravel road has taught me to have a major fall clean when the weather turns cold and we don't open the windows anymore). GingerSnap! was so helpful when I was cleaning the windows.

The harvest moon this week.

All the best!♥︎

Week 40 of 2025

This week I finished combing enough of the wool I washed in August for a sweater (I hope!) -

I combed about 300g of the white and 50g of the brown.

I combined the wool with some brown cashmere and white Angora that I have had for quite a while. I also added some leftover bits of handspun that I cut up, and a bit of sparkle.

I used a drum carder to blend all the fibres (over 400g total).

This is the first skein.

Photos from Around -

I had some company while working in the yard.

Molly didn't want to share her broken egg treat with one of the young chickens.

Pouring rain this morning, but the chickens still came out for a treat.

It is interesting to see who eats with who.

All the best!♥︎

Week 39 of 2025

This week I finished another Ranunculus (pattern by Midori Hirose) -

For this one I used some commercial yarn I had leftover from my first top down sweater, that I made 12 years ago. I had just over two skeins of worsted weight wool and I never thought I would be able to make a sweater (more like a vest really). The yarn is Cascade Venezia Worsted, a merino/silk blend.

The Ranunculus is a great pattern, knit on big needles it works up fast (I even knit the yolk on another one this week, to get my Mom started on her own sweater).

Pets -

We gave the hens a big beet from the garden yesterday,

today it looked like this.

All GingerSnap! wants to do is sniff Miss Maggie, she will tolerate him when she is waiting to be fed.

Poor Miss Maggie was stepped on by Molly, so she hid under the table.

We hope when Molly sticks her nose in rodent holes that nothing is waiting to come out.

All the best!♥︎

Week 38 of 2025

This week I finished a little English Paper Pieced bag -

The pattern was from the October/November issue of Homespun Magazine (I see it digitally through the library). It is the Onwards Drawstring Pouch by Hatched and Patched.

It is made up of hexagons with pentagons to make the rounded base. I used the hexagon die for the GO! cutter to cut out paper hexagons, so my bag is a different size than the pattern because I used hexagons with 1" sides. For the pentagons I used a tutorial online to draft them with 1" sides too.

It makes such a nice round base. After the base is made there are just rings of hexagons to add depth to the bag.

When I stitch the hexagons (and in this case pentagons) together I stitch them side by side, not right sides together, so the stitches are less visible on the front (this is from a Craftsy class years ago).

A lining, channels and cord to finish the bag. I didn't do the stitched appliqué circle.

It made the perfect size bag for my sock take-along project.

Photos from Around -

The baby chickens (3 red ones - they still like to stick together) are almost the same size as the big hens.

Molly still likes to play with Miss Maggie, although she doesn't seem to enjoy it as much as GingerSnap!.

GingerSnap! coordinating with the fall quilt on my bed.

Beautiful fall colours outside (lots of birds on the wires, and lots of rain).

All the best!♥︎

Week 37 of 2025

This week I finished another set of thrum towels -

Just one of twenty, 10" squares with overlocked edges, just like the ones I finished a few weeks ago.

I wanted to have a good selection of little towels to use instead of paper towels/paper napkins, and these are perfect. More details and photos can be found on my Ravelry project page.

My husband and I also finished making a little stool from a dead ash tree that fell in our yard this summer - very rustic, but surprisingly sturdy (Molly is in the background waiting for someone to throw her ball she dropped on the deck).

Photos from Around -

A couple of sunsets.

A couple of sleepyheads.

And a few curious hens.

All the best!♥︎

Week 36 of 2025

A couple of knitted finishes this week - 

A sweater and a pair of socks.

Handspun socks - knit toe-up, two-at-a-time on a 2.5mm circular needle, 64 stitches. The stitch pattern is a 4 row repeat with 3 rounds of knit and one round of knit 1, purl 2 - it works great with striped yarn.

The pattern for the sweater is Ranunculus by Midori Hirose. It is a pattern from 2017 and is always in the top ten most popular patterns on Ravelry (there are over 30,000 projects on Ravelry), and now I see why. The cover photos don't do it justice, but when I started hearing about what a flexible pattern it was - knit in any weight yarn, knit top down all the sizes start the same, so it is easy to get the fit you want, plus it takes very little yarn I was sold (I already started another one and have yarn for a third!).

I knit this one with some handspun (spun during TdF this year), held with a strand of commercial mohair/silk (Aloft from KnitPicks leftover from another sweater). I didn't use all the yarn and the sweater weighs about 250g. I was really surprised that I was able to make a long sleeve sweater with the little bit of handspun I had, and thought it would only be a vest (plus I have enough yarn leftover to make a hat).

Photos from Around -

The beginning of the week started hot, then we had a big thunderstorm (lots of rain, winds and hail), and the weather turned cold for the rest of the week (the reason I was able to get so much crafting in).

More rain later in the week, and a little rainbow.

The wild asparagus is easy to spot around the yard now, covered in red seed pods.

Evening walk.

Miss Maggie in the morning.

Surprised to see the cats sleeping close to each other.

All the best!♥︎