Week 34 of 2024

It is that time of the year where everyday involves some kind of canning/freezing/drying/preserving of the bounty from the garden -

One thing this week was plum sauce (like apple sauce) - it is the first year that we have had enough plums to make anything with.

Works in Progress - 

Handspun socks - the stitch pattern has started to show.

Ran out of the first colour (the hottest temperature) for the temperature blanket.

Slowly but surely the woven tea towels are growing.

Photos from Around - 

The chickens are now able to roam free - Molly and the cats seem fine with them.

16 weeks old now (maybe laying eggs soon?).

Miss Maggie still doesn't like the new Ginger Cat (she doesn't see him in the above photo).

But in this photo she does - she is hissing if you look closely.

Miss Molly to sort her out.

Yesterday was the last day in the nest for the four Barn Swallow babies.

Ariel spraying across the highway this week - just barely over the power lines!

All the best!♥︎

Week 33 of 2024

Lots of works in progress this week - 

I finally started weaving on this new batch of tea towels. It is a pattern from Etsy I have been wanting to try, but it took me three attempts to get the warp on the loom (I kept making threading repeat errors! Over 600 threads!!). It is my first time weaving towels with 16/2 cotton. The weaving is going well, and much more fun now that I have it figured out.

I started a new pair of socks with some handspun from TdF last month. They are my regular toe-up socks, but with the stitch pattern from Syncopation Socks by Mary Henninger (a free pattern on Ravelry).

Another section finished on the cross stitch.

The temperature blanket has become an exercise in trying to use up the colours wisely because some are running low.

Photos from Around -

Maggie

Ginger Cat

Molly

15 week old girls

I should have known this one was getting ready to jump on my head.

Week old Barn Swallow babies.

The parents like to dive at everyone that passes - it can be quite frightening to walk in the back yard.

Garlic harvesting this week.

Sunshine squash ripening in the garden.

All the best!♥︎

Week 32 of 2024

This week I finished a pair of socks that had been on the needles for a couple months- 

My fourth pair of handspun socks so far this year. This one from a BFL/Nylon blend I dyed and spun four years ago.

Cooler temperatures this week, but because I am running out of some of the colours I have had to shift the colours/temperatures sequence.

Photos from Around - 

Ginger cat's cone is off - his leg and other parts have healed well.

This is the closest Maggie will get to him, and only because that is where her food is (she still manages to complain lots while eating).

Molly loves going for a ride as long as it is just around the yard.

Maggie resting after a large feast - such a good hunter.

Ginger cat watching some Swallows that have a nest above the window.

We are hoping that he will be a good hunter too, but we think he might have been a house cat in his previous life.

Here are the Swallow babies in the nest.

These chicks are 14 weeks old now, and enjoying feasts from the garden.

Drone photo of the vegetable garden (the section on the right died due to flooding earlier in the summer).

Stopped by a great old barn on an evening bike ride.

Enjoyed the Persius meteor shower this evening, as well as great northern lights.

All the best!♥︎

Week 31 of 2024

This week I finished the pair of socks I started on our road trip-

I knit socks toe-up, two-at-a-time, on one long circular needle, from both ends of the ball of yarn to be able to us up of the yarn, and the small bundle is all I had left - about 1m (1yd).

I knit a regular 64 stitch sock (with a gusset and eye-of-partridge heel flap), but added a simple cross over stitch pattern (4 stitch repeat, over 2 rows), just to make the knitting more interesting.

The socks are from a BFL/Nylon fibre that I dyed. I tried something 'new to me' - small dots of colour with areas left undyed.

When I spun the yarn I divided the bundle into three pieces to make a 3-ply yarn, then divided each section into narrow strips to have small lengths of the different colours.

This created narrow stripes of colour.

Works in Progress - 

This past week was very warm.

Photos from Around - 

The gardens are growing well.

This past week lots of weeding was done.

A Barred Plymouth Rock (Becky), and a Sapphire Gem (Gemma),

and a Cinnamon Queen (Sparkle) - one of each of the types of chickens we have.

13 weeks old.

Last Monday this ginger cat walked up to the door and wanted in. Molly fell in love with him right away.

He came with a swollen injured leg, abrasions on his toe beans on one foot, and another small injury on another foot. We always have lots of stray cats around, but they are usually very skittish, and don't stick around, this one didn't leave. So after a few days and his leg getting worse, we had to take him to the vet. So I guess we now have a new addition to the family!

He is the friendliest cat, and just wants to be close to everyone (she wasn't impressed he took her bed).

Miss Maggie does not like him one bit, we are hoping she will get used to him like she did with Molly. Luckily she is outside most of the time, since the new cat (still deciding on a name) has to stay inside for a while. The vet thinks he is about one and a half years old.

The chickens were very curious about him when he first came - he is hiding in the bushes on the left.

All the best!♥︎