Another Bag of Wool

During renovations I have been combing a raw fleece (when I woke up too early to make noise around the house).

I ended up with 562g of clean fibre. I plan on dyeing about half of it shades of grey, maybe some black, and drum carding it all back together, with some small bits of dyed silk noil or sari silk for a bit of a pop of colour.

There will be enough for a sweater.

We have had some new birds at the feeder this week -

A Red-headed Woodpecker-

and a Canada Goose -

Some other birds that I didn't get photos of are and Ovenbird, Northern Oriole, Gray Catbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a House Wren.

Flowers have really been blooming -

This is a Plum Tree -

It smells so nice.

Tulips -

Narcissus -

Lily of the Valley-

All the best!♥︎

Planting Time

This past week I have been gardening!

I have been cutting in new garden beds - this one is for the perennial flowers. Most are ones I brought from the old house, and some are from here - it will be interesting to see what they are. I have also started planting the vegetable garden (in the background), hopefully the rest will be done in the next few days.

It has been lovely to see so many Goldfinches at the feeders -

The little cat enjoys watching them too -

The only crafting I have been doing is knitting on this vest -

It never looks any different, but it is almost at my waist when I try it on, so it is growing. The pattern is Capture a Cozy Moment by Carol Sunday, knit is some handspun Merino wool.  It is really a nice pattern to knit - all knit stitches, a small amount of pattern to keep things interesting and a good amount of plain knitting.

All the best!♥︎

Farm Life

Renovations are coming along - all the kitchen cupboards have been installed and mostly filled. It is so nice to have a stove and kitchen sink again!

Not much time (or energy) for crafting - I am so looking forward to unpacking my sewing machine and have been planning projects I want to make.

Around the farm new plants are growing - 

This is a Three Flowered Aven-

I am so glad to have rhubarb here too -

A pair of Canada Geese are making their home here -

 They seem to spend a lot of time on the septic field!

There has been quite new birds at the feeder - this one is a Blue Jay (there were 4).

And Goldfinches.

A goose likes to stand on the workshop roof every morning - a Crow didn't seem to like it and dove at him.

Also another pair of geese seemed to challenge him too -

It was amazing how loud three geese honking, and stamping on a metal roof was!

The ponds in a light rain on the weekend -

Some wildlife caught on the trail cam-

We knew a skunk was in the area -

But were surprised to see a racoon!

All the best!♥︎

Quilt Show

Last week my sister, a couple of friends and I went to a local quilt show in Morden - the Barnswallow Quilt Guild's annual quilt show. We had a lovely day, always well worth the trip.

The feature quilters, a pair of sisters - Lenore Laverty and Kathryn Laverty Luger, put on a stunning display. More photos from the quilt show can be seen on the guild's website - LINK (the blue and white New York Beauty in one of the photos was my favourite - the pieces were so tiny, and such intricate quilting).

I finished spinning the skein of yarn I had started last week. I ended up with 630 yds, 117g of a light fingering weight yarn (it is 20% Silk, 30% Alpaca & 50% Merino wool).

I spun it to try out a crochet pattern (my goal is to always try new things, and I wanted to try my hand at a crochet pattern that didn't involve a Craftsy/Blueprint class to see if I could do it on my own - I am struggling! Yikes!). The pattern is the Falling Blossoms Shawl by Ana D. I must be having trouble counting, because I think my numbers are right, but the stitch pattern doesn't seem to be working out now that I have started the eyelet section. It doesn't seem to really matter at this point. The beauty of crochet is that it is so easy to pull the stitches out.

For other news, our oldest son is an arborist and has just started his own tree care business, so over the winter he bought a chipper and recently a dump truck. Work was done on the chipper and it was tested this weekend - a 10" wide branch turned to dust!

Renovations are still ongoing - this past week a couple of bedrooms have had hardwood floors installed, and kitchen cupboards are going in now. Somehow the little cat manages to sleep through all the power tools, air compressor and nailer, shop-vac etc (but when I pull out the regular vacuum she runs away), plus all of us talking loudly because we are wearing hearing protection.

It has been nice to see ducks swimming on the pond, mainly Mallards but yesterday there was a pair of Blue Winged Teal.

We also saw a couple of Bald Eagles soaring high recently (only one in the photo, they were closer, but by the time I got my camera...).

All the best!♥︎

Spinning

I am a bit late in my usual Monday night post because I couldn't use the computer last night, but better late than never.

Renovations are the main thing that is happening, but I did dye up some fibre, one last time in my old kitchen (now there is nothing there but bare walls and a nice new hardwood floor).

This was a commercially prepared top - 20% silk, 30% alpaca and 50% merino wool, that I dyed shades of red and pink (I know - the usual, but they are my favourite colours, and I didn't have the time to come up with something more creative. I just needed a change from knitting).

It is showing up much brighter than in real life.

I blended the fibre on a blending board after dyeing so that the yarn would be more tonal, rather than striped. Halve of the fibre was blended with some gold angelina, and the other half with some yellow silk noils.

The two bobbins of singles are spun, just the plying left to finish (the colours match the Akerworks bobbins well - really are my favourites).

Yesterday I was surprised to wake up to snow on the ground, but it was gone by the end of the day.

I was also surprised to find some little pale blue flowers too - I think they are called Siberian Squill. It is fun to see what is growing in the gardens - I also saw some tulips coming up, I wonder what colour those will be.

All the best!♥︎

Another Type of Creativity

With all the renovations going on I haven't had much crafting time, but I did finally get a vest that I have been working on into one piece. 

this photo is washed out

It started with the back and knit until the end of the armhole, and then stitches were picked up for each front. Now that everything is joined into one, it is much easier. 

closer to the true colour

The pattern is Capture a Cozy Moment by Carol Sunday (a paid for pattern on Raverly). It is a very straight forward pattern, with a lovely brioche collar (all knit stitches, not a purl in sight!). I am using some handspun Merino, that I dyed and spun a few years ago. I don't have enough yarn to make it like the pattern, but it still should be a good size for a vest. I will just keep knitting until I run out of yarn.

In the top photo you can also see what we have been working on - new hardwood flooring! I get to lay out the boards - another type of creativity - joins can't be too close, needs a good mix of colour and lengths... lots of fun, and so worthwhile.

With all the boxes of flooring being used the little cat lost her favourite perch to look out the window (I did put in a new box for her to watch the birds).

Now for more photos of my surroundings -

the full moon last week

raining in the distance

so calm

full moon reflecting on the pond

coming home after Easter dinner

 All the best!♥︎