The Harvest

I've pulled up a load of beetroot and carrots today because they are starting to split in the ground so I thought I would make use of them now rather than loose any more to the weather.  The beetroot has been cooked, cooled and chopped up into cubes and the carrots have been peeled and put through the food processor to Julienne them and then blanched and frozen in portions.  I didn't think to weigh them before I done anything with them but the cleaned up and peeled weight of carrots is 2.5kg, so just a few!

Here are photos of just some of the carrots, still growing freaky shaped ones!

I've kept the green tops off the carrots, chopped them up and put them in a bucket of water to soak for a couple of days with the intention of making dye in a few days.

The Custom Order is Finished

So I've finished my first custom order for a bride and she is very happy with it.  I can now send this off to the USA and hope that it does actually match her wedding colours when its in the flesh as it were.

Teal and Pink - Design LF433

I've made another of one of my favourite vintage patterns using the same vintage thread and this time I'm using silver for the flower centres, pink multi for the petals and teal for the main body.

Unfortunately I ran out of the pale pink multi with one full flower and half flowers to go.  I searched Ravelry for other people with this thread, only two people had it and I messaged both of them. Luckily one of them was a really lovely lady who only had a small amount left but she sent it to me anyway and refused to take any more for it.  Almost there, just three half flowers to complete and I ran out again.  I still hadn't heard from the other lady, never did get a response so I had to improvise.  Taking a plain pale pink of the same vintage thread I combined it with some blue and gold metallic sewing thread I had and made something very similar, similar enough that once finished with the main colour separating the flowers you have to look hard to see the difference.

In the photo of the three half flowers above, the top left is the one that I made up using the vintage thread and some metallic sewing thread and the other two, can't remember which is which, but they are made from the vintage thread I had and the vintage thread that the lady gave me, obviously from different dye lots but not massively different.

What a difference blocking makes to a piece of crochet.

And the final piece in all its glory.

My first custom order for a bride

I am so excited by this but it is also really nerve wracking.  I've been asked if I can recreate one of the shawls in my shop, pictured below, but in a golden yellow colour for her wedding in October. 

I do have some yarn in the right thickness and the exact colour that she wants but I don't have enough so I looked to buy more online only to discover that they don't make this colour anymore and I can't find any of that shade available to buy online nor can I find an alternative yarn to use either that is the same colour, the same thickness and around the right price to fit within her budget.  Drat!  OK, let's have a go at dying some of my own hand spun white that would be perfect for the job and fits the budget.

Voila!  Think I've hit the mark pretty good looking at the colour swatch she sent me, and that is with me mixing the Greener Shades dyes to achieve just the right shade, keeping in mind that the chemicals in the water and the wool itself can alter the final shade.  The customer is happy and has placed the order.  I now have to make this quickly as it has to go all the way to the USA for mid-September as she needs it for the final fitting etc.

Augusts' Fibre is here - Hawaii

Hawaii is here and I have to say that it is beautiful.  From the letter, I knew it would contain vibrant colours and is exactly as I expected in oranges and reds with black and its so soft.  Wow!  This one is 62.5% Merino, 25% Mulberry Silk, 12.5 % Baby Alpaca

I can't wait to find time to spin this up, hopefully I will find time soon. In the same parcel was a goody bag and an ingredients box which I had ordered and had sent together in one package.

The goody bag is a mixed bag containing small amounts of various fibres and could be from trialling colour combinations, left overs etc.  I will use these in the same way that an ingredients box is designed for, making your own dyed yarns a little more interesting.

The ingredients box is a weighed out and colour coordinated mix of certain fibres that you would add to a main wool base of your choice to make the finished yarn more interesting.  Made up of 60g Tussah Silk in three different colours, 20g Silk Noil in two different colours, 20g Hemp in two different colours, 20g Firestar (Trilobal Nylon) in two different colours and 2g of Angelina in two different colours.  This one is "Forget Me Not".

All I need to do now is sort out getting myself a blending board or a blending hackle or maybe a drum carder, I'm not sure yet which is going to be best for me so I need to research.

August's Fibre Club Letter

It seems a very long time since I last posted about receiving the last Fibre Club Letter, but then a lot has happened in that time so its probably just me.  Anyway, I've got the latest letter giving details about the theme and clues to the colours that I may receive.

The letter reads:

August 26th marks the 250th anniversary of when Captain Cook set sail from England aboard HMS Endeavor.  During that 3 year voyage he travelled around the southern tip of South America, to the Pacific Ocean as a scientific voyage to record the transit of Venus across the sun as part of a Royal Society enquiry to find a way of measuring longitude. 

This was a major issue for ocean navigation. Mariners could calculate their latitude using a quadrant and taking measurements of the sun at noon. This allowed navigators to calculate the north-south position on the globe.  However, there was no reliable measurement for calculating longitude. This often lead to ships hitting reefs or hidden rocks unexpectedly as it was very easy for a ship to calculate its longitude incorrectly.  The best scientific minds of the time were trying to solve the problem of calculating longitude.  In the end the solution was solved by John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter, who was able to develop a clock that was accurate enough to be used at sea. 

Once the calculations were made Cook completed his voyage by going on to Australia and New Zealand. They were the second European voyage to reach New Zealand, and the first to reach the Eastern Coast of Australia, they made landfall at Point Hicks, and then went on to Botany Bay. He made an incredibly accurate map of New Zealand, the Cook straight, between the North and South Islands is named after him. 

Originally this fibre was going to be inspired by the art that the Aborigine people make, but the Aborigine people are quite rightly protective of such a vital part of their culture. The more I researched the topic, the more uncomfortable I became with using this as my inspiration. I do urge you to go and look at some of the artwork in the links below. 

Instead I’ve drawn my inspiration from the third voyage that Cook made. On this voyage he sailed back to New Zealand, by way of South Africa, and then headed north in the Pacific ocean, hoping to find the North West passage, linking the Northern Atlantic to the Northern Pacific. This way ships could avoid the hazardous journey around Cape Horn and the tip of South America. On the way north Cook made land at Hawaii, the first Europeans to make land on the islands. From the islands he continued north, mapping most of the north west coast of America for the first time. He failed to find the North West passage, but did manage to map the extent of Alaska for the first time. He set sail for home, and again stopped in Hawaii.  A dispute with the local people broke out, and Cook attempted to kidnap the King of Hawai‘i, Kalani‘ōpu‘u.  He was killed by the villagers in the resulting struggle. 

So the fibre this month is inspired by Hawaii, and takes inspiration from the volcanoes that have created the islands. 

She put links to various websites at the end of the letter, which is what the comment refers to.

From spoilers divulged in the forum for the Fibre Club this will contain Merino and Alpaca for a soft smooth yarn that is not bouncy.

As far as colours go, I would love it if it were Merino in reds and oranges blended with black Alpaca to create something along the lines of a Volcano.

I can't wait to receive this one as I have also ordered some extra goodies from her shop too, which are all being sent out together in one big parcel.

More fibre!

There was a sale on at Yummy Yarns and oh dear, I couldn't help myself, just look at how pretty they are! 

Top left: Handpainted 70% Shetland Wool, 30% Tussah Silk in colourway Dapple

Top right: Handpainted faux cashmere in colourway pebble

Bottom left: Handpainted 70% Merino Wool, 30% Bamboo in colourway Posy

Bottom right: Handpainted faux cashmere in colourway Orchid

Like I need any more spinning fibre, really!

Today is about food

Thankfully our tomatoes have survived our few days away thanks to a special watering system we have so I have harvested some today now that they are finally ready.  There are lot of fruits on them, a good crop, but only a handful are ready.  The beetroot and carrots are doing really well and we've been harvesting those when we need to as well.

We have cherry tomatoes and chocolate cherry tomatoes, yes, CHOCOLATE.  They're not made of chocolate, nor do they taste of chocolate but they are a brown colour and taste very nice, better than those in the supermarkets which are forced grown and not particularly flavoursome.

I have also got my backside into gear and made the mincemeat for Yule and Christmas.  I usually do this much earlier in the year but it should still have time to mature in the brandy.

Combing the pale green Llanwenog fleece

I thought I'd make a start on preparing the dyed Llanwenog fleece for spinning, starting with the pale green because that is my favourite colour.

I've never used this breed of sheep fleece before so didn't really know what to expect and I didn't take any work-in-progress photos.  Normally I just leave the finished fibre in little round nests for spinning but I thought I would have a go at making a really rudimentary fibre braid by lining up the unwound nests side by side, overlapping each other a bit and then plaiting them together into a braid.  Its kind of worked, messy but it will hold for now.

I'd like to add something to it, not sure what, maybe some sparkles, but I can't do that on my combs, I need to wait until I get myself a blending hackle or drum carder, which ever I decide to get.  Its not bad though, fairly soft, definitely bouncy and my 270g is now only 140g but I do only keep the best of the fibres to produce the nicest of yarns possible.