The fact that this wheel is compact and sits on my desk has definitely made it easier to spin more consistently.
I have managed to get through four or five little bumps of fiber so far. I need to pre-draft most of them as they have been smushed up in a bag for over a year. And I have been able to spin fairly thinly so far. I am still learning this wheel and it’s process. It may take us a while to get to know each other.
Happy Spinning!!
I am still feeling the mojo for the Emotional Support Chickens. I decided to cast on #2 with the opposite colors of #1.
This cream color handspun is much more consistent than the darker color I from the last one. I am hoping I will get a more consistent fabric? This chicken will be for Aunt Barb, who helped me make jam this year, to give to her best friend who loves chicken. I am on a bit of time crunch as this ladies birthday is coming up so I need to get knitting!
Happy Crafting!!
Yesterday’s juice is today’s jelly!
It was a marathon afternoon and the house got to 75 degrees. But the juice turned out to be great jelly and we only had to make two trips to the grocery store. We had one batch that was soft set but otherwise both kinds set up well.
This is 23 pints of jelly and 30.5 half pints. I shared some with my aunt and my dad and still stocked my pantry stores. I still need to make a batch of cherry jam and can some more tomato sauce.
Happy Canning!!
My dad hand picked some grapes from the family farm. I forgot to grab pics of the grapes before we did the cook and crush. But the juice is GORGEOUS!
I got this cooked and filtered and ready to turn into jelly. I think we are going to clear the decks tomorrow and do a big jelly cook. I still have my apple juice in the freezer as well. All I need is a metric poop ton of sugar and lots of boxes of pectin.
Happy Canning!!
The Emotional Support Chicken is complete!
Pattern: Emotional Support Chicken by Annette Corsino (Rav Link)
Needles: US 7s
Yarn: My own handspun and commercial scraps
My eyeball placement could use work but I think it adds character. I ended up using up 200 grams of yarn on this project. Which didn’t use up the handspun. I think I have enough left to reverse the colors and make a second chicken. Aunt Barb wants one for her friend.
This chicken is going to my office and I think I will let my team give it a name. It’s a rough go in local government and we could use all the support we can get!
Happy Knitting!!
The emotional support chicken now has a beak!
I ended up finding some Malabrigo singles in a bright yellow from my hat leftover stash. I held it single and I kind wish I had held it double. Might try that on the next version. I also grabbed some red leftovers of Cashloft from the hat leftovers as well.
I just need to knit the chest piece and sew everything up! Happy Knitting!!
Thick yarn on big needles really makes a project fly by! I have completed most of the body of my Emotional Support Chicken.
My crochet join of the tail region could use some work but it’s secure and I can always add more rows to cover. I am working with uneven handspun so it doesn’t hide my sins as easily as a commercial yarn.
Next up I need to start and shape the head. And see if I have any polyfill in my crafting stash. I don’t make a ton of toys so it’s not a guarantee…
Happy Knitting!!
I am finally getting my Emotional Support Chicken on the needles. I have a whole bag of crunchy woolly and rough handspun that will be great for this type of project.
I chose not to swatch as I am not aiming for a specific size of finished toy. I am just making sure that I have a tight gauge to keep the stuffing on the inside. I chose US 7s and this handspun is worsted to bulky weight.
This is a lot of my early handspun that is pretty thick and thin. The dark brown is unknown wool and the lighter is romney. We will see how this knits up. I still need to track down some yellow and red accent for the beak and comb.
Happy Knitting!!
The sleeves of Autumn Gold are complete and happily matching.
I ended the second sleeves with just one tiny nub of yarn left from the skein. Both sleeves knit nicely from one skein of yarn. I will have more than enough to finish this sweater based on what I have caked up.
Now I am just on the forever knitting of the body and adding the ribbed side details. So I have to pay attention on every other round. I wonder how many times I will get that wrong?
Happy Knitting!!
In non fibery news, my summer apple tree did very well this year. I harvested close to four plastic grocery bags of decent apples. I probably composted 50 times as much due to bird and animal loss. Or just failing to pick and they got rotten. And that is okay, I am not a commercial apple producer.
I cleaned up the apples and cut out all the bad or buggy bits and dropped into a pressure cooker. My preferred method is jelly from juice so I like to harvest that from the fruit. I cook as much of the apple including core an seed to develop as much natural pectin as possible
The juice is coming out very deep rose colored this year with the peel influencing the color. I use cheese close to harvest the juice. The kids didn’t really appreciate the apple sauce pulp flavor so I chose not to try to salvage any of that. I gave some to my friends with chickens and composted the rest.
It is crazy back to school time again so I don’t have capacity to make jelly right now so I sterilized several jars and I’m freezing the juice until I have time to work it. I am hoping that I can also get my hands on more wine grapes to re-stash my grape jelly stash as well this year.
And then I would just do a large cook day for jelly processing. Hopefully with extra hands to help!
Happy Canning!!
Michele plays with yarn, food, and music in Portland
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