Pictureless post

There's nothing like eating the food grown by one's own hands. I just ate some cabbage from the garden, and baked tofu seasoned with herbs from the garden. It was awesome! I was worried that the cabbage wouldn't be too good, because the bugs had been going at it for so long. But the largest of the four cabbages was firm and ready to harvest. I washed the leaves really well, and washed it again. I cooked it with a drop of olive oil, sea, salt, garlic and fresh onions from the garden. The tofu was sliced and seasoned with Oldbay seasoning, freshly ground black pepper, fresh onions, lemon thyme, lemon basil, sage and baked in a pan lined with a tiny bit of olive oil. All herbs and onions grown by me. The taste...incredible. I'm a happy gardener.

The Busy Bee

I've been busy with crafting...squeezing in time when I can...here and there. In dyeing news: Here's some fiber that I recently over-dyed. I dyed this merino/angora/silk top a couple years ago, but there was too much white still showing through since the dye had not penetrated the fiber completely. The fiber was too compacted, I realized later, and that's why my dyeing attempt wasn't successful. I overdyed it again with similar colors, using dyes I got from Lie.ttle Barn, while at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. They were only $2.95! You know me...always looking for that bargain. It turned out much better this time. What do you think? Since I had so much dye stock remaining, I decided to dye a laceweight skein, as well as some short stapled polypay fleece I got from a shepherdess in Michigan. In knitting news: I finished the pink shawl I was knitting out of my handdyed, handspun cheviot singles. Here it is blocking simply. I didn't want to block too heavily since it's a thin singles yarn. So, just wet the shawl lightly and hung it over the rail in the back yard. I love it. Many years ago, I spun a yarn from mohair and angora - one ply of each. Then, years later, I knitted some glovelets. One night, I lost the right glovelet. I was so bummed! Now, a few years later, I discovered that I had some of the same yarn left over. I guessed that it would be enough to make another glovelet. So, yesterday I knitted another, during my commute to and from work. I was literally sweating the whole time because I wasn't sure if there would actually be enough yarn. What you see hanging from the top of the glovelet is all the yarn left! Five inches! Whew! Talk about cutting it close! I also had a piece of scrap left over from the first time which I can use to sew it up. I was so happy that I had judged my yardage correctly that I immediately started another pair with some alpaca/angora yarn that was also spun years ago. Notice I an using straight needles to knit these glovelets. I haven't used straight needles in years! I pulled these well used, vintage needles from my needle stash. Notice they are made in France! In spinning news: I am participating in Tour de Fleece, a spinning gathering of sorts on Ravelry.com where spinners set spinning goals and try to achieve them during the Tour de France. I am spinning cotton for Team I Spin Cotton, and silk noil for Team Support spindlers. Here are my efforts: Cotton: Silk noil: Silk noil

What's been up

I've been away from blogging for so long!Life has really gotten in the way. Work, the family, the home, the garden, stress...you name it! I've been wanting to post for some time, but honestly, I've just been too exhausted to sit down and do it. Well, today I have some free time, so here I am. In gardening news: I started my garden in early May, so that my fruits and veggies could have an early start, and my harvest would be early as well. Here's what I have planted: straight neck squash,zucchini, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, string beans,sweet basil, thai basil, parsley, cilantro, lettuce, mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, swiss chard,beets, cabbage, arugula, eggplant, chives, cotton, strawberries. Also, I planted blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes, which were already fruiting! Whew! I may have forgotten something. Please forgive me. :) Gardening is very hard work, but so enjoyable. It makes me feel connected to the earth, and makes me happy to be able to produce food to feed my family. Sustainability - it's good for us! LOL! My food shopping bill has been cut severely because of the garden. That's the greatest part of it all! Here are a few pics from the garden: In crafting news: I did finally take the sewing machine that hubby brought me for 2012 mother's day out of the box it came in! My friend, Nadine, showed me how to set it up and get started on it. Not as scary as I thought! I made 4 pincushions! No pics of those - sorry. I really need basic sewing supplies, then I'll venture onto something else. My spinning wheel has been unloved and is showing it. He squeaks when I touch him! I have to clean him up and throw something sweet and fine on him real soon. My spindles, however, have been getting a whole lot of attention. I've discovered a new love - turkish spindles. These spindles are interesting in their shape in that they have arms which interlock when the smaller arm is placed through a slit in larger arm and forms a crss or an X (depending on how you view it). They are spun suspended, and reminds me of my beloved bottom whorl spindles. I've amassed a pretty large collection pretty quickly. Here are 4 of them loaded with some dark colored wool (navy, green and burgundy) with trilobal nylon which is very sparkly, but difficult to capture in photos. Here's are my phang spindles. These look like sticks sharpened to a point at both ends and rounded slightly in the middle. I am spinning some cheviot wool which I dyed and blended with a bit of tussah silk, and mulberry silk, to make the spinning smoother. I think I've mastered support spinning on these spindles now. They take a bit of practice getting used to, but are fun to use. In knitting news: I've been working on the Smeagal shawl by MMario on Ravelry. I'm also in his yahoo group. I wanted something simple to knit on my commute, so I started this shawl with my handspun cheviot singles dyed in varying shades of pink. I had one large skein and wanted to use every bit of yarn, so I figure I'll just keep knitting to the end of the pattern. I ran out on row 5 of 6, right before starting the 6 row border. Luckily, I have 3 other skeins of the same wool in a similar shade of pink. I'm going to wind my skein into a ball tonight and finish it up. In Crocheting news: I have not crocheted anything in forever. There was a thick layer of dust on my hooks, and they were begging to be cleaned and loved. So, I obliged. I started two crochet shawls from patterns found on Ravelry. Amita shawl. Made with a yarn that has been lingering in my stash for years. I had crochedte skirt with it many moons ago, and had a lot of yarn remaining. I thought the yarn and pattern worked well together. The yarn in Schaeffer mischgarn. Fan of tassels shawls. Made with a yarn of unknown content given to me by my friend Nefer. It's a chartreuse color, which I love. That's all I have time for now, folks. I'll be back....:)

Happenings

I finished these pretty socks some weeks ago, but never got around to posting them. They were knit with Cherry Tree Hill yarn and no.1 needles. I love Cherry tree hill yarns. They are soft and cushy, an perhaps not the best for socks. But, they feel great on the feet. Here they are:

I've been doing quite a bit of spindle spinning, since my wheel is making all sorts of squeaking sounds. I don't know where the rubber washers are to put on it! I've accomplished quite a bit this month. Here's what I've been doing: This fiber is bfl/silk simple that accompanied my new Jenkins Lark Turkish spindle (not pictured. I enjoyed spinning it up.

This is merino/viscose yarn that was spun from pencil roving given to me a few years ago by Gayle, an online friend. I dyed it up, and spun it. This yarn took me forever! But,it was worth it since I got 1064 yds of two ply super laceweight yarn. There is a picture of the early stages of spinning in an earlier post.

This is Cotswold lamb fiber that I dyed myself. The staple length of fiber is long and shiny! I'm enjoying spinning this up, and it definitely is coming out thin.

This fiber is Shetland fleece that I combed on pet combs and spun on popsicle stick spindles. The spindle with the short arms is made by Sheree, an online friend. She first made the smaller one, and when I inquired about it, she sent one to me to try out. I loved it so much that I made the one with the longer arms. Then I purchased the small spalted birch turkish spindle from Enid Ashcroft in the UK. I have a new love for the turkish spindles, and am really pleased with the fact that when spinning is completed, there is a ball that can be plyed up right away. This is unlike other spindles where the fiber has to be removed and then made into a ball for plying (or not). Anyway, these popsicle stick spindles are amazing and cheap to make!

Finally, a FO

Merino/viscose yarn
Originally uploaded by nkosit1968

I've been very busy and too tired to post anything lately. But, I have been keeping up on the crafting as much as I can. I have finally finished spinning and plying up this merino/viscose fiber! It was a joy to spin, but a pain to ply as it spun up much finer than I had originally anticipated. However, I am very pleased with how it turned out and am thoroughly spent now that it's finished. :)

I can't believe the entire summer has passed by so quickly! It seemed extremely short this year, and I worked very long hours through it all. I'm home for a few days and decided to do an update. The garden has kept me busy this summer. I put a lot of time and effort into producing food for my family and I must say that I didn't do too badly at all! I only experienced two failures - canteloupe and cucumbers. They didn't survive, but everything else did very well. The bell peppers and hot peppers, that I planted from seed,are finally ready for harvesting. The tomatoes, kale and collard greens have been the steadiest producers.

I did a lot of experimenting just to see if things would grow and I was happily surprised. For instance, I took four red beans and planted them in a pot. They germinated and grew quickly. Of course with only four seeds planted, I didn't get many beans but I got a few which I will save for replanting next year.

My cotton plants are growing nicely, both in the ground and in pots. One set of cotton plants in pots are heavy with bolls yet to open. The other pot of black leaf cotton has produced three bolls, two of which have popped open to expose the beautiful fiber inside!

Here's what I've been up to lately. Working hard in my backyard garden! I've been planting in containers and in the ground. I've got lots of things growing - carrots, beets, peppers, tomatoes, cotton, eggplant,collards, kale, parsley, cilantro, kabocha squash, crookneck squash, two varieties of thyme,three varieties of mint, baby lettuce greens, two varieties of basil, grapes, blueberries, beans and snap peas! And, I'll be adding more stuff as the season progresses, so that I'll have fall crops. My 8 year old daughter harvested her garlic that she planted in October of last year. That was fun.