Month: January 2019

Here is update number two:

It is coming along.  The yard does not slope.  It looks like it, but that is just the underpainting.  The grass will cover that and, hopefully, look like the lovely lawn that was really there.

The weather here is amazingly cold.  I said a little while back that I was prepared to walk on the trails in the snowy and icy weather.  Well, I lied!  I was definitely not prepared and I have not done it.  Here is a shot of our solid ice driveway:

I’m not gonna do it.  And Toby doesn’t want to do it, either.  The temperature has been below zero for a few days and he has to do his business in shifts.  He only has to be out in the wind for a few minutes before he starts shutting down and I have to get him inside quickly to thaw out.  It is so cold, that we can’t really get it warm inside even with the fire blazing high.  It is supposed to warm up, soon.  I can honestly say that I am looking forward to it.  Even the birds are hopping around on one leg, trying to keep the other one warm while snapping up birdseed.  I don’t know how they manage to survive winters.  I am finding it difficult to function much at all.  Grandma said that when you get old, it all falls apart.  It appears that she was right.  And most of the falling apart happens in the cold winter.

What nutriment can I extract from these bare twigs?  Starvation stares me in the face. “Nay, nay,” said a nuthatch, making its way, head downward, about a bare hickory close by, “The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat…. If at any time the weather is too bleak and cold for you, keep the sunny side of the trunk, for a wholesome and inspiring warmth is there, such as the summer never afforded….” “Hear! hear!” screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, “winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.”… [A] red squirrel… came running down a slanting bough, and as he stopped twirling a nut, called out rather impudently, “Look here! just get a snug-fitting fur coat and a pair of fur gloves like mine, and you may laugh at a northeast storm.”

–Henry David Thoreau, Nov. 8, 1858

Okay, thank the Lord, I am feeling much better.  I am not totally out of the woods, but so much better and able to get around and do my work that I am floating on air.  I just recently read something by Laura Ingalls Wilder that speaks to that:

“I’m sure we will all acknowledge that there is an advantage in having been ill if it makes us eager for work once more.  Sometimes, I fancy we do not always appreciate the value of work, and how dry and flavorless life would be without it.  If work were taken from us, we would lose rest, also, for how could we rest unless we first became tired from working?” 

Now, I don’t know that we will all acknowledge it, but it appears to be true when I am sick and can’t work that I can’t wait to get well so that I can.  LOL!

Anyway, here is the first update on painting number four:

I taped off the house to do the background.  I think I like that way of doing it.  We’ll see how it turns out.

I have taken a few pictures here and there:

Unfortunately, this morning I stuck my head out the back door to get some kindling and found this:

I’m starting to wonder if woodpeckers are safe around here…

It is sad, but beautiful:

The weather is amazingly cold with some snow.  The other morning, when we woke up, it was -10 degrees.  That is pretty cold for around here.  Right now, it is around noon and about 12 degrees with a little snow and some sunshine.  Back here in the office, away from the woodstove, my hands are about to freeze up.  Gonna wrap this up and get into the heat.

Keep warm and keep your powder dry.  (I love that saying!  LOL!  One of these days, I want to have a muzzleloader and need to keep my powder dry.)

If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.

–Edith Wharton

 

 

 

 

 

I have not started the next painting, because I was busy last week making packets for our congregational meeting, then I got sick on Monday, and on Wednesday, when I thought I was getting better, I threw my back out.

Before all this started, I started a double batch of homemade apple cider vinegar and I thought it made a nice photo.

If anyone is interested, I can do a detailed post on it in the future.

Also, today was supposed to be “Snowmageddon”, but nothing spectacular thus far.  We might wake up to a world encased in ice, however.  Here is what it looks like as of 5:00 p.m. today.

How do you like my bird feeder scuplture?  LOL!  It is a piece of firewood that I liked the look of and it weighs down the saucer so that the birds can’t knock it off the table.

Well, I hope to have a WIP for you in the next post.

I hope you all are well.

P.S.  Remember the portrait swap?  The portrait that I did is below:

Normally, I don’t allow anyone to see the reference photo, but in this swap one of the requirements was to show the reference and it didn’t hurt too much, so I thought I would share it here.

This is the portrait that he did of me:

This is the first portrait that anyone has done of me, that I can remember.  I am looking forward to next year’s portrait swap.

By the way, sometimes I choose quotes just because they resonate with me.  Sometimes, I choose them because they just sound nifty.  Sometimes, I have no idea why I choose the particular quote that I do.  Sometimes, it actually has something to do with the post.  This one?  I just liked it.  LOL!

It is in an old kitchen that the best food is made.

–French Proverb

Well, I have finished three skeins of yarn and it is time to start on painting number four.

By the way, I took some video and was uploading it to youtube while I made my last post and completely forgot about them.  They take so long to upload.  LOL!  It took five hours for the twelve minute video to upload.  So, I made my post and went to bed.  They are on my video page, if you are interested.

So, I filled one bobbin with black alpaca, one bobbin with white wool, and one with both, a little black and a little white, no particular amount of each as I went.  It worked out rather evenly, though, but I wanted it to be very random.

The three bobbins of singles were, in theory, to make three bobbins of three-ply once I got it plied.  Well, I ran out of the mix after the second spool of three-ply and spun some more of that.  I thought I would finish that last spool easily, but when I was about 75% done I ran out of white, so I used a ball of old single that I had spun from the same fleece.  I think I had done it just to test it out.  Well, it worked.

So, the next step is taking the yarn off the bobbin, preferably after it has had a chance to settle while still on the bobbin.  The first two had enough settling time, but the third one I just finished before I started taking them off and winding them on the rockers of my rocking chair.  LOL!  My skeins are not as big as regular ones, but it works for me.

The coffee pot on the floor was holding the little ball of white yarn while I was plying that last bit of the last spool.  When making a skein, I use the wheel to hold the spool, because I can maintain a tension and the spool doesn’t spin wildly and get tangled.  You may notice all the little bits of wool all over the place.  I have even been finding it in my mouth over the last couple of weeks.  It flies everywhere.

This is the fiber that I started with.  The white was a raw fleece, it had not been washed or processed in any way, so it was greasy with lanolin and a little bit dirty, but amazingly clean for a raw fleece.  I carded it before spinning.  The alpaca had been washed and carded by machine into roving.  (I wish I could remember where I got it.  I know I didn’t buy it…)

So, I wrapped the yarn around the rockers, tied it in four spots, and removed the skeins from the rockers.

Then I washed them in hot water with real soap flakes while listening to a Louis L’Amour book, Sackett’s Land, the first in the series (just in case you were wondering what was on my kindle).  Then I rinsed in hot water, first in plain water, second in vinegar water.  Squeezed out most of the water and hung them with weights to set the twist.  They will drip for a while then, hopefully, get dry in a couple of days.

First rinse water before:

First rinse water after:

Well, the plan is to weave cloth from which to make myself an article of clothing.  We will see.  I tried to make some videos of the plying, but it didn’t work out.  I hope you got something out of this post, even if it is just entertainment.

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

— Abraham Lincoln

 

Well, Clara cleans up really well!  I have not used my spinning wheel in about six years and I had to clean her up, oil her up, and tighten her up.  But, she is spinning like she always has.  I bought this spinning wheel, the Ashford Traditional, in the mid-1990’s, brand new from New Zealand for about $250, which seemed like an awful lot of money back then.  They sell now for about $650!  And the company has been sold and I have been told that they are not as well made now, which is no surprise.  Many times over the last few years I have tried to sell my wheel, my loom, all my accessories, and all my fiber.  Once, someone actually wanted to buy it and I chickened out.  Mr. Beloved has talked me out of it at least three times.  I’m so glad!  Thank you, Mr. Beloved, for talking me down off the ledge so many times, in so many ways, for so many reasons.  LOL!  Here is a photo of Clara with Toby.

He looks like he is very interested in the wheel, but, in reality, he is intently watching the cat and planning to chase her.  The white wool on the bobbin which is on the lazy kate is what I have spun thus far from a fleece which was given to me by my beloved friend, Marci, when she had sheep.  She has since passed away and it is special spinning the wool that she gave me.

I am in the process of filling another bobbin with black alpaca.  I am not totally sure where I got the alpaca, but it is beautiful stuff and I am enjoying spinning it.  I am planning on spinning some of the wool and alpaca together and then I will have three bobbins of single ply and I will ply them together to make a black and white 3-ply yarn.  I hope that I will have that done by my next post.  When I am done with the yarn, I will start working on painting number four.

In the meantime, I have some photos of past projects that I have made from my homespun yarns.

Hand knit socks with wool from Marci.  (You know, I think that most of my wool is from Marci…)

Close up of the knitting stitches.  I am not an expert spinner, so the yarn is usually thin in some spots and thick in others, but I like it and I enjoy making it and using it.

These crocheted gloves are actually the first thing I ever made with my own homespun yarn.  The wool was not from Marci, but it was given to me from someone who had sheared their own sheep.  It was in Florida, and the person who gave me the wool couldn’t understand why I would want wool or want to make or wear anything made of wool.  LOL!  It was dirty and in a feed bag.  I had to pick it to get rid of large pieces of plant trash and then wash it.  I had so much fun.  Then, I made these gloves for Ron.  He has loved them and almost worn them out.  I made them over twenty years ago.

This hat was made from the first wool that Marci gave me, about 15 years ago, right after we moved up here to Ohio.  We were living in the apartment above their goat barn and Marci and I would spin together.  She had a wheel like mine.  I knitted this hat for Ron and he loved it and has worn it ever since.

There is something warm and comforting about handmade things, whether it is considered art or not, it is beautiful.  Whether it is considered pinterest-worthy or not, it is lovely.  I am no expert.  As a matter of fact, if an expert spinner, knitter, weaver, etc., were to ever inspect my work…  Well, I shudder to think of the tortures they would endure.  But, I enjoy it and I think it is beautiful.

I think, between painting four and five, I will warp my loom and plan to weave something beautiful.

And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands,

and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple,

and of scarlet, and of fine linen.

–Exodus 35:25