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On Sunday, I finally got to give Nean the swag I had made for her bridal shower:
An apron edited to add - the pattern is Emmeline Apron and I bought it from Sew Love Fabrics on etsy (along with the pink and red print fabrics for all the stuff below).
Towels:
(oops I forgot to take pictures, but they are very cute and matching flour sack towels)
placemats:
and potholders:
Plus the shower was fun!
This week's farm share had similar veggies - no more radishes and we got a flower to plant in the ground. The cheese was queso blanco, and we got yogurt. To identify individual vegetables, click on the picture and go to flickr - where there are notes on top.
I really enjoyed trying out tons of new recipes last week - and used up the rest of last week's share in tonight's dinner. It was especially interesting trying all the different greens, some I liked, some I didnt...all were easy to cook.
Knitting with my own handspun continues to be a magical process.
Here is the shawl for my cousin, a little further along:
Last evening's harvest:
That's 48 peas and 10 snap peas. Almost enough to be a side by themselves, I will probably add them to a salad for dinner. Mostly, its just cool to pick them. I accidentally picked one peapod that I thought was a snap pea - even though I planted them separately, they intermingled. That's why there are a few really small peas.
The asparagus ferns are now up past 6 feet tall, and I had to restake them with longer bamboo pieces - I want them to grow nice and strong for next year. The zucchini, tomato and potato plants are all HUGE due to all the rain. Now it just needs to stop raining SO MUCH so they can produce some fruit without rotting it.
Anyone know where to get fish emusion fertilizer in the area? On the advice of a friend, I want to try some of that for my next garden feed.
Yesterday I didn't get any spinning done, but I did get to change the ten pounds of strawberries I picked on Sunday into 3 separate batches of Strawberry Jam!
As usual, I forgot to take pictures, but in this case I have an excuse. There is just too much going on that you have to watch while making jam to take time out to take pictures.
Here is the tally of the loot:
Strawberry balsamic with a dash of black pepper,
Strawberry with a dash of lemon zest and pineapple mint,
and last but definately not least, as it spread out to be the prettiest color of all three...
Strawberry with a hint of blackberry.
All three are wonderful, and they will be part of my Christmas presents, come December.
In other news, I also did the finishing work for my Aunt's beautiful hooked wool doorstop.
(I sewed her flat piece around a padded brick.) Doesn't she do beautiful work??
I'd love to learn, but I fear another hobby might send me over the edge, so I will stick to admiring and finishing my Aunt's work instead.
My progress on spin up all of the WIPs on my bobbins is down to just one more fiber to be spun.
And I worked on it last night. Two ounces down, only 6 more to go:
I finished spinning up the Loop batt into a fingering weight bling bling two ply. I have already started knitting it into a shawl for a sick cousin. She is a jewel tone and sparkles kind of gal, and I think this yarn might cheer her up.
I also spun up the rest of some sweet sheep merino - I have about 500 yards of dk weight yarn, plus some random art yarn, and its all supersoft.
And did a tiny Navajo Plying experiment with an ounce of Merino Tencel I had spun up. I am going to blend the rest of this fiber with some wool later:
Lots of stuff going on this week, but I am hoping to work on that Merino Alpaca Blend so I can start some new spinning projects soon!
Before...a perfectly nice yellow color, but just not what I want for the guest room:
During...I actually did the first coat before work, then cut the edges and did the second coat in the evening:
Completed:
Overall, I like the way it came out. I still have to paint the trim, but I wanted to set it back up for when the gnus come next Friday night.
In other news...Today, I planted some AWESOME windowboxes for Nean and Robbie's new house. I LOVE the way they came out. Like they are BURSTING with flowers! (left, then right)
My sister, her fiance and I are splitting a CSA share from Ledge Ends Produce in East Greenwich.
We also purchased an optional "cheese share" from Naragansett Creamery.
Click on the picture to go over to flickr and get a description of what each item is through notes on top of the picture. The CSA is already lots of fun for us, as we are getting items we have never tried before. And a tub of ricotta plus a block of feta has already made us quite happy we got the cheese.
Here is my half of the veggies all bagged up and ready for the week. The strawberries will be in my belly at breakfast time, and the lettuce mix will make my lunch, along with some apple and my own homegrown broccoli sprouts (and the feta). I am excited to put garlic scapes and garlic scallions in EVERYTHING this week. I got some garlic scapes at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago and they were GREAT; I even used them in shrimp salad. Other veggies like Pac Choy, Kohlrabi and Swiss Chard will require a little internet searching for some appropriate recipes. However, the farm includes a weekly newsletter with the loot, and it has a recipe for kohlrabi slaw I might try.
And here is a bonus picture of Shamus sniffing the loot from under the table. Shortly after this was snapped, I found out he likes radishes. Weird puppy!
I believe that this is NOT the only dye-ing you will see from me this summer. (Photo credit above goes to workshop teacher Kris of The Painted Sheep, thanks Kris!)
I took a workshop through the spinners guild this weekend, and this is the fiber and yarn I dreamed up.
4 oz BFL Roving
used 1.5 oz tky red + 1.5 oz ms rhoda + splash raspberry - put 2/3 on one end of roving
3.5 oz yellow w/ splash of gold - put 1/2 on one end of roving
mixed rest together (1/3 red, 1/2 yellow) - put in middle, and blended in betweens by hand
Here it is all drafted up:
2 oz - 50% alpaca, 30% merino, 20% silk
mallard + national blue, just kept adjusting ratio until I liked the turquoise color
spiced pumpkin (60%) + yellow (40%) + splash gold
yellow
layed it out in a spiral and then spot dyed
Here it is all drafted up:
2 oz - 80% merino, 20% alpaca
started with National blue mixed up at full strength, then diluted by 50%, then by 50% more, then 50% more for a total of 4 colors dark to light. Then did a "wash of leaf green over it (about 10% leaf green to 90% water) and smooshed that in a little.
100% chocolate - one end
100% turkey red - other end
50% chocolate/50% turkey red - in between both ends.
diluted each of the 3 above by 50%, and put in between each section to create 12 separate areas flowing from light to dark around yarn.
reskeined when dry to make it look prettier.
Dyed together...
2 oz - 50% superwash merio, 50% tencel (shiny one on left)
2 oz - superwash lambswool
Raspberry with a splash of charcoal
100% - diluted by 50% - diluted by 2/3 - dilute with 95% water, tiny splash raspberry
4 gradations
I dyed both rovings at once - going to spin on 2 separate bobbins and ply together
AND, Just to TOTALLY mix my crafts up today...Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! is at it again. Another awesome free pattern on her blog. I think you will be seeing one of THESE AWESOME LAP QUILTS in my future.
