Yup, we're on the road again

Haven't really felt like blogging til we got here.

Ben and Jerry's factory tour in Vermont was a bit of a bust. We don't have a scoop shop in Ontario, and we can't get all the flavours routinely in the grocery store. I had wanted to try some of the new flavours that I found on their website.

It didn't happen. They don't have all the flavours available at their on-site scoop shop - only the most popular. At their --main headquarters---. This should be the jewel in their crown. The hospitality should be superb.

Now, they did have all the flavours available - in 1 pint containers. Stupid. I'm traveling. I don't routinely carry a freezer in the car. There were four flavours that I had wanted to try. I'm not going to buy 4 pints of ice cream that I couldn't possibly finish before it melted and I'm not a fan of that much wasted money or food. Very disappointing.

But on the bright side... this morning, we left Alma, New Brunswick - home of the world's largest tides. This boat is a working vehicle - just temporarily grounded (literally) - while the tide is out.



Alma is a very peaceful town, even swarming with tourists. I think I could have enjoyed spending more time there, basking in the tidal changes, good food and a great hotel (Parkland Village Inn) and the change of weather - taking lots and lots of pictures.

Hopewell Rocks, just a little further along the road is another site that demonstrates the range and power of the tides. You can walk on the ocean floor at low tide, and just observe it from above at high tide. We were here in 2005 - this time, there were too many people.



London Wul - a wool shop I totally fell in love with 5 years ago - also a disappointment. I think it's me this time 'though. She does have a lot of stuff, just nothing I wanted. I have different tastes in fiber now. I want more than most shops can offer. I want spinning wheels in the shop to try out, fiber to spin, handmade fiber tools... I don't know really... just more.

It seems like most fiber shops are all about the Knitters. And frankly, I'm tired of it. There's more to do with fiber then knitting. Yes, yes.... blasphemy, I know. Get over it.

mini vacation!

Went to see the new Cirque du Soliel show - Ovo - in Toronto recently.



The show was a matinee so I took the whole day off. Neil worked the morning - he tends to be more gung-ho that way. Gets paid more for his dedication. I packed and lounged around the house.

Ate bad food at a fast food place on the way out. Had time to check into our favourite hotel before the show. I love the Cosmopolitian. It's technically just outside of the business district in Toronto, but you could throw a stone at it. The views are fantastic from the windows (we could even see the big tops of the Cirque on the waterfront), and the place is so Zen-like.

Meandered over to the Cirque tents and settled in to be entertained for a few hours. Lots of kids in Halloween costumes in the audience. The little girl next to us was so fascinated by the show, we hardly heard a peep out of her.

The little girl inside me was so fascinated I hardly moved myself. :)

After the Cirque let out, we meandered up to Vertical Restaurant. I'm always interested in trying new high end restaurants when we come to Toronto. I'm looking for that perfect mix of a quiet atmosphere, unobtrusive but friendly service, and food so good that it challenges perceptions and delights the senses. Vertical comes so close..... but I am getting harder and harder to please as I gain more experience in high end food.

I'm looking for that stillness that comes down around me when it's just about the experience right there in front of me and everything else fades away. High expectations, I know, but I've been there.

Anyway - excellent service, reasonably quiet atmosphere, good mix of music in the background, and the food was excellent. Not transporting, but there it is. We opted to split the appetizer in order to indulge in the Italian mult-course experience. New food experience - grilled octopus! Then we both had the half size portions of the lobster tagliatelle, and he had the black cod and I had ummm.... darn, it escapes me... another fish. We both had the creme catalana for dessert.

Although the fish was perfectly cooked, and the veggies a nice mix that worked well together, I think the dish needed a little dribbling of some sort of sauce to pull it altogether.

It was a beautiful night as we walked back to the hotel some 2 hours later, much relaxed. He walked, I limped - haven't worn those heels in quite awhile and they were trying to break my feet in again.

The next day we went shopping! Efston Science and Capital Leather and Findings managed to eat a few of our dollars respectively. At some point, Neil turned to me and expressed the feeling that it feels like we've had a full weekend already and how delightful it was that we still had another day before having to go back to work again. I was feeling the same darn thing. :)

Drove home to mundane food and candy handing out duties, shamelessly eating all the good stuff and giving out the stuff we didn't want. Did not get as many kids as most years so we've had to clean up the leftover candy this week. It's been tough. :)

Weaving with the handspun is progressing, but it's difficult to get a good picture of it. I've broken 5 of an original 120 warp threads so far, just in these first 4 rows of weaving. I'm hoping it will settle out and find a stable point of weaving. I'm having no end of grief with opening one of the sheds.



Karen

Fleece, Garden

The reporting is getting a bit behind the reality. It was a few weeks ago now that I was at the Woodstock Fleece Festival, where I found this delightful fleece waiting to be taken home by someone. The vendors and displays inside weren't nearly as much fun as the creatures on the outside of the building. No pictures there. And although I didn't find a new spinning wheel, which I was hunting for, I did gather some new Shetland rovings, which I need like I need a hole in the head.



Came home that weekend to discover that somehow we'd managed to overlook this nest all summer long. Can't imagine how. We did notice an increase in wasps in the yard, but I guess neither of us ever looked up.

It's gone now. I had some guys from the local nursery do some yard work last week, and handed off the task to them amongst the other chores.



Leaves, of course, are everywhere. Neil got this new gadget that sucks and mulches them. It's been very handy.

But this one leaf paused on the way down to attach itself to the bird feeder.

Pretty.

Bird feeder by Darrell Markewitz at Wareham Forge. Advertising is intentional - he's our friend. And I really like the bird feeder!

Bogenschutzenfest, the pottery, handspun on the loom!

This is one of my favourite pieces from the clay firing. It started out as a bowl, and collapsed, and turned into a small vase.



We made our yearly usual appearance at Bogenschutzenfest. I love this event. I don't really know why.



Maybe it's the archery, maybe it's the silly factor. You see, there's this styrofoam bird on top of flag pole..... and the bar opens halfway through the day.



On a more serious note, I have finally decided to weave with my handspun.



There it is, in mid-warp. I'm holding my breath. It's scary.



Karen

Foggy day, and fiber

We had a foggy day a few days ago. It created some fantastic shots.

But first, getting something out of the way that I've been meaning to post for a few weeks now.

Nina (and any other fiber artists out there) - this is the wall hanging that I did for my hubby's office a few years ago. The warp is junk yarn, and the weft is unspun roving. It's the inspiration for what I want to do next - lots of thick thick yarn. But I'd like it in both warp and weft, and much better colours.

I want to get something up on the loom that is simple and quick - something just to get me started again. Any recommendations for the right kind of fiber? Think really really thick...



This is our front fence line - interesting the way the coloured lights stand out in the fog, even turned off.



The birds tried to hide in the lilacs, waiting for me to go inside so they could help themselves to the freshly re-filled bird feeders.



Freshly re-filled, since the squirrels seem to love getting at them and dumping it all on the ground! Could anyone recommend a good type of grease for the pole?

Do I have enough hats?

Left to right.....

Crotchet, crotchet, knit, knit, knit, naalbinded, and naalbinded.

Unknown wool, acid dyes in spinning class.
Cotton/aycrlic, commercial.
Cotton/aycrlic, commercial.
Variegated aycrlic, commercial.
Variegated aycrlic, commercial, and it now (after the pic was taken) has a pom-pom on it. What can I say? I'm a dork. :)
Icelandic lopi, dyed with madder and I forgot to loosen the skein knot in the dye pot so it's got these little undyed spots that make nice polka dots in the hat.
Icelandic lopi, dyed with.... something natural. I forget.

My husband prefers the second one, and I'm currently wearing the fifth one. I like the red one too, but I find the lopi a little itchy.

The brightly coloured one in the middle that I was working on last week turned out too small.

Karen

Garden, Birds, Fibre

Sometimes they look pretty even not fully open....



Sometimes they look pretty when the sun catches the stamen just right...



I'm afraid of bees. But I've learned, finally, that these ones don't care about me at all. As long as I don't get between them and their food..... I don't have to run away squeeking, I can stay and watch.



Even dead and dried, these alliums are interesting.



Golden Marguerite is another great dye plant. I need to start collecting the dead heads. Apparently you can freeze them without ruining the dyestuff.



Darrell, our friend the blacksmith, made this very pretty bird feeder for us. Darrell's work can be found at Wareham Forge - http://www.warehamforge.ca - or if you want to talk to him in person, he'll be selling his stuff at the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival on August 8 - 10th.

The feeder on the right is many times more popular, but these little creatures are very messy eaters and leave much of it on the ground. The squirrels are very happy campers.

By the by... if you happen to be a bird watcher, please let me know what kind of visitors I'm getting?



I'm pretty sure that this is a golden finch.....



But this fellow.... I have no idea. He's much larger, in the same size class as a blue jay (they are not hard to identify!) and prefers the sunflower seeds.



Just to round things out.... remember that lovely peachy colour from the second soaking of woad leaves? Here it is carded and fluffy....



And spun.

Dyeing, Flowers

Pretty delphinium - all gone now. Big rain last night killed many of the older flowers.



Foxglove - all gone now.



This pink ecineachea is blooming, and survived the rain.



This regular old purple variety is about to bloom. Ecineachea has interesting shapes, even pre-bloom.



Lily, also recently deceased. They are such fragile flowers, even at the best of times.



White cosmos. Very pretty. At moment, I think it's my favourite annual, in all of it's colours.



What I did with my most recent weekend - dyeing woolstuffs with natural dyes. I invited a few friends over - Nina and Vandy. We used madder roots, madder plant tops, ladies' bedstraw, alkanet root, and two different dyebaths from woad leaves - all from my own garden!

We were busy!

Darrell brought us this tripod to hang our dye pots on. That's the madder tops and alkanet roots in those two pots. Their colours turned out somewhat disappointing so I have no pictures of their end result. Both the alkanet and the madder tops gave us a distinctly boring beige.



The woad results were mixed. I've never used woad before but it has such an air of complex mystery that even this little tiny bit of blue was exciting, but it was such a tiny bit that it was a bit disappointing too. I think I just didn't have enough woad leaves, or abundantly healthy plants to clip from, to produce enough pigment for the really exciting results.



Although, it's interesting..... this secondary colour from the leaves turned out quite nicely. It's bang on the results one is supposed to get from a secondary dye bath from the woad leaves - a pretty peach.



And madder is always a show-stopper. There are so many different ways you can use madder to get different results. For that straight up WOW of watching wool turn a different colour - just harvest roots that are at least three years old, rinse them well, chop them up......



.....throw them in water and simmer and add your wool stuff and simmmer.....



.......and watch that magic! Bright orangey red!



Karen

Fibers Questions, answered with pictures

Nina asked me questions, just like I had hoped someone would. :)

What are your final thoughts about your spinning lessons? Did you enjoy them, learn lots or think they were only somewhat helpful?

I definitely enjoyed them and I learned lots! Donna, from Wellington Fibres is a great teacher.

Did they convert you to the dark side? bwahahahaha.......

Wheeling, as opposed to Spindling? *g*

Well..... yes. I'm converted.

I won't give up the drop spindle, I do enjoy it. And I do need to know how to use to demonstrate it at the demos that DARC does for the public, but the spinning wheel beats the drop spindle hands down in two very important ways.

Production value. And it doesn't hurt my shoulder.

What was the best thing your learned from the lessons and what was the thing that you think was the least useful?

I learned what all the modern lingo means. I learned the differences in the type of yarn that different techniques produce. And I can apply that knowledge to the Viking Era that I study.

I learned how the darned machine works. I've had it on loan from Anti-V for more than a year and hadn't made any progress in teaching myself just because I couldn't make the darned thing work. One or two little tension adjustments and understanding their connections - it was like a light breaking through the clouds!

The least useful? Two things, actually.

1. Chemical dyeing. Don't get me wrong - it was fun to play with colours, but I'm just never going to dye that way for myself. I enjoy natural dyeing far too much, and the chemical dyeing just isn't applicable to my historical interests.

2. 'Modern' fibers like angora and mohair. They just don't have a precedence in the Viking Era.

I would like to take further courses (maybe just one day workshops) in each of flax and silk spinning. Both have an application to the Viking Era.

Did you spin small samples or large enough to use for actual projects?

Small samples of most of the projects for the course, but large enough to do something with was learning to 3-ply. I used my own Icelandic top for that and spun a whole bag - approximately 3 skeins worth. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them. The general consensus so far is socks.



What project are you working on now?

I bought some mystery roving from Donna on the day of my last class. I'm currently working my way through that. It's a mixture of modern fibers and funky colours. You know, the stuff I said above that I wouldn't have much use for knowing how to spin. ;)

Old Year, New Year

Big snowstorm at the end of December! It's all gone now with a rainy warm spell this past week. Who knows what happens next?



The New Year brought a brief burst of new energy. I cleaned up my stash. This is just the downstairs part of it - either yarn I theoretically will be crocheting with shortly, or fiber to spin. I've been spinning a great deal lately, because I've been taking lessons in wheel spinning.

I know how to knit, but I prefer to crochet. :)



Never fear, dear drop spindle, I won't ignore you for too long. Although the wheel is kinder to my shoulder. Has anyone else had "spinner's shoulder" with the drop spindle?



Neil took a new job at the beginning of December. His old one was killing him. We decorated his new office over the holidays. He's flying off to California later this month for a few days on the company's dime. I'm. not. jealous. at. all.



Neil gave me this Tigger doll for Christmas - it bounces and talks when you press it's tail. The dog hates it, but I'm still getting a giggle out of it. :)

Karen

New stuff, by request

I've gotten poked by two friends. Vandy sent me email reminding me that I'd promised to put up some commments on Neil's recent bead explorations, and Nina left a comment kicking me to post up about my experience with spinning lessons.

So let's do this chronologically then and I'll throw in a visit to Peterborough as well.

First there was Neil's bead furnace experiment. He's finishing up his degree in archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University and one of his courses asked for students to actually _do_ something in an historical manner. Neil made a bead furnace and made beads.



Neil made the furnace by himself, but needed an extra set of hands for the bead making so I pitched in.



Very ugly beads, eh? :)

His paper is replicated on the Dark Ages Recreation Company webpage, here.

-------------

Later that same month we visited Peterborough to take in the Vikings exhibit at the Peterborough Centennial Museum. A friend of ours was the lead curator for this exhibit.




Our friend called upon DARC to donate some of our re-creations to supplement the exhibition, to make a simple panel presentation more 3 dimensional. That's Neil's shield in the picture.

But more importantly to me, is the loom that Dave made for his wife Anne, and then borrowed back for the exhibition.



I greatly admire Anne's disciplined approach to study and recreation in the Viking Era textiles. Look at the fabric she's getting here...




Now, she's all modest and doesn't think much of it, but I think it's great! I have trouble just getting started with the weaving.

-----------------------

The most recent development has been that I've started taking lessons from Wellington Fibres. Specifically, in how to spin on a spinning wheel. My friend Vandy loaned me her Ashford Traditional more then a year ago, and I've been trying to teach myself off and on. I finally came to the conclusion that it just wasn't working.

Ability with a drop spindle doesn't seem to translate that easily.

Now, I realize that I still need to make some progress in consistency but I was pleased as punch when I made my first plyed yarn on the wheel.



Three skeins later, I'm a little more annoyed by the slow progress and a tad worried about how badly overspun my singles are. It makes plying very difficult. Let's just say that plying from a center pull ball is an exercise in frustration that I'd prefer not to repeat very often.



This past saturday was Dye day! Look at the pretty colours we got!



Now, these are all acid dyes and I doubt I'll repeat the experience very often unless I can visit the shop another day to hand paint some more skeins. I just don't have the equipment or space at home to handle acid dyes safely or comfortably. But that's okay, I'm good with natural dyes over the fire, like the Vikings did.

Now, this skein I'm pretty happy with. Very thin as a single, I could almost use it as sewing thread. Plyed, I don't really know what to do with it, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.



It's very pretty - 75% wool, and 25% acid dyed green mohair. Vikings didn't know what mohair was, but I certainly enjoyed spinning it.

Of course, they hadn't yet been introduced to the spinning wheel either (even though some version of it had existed in China at the time), but I'm sure they would have enjoyed it's production value if they had had it. :)