Yesterday I worked on skinning all the milkweed I collected the other day. I only got through maybe a third of it in six hours and ended up with an entire pound of material.
Since it's blazing hot here at the moment during our first heat wave, I set up the rocket stove outside last night and boiled my first batch in lye and soap water. I was tending the fire for nearly three hours. The water never did get to boiling, just a very light simmer.
So tonight, I plan on lowering the pot closer to the heat. I ran out of wood last night so I gathered quite the pile of it this morning. It's so dry, it might just go up in a poof of smoke! I'm hoping it will be enough for a couple hours at least.
Milkweed Skins
I ended up watching three movies yesterday while I relaxed inside with blessed AC. Doesn't take much to cool my place down, thankfully.
Scrapping what doesn't come off with the skin
One Pound of skins
This is what one pound of Milkweed skins looks like. It's a lot. I won't try to boil it all at once next time. It just takes to much to boil that volume of water outside.
Drying in the Sun
This morning, after they soaked in vinigar water overnight to nuetralize any lingering Lye, I picked through the liberated plant fiber and set it outside in the sun to dry. After only ten minnutes it was mostly dry and had whitened up quite a bit! I had thought that maybe I tried to cook too much at once and that was the reason for the yellowing. NOPE!!
Milkweed Fiber
I acquired a selfie stick that was on half off, so maybe tonight I'll do a vlog while I tend the fire. I've never tried to do a live vlog. That might be fun!!
Night Visitor
And while I was out there, in the lingering light of the evening, I watched this wild friend climb up my beach towel that I had out drying (I had a mini flood in my kitchen, whoops)! I seem to have a surplus of toads and tree flogs in my little nook. Found a baby toad in my rocket stove, chilling in the still moist ashes from last nights adventure. I only saw him because he popped out as I was scrapping away the ashes for tonight adventure. I told the wee toad that the stove is not a safe place to linger as I would have never seen him if I hadn't decided to clean out the ashes!!! He would have been cooked!!!
Momma Toad
This is the Momma Toad that I accidently stepped on one evening. I was heartbroken! She's been around the porch all season and she was quite big. She was right in from of the door and didn't move when I stepped out. The poor gal. But, her babies will always have a safe haven to grow up in and I am thinking all these baby toads I am seeing around the porch are hers. I now check before exiting now so it never happens again. I love my Toads.
Adventure...AWAITS!
Until next time...
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(Being edited...)
I never heard of a wool tumbler until I saw a video recently on youtube and thought...WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Wonder how much that would cost?
TOO. MUCH.
And so I went to work putting one together that would cost a fraction of a commercial one AND be treadle powered.
Since putting this together I have continued to improve it. I've ordered 5/16 enclosed ball bearings to add to the posts, and to the wheel I am adding. More photos of that when it is done. If I can find a used motor, I can upgrade it even further! Need to visit Baraboo for that one.
Original Supplies used:
2 - 2x2" posts
2 - 4ft, 1/4" x 2, oak moldings, cut into 2 ft lengths (Used two short leftover pieces from a previous project to add braces to the cross)
2 - 6" 5/16 hex bolts
8 - 5/16 nuts
16 - 3/16 lock washers
4 - 1 1/2" wide, 5/16 ID washers
Approx 5ft of plastic fencing material, 3/4" or 1" mesh
4 - 1/4 Universal Hex Nipple (air tool supply)
Twine
Pipe cleaners
Size 10 D Sinker nails (2 7/8" long)
2 - 1" x 4 ft pine boards (stabilizers)
1 2x4 cut into 2ft sections
4 - 3/4 x 36" Square dowels
1 - 3/8" x 36" round dowel
8 - 3", small diameter, Hitch Pins (wish the receipt said which size they were, I can't remember)
Bailing Twine or other strong string
(3 - 5/16 Sealed Ball Bearings)
(1 - 10" wheel)
Tools:
Power drill
Scroll saw
1/4 bit
3/8 hole drilling bit
Hand planning tool
Gater bit
Clamps
Video
Oak Moldings
(Click to magnify)
Take the 2ft oak moldings, find the center, drill 5/16 hole for bolt. Drill 3/4" holes on both ends of all four, for the dowels to sit in.
Cut out a piece of the plastic mesh to fit on the ends of the cross-arms, extending just a bit. Secure with pipe cleaners.
I marked the center of mine so I could easily line it up again after being disassembled.
Place a 6" 5/16 bolt through the mesh and center of moldings, adjust the arms so they are about equal distance from one another, in a cross. Add one wide washer, one lock washer, one nut and tighten.
Set Aside
Hitch Pin
Take your 3/4 square dowels and shave down the ends with planer until they are tapered enough to fit through the holes in the oak molding and extends about an inch outside the molding. Then take a 3/32 drill bit and drill a hole through the side of the newly rounded ends. This is for the hitch pins.
Take two of the dowels and drill holes just big enough for your nails, 3" apart along the entire length. Glue in place with Gorilla or wood glue.
Posts
About 2" down from the top of the 2x2" posts, find the center and drill a hole big enough for the Hex nipples, one on each side, and add them to the post.
With the scroll saw, cut out a place for the posts to be inserted into the 2x4 feet, in the middle. Insert into feet and secure with bolts or glue if needed.
Insert dowels into the ends of the moldings, secure in place with hitch pins. It will be very flexible and wobbly at this point. Insert the ends of the bolted cross-arms into the posts. Secure with one wide washer, one nut, one lock washer, another nut and tighten. Don't over-tighten as it will need to be able to rotate freely. (this may change once the ball bearings arrive)
Repeat for the other side.
Add crisscross stabilizer bars on to posts underneath the barrel, one to each side.
Take plastic meshing, secure to one of the dowels and rotate to measure out meshing. Allow a 3-4" overlap. Secure opening with 3/8 dowel by weaving it into the mesh once at each end. Secure meshing to the dowels with pipe cleaners.
Sew the ends of the mesh to barrel using a whip stitch and string/yarn of choice. I used hemp, it's what I had on hand.
Make sure the dowels with the nail "tines" are angled slightly inward. Be sure to turn the barrel so the wool is impaled by them, left or right depending on which way you decide to angle them. They are easily readjusted.
This is the wheel I cut from the old bookcase I got rid of. It's about an inch wide and I am slowly carving out a channel for the drive belt, which just happens to be an old bow string from my stick-bow. It's perfect! It's got grip and strength.
The width of the wheel on the shaft of the tumbler is about 4 1/4" It's a wheel I made some time ago for a DIY, cigar box, Book Charkha.
Upon further research and meditating on how to smooth out and improve the overall function of the tumbler and treadle, I bought some ball bearings off Amazon. They haven't arrived yet but I will update when I have them installed.
I recently got a new bookcase to replace a wobbly one, and I reused the old one to cut a couple 10 inch wheels from. I am in the process of turning one into the main treadle wheel. Since it's particle wood, it's been fairly easy to carve out a grove for the drive-band, which just happens to be an old drawstring to my stick-bow. Yes, I have a stickbow, and a recurve. I've also made my own arrows to shoot at the local SCA. Unfortunately I am no longer strong enough to draw either one. LOL! Working on it!
Until next time...
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I was outside plying the singles for this wonderful natural color Border Leicester lace yarn for the Secret of the Stole KAL Sunday. The KAL starts Friday with the first clue being released. It took me a full two weeks to spin a bobbin almost full with singles and I only got 550 yards when plied together...that is HALF of what I need! EEP! *faint* I am not spinning this again until I need it. WHEW! I have other projects to spin for along with some roving for a friend.
I am finally getting around to carding up some more alpaca/merino yarn for the Kimono wrap while at the same time dyeing more targhee for the Mystery shawl as I have run out of several colors.
The yarn shop gave me another shawl to knit. My feelings are mixed about it, but I have to knit something for the shop if I am gonna work there I suppose. I also want to make some thrummed slippers for Mum out of some blue, turquoise, and black Karaoke yarn with merino thrums. I haven't decided what color yet to use. Maybe green for contrast. Those shouldn't take me too long. Then I can send them along with her Bday socks and card this weekend.
The Pipers in the Prairie is this Saturday evening. I hope I have enough to pay the couple charge of $125. I've missed it so many times and I really have this urge to start doing things instead of putting it off till "maybe next time" which I have had to do so often in the past couple of years. I wonder if this is forewarning of a major illness?? Fingers crossed knock on wood nothing drastic happens. I will be turning 30 next year....and I know Saturn is far from done with me. This is just a little hiatus from the chaos for now, I believe. Nice that Saturn gives me brake in-between crisises aye? Is that a word, crisises?
Until next time...
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Well I went on a hunt for beads that would fit my yarn and large enough to get a crochet hook (#12) through. I found some at Fat Cat Beads on the east side...for about the same price as online. I bought some "Japanese" square and triangle beads. I like the triangle ones better as they are not as long as the square ones and sit on the stitches better. I am not so sure about that bead shop. The lady was a little wierd who checked me out. Maybe she was just tired as they closed soon after I checked out.
Then, today, we went out to the west side to visit the Bead Bin and Wisconsin Craft Market to see what selections they had. Well crap-a-roonie the Bead Bin was closed because they were moving...down the hallway of the West Gate Mall. Grrrr. What a waste of my flippin time and gas money! I found some copper size "E" beads at the craft market, however most of those beads will not fit onto the crochet hook. So although they look nice in contrast to the yarn, they are a pain to sort.
So I guess I should be thankful that I was able to find beads that I like on the east side instead of the west. Now I am ready for the SotS to begin in another 2 weeks. In the mean time I am working on the Mystery Stole (pictures soon) and I am kept busy by the constant need to spin more yarn for all my projects!
Until next time...
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I found the perfect set of rub-ons today at Micheals. They match my vision for the louet perfectly!
I've been busy all week. I am right down tuckered out! I did find some beads locally that I will try with the yarn for the Mystery Stole KAL. Damn! It's hard to find size 6 seed beads now. I went to two bead stores and neither one had a very large selection of that size...and one stores selection was right down laughable! So I settled on some square and triangle "japanese" beads that look like have large enough holes to poke a fine crochet hook through. Hopefully.
I guess I will gander to the west side tommorrow and check out a few more bead shops.
Until next time...
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Tell me honestly, is this clashing? Are there too many colors? It's trippin me out man!! HA! I had a bit of hard time getting the hang of the charting, but now I understand it after knitting, unknitting, and searching the archives of the Mystery Shawl group for an answer that made sense.
I hope, as it gets bigger, the colors will tend to seperate more and make batches of color instead of stripes. This yarn came out worsted, navajo plied to keep the colors together. A bit heavy for this Mystery Shawl project, so I am using size 8 needles which will render a much larger shawl...perfect for me!
We went to the farmers market Sunday and I bought lots of goodies! Well not a whole lot, but more than I expected to come home with!! With $10 I bought: one large certified organicly grown butternut for $1.50 (much more than I could have gotten in the stores), medium pie pumpkin for $2 (also certified Organic from the same vender), one dozen farm fresh and humane eggs for $2.50 (A whole buck less than in the stores!!!), and a bag of Elm Oyster Shrooms for $2 (about 2 ounces worth). OMG the eggs, with the shrooms are TO DIE FOR GOOD!! OMG...mouth-gasims! Next Sunday, when I visit for more of these items, I will take some pictures and take you on a tour of our local Farmers Market. I have been having cravings for these fall foods. I love fall!!
Until next time...
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Something at the yarn shop totally triggered my allergies today. I think it is a combination of the cold, fall mold starting to bloom because of all the rain we had, and dust...and lots of it.
Ugh...*sniffle*
Next Saturday I am so taking some Claritin.
Today marks the first day of the Mystery Shawl KAL and although the first clue and test swatch was posted earlier today, yahoo was not loading. I was finally able to access the group to get the file printed out. I really think the test swatch should have been released ahead of time.
Here is a pile of roving I've pulled from various dyed batts of blended targhee. My foot is there for a comparison of the pile...my poor skeeter bite riddled foot. One of the downfalls to wearing sandals to work...the skeeters can get at your tender foot flesh and even on my instep! *faint* They itch so much I scratch till I bleed, but then they stop itching.
Anyhoo's, I blended the wool with some glitz to get that sparkle that reminds me of the frost or dew in the morning hours that the new day's rays illuminate. I'll be spinning this up tonight and hopefully workin on the first clue by tomorrow's new rays!
Until next time...
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I mailed out the Scarf for the Orphan foundation yesterday. I got some yarn striped dyed for the Mystery Shawl #5, however, I HATE the way the "Deep Orange" came out. The recipe for this shawl is fall colors. It looks like hunter orange to me, and makes the yarn look like a failed 1970's color experiment. YUCK! I tried dyeing some fiber but it still came out that nasty hunter orange. Deep orange my ass ain't big!! Solution, half an 1/8 teaspoon of black or brown dye. That tones it down just right. No pictures of that just yet.
Then natural colored yarn is lace weight Border Leicester for the Secret of the Stole that I got from a local farmer at the Sheep and Wool Festival, from a lamb named Lenny. See the dime? I only partly washed the grease from the wool so that there would be some grease to work the lace with. The singles are about the size of upholstery thread....yikes!
Until next time...
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You know if the gave us workers like a week off, THAT would be appreciation worthy of mentioning!! But one day...out of a 365 (minus holidays...for some of us)...is called appreciation? HUMPH! *throws nose up in air, turns a 180, walks away...stumbles over a log that could not be seen because nose was SO far up in the air...does a half roll on ground in half-ass attempt to make the fall look like it was done on purpose...only to accomplish getting severely muddied after the fresh rain we just got.*
OOOOOOOOOOOOOkay then! Comic relief?
Row 98 of 147, 17 inches of 21.
WHEW!
I am gonna need to spin up some more yarn. I am half way through my second skein already! Check out the variegation! I love making my own yarns!!
Until next time...
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I finally started on the cardigan kimono wrap last night, and after an hour of trying to get the FIRST ROW knit correctly (first row is always the hardest for me) I got about two inches done. Some of the terms in the pattern are not the "conventional" terms for stitches (SKP instead of SSK...but the same thing) and I am dealing with decreasing on my own instead of having directions for each row. You can see I have the pattern written down on the pad of paper in the background. I've noted which row of the cables and lace repeat goes on each right side row of the back peice and also noting which rows to decrease. It says to decrease 2 stitches in established pattern repeats every alternating 4th and 3rd row, 3 times, and on every 4th row once. WHEW!! It took a couple of minutes to wrap my head around that, especially at around 11PM last night! HA!
And one more picture of yarn p0rn before it gets transformed into my first garment. :) I am sure I will need more than that but I have enough now that I can take a brake from spinning and dyeing like a mad woman. Tee-hee-hee! The yarn is OOBER soft when knit up. I am so excited about this thing. My guage is a little off too. I tried the suggested size 8 and I had 3.5 stitches an inch. The guage calls for 5 an inch. So I went down to a size 7 and now I have 4 an inch. I don't want to go down any more sizes of needle because this is creating a tight fabric with such heavy yarn. This is okay though! It will be just a tad bigger and will fit me better since my bust measurement is 42, and it is only patterned out to a size 40. I am sure I will continue to shrink, and this will always fit me-even if oober loose...but my favorite pieces of clothing are oober loose. :)
Until next time...
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I am dyeing and spinning like a mad woman in order to be able to cast on the Kimono Wrap for the first day of the KAL . At first I thought my first skein of spun yarn was more DK than worsted, but upon washing, dyeing, and finally drying it, it has fluffed up a bit! So I will knit a swatch out of it to see if it will work....or not. I decided to stripe dye the yarn in purple and royal blue with sections tied off to get specks of white. I cannot wait to see what a swatch will look like!
And my craft area is always cluttered...but who said being a craft bug would be neat and orderly?! HAaaaaaaaaa!! I have found that swiffer dusters make cleanup under the carder when I am done go a lot quicker. It doesn't grab all the crap that comes off the fleece onto the table, but it's like a whisk-broom.
You can see my production line in the pic with the drum carder. Merino to the left, Alpaca to the right...all ready to be blended together.
An interesting thing happened in the dye pot with this blend of yarn. Alpaca is notorious for needing twice as much dye to get a complete dyeing than it would wool. The dye striked the Merino in the yarn first leaving the alpaca only slightly dyed with color. It's a neato and unexpected effect! I love dyeing!!!
My LYS, the one I work at now, is gonna carry MERINO ROVING!!! How lucky am I?!! I can order just about any kind of top through the LYS now and...get my premo-employee discount to boot! I did take next weekend off so I could go to the wool festival. Yippie!! Speaking of wool festival, I get a "Get in free" pass from the local spinners guild since I am planning to come and help with the sheep to shawl demonstration. Sweeeeeeeeet!!! I tell you what...the right attitude in life makes one a very lucky person!! The BF has been calling me "Pretty-thang" after a clip on one of his favorite cartoons "Samurai Jack". He is just the cutest thang when he says that! I miss hearing things like that from him. The experiment is working!!!!!!!
The Fiber Frenzy pal got my package and she was all giddy over it all! I sent a lot of fiber and bought a few well priced extras to send along. I am so happy that she is happy with the swap! I still need to find maple candy to send along as a thank you to the lady that sent me fiber goodies. I just don't have the money at the moment. I don't even have the money to send out the red scarf to the Orphan Foundation!! Oye. I should have some to use for postage Tuesday, but most of that is gonna get put back for the fiber festival. I really ought to start a savings fund JUST for this fiber festival. I really enjoyed it last year even though it was unseasonably cold and rainy. This year, I plan on bringing some pants, my shawl, and a jacket...just in case! Because you know if I come prepared it will be unseasonably warm!! At least, that is what I hope will happen!!!
OH! And I finally got my needle tips from Knitpicks. I dunno why, but it takes seven days to get tips from them, and only three to four when I order yarn...on the rare occasion that I do buy yarn. Weird aye? Now I can transfer my two socks on the one circular to a larger cabled circular.
Until next time...
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Okay, I have to stay home tonight from karate. I am still weak in the knees with this cold and I am sure no one would appriciate me hacking through pratice. I am waiting for the Fliber Fling swap assignments to go out...hopefully I will not get a rip-off, crazy-person in this one. Sign ups closed Friday, and they said it would take a few days to get them out. So I wait.
I have two sponsors for my blogathon! YAY! One being the LYS down the street! I made some flyers that I am gonna hand out to the local businesses around here and see if I can rummage up some more support. I don't think I will get around to it today because I feel so tired. I'll do it Tuesday.
I got all those singles plied up navajo style, and I set all the yarn (46 yards worth) in the sink with hot water and plenty of soap. I plan to partially full the yarn to even it out and soften it up a bit. I really hate navajo plying. I always get coils where the yarn is pulled through the loop. I hate that!
Until next time...
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I am still dealing with this head cold. I seem to be sapped of most of my energy today but my sinuses are draining so this should pass in another couple of days. I stay up mos to the night filling up the bobbin of my louet with this HUGE ball of singles. The fifty-cent peice in the middle is a good reference to size. I wasn't tired at all last night until I took some night-time meds at around 1AM and it's not like I am gonna sleep well with this head cold.
It has taken me over a week to fill it to overflowing with this fibery goodness. It has all been blended with some sparkly glitz on the drum carder. Now it will take me a couple of days a least to navajo ply this up into some scrumptious yarn p0rn.
I told Karen at Off the Beaten Path that I would come in today to knit because she asked if I was gonna. But I had no idea I would end up with this nasty cold due to my incident with the inhaler. *blah* So I guess I will go over and drink some coffee and start on a new pair of socks. I got that incling to start sock knitting. I only have two pairs of wool socks and they kept my feet nice and warm last winter even though I wore them more than once or twice. So now I am on a mission to get three more pairs done *at least* so that I will have enough to wear one pair per day instead of one pair per several days. EW!! They could have stood on thier own after a week....yuck. Not good for ones footsies.
Until next time...
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Lots of photos! We found a frog, A FROG, in our water oasis for the birds and other critters. Can you spot the frog? There are literally frogs coming out from the woods! We spotted another one, smaller one, yesterday coming out from the woods. Weird. I didn't think these frogs were terrestrial. There is also a picture of the polyphemus cocoon I found which I boiled to unstick the silk from itself. Pretty and shiney stuff!! There is a closeup of that loverly pink cotton and purple wool batt, and the resulting yarn. BTW, I am starting an etsy shop, this is listed for limited time for $5 at C4G2.etsy.com . I will probably have more on there in the coming weeks.
The little miracle is that a Monarch laid an egg, right in front of me, on the milkweed skins I was stripping for the fiber. I do it outside because the sap tends to stick to everything. The Monarch comes out of nowhere and flutters all around us (the BF was being curious about what I was doing so he saw it too), acted like it was gonna land on the stripped skins, then fluttered about some more. When she finally landed, she laid a single egg on a stripped skin hanging out off the edge of the container I had them in. Then she fluttered around and around acting like she was gonna land and do it again but never did. That single egg, the one I call Little Miracle, hatched Saterday and I am now raising one more Monarch. I though the Monarch breeding season was over. I guess not! I feel it was a special gift from the Monarch...and I wonder if she is one of the five I released several weeks ago? I'll never know for sure, but I can dream!
Until next time...
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So a little bit of this and a little bit of that has given me some really cool yarn! I blended wool with carded cotton, or as carded as I could get it, and it makes a very cool yarn! The cotton does not like the carder, but that is fine. The cotton adds soft little nubs of contrasting color that I love! I think this would make a very interesting tarot bag. Speaking of bags, I've got a great idea for a votive candle holder...coming as soon as I can tear myself away from drum carder!
Until next time...
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