Long Time!

It's been a long time since my last post.  I feel as if things have been busy lately, which they have, but I also feel that I've been spending a bit more time on some craft projects, so that has been a focus and and blogging sort of took a break.  I'll try to do a little round-up today of the view from here.

First of all, we're in the grip of a really early winter.  Usually we have a couple of minor snowfalls in December but the real snow and bitter cold starts in January.  This year, things are all mixed up.  We have already had 2 significant snowfalls and have over a foot of snow on the ground.  It has been absurdly cold for this time of year - well below normal.  Temperature records have been set, as well as snowfall.  Many people in our area lost power in the two storms but we were lucky and retained power here.  Here's how the garden looks now.  It makes me pretty miserable.

Our menagerie of critters is well.  The chickens do not like the snow and typically stay inside the coop except to go out to the heated waterer.  They also like to eat snow.  Silly birds!  Not many eggs at this time of year, and I don't provide supplemental lighting to boost egg production because I think the hens deserve a break.  Here's a picture of some of them pecking at the snow. 

This year is expected to be an irruption year for finches on the east coast, and so far, that's proving to be true.  If you're not a bird person, you may not know what an irruption year is.  No, it's not a misspelling of eruption (those are for volcanoes).  An irruption is a significant migration of large numbers of birds outside their typical range.  Typically this happens as a result of food scarcity in the normal range.  Finches are particularly subject to irruptions when certain seeds are less available.  This year, seeds from conifer trees and birches are poor, so finches are poised for irruption moves.  If you're interested, here's some information on expected 2018/19 winter irruptions:  http://jeaniron.ca/2018/wff18.htm

I'm very excited to have a regular flock of evening grosbeaks visiting my feeders, which is certainly not normal for this area.  I'm hoping to see some siskins and redpolls if I'm lucky!  Here's a male evening grosbeak.

I have noticed very heavy feeding on all my feeders (currently 6 active feeders) for birds in the past couple of weeks.  We have a lot of black-capped chickadees (more than usual), red-breasted nuthatches, goldfinches, blue jays, dark-eyed juncos and both hairy and downy woodpeckers.  Keep your feeders stocked - it's a tough winter for many bird species.  Here's the flock of grosbeaks at my tray feeder.

I've been busy with yarn-related projects too.  I'm quite pleased with how this plain-weave wrap turned out.  I used a lot of different warp yarns with a rayon weft. 

It's so important to focus on colour when everything outside is bleak, cold and white or grey.

I also finished the first block of a crochet project I'm working on called the Stained Glass Lantern Afghan from Lilla Bjorn.  I'm quite pleased with how that's turned out as well.

So, that's a little bit of an update.  I'll see if I can write a few more posts in the coming weeks to try to get caught up with all the things I've thought about writing.

Friday's Hunt v 4.13

I am actually doing Friday's Hunt on a Friday again!  This is not because I'm not busy - I am crazy busy, but I am taking a brief break.  The prompts this week from Eden Hills are:  Starts with M, Cloth and Everyday Things.

Starts with M
One of our cats is Mitten.  He is a long-haired cat whom Marc adopted from the SPCA before I met him.  His name used to be Mitch, but I didn't think that suited him, and he became Mitten.  Marc always just calls him Kitty in any case!

Mitten is de-clawed.  I know that makes a lot of people upset, but considering the costs Marc incurred for the damage Mitten did prior to the de-clawing, I can understand why he did it.  A lot of curtains and furniture were damaged beyond repair, not to mention wood trim in the house needing to be repaired or entirely replaced.  A scratching post was of no use in stopping the behaviour.  I have to say, having an indoor cat who is de-clawed is very beneficial to the furniture!  I did try using the soft claw caps on Izzy for a while, but they would come off within a few days no matter how many times I glued them back on.  She would just work at them and chew them off.  It was pointless, and she caused a lot of damage, but nothing like Mitten did when Marc first owned him.  Mitten really is a beautiful cat and I am quite fond of him.

Cloth
I do some weaving, as some of you know already.  Weaving on a loom is a way of making cloth.  I recently did a piece of weaving that was testing the results of different weft yarns (side to side yarns) on the same warp yarn (back to front yarn).  The pale green is the warp.  The three sections of weaving are each done with a different weft.

This section was done with a chenille blend yarn.  It makes a lovely cloth that is very soft.

This section was done with a brightly coloured variegated yarn with some gold sparkle to it.  The pale green weft is more visible in this cloth.

This section was done with a novelty yarn that has a lot of texture.  It creates a completely different cloth from the other two samples.  You really don't see the warp in this one.

It is amazing how the same warp yarn can be used to create such different types of cloth.


Everyday Things
Before I talk about everyday things, I'm going to have a little rant about the word everyday.  As a person who writes for a living, and a person who loves language, I am very frustrated by the misuse of the word "everyday" as a substitute for the words "every day."
 
Everyday:  an adjective to describe things that are commonplace, mundane or ordinary
Examples: A hurricane is not an everyday occurrence.  Doing the laundry is an everyday activity.

Every day:  an adverbial phrase meaning each day
Examples:  I eat at least 5 vegetables every day. I am glad I do not have to do the laundry every day.

So, in one sentence:
Doing the laundry is an everyday activity, but I don't do laundry every day.

An easy way to tell whether you are using "everyday" properly is to try replacing "everyday" with "ordinary" and see if the sentence still makes sense.

Doing the laundry is an ordinary activity.  Makes sense.  Thus, use everyday.
I don't do laundry ordinary.  Makes no sense.  Thus, use every day.

There is a lovely wool and fibre shop not far from me that has a motto "Create beauty everyday."  I cringe every time I see that motto, which is included on her business cards and on a beautiful hooked rug on her website.  I know what she means...but it's an incorrect use of everyday.  She means "Create beauty every day."  The phrase "Create beauty ordinary" makes no sense.  I wish I could fix it!

Anyway, on to "everyday things" which as we all know means "ordinary things" and not things that we do every day...

Autumn is upon us, so leaves turning shades of red and yellow have become everyday things.  I love autumn colours, but I am not looking forward to winter.  Here are some everyday autumn sights from my yard.

Virginia creeper on the arbour.

Maple leaves turning colour

I love the not-so-everyday heart in this everyday leaf!

And here, just for fun, is some everyday laundry, which I don't do every day!

 

Spinning Retreat Project Pantheon

I have been trying to catch up on blog topics and this is one that I missed, so I am covering it today!  I went to the Maritime Spinners' Retreat in October and enjoyed a wonderful weekend of spinning and friendship with spinners from Canada and the US.  One of the options when signing up for the retreat was buying 4 oz of a specially dyed retreat fibre that we would all work with to create a project.  We were required to spin the fibre (using whatever method we liked) and could combine it with up to 4 oz of another fibre (whether in the spinning process or the project-making process).  Everybody was supposed to make a final project with their spun fibre.  60 lots of fibre were sent out and 39 projects were submitted, including mine.

It was absolutely amazing to see the breadth of project ideas and spinning styles across the 39 participants.  I think the fibre enthusiasts who read my blog will enjoy viewing some of the different projects that were presented.  I don't have a picture of the fibre we all started with, but the felted scarf below was made form the fibre and was one of the prizes, along with the book.  From looking at the scarf, you can see the colours of the original fibre we all had to work with.  The locks on the fringe of the scarf were not part of the original fibre, nor the white spots on the scarf.

This picture shows some of the range of projects.  My woven coil-spun scarf is in the lower right of the picture.  The hat is a colourwork project that added white yarn as part of the additional fibre.

This is a cleverly constructed hat that made a wonderful use of the colours in the fibre and great use of i-cord as well.

The basket-work pillow cover is beautiful, as is the woven scarf next to it.

There were many weaving projects - more than might be expected.  This beautiful scarf was one of the winning projects.

Most of us did a little "write-up" about our project to accompany it.

 I absolutely adored this scarf - it was one of my favourite projects.

Two more beautiful woven scarves showing the amazing diversity of projects despite the same starting material.

This project is the one I voted for.  We all had to vote for our favourite.  I love houndstooth weaving, and this project really stood out to me in the way it showcased the fibre colours in a simple, but very effective way.

There were some whimsical projects.

This purse was another winner!  Such creative thinking!

There were some beautiful shawls.  This one won a prize, and deservedly so!

A beautiful woven shawl next to a lovely knitted stole.

A knitted shawl with a beaded edge.

More beautiful shawl knitting!

This shawl was from someone new to spinning!  Wow!

There were hats and mittens as well!

The entries were rounded out by an assortment of scarves and cowls.

This one has an interesting shape.

One of the few crocheted entries.

This cowl was made by someone who carefully separated the colours and made a cowl with a graduated colour scheme.

This gorgeous cowl was made by a friend of mine who took the bold step of combining her fibre with a rainbow fibre to create a luxurious woolen-spun yarn.

This entry combines the fibre with sparkle, and then into a project with a sparkly purple fibre.  Wow!

Beautifully coordinated sets featuring lovely buttons!

It was really wonderful to look at each project, the spinning styles, the project ideas, the fibres that were used in combination with our provided fibre, and the tremendous show of diversity and skill from all the participants.

Friday's Hunt v 2.17

Almost didn't make it under the time limit this week.  Again, it's been a busy week and I was away this past weekend at a yarn spinning retreat.  I just got home, and here's my Friday's Hunt post, to keep myself going on the meme hosted by Eden Hills!  The three prompts for this week are "Starts with Q," "Week's Favourite" and "Fall or Spring."

Starts with Q
As I mentioned, I was at the Maritime Spinners' Retreat this weekend, and I had a great time connecting with fellow spinners and knitters.  We were able to participate in a fibre challenge by spinning 4 oz of merino fibre any way we wanted, and then creating a project with the yarn we had spun.  I needed to make something QUICK because I received my fibre quite late, and then had very little time to get it finished.  Spinning coiled yarn is fairly quick, but it also makes a short amount of yardage due to the structure of the yarn.  Short yardage meant a smaller project, and thus a quicker project!  I decided to use my rigid heddle loom to weave the coiled yarn into a short runner or even a neck scarf, just to emphasize the nature of the coiled yarn.  So, this was my quick project.  I'm hoping to do a blog post soon showing all the other projects made with the same fibre.

I like the way it turned out - it makes me think of ocean waves or ripples in a pond.  I might use the woven fabric to make something else eventually, when I have more time.

Week's Favourite
While in PEI for the retreat, I visited McAusland's Woollen Mill, where they make yarn as well as a lovely blankets.  The mill was built in 1868.  It was originally a lumber mill and then became a wool mill.  One of my favourite pictures is this shot showing bobbins of maroon coloured 3-ply yarn which are waiting to be skeined.  I love the contrast of the maroon and the steel and the wood of the empty bobbin.

Here's a bonus shot of the skeining machine where those bobbins are headed next!

Fall
Since I'm in the northern hemisphere, it's definitely fall for me!  Here's a picture of a young maple on our slope in the front of the house.  I do love the fall colours!  I had hoped to take some nice fall pictures at the retreat but it rained buckets all weekend - not very conducive to pictures outside.