Ordinary Time

How about something other than sewing?  Yesterday was a fiber workshop day and the participants and I did a little natural dyeing. I still had a bunch of goldenrod in the yard, so that is what we used. Here's how it turned out.  This is some Club Forest fleece that the same group and I washed a while back. It came out a really interesting yellowy-green color. There still seemed to be quite a bit of color in the pot, so I have another batch cooling. Since it is an exhaust batch, I anticipate it being a little lighter. It could make a nice gradient all spun up.  I also finished threading the loom and am on the last step before beginning to weave. I'm very excited to see what this looks like woven. And those socks I mentioned I was going to knit? Well, they're not socks anymore. When I bought the yarn, I guess I didn't look at the label carefully because it's a super wash wool. I don't know what I was thinking because I don't really care for super wash wool. Th

While I was busy with clients and teaching a fiber class all afternoon, J. was busy with the chainsaw.  Before we brought the sheep home I knew that wild cherry leaves were toxic to them. We have a few wild cherries, but they were a distance from the sheep pen, so I was just going to keep an on things. Yesterday when B. and HC were over and looking at the sheep, I realized that we did indeed have a wild cherry growing right next door to the sheep pen, through the center of a mulberry. I knew we had the goody entwined volunteer trees, but I had never really paid attention to what the second, taller tree was.  It made me very nervous for the health of the sheep, so J. agreed to take it out this afternoon. He wasn't terribly excited by the project, but is a good guy and wanted to keep the sheep safe and my anxiety about them low. It was very helpful that a husband came along to the fiber session and much preferred to lend a hand to the tree removal project. They were successful, but I

It was a good but full day and I am tapped out. This means you get the thing that the Internet is best at... cat pictures. This is Basil, one of A's cats. He is a very large cat and often reminds me of a panther.  That is all I've got tonight. 

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these. We had an absolutely gorgeous sunset tonight. You'll be happy to hear that J. figured out how to reinforce the wire around the sheep pen so that they can't escape... at least in the way they did on Wednesday.  We currently have four inside cats (two being A.'s who are bunking here for a bit), and the litter box smell was becoming increasingly challenging for a variety of reasons. We switched to pine pellets and it is a glorious thing. The cats will all use it. There is no smell except for the occasional pine wood scent and no litter strewn about. And, it's cheap at a fraction of the cost from box litter. I'm threading my loom and am very excited about weaving again.  The sewing machine hasn't been turned on since a week ago. We are around page 225 of A Suitable Boy. People are enjoying it, but like all super long books, it takes several hundred pages to get to the actual meat of the story. This is ano

L. has decided to work through the physics textbook that's been kicking around the house for a while. Now, I never took physics, nor had I any interest in ever taking physics. I still don't have an interest in learning physics which is what I would have to do in order to help L. if she decided she needed help. We agreed that I could help with basic types of math questions, but I was in general not going to be of much use and L. would have to understand she was on her own. I'm thinking this was perceived as a benefit of studying physics. All I have to say is thank goodness for the Internet.  But this isn't really what this post is about, but merely an introduction as to why L. had a physics textbook to be laughing at. Yes, laughing... with enjoyment. This seemed unusual based on I did know about physics. When L. showed me the paragraph in question, I agreed that it was indeed pretty amusing. Here it is: "The conversions required by the following examples do not have

I went out this afternoon to get ready for a client when I realized the grazing Everett wasn't actually in the round pen but outside of it. This was not good since 1. Everett is still the most suspicious of people and doesn't like them to get too close and 2. There was a way for the sheep to escape the pen. After about twenty minutes of trying to get Everett back in, Fred decided that he thought whatever Everett was doing looked like fun and I watched him shove his way under the wire that runs around the base of the pen. This solved the  mystery, but it also meant that we had two sheep loose. G. went in the pen and wrangled Clark into the trailer and shut the door so we didn't have three sheep loose. Clark was not happy. My clients arrived which meant we had extra hands, and eventually, after another half hour or so, they ran into the barn and into a stall. Being a bit confused about this new place they paused for a moment. A moment was all I needed to run around and shut t

I thought I would pop in and revisit our current plan of having the four teens in our house take over fixing dinner one night a week. To recap our plan, each child has an assigned night to cook. They choose what they want to make when I'm doing the weekly grocery list, then I buy the ingredients. After that, they're in charge, asking if they need help or clarification. I will weigh in on their choice during the planning stage. For instance, if we already have one meal for the week with a ground beef base, I will steer the recipe planning to something with different ingredients.  I am happy to report that everything is going swimmingly. There has been no issue with a child deciding not to cook. On the contrary, everyone has been very responsible and checking to know what time they should start preparations. I'm also happy to report that everyone's cooking skills are pretty darn good and all the meals have been tasty.  It's also been interesting to see what they choos

It was kind of a busy afternoon, so I didn't get a chance to really work on a project, but I did a few things. I climbed a little hand dyed (it's light blue, but you can't tell) Shetland wool. (And just remember, you don't come here for the photography.) I finished the searches for my Polworth breed study sample and got it put in my binder. And decided on a new knitting project... using some yarn I bought a couple of years ago to knit a pair of socks.  What I'm really looking forward to is getting my hand painted warp on my loom and finally getting that woven. And because I like to have a vague sense of what I'm doing in each of my areas of interest, for spinning, I think I'm going to buckle down and finally get the rest of my breed samples spun. I'm kind of tired of having that hanging around. I've mentioned weaving and knitting, which leaves sewing when I'm ready to look at my machine again. When I made the muslin for the jacket, I only basted

To borrow a friend's phrase, I was a bit verklempt all night. The venue was beautiful, the weather was perfect for eating dinner outside, and we were surrounded by family and friends who are as close as family. We adore our new daughter-in-law and think she and B. make fantastic partners. And truly, there are no words to have all your children (and spouses and significant others) there, supporting their brother and just being the amazingly fantastic people that they are. I may have cried happy, joyful tears more than once.  I'm thrilled to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Curry. (I suppose this also means that I need to add more confusing initials to the already confusing list. B.'s wife will now be referred to as HC here.) From before the ceremony: W., D., and P. TM, D., and B. Pictures after the ceremony: J. and I having our picture taken by the photographer  Y., H., me and D. (at least in front) The Dress (the yoke of the jacket really does line up) D., A , and P. D., P., and A. 

It's 8:00 pm on Thursday. I'm still sewing. Some day I won't spend every moment sewing.  I think. My children's clothes that I was making are completely done. My dress is completely done.  The jacket is nearly done and I'm on the last step if sewing the Hong Kong binding around the selvedges of the arm holes. Then I need to hem K.'s pants. My plan is to not go to bed until the sewing is all done so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow. That would be the day the festivities begin.  I did have one break this afternoon to get some food so we could eat and I found a pair of shoes at my favorite thrift shop that match my dress. They're blue. You're just going to have to trust me on this.  That's it for tonight because I need to sew and try to finish before I collapse.  I can't wait to do something else with my time. 

But how about three sheep in a horse trailer, Clark Fred And little Everett who is still unsure about coming up to the window  And a cat in a box instead? Nefertiti  My goal is to be completely done seeing before Friday morning. I'm off to my pile of hand work.

It was a rather low key celebration tonight. We did have Vietnamese food for dinner, ate moon cakes, and looked at the moon, which was very bright.  But about those moon cakes. Y., knowing that I had moon cake molds, decided she wanted to try making out moon cakes this year. So she read all about the process and planned when she needed to begin in order to have them ready for tonight. I suggested she make pineapple filled cakes because those are my favorite. (It turns out I'm in the minority and many other family members prefer red bean paste. Who knew?)  On Sunday, Y. began the salted eggs which are part of the filling.  Those are egg yolks sitting on salt and we're then completely covered by salt and put in the refrigerator for 24 hours. On Monday Y. was able to pick them up and add them to the filling inside each cake. Here they are made, but unbaked. After they were all made, they were baked in the oven. Pretty impressive, huh? They then needed to chill in the refrigerator

I spent a good chunk of the weekend sewing and was actually able to finish the jacket to my dress.  That's not a pleat in the center back seam, it just needs to be pressed a bit better. For those who are geeky about seeing details. This is Burda 8949. If you look at the pattern cover, you may be a bit confused because my jacket doesn't look like the photograph. It's all because of figuring how to get the jacket cut out of pretty narrow fabric.  The obvious difference is that there is no yoke in the original pattern. I needed to make one because the width of my fabric was pretty much the same length as from the bottom of the jacket to the yoke. There isn't even a hem since I used the selvedge edge for the bottom of the jacket and sleeves. If I hadn't minded the striping of the fabric going horizontally around my body, it probably would have been easier overall. But I most definitely didn't want horizontal stripes. I'm pretty pleased with how I was able to mat

Well, I can decide if I should title it: Silos in Academia are Good for No One Or: I Have a PhD so I Don't Need to be Self-Aware It's such a toss-up that I'm truly torn. Here's the story. I'm in the barn mucking stalls this morning. The podcast I loved is no longer producing episodes and I am bereft because l finished the last episode. Wanting something to listen to I decide to go back to The Hidden Brain. Surely the episode which so annoyed me was an anomaly because the back episodes have been good. The current episode is about memory which is a topic right up my alley. Between my personal reading on memory because I'm interested and my reading to help H., I feel pretty familiar with the subject. I'm always happy to learn something new about a topic I'm interested in.  The good news is that there is nothing in this episode that is cringy. (It's sad that cringy is now the low bar.) And much of the information was good. It was mainly focused on how s

B.'s wedding is a week from today. We are all excited, we adore his fiancee, abd and it will be lovely to catch-up with family. But I am so tired of sewing. I can say without a doubt that everything will be finished and everyone will be clothed, so that's good. I still have quite a few hours of sewing ahead of me to get all the various bits completely finished.  One of the reasons I do so many different projects in a wide variety of crafts is that I never know what I will feel like doing. If I grow tired of one or get stuck on a project I then move to something else for a while. Then, after a bit, I'm ready to go back to the project I had grown tired of or have figured out how to solve my problem and can continue. That freedom to flit from project to project has not been an option because of the need for clothing for the wedding. Don't think I'm not pleased that I can make special clothes for my son's wedding, I am. Very. I just have to work against my usual way

I was going to skip posting tonight because it's been a full day and this evening was our church's inclusive game night which ends late. But I didn't post yesterday and some people get concerned if I'm silent too long. Then I thought I would share pictures of sheep. Because they're cute. But I had asked G. to take some and that hasn't happened yet. So no sheep pictures. Really all you get is a short post saying we're fine, but I have no energy to write. Fascinating stuff, I know. But it's also a post just a bit over one hundred words long instead of heading into the thousands. That's got to count for something. 

I mentioned last week that H. has decided to work on math again. We got stuck last spring when her book started to introduce multiplication. She was having none of it and I wasn't going to push it. So when she wanted to go back to math, I did need to take a deep breath. But a break can do wonders and so far she is managing the difference between the number of times we add something together versus the amount of each thing added together. (For instance 3+3+3+3=12 is the same as 4, threes or 4x3=12.) The ability to deal with a number that doesn't actually appear in the addition version is new. It's kind of a big deal.  I was reminded earlier today how far we've come when I was discussing the the idea of numeracy with a homeschooling mother. It made me remember those years where H. could identify and understand only the numbers one to four. Five was beyond her. I actually had come to resign myself to the idea we might never get beyond four. (Note that numeracy, the idea of

Watch the debate, that is. That man sends my blood pressure to unhealthy levels and I find myself becoming consumed with the idea of stock piling food and supplies because surely the end of the world is coming if he wins or even loses by a narrow margin. None of that seems helpful or healthy. I'll read about it tomorrow instead. I may need to find a cat to sit on my lap while I binge watch House Hunters. 

Because there is nothing to show. I've nearly finished L.'s vest, but that little bit of sewing is the only sewing I've done since last weekend. Panicked? No, why do you ask? On Wednesday the week calms down a bit so I'm hopeful that I can spend some time in the studio. We'll see how the weekend goes, because I may have to cancel my part of school next week.  Really the only fiber related pictures I have to show is on the hoof and not so good for wearing to a wedding. I'm sure the sheep pictures will slow down eventually.

The wedding festivities have begun. Today was a shower for my nearly daughter-in-law.  The sheep are doing well. And I have driven hundreds of miles this weekend. I'm pooped.