Tour De Fleece Started on 5 July

 The Columbia Spinning Ladies who took me in last year and have helped me tremendously in improving my spinning have a wonderful plan for Tour de Fleece this year.  Every Saturday in July will have an event/workshop to improve our skills.

On Saturday just past we learned how to create our own self striping yarn!  TJ, our leader, had a big pile of fiber and instructed each of us to take three colors that appealed to us to make the yarn.  I chose red, yellow, and blue.  Not very creative but...that is what I chose.

These are the rolags I made on the Ashford Blending Board I purchased earlier this year.  I had only tried blending on it once or twice before.  This was what I made on Saturday.  The next thing we did was to spin up the rolags into singles.  I did that.  When I came home I spent about ten minutes spinning some white singles to ply with the colorful striped yarn to tone it down a little.  I have not plied yet as there was more red, yellow, and blue to turn into rolags and spin into singles.

Today I finished blending up the remaining red, yellow, and blue fiber into rolags and now have six more rolags to spin plus a big fat "rolag" or maybe better call it a sort of batt.  I will spin that last.  If all goes well I will get this done tomorrow.  The spinning of these rolags, I mean.  I expect that the following day I will get to plying. Hopefully.  I will show the yarn off  after that.  One of the Columbia Spinners has already finished her spin and has knitted it up into a swatch.  It looks so good.  In my heart of hearts I hope to complete my spinning, plying, wet-finishing, skeining up, rolling into a ball, then knitting a swatch by next Saturday.  I will let you know how it goes.  At this point...not too sure that is a reasonable expectation, but I will try.  Will let you know!

The Ashford eSpinner 3 which is upstairs is where I am spinning the white Thetford Roving to use for plying.  Last night I spun up 5 grams of roving.  Today I spun 10 grams of roving.

Easy Felted Basket

 My sister had a birthday almost two months ago. I wanted to send her flowers but it was also Mother's Day time and I expected her boys would have sent flowers. I told her I was going to send her flowers and asked if she wanted them in a basket or in a vase. She said basket!

When I texted her ten days ago to ask her for a florist in her town she did send me the name of a florist  then said she would just as soon have seeds for perennial flowers.  I thought that was a great idea so I went to several stores to see what they had.  I found quite a few seeds for flowers I would love in our yard if I ever was going to become a gardener, which I will not be doing!  Too lazy/busy/too many other things to do, so no flowers here. I cannot even keep the potted plants alive on our porch...!

So I thought I would make her a basket. Since it was almost Independence Day, I thought I would use red, white, and blue yarns.

This is what I did:

Yarn used: 100% natural wool in three colors.

US #15 needles.

Easy Felted Basket (very small)

With one strand red and two strands white—Cast on 41 then knit one round, purl one round, knit one round purl one round then:

Knit 10, cast off 10, knit 10, cast off 10

Knit 10, cast on 10. Knit 10, cast on 10.

Knit for about 4 more inches.

Drop red yarn and join blue yarn. Knit four or more inches from cast on.

Purl one round.

K4, K2tog around.

Knit one round.

K3, K2tog around.

Knit one round.

K2, K2tog around.

Knit one round.

K1, K2tog around.

Knit one round.

K2tog around.

Break yarn leaving a long tail then weave through all stitches and fasten off securely.

Putting in washing machine with other items and using hot water and most agitation available. 

Remove from washer and shake to your satisfaction then let dry completely.  Pull into shape then stuff a small kitchen towel inside to help the basket hold its round shape while drying.

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Over the past few months we have received mailings, many in small boxes. One box I absolutely adored.  It was probably 3" or maybe 4" cubed. So cute.  Well, I put some red, white, and blue tissue paper inside then smushed in the little basket and the packets of seeds.  I used heavy duty shipping tape to close it up.  

Because I was so unwise to do this kind of packing job, I have decided to try again and make another basket, this time a little larger and also perhaps a rectangular one. (I have to finish a couple of knitting projects with time constraints first, though....) ALSO I will see if I can find some fragrant perennial seeds.  If anyone has any suggestions on what to get, please tell me.  Also tell me what seed-seller to go to for the purchases.  Many thanks!

Uncle "Skeleton" Sam!

 Our neighbors have scored again with dressing their skeleton for a holiday:

My opinion:  They do a great job in making the neighborhood more interesting.  I look forward to every new month or holiday to see what they will come up with next!  Love it.

Solar Dyeing Wool Report!

 On Friday of Memorial Day Weekend 2025 I put three jars on the deck railing with a little over ten grams of combed top of un-named breed of wool in for solar dyeing.  In one jar were avocado pits and peels.  The second jar had red onion skins, a lot of tiny ones that I found in the bottom of a potato bin at Aldi!  The third jar had four hibiscus herbal tea bags--a bit of a waste of good tea, but!  The jars were all filled with water to almost the top and some plastic stuffed in on top to submerge the wool in the water and dye materials.

Four weeks later I have opened the jars, emptied everything into the 13-quart stainless steel bowl my parents gave us for a wedding gift (our mother gave one to each of my siblings who all married in the same twelve months period all those years ago!) I then rinsed the wool and set it to drying.

This is what we have:

The white fiber on top is where we started.  Sample number one under the white is the avocado solar dye.  It actually did take up some color.   Sample number two is the red onion dye.  Sample number three is the hibiscus tea.  That gave the most color.

So-for an experiment which held high hopes but not much in the line of expectations, I am pretty happy!  

This weekend the Tour de Fleece starts.  One of goals I have for Tour de Fleece is to card each of these samples then spin them into a tiny skein of yarn then knit a sample and see what we have.  Yay for Tour de Fleece and goals!

The wonderful Columbia Spinners who have accepted me into their midst have a great plan for every Saturday during TdF for learning new skills.  During all the other days I am hoping to really improve my spinning to create a more consistent yarn so it will actually be useful for knitting.

Last year's Tour de Fleece  product yarn is not yet all used up. I did knit a shawl with most of it that initially I did not like at all.  Now, months after the end of the Spin It To Knit It Along, I am feeling somewhat better about it.  The remaining yarn from last year is now in the back of my mind for using to weave a shawl sometime this year.  We shall see.

It is Fireworks Season! Again!!

Multiple times during the year since we have moved to South Carolina, we have seen many many little mobile fireworks stores.  They are everywhere!!  They moved in nearly a month ago.  Again.

Here is one of them:

This happens to be the back of the fireworks trailer that is in the Neighborhood Walmart parking lot.  If you need any pyrotechnics, come on down!!!

Any occasion seems to be the time for fireworks here.  A few times in the past few months we have been sitting in our upstairs tv room and have first heard, then seen, fireworks across the pond from us.  This past weekend we heard then Dear One stepped to the front window so see them two streets over from us. I have decided that on Independence Day I will just lie in bed having opened the blinds and just watch from the bug-free convenience of our comfy bed!

May you all have a safe and happy Independence Day!

Mini Yankee Doodle Chicklet!

Ginger Balch at In Sheep's Clothing, a yarn shop in Torrington, Connecticut, has come up with another darling chicken/chicklet pattern!  I purchased the kit two weeks ago and had it in hand within a week.  This is what I made:

 She included everything in the kit but I thought I needed a "Liberty Bell" instead of the little Christmas bells she included. I found them online for not very much money.  I am so happy how it turned out though the next one I make I will insert a tiny bit of stuffing inside to make the chicklet poof out a bit.

It was on my mind to make a ton of these and hand them out to friends BUT common sense came to me. I already have **two projects with time crunches so...maybe for next year if anyone would like a Mini Yankee Doodle Chicklet...but you have to let me know so I can put it on a list!

**The two projects with end dates are The Woolly Thistle Vest Knit A Long which ends early to mid July and the Hoadie's Sweet Vanilla Sock Test Knit which ends 12 July.  Both of those dates are coming right up.  The socks are toe up socks.  I love them. They fit really well.  I am ready to start the legs which will only be about four inches, maybe five.  Since I wear "combat boots" so I can walk, I need the cuff of the sock to come up a few inches above the top of the boot.  We shall see how far I go!

The Woolly Thistle Vest KAL is more taxing as the vest has to cover a lot more territory. I am at the point of dividing for the armholes/front/back.  I plan to steek for the armholes and for the sort of scoop neckline.  Since I am creating this pattern myself there is no guarantee that it will be any good at all...hoping for the best.

DIY Tensioning Device For Rigid Heddle Loom!

 Today I cut four pieces of PVC pipe to use as a tensioning device along with two pick sticks and lots of flat rubber bands for the 16” Ashford Rigid Heddle loom. It worked!