Amigurumi Pumpkin Finished

 So to balance out the bat I made a pumpkin.  I never meant to get back to crochet but I love these and I really loved the granny squares I made for the fiber arts festival.  Even so, any crochet projects go to the bottom of the queue. I think there are thirty-three projects ahead of any crochet…!

Still to go are a couple of fabric ghosts. There are some cute amigurumi ghosts BUT I need to get started on a few of the more urgent knitting projects so I am going to take some squares of white on white fabric, add safety eyes, put a little stuffing in for a head with a bit of yarn around to delineate the head. I will show you when that is done.

Busy Knitting Week!

 Here are the thinhs I finished in the last ten days but mostly in the last four or five days:

This is some home decor…something I rarely do. I have a mind to add a little crocheting for the fireplace!  Our little granddaughter told me many years ago that I should decorate for holidays…well, this is a start, my sweet angel!

Book Bonanza!

 Today there was a book bonanza in our mailbox. AND Dear One was so kind as to bring the packages upstairs to me where I was hiding out from the yummy food that was calling me to the kitchen.

Now I will pick up the knitting needles and get back to Emotional Support Chicken Number Four. There will be a Number Five soonish…

You all are aware that I like to make stuff.  If you did not know, this book collection could help you figure that out!

What is not shown here is a huge bag of books that a kind friend and her husband dropped off at our house yesterday. Those are mostly intrigue and high drama.

With the yarn collection, the needle collection, the hook collection, and now all these wonderful books— if something happened to keep us within the walls of our home…well, I would have plenty to make and plenty to read for a very long time. Nice!

Granny Squares By The Dozen

 There is a fiber arts festival in Wadesboro, NC tomorrow. Well, it is today and tomorrow but I am going tomorrow.  When I first learned about it I noted that the sponsors called for anyone who could make a granny square might donate it for a charitable purpose they have up their sleeve. Immediately I made one—a month or six weeks ago—then this week decided to make more since I had misplaced the first one.

Here are my offerings:

These were crocheted with a 9.00 mm hook holding a strand of Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn together with a strand of Ice brand yarn—definitely NOT loved by me. I loved the color way-Picasso- but the yarn by itself was impossible for me to use…thus two strands together project.  I do love how colorful the squares turned out.

It would be interesting to see the sponsor’s project made up. I myself have contributed squares that are five different sizes…

This reminds me of a time many years ago when we invited sisters to each knit a square for a blanket our Relief Society wanted to donate to the homeless shelter nearby. First we needed to teach the ladies to knit. When they all contributed their squares we had squares of many many sizes and shapes…not the even 7” squares we had hoped for. Since it was my crackpot idea I felt I needed to put them together. Imagine how much work that was going to be!! 

Fortunately Heavenly Father made a suggestion to me when I was in that state between sleeping and waking: get a knitting machine and turn them into strips.  I got up and sent a message to Freecycle. The next day someone offered me a  Bond knitting machine. I had to drive more than an hour each way but that saved me weeks of knitting by hand. After I passed the learning curve on the Bond, I was able to make strips of squares then knitted them together. It was a win-win since we were able to use all the squares and I did not lose my mind!  How good is that?!!

First Avocado Dyeing of Wool Yarn

Multiple very kind people saved avocado skins and pits for me to use to attempt another color of natural dye. This time I was hoping for pink.  This is what I obtained;

 The is Lion Brand Roving 100% Wool.  This started out as their natural white colorway. 

To prepare the dye bath I put all the seeds and skins in a large dye pot  and covered them with a lot of water. After bringing the pot to a boil, I let it boil for about fifteen minutes then dropped the heat to a simmer for about two hours, turned off the heat and let it sit overnight.

A while ago I saw a man natural dyeing with his yarn rolled into balls instead of in hanks.  Seemed like a great idea…so I left this yarn in the put up as I purchased it. In a hot water  and  dish soap bath I soaked the yarn for a couple of hours then rinsed and put in the dye pot—after taking the avocado parts out of the  dye bath.  I brought the water to a simmer and let it go for about an hour then took off the heat and let it sit.  The next day I remembered I wanted to dye some of the Canadian fiber so I put a handful of white fiber in, brought up the heat again briefly then took off heat again and let sit until another day.

Finally I poured the whole ness through a strainer and let the wool drain. The next day I rinsed and set the wool to drain for real.

By now you may be wondering about the color. To me it looks more beige than pink. No problem. It is all an experiment.

At the same time I had thrown in a light gray ball of yarn hoping to over dye it. Don’t think it did anything.  It would have been wise to wind off a tiny bit of yarn to see where we started.

When I get to the project for this ‘pink’ yarn I will share it.

The Witch Is Back!!

 

The people in our neighborhood are gearing up for Halloween. There are many decorations. Since we had this wreath upstairs, I thought I would hang it out. The pumpkins are knitted and very easy to make. I have forgotten how I made the purple cat, but I like it!

The pumpkin pattern is on Ravelry and us called Pumpkin Party.  If you want it and can’t find it, email me and I will write it up for you. 

Test Knit Sweater: Knitting is Finished!

 Hallelujah! Today I finished the test knitting. I love the sweater. The extra yarn came yesterday so I finished knitting last night and today. 

Here is a picture—as you can probably see: I knitted the wrong size.

Having said that, let me also say that I love this sweater and if you have known me long, like since childhood which was a VERY LONG time ago: I like loose-fitting clothes despite the fact that I actually look better in closer-fitting garments. Looking good has never been high on my priority list. Clean and covered are the look I go for, and even that is sometimes on a sliding scale depending on life circumstances.

So what did I learn while knitting this sweater for Cori of Irocknits? (Looks up her podcast on YouTube. She is a lot of  fun and so hardworking.)  What I learned: one should ALWAYS take measurements before starting any big knitting project. In the past year I have lost ten pounds. Big deal. What is ten pounds when one needs to let go of 150 pounds?! So I did not measure since I have a very strong memory of the ugly numbers from the last time I measured a year or more ago.

When the body and sleeves were nearly complete-enough so I could try on the sweater I noticed that the sweater that was scheduled to have 2-4 inches of positive ease seemed to have way more ease than that. Seemed like  good time to get out the tape measure. WELL!!!! I was surprised to find that the full bust measurement was down 3-4 inches!!! Another thing I heard recently is that sweater sizes should be taken from the high bust measurement. So…I should have knit at least two sizes smaller.  Well, since I measured myself the numbers could be wrong. I will not knit the sweater again now but next time I start to knit I will have someone else measure me and will verify that one is supposed to choose the size based on high bust.

Even so, I do love the sweater. And in all honesty, it is not really done:

There are a zillion ends to weave in. I sort of enjoy that, just not today or probably any day soon. 

NOTE: in case you wonder about the strange black shape in the first picture, well, I did not notice a hanging piece of yarn. I know I said I don’t care so much about my appearance but THAT was something I just could not abide. I just hope it actually disappeared. Yes, I could just ask Dear One to take another photo but I am just too worn down at the moment…

So one project done, so many more to complete.  I think I will go to Ravelry and organize my queue so I can get things finished(or started) in a timely fashion….

Marigold Wool Fiber Carded

 Here is a look at the marigold-dyed fiber after I hand carded it.  It makes a nice fluffy pile!

As it happens I am not a good enough spinner to easily  spin these soft little rolags. The fiber is mostly little tiny bits of fluff as opposed to several inches or more long fibers.  In retrospect, I believe this fiber was meant for felting SO I have been researching wet felting and needle felting. We shall see.  I do have a lot of it! Soon I will use the avocados for dyeing pink fiber and the lichen for dyeing purple fiber. So I should be able to felt a lot of pink and purple flowers. Maybe even some sunflowers.

As I said before: we shall see. No other projects, though, until I finish the sweater test knit. Update on that: tonight I am knitting the neckline ribbing so I can try the sweater on and check for length. There is at least one more 16-round pattern repeat , probably two, maybe three, before I can knit the bottom ribbing then go to the sleeves.

Marigold Wool Dyeing Again!

 Last week a kind friend shared some of her marigolds to add to the few more marigolds that bloomed on our deck.  She also gave me some beautiful zinnia blossoms.  When I got home and started the dyeing process ( first thing:scour the wool, then pre-mordant the fiber, then rinse the mordanted fiber and in the meantime prepare the dye bath by heating up the blossoms in the dyepot for at least an hour and finally add the fiber to the dyepot and bring the heat up to simmering again for a minimum of an hour) I decided to add a few onion papers to the dye pot since I was pretty sure they would add to the deepness of the yellow color.

After heating/simmering the blossoms and yarn for a couple of hours, I turned off the heat and let the pot sit until morning.  Well, morning was Sunday so I did not get back to the pot until Monday when I drained and washed the  nice yellow fiber.  It was nice to see that the dye had completely been exhausted, meaning that the water was cleared and had no more yellow color in it.

This is what the fiber turned out to look like:

The color is nice and rich.  The yarn is actually multi-colored since I left the blossoms and onion papers in the pot in with the simmering fiber. The fiber itself was more evenly dyed.  It looks pretty nice. I am happy.  Next I will be dyeing with avocado pits and skins!  Looking forward to that.

A final note:  tonight I sat down to spin the fiber for a few minutes.  It turns out that I was not gentle enough with the fiber when  dyeing it...and I found the fiber a little bit felted.  It can still be spun but I have to pre-draft the heck out of that fiber.  The funny thing is that as I was knitting on the test knit today my mind focussed on spinning and dyeing a little bit.  At that time I decided that I will probably just spin the natural colored fiber.  I really do like that the best.  Though when the lichen dye that is fermenting on the deck is ready for dyeing, that might also make me go back to the dye pot.  The avocado is supposed to bring pink and the lichen is supposed to dye purple.  I like both those colors.  I think I will either learn to be more gentle or use fiber that is sturdier...!

Postscript!  Just after publishing the above it crossed my mind that I can card the yellow fiber and solve the felted problem!  So happy!

Pruning Results

 Today I had a million things to do but decided to spend five minutes pruning the bushes in front of the house. This is what is left of the nest I reported on a few weeks ago.

Fortunately there are no living creatures left. As far as I know…

The five minute pruning project turned into a twenty minute job where I pruned both the bushes and the required tree in our yard. We have hired a lawnmower man. The tree was leaning down too close to the ground. I was always going to prune to bless Dear One but did not get to it this summer. Last year I did but trees grow so fast around here.

Now the lawnmower guy won’t be slapped in the face when he mows around a little more than half of the tree. I will finish the job shortly. 

Not so funny thing: twice when pruning the tree I found cobweb-y-best-like things attached to branches. I don’t know if it is tree spiders or wormy things. I did not see worms nor spiders but….

An Unpleasant Visitor, Now Gone

 Early this week I was on the porch by a fluke when a large bee ran into a cobweb on one of our bushes right in front of the porch.  This was gruesome and rather gave me the creeps but I was on my way out and did not have time to think about it.

Two days later I wanted to prune those bushes in front of the house.  As I stepped outside I saw a horrific sight:

That guy was SO BIG!!  I am not kidding.  At least four inches from top to bottom.  I could not stand it. There was going to be not pruning until that visitor was gone.  Since I had planned to go to Hobby Lobby, I continued on to Lowes and looked over the bug eradication sprays.  I was thinking I could get a foaming spray like I got for the red/orange bees that had infested another of those bushes (can you understand why I would like to rip them up and plant something else?!!  Dear One likes them, however.). So I did find some spray but when I got home I realized I had not gotten foam that shoots twenty feet, which is what I was anticipating.  It is a good idea to actually read the whole label.

When I got out of the car I had the can in my hand. I set down my purse and bag on a chair by the door and sprayed.  Number 1.  I was too far away and Number 2.  It was only a little mist!!! What!!!

So I went around to the front of the bush and stepped closer, with my stomach clenching tightly, and started misting that fat yellow and black striped arachnid from the back/top.  It took about four squirts before anything happened.  A fifth squirt and it dropped to the ground in a moving crawling 

heap.Dear One was just stepping through the front door and saw the whole thing.  I put the can down on my stroller seat, picked up my purse and shopping bag, and went inside the house, shuddering all the way.  When I got all the way inside the house by the island,  I gave a final shuddering shaking of my body and drew some deep breaths.  A couple moments later Dear One entered the house and shut the front door firmly behind him.  As he neared me I asked if the creature was gone.  He just nodded his head.

You can see another reason why I adore that man.  He does not like spiders at all, himself, and yet he saved me from this horrid monster.

First Attempt Marigold Dyeing Wool Yarn

 On Monday I saw a video about dyeing wool yarn with marigolds!  What a concept!  We had a ton of marigold blossoms on the deck in the plant tower...

Well, we DID have a ton of blossoms.  On Monday I was only able to harvest about 1/4 cup of blossoms.  I pinched off all the spent blooms and am hopeful that the plants will come through with another batch of blossoms soon.

So--dyeing with marigolds.  There are many videos.  This is what I did. I put the marigold blossoms in a one-quart Revere Ware saucepan that we received for a wedding gift fifty-one years ago. It is still almost pristine even with very frequent usage!  I brought the water to a strong simmer on the stove over low heat--though our low heat was way more than a simmer so I shut off the burner in short order and let the pot sit for an hour or so.

In the meantime I put my new-to-me stainless steel pot-now to be a dye pot only- from the thrift store on the stove and put in a  lot of water and 1 teaspoon of powdered alum that I found at the grocery store for about $3.00.  I added half a teaspoon of cream of tartar and stirred well.  Next I added a skein of previously spun yarn from Thetford Roving and submerged the yarn in the alum water.  I brought the pot up to simmer and watched it like a hawk for a few minutes then when I worried that it was too hot, I shut off the pot and let the wool soak in the hot mordant water for an hour or so.

When the mordanting stage was done (an hour), I took the yarn out of the pot, squeezed out the water then rinsed in fresh water.  At this point I strained the possibly-spent marigold blossoms out of the small pot then moved that water into the bigger pot and added the yarn.  There was not much water so I added enough to cover the yarn and brought the temperature up to a simmer again.  Yet again I could not really regulate that temperature so I turned off the heat, put the cover on and turned the oven on to 180 degrees F.  After placing the covered pot of marigold "tea", water, and yarn in the oven I set the timer for an hour then went about my business.  After an hour I shut of the stove and ascended to the "upper regions" where I picked up my test knitting and spent another hour knitting before crawling off to bed.

In the morning I pulled the pot out of the oven with guarded high hopes.  After all, there were only 1/4 cup blossoms and about 25 grams of yarn, if I recall correctly.

This is what I found:

This made me so happy!  The "control" yarn is on the bottom and the dyed yarn on top.  Yes, it did dye the yarn yellow.  No, it is not very yellow, but what could I expect with only 1/4 cup of blossoms.

In the last two days since I pulled the yarn out of the oven, I have watched many more marigold and other natural dyeing videos.  I am really souped up to try more soon.  I will be keeping my eyes out for marigold beds in case people want to share.

ALSO!!!  Lichen!  Lichen soaked in ammonia and water for several months makes a beautiful purple dye!  Amazingly, a few weeks ago we had a windstorm and a small broken branch showed up under out live oak tree on the front lawn. It is covered with lichen, though I don't know what variety.   I did not immediately pick it up....sometimes sloth turns out to be a good thing!  So I will bring that in and harvest the lichen.  I will also go for a walk around the neighborhood and see if anyone has any broken branches after Hurricane Debby finally lets go of us.  Still raining today and wind blowing.

So...I ordered several used books on dyeing with natural plants AND I also ordered an inexpensive hot plate to see if I can actually follow the rules more closely.  I am looking forward to much more colorful yarn spinning in the future, even though I don't mind at all spinning white yarn.  Plying white and a color makes me happy, too.

Productive Day: Spinning/Plying, Warping Loom, Family History Work, and More!

 Today is Wednesday.  Hurricane Debby came by and scared us into staying home.  Because we were home, other things were done.

First things first: scripture reading, etc, Reviewing Names for FamilySearch, DuoLingo (not a perfect lesson today!).  When these were done, I moved the Ashford E-Spinner off my desk and onto the spinning table and finished the plying I was working on last night before bed.  The height of the desk did bad things to my shoulder and back so the spinning table was important.  Finished those two bobbins-one white, one lavender- and put them soaking.  The skein is now hanging in the shower to dry.

There were about 93 yards in this skein/hank.  This was no-name lavender wool roving I purchased from Amazon.  I hope in future to only purchase fiber I have seen and felt.  When we were living in Vermont, we were fortunate enough to have farmers who sheared their sheep give us the fleeces to skirt, scour, and prepare for spinning.  That was so great.  You could call it free fiber but though that particular farmer did not want any money because he was composting the fleeces, there was a ton of work to prepare them. I am still enjoying the fruits of his kindness and my labors!  Still more roving ready to spin.  So good.  Of course, if any other farmer wants to give me fleeces he or she is not going to use, I won't say no, almost certainly!

Next after the plying, I spent an hour-plus deleting more than 5,000 photos from my Photos app on the computer since that will take them off all devices...AND since I can no longer back up my devices or store photos having used up 200 GB of cloud space, this was important.  It was rather tedious and eventually I just started deleting photos wholesale.  I had been saving pictures of handwork, plants and flowers near us, scenery and animals that had caught my attention.  Well, many of them had to go.  More that 12 GB gone.  I will need to do it again tomorrow.  And tomorrow. And tomorrow....which WILL creep in a petty pace but has to be done!  There are SO MANY DUPLICATES!  Many of them are Dear One's hiking pictures that I backed up on my computer again and again and again...

Of all the things done today, preparing nice meals was not part of the day.  Dear One had Cheerios for breakfast and I ate the leftover dried out meat and cheese grinder from a couple of days ago.  Nasty thing, but...Later on around 3:00 I wrapped two hamburgers in buns in foil leftover from Sunday and put them in the air fryer for ten minutes.  Mine was not quite warm enough but I ate it anyway.  I noticed Dear One had not consumed the last of his and figured he wasn't going to eat it.  Turns out he was getting to a stopping place in his audio book then got up and heated it in the microwave.  Good for him.  Very self-reliant.

Another completed task today:  setting the Lindal Torkle Scarf blocking. I had put it in a bucket of water overnight so I just had to pull it out when I wanted the water bucket for the plied yarn.  The Scarf is now quietly blocking on the guest bed on a laveder towel.

If you click the link above, you will see that the pattern is really pretty nice.  It is all garter stitch and wrap and turns. It amazes me how easy wrap and turns actually are. I had tried them before and had a terrible time with them.  I think all the wrap and turns on the Emotional Support Chicken made the path clear to me finally!

The last big thing I did today was to warp the loom for another string of dish cloths. I had to remind myself of the proper way to do it by watching the Ashford YouTube on simple warping of the rigid heddle loom.  Kate is so clear and easy to follow.

Here is the 16" Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom all warped and with the first dish cloth woven and hemstitched.  I will see if I can be regimented enough to weave and hemstitch one cloth a day until the warp is used up.  I think it is about ten feet.  The white strip at the end of the cloth is a mini-blind I purchased from Walmart and cut up into 16-inch lengths to use in place of the cardboard strips Kate in the video uses.

It is always a good idea to record one's handwork project notes so you can repeat a project that was successful.  In the case, I warped 14 inches on the 16" rigid heddle loom with one strand of white at center then ten slots either side twice then the multicolor.  For the weft I just some leftover dark pink fro ten picks then one white pick, ten more picks, one more white pick, then a final 10 picks and hemstitch to end. I put in one of the mini blind strips to help me have a regular amount of yarn before starting the next cloth tomorow.

Supper was the same old protein shake I have been making for a week or so: 1 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy-yesterday was homemade almond milk, today was dairy milk since I forgot to put the almonds soaking in water this morning), 1 scoop protein powder (this was vegan protein powder by a fluke), 1 heaping Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa, 1/4 cup raw oatmeal, 1 banana, 2 cups ice cubes all thrown into the Vitamix for 60 seconds.  It makes two servings.  Well, it is supposed to be one serving but the two of us find half the amount satisfying enough.

Since I did a major clean-out of the refrigerator on Monday and yesterday emptied all the elderly soft/liquid items into the garbage disposal, I was able to reclaim the jars and wash them in the dishwasher yesterday SO there were plenty to use as Protein Shake Measuring/Beverage Containers.  Dear One is not so thrilled to drink out of canning jars, but he is beginning to be more accepting of my slothful ways...!  If my sister sees this post, she will probably fall over dead to learn that I am actually drinking protein shakes.  Every day! Many years ago she tried to hook me onto them for my health's safe. I complained too much about the flavor or texture or smell of the protein powder and did not drink them.  Well, Sister, now I am in.  I only have made the chocolate ones though I forgot to mention that I also throw in a handful of blueberries.  

Finally I sat down at the computer and entered my second great-grandparents into my genealogy pedigree chart. I have done this multiple times over the years but finally a few months ago I bit the bullet and purchased Reunion Genealogy Software For The Mac.  If you are a genealogy person you know GEDCOM files. I made GEDCOM files of the various family trees I had on my old Windows laptop and am now generation by generation entering the data into a new and clean genealogy file. Tomorrow I hope to find birth, marriage, and death records for each of the people in the first four generations to verify their information.  FamilySearch FamilyTree (familysearch.org for free global family tree where you can enter your own line and find records to back up your information...) is where I have put information over the many years it has been available but I know absolutely that a lot of the information is incorrect. I did not know what I was doing in the beginning...now I know better.  And need to do better and fix errors.  Will take the rest of my life, I am sure.

So now I feel totally virtuous and happy and comfortable about going back to knitting on the Dream Stripe Sweater Test Knit that I am working on.  I managed NOT to sit down and knit at any moment during the day.

May you all be safe and comfortable as Hurricane Debby rages on outside the windows.

Tour De Fleece and beyond…Why I have been absent for three weeks!

 The Tour de Fleece was so useful. I did spin wool every day of the Tour de France. Including rest days. I spun quite a bit of yarn-more than 1500 yards. That might sound like a lot but others spun miles of yarn. You know that saying “Comparison is the thief of  joy”? Well, for some wonderful reason I am able to see what others do (and are) and be happy for them and comfortable with my own “place”.   I think that is a spiritual gift from Heavenly Father.  In reality I cannot be bothered to compare or be envious. It gets me nowhere but discontented and I really like to be content with my lot and place in life.

Since I am writing this on my phone I cannot check previous posts so I will just show my pile of fiber-turned-yarn. I am happy and continue to spin most days. One recent day I watched a podcast from eight yeasts ago where a Tour de Fleecer had purchased yarn in Alberta from a mill that was near her. I checked and found they were still in operation and ordered two pounds of fiber from them. I will report when it arrives.  It is called Custom Woolen Mills, I am pretty sure. I will check to be sure but may need to make an addendum…

This is nine skeins of varying lengths. The yarn may be unusable because it is so uneven BUT I will probably use it anyway. I planned to make Andrea Mowry’s  Traveler Shawl with the yarn even though that pattern calls for DK or Fingering weight yarn. The yarn shown is bulky. Well, maybe I will just knit to the dimensions and call it good!  We shall see.

That is it for today. It appears that Hurricane Debby has arrived. Fairly quiet but rainy so far. When I awoke the road in front of our house was dry. It is not dry now! Be safe, Family and Friends, wherever you are.

Stitch Markers and Progress Keepers

When knitting it is often important to mark stitches and rows.  There are many stitch markers available to purchase. I wanted to make some of my own.  I have been cleaning out and giving away many types of "stuff" over which I should have control.  Recently I gave away most of the jewelry-making tools and supplies that were in the workroom.  Just now I found a little packet of charms that could be made into stitch markers and progress keepers.

This is what I made:

As usual the picture is wonky but I still do not know how to change the orientation...

They consist of the Christmas charm, a large split ring (14 mm), and a lobster clasp (18mm).  It is hoped that these are not too heavy to work with current and future knitting projects.  Since at this time I mostly use worsted weight (number 4) yarn, I think they will be okay.

 

More Spinning Today

 Just a quick note on today's Tour de Fleece progress:  Since I had finished the last bag of roving, I went to the walk-in closet in our bedroom and pulled out a bag of Thetford Roving and took it downstairs where the wheel is currently located.

When I had done a little cleaning of a downstairs closet, the kitchen, and the dining room table, I rewarded myself with a while at the spinning wheel. (And you will notice I said, "A LITTLE cleaning...!). For the first time I thought I would measure out and weigh the roving before spinning so I could get an idea on how it would go.

Today's spin was 107 grams of the roving.  I did get it all spun.

This is the resulting spin:

This bobbin was almost half filled before I started spinning today.  I finished it.  There is probably a hundred grams of today's fiber on the bobbin in addition to probably that much more.  I will have to weigh an empty bobbin so I will know for sure how much singles I spun.

This bobbin was partially filled before I finished up the 107 grams--probably about 7 grams added to this bobbin.  There was just a small amount of roving still in the fiber basket so I decided to keep spinning even though I had really had just about enough spinning, and everything else,  for today.

One new thing today--instead of removing my shoe and spinning stocking footed, I decided to see if I could spin with my clodhoppers still on my feet.  I could!  I was so pleased.  It is all due to the kind instruction of one of the Columbia Spinners at the Tour de Fleece group meeting last Saturday.  I also learned how to chain ply last week.  I need to get another bobbin together so I can practice the chain plying before I forget.

This Saturday the spinners will be at the Revolutionary War Park spinning but also instructing on how to spin cotton and flax.  You can be sure I will be there to learn that.  There are many many cotton fields within a few miles of our home.  Every fall when the cotton harvest happens I drive along the roads by the fields and see many cotton fluff balls lying beside the road.  Two years ago I stopped and picked some of it up.  It was pretty grimy and since I did not know anything about preparing to spin cotton, I just left it alone.  If I learn to spin cotton, I will have to take the bull by the horns and ask some farmer if I can glean his fields after the harvest.  It is a nice thought anyway!

More Fiber Work: Icelandic Sweater

After nearly fifty-one  years of asking Dear One if I could knit him something nice, he asked for an Icelandic sweater.  We had watched a movie called Pullover Island.  There were many beautiful sweaters shown.  People seem to knit everywhere in Iceland, both men and women.

Dear One found a sweater he liked then even found the designer so I could inquire about purchasing the pattern.  The lady responded within the hour--time differences helping!  She said the design was 1. a traditional Icelandic pattern, 2. it was written in Icelandic, and 3.  she did not have authority to sell it. Well, that was that I suppose but I decided I was smart enough to do it anyway.  

The pattern Dear One showed me was a black pullover with a dark gray zigzag yoke followed but a white up to the neck.  I ordered some Lettlopi yarn in those three colors from The Woolly Thistle in West Lebanon, NH.  I made a hat as a gauge swatch and to figure out the design.  Next I ordered some Alafosslopi from The Woolly Thistle in the same colors to make another gauge swatch hat.  All the while I was looking for Icelandic sweater patterns with the zigzags.  I did not find them so I knew I would have to use the designs I made.

Eventually I saw a book called The Lopapeysa Sweater: A Journey North in Search of Iceland's Iconic Knitwear.  The book was very interesting to read.  There was a pattern in there for The Everywhere Sweater which was a cardigan.  Dear One wanted a pullover.  After a fair amount of thought and planning, I used the directions for that sweater, using the Alafosslopi from The Woolly Thistle, removed the two purl stitches the Icelanders use for steeking (YES!! Two stitches, not five, not seven, not nine...all of which I have seen for the steeking stitches.), and added in my own zigzag design.  The front has the stitches sixteen stitches wide by sixteen stitches tall and the back (between the sleeve stitches) are fourteen stitches by fourteen stitches.  Needed the change to make the design work.

Well, finally, maybe a month after I cast on, the sweater was finished.  Dear One tried it on and deemed it satisfactory but said he was not going to wear it.  After all, daily temperatures are in the upper 90's currently!  So, I put it away in a clear plastic box and stored it in his closet with the leftover yarn.  When I get a few more "on the needles already" projects finished, I will see if there is enough leftover yarn to make a vest for me.  Unsure.

You will notice there is a little "bleed through" in the white.  I saw a video on a way to avoid that, but it came two days after I finished.  I will NOT be ripping back and re-knitting!

Here is a full view of the completed sweater.  It makes me happy to have figured this out.  I will not likely become a pattern designer...not by a long shot, even though this worked this time.

Tour de France and Tour de Fleece 2024

 Tour de France was started in 1903 to help sell newspapers. (Look it up on Google for more information.) Tour de Fleece was started in 2006.  You can look that up, too!  I heard about Tour de Fleece a year or two ago but did not participate until this year.

The Tour de Fleece is a handspinning event that coincides with the Tour de France bicycling race.  Some people join teams.  Other people race as individuals.  Every day that Tour de France runs, hand spinners spin on their spinning wheels or spindles.  

My own Tour de Fleece history began about three months ago when I learned that the Copious Fibers yarn store had a Sit and Spin on Thursday mornings.  I resolved to go to see if I could learn to be a better spinner..  And I did go on one Thursday.  The nicest ladies were in the store, including one spinner who helped me with my spinning. 

Myself, I am really a novice.  My actual spinning history began  in about 2005 when I was shopping locally at Wings' Market and a lady at the dairy case saw my sweater and said it looked like a 'No Sweat Sweatshirt'.  I had made the sweater and it did look like that pattern which was by Medrith Glover. (I just tried to locate that pattern to share, but failed.)  Anyway, Elsie, the nice lady, told me she had a knitting group in her home every Thursday afternoon from 3;00-5:00 PM and I was welcome.  I started attending later that week and was there most weeks until Elsie died in 2013...  It was so wonderful to knit together and learn new things...such as the Norwegian Purl!  I also learned to spin because Elsie gave me her Ashford Traveler single treadle spinning wheel.  I started spinning as soon as I acquired some beautiful combed top fiber from Hello Yarn.  It turned out I was not a natural-born spinner and I gave it up when life had me going for a while.

Now I am spinning again and participating in the Tour de Fleece 2024.  Here is the yarn I produced in the first week of the TdF:

This yarn is a bulky weight yarn (though I have not actually measured the wraps per inch yet) and was spun with a strand of what I call the Thetford Roving and a strand of fiber I found at Hobby Lobby and which I struggled with a ton until I saw a YouTube on how to "spin from the fold" which is good for slippery yarns.  If you zoom in you will see it is not glorious yarn, but I am very happy with it.  Since I am in a pinch time-wise, that is it for today.  More on TdF another day.  Happy Day to you all.

Another Bag Today, This One Is Fabric Pieces

 Today I planned to use some Home Defense spray inside the house.  Unfortunately when I read the directions on the container I realized I was not prepared to do and wear all that was needed.  So I decided to go to the sewing machine for another project instead.

Over the past year as I collected weaving tools I realized I needed a better way to store them.  The other day I was at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore here in town.  I almost never stop there but about a mile before the turn-off it crossed my mind to go there that day.  So I did. I went to the craft section and book section and found two books--one on spiralizing!  As I walked through the building I thought of possibly getting a small sturdy armless chair to use while at the spinning wheel.  Nothing caught my eye but when I turned down the aisle to leave the store I saw a 2-foot long piece of 8" heavy PVC pipe.  Exactly what I have been looking for!  The price was right so I picked it up, immediately left the store (after paying, of course) and went home to see if my eyes had treated me right.  They had! 

 It was the perfect size for the heddles, pick-up sticks, stick shuttles, and several other things for both looms.  The only glitch was that there was no bottom.  I had already thought I just needed to make a bag with a drawstring which would be a bottom of the bag as well as a top closure.

This is what I made today:

Okay, so it looks pretty icky and it is not as tall as the tallest heddle, but the bottom is closed and I can pick it up and carry it around with me if that is what I wanted to do.  The fabric came into my possession last week as someone was passing along some VERY bright colored yarn and a bag which turned out to have two tablecloths and a big pile of pre-stitched fabrics. I took four of them and made this bag. 

The drawstring was also blue and part of the broken umbrella we had over the table on the back deck to keep the sun off.  I think I talked about deconstructing that umbrella a year or so ago where I used the "uprights" to put in the Money Tree plant pot.  I had kept the fabric thinking that since it is very sturdy fabric it might be good for something.  Well, part of it was good for something!!

Makes me happy!

Fun New Bag!!! With Zipper Top...

 Last year I saw a video on turning dog food bags into grocery totes.  We do not have dogs but we have been feeding birds.  We had a very large bird seed bag.  I decided FINALLY to give it a try.  This is the result:

Here is the finished bag.

Handles and a zipper were added.  They do not look very good but they will work.  Finally I just need to add a zipper pull attachment.  I think there is a 1-inch or larger split key ring that would work perfectly.

This makes me happy.  It is not a grocery tote bag. I will be using it today for a knitting bag.  I am going to a doctor appointment whose floor is not one I would like to set a cloth bag.  Too many patients in an older building.  If you know what I mean...

The Lost Is Found..

About three weeks ago the yarn arrived from The Woolly Thistle to knit the Icelandic sweater for Dear One.  I had knitted up gauge swatch hats to see how the lopi yarn worked up.  Now the yarn was on the premises and I started knitting the sleeves like a crazy person.  When they were completed I immediately started on the body.  Last weekend I was up to 11 inches plus on the body...11 inches out of 20 inches required.  Since I have never knit one of these sweaters before I decided to use the measurements suggested in the sort of pattern I am using.

Well, I am using a pattern from the book called The Lopapeysa Sweater--the Everywhere Sweater except I am making my own colorwork design. Not my design, but the design Dear One asked me to make.  He even found the name of the designer of the sweater he wanted so I could ask her if I could purchase the pattern.  She said no:  it was traditional Icelandic design,  the pattern was in Icelandic, and furthermore, she did not have authority to sell it to me...so I decided I was smart enough to make it work on my own.  We shall see.  That is why I knitted up the swatches to see how many zigs and zags I needed.

Anyway,  over the past weekend I worked some more on the design and found I needed a multiple of 11 stitches and then 10 stitches.  Such great news.  The 10-stitch zigzags will be in the back and hopefully not noticeably different from the front.

SO...on Sunday I decided I was going to give the sweater knitting my all and get to the colorwork by the end of this week.  On Monday I had some appointments and took the sweater with me so that I could knit during the down time.  It turns out the doctors were very efficient and there was no down time at all so no knitting.  

When I finished up all the errands out hat day and got home there were several bags to be dragged into the house.  I left the sweater in the car and decided to bring it in the next trip.  There was no next trip.  On Wednesday when we returned from the temple, I asked Dear One if he had brought in the sweater because it was not on the back seat.  He said, "Sweater?"  Later I was speaking with our daughter and told her it was probably in the trunk since clearly it was not on the back seat.  This morning I went down to look in the trunk.  IT WAS NOT THERE!  My stomach lurched significantly.  I could not imagine someone had gotten into the car and snatched the knitting bag but what else could have happened.  I was just sick.  The yarn cost a LOT of money.  Not as much as if we had had an Icelandic lady knit it for us but still, it was a significant noticeable purchase on our credit card.  PLUS I had put a lot of hours into the knitting.

When I dragged my distraught self into the house through the garage instead of through the front door, for some reason I stopped just inside the garage door.  There, hanging from my blue ancient platform rocker, was the knitting bag.  With the sweater in it.  You may be sure I said a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for taking caring of the bag.

The back of this bag from The Woolly Thistle--which, by the way, is going to open a storefront sometime in July in West Lebanon--says "All knitting is good knitting!"  I think that is true.

So the lost is found and tomorrow I will get knitting again, breathing many happy signs of relief and gratitude.  From this story you may begin to worry about your friend's mental capacities, but may I just encourage you to not worry.  When I get overtired I tend to forget that I have done things.  This is just a small insignificant example.

Great Start To A Day!

 This morning we got up early to go to the temple.  We needed to leave by around 6:30.  I was a little late on that one.  When I came downstairs I dropped my temple bag on the floor just inside the garage door.  Instantly the screaming alarm went off startling me completely.  I stepped over to the alarm box and disarmed the alarm. I notice a note that "in Zone 6 there was a Glass Break".  Oh, for crying out loud.  I just dropped my bag.

Fifteen minutes later I was walking out the garage door with my bag and our lunches in my arms and here came to beautiful men in blue up the driveway, though in this case it was a young woman in blue and a young man in blue.  Instantly I knew that the alarm company had called them.  I apologized and thanked them for coming.  I showed them that I had just dropped my bag on the floor--a "premium vinyl plank" floor as it happens.  The nice lady policeman said that some alarms are very sensitive.  Yes they are!  They wished us a good day and departed within five minutes.  I hope they will come again if they get the word.

This is the offending bag!  Dear One suggested I not drop the bag again.  He is really very nice to make a suggestion like that.  It is one I will try to observe...!

Busy Monday, Including Sewing Projects!

 This morning as I was immersed in Scripture study, there was a quote that caught my attention.

This is the quote, and it is a LONG one!  The speaker was Elder Ronald Rasband from a General Conference in Salt Lake City in 2017.

"Fourth, we must act on the first prompting.

"Remember the words of Nephi. “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless,” he said, “I went forth.”

"And so must we. We must be confident in our first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings—and we all have—we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten.

"Now a caution: don’t expect fireworks because you responded to the Holy Ghost. Remember, you are about the work of the still, small voice.

"While serving as a mission president in New York City, I was with some of our missionaries in a restaurant in the Bronx. A young family came in and sat near us. They appeared golden for the gospel. I watched our missionaries as they continued to visit with me, then noticed as the family concluded their meal and slipped out the door. Then I said, “Elders, there’s a lesson here today. You saw a lovely family come into this restaurant. What should we have done?”

"One of the elders spoke up quickly: “I thought about getting up and going over to talk to them. I felt the nudge, but I didn’t respond.”

"“Elders,” I said, “we must always act on our first prompting. That nudge you felt was the Holy Ghost!”

"First promptings are pure inspiration from heaven. When they confirm or testify to us, we need to recognize them for what they are and never let them slip past. So often, it is the Spirit inspiring us to reach out to someone in need, family and friends in particular. “Thus … the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things,” points us to opportunities to teach the gospel, to bear testimony of the Restoration and Jesus Christ, to offer support and concern, and to rescue one of God’s precious children.

"Think of it as being what is called a first responder. In most communities the first responders to a tragedy, disaster, or calamity are firefighters, police officers, paramedics. They arrive with lights flashing, and may I add, we are so incredibly grateful for them. The Lord’s way is less obvious but requires just as immediate a response. The Lord knows the needs of all His children—and He knows who is prepared to help. If we let the Lord know in our morning prayers that we are ready, He will call on us to respond. If we respond, He will call on us time and time again and we will find ourselves on what President Monson calls “the Lord’s errand.” We will become spiritual first responders bringing help from on high."

As I was reading this a thought came into my mind.  I decided it was the still small voice trying to help me have a good day and become productive.  As a result, I leaped out of my chair when I was done studying, put on clothes and socks and shoes, and headed out on foot to the closest store to get some milk.  I had two options and found milk at the closest store!  Within an hour I was home again and got some yogurt started in the Instant Pot.  This was just regular milk, not ultra-pasteurized.  It looks like it worked. It is now chilling in the refrigerator.  One productive item from the To Do list I make each day in my electronic journal (I use Day One and love it!).  That made me happy.

The second productive  item from my whispered list-- Today was the day to make a zippered bag for a small knitting project.  I ended up making three.  All of them are not that great, but they are all small bags and they do have zippers and "handles" on each of them.

The sunflower bag was first, then blue, then floral.  They all have issues but they all work.  

The third bag was more or less from this reel.  I made some of my own changes--mainly I did a French seam at the ends instead of sewing on strips of fabric to enclose the seams.

Making these bags makes me want to figure out a good bag. I used fat quarters for these, though the floral bag came from two half-yard cuts so I made my own fat quarters.

Friday Fiber Tales!

 After spinning last week at the Revolutionary War Park in Camden, I took up the challenge to spin more regularly.

About half of the singles on this bobbin was spun today:

If you enlarge the photo so you can see better, you will see that I am currently a pitiful spinner.  Even so, I am having a good time and am learning lots.  This is the fiber I purchased at Hobby Lobby,  some a month or more ago and some on Monday when they were having their clearance sale.  I am kicking myself as I write this because I was there at the store again today and failed to check if they had marked down any more of their wool.  Oh well. I do have enough.

So, one thing I think I learned is that I need to treat this fiber the way experienced knitters treat their beautiful expensive fiber braids.

Here is this photo you can see the little fiber nests I made today.  I pulled apart the fiber vertically to make these nests.  This way there is way less likelihood of me making big globs of fiber in the singles.  Less likelihood, but not a certainty!!

You can also see that, despite my best intentions, the hoe out/clean out job is progressing VERY slowly.  

Back to the fiber/yarn:  my plan is to fill this colored bobbin entirely then ply it with a bobbin of white fiber I prepared back in the old days in Vermont when a kind farmer in Thetford Center offered the fleeces from his shearing one year.  I accepted, skirted, scoured, and sent the fleece to Sallie's Fen in Barrington, NH for her to turn it into roving.  That roving is beautiful and spins like a dream.  I have a completely fully bobbin ready for plying.

What will you do with that two-ply yarn you ask?  Well, I do have a plan.  Andrea Mowry has a lot of Traveler patterns.  I plan to knit her Traveler Shawl with this yarn.  I need at least 1000 yards.  I will almost certainly need more than two bobbins of colored singles.  News breaks as they occur!

Blueberry Plants

 Over the past five years we have planted blueberries four times. The first three years the plants did not make it through the summer.  Our fault entirely.  Did not know how to grow blueberries.  Got advice from many sources and tried again.  Last year we did a lot of work amending the soil and watering and fertilizing etc following the recommendations of the nursery where we bought them.  Last fall, same story:  nothing but sticks.  I decided not to yank up the dead plants just in case they miraculously resurrected.

Early this spring I went down to look at the spot where they had died.  Nothing.  Last month I went down again and found a few green leaves on two of the plants...of course it was the plants who no longer had their name tags on so I do not know what varieties they are...but there are green leaves.  Last week they still had a few green leaves but did not look like much.

Today: 

Okay, they don't look like much but you can see there are green leaves.  I have renewed hope in raising blueberries right here!

Anyone with suggestions?  They are welcome.  I do know I should pull up all the dead grass...

Strange thing: The Ants!

 When I get out of the car sometimes the cable that goes to my phone inadvertently gets dropped on the ground and the car door shuts with the cable hanging outside.  Well, that happened today.

When I got back to the car I saw the cable lying on the ground as I came around the back. I kicked myself mentally for not checking four hours ago when I got out of the car. When I got up to the door I REALLY kicked myself! Because, you ask, well, the end of the cable was lying on a crack in the pavement and zillions of ants were crawling up and down the cable. In case you did not already know this: ants are very small and the little space between the cable and the door was enough to let them move inside the car!!!

What did I do? The first thing was I pulled my skirt up high so as not to get ants crawling on me immediately then reached inside the car and I unplugged the cable from the USB port and laid the cable across the shrubs beside the car then started pulling it through to try to strip off the ants. Only a little successful.

There was a roll of paper towels in the trunk so I pulled one off and wiped down the cable. Did not kill the ants but got them off that cable.

It turns out there were many ants inside the car!  I got out the spray bottle of glass cleaner from the same box in the trunk and sprayed the heck out of the floor and mat on the driver’s side.  They were still moving!  SO…I took a handful of paper towels and scrubbed along the floor.  I expect there are still living moving ants in the car but I had to sit down, since I used up all my energy walking off my lunch at nearly 90 degrees…just before returning to the any fiasco.

Now I am sitting in the driver’s seat with my skirt up above my knees hoping the combination of efforts will have discouraged the ants enough to leave me alone.

If you look closely you can see one ant about in the middle of the photo. It would have been much more impressive if I had snapped the picture while the cable was still connected to the car and the army was running in and out of the car.  Hopefully there will not be a ‘next time’ but if so, I will get a shot of them at that point.

Sometimes You Just Luck Out...In A Positive Way

 Last week I saw a YouTube channel of a young woman who was a spinner and a knitter.  She mentioned that Hobby Lobby in her town had been having a deep discount on some discontinued colors of yarn.  I knew that this is the week that Hobby Lobby has yarn on sale for 30% off (this happens every other week.  On the off week [next week] the fabric is 40% off.  Good things to know if you want to plan your purchases to save the most money...). I thought I would check it  out.

So yesterday morning after a doctor appointment I dropped in at Hobby Lobby. 

 Let me back up one or two steps...  On Saturday last I went to the Revolutionary War Park in Camden where there was going to be a group of spinners spinning.  They had invited me to attend.  I did attend and did enjoy spinning...though it was a bit hard using new-to-me fiber.  

The other spinner who came, and who helped me with my spinning, mentioned that there was some yarn at Hobby Lobby that one of the spinners in her group used to do a lot of spinning.  It is a roving "yarn" called Showstopper, and while it is only 15% wool, it is good fiber to practice spinning.  I thought I would see if there was any at Hobby Lobby.  THERE WAS!  And it was $2.74 for 10 ounces as opposed to the regular  $10.99.  I bought five skeins!  I think by the end of the time I finish spinning this fiber that I will know a lot more about spinning.  Hobby Lobby also had four bags of actual wool fiber that originally cost $7.99 but went for $1.62 yesterday.  I was pleased since it was the very fiber I was having difficulty spinning.  More of it meant I could learn more on how to spin that type of wool fiber.

So, here is a word to the wise...not necessarily spinners but anyone who wants to see if there is clearance yarn.  Better check out Hobby Lobby this week.  Maybe earlier than later in the week.  Most of these discounted fibers had already been purchased. I felt fortunate to purchase what I did.

Munchie Monday: Blackberry Cobbler

 The other day I stopped at the Dorr Farms booth at the Farmers' Market.  They had big beautiful baskets of fresh blackberries.  Remembering that Dear One LOVES blackberry shortcake, I picked up a basket.

Instead of shortcake, this is what I made:

Blackberry Cobbler. from The Chunky Chef

This is the recipe from The Chunky Chef.  Below it is what I actually did...

COBBLER

• 24 oz fresh blackberries
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional but recommended)
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water

TOPPING

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, grated or finely cubed
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup cold buttermilk

Instructions

• Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
  
• In a large saucepan, combine the blackberries, sugar, and cinnamon. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil.
  
• Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into fruit mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-5 minutes or until thickened.
  
• Pour into prepared baking dish.
  
• For topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or two forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  
• Stir in buttermilk just until moistened. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto hot berry mixture.
  
• Bake, uncovered, at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve warm, with whipped topping or ice cream if desired.
  

Notes

1. Buttermilk amount will vary from individual to individual.  You want the dough to be moist enough to hold together when pinched between a few fingers, but not moist enough that it's wet.
2. For a thicker cobbler, combine blackberries, sugar, 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and cinnamon and stir well in baking dish.  Let sit for 15-20 minutes, so they can soften a little and produce a little bit of a syrupy liquid on the bottom of the dish.  Add topping and bake as directed.

WHAT I DID--

In the bottom of an 8 inch square glass baking dish I spread 1 cup sugar then a thick layer of blackberries   and left them for 10 minutes.  Nothing seemed to be happening so I started smashing the berries up with the back of a spoon then sprinkled on a few shakes of cinnamon and left them again.

Leaving the berries alone for a while I got out a nice glass bowl and poured in  1.5 cups of self-rising flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking SODA , and 1 Tablespoon sugar and mixed well.  Taking out our box grater I grated 1 stick on cold butter into the dry ingredients then mixed in with a fork until you could not really see the chunks of butter.  Into that mess I poured 1/2 cup buttermilk and stirred.  It did not seem to be enough liquid so I poured more in and stirred it until it seemed right.  In this case, I was planning to drop the batter on top of the berries so it was a little wetter than The Chunky Chef suggested.

Ater putting  9 big globs of batter on top of the berries I then spread the batter to the edges of the pan then baked for 30 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven.  After checking, I decided to let the cobbler cook some more...about 5 more minutes.

The reason I was letting the cobbler cook longer is that the berry juice was just barely coming up through the biscuits on top. I wanted more indication that they were cooked.

Looking back through the recipe I realize I did not use any corn starch.  That might have been a good thing to do--add the corn starch.  I did not do the cooked blackberries method but followed the bit in the Notes.  Still, it was a wonderful cobbler.  Fortunately, we were able to share some with friends so we did not eat it all ourselves.

We served this with whipped cream on top.  Because of all the sugar in the recipe, I did NOT sweeten the whipped cream when I beat it.  SOMEONE in the family said we should ALWAYS have sweetened whipped cream...!  Well, we shall see.