I vant to suck your blood....

A recipe for handspun hat and mittens sort of...

A little bit of this fiber:

Windspun Fiber Shetland and mohair blend

and this one:

Shetland

Spin it up on the wheel you get this:




Then get it on the needles:


Then knit and knit and knit, round and round you go. I used the House Mittens Pattern from Charmed Knits. Then finally I get this:


Find more on my project page on Ravelry.

The Boy Kids New Doo

He was singing a song while I was taking pics. I just love how this photo turned out.

Book Review: Serving Up the Harvest

If you are struggling with some new ways to cook up your local veggies I recommend purchasing Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman. I've seen this book several times but kept passing it up because I didn't want to spend the money. So when Borderd sent me a 40% coupon I decided it was time. It's the kind of cook book I like. It gives you basic information in a new way that helps you expand your cooking knowledge. It's the book to grab when you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

The first half of the book she shares basic recipes to make a lo mein, stir fry, cheese sauce, pastry, etc. Then the rest of the book is ordered by the veggies seasons. Each vegetable has basic gardening information, basic cooking times and information, several tasty recipes, and a meal or two to make with it.

I have several of the recipes marked that I want to try and the ingredients list is easy to find. So I'm sure this is book that I will take off the shelf and actually use.

Alkanet, Onions and Osage

More natural dyeing....

Alkanet is a root and it stinks when you cook it. In theory you can get purples from it but I did not. I did get a lovely warm gray with a touch of purple but I'm not feeling the love to do this again.





I may have felted the fibers a bit too since I was bit impatient with the whole process.


Onions skins red and yellow.

20 grams of skins, 20 gram of fiber and I'm love the orange I got with this.


A bit of handspun with onions skins

Osage Organge:

Mordant the yarn some mystery yarn and some Lion Brand Fishermens Wool.


onion skins, walnut sock yarn and the alkanet.

Busy, Busy

This is the busiest fall on record for our family. Lots of activities and learning fun. I'm full!

Both kids are volunteering at the animal shelter. It's more Corbin's thing than Jade's so far. I'm really impressed with the initiative the kids are taking with it.

Jade is taking an acting class and really enjoying it.

We are participating in a Science Club with other homeschoolers. That's been fun for me too learning about things along with the kids.

I'm helping with a Fiber Arts Club for homeschoolers as well.

Lots of skatepark time. Corbin can almost jump stairs!

Role playing games at our house.

We are trying to do at least one fun family thing a month, keep up with household projects and still have some down time.

Is anyone else exhausted just reading this list? I am!

Eek! It's a Steek!

Steeking is scary process. You actually CUT your knitting. I'm not ready to steek a sweater yet. So I made a coffee cozy instead. I knitted a tube in the round then using a crocheted steek and scissors I cut it to lay flat then added a button band.



You can see more pics here of my the steeking process. Give it try! It's both scary and empowering at the same time.



Overall it was a success. I learned a lot. I wish I had done a grabbier yarn for the crocheting part. The green is Cascade 220 and the pink is Paton's Merino that I dyed. The merino was just too smooth so some of cut ends of the steek worked loose. I manage to tighten it up so it seems fairly secure now.