Remember this?? Here is the second ounce of Firefox cashmere/ silk roving. I thought I'd left it at my parents house last month. I couldn't believe I'd been so careless. Maybe it had rolled under the bed when I was packing to come home. It had rolled alright. I found it last night behind a chair. I wonder if it had any help?
I'm only now getting around to planting the front of the barn addition. Everything has to be perennial or removable. The rock "step" is level to the ground. When the plow and snow blower come by this winter, all has to have disappeared. The hostas are Krossa Regal. They'll be nearly as high as the bottom of the window boxes and as full as a hedge by next year. That's the plan. You know about plans.
think "sweet"!
Everybody has "their thing" that they do. You know what I mean, for example, baking chocolate chip cookies, or the best lasagna. For me, one of my "things" is that I seem to have the ability to trap beavers. Don't laugh. If you live on a pond, it is a great skill to have. Years ago, we had to shoot them or worse yet, set the killer bear traps for the beavers that settled here. It was awful. Beavers are smart, beautiful animals. I can't bear to kill them, especially when so many people want ponds built on their properties. Depending on where you live, it isn't always easy to get a permit to turn a wetland into a pond. Beavers don't get permits. That makes it pretty handy to have a beaver ready and more than willing to work. My preferred method is to set a Hav-a-Hart trap. Live trapping, uninjured. I brag about the year that I trapped the offender in the first 15 minutes after setting the trap. Usually, I get them within hours. NOT this year. It was a solid week. Every morning with my first cup of coffee and every night before I went to bed, I'd walk down to the trap and make sure that no one was inside. There isn't any point to stressing an animal any more than necessary. I move them as soon as I find them. This little beaver was so smart. He had it down. Day after day I found that he'd poked long sticks into the trap and released it. One day I found that he'd somehow been able to block the entrance and partially fill the inside with mud and pond weed, his specialty. On my evening checks, he'd be waiting a bit offshore and smack the water with his tail several times to scare me away. I was beginning to think that this one would be the beaver that got away, or that we'd have to get rid of by other means. My neighbor had complained that his field behind the pond was too wet to pasture. There has been so much rain and the beaver had taken full advantage. The water level was really high. My damn was soggy. What the beaver built at night, I'd break down in the morning. Lines had been drawn. He had to go.
Location is everything. Not here? maybe here?? Suble difference. As the water level changes, so does the trap position.
Got 'em!
This little guy was so beautiful. I wanted to dig my fingers into his fur coat. It was long and shiny and so soft looking. I didn't. When it came to the release, he wasn't about to turn his back on me. I had to dump him out of the trap. Poor thing, he hissed and backed away.
Did you know that beaver hiss?
After what can only be described as one of the longest, wettest, coldest springs on record, we have finally reached the end of the first week of July and with it the arrival of summer. It was, after all, 45F on the 4th of July. No matter now. The past few days have been glorious, sunny and warm. The garden is finally in, the solar electric fences have had sun enough to charge, and the ground is begining to dry. It was hot enough yesterday to dry out the hostas that are waiting in the shade houses, potted up and ready for sale. 200 gallons was pumped down to the field. The temps today will reach nearly 90 and give us something new to complain about weather-wise..the heat and humidity.
This is the time in between planting and harvest. There's lots to do but nothing frantic. I know most of you are starting to eat from your gardens. Not me. The first beans have their second set of leaves, as do the cucs and squash. The second planting only went in three days ago. Still, the gardens need weeding, the pond salting, and house cleaning. I carry a spindle between the house and the barn, the garden and the field. On my breaks, I sit in the shade and spin. Spinning in this way of fits and starts isn't fast. But it certainly more than 10 minutes a day. I have a finished skein of cashmere / silk to show for it.
For years now, as I wind of another of these little skeins, C asks the same question, " do you ever do anything with all those little bits of yarn you make?" He knows how to get under my skin. It is a question I've often asked myself. The answer has been to buy and spin up at least 2 ounces. When I get ready to spindle one of Barb Parry's beautiful blends, I first separate the roving into two parts lengthwise and roll each part into a small ball. Question is, where is the second ball? Seems like that happened to me a few weeks ago on another spindled project. I have got to clean out a few of my project bags.
The baby Tulip Sweater was delivered and modeled. She almost fills it out. So cute! I immediately cast on for another, this time for a boy and knit with only the darker blue and green.
I'm spreading all the accumulated blog fodder over the next few days rather than make this one epic. It's almost noon and the heat is building. The frogs have quieted down. The cicadas are singing. If it weren't for the damn blood sucking bugs, I'd string up my hammock and take a nap. In lieu of that...maybe a bit of spinning on the deck. Summertime!
First, thank you for all your well wishes for my Mom's recovery. She's doing well. Better than she thinks she is, or at least I hope so.
Lisa wrote me:
I have toyed with the idea of making my own yogurt for awhile now and thought that you had to have a machine. Seeing you just cooked it on the stove intrigues me. Do you have a recipe? Would you mind passing it along?
A few people have written to ask how I make my yogurt. Rather than
answer everyone individually, I thought I'd post it.
About yogurt..
I've made my own yogurt for as long as I can remember. Back when I was in college, I had one of those little yogurt makers, the kind with 5 or 6 little jars that sat in a heated base. It was good for low consumption. But, that's not me. I eat a lot of yogurt so I quickly moved on to bigger and better things. If you have a stove, or a hot plate and a pan with a lid, you have all the equipment you need. Don't buy anything.
This recipe is for 1/2 gallon.
That's it. Easy peasy.
When I first saw this pattern, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I knew what color I wanted to dye and the yarn I would use. It was mid May in New England. Everywhere I looked, there is was, a fresh new green sprouting up, harbinger of renewed life in the woodlands, fields and gardens. There was a green canopy forming overhead. They went together, this pattern of twining leaves, looking as if they also were only just waking, unfurling their leaves on their trip to the sun and the new colorway I imagined.
The yarn is Arbori, 50% merino / 50% tencel, the color is "Sprout". Michelle and I emailed back and forth discussing the possibility of kitting it up. I swatched with the Arbori and came up with what I thought would be the finished dimensions. I made up a few kits to sell at MA S&W and continued working on my own. I can see myself making a larger version as a shawl. I love the pattern. After the first few repeats, I was able to memorize it. The few times I dropped a yarnover, I found it on the next row. This was a knit that I wanted to go on, and on. Perfect travel knitting. Sunday, I have to travel and this knit is done. It'll be a hard one to replace. This morning I soaked it and stretched it out on the table. No blocking. This may be enough.
