Farmers Market Produce Delivered

I finally finished as many of these as I am going to for now. Ian really liked them in the bowl, so I may have to knit some for him too. Little Sharon and I are going to collaborate on a birthday present for a very special little girl who is turning two in September, but we haven't gotten to the point of deciding who is going to knit what.

I wanted enough of them to made a showing in a market bag. I found this pattern in the online Knitting Daily. It's supposed to be made from linen but I held two strands of unmercerized 5/2 cotton together and it did the job. Linen would be better at holding the shape. I thought I had some, but you know how that goes.

I was in town all day so had lunch with DD Chris and Alexia on campus. I gave Alexia her market bag when we picked her up from her campus school. She was thrilled and wanted to show all her friends (who were still in session) all of her produce. The teacher wasn't as thrilled as Lexie.

She wore the bag to lunch and only took it off long enough to eat. She's mugging with the poster. They used her picture from a couple of years ago when they put this together. Chrissie works in Residential Life, i.e., dorm and food management, which is why we eat in the dining commons and why Alexia can go to the campus school. I'm not sure I will ever knit another baby sweater. There's a whole world of 3D knitting out there and a whole lot more appreciation for toys than clothes.
When I got home, there was an Amazon box on the counter with these two books. More 3D knitting! Beryl Moody recommended this rag rug book to me, saying it's been praised by the rag rug weavers in the Foothill Fiber Guild. I'm really excited to dig in. I would never have gotten off the ground without Hilary's help and the book she send. I'm progressing at glacial speeds, but tomorrow I throw the shuttle - again, but this time with the corrected strips.

A Different Kind of Battle

The story of the West is a story of water and water rights. It's the gold that fuels development, think the movie China Town or Marc Reisner's book, Cadillac Desert. We live in Red Rock Valley, which is one valley west of Long Valley, a basin that receives Sierra runoff and its snow melt. It means we have a good aquifer in addition to occasional small springs.

We drew the attention of developers who quietly bought the water rights for a alfalfa ranch in lower Red Rock Valley. They petitioned to have an easement so they could subdivide and build houses and get out of the hay business. They received the easement, and then the horns came out. Actually, they said - we're going to build a pipeline with that easement and export your water. Their pipeline would place pumping stations right next to existing houses.

The water rights to that parcel were granted before Dickenson Ranch was subdivided into 400 parcels, which are now all small homesteads with individual wells. Nevada has a law that personal wells have a priority, but the developers have deep pockets. We raised money like crazy and hired an attorney to represent our cause. Our attorney emailed us yesterday with the following:

"Just received notification that Judge Adams ruled in our favor this morning and denied Red Rock LLC's petition to throw out the county commissioner's ruling. Spread the good news that we won! I will forward the decision as soon as I receive the order. "

It's a relief. We've won for now because they ran out of money. The concern is that they will be back, which means they'd have to take it to the Supreme Court, but for now, we've won!!

Colors of March from Big Sky Country

Sue at Life Looms Large has called for the colors of the month. An old growth juniper against the Sierra Nevada.





Marking the entry for Joe Winter Pottery.






Marking the entry for an abandoned property, someone whose hopes were not realized.







Early Spring stream, runoff from high desert springs and snow melt.








On occasion, a steam forms into a pond, not big enough for fish but big enough to reflect the big sky.

Tinder dry old sagebrush, highly flammable and a huge wildfire risk, but also great kindling for the wood stove.

Big Sky Country.

Not Quite There

The weather has finally warmed up enough that I think I'll be able to make soap. I have to measure and weigh in the garage where I keep my supplies. I also have to mix the lye solution in the garage. However, I first have to thaw out my olive oil. We had planned to go into Nevada Museum of Art yesterday to see the Gees Bend quilts, then discovered that the museum is closed on Tuesdays. We'll go tomorrow so that leaves Friday for soap.
I finally got the warp on to begin the rag rug place mats and discovered that I had cut the rags too thick for this project. Linda loaned me A Rug Weaver's Source Book so I read Inga Krook's chapter on rag rugs and realized these wefts had to come and and be cut thinner. I have unwoven, but I haven't re-cut. Instead I started winding a warp for Maudie Mae. I need some comfort weaving.
Even though I'm not able to weave yet, I was able to test the anti-spin device that Bob Allen sent me. It works and now I can see how it works. A small thin piece of maple is screwed into the inside of the back beam support arm. (It's just below the brake holding the cog.) The spring installed on the outside applies pressure and creates just enough friction to prevent that unwanted spin. I am now in love with Miss Millie. Suddenly all the loom lust I was feeling has dissipated.
I came down for lunch about 1:00 and found Charlie guarding my knitted produce. I've added a couple apples and pears. I joked that I pared down the pears to a pair. I had to stop and think how to spell it - our language challenges me and I'm a native speaker!
It's always cooler downstairs so I added a shirt, fixed my lunch and sat down at the table to eat. I was antsy to get back to work, but when I realized that it was actually warmer outside the house than inside, well - that all went out the window, and I went out the door, heh, heh. I noticed this morning that I got a bit of a rosy glow yesterday. We may not have anything growing yet, but we do have gorgeous skies.

Spring Has Not Sprung Here

About this time of year, we experience migrating birds as they stop over in our wetlands. The bird in the foreground is either a sand or sandhill crane. They're pretty spectacular - big! I waited until it got above freezing this morning to take a walk. I figure Sue is going to call for the Colors of the Month any time now, and I'm not ready.
Yesterday morning I took my walk with the grandkids - it's part of our tradition. They like to look for chips of chert which are really quite pretty. This is what Alexia collected. You'd think they were hunting for Easter eggs. I found one! Grandma, look at this one!!
Chert is used to make arrow-
heads. DS Josh found both the complete and partial arrowhead in Sage Creek, just below our house. Chert is naturally occurring here on Porcupine Mountain, and more chips wash down after each rain. Indians from Pyramid Lake passed through here on their way to summer camps to trade with other Indians in California's Sierra Valley not too far west of here. Kinda eerie. As Alexia would say, "It creeps me out." I know what she means, but I probably am more in awe.

Vegetables are Fiber

I dyed some white Patton's superwash Merino the other day. I've had this at least 12 years, purchased from Diane Soucy's stash sale. (I have to say that my stash, along with my animals were all previously owned.) Somewhere along the lines, the moths munched on it, so vegetables is the a perfect use. My dye liquors are at least five years old and when I tried to make the colors I wanted from the formulas I have, I found out why you can't keep the solutions this long. I kept having to make "adjustments." The green is for limes. You'll just have to pretend.
Ian and babysat this weekend. I know they're not babies anymore, but use that for lack of a better term. Kiernan has decided to grow his man hair and even though I was a child of the 60's - okay, the 70's, I don't get this. He is passionate about Legos and was completely absorbed with the set of wheels and gears we got for him.

I finished some carrots for Lexie's play kitchen while they were here. These are really fun to make. Little Sharon sent me the patterns but in looking around, I think she got them from Peachcake Knits. She has a lot of patterns on Ravelry and they're also on her blog. If you're interested, clink on her link for her patterns.
Alexia brought all her pretty ponies in their special roller bag and played for hours, doing all the voices for all their fantasy conversations. The one that made us laugh was, "Heather, you are grounded for two weeks." Notice what's on the floor behind her, already part of the play.

She's so excited about these. She asked me where I got the idea because they are very cool. I told her she can't take them home until I finish the set and make a bag for them. I've since divided my patterns into two classes: fruits and veggies. In the future, I'll just knit one set at a time. I think my grand-niece is in line for the next set. She turns two in September.

Terribly Disappointed

My morning spinning for the last couple of weeks is summed up in these two bobbins. The right one is merino blended with snipped sari silk thrums. The thrums were equal blue and fuchsia but they appear very blue here. The left is plain Tussah silk.

I weighed 1.7 ounces for the merino blend, so guessed that 1.5 of the silk, since it weighs more, would be close to equal. It was pretty close.

The goal of this yarn was to dye it pink and then knit a pink scarf for a breast cancer survivor by October. Starting now that gives me six months to knit, but I'm concerned this morning that the ply is so blue.
I put the skein in a pink dye bath, but the blue sari silk wasn't even close to exhausted and it over-
whelmed the cyclamen pink. I honestly don't know what to do now. I still want to gift someone in October with a pink scarf - that was the whole point here. I guess I start over. I have six months still. I did get some yarn dyed for more vegetables, so the dye day wasn't a total bust, but close.

Loom Woes

I have had a problem with my warp unreeling from the back beam when I tap the brake to advance the warp. I finally put this backhoe tooth on the outside of the beam to add weight and reduce the problem. I realized that sooner or later, the dowel would break from the weight of this tooth and I emailed Gilmore looms last week.

I exchanged a couple of emails and also had a couple of phone conversations with Bob Allen, the current owner and loom builder. He explained that there were two design flaws that he inherited. Bob built Miss Millie in 2003 and by then had eliminated the notorious dipped shed that prevented taut warps, but he hadn't as yet devised a method to stop unreeling warp from the back beam. I had learned to tap the brake to keep the action to one cog tooth at a time, but I knew that wouldn't work for rugs.
When I originally talked to him a few years ago, he said that he had developed an anti-spin device and that if I would bring the loom back in, he'd install it at no cost. When I emailed him last week, he said that he had created his device as a kit and I could order one. I ordered two - one for Miss Millie and one for Maudie Mae. Ian and spend some time getting them installed this morning, but if you have a Gilmore, you know that yours doesn't look like this.

I warped like crazy this afternoon but couldn't finish before dinner. I have to spend the day in town tomorrow, so I won't get to finish and start weaving until Friday. I hate the whole thing about waiting. I am so anxious to see how this works.
Meanwhile, I've started knitting the fruits and vegetables for Alexia's toy kitchen. I'm at three tomatoes and a banana as of tonight.

And tonight, Ian and I watched an astonishing documentary from Netflix called The Hobart Shakespeareans. I was reminded of Stand and Deliver, only these were real kids with real tears, some of them mine. What a difference one person, one teacher can make, who chooses his passion to teach over the passion to make money.

Since You Asked

About the wolves. I took two shots on the walk because there was two wolves in the exercise pen. This is the black wolf. I don't know anything about these people, only that someone told me they use the animals in photography. They have a couple of white wolves as well, but only two are in the exercise pen at any time except for when they let in a pup. I have to laugh because this part of our road is overrun with rabbits. At night, their little shiny eyes are everywhere, so I assume the coyotes steer clear.

The wolf pens are in the back and beyond the capability of my little camera. I'd guess they have a half dozen wolves in all, and I've seen the owners get in the pens to work with them. That's all I know, other than that their area appears to be securely fenced. They have quite the security system.

Since you asked, I don't care to spin or knit with llama. Our llamas aren't here as fiber animals, but as guard animals. Our work day was 11 hours long, so we just felt better about leaving our little sheepies in their care. Our security system was llamas and a good fence.
One of the reasons I told Mim that I didn't want to judge the alpaca is because I'm not crazy about working with camelids. I don't like knitting their fiber. I have to admit that it's fun to spin, but this sample one wasn't fun. It had no lock structure at all so it was hard to prep, and on top of that, was full of VM and poo. I was angry but Mim reminded me that these breeders are in the dark. They have no idea about the fleeces, and that's why it's so important to give them serious criticism. It was so full of VM that I absolutely couldn't draft the fiber and as a result made a terrible skein.

Contrast that sample with this one. This breeder took care in the selection and submission of their sample. It's a clear representation of the blanket and I knew I was prejudiced by their care in preparation and choice of locks. However, once I pulled the sample from the bag and did some ping tests, I was even more impressed by the softness and soundness of this fleece. When I turned it over and saw the cut side, I knew that I was lucky to not be in the presence of this temptation.
The guard hair was minimal and it was so easy to prepare - the locks literally exploded in blooms on my hard cards. The second cuts were minimal and I was so glad this was my last sample.

I culled excessive second cuts and put them in plastic wrap for the breeders to see, but when spinning, left in those that I had missed. If they're selling fleece, they need to know what second cuts look like in yarn. I removed big pieces of VM as I carded but left in the small bits as I spun. Breeders need to know what these omissions produce. This last sample needed no special care. I just got to enjoy it. It was my dessert. My only regreat in this venture was that the prettiest color (I didn't show it) and my favorite skein scored low on the grading scale. I just hope my comments help the breeder to prepare and present a saleable fleece in the future.

I had spun nine samples in all for a total of 4 1/2 ounces in sample skeins. I prepared all the samples the same and tried to spin to a standard. I'm glad to be shed of this for the time being.
Ian couldn't wait so ordered this from the UK. However, he also couldn't wait for the latest John Burdett in the Bangkok series. H just had to order it and that's his current read. That means, the bookmark you see is mine. Heh, heh.

Blue Sky in Morning

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I was stunned to see something I hadn't seen in quite some time - blue sky! First of all, let me say that it was not an early wake up. I had driven two hours last night for an hour-and-a-half weavers guild meeting, then tried to finish The Pillars of the Earth after I got home. I had to throw in the towel at midnight, but I am thrilled to have joined this guild. It's small and everyone has a pretty substantial commute, but at least I'm in the company of seasoned weavers. I hope to be one when I grow up.

I was just on my second cup of coffee when my neighbor Sandy called to say, that since it was such a delightful day, she was going to walk over the sewing notions she had promised me. I decided to meet her half way, and long story short, ended up walking four miles with her. I am so sore tonight. She's half my height - how does she do it?!
It was such a pretty morning, that I think everyone was out. The wolves were in their exercise pen. Ian had driven out and picked up the dogs from me much earlier because a fox hound hunt was in progress and he was worried that Sammie might chase the horses. I was sans dogs at this point, and actually I wouldn't have walked this far with Sandy, if I still had them with me. They are terrified of the wolves. They do command respect. Our dogs would do well to be terrified of coyotes, but alas, they are not.
I think everyone was out, doing something to celebrate the blue sky. Ian and neighbor Harry were cutting and splitting firewood and I could hear evidence of the hunt in progress. Where is the hunt in this photo? Just follow where Zaria is looking. Click for big on red speck. Actually, that's the foot of our property and it's been years since I've been down there. The terrain is rugged, it takes too long to get there and I have no reason to do it anyway.
I took the alpaca samples that I've finished over to Mim's today. I wanted to be sure that I was doing the right thing by the breeders who have submitted them. This was my favorite sample but I was trouble by the outcome. It had some sunburned tips that nepped, but the fiber kind of fell apart in the preparation. I was confused.
We were chatting as I added scores and wrote comments. She was playing with the locks, flicked off one of the tips, and agreed with my assessment. I had put a lock to the "ping" test and it was sound, but the lock that Mim picked up, didn't pass. It disassembled in her hands - each tug produced a break. We tested random samples - some were good, some looked like this. I've gone back through my completed samples and this is the only one to produce this result. I'm so sad for the breeder. You know this is an expensive animal and it offered up so much potential. It's the first shearing so we hope that it was a change of pasture or feed, and that the next fleece will be sound. It's such beautiful fiber. Oh, and the blue sky? It didn't make it past lunch.

Not What I Planned

I woke up this morning, fully expecting to start on knitted vegetables. It was during my morning coffee wake-up spinning that I realized I hadn't purchased any stuffing yesterday. Plan scrapped. Wednesday is the day Mim and I try to get together, and this time she was coming to my house. Good thing, because I was out of eggs (she's my egg lady) and it was snowing.

She is a fleece judge for AOBA (Alpaca Breeders and Owners Association) and every year she has asked if I'd like to participate and every year I have said no. I said no last week, and then decided it might be a good way to learn about spinning alpaca, so I called her back and said yes.
She brought my samples today and promised to go through the first couple with me. The rules are well defined and the scoring criteria is clear. This is the first sample. I love the color and the crimp. The locks are unwashed but since alpaca is not a high lanolin fleece, the issues are dirt and VM, i.e, vegetative matter - straw and twigs, and worse. The fleeces are marked down for guard hair so I had to deduct a point on this one. I wouldn't have noticed the guard hair, were I looking these gorgeous locks in a sale situation, but the spun skein, after washing and fulling, is as hairy as though I had blended it with mohair. I would not want this fleece.
The second fleece we evaluated had to be disqual-
ified. A minimun 3" staple length is required and no matter now many locks we pulled and fluffed, we couldn't meet that. It was a years growth too - how disappointing for the grower. This the third fleece as I charge the carder.

The color was awesome and it just felt good - already I'm starting to get the hang of it. The lock structure is wretched. I loved this sample at first sight and more when I laid hands on it. What's wrong? The staple lengths are wonky throughout, as though they had picked through the fleece - a little of this, and a little of that. La, la, la, la, la.
The uneven lengths made for an uneven prepar-
ation and an uneven yarn. Perhaps mill carding would take care of that, but I was frustrated to present a lumpy product. The yarn in spite of it's flaws feels awesome, and I could be tempted to buy the fleece, if I knew I were going to pay to have it prepared. What a difference these little things make. I have learned so much in three fleece samples and look forward to what I'll learn with the rest. How different this day turned out from when I laid in bed this morning and planned it.

It's a Good Thing I'm Retired

Son Josh and his family pulled their rig in about 7:00 last night, after leaving Las Vegas and NASCAR that morning, headed home to Bend. We had dinner ready for them. He bought this growler at the Deschutes Brewery and had hung onto it for eight days to share with me. It's filled with Black IPA, something they only sell at the brewery in Bend. Logan is teasing Evan, who's afraid of our dogs and happy to sit on the counter with the growler for the moment. (He and dogs did make peace.)
I had never heard of growlers until this year, so I don't know if they're new or just new to me. They're suddenly the hot thing and often a creative work of art as demonstrated by this handle. I suspect the idea is a throw-back to the Old World, before bottling was invented.
My poor DIL Missy had been feeling ill for the last couple hours of the drive and spent a miserable night, but was back on her game this morning. I had hoped for a knitting fest, but she wasn't up to it, though she did show me her current project before leaving. We had a great time with Josh and the boys. Missy was just happy that when she finally got sick, it wasn't in the truck - bad restaurant food. I made them breakfast this morning including buttermilk biscuits. I used the palm shortening that Leigh introduced some time back. I didn't like it the chocolate chip cookies because it made them too crisp, but it's awesome for biscuits. They were about as good as my grandmother's, and I know it was the shortening. Recommended!
Ian and I walked up and opened the gate so they could just drive out. It's so hard to say goodbye, but it's better than not getting to say it at all. It was time to get myself on the road, back for round two at the DMV. I'm speeding up Pillars of the Earth by reading the first sentence of every paragraph so was able to dispense with another hundred pages while waiting in line. I could write a whole blog on why I don't like this book, but then it would be a waste of your reading time. I promised myself a yarn store treat for my travails.

The hospital was on the way, so I popped in to see Vickie. I put the smallest hat inside the bigger one before I pulled it out of my purse. She was delighted. I then pulled the smallest hat out from inside. We were still laughing when her nurse came in and and then the three of us laughed. I could hear Rowdy's heart monitor from the end of the hall. She and Rowdy have taken a turn for the better. She has her laptop so was able to see all your well wishes and truly is touched. From her, I extend her thankfulness.
Alexia is very excited about knitted fruits and vegetables for her play kitchen. I am completely taken by the idea of knitting three-dimensional objects and this is my starter kit. I sat next to another reader at DMV, but we eventually tired of reading and chatted. She asked me what I was going to treat myself to at the yarn store, and I said yarn to knit fruits and vegetables. She burst out laughing. I'm not sure how to take that.

A Fencerow in Early March

The last snowdrifts
have drawn themselves up
out of the light
clinging to winter.
Beyond them,
a muddy stubble field
has sponged up
all the darkness--
the February nights,
the iron stoves,
the ink of every letter
written in longing.
And the fencerow
goes on, up and over
the next low rise
and the next, casting
a cold, white shadow,
each gate still closed
to spring.

Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States