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19/5/2020 1 Comment

How to spin boucle singles from wool locks

​My favourite yarn to spin and most popular in the shops are something I call Singles Boucle. I learned this technique from the book The Intentional Spinner, and it's one of the most popular yarns to sell at the local shop.  It's also one of my favourite yarns to spin as it requires minimal fibre prep and is like combining pying and spinning all in one action.  
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For this tutorial, I borrowed an e-Spinner Super Jumbo.  Lat's face it, I'm not much of an e-Anything, but having a wheel with huge bobbins, massive yarn guides and orifice, and can spin at a quick speed!  This e-Spinner Super Jumbo is tailor made for spinning this kind of yarn.

​Here's how you spin boucle singles

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12/5/2020 1 Comment

dyed

​As social distancing restrictions ease in my province, I can't help but worry our personal social distancing is just at the beginning.  Living with a family member who is immune suppressed and having several co-mobility factors myself, I suspect it will be months if not years before we can re-join society.  But it's not too bad with five acres and a house full of introverts.  We've been keeping busy.
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​One of the things I set out to learn during lockdown is dyeing with acid dyes.  I bought a couple of kits from Ashford where 10g of dye is enough to colour 1-kilo of fibre!  With two years of fibre saved up for the local mill, which closed its doors last fall :( , I have a lot of wool (and alpaca, and llama, and silk, and...) to practice on.  It's been a massive amount of fun, and I feel I'm only just scratching the surface of what is possible with this fantastic art.  

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13/1/2020 2 Comments

fouled

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​Standing on Gonzales Hill, one can see almost the entire city: the buildings struggling among the trees.  Look the other way, and spy the saltwater squeezed between our little island and the Olympic Mountains that look like storm clouds silent on the horizon.

The sheltered waters and pleasant beach of Foul (now Gonzales) Bay seem the ideal resting place.  Yet, beneath the calm water is a danger that gave the bay the name Foul.  The gentle cove an inviting shelter for sailing ships proved riddled with kelp, driftwood, and other underwater hazards.  The vessel quickly fouled - became overwhelmed and encrusted with the goodness from the sea - so they could not sail. Foul Bay.

Last year, with the help of so many beautiful people, I published two books!  One paperback Homegrown Linen and the other an e-book Clean with Cleaners you can Eat.  Thank you, everyone.  

It was wonderful discovering that I had something worthy of sharing with the world.  I especially love hearing the stories of people going out and trying new things.  

As good as this all was, something else happened.  It was too much goodness.  I was overwhelmed.  I was fouled (and not in the chicken kind of way).  I lost momentum; my rudder stuck in the kelp forest.  
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25/6/2019 0 Comments

mullein oil for earache

From time to time, I get a mild ear infection.  An itching sensation in the right ear, like ants, crawling about inside and a deep swelling feeling like a softball is trying to grow its way out of the side of my head.  The ear, nose and throat doctor suggested a drop of olive oil from time to time, but for the most part, these things are supposed to clear up on their own.  The olive oil helps a bit, but the sensation never really goes away.  I started looking for other solutions.

One day I found this ginormous plant growing in my field.  It had big fuzzy leaves and a five-foot-tall flower stock.  Could this be mullein?
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18/6/2019 0 Comments

Seductive silkworms - could this be the most eco-fabric I've grown?

​Meet George
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George is one of my silkworms.  These greedy-samas (sama is the Japanese honorific title added at the end of the name, like 'san' but with more respect) are going to help me transform leaves into cloth.

These are my very first silkworms and I want to give a shout out to Peggy at Flourishing Filaments who helped me with the research and found a way to send silkmoth eggs to Canada.  At the time of writing, it is legal to import Bombyx mori into Canada and to export from the USA without a fancy certificate (but check with the government before attempting it for yourself because things change).  

While researching silkworms online, I noticed that a lot of people name their worms.  They grow attached to these little guys.  I didn't want to feel left out, so I named them.  I named all 200 of them George except for the big one, his name is Harold.  
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18/9/2018 1 Comment

Finishing Touches - weaving, yarn, and excitement

handwoven blanket with fringe
Fresh off the loom, this double wide blanket in Ashford's 12-ply Tekapo was a dream to weave at four ends per inch
It's 2 am and there's a pot of Cardamon Coffee steeping on the stove top.  I'm going to have to be careful when I drink it.  I don't want any stains on this white wool blanket I'm working on.  With enough coffee fueled insomnia I have a good chance of finishing the finishing before the day begins.  

It never ceases to amaze me how much time finishing takes.  Making something, be it spinning yarn, weaving cloth, dyeing yarn, or planting the garden is actually the easy part.  In most cases, it takes as long to finish a project as it does to make it.  Sometimes longer.  Linen yarn, for example, is spun at the wheel.  That's the easy part.  It is next measured into skeins, tied, soaked, boiled in many changes of water, re-skeined and blocked while drying.  After which it is inspected again, labeled and stashed away.  

Same too with this blanket.  It took only a few hours to weave, but at least as many to finish.  First we cut it off the loom and inspect for mistakes.  Next repair the mistakes with a darning needle and yarn.  From there, the edges are finished, in this case with a fringe, and after that it is fulled (washed with agitation) to be just right.  Finally, tonight's task: the final inspection where I go over every inch (front and back) to locate any loose threads, flaws, areas that need further fulling, or anything else that can be achieved.  It's a lot of work, but the results are worth it.


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23/8/2018 1 Comment

Farming in stage four drought - what's working, what's not?

We have officially entered stage four drought conditions, which is apparently the worst we have.  It means that the government can start making emergency legislation to reduce water usage including industry and farming.  It also means that we are at risk of not having enough drinking water next year if the drought continues through the rainy season.

Since water-less and water-free farming is the main focus on the farm, I wanted to share some updates on what's working and what techniques we are still developing.  It's all experimental.  There's lots of theories on what works, but what works for one may not work at another location.  That's why it's so important to try things for yourself.
apple tree
During extreme drought, even the grass beneath the apple trees turns brown
Even before the rain stopped this summer, the grass was already turning brown.  The heat hit with such ferocity that the plants couldn't cope and many that would have survived the summer without aid, needed assistance.

This tree is nearing a hundred years old, so it has a deep root system.  I'm always facinated by these old fruit trees.  The settlers planted them but didn't do all the things we do now.  They didn't water them much if at all, because water needed to be hauled by hand.  They didn't cosset these trees.  And yet, they still thrive and produce an abundance even in terrible weather.

This sheer total utter neglect (STUN) system for growing trees works long term.  It does require hardening ones heart against loss as very few trees survive this method, but the ones that do are resilient!​
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31/7/2018 0 Comments

Tips for weaving with handspun linen singles warp - TOW!

handwoven linen singles
Weaving with handspun linen tow, warp and weft.
​Yes, you can use your handspun linen singles for weaving.  Weavers for thousands of years of history did.  You can too.

Most linen warp is spun from the long, luscious flax fibres called line.  These make for strong, shiny, and fine yarns.  When wet spun by an expert, the yarn is smooth.  All these qualities make it perfect for warp and weft.

But what about poor tow?  This often discarded fibre is described as hairy and weak.  Not suitable.  A waste of time and space.
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17/7/2018 0 Comments

The most important stage of natural dyeing

I've been dabbling in natural dyeing for a few years now.  Only recently have I begun to feel confident in my ability and more importantly, confident in my results.  Understanding where to concentrate my effort - what the most important stages of dyeing are - has helped tremendously.  

Dyeing is complicated.  And it's not complicated at all.

It's one of those tasks where we become lost in analysis paralysis.  Complicated chemistry, record keeping, perversion.  How much yarn can this many plants dye?  Will I have enough for my project?  What is the right way to...

Some suggest that mordant (making the yarn receptive to colour) is the most important step.  Others tell me that accurate measurement is the key.  And yet more people say that record keeping is paramount.

I want to believe them.  After all, I've dyed so little.  But I wonder... 
chicory flower and indigo dyed linen yarn
Dyeing in the garden inspires me with colour
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10/7/2018 1 Comment

A visit with WOVENWARES

The woman of Wovenwares are gifted fibre artists and well worth a pilgrimage into town to visit.  They weave cloth.  More amazingly, they weave clothing!

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Cloth made locally by local artisans, with as many locally sourced materials as possible.  That's my kind of thing.

As much as I want to do everything, growing fibres on the farm has taught me there is a finite amount of time in the day.  Everything has it's rhythm and each element on the farm has it's task.  I don't ask the sheep to eat bugs from the garden, likewise, I don't expect the chickens to grow wool.  Why then, should I expect that I can do everything?  At least, not until I find the time to invent a TARDIS.  

But I want to.  Especially when I see what amazing things are possible.  
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Wovenwares gives me heart and hope.  Here is the skill to create clothing from the materials I grow.  I couldn't ask for better!

And, wow!  What skills these women have.  

Entering the studio, I'm bedazzled by the collection of handwoven goodies.  Cloth, clothing, rugs, and hand dyed yarn.  

They work with local materials, connecting directly with the farmer whenever possible.  Sustainable clothing at it's best.

I learn something new with each visit, and this week I understood, I don't have to do every step myself.  I couldn't make clothing as beautiful as this, but I can grow yarn.  By working together, we can keep everything local, sustainable and beautiful.  

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