German Gingerbread House

A"Lebkuchen Hauschen" stands in the keeping room this year for the holidays. What fun, and how wonderful the house smelled during the baking process. This gingerbread becomes rock hard, as does the frosting, as it sits. I plan on storing it, to save for as long as possible. I cut a plywood base the size of the bottom of a large plastic storage tub. That way, I can seal it up, and pop it in the tub for the next year. Of course, you cannot store it in extreme temperatures, but as long as it is sealed against moisture and humidity, it should be fine in the basement. I made the dough in three batches, over the course of several days, cut the pieces while slightly warm, then assembled it over the course of several more evenings, with three batches of frosting.

Mohair and More!

This weekend, I had a chance to try out a scouring product that I won as a door prize this past November at the "Gathering" (a Handspinner's conference, held biannually throughout the Northeast Handspinner's Guild)! I gave the mohair locks I had washed a couple of weeks ago another bath, since they were so very soiled. The product is called Power Scour, put out by Unicorn Products. I was pleasantly surprised. The mohair came cleaner, and I was able to use water from the tap...hot, of course. I usually use Orvus WA Paste, available from livestock or farm and garden establishments, generally used for washing sheep before showing them. Also a good product, but I like the fact that Power Scour can be used with a slightly lower temperature, and it is lightly scented, which I personally like.The mohair is ready for some sampling. Before I wash any more mohair from this particularly soiled fleece, I will attempt to remove more of the chaff and loose dirt and debris, by willowing it (beating it with sticks, for the uninitiated!). I found a Rambouillet cross fleece, in dark chocolate, in my cellar this morning. I confess, it is one of the casualties of my fleece stashing habit, which many handspinners are privy to! A lovely fine soft fleece.....I cleaned some of it with the Power Scour, and as you can see, it looks great! Smells nice, too! A couple of rinses and no agitation, yielded good success with both fleece samples.

Mohair!

I had been searching for a mohair fleece for a couple of years, and found a small third clip yearling fleece at Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival last month! Imagine my delight to find one that was not too large, and the price was right....! One drawback, though, it was heavily soiled as you can see in the photo on the left. But I took the chance, thinking that if it did not come super clean/white, I could obtain some muted shades by dyeing it, at the very least. I asked Robin Russo, spinning instructor extraordinaire, how I should proceed with washing it, when I attended The Gathering last month (for those uninitiated, this event is held biannually through the Northeast Handspinners Guild. Two days of spinning/fiber arts classes, spin-ins, a vendors market, lectures and so on). She suggested placing batches into a net bag, soaking in hot water with Orvus WA Paste, rinsing several times in the bag until the water runs clear, with hot water and no agitation. Add a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to neutralize the rinse, and lay out to dry. This method should maintain the lock structure of the curly mohair. I followed her advice, and I was pleased with the results! You can see on the right that it lightened considerably, and, I suspect it will spin up whiter than it looks. It is fine and lustrous. I bet I have lost half the weight in dirt! Robin had 2 articles published in the Fall 2012 issue of Spin Off magazine that I recommend to beginner and intermediate spinners. It is about her experience working with and East Freisian fleece. She outlines the process she used to clean and prep the fleece, and how she experimented with it to determine what her end use would be, based on the results. Se tried some blending with other fibers too. The second article discusses the sweater she designed and created with the yarn she spun from that fleece. Thank you Robin, for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I purchased a sinful amount of several species of silk fiber in all sorts of preparations from Robin's booth at the Gathering! Can't wait to start spinning it, I can just picture it blended with some of Mackenzie's cashmere-like Pygora fleece! I am sure he would approve! I will post my experiments in mohair soon.....

Lowell Quilt Festival 2012

During our visit to Lowell, Mass., we stopped by an art studio and saw some beautiful art quilts.....

Boot Cotton Mill, Lowell, Mass. August 2012

We spent the day in Lowell, touring the American Textile History Museum and The Boott Cotton Mill. This was fascinating! The mill had a small fraction of its looms running, and the sound was deafening. At the peak of production in the 1800's, there were 1000 looms running per floor.

Rigid heddle experiments

I have been sampling warp and weft floats to explore pick up techniques for this type of weaving. It is so much fun! I am following Jane Patrick's book "The Weaver's Idea Book", which is a wonderful resource with very clear instructions and colorful, inspirational photos. I highly recommend it!

A Beautiful Summer Day (and some musings on the rigid heddle....)!

The dooryard garden waits for a good watering. I decided not to water last night, since the weather forecast called for a steady rain overnight. Alas, no rain, so my first chore this morning was to water. I put annuals in this year to fill in the empty spots between the perennials and herbs. I am glad I did! They are doing well, especially after a heavy dose of well rotted goat manure this spring. That certainly did the trick. The garden has been looking anemic for several years, until now. I will definitely continue to add annuals in the future--they provide blooms throughout the season, long after the perennials have had their blooming periods. The goats provide us with not only fiber for handspinning. They give us countless hours of  entertainment, watching them frolic and play, they help the garden grow---in their own special way!

More flowers---cosmos, daisies and morning glories grow along the garden fence. Lots of color to inspire any artist--fiber or otherwise. I think I will use some of these colors to work out some color schemes for a shawl. A recent walk provided me with colors for another project I am planning. When I return from a walk, I sit down with my colored pencils and sketch patches of the colors I remember seeing. I then arrange the colors, tossing out some, changing the values on other, until I have a workable and harmonious color palette to use in a project. The art supplies are always nearby!

Mackenzie enjoying his breakfast! He and Jack have been a bit selfish lately. They have been pushing Violette and Luna out of the goatshed at mealtime. How selfish.........unfortunately, Luna and Violette taught the boys this rude habit! As you can see, Mack has not grown in much of his new coat yet, I am not sure he will be ready for shearing in November. We will wait and see. Jack (Mack's twin brother) has a lovely coat coming in. Mack and Jack are Pygora goats. They produce lovely cashmere-type fleeces, a joy for handspinning.

Ongoing restoration-in-progress..........

The butt'ry shelves get the southeastern morning sun.

The keeping room displays handwoven colonial-style samplers and table runners.

A simple rigid heddle loom in the keeping room is warped with an olive green 3/2 mercerised cotton yarn. This warp will become a sampler for different weaving techniques I would like to brush up on. Stripes, Danish medallion, leno lace and some pick-up pattern weaves are on my list of things to try. This is a Schacht "Flip" loom, in the 20" width.  It has a trestle-style stand, and a portable storage bag, so it is perfect for on-the-go-weaving. I set the 6" wide warp at 10 ends per inch. It is 3 yards long, plenty to practice many techniques. This was my favorite rigid heddle loom. It came fully assembled and finished. It folds up for portability. The stand had to be assembled, but the directions were very clear, and it was easy to do.

Here are some variations on stripes. I alternated stripe widths and colors. Tomorrow I will try out some finger manipulated weaves. I am very happy with the smooth operation of the heddle bar on this loom. It is a well-designed loom. The stand allows you to tilt the loom to any position, which is great if you are like me and weave in different locations, and use a different seat each time---you can adjust the loom's tilt quickly to fit your chair or stool.