A Quilted Mouse Pad

This week I made a tiny quilt for my computer.

The optical mouse didn't track well on the stone countertop in our new kitchen (my desk is in the kitchen), so any excuse to make a new quilt!

I pieced little scraps of fabric together, and cut the piece into a rectangle.

Used a scrap of Soft and Stable batting, because I had it.

I used the walking foot to quilt dense parallel lines. I knew from trying to find something to work as a mouse pad that it needed not to move (I have lots of mini quilts, mug rugs etc but they didn't work), this piece of carpet underlay did the job.

I attached the underlay with a few random quilt lines. I did have to help it move in the machine by pulling slightly - for quilting and binding.

The little quilt is 7"x8", and it works quite well even with the seams - I think it is the dense quilting and stiff batting.

I finished spinning the sparkle fibre (282yds, 109g of a sport weight yarn).

I couldn't wait to start knitting some socks (toe-up, two-at-a-time, 56 stitches). This is my new take-along project.

I picked the last of the apples this week - well the ones I could reach from the top of our tallest step ladder.

We have two kinds of apple trees. I wish I knew what kind they are, they are both delicious. The ones on the left were the earlier ones (past their prime now). 

I made another batch of Maple Apple Butter with the later apples using the recipe from Homespun Seasonal Living, but omitted the apple juice since it would just add sugar and the apples were sweet enough, and since the apple sauce had to boil for quite a while to thicken up I didn't see the point of adding more liquid.

Photos from around -

sunrise

sunset 

I love the silhouettes against the sky.

so many bees

fall geese

I should have named her Shadow, she follows me everywhere (her name is Maggie - for Magpie because when she first came around she just chirped, like a Magpie, and she is black and white).

All the best!♥︎

Spinning

I finished spinning the blend of silk and linen -

I ended up with about 400m and 100g of a fingering weight yarn (65% Silk/35% Linen).

It goes well with the skein of silk gima that I dyed along side the fibre. I purposely spun the fibre for texture to contrast with the smooth silk ribbon. I noticed that there isn't much pink showing in the handspun yarn, I guess the other colours overpowered it. I will make some kind of a shawl with the yarns.

Now I am spinning some fibre that I bought on Friday at a local fibre festival.

It is so bright and sparkly! Since I usually dye my own fibre it is fun to be spinning something I didn't  dye.

first bobbin

This is a super wash Merino/nylon blend with some stellina for sparkle - perfect for socks.

Speaking of bright - I finished this pair of socks, although these are a bit garish. Regular, 64-stitch, toe-up, heel flap and gusset, knit two-at-a-time on 2.5mm long circular needle. The yarn is a commercial super wash Merino and nylon blend that I had dyed (it didn't come out how I had hoped). This was my take-along project.

Photos from around the place -

still working on the roof

harvesting soybeans next door

a sunflower from the garden

All the best!♥︎

More Indigo Dyeing and Canning

This past week my sister came over to try out indigo dyeing (I guess I think everyone should see how interesting it is).

This time we used the indigo kit from Jacquard. It worked really well - created that nice dark blue I was hoping for the last time I dyed with indigo.

I sewed a top with one of the pieces of fabric (the pattern is the Bondi Top by Sew to Grow - it was harder to sew than I thought it should have been, but it is comfy and I like the fabric. I had to add some pleats at the neck because it was so big).

I also finished spinning a project that I started spinning in July during Tour de Fleece.

This is from a local raw fleece that I had processed and dyed. Ended up with over half a kilo, and over 2000 metres of about Sport/DK weight yarn.

I started knitting the Autumn League Pullover, a free pattern by Alexandra Tavel.


Canned Apple Pie Filling -

We have been making canned apple pie filling this week (this is the first time we have had apple trees so we are trying every way to preserve apples) and I wanted to share my experience. I am really pleased with the results.

the first two batches

I used the recipe from a canning magazine I had bought at the beginning of summer, but here is a link to the same recipe with lots of helpful tips. 

The recipe calls for ClearJel (a modified corn starch) as a thickener. I couldn't find it anywhere in Winnipeg (a large city) so I ordered it online from Ontario. I had read a lot about thickeners while I was searching out the product and apparently you can't substitute regular, ie. easy to find, thickener because they don't withstand the canning process. I also read that some people didn't add a thickener when canning apple pie filling, just used their regular thickener when they baked a pie. We have been canning all kinds of apple products, Maple Apple Butter is delicious, as well canned apples in light syrup, the canned apples just floated, so I don't think making apple pie filling without a thickener would work as well.

Since my package of ClearJel was only enough for a couple of batches of pie filling we decided to see if we could find the product locally and decided to try the nearby smaller towns, with better luck. Prairie Foods in Plum Coulee had Thermo Flo - a different brand of modified corn starch. I used the same amount of starch for the latest batch of pie filling and it didn't seem as "gloopy" as the ClearJel, but thickened nicely (there isn't much online about Thermo Flo, ClearJel seems to be the popular one).

After the first batch we have been experimenting with the recipe a bit each time, it was a bit too sweet with lots of 'sauce' - we are up to 16 cups of sliced apples instead of 12, a bit less sugar and an extra 1/2 cup of water. We do leave a good 1" of headspace (up to where the jars start curving in) when filling the jars, and leave the jars in the canner (regular water bath canner), off the heat, for 10 minutes, to minimize siphoning.

A jar from the first batch on the left (without the ring) and the latest batch (first with the thermo Flo) fresh from the canner on the right (with the ring) - a better fruit to 'sauce' ratio for us.

Photos from Around-

 Swallows on the wire.

 Our first ever homegrown watermelon - tiny but so delicious!

We thought it was funny that our oldest was so surprised that there were so many seeds - he has only had seedless, and we remembered why we only ate watermelon outside when we were young.

Surprised by a couple of deer on our walk.

All the best!♥︎

York Apron, Apples and a Gnome

This week I made a York Apron.

This is from fabric that I recently purchased at a fundraiser sale at the Costume Museum of Canada in Winnipeg (this is just the start of sewing with the fabric I purchased - great deals!). This one is a quilting cotton.

The apron has a nice cross-back. All the edges are trimmed with bias binding (made from some green cotton I was given). I changed the pattern a bit - I made the front top a bit wider for better coverage, so the straps on the front and back are wider too. I made the short length, with bucket pockets and the high neckline. Next time I would use a walking foot to sew on the bias binding (it is one long piece all around). The apron is so bright and cheerful, and lovely to wear.

Since I had leftover fabric, and the fabric is bright (something that I don't have too much of) I made the cat a new anti-predation collar. This time I didn't make the full circle (so that it would be less clown like).

It is the same size as her break-away collar.

It lays flat on her (looks more like a shirt collar, she just needs a tie, maybe a bow..... somehow the little outdoor cat now has her own bedroom and a wardrobe! When I suggested to my family that now that we live on a farm we should raise a beef calf or a pig for meat, to become more self sufficient, this was pointed out to me). 

The collar seems to be working - it has been a few weeks and I haven't seen her catch a song bird, just lots of mice, voles and ground squirrels.

This week I spun a tiny amount of rabbit fur.

So fluffy! To make the beard of a tiny gnome!

This one is for a friend. The rabbit fur comes from her daughter's rabbit.

This past weekend we had high winds, and with a loaded apple tree it marked the start of apple canning season.

A few batches of apple sauce.

A batch of apple jelly.

and the latest batch fresh from the canner (I learned that it seems much easier to make apple jelly when you let the juice drip overnight).

 This tree is still loaded, plus there is another apple tree not quite ripe and a crab apple tree, so lots more to can - apple pie filling next!

Photos from around -

A Hummingbird at the feeder

A Winnipeg Parks Rose from the garden

So many Blackbirds

Berries on the wild asparagus 

All the best!♥︎

Finally Finished!

I am so thrilled to be finally finished this vest!

The pattern is lovely - it is Capture a Cozy Moment by Carol Sunday. It was quite easy, with a nice Brioche band to liven up the knitting. It just seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I started it last December, but did take a break from it to knit another sweater.

I spun the yarn three years ago, and did start a few different projects with it (probably part of the reason that the whole project seemed to have been around forever).

The fibre is merino that I bought on sale. The top orange/red bundle came like that, and the bottom two bundles were a pale yellow that I over dyed.

I drum carded the fibre to blend all the colours,

and then spun the yarn during Tour de Fleece 2016 (it is 500g, and over 1000m of yarn).

I used every bit of yarn, and it came out a perfect length after blocking.

Photos from around the farm-

The vest matches the colour of the wild dock in the yard.

The cat's collar matches the impatience flowers.

(Her collar seems to be working, she hasn't brought a bird home with it on.)

 We had a bumper crop of bush beans this year.

 Trimmed some dead branches in the trees this week, watching a storm travel around - the light was beautiful.

Since we started renovations in March I had the spare bedroom in the basement full of stuff from upstairs with the door shut (before the cat came in). Now that renovations are almost finished and things have gone back upstairs, I cleaned out the bedroom and opened the door. The cat was thrilled to explore a new room, and has claimed the bed as hers.

All the best!♥︎