Fibres West

I know it was two weeks ago, but I swear I'm still recovering from all the awesomeness that was Fibres West. It was a fun, well organized show and a pleasure to attend both as a vendor and a shopper. We had beautiful weather for travel:

Island life is sooooo hard :P

And the booth was cozy but cute and super full of pretty things:

And the shopping was really really good:

Cherry and Ebony Tibetan, from http://ancientartsfibre.com/

Handmade WPI gauge, from Buttons by Kees

Suffolk/Southdown from http://www.hummingbeefarm.webs.com/

Kid Mohair from http://www.hummingbeefarm.webs.com/

Handspun from my booth neighbour http://facebook.com/HannahminsFibre

I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing. Thank you all for coming to see me!

 

Here Comes the Rain

If you're not from around here, you probably don't know it, but up until Thursday we were having a real beast of a drought. It was beautiful and sunny almost every day from late July onward: streams started drying up, fire hazards soared, and yours truly got a bit of a tan. But now, now it rains. I really looked forward to this rain, and other than the whole dog-walking thing, I'm enjoying it immensely. It does mean that I have had to make a few shop changes - in the cloudy months I can't get enough natural light in my light box to get true colours in my product photos. I've decided to just scrap the box for now, and take pictures on our back stairs. They look a little less professional, but the colour is much better and it works, rain or shine. I do have to stand with my back out of cover, which means I got sopping wet taking pictures today and the ass of my jeans is still soggy. The things I do for the love of yarn....

I got some nice rain pictures though!

Rhapsody in Green

I have spent most of the past week wiping snotty noses (both mine and Rei's) and living under the fog of what I can only pin down as a really terrible cold or a really fantastic flu. My usual blogging method  involves dumping a bunch of pictures in my "To Blog" folder and then dealing with them later - when I went to peruse them today (my first day of mental clarity since Tuesday) I realized the last week's photos are all green! Bingo, said I! A theme!

This is my latest skein of handspun. It's 214 grams, and 605 metres (662 yards, but I'm trying to do my patriotic duty and move in a more metric direction) of fingering weight 2ply. The fibre looked like this:

And was purchased from Hummingbird Fibre Arts - a local-ish vendor. It's organic Romney (wool), alpaca, and silk. I'm not sure how I feel about it - the spinning experience left something to be desired what with the vegetal matter and second cuts falling out hither and thither, and the colour isn't really saturated enough for my tastes, but it is shiny and drapey and rather pretty. It'll be good for a lacy somethingorother.

Next up, the garden! We weren't getting ANY sun in the back yard/patio/thing because of our overzealous tree, so nothing was growing. We live in a great co-op that welcomes families of all income levels, which means that there isn't a lot of money floating around for things like professional arborists. So, with Jake's help (well ok, he did all the physical cutting, I just dragged branches around and shouted orders), I gave the tree a haircut. A terrible, sloppy looking, jaggedy haircut that I am sure it is totally embarrassed of.

This is what came off:

Which is a lot. Particularly considering that that pile is what it looks like after we cut it into more stackable chunks. But now the sun shines fully on my planters for several hours each day! So I finally planted tomatoes:

Look at all the little baby lettuces! And the strawberries! And my zucchini is flourishing! Yay for gardens.

My final bit of green? A PSA for all you yarn-lovers. Please, for the love of all that is good and fair and right, do NOT store yarn with mothballs. A friend bought this gorgeous yarn in a destash, and when it arrived it reeked (through three layers of plastic) of noxious chemicals. I was doing some dye work for her, so she asked me to wash the deathly smelly yarn while I was at it. It now only smells a bit musty, but do you know what it took? Two washes with dawn soap, a 6 hour vinegar soak, a long wash in Eucalan, innumerable rinses, and a week (A WEEK) hanging up outside between washes to blow around in the wind. The mothball chemicals burned any broken skin on my hands (I have a semi-psychotic cat, broken skin is a necessary part of this lifestyle choice) when I put them in the soak water. I really though that the smell wasn't going to come out. And look what was nearly ruined:

It's impeccably dyed, and a luscious merino/cashmere blend. It would have been a crime against yarn-kind. So please, please - no mothballs. They're toxic and terrible. The best way to prevent moths is constant vigilance. Take out the stash every once-in-a-while; shake out the skeins and get them some sun. Store them in ziplocs and then in plastic. Throw in lavender or cedar, if it makes you happy, but they're mostly useless. Light and agitation are your friends. I'm through with mothball yarn.

Vegetable Babies!

This year's veggies are (almost all) in the dirt! I still need to put in a few tomato plants but it keeps raining. I don't garden in the rain. There's commitment, and then there's wet, soggy misery.

Planting Day

Sage, Thyme, Parsley, Oregano

Thai Basil, Garlic Chives, Sweet Basil

Zucchini

Baby Beans! So cute and green...

Before that we had spring flowers, which were lovely. They're all but gone now, and many of the flowering things don't look like they'll bloom at all this year, but that's OK because they're new and small and not well established. Give them a year and I'm sure they'll be fabulous.

Ahhh Autumn.

I think I have the opposite of seasonal affected disorder. Instead of getting depressed when it's dark all the time, I start to kick into high gear as soon as the leaves start to fall. By late December I'm on a high that lasts me until May. Then it gets hot out, and I spend the entire summer indoors wishing I had AC. It takes all sorts right? Anyway, I'm feeling great! Look at my back yard!

I've still got flowers!

There's Kale in the veggie planters,

The moss is taking over,

And barbecue season is most definitely done.

I'm in seasonal heaven!

Pics From Fibrations!

Have a look at my pics of my vendor tent! This is just as the marketplace opened and the feeding frenzy began.

That's Jacob in the orange shirt. He was an awesome helper. My mum also came to my aid - I had no idea it would be so busy!
 

What a day! It was great to meet so many fibre artists - one woman even gave me a bite of her delicious oatmeal cookie when I told her it looked tasty. Knitters (and crocheters and felters and spinners and weavers) are, as a rule, awesome people.

That up there is the whole display - fibre, accessories, yarn, and patterns!

 Mmmm yarn... It looks nice all piled up like that.

 It felt so great to meet people who liked my work. I feel validated! Having people buy my handspun was particularly wonderful.

The location was perfect - the natural sunlight and the shade in the orchard was wonderful for showing off delicious colours.

I take my (imaginary) hat off to the Fibrations organizers. It was a fantastic event that I am proud to have been a part of.

I'll see you there next year!

Garden State

And by that I mean the state of the garden, of course. Although, Victoria is sometimes called the Garden City, but that is neither here nor there.

Look how much it's grown! From this:

To this:

It's actually bigger now, as this photo is a few weeks old, but it's also uglier because August is the month of yellowing leaves and runaway tomato branches.

My zucchinis worked!

This was probably the most delicious zucchini I have ever eaten, although the texture was very woody. It wouldn't have been good raw, but it was fantastic cooked! I think I'll only get one or two more from the plants - the raccoon raids severely diminished my crop. I'm still mad about that.

I've also got some peas; enough for a few salads or something. I knew I wouldn't get many so I'm happy with that. Something happened to my green beans and they never got more than a few inches tall, but there are a few tiny beans there that can be snacked on. I wonder if this cold, wet summer didn't agree with beans. My tomatoes are doing well, provided we get enough sun to ripen them all. The Sweet 100 is living up to its name but the Super Fantastic is really only moderately fantastic.

Also, this:

I accidentally transplanted it out of my mum's garden, and I wasn't sure if it was going to live, but I'm so glad it did. Hopefully it will spread and I'll get a few more next year.

Gardening Win!

Our patio area has an unfenced drop down to our lower garden - it's the perfect opportunity for an insane toddler to cause herself some damage, get filthy muddy, and destroy all my hard gardening work in a single leap. I knew I needed to fence it off, but I couldn't figure out a safe, inexpensive fence that could be assembled cheaply and with my limited tools and building knowledge. Then I had an epiphany! Planter boxes! They were an easy project with dramatic results - I now have a veggie garden, fence, and continual source of smug satisfaction, all in one! You could do this yourself. I made 2 5'x1'x1' planter boxes using untreated cedar fence boards (pressure treated wood is a little poisonous for my veggie gardening tastes) and cheapo gardening soil, all for about $48. I used a handsaw, a hammer, and nails. And - get this - my plants are actually growing! I'm well aware that the planters are a little over full - I'll deal with it when it becomes an issue.

They look pretty sharp don't they?

Baby bean

Zucchini!

This tomato variety is called Super Fantastic. I could hardly pass it up with a name like that!

I also had another brilliant stroke of insight - I was watering my mint next to my empty strawberry pot (I planted flowers in it last year, it was very pretty) and thinking 'gee it's a damn shame that I don't plan on planting anything in this cool pot this year' and then I went over to water my strawberries and I was thinking ' gee it's a damn shame that these berries are so potbound in these tiny little... AHA!' And so, Emma the Genius transplanted the strawberries into the strawberry pot. Sometimes I amaze even myself.