On my walk I heard a crashing and thrashing in the woods, as if a massive beast was tearing through the undergrowth. Nope. Just an armadillo. They are definitely not quiet beasties, but I guess when you come fully armored, stealth is not an option. I paralleled him on his (her?) morning snack snuffle, then continued on my way.
I have three natural colors of alpaca fiber, all washed and ready for prep. How can I combine these colors? What are the effects of different preparation methods? I rather like marled (streaked) yarn, will these three colors combine well for that effect? Time for new experiments!
I carded one small batt of each color. Rather than rolling the fibers into rolags (which is the method recommended in the instructions, and rolls the fibers perpendicular to the fiber direction), I stacked the three batts together, then rolled them parallel to the fiber direction, then pre-drafted the roll. This distributed the colors randomly, which is what I was after. I did try using a shell with holes as a diz (which is used to pull fibers off combs to make roving), but found that pre-drafting with my hands worked just fine.
I spun up two of these preparations as a clockwise single, then plied counterclockwise, then plied clockwise again to make a four-strand cable-plied yarn. All if this was done on my homemade spindle while I was walking the neighborhood (NOT, I repeat, not, in the same day! It took three walks.)
The yarn has an interesting look. The next step is to see what it looks like in samples, probably with nålbinding. Ok, maybe I’m a little optimistic, the real next step will most likely be to see if I can replicate this process, then compare it to at least two other processes (because that is what is in my head at the moment), then make everything up into… something.
Mint and strawberries are prolific spreaders. I need some ground cover for erosion control on a slope in our yard so have been encouraging the chocolate mint plants to go wild. I recently was given strawberry plants from my uncle who has an amazing strawberry patch. I planted my bare-root plants in a circle around the mint, where it is sunny and they will get watered well. Mint is rumored to repel slugs, which would be good for strawberry production. The hope is that they both continue to propagate and fill in. It will be interesting to see, though, if I end up with a battle of the rhizomes.
I declared a baking day for myself and then got a little carried away. Instead of making two batches as I planned, I made three. Instead of two braided loaves, which I’ve practiced, I made a loaf and two batches of rolls. It isn’t often that I bake for many people, and I was just so excited. Then it came to how to transport the bread. Hm. I read that cloth lets too much water out and the bread gets dry. Plastic and foil keeps the moisture in, but the crust goes soft. I also didn’t want the bread to get squashed in transport. So I made some boxes out of poster board. I made measurements and drew lines in pencil, cut flaps, and glued the corners with hot glue (which helps structurally as well).
The boxes worked well, and the white bread was quite good, even the second day. The whole wheat rolls were more dense and tough. (Good thing they were the extra batch!)
We recently ventured forth for a weekend trip to see family in the next state over. It was our first overnight trip since the whole pandemic exploded (and my heart goes out to those still locked down). We’ve had our shots, the dogs were boarded, which was not a happy time for Missy, but she survived and ate, but wouldn’t leave her room. Griffin was excited, so he probably kept her from complete melt down, as they bunked together. The cats had food and water, but told us what they thought about being locked down for two days when we got back. They are not big fans of it either.
I set the chickens up with a full feeder and all five watering stations filled, with one foot bath set up to flush with a hose every night (it wasn’t very efficient but it made me feel better). I was unable to rig the doors to open and shut to cool the coop before bed, but luckily the weather was relatively mild for a Texas summer, it was “only” 90 degrees in their coop at night. I could see on the camera that their necks were stretched out more than usual, and their wings held away from their bodies to dissipate the heat held by their feathers.
When we returned home the chickens were fine, but there were seven eggs in the nest boxes, and one left by the pop door. Amazingly, none of the hens went broody, even with a clutch of eggs beckoning. (I did open all the nest box curtains, which they don’t care for.)
