I Flit, I Float

There is always a sudden change sometime in June where the weather abruptly shifts from refreshing to stifling. I am always optimistic at the beginning of summer that perhaps this year I won’t need to turn on the air conditioning, that all I need to do is open a few windows to let a cooling cross-breeze flow through the house and all will be well. And then like clockwork the summer humidity makes its grand entrance and I can’t shut the windows fast enough. That shift happened here in the mountains a few weeks ago and we now have days where the humidity exceeds 90% and we all pray for rain just for a bit of reprieve from the heavy air. (As an aside, someone’s prayer must have worked because an evening thunderstorm blew in as I wrote this post.) Every dawn as the sun peeks its face above the tree line the morning dew turns to steam, a visible cloud of moisture rising from the ground right up to the sky to begin the cycle anew. And yet we still spend hours outside in the sun every day because we find our new chickens so endlessly entertaining.

Note: I did not say they were photogenic. The chicken above is Kyle’s favorite – Brigitta – and we’re choosing to be in denial about the likelihood of her being a rooster and have instead decided that she is non-binary and marches to the beat of her own drum.

The one on the left is definitely a rooster and he isn’t the only one, either. Of the five chickens we brought home three weeks ago, two are confirmed roosters (and then there’s Brigitta.) On top of that, we brought home three more chicks a few days ago and at least one of those is a rooster, too! I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do once they all grow out of this ugly teenage phase and turn into competitive, cocky (pun intended) adults.

The three newest additions are perhaps even more homely than our first batch. The largest in front was supposed to be a frizzle Easter Egger, but she must have missed the memo that a frizzle is supposed to have curly, frizzly feathers and instead she’ll grow up to be an average, though still pretty, chicken. The other two are Ayam Cemani, also called goth chickens, due to the fact that everything about them is black. Not just the feathers, but their beaks and combs, eyes, legs, even the skin, meat, bones and organs are black. It looks like we have a boy and a girl and have appropriately named them Jack and Sally. These three are two weeks younger than the original five and, having only been with us for four days, are still struggling to make friends with the larger Von Trapps (Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt and Brigitta.) I’m keeping my fingers crossed that within a few more days they will no longer be treated as the newcomers and will be fully integrated into the family. I’m just happy that they all march themselves into the coop at night to sleep (on separate ends of the roosting bar, naturally.) Speaking of the coop, the barn quilt I painted as part of a class at the Spring Creek Community Center is a perfect fit.

I love the personalized touch, and it matches the coop really nicely. Taking the class was a perfect break from the sewing marathon I had at my house a few weeks ago when I had some time off work and started sewing a new quilt top. I almost finished the entire quilt top during that week.

All that is left to do is put a thin black border around the entire piece, and then it will be ready to sandwich together with the batting and backing fabric. I had sewn one side of the black border on, but in my haste had chosen not to measure or use pins and – wouldn’t you know it – by the time I got to the other end of the quilt I was about 6 inches short. At that point it was nearly midnight on my last day of vacation and after ripping that strip of fabric off the quilt top in disgust at my own mistake, I haven’t worked on it since. I hope to pick it up again soon to finish the top and get started on the quilting. Mistake aside, I really love how it turned out! There are so many different colors and patterns, I tried to let go of control and allow the pieces to come together however they were meant to. Of course, being fully incapable of relinquishing all control, I did my best to make sure that the same color/pattern wasn’t butting up against itself. I think I succeeded pretty well.

After that first vacation which was mostly spent quilting at the beginning of June, I had a second week off in the middle of the month and my mom and sister came to visit.

This was my mom’s first trip down to North Carolina since we moved here 2.5 years ago, and my sister’s second visit. I rented an airbnb for them to stay in surrounded by 200 acres of forest for the ultimate mountain experience, and we spent most days relaxing at my house or exploring nearby towns. I took them to Max Patch to demonstrate exactly why these are called the Blue Ridge Mountains:

And it was the height of firefly season, so all we had to do was step outside my door to enjoy the light show all around us. I was worried that the full moon was going to cause a problem and be too bright, but she was very polite and stayed behind the mountain on their last night here so we could enjoy the fireflies, and when we were done she announced her presence in a blinding display, perfectly aligned with the very peak of the mountain we see each day when we walk outside. I have never seen the moon rise in this spot before – let alone a full moon – and it was a really cool experience.

My mom is also a knitter, and while she was here she cast on for a Musselburgh hat by Ysolda Teague as her travel project. I had been contemplating making my own for several months with my handspun Shetland and I took the opportunity to get started while she was here.

This fleece was gifted to me by a friend who raised the sheep not even a mile away from my house and I have really enjoyed the entire process of working with it – from scouring and combing the fleece, to spinning and now knitting. Musselburgh is the perfect pattern to show off the yarn because the entire hat is knit in stockinette stitch. It is essentially a long tube that is shaped to a close at either end. Once finished, you tuck one end into the other to create a hat that is twice as thick, with a rollover brim for even more insulation around the ears. Not quite as necessary here in NC as it would have been in Minnesota, but I can’t wait to wear a piece of knitting that is so uniquely local to where we live.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had started a new weaving project to make some bookmarks on my smaller loom, but very quickly ran into some tension issues with my warp after just one bookmark. I knew it would continue to get worse and worse, so I finally bit the bullet and cut the warp off the loom and wound it onto my bigger loom instead, correcting the tension issue at the same time. I’m glad I did, because I haven’t had any trouble with tension since transferring the warp, and I have now woven 21 bookmarks.

I designed ten patterns in total, and it’s so fun to see each pattern come to life right before my eyes. They’re so small that it only takes about an hour to weave each one and I think I should have enough warp left for about seven more. Then it’s time to wash and press them, cut them apart, and prepare them all to be listed for sale on my Etsy shop. Keep an eye out if you’re interested!

It’s about time for the Von Trapps to put themselves to bed, so for now I shall say so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night.