Nothing to Talk About

There are times, like now, when I go weeks without writing a blog post because I think to myself, “I haven’t done anything! What would I even write about?” And then I look around me at all of the projects in the works, and I scroll through photos on my phone, and I double-check my last post to see where things left off and I realize oh man, there’s so much to talk about I don’t even think I can put it in a single blog post! I think I often forget that even if I haven’t completed anything since my last post, it doesn’t mean that I’m not working on anything. I craft every day, inevitably I am going to have made progress on a few things in the passing weeks. And besides, I like stopping by here to share bits about our life in Spring Creek.

The new chickens have finally been fully integrated into the flock, much to our delight. Kyle has become very attached to all of them and I have a feeling the numbers will continue to grow every time I turn my back. I have it on good authority that inquiries have already been made about a second coop. They really are entertaining to watch! This photo was from yesterday when all of the chickens were on the porch with me, except one who was screaming frantically in the yard because she couldn’t find anyone. All she had to do was turn around! Not the brightest bulb, that one.

The three new additions have gotten much bigger, and they’re going to be so pretty when they’re adults.

Jack and Sally are going to have the most beautiful, iridescent black feathers, I can’t wait to see them grow in more. I have my suspicions that Kyle is going to try to hatch a few of their eggs next year to keep them going.

DJ Nuggie (named by my wonderful stepkid, naturally) started out mostly black but as she grows her feathers are becoming more gray with black edges. This photo is from a few weeks ago, and she’s even more gray now. She’s really pretty and I’m glad they’re all getting along. It took a few weeks to establish the pecking order, but the squabbles have calmed down now.

As summer progresses, I am finally able to harvest the fruits (flowers) of my little dye garden that I planted a few months ago. It’s only a small plot because I got sick of clearing weeds, but if I like the colors I get from these plants I may try to expand it next year.

These are cosmos, marigold, and dyer’s chamomile. I have been dehydrating the marigold and chamomile as I pick it so that hopefully by the end of the season I will have harvested enough to dye a skein of yarn. I read online that it is better to freeze cosmos rather than dehydrate them, so I’ve been adding a handful to a large bag in the freezer nearly every day. I had no idea they would produce so many flowers! I didn’t expect any of these plants to get as big as they have – I will definitely need to give them more room next year. I also planted some madder, but the roots won’t be ready to harvest for another year (or two, or three). I should make plans to get back to the dye pot soon because the window for Queen Anne’s Lace is almost gone, the jewelweed is prolific, and goldenrod will likely start blooming in the next few weeks. Last year I was dyeing and saving colors to do some colorwork knitting, but lately my mind has been buzzing with ideas for how I could incorporate smaller amounts of naturally-dyed wool into some weaving projects for the shop. I’m not sure what to start first!

I was also lucky enough to attend an eco-printing workshop recently hosted by my friend Rebecca of Dancing Sun Cabins and we had a great morning collecting flowers and leaves from her property and printing on both paper postcards and cotton bandanas.

My friend Katie very sneakily captured the picture of me above, which is great because I completely forgot to take pictures throughout the process. Thanks, Katie!

It was fun to explore a new medium, but as I told my friend on the drive home, it seems like a great hobby for somebody who is perhaps a bit more free-spirited than I am because the results can be fairly unpredictable. It was certainly an exercise in letting go and trusting the process.

Coming up in early August I will be traveling to Minnesota for my brother’s wedding, and I am already thinking about travel knitting for that trip. It seems like the perfect opportunity to tackle the vest I set aside after knitting the entire body only to discover that my stitch count was off and it was going to be too small. I have now ripped out all of the knitting down to the ribbing and re-skeined the yarn. Before I start knitting again, I am going to give it a wash to get rid of all the kinks. The stitches looked so beautiful and even, now I’m worried they’re going to look lumpy and bumpy. I am loathe to knit with yarn that has been ripped out, but hopefully a soak before reknitting will even a lot of that out.

I also, naturally, need to make myself a new shirt to wear to the wedding so I went diving into my fabric stash to see if I could find anything suitable. The wedding will be outdoors in August, so I’m opting for short sleeves this time around. I found this nice paisley cotton that I bought three or four years ago to make a button up for either Kyle or myself to wear to the office (I truly can’t remember who I bought it for), but neither of us works in an office anymore so it’s time to repurpose it.

The wedding is in two weeks, which should be plenty of time to get it done. I don’t even want to put into the universe that there is a chance of failure, but I’ve simply taken my tried and true long sleeve dress shirt pattern and sliced off the sleeves to what I think should be a good length, so we’ll see in the end whether I was right, or whether I have to cut new sleeves to adjust the length. I hope I’ll have enough extra fabric if it comes to that. Wish me luck.

And now that the bookmarks are off the loom and listed for sale, it was time to get started on my next weaving project. I am currently working on another run of kitchen towels and not to toot my own horn, but I think these are a winner.

The colors are working really well together and offset the pattern nicely. It’s so satisfying to see a design concept come to life exactly as I saw it in my mind.

I’ve already woven nine towels with about six more to go on this warp. I have a feeling these are going to sell just as fast as my last run, as I’ve already had a handful of people reach out to claim theirs in advance. It makes me so happy to be creating things that other people love just as much as I do!

Well would you look at that, I really did have things to talk about! Now I’d better get to cutting out some shirt pieces so I can get started on that project. Talk to you soon.