Making Monday 7

It was my daughter's first full day at school today (after several weeks of half-days) and I just couldn't settle to anything. I did plenty - went for a run in the wind and rain, did two loads of washing, mended rips in two pairs of trousers, persuaded the cats that no the weather hadn't improved in the ten seconds that had elapsed since I let them stick their noses out the door - but couldn't settle to anything for very long. I just kept wondering how she was getting on, if she'd cope at lunchtime, how grumpy she'd be by hometime... So I just drifted around, doing a bit of this, a bit of that, but unable to really concentrate. I even had a DVD to watch - Bright Young Things - and usually I find things like that suitably distracting because even if the story doesn't grab me I appreciate the costumes. But nope, couldn't concentrate.

And after all that, she was fine. Tired of course, but happy enough.

So, as the weather was what I'd usually describe as 'Shetland weather' I embraced the fact that I was mostly indoors today and did things such as appreciate my garter-stitch squares:


Aren't they gorgeous piled up like that? So squishy. I quite often find that I like the look of a wool when it's still a skein but it loses its allure when I knit with it. And similarly I like the look of my garter squares when they're piled up on each other but I wonder if I'll like them as much when they're sewn up into a blanket. Maybe I should just knit a huge stack of them and display the stack as a piece of art in its own right!

I also appreciated my cut-flowers:


.. cut yesterday because I knew the wind was going to bash them to bits anyway so I might as well cut them and enjoy them indoors. I followed Belinda of Wild Acre's tips in her post on harvesting flowers from your garden, so I'll see how they do. Some of them were slightly past it when I cut them of course, but, well, I felt sorry for them. I grew the calendula for dyeing purposes so if I'd been organised and had some wool wound and mordanted I could have tried another calendula dye. Oh well, never mind. And on the kitchen window-sill masking the view of the battered garden...

Can't resist the sweet-peas. Oh, and the Boy's tomato plant needs to be repotted really.

In the end, it being that kind of day, I retreated to the kitchen and mused on the importance of the onion.

Resulting in bacon/tomato sauce with pasta - comfort food for a wild day. I took pictures but they looked all yellowy, like the food pictures in takeaways. Not nice. Tasted good though.

Making Monday 6

I did it! I finally got round to getting a sturdy notebook for my dyeing record - thanks to meeting up with my friend Lyndsey for a coffee and a mooch round the shops. Funny how often we end up in stationery places!

So that was my 'make' of the day, starting my dyeing notebook. It's not very exciting to anybody but me, and looking through my home-dyed stash I realise how few details I have for quite a few of them, but this should organise things better. And that's a good thing. I also bought some teeny-tiny labels on string - you know the type, like very very small luggage labels, so I shouldn't have the lost label problem any more either.

I also went on with my garter stitch squares, using the anthemis tinctoria-dyed wool this time.

I've been on a bit of a roll, creatively, over the last few days - I finished the thick gorgous Drops Nepal socks that I started at midsummer:

These have very much been a pick-up-when-I'm-in-the-mood project - they took no time all really in terms of hours spent working on them.

And I managed to make Scones That Actually Look Like Scones:

.. and taste bloody good! I think I'm a sconvert! Sorry - who knew what a wonderful world of scone-based puns was waiting out there for me! I'll get me coat..

my dyeing week

I haven't managed a Making Monday this week. My husband, somewhat unexpectedly, had a day off work yesterday (he works for a Scottish company that was taken over by an American company and suddenly gets an English Bank Holiday - ssh, don't tell'em!) so we took the opportunity to dismantle/smash up our daughter's old somewhat wrecked chest of drawers and get her a new one. This was of course flat-pack but I won't inflict another flat-pack Making Monday on the intartubes.

Most of the rest of the day was spent sorting out her outgrown clothes and putting them in piles for the charity shop/textile bank and the odd few which have pretty fabric that can be re-used/upcycled/whatever.

So no making. However this past week has been good for dyeing - I mordanted several skeins last week so have been able to do a quick dye-pot whenever the mood takes me. The 'pot pourri' dye from the other day has turned out a softer, slightly muddier yellow than the anthemis tinctoria one from last Monday, and I followed that up with another onion-skin dye. I love the richness of the onion skin dyes - this was from the big brown onions I use most often - and of course the easiness of it!
It photographs relatively easily too, unlike the yellows - try as I might (and believe me I've tried), I just can't seem to take a photograph that reflects even semi-accurately the yellows I've got. Never mind, here's a picture anyway!

Top to bottom is - anthemis tinctoria, brown onion skins, mixed yellow/orange flowers from the garden. The two yellows are actually closer in colour than they appear in that photo.

For my own notes as much as anything (no, still not started the dyeing notebook yet), they're all approx. 50g hanks of aran-weight wool, mordanted with alum/cream of tartar. Talking of dyeing notebooks we were at Kittochside for the Country Fair on Sunday and the lass doing the spinning demonstration had examples of her hand-dyed wool (fleece that is, rather than yarn) and her dyeing notebook on display. I felt inspired! Though not enough to actually find a notebook... But what an excellent record of her work - I must get round to it, must. I didn't get a chance to talk to her unfortunately because she was so busy. I did get out the drop spindle when I got home and had another go with that, inspired by her (wheel) spinning.

If I get off my bum and get some more yarn mordanted I might have a go at calendula dyeing tomorrow as the marigolds are blooming more profusely this week. I do like that word 'profusely' :-). Excuse the smiley but an exclamation-mark seemed a bit po-faced, like the Rev. I.M. Jolly trying to be cheery!

And on that note, I'm off!

baroque scones

Miss Mouse and I made scones this afternoon. I'm not a huge fan of them so had never made them before. There was an error in the recipe. Oh dear. It called for adding milk and then mixing to a dough. I added the amount stated and it mixed to a batter. So we added some more flour. And a bit more sugar. And some more flour and a little more sugar. And, oh sod it, the rest of the packet of flour. Eventually it was something resembling a sticky dough. I warned Miss Mouse that it had gone spectacularly wrong and possibly wouldn't be edible - she was prepared for this having made fairy-cakes-that-went-wrong at her friend's house last week.

BUT they turned out wonky and un-scone-shaped but actually quite nice. Not being a sconnoisseur (sorry) I'm not sure if they taste as scones should, but who cares? I like'em! Miss Mouse won't try them of course *mutter grumble*. The Boy pronounced them 'nice' which is high praise from him. I think they call irregularly-shaped pearls 'baroque pearls' so why not baroque scones?

In other thrilling news, I've been dyeing again, this time with a bit of this and that from the garden.

More specifically, a couple of dahlia heads, some tagetes, some calendula, a bit of yarrow, a yellow flower whose name I've forgotten (coreopsis perhaps?), another anthemis tinctoria flower. It's basically a pot pourri dye - any flower that was looking slightly past its best went in. The wool simmered in it at teatime and I'll let it steep overnight and see what happens. I'm hoping for a less wet day so it can dry on the washing-line rather than hanging from the door-handle where the cats think it's a new toy. Not looking at any cat in particular of course.

Making Monday 4

Busy week- I've not had a chance to blog since last Monday.

Little Miss Mouse has started school. She's settled in well so far and seems quite happy about it! Last week she was only in for two-and-a-half hours a day but from today it's full mornings so after a very hectic child-dominated summer I suddenly had three-and-a-half hours to myself. Which feels a bit odd to say the least.

This morning I dug out some felt and fabric I had tucked away and decided to make her a little brooch. I (slightly reluctantly) went for the felt as the fabric seemed a bit too thin to hold the shape. The brooch has come out looking a little like a political rosette unfortunately - it's actually purple, dark pink and light pink rather than red, white & blue though! The purple button in the middle is one that was one an old pair of her trousers - the trousers were absolutely trashed but I salvaged the buttons at least. She likes it anyway!

This week I've been continuing with the garter squares. The soft pinky-brown there is from yarn I dyed myself though I'm not sure what I used for it. It's a fairly recent one so maybe it was my last batch of onion skin dye. I do try to label things but the labels fall off and I lose track! I keep meaning to get organised and keep a dyer's notebook with samples of the dyed yarn stuck in but haven't got around to it. It's the story of my life *grin*.

My anthemis tinctoria (dyer's camomile) has just started flowering so I also took the opportunity this morning to do another bit of dyeing. I used aran-weight undyed yarn, mordanted it with alum/cream of tartar, and the dye-bath was all the flowers that were open - not very many but after a couple of minutes it was a clear yellow, so apparently a little can go quite a long way. Though I should point out I only dye about 50g of yarn at a time due to the limited size of my dye-pot.

The end result is some nice light yellow wool, though not quite as light as it shows up in my photographs.

I'd really love to have as much of my own dyed yarn in my garter square blanket as possible. The muted colours should go together quite well I think.

And that was my Monday - one in which I finally did some making (that didn't involve swearing or splinters)!

Making Monday 3

Squares. Soothing mindless blissful knitting.

It's the last week of the school holidays and my day has been dominated by shades of blue - this..


..and washing school uniform! I've just folded all the light blue stuff and realised that my daughter, who is starting school on Wednesday (*sob*), has ten hand-me-down polo-shirts! My son's (age 7) poloshirts shrank really badly and are now five-year-old size. So add that to all her age 5 poloshirts (also once my son's, and still in good condition) and I'll only have to wash her clothes once a fortnight! Bet it won't work out quite like that.

My husband is back from California (hurray!) so I have a little bit of time to myself again. Or rather I will soon - at the moment he's still looking a bit unsure as to what time-zone he's in. But we're happily watching telly and I've got my soothing garter-stitch squares. Nice :-). Must ask him about the sewing-machine though...

The Legolas Scarf

I finished this a couple of weeks ago and have only just got round to updating my Ravelry projects to show it in all its greeny glory. Actually I've found it a bit of a pig to photograph - gorgeous as the yarn is, I can't take a photo that does justice to it! Oh how I love it though - such a relaxing knit, the lace was enough to make it interesting but not so much that I had to concentrate on it all the time (I've not done much lace knitting and have to concentrate and stick my tongue out). I went and bought a second skein (thank you Antje of the Yarn Cake for putting it aside for me) but actually completed it with just under one skein so I have another to make, well, something matching. Mitts maybe? Hat? Jings, crivvens and help ma boab, at this rate I'll end up co-ordinated!

As for the sewing, I'm no further forward with the sewing-machine. I'm a bit mystified. But I'll keep trying to figure it out.

I'll end with some sweet-peas in the rain just because they're pretty. It's been absolutely bucketing down for the last couple of days, which saves me watering the plants at least. And it makes everything smell great!