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gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue May 02, 17 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The shed is looking good Cassandra. I have a lot of that polystyrene in sheet form and during the summer my plans are to use that as insulation in my shed. Also I have plans to put a rubber seal at the front of the shed as when the rain comes it blows water into the shed about2 ft into the shed floor-annoying. Still I haven't had a bill so not to worry-yet. Your chief assistant seems to have come up to the mark-a good find. I like those small boxes, I have quite a few knocking around waiting to hit the shed when I can.

I had a good 3 days at the moving process and the shed has one more load by me to go in and then it will be the turn of my friend with his tractor fork lift for 7 pallets. And then move on out ye ha etc. I did find a few things I had forgotten about, rather more old chairs than I care to sit on and the market for antiques is so bad right now, that I expect to have a few bonfires-shame but there it is.

I'm glad you had a good day at the festival, MR, and that you sold some items.
I am not surprised you are hardening off plants as you as are much further ahead than we are, silage in April is unheard of with us. I expect a few have done some by now in Shropshire.
You need a sign for the horse riders to say that CCTV is in operation and failure to comply with being on the bridle way at all times within the wood, may well lead to prosecution. Explaining that the wood land is your living and not your leisure area may also help. But of course the other thing would be to go in there when you expect them and start a chorus of chain saws-I am getting to be Mr. nasty as I get older. Thank you for the link to the Castlemilkmoorit society. I can't get onto it via this particular way, but will to able through Chrome and will be onto it when I have finished here.

Best of luck with the trip home gz, in spite of some bad weather you are talking of going back so must have been wonderful-especially the 45 degree slope house-not for me I am afraid. There is still nowhere quite like Scotland, however.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Wed May 03, 17 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I am merrily dyeing stuff at present in preparation for my entries into the Campbell Town Show. First off the blocks was the corriedale tops that I have dyed to match the medlar's autumn colours. I'm generally happy with the result but the red needs work as it has all been muted down by the yellow!!!




This will be fractally plyed and entered into the 50g skein of tops class.

My first attempt at an Art Yarn (a very unadventurous effort) is stalled as I ran out of the thread I was using to ply it. Basically it is very simply a thick and thin strand plyed with thin thread - sometimes with the thin thread dominating, sometimes with the thick yarn dominating and with knops at intervals. The colour does it for me - it looks like molten lava



Then I spun up 68g of tussah silk, formed it into a ball and flattened out the sides of the ball. I syringed on colour on each of the four sides but ran out of courage before the colour penetrated to the centre of the ball. Still there should be enough coloured stuff for my needs.



I have also spun and felted a fine single of moorit fleece



These two will be the plying threads for another yarn that I have yet to spin. That will be woollen spun and lumpy using up the rest of the ryeland as well as the corriedale in blues and mauves that I used in the scarf. So texture wise it should look like this (but with colours interspersed along the length).



So now all I need is a knitted hat, a 'natural wool' skein and I will be ready to enter the show! How exciting!

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed May 03, 17 6:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

You have both been busy! Good luck with that difficult screw Cassandra. There always seems to be one. That isn't a link Gregotyn, so you may need to copy the link and paste it into a search engine.

I went down to where the horses had been yesterday, and it isn't too bad. They have a few branches partly across one of the paths, but no more damage to the bluebells by them than people walking. Sadly it seems horse riders can't read, as it clearly says at each end of the bridle path that it is private land and horse riders should keep to the bridle path.

I managed to finish the St. Brigids cross and put the ribs into the basket yesterday. Husband kept offering 'advise' while I was trying to get the ribs in and was surprised when I got cross with him. It is the sort of job that would entail a lot of bad language from him and I would get snapped at if I so much as breathed. Got them in in the end and have now woven about a third of the weavers in, so ribs now pretty secure. I was alternating basket making and Shetland lace knitting yesterday evening, as there was a programme I wanted to watch on TV, so hands are a bit sore this morning.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 03, 17 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

This is certainly a hectic time of year - early Spring, garden cleanup, etc. Everything is so very green. I'm already mumbling that we could use some rain.

I was away for 3 days at a garden writers region II event that had planned visits to 3 renown gardens. That was last Friday, in Delaware. Far enough away that I left home on Thursday to stay with friends in Pennsylvania and we traveled together to the gardens. They even brought me to visit an extra garden on Thursday and on Saturday.

Wonderful time but now spending evenings sorting images and creating website entries. Which with their emphasis on the equivalent of RHS stately homes and gardens are not really Downsizer stuff. But you can see here, Nemours, which has an embedded link to the second garden, Mt Cuba. Not even close to creating the entries for third garden, my friends garden, or Saturday's visit to the arboretum's gardens.

And Saturday evening is a garden soiree so an additional potential website entry.

And before all this there was the press preview for Chihuly glass at the New York Botanical Garden.

As you can see I've been busy. But not in a very Downsizer-y way. So please tell me - do you enjoy these looks at my garden travels or do you find them a waste of your time and I should stop.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu May 04, 17 6:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Your yarn is lovely Cassandra. Seems as if you have been having fun with the dye pots. Look forward to seeing the finished products.

Jam Lady, the DuPont garden is amazing. Very French and very formal. Amazing it was built on a foundation of gunpowder. DuPont started with gunpowder in the US and carried on from there, and now it is one of the worlds largest chemical manufacturers. We used to use DuPont inks for doing thick film printing. They are a suspension of metal and other materials in glass, binders and various other things, and when fired through a furnace produce conductor and resistor patterns. Still not sure about that glass. I like some of it but not others. Interested to see what you have been up to though.

A rather frustrating shopping day yesterday mainly. They are having a refurbishment of the supermarket I use and nobody, including the staff, can find anything. They have decided to have an 'international' aisle including a sushi bar they are putting in, so instead of cheese on one side and tinned meat and veg on the other, it is completely random and includes noodles and sweets!!!!!

I then had to go to see the nurse at our doctor's surgery as a routine examination showed that my cholesterol is a bit high and higher than it was 6 years ago. They want me to go on statins, but I am not keen on the idea, and want to try to avoid them if I can, so looking at ways of doing it without going completely without fat in my diet, which seems to be the current 'in' thing, and seems even dafter than statins to me.

Spent the evening basket making and Shetland lace knitting again. The basket is virtually finished, but I need to let it dry now and add just a few more rows when it has shrunk.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 17 7:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    



I succeeded - I am very happy with the result, though getting it through the orifice and hooks of the wheel was a challenge that led to much over-spinning. I will now have to overspin the silk thread so it does not come unstuck when I ply the two together.

I weighed the bobbin before I started so I know that even before plying I have sufficient to make up the 50g skein required for exhibits, so that is a relief.

I have been rummaging in my bead collection for beads of a sufficient size and colour to augment the yarn - not sure I have found anything, certainly the black ones are the right size, but leave something to be desired colour-wise, and the gold and red ones are generally too small. Sigh. Still, plenty of time to make decisions as I go along. The beads would have to be threaded onto a fine cotton as I do not have any with holes large enough to accommodate the silk, but I have many cotton reels of thread so that will not be a real problem other than choosing one sturdy enough to cope with the plying process.

Tired and cross today as the History Room was invaded at 3:30 by someone who has visited many times before and knows our hours of opening, but who settled down to do some research without so much as a by your leave!!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 17 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The wool all looks good to me, Cassandra, but I know nothing about it in all honesty, in technical terms. The nearest I got to wool was the pullovers and socks my mother knitted for me, a few haphazard bits I did-dish cloths-and holding a skein of wool for mother to turn into a ball or winding wool that mother held for me. I was much better at embroidery. I helped finish a few things off when mother was a long way behind! I did learn to darn and that has come in useful a few times-the favourite sock!

The Castlemilkmoorite sheep society I think became a link, MR for me here, even if not meant to be! The only trouble is that on Google on Chrome I can go to the links but then when I want to go back I get cut off! The google via the library link won't let me see any links.
I am glad the horses have not done too much damage, having been a rider once. I hope I didn't encroach on anyone's area that I should not have. I may have said before that 4 friends and I went on a ride over 4 nights from the All Stretton on the Long Mynd in Shropshire to a village the other side of Dolgelly, a place called Bont Ddu, (Black Bridge, Jam Lady). And returned home by car. I had only had about 12 hours to learn the controls in lesson form in a riding school. Amazing how fast you learn when you are landed with a large mare-one Tilley-with an alternate route in mind to that planned, on the plus is she didn't let me down or deposit me where I shouldn't be. We had a "moment" as we passed a digger working in a field and the dreaded council lorry coming down the other side of the road , but all passed off quietly, sort of, as my friends crowded her in the side and she couldn't get away anywhere! If I were to go riding now I would want an old Nag who always had 3 feet on the ground at any one time, giving me the opportunity to fall gently if needed.
I am also seeing a lot more wild flowers now and we have bluebells everywhere and primroses too.You realise we want pictures, MR, of your basketry.

Glad you are back Jam Lady, I recall that proper gardeners are akin to farmers and want rain when the rest of us don't and sun when it is raining, just thinking of your large and full drains we saw only a few weeks ago. I look at your links when I have the time, usually on Saturday mornings, Primarily because I get cut off after I have looked at them and have to go elsewhere to view, and then get cut off when I try to return. Something to do with the council and protecting children, or at least stopping them from seeing what they should not see. I get less time in the week to view. If I were to go now to the link I would loose all I have written, and have to log back in.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 17 6:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That is certainly going to end up as an interesting yarn if you are going to add silk and beads Cassandra. As it is a fairly small sample, if all else fails you could ply it on a drop spindle. It is a pain when people come at the last minute and won't take the hint you are closing; you either have to stay late or be rude to them and tell them to leave.

I did a little bit of horse riding when I was a child, but haven't ridden since. I rode a pony mare that had been a milkmans horse and was the fastest trotter in the stables. Very well behaved too.

We went to RHS gardens at Wisley yesterday. You would love that Jam Lady, and may even have been if you have ever been to the UK, as it is the gardens. I am glad to say they had plenty of English bluebells, H. non-scripta as well as trees coming into leaf. The azaleas were out and a few of the early rhododendrons. On the main area for them, Battlestone Hill, there were also some magnolias and camellias. At ground level there were bluebells and lilly of the valley, so rather beautiful. The spring meadow had some flowers; cowslip, ladies smock and some blue flowers I couldn't identify. There was a also wisteria in flower in a few places. We are a week or two away from flowers on that at home as we are in rather an exposed place.

In the evening I finished my basket. Worked quite well, and I now only have odd ends to cut off and tidy up. I am hoping to get the next frame assembled today and get the St. Brigids cross and ribs on as I have a show at the weekend where I need to demonstrate basket making, and I don't feel that is a stage I want to show to the public yet. I will try to get a picture of the baskets Gregotyn and get it on here, but don't hold your breath, as I am not very good at that sort of thing.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 17 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The first horse I ever rode was Flaxy - a light chestnut mare with a dent in her nose where she had run into a truck - she was stubborn enough to have done it on purpose! The next was Bonnie - a carthorse whose back was so wide you had to do the splits to sit on her. No withers either!

The horses next door have been avisiting agin, but since I seem to have lapsed into hibernation mode and am sleeping late, they have been gone by the time i get up. Evidence of their presence in the form of manure, displaced bales and recent hoof marks give the game away!

Buttons and beads have been the theme today, with a raid on my two button boxes (one from each side of the family) and my bead collection.



This box contains some of the choicest buttons (at least for my present purpose) and the findings are below!




The trick was to find things that would fit through the hole in the spinning wheel once attached to the yarn! On the top right is a group of teeny tiny buttons that I suspect once adorned a lawn shirtwaist blouse. The gold sequins are also antique - thin metal, but they should slip through with some care.

A few more mundane buttons and lots of lovely beads should finish things off for me. The grey yarn is silk and surprisingly strong - I put on some leather gloves and pulled hard but it did not break, so it's all good. Now all I have to do is work out how to get the yarn to feed smoothly without getting in a terrible tangle once the beads are threaded on!

I have also started to spin up the tops that I dyed - I have borrowed some red dyed tops to compensate for the sadly diminished red in the original dyeing process and these are being inserted at suitable points. I will take your suggestion MR and have divided it by colour and will chain ply it.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 17 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sorry to hear you have unwanted visitors again, Cassandra; good side-free manure and some degree of mowing F.O.C., bad-side the owners should be banned from keeping stock. I think I would start charging them for grazing. I let my land to a horsey couple-well she is, he isn't, but has to be! They have gone away, so moved the horse back to their place and still paying me! A bit of a plus as he has polished off most of the grass at home, so it is recovering, but needs a shower.
I went to vote last night and I have seen someone silage cutting, first I have seen this year, but spotted two more fields 'growing on'. In fairness to me I haven't seen any of these fields as they are not on my normal routes, but I went to vote in the council elections.

The wool should look good with all the extras added, I just hope it knits or weaves together as you want. I have just spotted your picture from yesterday of the exhibition entry, looking good.

I am off to do a bit moving again tonight. When I come to the 'store' I load and take it home on the trailer, then unload it the next night and take the empty trailer back to reload tonight and take it up ready to unload tomorrow. I have 3 more in the one shed and will be doing the nasty stuff next week. Big heavy boxes, but they have to be done so I will bite the bullet and just get on with it. My mother had boxes of beads and buttons-I've still got them somewhere-you may get a parcel in the post sometime!

I have asked my boss for some large timbers we have a work, about 12 ft long, 6"x4"-6 of them that long and some others of the same size but shorter in length, I will be adding another 'lean to' to accommodate rather more than will go into the new shed, It is a problem, I keep finding 'stuff' that I simply must keep-oh dear. So I will be on here tomorrow but late I expect, IF all goes to plan.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 17 2:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Many years since I visited the UK, Mistress Rose. Was at Kew and Wisley, several stately homes and private gardens. Even the Chelsea Flower Show one time. And - for you, Gregotyn - Ness Botanic Garden near Wales too. They told me that if I could not see the hills it was raining. And if I could see the hills it was about to rain.

Here's an image from the azalea woods at Winterthur last Friday, path lined with Spanish bluebells.



Alfred I. duPont made his money with gunpowder, yes indeed. Also funded a children's hospital, well endowed in his will. And support for Delaware's elderly.

Rain today, happily, as I spent yesterday pickaxing leaf compost into a planting bed, planting meadow / prairie plants, watering, soaking newspaper and laying down on bare soil between plants, top mulching with wood chips. Today will be errands, also mixing potting compost and - homefully - repotting some plants.

Tomorrow evening is the rock garden chapter's evening soiree. This year at a renown iris garden. Seems a bit early but perhaps there will be some in bloom. Chapter provides entrees, members bring appetizers or dessert. I will bring my recently developed chocolate (cocoa, actually) cake brushed with brandy and frosted with a cooked brown sugar frosting.

Then Sunday is Bouman Stickney museum. This time it is ice cream making.

So I need to sometime soon get my skates on and finish the Winterthur entry for my website, plus friends garden, also Scott Arboretum. Before tomorrow evening.

Cassandra, I'll take a picture or two of the button bracelets a friend makes and send the image(s) to you. Buttons are stitched onto wide elastic. I have several and adore the color themes and what fun they are to wear.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat May 06, 17 5:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Your yarn is going to be interesting with all that lot on it Cassandra. I assume it is just for the exhibition and you have no plans to make anything with it. The multi-coloured yarn is looking good too, and should make up well.

Gregotyn, go careful with the heavy boxes and get help if you need it. You don't want to do yourself a nasty.

Sounds as if you have a full agenda at the moment Jam Lady. Look forward to hearing about it when you have time to catch your breath.

I managed to get another frame, cross and ribs made for a basket yesterday, and we bagged some charcoal too. We were hoping to get the kiln loaded, but the other stuff took too long, and we were diverted by reports of a tree down across the lane by the woods. Luckily someone else cleared it before we got a chance, so we didn't have to do that too. We have a strong breeze here today, and as we have a show with 'umbrella' shelters provided, could be a bit tricky. Son isn't with us. so I am demonstrating the basket making for the first time, so a bit nervous about it and the wind.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 17 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

You are quite right MR - I can not imagine knitting that yarn - though perhaps if I one day get into weaving it might find a use. Otherwise I will just hang it up and admire it for a while after the exhibition.

It just started raining which is a bit late - it was supposed to start mid afternoon and certainly looked like it, but better late than never. And tomorrow is also supposed to be rainy which will make my time at the History Room a bit of a punishment as it will also be only nine degrees. I am taking my tin of garnitures with me to string them all onto the yarn and see how it goes. I just tracked down a needle fine enough to go through the smallest beads and amazed myself by threading it first go! In artificial light no less!

Our local spinning group had its monthly get together today and that was a fun way to spend the day. I have finished spinning the dyed tops and have just this minute finished chain plying them. I will skein them off tomorrow and take a photo in daylight so you can see the result. It looks good on the bobbin, but bobbins are presently in short supply as they all seem to have something on them. So tomorrow I am taking one partly filled one with me and plan to fill it so I can then make a ball of the contents and free it up. You'd think that with all the bobbins i have this would not be a problem but I have no idea where they disappear to!

Once Rowena returns to Oatlands and is able to supply the additional thread for the red yarn I will have two more freed up, so it is only a temporary obstacle, but annoying for all that as I am on a bit of a roll at present.

I would like to spin up some more moorit and some of the black fleece I have so that I can knit a fair isle beanie of some sort to also enter in the show (in case you are wondering, it is a local show and in danger of no longer running classes for this sort of thing due to lack of entries, so we are all pulling together to flood them with exhibits). I even have a photo I am thinking might print and mount up nicely for their photography classes (rural landscape). Not sure if I shrank it though so it may have lost some resolution. I will have to check. Meanwhile i have to go look out my thermals for tomorrow!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 17 10:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Just got back from a round trip twice. To work about 7am. then get the pickup out load with timber-help from mates who are at work at 8am and they broke 2 large pallets up for me-they knew it would take me forever! Loaded 2 long pieces on at an angle as the transit wasn't quite long enough! All 6x4" and heavy, got it back home unloaded went back and had a break, and all before 10am then came home and tried to buy 2 pairs of work trousers from my local Wynnstay Farmers, but none there, a size issue-none big enough. So came on here. I have to go to Welshpool again on Monday to the Wynnstay branch which does have my size, but lucky that is where I work.

I would have thought that a tree down is a bonus for you, MR., as you only have to log it-I realise in reality that a tree down as it fell is often much more of a problem than one felled to where you want it to go and in a controlled way.
The basket making will go swimmingly MR, you can do it. just hope that the gods are on your side with the weather. "It" has been wettish all morning on and off, but none of "It" has been enough for a rain stop play situation.

The rain status 'Quote for Wales' is right, Jam Lady, and one I use regularly to friends. The Welsh don't like it as they say telling folks it rains all the time, so stops them visiting, but that simply is not true. This weekend is hosting a motor bike rally at the Llanrhaeadr Waterfall, I have seen at least 50 this morning heading that way. What impresses me most is that they are all driving using sense today. doesn't always happen with the last one in the queue trying to catch up with his mates and he is the one who gets it.
Library about to close so got to go.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 17 7:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

By the sounds of it you will have no trouble keeping those classes open Cassandra. I have only 3 bobbins, so I tend to do one project at a time; spin up 2 singles, then ply and remove. Perhaps not ideal, but it does tend to focus the mind in one direction at a time. Look forward to seeing your art yarn when it is done, and hope you have time for the others.

Gregotyn, the tree turned out to be a dead willow and not very thick. The trunk will just about do for firewood, but I think it was more nuisance than solid.

The weather was quite good yesterday; it wasn't too windy and the sun actually shone for part of the day and made it quite warm. Started off with sweat shirt and jacket and ended up in short sleeved polo shirt. I managed to do the basket making, but it didn't seem to attract people in quite the same way the pole lathe does. There were quite a lot of people stopped, and plenty of people explaining it to their children, but rather a slow day for sales. We were next to a beekeeper we know with an observation hive too. Still, hopefully the next show will be better.

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