Blue Eggs!

A couple of years ago we had a costumed Victorian dinner with friends.   Margaret is an amazing cook and she served soup in lovely little two handled cups.   They were charming and elegant to use.   I've been hunting for some ever since.   The ones I've found were either part of a large and expensive set or rediculously priced.  Mainly though, they were just not easily found at all.   Until the other day when I popped into the thrift store.  There were 4 of these bowls, which were priced at 4 for $5.  I couldn't let them not come home with me for that price.   

Oddly enough, the local feed store was taking orders for ready to lay hens at the end of the summer.    I found out because I was asking if he could get in some heritage breeds or cross breeds from the big hatchery.    It's odd because it is the wrong time to get chooks.  Their laying habits are linked to daylight hours and with us getting so few in the autumn, it can mess up the laying cycles.   So he was ordering red sex links - which are fine, but he knew a guy who raises purebreds and sometimes has chicks for sale.   As long as they weren't Plymouth Barred Rocks - (my experience with them is that they are a bit mean and aggressive), I would take two of whatever breed he could get.  It turned out that he had Americauna chicks which would be ready to go about the same time as the regular hens would get in.   Americaunas are an American bred bird, which is like the Aracana but hardier, with less problems.  They lay blue and green eggs.  They were obviously younger than the sex links.  I knew that they might not start laying until the springtime because they weren't the super laying hybrids.   I chose a black and a grey, both pretty birds.   The black grew up to be an incredibly handsome rooster which the breeder traded me for another hen this week.  And ta-da!   I've gotten the first coloured eggs from them.  They are so cute.
It turned out that I did have a photo of the blue tea towel I wove at the guild studio.   What happened is that my phone was acting wonky and it didn't show up for some reason.    After a few more issues, which made it difficult to actually contact anyone, my sweetie insisted I replace it.  When I looked through the newly transferred photos, there it was.     The neutral warp makes all of the towels a little dull but it also meant we could use virtually any colour with the warp and it would look decent.

My favourite banjo strings are discontinued.  Because I can't find a way to contact the company, I don't know if they are no longer being made or just not being ordered by the local music store chain.  Our local store thinks they have found a couple more packets in various stores across the country.  I hope so.   Dean Markley Lights - 9's are very light, easy to pick, sound lovely and bright.    I've been trying other strings but they are either too heavy or made of a different metal which I just don't like at all.   I'm a bit sad about not finding them anymore.

Fibre and pretty antiques

all spun with a traditional longdraw

 I carded the dark purple fibre with handcards to make rolags which spun quite nicely, despite the multitudes of little neps in the fibre.  I decided to run the rest of the fibre through the drum carder.   It was a reminder that sometimes short cuts aren't really so short.  The neps just got more imbeded in the batt and it was difficult to pull them out of the stripped roving.  Instead, I ended up carding all the drum carded fibre with handcards after the fact.   It made a much nicer yarn.  The fibre lots must be slightly different.   While one might have been all Merino, the second one had a lot of lustre and show long strands of something shiney as I carded it.   I'm guessing it was a nylon of some kind since it seemed to have dyed adequately.

The middle skein is a bit tweedy looking due to all the little neps or twisted, knotted balls of fibre or really short bits.   There is 75 g here and I just found another little handful of the purple/pink blend. 

 We took a road trip to the small town where we were married.  I got to see the Ukranian Orthodox church where we had the most amazing ceremony on what turned out to be the colded night of the winter.  However, our main goal was the antiques market there.   It is in a huge warehouse which was easy to find.   But it turns out there were two of them.  One was a horribly crowded, hard to get through all the "stuff" and junk.   The prices were anywhere from the middle of the road to the ridiculous.   There were oil lamps there for $250 that would sell for less than $45 elsewhere.   We were disappointed to say the least, but luckily my sweetie noticed another door, farther down, which turned out to be the more established antique market.  There were some lovely items there, including several lovely sets and odds and ends of lustre ware - but with no place to put it, I left it where it was.   I did come home with this lovely large citrus reamer.  I'm not sure why I'm so fond of them, but they work so well and fit my need for functional antiques.   I've seen large ones like this in milk glass, but they tend to be more $ than I'm willing to pay.  This clear one was the right price though.   As well, the oil lamp is a shape I don't have.   I know it's not an old one, but it was super cheap and everything works on it.  I think it will be put to good use if we have any power failures this winter.

Love that Lustreware

We were in town and had a few minutes to spare.   We decided to wander through the antique/flea market warehouse.   It's one of those places with lots of little rented booths full of everything from old toys and collectables, old furniture, antiques and everything in between.   Of course there were items which caught my eye, like a handcrank Singer 99k which looked like it had never been used and an old flax spinning wheel in perfect condition.  However, I had exactly a single $5 bill in my pocket, a toonie and a half a handful of nickles and dimes.   Not enough for a big shopping spree, that's for certain.

However for a grand total of $5.65, I found  some lustreware.  I love lustreware.  It's not horribly old.  While there are lustreware techniques which date to Coptic Egypt and the Roman times, and some different styles from the 19th century, most of what I love dates from1930 - 1950.  It's pretty.  It's shiny and it's relatively cheap.  I mean if  you only want a complete set, you can pay a pretty penny for it, but for odds and ends, incomplete sets and such, it's often priced to sell quickly.   I have full sized tea cups/saucers from a variety of different sets, a teapot, a few small plates and a creamer.    I also have several different partial sets of doll dishes.

Lustreware doll dinner service

This is the most complete set of lustreware doll dishes that I have.  At some point it was probably a complete dinner service set.  I've seen some sets which even include silverware! This set still has the teapot, a tureen, what I'm thinking is some sort of gravy dish, a platter, both creamer and sugar bowl, all the saucers but only 2 tea cups and 5 plates.


Today I found this small set of doll dishes for $5.  It's a lovely pattern and since most of the lustreware I find is gold/ orange, the blue stands out nicely. It's also nice that this set has a

Lustreware doll dishes

tea pot.  Most of my doll dishes don't have tea pots.  I  played with china tea sets when I was a child though they weren't nearly as fine and pretty, being more modern.   I'm certain that the tea pot was always the first item to break.

Included in this batch of dishes was this smaller but full sized sugar bowl.  Noritake seems to be the name printed on the bottom of a lot of lustreware dishes, as is on the bottom of this little pot.  It's missing a spoon, but I have a tiny metal spoon which would fit nicely.

Lustreware sugar bowl

So for $5.65 ( gotta add those taxes), I got both the doll dishes and the little sugar bowl.  I was pretty happy with that deal today. 

The Yarnoire search continues

 I've been looking for fibre storage for ages.  Specifically, I've been looking for what I've been lovingly calling a Yarnoire.  An armoire cupboard of sorts, to hold lots of fibre and hide it adequately.  I'd probably hide it from myself with the put it in a safe place syndrome, but currently, my homework fibres are starting to be decorating elements in my living room.  The big problem is that I don't want a cheap mds armoire and my tastes are way out of line with my budget.  It seems I can zero in on every single armoire which starts at $1600 and goes way up from there.  There are obviously very few deals where I've been looking.  While open shelving works, Kevin, the exploring, naughty kitty also likes open shelving and bats the fibre bags down to play with them, hence the desire for a lovely closed armoire.

We were wandering through a thrift store the other day and I took  a quick gander down the line of dining tables and 1980's hutches.  There was this little chest of drawers with tacky hardware and a coat of teal paint.   It was pretty enough and I opened the drawers and it seemed sturdy.  I had hubby check it out and he declared it sturdy enough as well.  The drawing point for this chest of drawers, besides needing fibre storage, was the price.  It was priced at $35!  It was obviously wood and not fibre board or mds.   After thinking about it for about 2 1/2 minutes, I went and paid for it.  One of the workers helped hubby load it into the back of the truck, when I was told that for a little chest, it was really heavy.   It's not really that small either, but it looked tiny when it was dwarfed between two huge and ugly china hutches.

A good look at it in the daylight shows that we might have gotten a deal with this purchase.  It really

is heavy.  While there is a very thin sheet of plywood on the back, it covers up the original wooden slat back.   Two of the 3 drawer locks are there, though metal plugs have been put in two of the lock key holes.  I checked the drawer joints as they can tell a lot about how a piece is made. I had to look up this particular joinery type because I'd never seen it before.  It turns out it's a peg and scallop joint or a Knapp joint.  It was patented in 1867 by one Mr. C. Knapp.  It was a mechanized alternative to  hand made dovetail joinery.  By 1890 it had fallen out of fashion as mechanized dovetail machinery had been developed, which appealed to the Colonial Revival style which was fashionable at the time.  By about 1900, the dovetail had completely replaced the Knapp joint.

It's said that joinery of this style easily dates a piece of furniture. So I'm guessing that this is an Eastlake style chest from the latter part of the 19th century.  It's probably Oak, though I don't really know anything about identifying wood. I'm going on the fact that I read that much Eastlake style furniture was made of oak and walnut.   You know, oak is light coloured, walnut is dark.  At $35, it was a  real bargain.  I've priced replacement hardware, both originals and reproductions.  It's going to cost me more to replace the hardware than the price of the chest itself.  There there is that teal paint.  That might be a job for next spring.

I'm still looking for my Yarnoire though.  As pretty as this little chest is, it won't hold all the necessary fibre.

A Sweet Little Ride

So we were out and about on Sunday and sitting under a table at a flea market, was a slightly battered bentwood Singer case.  Inside was a little 99k handcrank sewing machine which I've since dated to 1934.  I've wanted a hand crank sewing machine for years but not only are they difficult to find here, they're either in perfect shape and way out of my price range, or so beat up, rusty, corroded and broken that they'd never work again. 

I did a quick check of this little machine and the needle bar went up and down, the handcrank mechanism sort of worked and it had a complete bobbin race assembly.  I decided to take a chance on this little girl.  I offered $65 for her and my sweetie lugged her to the truck.  For a portable sewing machine, she does weigh a fair bit.

I found my little container of tools for cleaning vintage sewing machines.  Really, it's a tube of metal polish, some soft cotton rags, 2 nasty toothbrushes, tweezers, toothpicks, cotton swabs and a bottle of sewing machine oil.   This girl was remarkably clean for being born in 1934.   She was well used though.  There are lots of wear marks on the machine and bed.  Some of the gold decals are worn in places and the Singer badge is bent.  There is a bit of corrosion on some of the plated pieces too.  The underside though had hardly any oil build up and other crud to clean off.   All the parts moved and after cleaning, I gave them all a really good oiling.
The outside was a bit more work.  Between the sewing machine and wooden case, I spent a lot of time scrubbing.  The sewing machine itself was cleaned with sewing machine oil, to keep from damaging the gold decals.   I might hunt through the hardware store for something to protect and polish, but since it's a holiday weekend here, I was limited to what was on hand.
Murphy's Oil Soap was what I had to clean the woodwork.   80 some years of gunk came off with a bit of scrubbing.. icky....

I need to pick up a few little cork pieces to replace supports inside the base.  Right now I have pieces of folded paper, because today's a holiday and I'm still limited to what is on hand.   However, this little girl is a charmer!   Definitely not built for speed but the handcrank and slower speeds are very relaxing.  It's easy to get very accurate stitch lines with this baby.  Curves are going to take a little practice, but they were pretty good right off the bat.  This is a stress free way to sew.  I just need to remember to stop reaching for the foot pedal when I sit down to sew.

Another week spinning and baking

 150 grams of Icelandic done in a single, lopi style.  It's worsted weight at about 10 wpi. It's pretty and it's soft, really soft.  I will actually use this for something knitted.  While I could have made it thicker, I know that I just wouldn't use anything heavier than worsted weight.  It was fun to spin.  Normally I gravitate to fine yarns for weaving, so forcing myself to spin at a thicker grist is something I have to do once in a while

A spontaneous suggestion to visit a local antique mall on Sunday for a quick walk through ended up with me finding this treasure.  It was late in the day and we really only had the time and energy to do one of the three floors.  Sitting on a shelf, beckoning me was this red lamp.  It was labeled pink but really, that ruby colour in the photo is pretty accurate.  It isn't exactly the same as the lamp with the milk glass shade, but it's pretty darned close.  With a new wick, it will be functional.  That means that most of the lamps are actually able to be used.  I'd like to find a place to get a couple of replacement hurricane shades, a replacement burner for the one that is seized up and a bunch of wicking.

I played around with a recipe for Currant Buns from the Ladies New Book of Cookery, 1852.   When I take recipes and make them using weight of  ingredients, I tend to have great results.  Transferring the weights to cups has been at times challenging because our flour is different than others.  It seems to be heavier at times and absorbs much more liquid.  I've found this sometimes with modern recipes as well.   My biggest problem was that my yeast was getting old and I chose the day it was a high of -23° outside to bake bread.   That meant that no matter how hard I tried to stoke the fire, the rest of the house wouldn't get warmer than 52°.  Even though I proofed the yeast and it was fine, it took all day for the dough to rise, even in front of the fire.  The buns were fruit heavy and really tasty but I'll have to make them again on a warmer day with fresh yeast.   I'll definitely halve the batch too since it makes way too much for one family to easily eat in a couple of days.

I LOVE, Love, love Coloured Glass

I found this pretty little hobnail hurricane lamp while I was shopping for my daughter's present.  I found her a lovely lamp, in fully useable condition and very pretty.  Hiding in a corner was this little hobnail lamp.  It's a good bit smaller than most of my other hurricane lamps but I'd never seen that hobnail pattern on the base before.  I thought it would hold just a little bit of kerosene, but the whole base is hollow, so it holds almost a full bottle.  It's fully functional as well, but not as pretty as the restored one I bought my daughter.  However, this one was a whole $14, so I couldn't leave it at the shop.  Cheap and in great condition and did I mention really cheap?  Yep, it had to come home with me.  I ended up using it for a few minutes on the morning of the ice storm, when it was early morning and still dark outside.

I found this ruby red beauty under our Christmas tree and I know it was a very good price too.  I'm pretty sure it's not an original, although it's obviously been well used.  There was another couple of similar red lamps that day, but neither with the milk glass shade and one was the same price and the other 3 times as much, so it was a no-brainer for this one to come home with us as well.  However, it had to sit in a box in my closet for well over a month.  I won't tell you how hard I had to work at forgetting it was there.  Regardless of whether it is an original or just an older reproduction, it's really well made and probably the only way I'd be able to afford a coloured glass hurricane lamp.  Most of the one's I fall in love with, the cobalt, greens, purples or reds, all cost in the $200 - $400, plus range. 

But sometimes cobalt glass shows up unexpectedly.  Two cobalt glass tumblers with a grape and vine pattern were a huge surprise.  I'd seen these, loved them but couldn't justify purchasing  the red lamp, the cobalt blue tumblers and the matching blue glass pitcher.   My sweetie snuck back to the shop at a later date and while the matching pitcher had already been sold, the two tumblers were still there.   Very pretty and since the little purple pressed glass bottle I'd been eyeing had been sold, right under my nose, these were a lovely surprise.   I'm hoping they're not horribly old because I am using them regularly every once in a while.

Generous bounty and small projects.

The blue cupboard is settled in the kitchen.   It gives a lot more storage than the tiny shelves in the corner did and it looks much nicer as well.    The crocks are a gift from a friend, who thought I might be able to use them as set dressing for a medieval event.   For the moment though, they look at home in the new cupboard.  I think the grey jug might move up to the top, so it can keep the tea tin company.  That would give more space to the yellow crocks and allow the cast iron corn bread pan to show off as well.  I'm trying to figure out what to put in the bottom of the cupboard.  As of yet, it's still empty!
I love how the blue and yellow take your eyes away from that awful peachy coloured border.  It hides it nicely and the blue is bold enough to draw one's entire attention.  I fear what is under that wallpaper, so won't remove it until we're totally ready for any surprises!  I think it could be 70's panelling over deteriorating plaster.

 I found a note on my computer monitor the other day.   It said to call my friend Suzi.  It seems she had an abundance of excess green tomatoes and did I want some of them?   Of course I did.  There is a batch of Chow Chow, which I'll admit is a bit more ketchup-like in texture than I'd like.  It's okay tasting.  The front jars are a green tomato mincemeat.  There were several recipes for this chutney, but I tried the one which was most mincemeat like.  Oh, is it ever good!   I can imagine that in a couple of weeks, once the flavours meld a bit more, it will be at least as good or better.

 I realized that it might be a little bit of time before I bother to sit down and twist the fringes of the scarves.  So here they are in all their unfinished glory.  It was one neutral warp in camel and white.  I chose to use a red for one scarf and a browny black for the second and a lovely pewter grey for the third.  The fibre is a wool silk blend, which gives a nice sheen and lovely feel to the finished scarves.  Our guild has a studio room and two of us did this quick project on the 8 shaft loom. 

The neon cherry sock is coming along.  It should be finished by now.   However, when I got to the heel flap of the first sock, I realized that it was going to be too small, so I frogged it and started again, going from 64 to 72 stitches.  The cabling is fairly intense and has little stretch for that area and the slightly thinner yarn is knitting up to a bit of a tighter gauge than I'd anticipated.  No problems though, better to rip it out than have a sock that wouldn't fit anyone around here!  I have to admit that the colour is quite cheerful and bright.

Bits and Pieces

Recently I wandered through an antique / flea market.  I found some lovely huge armoirs which I really would have loved to bring home for fibre storage.  Unfortunately, they are all way over  my budget!  Really though, there were a couple which would have held most of my fibre stash, which would have been very convenient.   Instead, I did find a few things which called to me.  These lovely napkins were one of those love at first touch.  The ones wrapped in brown ribbon are so soft, while the others are a set which brings back childhood memories.  They came with "oh my Gosh, you're going to have to iron" warnings! hehehe...

There were several packets of buttons, one white and one black.  The white buttons came home with me.  The little bag is really heavy as the buttons are almost all china, shell/mother of pearl and some bone.  They are fabulous to run through one's fingers.  The pricing was pretty fabulous too, as there were packets of obviously plastic buttons for more money elsewhere.

I did some weaving.  I wove off 3 scarves of wool/silk blend.  They are off the loom, but need their fringes twisted and wet finishing before I photograph them.

Then I cast on a pair of socks in what can only be described as a neon cherry colour.  Yes, I chose that colour myself, because it was the only and I repeat only skein of red sock yarn in the store, other than a rather ugly red and white with a silver metallic ply, which felt rather harsh.  I really wanted just plain red.  I'd hoped for Scheepjes red or even a handdye type semi-solid red, but they have discontinued carrying the first and are a bit too mainstream of a store for the latter.  So, neon cherry yarn came home with me.   I'd never knit with Austermann Step Classic yarn before.  It's supposedly infused with jojoba oil and aloe vera.  It's also somewhat thinner than what is usually available around here.  It's quite nice to knit with.  The colour is officially and creatively called 1004.

I took the past two days off from spinning, in order to weave and freeze corn.  Today I will get back to it as I am suddenly missing it and feeling deprived.  Who knew eh?

The end of March ..

March came in like a lamb and limped out like an old, faded lion.  We got snow and cold, blustery weather, but it wasn't horribly frigid cold, nor incredibly blustery or a huge dump of snow.  It was just icky.  I woke up and the cold frame was covered with snow and a bit of ice.  We had sleet, hail, ice pellets and a little bit of snow, which looked horribly out of place on a lawn which is almost green and almost long enough to need mowing in places.

The poor daffodils looked so sad.  All the incredibly early blooms were bent to the ground.  Were they doing so in a desperate bid to go back to the safety of the rich,dark earth and their cozy little bulbs or just huddling away from the nasty weather?  

The few peas I got into the garden early, liked this weather.  They have already germinated and are a bit more than an inch tall.  I'd love to get the rest of the peas in the ground, if the chooks would let me.

  The chooks were out and about in the snow.  It was starting to melt by the time I'd let them out.  Still, it was such a change from the glorious warmth of the previous weeks.  They were only putting one foot down at a time and holding the other up as if they'd stepped in something horribly yucky and uncomfortable.   They spent half of their day huddling on the deck, hoping I'd pop out and give them treats.   It was a good day to cuddle up with a book and a cup of tea, that's for sure.

Then the other day, on an errand day, I happened across one of my horrible "ooh shiney" type weaknesses.   I can look at a whole slew of antique crockery and what speaks to me is Lusterware.  It's not horrible old, nor horribly collectable and it tends to be rather inexpensive.  But I do love it, in it's variety of colours and patterns.   This small set of 6 cups and sauces was very well priced. I've not yet seen a pattern in this deep blue.  The colour is gorgeous and the pattern is unique and charming.  I was smitten and I'm happy to say, even with the new addition, there is still space in the china cabinet.

End of February Projects

 The woollen spun yarn has been plied and wet finished.  I was thrilled to have 300 yards of balanced yarn.  It's awfully poofy and thick though.  If  I don't use it for the dyeing part of the class, I'm sure the only thing it would be good for is a really thick pair of mitts or a hat.  It's fairly soft, thanks to the long draw.  It's a medium grade commercial blend, so no particular breed.  It's beautifully prepared though, lovely to spin and inexpensive. 

I've been wanting to knit up a new pair of socks.  I've waffled over the pattern choices, wanting something interesting but not horribly dependent on a fussy pattern chart.  I finally decided to try an easy but new technique.  I reminded myself that I've frogged enough half socks because of fit or design before that one more time wouldn't make a difference.  I chose a Kroy black and a Kroy self striping, which had knitted up into nice enough but not spectacular stripey socks.  I started knitting a slip stitch technique, which knits up almost as quickly as plain knit, but certainly doesn't look like plain knit socks!  I'd forgotten why I don't tend to purchase Kroy sock yarn anymore though.  It's very springy and thick, compared to most of the yarns that I use.  It feels so much bouncier than some of the recent pairs of socks I've knitted and the fabric feels quite thick.  However, for  a fast knit, it's awesome.  While I have other yarns on my favourite to knit socks with, I know that Kroy socks are comfortable and incredibly durable.

Today was Family Day: a newish holiday put onto the calendar to break up the stretch between Christmas and Easter.   I'm not complaining about another holiday.  Three day weekends are  always nice to have.  It was a beautiful, mainly sunshiney day, so we headed out for a drive.   Our first stop was St. Mary's.  It's a pretty town and has the advantage of having a large independent craft store and a rather nice candlemaking supplier.  Of course being a holiday both were closed and my last minute whim of getting votive and tealight wicks, which I've needed for ages, got put on hold.   After a quick lunch, I was given the choice of a walk in the park or a trip to the antique mall.  At that exact moment, a rather cold breeze picked up and I chose the antique mall.  It was their winter sale and because all prices were up to 50% off, the place was packed.   I absolutely love glass bottles, reamers and oil lamps.   These two were on sale for 30% and 35% off, and they were inexpensive, as far as oil lamps go, in the first place.  The one on the right was only $20 and the one on the right only slightly more, but it screamed to come home with me!  I'll have to get wicks for those two as well as a third, to make them fully operational.  We have one which is wicked, fueled and ready to go in a power failure or ambiance emergency.

One day soon, I'll show the current warp going on the loom.  It's unexciting, plain old natural 2/8 cotton right now, so dull and boring.  Once I get weaving though, there will be a little more photogenic.  Next project will be either doubleweave, overshot or huck.   I'll have to admit that overshot is starting to win, but I've stopped thinking and planning because well, this warp is still only getting threaded into the heddles and I'm putting the cart before the horse as far as projects go.

                                                                                                               

Puzzle Box

I was out looking at a vintage Singer sewing machine on Saturday.   It was a 127 with sphynx decals, which wasn't quite what I was after, but if it was in good condition I'd have taken.  However, the cabinet top needed all  new veneer due to a fish tank explosion, the decals were quite worn and the machine head had a fair bit of rust.  Despite the good price I didn't bring it home with me.  I'll wait for a 66 to turn up...

I did however, bring home this cool little gem.  I paid a fair price for it and it doesn't have all it's original pieces, but there are many extras with it.  I think it may have sparked an interest in vintage sewing machine accessories.  The box itself is wooden with a branded stamp proclaiming that it was patented in 1889.  It's lined with red velvet.   I'd not seen one in person before, but it's the accessories which would have been contemporary with my grandmother's Singer 27.      (The seller did say that they hadn't come with the 127, but she'd been given them after by someone else).

Now to figure out what the feet are for and get a machine that can use them up and running, so that I can test them out and learn how to use them.  

Canada Day Weekend

I was working on my homework when I ran out of my homemade hang tags for skein labels. I'd been using business card stock for my blanks and the packet disappeared. Honestly, I looked everywhere and it just vanished, which was odd because I'd just cleaned and organized the desk and office area.. sigh,(please note the mild panic setting in here).. So all of a sudden, without a way to label my skeins, all homework screeched to a halt. I know that I'd end up with a bunch of unlabelled skeins and no idea which was which.. so until I could run out and buy more, it put things on hold. Of course the next day I popped out to the store and they were out of the original colourway, so I've got a slightly different coloured tags for the last few, which is only mildly irksome. However the skeins are almost all done and labelled, so that's okay. I really needed that sort of excitement just before a holiday weekend, at 9pm in the evening.

This weekend I should have been at Trillium Wars. I wanted to go, but my daughter decided to move and asked for help. How could I say no? Of course there is the chicken issue, which will be resolved next year. We'll either have the fast growing White Rock X chickens which only need to run on 7 or 8 weeks max, or we'll start them earlier! None of this waiting around to make sure the meat chooks don't wilt in the heat!

To make up for not going to Trilliums, my sweetie dragged me out to the Aberfoyle Antique Market. Yes, kicking and screaming I'm sure.. but really, it's a fun day out, perusing antique and collectible stalls. I decided I needed a few dust collectors... Okay, I did check out a couple of antique spinning wheels - both too much money for the condition of the wheels, a couple of cupboards for fibre stash storage and some skein winders, none of which really rocked my boat in the end. There was a really nice....nice...nice walnut bed frame but way outside my budget. (That tends to be the issue with me and antiques, I best like the ones I can't afford!) In the end, I settled for a few dust collectors - a lovely little weaving shuttle, a hand carved grain scoop and two little vintage kitchen tools. Grand total spent? $28

In my spare time, I spun this nice hank of yarn.. 183 yards of Romney lamb. It's super soft and yummy. I carded a basket full of rolags and spun it with a long draw. I may need to dye it though because it's white: a white just screaming to be coloured. What is it going to be? I am not yet sure, but I just wanted to make sure that all that sampling hadn't really taken the fun out of spinning. I guess not since there is another basket full of rolags waiting for me, one bobbin already spun and another started so I can ply them together for another hank of the same yarn!

Kates and Shuttles

My very handy when he wants to be hubby built me this marvelous tensioned lazy kate. Both my wheels have onboard lazy kates, although the Kromski one is described as bobbin storage in one place. It rather works that way, as storage I mean as it is a bit too rattlely and loose for my preferences in a lazy kate. So I asked hubby and he made up a quick one which works marvelously. The uprights are brass and removeable for storage or travelling. The tensioning device is simply two pegs and some string, which works well for it's simplicity. He thinks we should put a yarn guide on it as he feels it would make it quieter still. All I need to do is stain it and toss a coat of tung oil on it, but of course I had to try it out first.

On the weekend we went out to a local antique warehouse place looking for ideas for kitchen shelving. We found none, but instead I did find a few goodies to add to my collection. The small shuttle and the two spools were the bargain of the day in my eyes. The two larger shuttles were found at a flea market last fall for the grand price of $2 each! I've a bouquet of old pirns ( hey, they were 3 for $1, how could I resist!) as well. Now to figure out a neat way to display them.
Sigh, I love old things, old wood and paper-thin porcelain china, especially Lusterware. I guess that is the bit of magpie in me.