Yarns from the Lake

Too Much Stuff

Throughout history most people have lived with few possessions, by necessity, economic limits, or cultural norms. Early nomadic groups moved regularly. Most people for thousands of years were, or are still, just surviving. After WWII in the United States there was an economic boom that resulted in many people owning homes and experiencing financial stability for the first time, although noting that not every group benefited. The average size of a house in the 1950’s was around 1000 square feet. That increased to 1660 by 1975, and up to 2623 in 2018. Of course the larger houses of today have more closets and storage space, which naturally get filled.

Many people I know are having to figure out what to do with all the stuff that our parents accumulated, while we ourselves are trying to downsize at the same time. Closets and cupboards and drawers are crammed full. The young adults generally do not want any of it. Thrift shops are full. I admit that I have been a part of the problem, although over the last 10 years my mindset has been evolving. I have a vision of a more minimalist clutter free house, but it is challenging to get there.

I grew up in a home where you kept things in case you might use them later. My mother was a seamstress and artist. You might need that piece of elastic or craft paper. You might use that pattern again. My mom was also an excellent cook and liked entertaining. She loved her sets of dishes and china, and bought new ones at regular intervals without getting rid of the older ones.

Over the last 30 years in my own household, the things we accumulated changed as our children grew up and their toys and activities changed. I tried to get rid of things periodically, but somehow the house was always full. I also like sewing and creative activities, which require many tools and stashes of supplies. The laundry room, garage, and backyard shed were full with who knows what. I was always busy with more immediate needs, too tired or too overwhelmed to clean out closets and other storage spaces.

At one time we had five snowmobile helmets on a shelf in the laundry room. They were left from the 1980’s when my husband worked for a snowmobile magazine, but we have never owned a snowmobile. After much nagging and urging, I finally convinced him to pass the helmets on to his cousin who actually had a snowmobile.

We had a large guest bedroom that did not get much use in our early years of marriage. Any time there was box from a purchase or delivery, I would open the door and literally toss it in that bedroom. Eventually the room was filled solid with boxes. I delegated the job of flattening and disposing them to my husband, but he would never get around to it. Somehow, unlike me, he was finding time to watch TV, so one day I piled all the boxes up in the family room, blocking the space between the recliner and the TV. Finally that job got done and the guest room became available for human habitation again.

In preparation for moving last summer of 2019 we got rid of what seemed like massive amounts of stuff, including most of our furniture. It took a lot of mental energy and time to figure out what to do with various items we didn’t need or want any more, rather than throwing them in a dumpster. It was hard work. We sold things on Craigs List (almost getting scammed once), donated to various organizations, gave items to family members, recycled things, took bags of mixed paper to a business for shredding. Two pieces of furniture were placed in the alley at my sister-in-law’s house in Minneapolis. They were gone by the next day, taken by someone who needed them.

When we moved here to my parents home at the lake, we were adding what was left of our own possessions to their already full house. My sister and I had been working for years to sort and purge from our parents house, but there was still a complete household here. There are now boxes stored in the basement and garage including things from our kitchen and living room that I was not ready to get rid of. There are also boxes of things that my parents brought from their previous house 20 years ago that had never been unpacked.

My mom had sets of China stored in boxes in the basement, classic purses that were not really in style but might be needed to match a future outfit, drawers and chests of beautiful sweaters, trunks of high quality wool fabric (even though she had not sewed any clothes for many years), extra cookie tins stored in the basement bathroom. As she got older, she did not remember what she had anymore much less where it was stored.

Rubber overshoes found when cleaning out my parents storage shed

We had an entire trunk full of random extra hats, mittens and scarves from our old house. My parents also had baskets and plastic bins of extra winter gear. I dumped all of it on the living floor and sorted it all out. A few items in bad shape were tossed out, some organized for keeping on hand. Two entire grocery bags full were donated to the “Welcome Center” in Pelican Rapids, MN, where they were given directly to people who needed them.

Extra winter hats, scarves, mittens and socks

Now that our parents have both passed, my sister and I continue with the endless task of sorting and purging their things. I also continue paring down my own clothes and belongings. I have a vision of a clutter free life, and hope that when the time comes, my own children will have an easier time dealing with what is left of our lives.

P.S. My husband is now thinking about buying a used snowmobile, to keep cabin fever at bay over the upcoming covid winter. He will need a helmet. I will need a helmet. Any possible guests might need a different size helmet. Too bad we gave away those five helmets.

Bison Fiber Last Post

One of my fall projects was carding the 100% bison fiber I bought in South Dakota last fall. It seemed a little scratchy, so I carded it again, blending in some wool I had on hand. The result was softer and more like what I am used to spinning.

I had been thinking about making something felted with this yarn, so I googled to find out whether bison fiber will felt. One source said it would. My friend suggested knitting up a swatch and attempting to felt that, to see how it behaved. In the following photo you can see the bobbin of “singles” (1-ply) bison/wool fiber, and the swatch I knitted from that, measuring about 4.5″ square.

4.5″ swatch after knitting on size 10 needles

I tossed the swatch in with three different loads of laundry in the washing machine and dryer. It shrank to about 3.5″ square, but it was quite stretchy and only partially felted. Not what I was expecting. I know that wool felts, so that means that for some reason the bison fibers did not.

3.5″ after 2 passes through the washing machine and dryer

I went ahead and spun the rest of the fiber, ending up with one small skein of singles (1-ply) yarn, and one larger skein of 2-ply yarn. Following you can see photos of the yarn after spinning, plying, and washing. The smaller skein is the singles yarn, the larger skein is the 2-ply.

I could have found something to make by knitting and felting this blended fiber, where shrunken and stretchy was the intended result, but I was not feeling inspired.

The other bison/alpaca/wool blend yarn I had spun, and wrote about here (https://yarnsfromthelake.com/2020/08/22/bison-fiber-part-2/ ), sold almost immediately on my new ETSY shop, so I decided to post this yarn for sale also. It generated much more interest than my other skeins of yarn or the knitted items for sale, with 24 views and two people marking it as a favorite. Apparently people are looking for bison yarn.

The following photo was on the ETSY listing. One of the hardest things about doing this blog, as well as posting items on ETSY, is finding settings for photography so that the lighting is right without shadows, and the colors show accurately. On top of that, colors look differently depending on what device you are using. The colors look much more bright on my phone than on my laptop, and sometimes they look like a totally different color.

The photos shared here were taken outside only a few weeks ago. Since then fall came and went. We enjoyed some beautiful fall colors, followed by several days of 40 mile per hour winds blowing all the leaves off, and then there were three snow events. After that it was below freezing for days. Not ideal for taking outdoor photographs. Since then the snow has melted, but the trees are brown and ready for winter.

Last week someone purchased this latest yarn on my ETSY shop (you can find a link to the ETSY shop in the menu above or click here https://www.etsy.com/shop/LakesCountryHandmade ). Shortly after that a friend in Minneapolis purchased a hat. Woo hoo!

My New ETSY Shop

I am excited to let you know that I have opened an ETSY shop called LakesCountryHandMade. I am selling products I made including hand spun yarn and hand knit items, as well as store samples from my yarn shop inventory purchase. You can search on the store name in ETSY, or you can click on the following link to get to my shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LakesCountryHandmade

I have been thinking about doing this for a long time. My summer was busy with a string of (mostly family) house guests (with necessary covid precautions), tornado cleanup, and other activities. Now that the weather is too cold to have windows open or socialize outside, and we are looking at a long stretch of indoor time alone, I decided to get the ETSY shop going while the season is right for buying hats and headbands and knitted things.

Following are photos of a few items I made myself that are listed for sale:

A soft wool headband with entrelac pattern

I have been making things ever since I can remember. In elementary school my sister and I would cut simple doll clothes out of fabric scraps. My mom taught me how to use the sewing machine in about 6th grade, so that when my junior high home economics class was making hemmed dish towels, I had already sewed some simple garments. In high school and early adulthood I made many of my own clothes, including my wedding dress.

I first learned how to knit in an after school class in elementary school. I have a memory of knitting rows on a red scarf in plain garter stitch. Later I learned how to crochet, and I also dabbled in macrame, needlepoint, cross stitch, and embroidery.

Sometime in the early years of high school in the 1970’s, a friend of mine and I took a community education lingerie sewing class where we learned how to make slips, underwear, and negligees with stretchy lace. We bought tricot fabric, elastic, lace, and other related supplies at the Munsingwear outlet store near downtown Minneapolis. Munsingwear was a manufacturer of undergarments with origins in the late 1880’s. George Munsing received a patent for a union suit in the early 1890’s before central heating was a thing, and later in the 1920’s Munsingwear was the largest manufacturer of underwear in the world. I can’t say I have made any lingerie since then, but I have used some of the techniques I learned, such as sewing elastic on to a waist. That same friend and I also went through a phase of sewing stuffed animals.

A few years later my mom and I took a class where we made structured wool blazers with lapels, welt buttonholes and pockets, a vent in the back, and a lining. It was a lot of work and I never did it again. That blazer hung in the basement closet for years after I stopped wearing suits to work. Once our son wore it for a halloween costume. Before we moved last summer I finally donated it.

Lately the only sewing I do is mending, facemasks or upcycling. Over the last 15 years I have focused my creative energies on knitting and spinning, and now I am learning to do basic weaving on a 15″ wide table top size rigid heddle loom. Who knows what will spark my interest going forward.

P.S. I knitted another pair of green thick socks that fit me. We now have his and hers boot socks.

Thick Socks & Thin Socks

I happened upon a knitting pattern for a thick sock to wear with hiking boots or winter boots. “The Fisherman’s Boot Socks” is a free pattern available on the website for “Maritime Family Fiber”, a family owned small business located along the coast of Maine, near New Brunswick, Canada. The pattern can also be found on Ravelry.

The best sock yarn is wool with some nylon for strength. Most sock yarn is very thin for size 1 needles. There are many patterns for heavier socks and slippers, but most of the thicker yarn does not have nylon in it.

When I saw the “Briggs and Little Tuffy” wool yarn with nylon for size 6 needles suggested for this pattern, I decided to order some and try knitting the book socks. Little Woolen Mills is another family owned business located in New Brunswick, Canada. Maritime Family Fiber is one of the retail outlets for the yarn they produce.

Briggs and Little Tuffy wool and nylon yarn for thick socks

Using thicker yarn means bigger needles and fewer stitches, which I like because it goes faster. You are always supposed to knit a swatch to check your gauge before starting a knitting project. Gauge is the number of stitches per inch, which will vary depending on the thickness of the yarn, the size of the needles, and the tension of the knitter. Patterns include a gauge using the suggested yarn and needle size, but if you substitute a different yarn or needle size, or if you knit tighter or looser, it may turn out differently. A small difference in gauge can make a big difference in the finished size of the product. If you are making a scarf or shawl it does not matter, but if you are making a sweater or socks, or something else that has to fit, it DOES matter.

I was using the exact size needles and yarn suggested in the pattern. I wear a size nine shoe, so I assumed that following the pattern for a ladies medium would be close enough. WRONG. The pattern started with the Knit 2 Purl 1 ribbing which I find tedious. It is hard to tell the gauge from that since ribbing bunches up, so I kept plugging along for eight inches of cuff. It looked a bit big, but after sticking my foot in while still attached to the knitting needles, it seemed OK. The next part where you work on the heel was more interesting, and then I continued on with the foot part which goes faster because it is straight knitting. After I got about three inches into the foot, when the project was in the home stretch, it became clear that the circumference of the foot was way too big for my size. At that point I could measure my actual gauge because there was a big enough section of straight knitting. The number of stitches per inch matched exactly with what was on the Ravelry page for the pattern, but my sock was turning out to be WAY too big.

The cuff and heel flap on the thick sock, next to the cuff of another sock with thin yarn

It looked like the sock might fit my husband, so I took the stitches off the needles and put them on waste yarn so he could try it on. His first comment was “how do you know how to do that???”. Haha I have showed him my knitting projects countless times, including socks, and he never noticed how it was made before. Of course there is a step by step pattern that tells you what to do. It seemed like the sock would work for him, so I decided to put the stitches back on the needles and continue knitting, rather than undoing it and starting over with fewer stitches for me.

The pattern has directions for multiple sizes, based on this Tuffy yarn. I could have, and should have, taken the gauge information and determined the circumference of the cuff and foot before I started the project. The ladies medium works out to 10″, which matches what I got. But I have a narrow foot with the widest part at the ball being closer to 8.5″. Their Child 4-8 size would be closer to the circumference of my foot. This is very far off. The problem was not the gauge, but that I did not figure out the measurements for their ladies medium. Another learning experience. I plan to try knitting this pattern again with the smaller size that should work for my foot. The photo below shows the too-big-for-me boot sock, under the regular sock I knit earlier that does fit me.

The sock I knit with normal sock yarn that fits, on top of the too big boot sock

The purple sock I knit and posted about in May has an “afterthought” heel. Click here to see that post. The boot sock has something called a dutch heel, also known as a square heel. The afterthought heel is easy but you have 2 extra ends to weave in at the end. The dutch heel and french heel are versions of a gusset or heel flap pattern. The dutch heel shape is square, the french heel is more V shaped. I read that the different versions of sock heels can be better or worse depending on the shape of your foot. For example the french heel is better if you have a high arch. Who knew.

I finished both socks and they do fit my husband.

The socks I knitted and posted about in May used normal sock yarn with 64 stitches and size 1 needles. If I knit another pair using the Briggs and Little Tuffy thicker yarn with size 6 needles and 36 stitches, it will go much faster and be ready in plenty of time for winter. Check out the too-big-for-me pair on my husband below.

Fiber Day

My sheep owner friends, Joan and Dave Ellison, host a semi annual “Fiber Day” at their farm in Pelican Rapids, MN. This is one of my favorite events, so it was disappointing when it had to be cancelled in the spring of 2020, and again this fall, due to the pandemic. Fall Fiber Day would have been today. In lieu of actually attending this year, I am writing about it and sharing photos from previous events.

On Fiber Day, old and new friends are invited to come to the farm and work on their projects, try something new, dye yarn or fiber, visit with other fiber enthusiasts, and share food. Some of the attendees are also string musicians who might hold an informal jam session.

My mom met Joanie when she was the speaker at an event about 15 years ago. I was learning to spin, and was excited about this new connection to sheep and wool. The first time I went to the Ellison’s, I brought my daughter, who was about 11 at that time, to see the new lambs. Living in the city we didn’t have much opportunity to visit a farm, so this was really cool. I was enthralled. I have been back to their farm many times since and have the same response every time.

I have gotten to know many talented and interesting people at Fiber Day, which has made our recent move to the area easier. There are folks who come regularly, but always new faces too. Most bring a project to work on, but some are just observing. The die hard fiber enthusiasts stay all day, some people stop by for an hour. There is stimulating conversation, a variety of crafts going on, new things to watch or experiment with. Usually there are materials and instruction for a project to try in case you didn’t bring something of your own, or want to try something different. One time there were silk scarves to dye, often there is a felting activity.

Some fleeces from the Ellison’s sheep are sold to hand spinners. Many are sent to a mill to be made into roving and yarn, in their natural color or dyed first. Following are photos of the yarn and roving for sale at Fiber Day.

Dyed roving from the Ellison’s sheep for sale

If the weather is nice, the back deck is crowded with people working on their project, chatting, and comparing notes with the other attendees.

Everyone brings something to share for a potluck lunch.

Taking a break from spinning to eat lunch

Large pots of water are heated over an outside fire for dying. Many colors of dye are available. Wool fiber and yarn for dyeing is on hand for purchase, or you can dye something you brought with you. There are people around to help.

I always bring my spinning wheel and a knitting project to Fiber Day. Usually I take advantage of the opportunity to use the Ellison’s “picker” and big electric drum carder. After a fleece is washed, it has to be “picked” and carded in preparation for spinning. Picking is fluffing out locks of fleece while also removing bits of hay and debris. This can be done with your fingers, but that is very labor intensive. The picker is a tool with sharp points that can accomplish the task much faster. You push the fiber in one side, swing the part with the sharp points back and forth, and the picked fiber comes out the other side. This tool is sharp and dangerous if you get your hand in the wrong place at the wrong time. One time a sharp point caught on my shirt and made a tiny rip. I was bummed because I really liked that shirt, but also lucky it was only a small rip and not a gash in my chest.

I own a drum carder but it is narrow and manual. The Ellison’s drum carder is wider and electric, so I often make batts for spinning when I am at Fiber Day. The wool in the photo below is the natural color. Other times I have used the drum carder to blend different types and colors of fiber.

The big drum carder for making batts from fiber

One time Joanie had an outdoor weaving project set up in the yard.

Another time someone organized “human lace”. The ladies were instructed when to put their yarn over or under which other yarn. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the finished product.

It is not unusual for attendees to have a music jam session during Fiber Day.

Most of the photos here have only women in them, but a few men do show up. Dave Ellison is there assisting where needed, and in the music photo above. A few husbands accompany their wives, and there is an occasional man interested in the fiber activities.

On a normal day at home it is hard for me to carve out a chunk of time for my fiber related projects. At Fiber Day I have left behind my other responsibilities, and I can focus on what I really want to do. This year Joanie encouraged folks to email her with their pandemic projects so she could share them via her mailing list. That is a good alternative, but I miss being there in person. For today I will have my own Fiber Day, giving myself permission to ignore normal daily tasks.

Bricks of Fergus Falls

Some of the streets in Fergus Falls were paved with bricks until around 1960. At that time the bricks were removed in order for a gas main to be installed, after which the street was resurfaced with asphalt. The bricks were relocated to a massive pile where they were available for purchase at 1 cent each.

My uncles and dad, with “help” from my sister and I and some cousins (ages three to eight), participated in extracting bricks from the huge pile. They were loaded into the bed of a red 1960 Ford F-150 pickup truck that my grandfather had bought from a neighbor, and hauled out to the lake cottage property. The bricks were used to construct a “road” from the yard down a bank, so that vehicles and equipment could get down to the lake shore. Bricks were also used to line the floor of a boathouse my grandfather built, which was the size and look of a double garage, painted red like the cottage.

The brick road from the yard to the lake shore is still there

An earlier construction project my grandpa undertook was a tiny cabin on the lake shore. It was just big enough for two bunks with flimsy mattresses, one above the other, and a small side table and chair. From the ages of about 10 until 18, my uncles slept there to get away from the chaos of the crowded cottage. The next generation of cousins in the late 1960s and early 1970s sometimes used the beach cabin for sleeping, but more often as a fort. Mostly it was unoccupied except for spiders and mice.

A photo from the 1980s showing the boathouse and beach cabin on the shore

The main purpose for the boathouse was to store a classic old 1948 Palmer wooden racing sailboat. My grandpa had purchased the sailboat from someone in Minneapolis after it was badly damaged in a storm. He rebuilt it with white oak and applied a new coat of fiberglass. After one season on Lake Harriet the renovated sailboat lived at the lake. The boathouse also was used to store other beach-related items, including a canoe, duck boats, life jackets, paddles and yard tools. The sailboat rested on a makeshift flat trailer with wheels. There were tracks under the trailer that went on out into the lake, allowing it to be easily wheeled into the water. At that time the beach was wide enough to drive the truck between the boat house and the water, and there was plenty of space for games and lounging on the other end of the property where the dock and swimming area were located.

My mom’s younger brothers spent many happy hours on that sailboat. In later years when I was growing up the sailboat was sometimes anchored in front of the swimming beach, where it was used as a swim raft. I remember sunbathing on it, or climbing on and jumping off with my cousins.

The lake water has been rising steadily since the 1980’s. The brick road down to the lake is still there, but the boathouse and beach cabin are long gone. Most of the land where they were placed is now under water. The shoreline has receded back 25-30 feet from where it was 40 years ago. Some 20-inches of rain this summer threatens even more lake shore as water levels continue to rise.

My parents used some of the bricks leftover from the boathouse project for landscaping their yard when they lived in Edina, between 1972 and 1999. There were borders around gardens and a walking path on the side of the house.

The bricks that had been the floor of the boathouse became a beach patio after the boathouse was torn down. Over time as the water got higher, my uncle moved the bricks and used them to make a patio behind his lake house, which had been built on the south end of the property next to the cottage.

When my parents built their retirement home at the lake in 1999, my dad dug all the bricks out of the yard in Edina and brought them to the new property. The bricks were relocated a few at a time on the floor of their dodge minivan, so it would not be too heavy. You can see them now on the walk and patio in front of the house, where we live now.

Bricks from the streets of Fergus Falls on the front walk of my parents lake house

When this house is eventually sold, we may have to dig up the bricks and move them again. We may also want to cut out the ceramic tiles my mom hand made for two fireplaces, but that is another story.

Bison Fiber Part 2

I bought a bag of bison fiber blended with wool and alpaca last fall in South Dakota, at the same time as the 100% bison fiber I wrote about in a recent blog post. It was only one ounce but was more expensive due to being blended with the other fibers, and already prepared for spinning. Since it was taking some time to card the 100% bison fiber, I decided to go ahead and spin the blended fiber.

One ounce of alpaca, wool and bison fiber blended together for spinning

This combination of 50% alpaca, 25% wool and 25% bison was nice and soft, as opposed to the 100% bison fiber. It was easy to spin. Everyone asks me how long it takes to spin some yarn. I have no idea. I work on it here and there when I have a few minutes, or sometimes when I have a longer stretch of time. I have tried to keep a log, but then I have to remember to note the times and it becomes a chore instead of a relaxing break from other tasks.

Normally I make two ply yarn since it is more durable and stays twisted better. I could have split the fiber blend in two equal pieces and spun them each on a different bobbin, and then plied those two together for an ounce skein of yarn. Instead, I decided to spin the entire one ounce on one bobbin, and then find another ounce of something else to spin and then ply with it. I had a bag of really nice 100% alpaca that I measured out and started to spin, but I decided it was too dark brown compared to the bison blend, which is more gray brown. After digging around in my closet of fiber, I selected instead some grayish wool that came from a fleece my daughter received from our sheep farmer friends when she worked for them during a school break. The following photo shows the bobbin with the bison/wool/alpaca fiber, next to the sheep wool to be spun and plied with it.

Weighing out one ounce of some grayish 100% wool fiber

I did not take a photo of the 100% wool fiber in the process of being spun, but below is the result on the bobbin.

The bison blend fiber on the right is a little more brown than the 100% wool on the left.

Plying together the two fibers involves spinning them together from the two bobbins back on to the spinning wheel in the opposite direction.

Plying together yarn from the two bobbins to another bobbin on the spinning wheel

Once the yarn was plied together, I wound it on to my niddy noddy. Yes, that is what it is called. See photo below. This keeps the yarn from getting all tangled up and provides a way to measure it. One round on the niddy noddy is two yards, so the total number of yards can be determined by counting the number of rounds.

Wrapped onto the niddy noddy after plying

The final two ply skein of yarn is 136 yards, and 2.3 ounces or 64 grams. Since I measured out one ounce of my own wool on a kitchen scale, the bag of bison blend must have been 1.3 ounces instead of one ounce. The resulting plied yarn is 58% wool, 14% bison, and 28% alpaca.

It is always best to wash yarn after being spun in order to “set the twist”, so the fibers “remember” their new twisted condition. This involves filling a tub with lukewarm water, adding a squirt of dish soap, and gently pushing the yarn into the water until it is completely wet. After soaking for about 10 minutes, another bowl or tub of clean water is prepared and the yarn transferred to that. After two or three rinses in this fashion the yarn is squeezed in a clean towel and hung to dry. The key is not to use water that is too hot and not to agitate the yarn, or it will start to felt.

The yarn soaking in water with a squirt of dish soap

Washing the yarn makes it “bloom”, or get more fluffy than when you started. This always throws me every time, even though I have spun many skeins of yarn. I think I am making a thin yarn, but by the time it is plied and washed I end up with bulky.

After washing the yarn “blooms”, looking more fluffy

I found out afterwards that hanging the damp yarn in the sun can cause fading, shrinking or felting. Oops. There is always something new to learn. This project did not involve any dye, and if there was any shrinking or felting I am not aware of it and it would be OK.

I am pleased with how this yarn turned out. Not sure what I will do with it.

Peach Sweater

When I started this blog in January, my goal was to post once a week. I had been successful until a couple of weeks ago when things got out of control. We had a series of house guests for extended visits, including our daughter, our son and his girlfriend, and my sister. We felt this was safe with windows open much of the time, people assigned to separate bathrooms, and rolls of paper towel in the kitchen and half bath. During this time I participated in a modified covid appropriate annual reunion at our family cabin, attended outdoor group meals with chairs six feet apart, endured multiple severe storms resulting in 15 inches of rain and one tornado, picked up and hauled tons of brush, went swimming and bike riding, and did other activities that did not involve writing a blog.

In my “spare” time I have been carding the bison fiber that I wrote about in my last post, and knitting another pair of socks. Today’s post is about a sweater I made years ago, using photos scanned from an old fashioned scrapbook.

Wearing the peach sweater with my 2009 haircut and glasses

The sweater project was ambitious considering my spinning experience at that time. I wanted to card and then spin enough yarn for a sweater, using a blend of wool and alpaca, and then dye it all the same color. The two fibers would take the dye differently, resulting in a slightly variegated yarn. The experience I had with dyeing involved small batches of wool or yarn. In this case I wanted to dye all of it at once, after it was spun into yarn.

The Textile Center near the University of Minnesota has a dye lab where they offer classes. The space is also available for member use, so I reserved it for a couple of hours in order to use their giant pots and other equipment. It was a fun adventure with a successful outcome.

The first step of the project was blending together some commercially prepared merino wool with some alpaca fiber using my drum carder. The fiber wraps around the drum as you push it in the bottom and turn a handle. When the drum is full you peel off a rectangle shaped batt, as seen below sitting next to the drum carder. Some people spin directly from the batt. I prefer to peel strips from the batt for spinning. My notes in the scrapbook indicate that I carded 32 batts. I don’t know how many ounces that was, but in retrospect I have never carded that much of the same thing again.

Blending professionally prepared merino wool with alpaca using my drum carder

Spinning from strips off the batts, I filled 16 bobbins worth of single ply yarn from the 32 batts. I have four bobbins, so I would have spun two batts onto each one, then combined two bobbins together into a two ply yarn. Then repeated with the other two bobbins. And then repeated all that three more times. The original 32 batts turned into eight skeins of bulky yarn.

Eight skeins of yarn from 32 batts of fiber

I picked out some Cushing dye in a color called “peach”. It reminds me of a dreamsicle.

Following is a (blurry) photo of all the yarn in one large pot with the peach dye. I dyed some other yarn green at the same time.

A very large pot to fit all eight skeins of yarn, plus a smaller batch with green dye

There was a nifty tray for draining water from the skeins of yarn.

Draining water from the yarn after dyeing is complete

Back at home I hung all the yarn on a drying rack.

I used a pattern called “Foresta Round Cardigan” for the sweater. It is designed for bulky yarn. I must have bought it at the local yarn shop, but there is a listing on Ravelry. It says you can buy the pattern at schoolproductsyarns.com. .

Completed peach color sweater from the back

This sweater is very heavy and warm, so it comes in handy on cold Minnesota winter days. I still have some of the peach yarn left waiting for another project.

Bison Fiber Part 1

Last fall we attended the Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in South Dakota, an annual event for maintaining the herd of 1,300 bison. As many as 20,000 spectators gather on each side of a large viewing area where the bison are herded past by cowboys and cowgirls on horses, and in vehicles. Breakfast is available in the morning while the crowds are gathering and waiting for the herding to begin.

Cowboys and Cowgirls round up the bison herd

The bison are guided into corral areas where they are staged for testing, branding and sorting. There are bleachers where you can watch as individual bison are prodded through gates and into a final pen for inspection. They were very unhappy about this, letting it be known by kicking and jumping. A cowboy style lunch is available while this is going on.

Unhappy bison edging closer to the final inspection pen

Throughout the rest of the weekend there is an art fair, food and music, but unfortunately it rained most of the weekend. We spent one afternoon doing some sight seeing in the area. I found a yarn shop, so naturally we had to go there. I do not need any yarn or fiber, but it seemed appropriate to buy a bag of 100% bison fiber. I also bought a smaller amount of bison fiber blended with sheep wool and alpaca.

Bison fiber I bought at a yarn shop in South Dakota

I planned to blend the plain bison fiber with some wool and alpaca fiber I already had. However, when I took it out of the bag, it felt very course. I did a little research and found that bison have some very soft downy fiber next to their skin, some course outer hairs, and some parts in between. My fiber was not the downy soft stuff. Blending it with the other fibers would make the combination softer than the bison alone, but less soft than the wool and alpaca. I decided I did not want to do that, and instead I would spin the bison by itself. My bison yarn will be used for something where it is not necessary to be soft, but rather where its durable quality is a benefit.

I carded the bison fiber in my drum carder. This involves pushing it in the side and turning a crank handle so the fiber gets pulled in and wraps on to a drum with spikes. More fiber is added until it is full, and then it is peeled off. The result is a rectangle “batt” with the fibers somewhat lined up for spinning, instead of in a jumbled mess.

Pushing the bison fiber into the drum carder

I was able to make five batts from four ounces of fiber, which I plan to run through the drum carder one more time to make the fibers even more orderly for spinning into yarn. The texture is quite different from the sheep wool I am used to spinning, so I have no idea how it will turn out, which is part of the adventure. I will post more later after I have spun the yarn.

Tornado

Back in the days before phone weather apps we would occasionally hear the civil service siren going off with warnings about severe thunderstorms or tornados in our metro area.

Now living out in the country on a lake, I have been a bit worried that we are not within range of a civil service siren. We can check the latest weather on our phone, but if a storm comes in the night we might not be awake to notice. Early last Wednesday morning at about 4:00 am we were awakened by a loud tornado warning coming from our phones. I did not know that was a thing, but now I am very grateful for it. We looked at the radar map and saw an ominous looking cell heading our way, so we decided a trip to the basement was prudent.

I woke up our daughter who was visiting, and we headed to an area of the basement away from windows. My husband, Wayne, first looked outside and did not see anything threatening, but when he started to hear a roaring sound he made a dash for the basement stairs. The storm slammed into the house with a terrific force. We heard what sounded like things falling off shelves and breaking, high winds, branches hitting the house, and then the power went off. It was scary.

After the storm had passed we went upstairs and tried to assess the situation in the dark. It appeared that the house was fine, but there was damage on a lake facing deck. A glass top table had shattered, a pergola was trashed with the canvas top in shreds, and other outside furniture was askew or missing. Later in the daylight we could see many trees down in the yard.

All along the east side of the lake hundreds of trees were down. About 1/3 mile from our house a clump of 3 mature basswood trees fell, with 2 of them landing on the roof of our beloved family cabin, missing the stone chimney by inches. Everyone was thankful that there was minimal damage to the roof, and the inside was intact. Dozens of other trees on the cabin property were also down. Ironically, family members had been debating for a few years about whether to have the basswood trees removed. Some argued that they were healthy trees providing shade, and cutting them down was an unnecessary expense. Others were concerned about the trees taking out the cabin if they fell in a storm. That question is now a moot point. Insurance will pay for removal of the trees and structural repair.

Basswood trees resting on the cabin roof

A plastic chair in the woods by the beach

Official reports were that straight line winds caused the damage, but everyone around here is sure it was a tornado or possibly a series of small tornadoes. Reasons for that include finding chairs on the opposite side of the house from where they started, including one stuffed deep in a lilac bush, finding a stick drilled 5 inches into the lawn, and finding half of the canvas pergola cover in the ditch on the other side of the road, shredded to bits. Normal high winds could not move these items around corners or drill sticks into the ground. Also there were many trees that were twisted or had the tops broken off in odd ways.

Wayne was busy most of the day chain sawing branches that were blocking the road and driveway, and we all picked up many tarp loads of sticks and branches from the yard. It was extremely humid and still outside. I was sweating buckets and commented that it felt like tornado weather. Sure enough, we got another tornado warning on our phone apps around 4:00 in the afternoon. That storm was south of us and heading away, so we did not need to take shelter. However it produced an F4 tornado near Ashby, Minnesota, that caused some major damage and killed one person. Several people took amazing videos that made the national news.

Our neighbor to the south had a professional tree crew cleaning up downed trees and making a massive pile of wood and brush. We are wondering if he is going to have the bonfire of the century next winter.

Our neighbor’s brush pile from storm cleanup

Two of my uncles have homes close to the family cabin. They also had a tree crew out working on storm cleanup asap, including removing the trees from the cabin. A permit was obtained for a fire on some open land near the cabin, so we were able to unload some of our brush over there. For days after the storm the main sound in the area was chain sawing.

My sister and husband, along with some good friends, were able to come up from the cities over the weekend to help with cleanup. We were also thankful that our daughter happened to be visiting and was more than willing to provide needed manual labor.

With all the challenges of 2019 and 2020, we are very grateful for the support and love of family and friends. One day at a time.