End of spinning class, trying different wheels

I was sad to give the Ashford Joy back to Purlescence Yarns at the end of class. I had spent as much time as I could during the final week spinning up all the roving I had. I finished the blue/purple/pink/green one, and started on this beautiful pink/purple/yellow roving with silver silk mixed in:

This was the final result from that week:

I'm going to set them as singles. Not sure what I'll use them for yet.

I still have nearly all of that pink roving (I call it "My Little Pony" colored). There's a local yarn shop that has a spinning circle once a month, and I can use one of their wheels for $15. I might also put out a call in local craft groups to see if someone has a wheel I could drop in and use once a week.

I am seriously considering buying one of my own wheels. I went into the last week of class thinking I wouldn't because they're so expensive and you can buy so much yarn pre-made. But we spent the last lesson trying out all kinds of wheels in the store. I hadn't realized just how well the Ashford Joy had fit me until I tried multiple other wheels. I was very lucky to be able to use it for 3 out of 5 weeks between classes.

I was tempted by some adorable, teeny tiny travel wheels, but found the single drive to be uncomfortable:

I also found that pedals in which the pivot point was at the very back were more comfortable than those with a pivot point a few inches forward. I was not interested in a full sized traditional wheel, just due to the amount of floor space they take up. After relaying this information to the instructors, they plunked down a Louet S95 Victoria for me:

I was in LOVE! It was totally comfortable, so tiny and folded up yet more, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It comes with a travel bag/backpack so it's easy to take anywhere. Of course the folding wheels are quite expensive ($800). But I started to seriously consider it.

And then, I laid eyes on the Kromski Fantasia:

With the poor lighting and background, these photos really don't do this wheel justice. It is GORGEOUS. A wheel this beautiful calls out to you to spin on it. You don't put it away in a spare room - you keep it out as a piece of art to impress visitors.

Because it doesn't fold up, the Fantasia is actually cheaper than the Victoria - only $525 for walnut coloring and clear accent. (Or $399 for unfinished wood, for a custom paint job.) You can buy faster ratio whorls and a jumbo flier.

I'm not totally sure I should buy a wheel. I'm leaning heavily toward it because of the possibility of having ultimate control over the yarn I use. I enjoyed spinning, so it wouldn't be an annoying process I have to go through just to get the final product. You get a lot of bang for your buck when buying roving, especially if you spin lace weight singles (which I'm close to doing). And if I spent more time spinning rather than just crocheting, I wouldn't be buying finished yarns at such a fast pace! The final pro of buying a wheel is that they retain their market value very well, so it wouldn't be a big loss if 6-12 months later I decided to rehome it. Purlescence even sells wheels on consignment.

I'm about to go on a two week vacation, so I will ponder the question while I'm gone.

Apron for crochet projects

I love to have a crochet project going on my lap while I'm at seminars and conferences, but sometimes I have to quickly stuff my project into my bag to get up, and things get tangled and messy. In preparation for a four day dog training conference in June, I made a half-apron with pockets that will allow me to easily slip the project in and be ready to go.

The bottom right is for the yarn ball I'm pulling from. The little ones are for scissors (though I need to reinforce the bottom with some foam or similar so the sharp scissors don't poke through) and for the needle. The top pocket is for the project itself. The main fabric of the apron is wool, so it will also keep my lap warm when I'm sitting still for a long time. (I've been known to bring blankets to conferences.)

If I were making it again, I would make the needle pocket taller so that it pokes out less, and I would make the yarn pocket round rather than rectangular, so it's a neater fit and for aesthetics. I would also make the apron itself a trapezoid with a flared bottom so that it would wrap around the sides of my legs in a more pleasing way.

Alpaca shearing

Back on April 2nd, I drove 2 hours north to Esparto to volunteer on alpaca shearing day at Derwydd Alpacas, a large farm. It turned out that they always have a group of UC Davis vet students helping shear, and I was the only non-student present.

The process went like this:
1. Bring a small group of alpacas into a pen at the back of the barn.
2. Consult The List, which tells us which alpaca gets which type of shear. Some owners wanted the legs shaved close, while others like them long. Most of the fleece was bagged for future sale and processing, but there were some exceptions.
3. Separate out the next alpaca on The List. They all had nametag collars on so that the volunteers could identify them.

4. Bring it into a tiny pen where two students vacuum the fleece to get some portion of dust and dirt out.

5. Weigh the alpaca pre-shearing.
6. Bring it to one of two tarps in the shearing area so that it's ready to go as soon as the previous one is done.
7. Sweep all the hair of the previous alpaca away before bringing the next one on, so its fleece doesn't get contaminated (especially important if you're switching colors of alpacas).
8. There are two noose-ropes set up at one side of the tarp and two at the other. You place these around the alpaca's ankles. Then one person uses a winch to pull the top two taut, while three people help ease the alpaca down and onto its side as its legs are pulled apart. Does that sound awful? It kind of is, though it's critical to keep the animal still while it's being sheared for safety. This is the traditional way to do so.

One other common way is to use a table which flips between horizontal and vertical. You lead the alpaca over to the vertical table surface, tie him to it, and then flip it horizontal.

9. Either way, you can trim the alpaca's hooves after it's down and while you wait for the shearer to clean and oil his clippers. This is similar to trimming giant dog nails. This is also the time to check for ear mites, worms in the eyes (EW), or other problems.
10. One person stays by the head of the alpaca while it's being shorn. They hold the head still and, if the alpaca is spitting in anger, cover its mouth with a rag. Halfway through, they lift the alpaca's neck and guide it onto its other side. I spent most of my day doing this job.

11. Once shearing is done, you let the alpaca up and weigh it again, which gives you the total weight of all the fiber that was removed.

12. Any necessary medications are given at this time, and then the alpaca is let loose with its herdmates.

The alpacas ranged from lying totally still (learned helplessness) to non-stop yelling and spitting. Since my approach to animal husbandry and training always focuses on making the interaction as stress-free as possible, I was concerned about this. None of the alpacas were hurt (other than a few nicks with the clippers if someone had a fatty growth hidden under all that fleece), and the process is done as quickly and efficiently as possible so that the stressful period is as short as possible. That said, if I ever do get my mini herd of fiber boys, I plan to do some clicker training to make the process better for them.

The blanket of the Huacaya fleece is carefully kept together and placed in bags for judging and sale.

Suri fleece is just bagged more willy-nilly.

Sheet mulching

I visited my parents for Mother's Day weekend. They have a corner of their yard that has been taken over by weeds. They grow long like vines, and re-root wherever they touch down into dirt. I volunteered to sheet mulch the area for them. They had never heard of this technique but were thrilled that I was going to take care of the problem for them.

Pre-mulching. They had a thin layer of wood chips down but the weeds were all over it. I left the wood chips there instead of raking them out and reusing them because I was afraid that some of the weeds would get transferred and re-root.

Cardboard placed and soaked with water to keep it down. I used up all of the pieces of large cardboard, chicken feed bags, and bulk flour bags I'd been saving up for my future homestead.

New wood chips put over top. 5 bags measuring 2 cubic feet each just barely managed to cover the area.

Cross your fingers that the weeds don't escape out the sides. At least they'll be easier to stay on top of from here on out.

Spinning progress

This week we learned to spin 3 ply yarn. Half the class found it easier to do 3 plies, while the others (including me) preferred 2 ply.

I've gotten good at spinning thin yarn using the cheap wool roving. Usually it looks like sport weight yarn but sometimes it's approaching lace weight!

At the end of class we were given 6 bags with small amounts of various kinds of roving, labeled cashmere tussah, angora/lambswool, alpaca (!), afghan, another tussah silk, and merino.

The long, soft tussahs were hard to spin with! They got easily tangled in my support hand, and the yarn kept breaking when I would try to spin it thin and the fibers slipped apart.

The merino, which is probably what we've been spinning on, was easiest to work with. It held together well and was easy to make into lace weight yarn. The angora/lambswool was similar.

The afghan was my favorite. It had a very short staple length - about 1.5". But it also held together well.

The alpaca (huacaya) felt rougher than I expected in my hand. It got a bit tangled as I was working it, but otherwise was fine.

New wheel, plying 2 singles

Some of us switched wheels last week. I had been happy with the Ashford Traveller, but I wanted to gain experience with different wheels. This week I used the more compact, folding Ashford Joy. At first I had a lot of trouble getting the tension right for both the wheel and the bobbin, and spent a frustrating hour trying to get the roving to attach to the leader yarn and promptly losing it. Finally, once the settings were right, things settled down.

Meanwhile, in class last week, we learned how to ply two singles together.

This was a combination of the white roving we received at the start of class and the blue, purple, pink, and turquoise roving I purchased. As I was spinning the colored one, I had carefully separated out the colors so that the yarn would switch in a predictable pattern. The result was a fun color-changing yarn. I definitely want to make something out of my homemade 2-ply yarn!

Sausage making class

I attended a sausage-making class from the Institute of Urban Homesteading. It was run by Seth Peterson, who is easy-going and charismatic. It was a hands-on class - we picked fresh herbs from his luscious garden, chopped and mixed them with spices, mixed that into ground beef, worked the meat with our hands until it was very "tacky," fried it, and then ate it. Those were delicious sausage patties/hamburgers without casing. Then we put together a hand-cranked grinder and used it to fill pork casings and fried up the resulting sausage. That was fun but I see myself skipping that step and just making hamburger in the future. Mmmmm.

Now THAT is a stove.

A small yet abundant area of the garden.

Apple tree guild!

So delicious.

Spinach and strawberry harvest

Mmm, spinach.

And a particularly large handful of strawberries ripe on one day.

I only have enough plants to get a small portion each day, but they are such a treat when they've warmed up in the afternoon sunshine.

Mystery plant, geranium

Last year I experimented with taking cuttings during my dog walks and planting them at home. Only two survived:

This bizarre-looking mystery plant...

And this gorgeous geranium that has exploded in both growth and flowers. I used to think geraniums were "meh" because they were everywhere, but now they've grown on me. I can see the bright purple color from my bed when I wake up, even without my glasses, and it helps me get ready for the day.

Roast chickens

Anna Hess' book The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency includes a recipe for roasting a whole chicken. I was excited to try it out. It requires you to stay by the stove and frequently pull the chicken out to baste it, but it's extremely easy and I appreciate not needing to cut up the chicken and cook the pieces separately.

I purchased a whole organic chicken, small yellow potatoes, and gave it a go.

It came out absolutely delicious! I ended up with too much butter and oil accumulating at the bottom of the pan due to using a spoon instead of a real baster, but otherwise it made 6-7 servings and was absolutely worth the cooking time.

This weekend I'm visiting my parents to celebrate Mother's Day, and surprised them by bringing and roasting another chicken. I used my mom's baster and this time the potatoes came out crispy. A little too crispy, actually, as my dad was late for dinner and I left the pan in the warm oven so the chicken wouldn't get cold, and the potatoes kept cooking. We joked that I had made chips. I included garlic and fresh rosemary from my yard. Everyone was happy with the meal.

Brassicas

http://biology-forums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=682

I seem to have a couple of actual wild mustard plants coming up in my raised bed.