no time! no time!

I don’t even have time to make my letter capitalized in that title.
Ok, that’s a lie. I left my title like that just so I could say that line.

Between getting out fencing up to date for arrival goats, looking for a suitable milking goat (you wouldn’t think it would be as hard as it apparently is), doing fiber shows (NHSW last week, MASW next week), dealing with ducks and their issues (so far all still alive miraculously), finalizing the kids dance recital stuff (this weekend!), and working on the latest spin along…..I’ve neglected the blog.

I’m writing this post, just so I don’t continue to neglect. I’m going to add pictures because we all like pictures right?

This is the one goat that we have reserved so far:

My eldest is completely in love with him and talks about him frequently

This is the yarn that I spun for the Lace along in our Rav group

LilBoog plied it for me! The first yarn she plied wasn’t stellar but this one is. My own little fiber sweatshop.

Dyeing with snow

This is the photo I teased you with earlier in the week

This is really a fun way to dye. Its only for cotton or vegetable dyeing**. I’ve done it with rayon, bamboo and cotton. The only differences are the inherent differences that the fibers themselves bring to the table. My directions here aren’t super pithy. They’re assuming that you already know how to do cotton dyeing. If you are unfamiliar with making tie dyes or cotton dyeing please grab a book and read up on how it’s done.

The steps are really easy. The hard part is the waiting.

What you’ll need to make it happen:

Snow***
Bucket or sink to drip into
Rack to keep your items out of the drainage
The item you’re dyeing
Fiber Reactive dyes
Lots of patience.

Let’s make this happen:
1. Soak the item you want to dye for a few minutes. I soak it in warm water and soda ash which is the setting agent for the Fiber Reactive dyes. If I’m using an item that I got at Goodwill I will wash in Synthropol to make sure there is nothing on it that will inhibit dyeing. If I got the item from a place that sells blanks for dyeing, then I don’t bother usually. Some will still tell you to wash carefully first and if you don’t like surprises, you may want to follow that advice. Me, I like surprises.

2. Place your item on the rack over the basin.

You can fold but you probably don’t want to heap it into one massive pile. You want all the dyes to get a chance to work on this and if you make knots or hard folds and pile to deeply then there will be white areas. White areas are good, but only if that’s your goal.

3. Pile on your snow or ice. Not too thin, not to thick, I usually use about 3 inches or so.

Snow is really nice and even, I’ve not done this with ice because that takes slightly more effort here in the snowy north than it does to walk outside and grab piles of snow. Note that how it piles the way the dyes will shift. Faster through thinner parts, slower through thicker parts….this will change the overall look.

4. Apply the dye to the top of the snow. Just powder, right from the jars, sprinkle it right on to the snow.

Leave white areas, or don’t.

5. Wait.
That clock will feel like the time is going back wards. What’s easiest for me is to do this just before my work day ends, leave it at work and in the morning I get to work and have a surprise. There is little control to this, you’re letting the snow paint your project. You can speed it up by having it in a very warm room but the faster it melts the more likely you are to have white. The slower it melts the more time you give all the colors to move and blend at their own pace. Patience will provide a different looking piece than it will if you add heat.

6. Rinse and wash and do all the things you’re supposed to do to finish off as if you had done a tie dye.

VOILA!

**Why only vegetable products? Why can’t I do this with protein items? I tested it and I’ll tell you my thoughts. Protein requires heat to set it. In the cotton process as the dye hits the item it starts to set immediately. This makes the colors splotchy and vibrant. Doing this with protein, it wouldn’t set, you’d have to wait til the colors moved through and then you’d need to set it. Not a big deal. But, the items that I did dye like this, were no better (maybe worse) than when I dye them in a conventional way and I use less dye in the conventional way. I feel like snow dyeing with the items I dyed, was a waste of powder. But, I’m not one to really deter you from playing. Go ahead and give it a go anyway. You might like what you create, it will surely be different than the vegetable products dyeing with this method.
Here’s my 2 samples – Hankies (I’ve flipped them so you can see the front and back of the pile are different)

And some Sock yarn:

***You don’t HAVE to use snow. You can use ice cubes or better crushed ice. Pull out your Snoopy Snow Cone maker and get to making some shaved ice. The reason that I like the snow is that it’s small crystals and even. The ice melts differently. The larger it is, the more different your spots will be. Also, you will need sides on your tub (unlike how I show) because snow packs, and ice doesn’t. Give ice a go and see what you think.

I also want to note that this is in no way my idea. I’ve seen it mentioned as an ice dyeing project. This is just how I’ve chosen to do this and I’ve done a bunch of garments now. That jacket in the teaser is my favorite so far so you get extra photos of that. No flash:

With Flash:

And the back:

HAPPY DYEING!!!

Gilead goodness

My friend Kristen of Gilead Farm has awesome fiber. I have proof.
3 little happy balls of joy

They were so happy that after taking their photo one fell into the spindle.

I managed to bring the other 2 balls home and quickly made yarn from “Veritek”.

Yes, in white. I know that’s not usual for me, but it’s really nice.
The spindle one and the Shetland, I’m still savoring.
I might have even ordered more but I’ll save myself the embarrassment of the picture of that haul.

Ducklings in the house!

Or rather, in the shop.
We picked up these 10 darlings yesterday.

They huddle up in the corner as the big bad lady with the camera shows up.

But look at those wee little feet!

There are 5 Khaki Campbell, 2 White Crested, and 3 Indian Runner ducks. The Runners are mine so the kids let me name them. With the help of my Twitter friends they have been named Delicious, Rillette, and Spleeny. I have no idea what the girls are going to name the other 7 but they are loved even without names.

Lookit that fathead starting.

I bet LilBoog won’t let me call him fathead but in my mind, that’s what she will be.

10 ducks added to the 2 we still have….
We’re going to have so many eggs, I imagine lunches at some point will be like This Scene from Napolean Dynamite.

Photobombing the yarn

Y’all know I’m not the best photographer right?
Most of the time I put in really great efforts and still….I just don’t have the eye for it. So much so that sometimes, I photobomb my own photo:

I was taking photos for the March club fibers/yarns and well, it wasn’t one of the best photos I’ve ever taken. Sad enough, it wasn’t one of the worst either.

Tomorrow I pick up new ducklings…..Expect lots of photos coming soon.

Kombucha….again

I once talked about this drink on the blog back in 2008.
That scoby died, the jar is now a terrarium graveyard:

and the project in that post still isn’t finished. In fact, I don’t know where that project even is. But that’s not even what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about kombucha.

That jar was massive and made more kombucha than I could really drink myself unless I stopped drinking all other beverages. I still make it in a similar way using cane sugar and Assam tea that I got from the Bar Harbor Tea Company. I just make it in a much smaller jar. Once the kombucha has fermented properly you can call it quits and drink it right there. New batches take more time than seasoned batches and the temperature makes a difference. Mine sits in the kitchen against an outside wall. In the winter it takes 10 days to 2 weeks to get done it’s first ferment and less time as the temperature warms up. In the hottest part of summer if it’s going faster than I can drink, I move it to the cooler root cellar. Once it’s fermented you can call it done. Bottle it and put it in the fridge. It will continue to ferment a little no matter where you put it. Slower in a colder temp and you may not even notice it changing at all if you drink it within a week or so.

In my other post, I didn’t even talk about second fermentations. You don’t have to do one. Second fermentations will give it more fizz, more oomph or a burst of flavor. Basically, you pour into bottles, put in more sugar syrup or just flavoring, cap it tightly and leave it on the counter for another 2-3 days. Then put it in the fridge to slow down more fermenting. That’s it. Kombucha is really easy. It can be as simple or as difficult as you want to make it.

My second fermentings usually are with some fresh ginger but sometimes I just add fruit juice. My friend Lisa uses limes from her own tree for her second fermentation. The little scoby I have is a gift from her and it came with a lime which did indeed work well for the second fermentation. Mercedes has mentioned and pinned about using simple flavored syrups in her second ferments. It was specifically the Blueberry Lavender that got me itching to try new flavors.

I dug around online and searched out some other flavors. Some were meant for kombucha:
Blood Orange
Root Beer

And then a few syrups that I think would be just as good even though they’re meant to flavor plain sletzers:
Key Lime
Cherry Lime
Quince, Blood Orange, and Corriander
Vanilla Bean

I admit, I just poured off a new batch on Monday and because I’ve been too busy to make syrups, I haven’t tried any other syrups. I made some simple syrup with honey not too long ago and I have used that. It has that lovely flavor that honey imparts and is sugary enough to work great for a second fermentation. Lately everything has been honey and ginger. I ran through the last of the honey syrup on Monday so you know this means I’ll try out something new soon. It will most likely be the vanilla bean but I do really want to try the root beer. Or maybe I’ll get some limes and do that again… So many flavors to try.

If you have any other things you’ve tried in your Kombucha, please comment.

I also wanted to note that while Kombucha is good for you it may have some drawbacks. Many fermented things carry healthy bacteria that help your digestive system work happy. They’re also tasty. The thing you should know is that this brew has some alcohol content. It’s really slight and changes depending on your fermentation. I still thought that I should mention it. If you don’t drink alcohol or you’re an alcoholic, please look into it further before just giving it a go.

Maple Syrup

We tapped our trees for sap again this year. All in the pursuit of this golden delicious syrup:

We had better luck than last year using an electric stove so our syrup boiled down at a more even rate. If you do this and you have an electrical hookup outside or can run an extension cord to a single electric burner, it’s worth it. The gas stove just wasn’t a happy way to do this with all the wind and whatnot. Also my aunt gave us the hint that it’s best not to keep adding fresh sap to a bucket you’re already boiling down. Once you start boiling, let it go and only combine at the end when you’ve got it all boiled down to the same level. Smart. I think that helped us this year too.

We tapped the sugar maples and 2 of the red maples this year. I didn’t have enough spiles and buckets to do more trees or I would have tapped every maple type tree on the property. I bought 10 new spiles and hose set ups for next year. My next order to Uline will include some colorful buckets. 2014 will be a banner syrup year for us if I manage to tap all the trees I want to.

We still don’t have a ton of syrup but it will last a while. I think we got close to 9 pints but that’s just an estimate. Jars have been consumed and there are some at my parents and inlaws, and some at our house. I see lots of pancakes and granola in our future.