WASHDAY

"His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." Mark 9 3

 

 

Today I put several loads of wash out on the line. It was a beautiful day for washing and drying!

Then some very interesting washing began. Here's the white Romney fleece I bought yesterday in its wash water.

Yes, sir; Yes, sir, one bag full...of unwashed Romney fleece, 5.12 pounds of it, "in the grease!" as spinners would term it. Some like to spin it this way, and wash at a later time. I can't quite wrap my mind around that idea, so I am learning to "scour." I will still run the finished fleece through a drum carder, which will comb the fibers straight and then wash the spun yarn before it ever goes into a project.

Notice how dirty the wash water is after the first soak. (I only washed less than half the fleece and this was after one quarter was soaked). The color reminded me of coffee with a little cream and sugar in it!

Pails all lined up; two to three wash cycles and then two rinse cycles!

Using the slotted spoon to retrieve stray fibers from the wash water. No agitation allowed! This old spoon, purchased at a restaurant "garage sale," has come in so handy for yard duties. It stays out at my chicken coop and its main use is to retrieve ill-placed eggs. Today it became the wool spoon.

I think this was the final rinse cycle with a little vinegar added. See the difference by this time?

Since no agitation is allowed (wool will felt), I decided to "sling" it around. Couldn't find my mesh laundry bag so a lace curtain did the trick!

Wool encased in lace--kinda cool, huh?

An alternative use for the chicken tractor. Parked right up alongside the back deck this made a handy drying rack!

Another handy drying rack. I knew there was more than one reason we bought this mesh table back in the '70's!

Clean locks alongside unwashed locks. See the difference the removal of the yellowed lanolin and dirt makes?

Locks before washing. You see flecks of dirt and such in the locks. Spinners refer to this as VM--vegetable matter. It comes from straw, grass, and whatever the sheep comes in contact with in the field. Tiny bits of this stick into the wool over the season and must be removed.

 

Hope you enjoyed this little wool washing experience as much as I did. How fun to work outside in the beautiful fall weather and learn a new skill called "scouring" the wool.

All day during the washing and ever since, the verse I cited above, Mark 9:3, has run through my mind. This was a big job and the results were stunning from pre-wash to rinse time. Jesus is able to make our sins white as snow by His sacrifice on Calvary. Remember the old hymn, "Are You Washed in the Blood," by Elisha A. Hoffman? It asks, "Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"

 

Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb?

 

"He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments,..." Revelation 3:5

 

"Come now, let us reason together,"

Says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18

 

Blessings, Lori

A DAY OFF AND ANOTHER "DAYCATION"

I'd like to share my latest "daycation" with you. By reading this sign, you can see where I went yesterday! To the most popular Fair on earth! Clint and I finally had a day off together and so we went over to Hillsdale to the fair. This has become a family tradition that my Dad startedyears ago. We don't make it every year, but we try. I love the picture of the little girl with the lamb! There were other vintage posters I photographed, but this one became my favorite because of the lamb!

 

 

Next are pictured several bags of judged and priced fleece for sale! I just about couldn't tear myself away from this area where a spinner sat in the sheep barn showing people the art of spinning wool. I finally left the fleeces without purchasing, but not before talking for a long time with a friendly sheep who loved having her nose scratched. I wish I had gotten a picture. Also loved the picture of the sheep and swine barn!

 

What a cute sign hanging above the sheep stalls!

 

Here is a picture of a horse being warmed up for a race. The weather was perfect and so enjoyable to sit in the grandstand and watch the races.

Loved this sign since my grandma always used to say that if the cows were laying down it was going to rain. I always wondered if it was true, but maybe she was right? After all, she grew up living closer to the land than I did.

Loved this pretty canning display. Could only get a small portion of the antique items in the picture. The sign reads, "Have you gotten out your canning supplies lately?" That's almost a joke at my house. Sometimes they stay out this time of year for days or weeks!

 

The pretty Grange Hall. I love the architecture all around Hillsdale and the fairgrounds are no exception. Some of the prettiest old buildings you'll see! I wish the picture hadn't been "blue." The sun was very bright and I had a hard time getting a good shot of this beautiful building. Apparently people sometimes rent this building for weddings according to pictures we saw inside.

Here is a beautiful example of the Grange displays. I remember seeing multiple displays like this in our Grange barn when I was a little girl. It was my favorite part of the whole fair--isn't that kind of unusual for a little girl? I think the "farm" was deep in my heart even way back then growing up in a small town. Each town in our county had a Grange group. They all had displays like this in the fair. The Grange displays were a composite of member farm families' efforts at everything from every possible canned good imaginable to all kinds of needlework and farm and orchard products. I think this is America the way it used to be! I kind of miss it!

 

I love the antique tractors! Which do you think is the older model--me or the tractor? Post a comment, make a guess, and I'll reveal the answer on the next post!

I love sign pictures and thought this was as cute as could be!

 

I hope you enjoyed my day at the Fair! I surely did!

Blessings, Lori

RECYCLED BAGS

Here is a picture of my leftover scratch grain bag that turned into a really good bag for "big" type needlework. It is currently holding a huge ball of Icelandic roving that I am spinning!  Blessings, LORI

WOOLY WORLD

Just wanted to share a bit of news. I haven't been able to post lately. But here's a picture of a drum carder that my spinning group had set up at our recent county fair. One of our memebers was kind enough to loan it to our display for the week. I learned to operate it and demonstrate this step in the processing of wool for the many onlookers that visited our interesting display.  After wool is "picked" it is placed in the drum carder, cranked by hand until the drum is full of long strands of wool all going in the same direction. Then the long pinlike tool is used to gently lift the wool off the carder at one location. Once it is "pried" (not a hard job!) loose, it can be neatly pulled off in a uniform "batt." It is then ready to spin or be put through one more process to make roving. Either way, it's "spinnable" at this point.

Several of us ladies sat and spun or knitted all week so people could watch the process and get their questions answered. We had the walls behind us covered with our hand-spun creations. A nice informational board was included that featured locks of many different kinds of wool to show the incredible variety available!

Here's hoping EWE enjoyed this demonstration! Blessings, LORI

NEEDLEWORK AROUND MY HOME

I couldn't wait to do a post and show off my "new look." I hope you like the blog background!
This first picture is the lace scarf in progress. I decided to use the "Colorado Cotton Candy" yarn that I spun in the stripes between the lace panels of Icelandic. The pattern is from a book I got for Christmas. Very subtle color variations. The colors reminded me of my dining room.....and so......

Next are two pictures of a set of four--embroideries that I did a few years ago. Very delicate colors and tiny, tiny stitches. I really like these. The kit was given to me by a friend and all four hang in our dining room by the front door.

This next embroidery is larger and hangs between the set of four. It took a long, long time to complete. I got it clearance for about $5 and it was a kit too. The year I completed it, I framed it about an hour before the entries closed at our county fair. I took it in and won the Judge's Choice ribbon that year--a great honor since there is only one Judge's Choice for the entire needlework building--quilts and everything. They told me it was a very close race between this and another item. I love this, but am not sure it deserved the prize against the other lovely things that were there that year. I wish I was a better photographer and could capture the tiny details for you to see. There is candlewick lace design between each motif and some of the flowers have an almost three-dimensional look.

I did this next embroidery when I was about 13. My aunt and uncle gave me this kit for my birthday and I enjoyed it so much. It needs to be reframed, but $$$ prevent me from undertaking the professional process it deserves. I have many other items waiting for framing as well.

Some antique plates that adorn my dining room wall on one side of my big china cabinet. These hang right near the next embroidery. The bottom one is from a very old family set. I love transferware.

A sampler (kit) that I made as a young girl and finished after years of neglect. I LOVE this one. It reads, "Long Life Sampler" "Be cheerful, thankful, loving true. A brighter day will dawn for you. Of rest and labor take your share, eat simple food and breathe pure air." Good advice!

The Long Life sampler with more antique plates surrounding it. The bottom framed item is an ancient church symbol depicting Christ, the suffering servant--the lamb in the thorns. When I first saw this symbol as an outline on the Mennonite hymnal, I knew I had to try to execute the design in bobbin lace. I enlarged the shape and made a pattern, completing the lacework in free form, no pattern.

So, there's a sampling of my samplers and some other needlework! I guess you can tell how old I am since the craze for samplers was kind of a 70's trend with the Bi-centennial celebration of our nation. I really did a lot of them in those days, many of which were given away or sold. I have never lost my appetite for them and now have several more kits in my sewing room closet--I mean like a LOT of them! Blessings, LORI

COLORADO COTTON CANDY AND BIG BUNCHES OF BEADS!

Here are two balls of finished hand spun. The large gray one is a little less than half the Icelandic I've been working on for a year. The little variegated ball is the "Colorado Cotton Candy" I spun up this week. See pics below for the "Cotton Candy" in the various stages of construction--reverse order! I am starting a lace scarf today using these two together as contrasts. Pictures coming in the future!

I'm excited to share pictures of the paper bead necklaces I've been making. I gave many away as Christmas gifts. This little craft is addictive! I can't wait to see what a magazine page will roll up to be! So far, my favorites are pages from gardening catalogs! Very bright!

Next is the finished yarn from the roving I named, "Colorado Cotton Candy." I purchased this pretty bit of fluff on our last trip out west in September. I thought it looked like cotton candy. Sorry, for all you fiber enthusiasts, I think I threw the tag away and can't vouch for the exact fiber content, but I remember Merino, silk, and some rayon (the metallic blue thread, I think.)

Here is it in the process of spinning. I am not totally happy with my spinning at this point. I feel once it's plied, my yarn looks too "loose." Any tips? I think this turned out as a fingering weight or sport weight when it was done. There's not much of it and so it will have to be knit along with something else to make a project. I am thinking it will be pretty with a bit of the grey Icelandic I've been working on. I am pretty sure I can see grey Icelandic socks with this yarn as a design in the pattern! Blessings, LORI

HANDSPUN HAPPINESS

Proverbs 31:19, "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her handss hold the distaff."

Proverbs 27:26, "The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of a field."

Here is picture of me in our front yard holding my latest skeins of spun yarn. This group is Alpaca/Wool blend. I really enjoy spinning and knitting, but when I was thinking about the Proverbs 31 woman, I had to wonder if the charm would sort of disappear from the hobby if it were a duty--part of the necessary work of a woman. What if I had to actually spin all my thread, then weave it, then cut the cloth to make clothing? Since I also have some experience weaving, I can't begin to imagine the amount of work that would involve. I can't spin yarn fine enough to suit me right now, let alone fine enough to weave into cloth for clothing! I've been trying to consistently produce nice sport weight or fingering yarn with an eye to lace weight eventually. Yet, even that would be pretty large thread size to be made into cloth!

The sweater I have on in the picture is one I made a few years ago. The yarn is a bulky/chunky type of novelty yarn. I love it and yet it was a little scratchy on my neck as I wore the sweater today. I can't imagine what some forms of homespun would have been like for everyday clothing. It's so hard for me to think about creating all my clothes from the sheep to the shirt. But our ancestors did it on a regular basis. No wonder the Proverbs 31 woman was revered! I have trouble cooking supper sometimes and she was doing all kinds of hard work on a daily basis!

Well, anyway, it was a beautiful fall day here. Though it was cold, the skies were a lovely mix of dark clouds and vibrant blue skies with sunshine and shadows alternating. The browns of the late fall leaves and the occasional evergreen against dry yellow corn fields just made scenes worthy of a painting, in my estimation. This is one of the prettiest times of year, I think. I went to my spinning and knitting group today and had a great time. I hope you enjoyed the day too. Think of the Proverbs 31 woman while you are doing your daily tasks and be thankful for ready-made clothing, electric mixers, washers and dryers, freezers, and so on....Blessings, LORI

THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER

If you have followed my blog for very long, you have seen this picture before...like last spring when it was taken! My camera card must be full and I wanted to do a post, so I had to delve back into the files to find a suitable photo.

Just this morning Rhiannon and I were noticing someone's lovely roses still blooming. She asked if we had a "last rose of summer" blooming anywhere on the property. I told her "no," that this year was kind of unusual. We most always have at least one hardy specimen that exerts itself in a last ditch effort this time of year, but I hadn't seen any yet.

Rhiannon wanted to put a rose on Clint's Grandma Sal's grave if we could--and she felt it should be our "last rose of summer," since this was a saying Grandma quoted alot. After a hard day's work in her garden or baking all day, her hair falling from the upswept style she always wore, she would often quote, "I'll bet I look like the last rose of summer." Grandma Sal was an important person in all our lives. We miss her greatly. She taught me so much about so many things. I got several of my best recipes for baked goods from her. She was an expert flower and vegetable gardener and I'll probably never come anywhere near being that good with plants. She was hands down the best cook I've ever known and that's not just my opinion. She was known far and wide for her spectacular baked goods and wonderful meals.

Well, lo and behold, after making a visit to the English garden to take in some of the ornaments for winter storage a little while ago, I saw that this same little rose has one bud on it. I hope within a few days we will have our "last rose of summer!"

I wanted to share some other pictures of what we did today, but as I said the camera wasn't cooperating. We worked really had today at various projects that have been left behind while we did all the traveling. We had to make a quick overnight trip to Iowa earlier in the week for a funeral. This, of course, was totally unexpected and came quite closely on the heels of returning from Colorado. I felt like I never got settled from that trip before it was time to take another. So I spent quite a bit of time today tying up loose ends as far as work around here goes.

Today we planted tulip bulbs that Rhi ordered back in May at the Holland Tulip Festival here in Michigan. They will be a spring treat in a few months! I finished digging all the potatoes, did 5 loads of laundry, mostly heavy bedding to catch what might be one of the last beautiful, windy days of fall, took a walk, did some cleaning, went to purchase a little gift to send to the granddaughters, and cleaned out some areas of my desk. Last but not least, and I wanted to show you a picture--I washed my 100% alpaca yarn that I spun. It's hanging out on the line to dry. I was pretty proud of it. Most of it is quite consistent and I'm happy with the finished product! I hope you enjoyed this fall day as much as I did. Blessings, LORI

A VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL

Though these pictures are a bit out of order, bear with me. Pike's Peak had snow on the top this morning. I couldn't resist taking a picture as I was out for my walk. That's the last picture.

The picture of me standing by the sign was taken on Wednesday just after we crossed the state line of Colorado. The really bad one of me by the fence was taken just outside of Colorado Springs this morning when Clint took me on a "fiber hunting" expedition. I found a WONDERFUL store with more roving than I've ever seen in one place in my life. They had looms, spinning wheels, and dye materials as well as a complete knitting shop. I bought one ounce each of white and gray Blue Faced Leicestershire to spin.

I should mention that we went as visitors to a session of the leadership/minister's conference at Charis Bible College last night. The service was wonderful. We got to hear Andrew Wommack preach. This was a big deal for me since I really enjoy his teaching. My son, being a first year student, was helping out as an usher. It was an experience I'll never forget. The Lord has really blessed me in the last few years to be able to meet or see several of the very famous Christian ministers. A few years ago we met John Hagee on a trip to San Antonio. We attended his church and then met him afterwards. I also met Lisa Bevere and Natalie Grant while in England. Our contacts with Resurrection Life Churches based in Grandville, Michigan has allowed us to meet other nationally known Christians as well. This has been a huge blessing to meet the faithful people that God is mightily using in the world today. Oh, to be used by God to win souls! May it be so! Blessings, LORI

FAIR UPDATE

I'm pleased to share a little more of our exciting week with you! As Clint and I spend time at the St. Joseph County Fair in our old hometown, Centreville, Michigan, I hope to share the fun of the fair with you!

On Tuesday we spent the day volunteering in the Miracle of Birth tent as we do every year. We worked from 9am-3pm helping do whatever was needed for the animals. Clint helped alot with the cow, doing chores and as you can see, (in the very unflatering picture of me!) I took care of the incubator where the chicks were hatching. It was very hot at the fair yesterday and we were trying to claim any breeze we could. As you see, the sides of the tent had been rolled up. Several chicks hatched on my shift and I turned all the eggs at least once. The incubator stays at a steady 100 degrees and when a hatched chick is completely dry they go over to the other glassed in pen where they can eat and drink and walk around under a very warm light. Having been a sort of "chicken farmer" for a while, I really enjoy talking to all the people who are interested in knowing more about the chicks.

When we were done, Clint went to work at the chaplaincy's booth and I went to spin with the spinning and weaving guild in the needlework building. One of the other spinners and I got our pictures taken by a man from the local newspaper. I guess it appeared today. I haven't seen it yet.

Today I went and spun some more while Clint manned the chaplaincy booth again. It is great fun seeing lots of old friends and talking to people interested in what you are doing. I got all my alpaca/wool blend spun and plied. I really liked working with it and was sorry to see the product finished in one way. I immediately started some 100% alpaca--a little more challenging! I'll post pictures of the finished yarns later.

This evening Rhiannon came over to the fair and we did what we do nearly every year--attended the Demolition Derby! Hooray for wrecking cars on purpose under safe conditions! We got kind of hooked on this while my dad was still alive. He always took our kids when we lived in Centreville just a block from the fairgrounds. They enjoyed it so much that we all started going. Most of the time now, it's me and Rhiannon that enjoy the derby and tonight we had a friend driving in it for the first time. She did really well, but wasn't the final top prize winner. Yes, I know, this is out of character for me! But I really do enjoy the derby! The one picture of the upside down ride with the flags was taken by Rhi from the top of the grandstand while we waited for the derby to start. While we still were living in Centreville we awoke early one morning to fire whistles and a glow in the sky. The very, very old grandstand, a sort of icon in the county, was on fire. It burned beyond saving and a new grandstand was built to replace it. It is very nice and tonight was great mild weather for sitting outside to watch the show.

More pictures later in the week! Blessings, LORI