County Fair Demonstration

My guild was asked to demonstrating fiber processing (specifically wool) in the sheep barn at the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro Oregon.  We were happy to ablige!  We demo'd for two days and educated a lot of people about the wonderful word of wool, hand spinning, and fiber arts.  The most fun was the 4H kids who were so enthusiastic to see what happens to the wool after harvested from the animals.  :)

A rare photo of me at an event!

We had two display tables:  The first held a dispaly of the process, fibers, tools, and some handspun, and me spinning at the end.  The second table had take-home sheets, finished goods, hand dyed yarn, and hand spun yarns and two of my guild mates; one knitting and one tatting.

 This is a close of up the display of hand spinning steps:

0) Raw wool on the sheep (we were demonstrating in a sheep barn!)
1) Washed wool fiber, with vm and not picked
2) Washed wool fiber, some vm removed, flick-carded
~~From this step on, it's all the same fleece.~~
3) Carded wool batt, ready for spinning.
4) Wool single, wound onto a toilet paper tube.
5) Two wool singles plied and wound into a hank, still on niddy noddy
6) Washed and set wool yarn, in loose hank
7) Wool hank twisted and labeled, ready to sell

other fibers

Handspun Yarn

Fiber processing / spinning tools

Finished Goods table

Freebies: pattern, color pages

Hand dyed yarn, sock-in-progress

My hand knits, and a friend's atted lace

My handspun, various fibers

My design

Rachel's Pasta Sauce (Recipe!)

Today I am making my pasta sauce!  It's been quite a while since I've made it since I haven't been going to Cash & Carry, where I get my large tomato bases.  But I went with a friend yesterday.  Woohoo!  Last night I prepped all the vegetables, and this morning I got cooking. It's now simmering happily away on the stove top.  I'm looking forward to some delicious sauce this evening!  :D

(Please excuse the bad photo.  It's an old one and I didn't have a good resolution saved.  I'll likely take a new pic tonight.)

Rachel's Pasta Sauce

Slowly cooking this sauce over many hours makes all the difference, allowing the flavors to marry and mature! Start it in the morning and eat / freeze/ can in the evening.

If your crock pot is big enough it would be an excellent alternative.

Course: Sauces

Cuisine: Italian

Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 6 hr
Total Time: 7 hr

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots
• ¹⁄₂ pound celery
• 1 medium onion ( 1/2 lb) diced
• 2 Tablespoons garlic fresh or dried, minced
• 1 large can (6lb 10oz) tomato puree
• ¹⁄₂ large can (6lb 6oz) diced tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons parsley
• 1 Tablespoon basil
• ¹⁄₂ Tablespoon oregano
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 Tablespoons kosher salt
• ¹⁄₂ Tablespoon pepper
• ¹⁄₄ cup brown sugar
• Meatballs Optional

Directions

1. Dice the carrots and celery and put into a pot; add enough water to cover. Cook vegetables on medium heat until soft (about 20 minutes). Drain over a bowl reserving the water. Puree vegetables in a food processor, or blender until smooth, adding cooking water as needed.
 
2. Meanwhile, dice the onion and saute in oil or butter until soft. If using dried onion, use cooking water to hydrate and soften.
 
3. Set a stock pot on the stove on low. Add all ingredients, including the cooking water, into the pot. Simmer on low for several hours.
   Note: If you don't like a really chunky sauce, pulse the diced tomatoes in the food processor a few times. We like ours slightly lumpy in our house.
 
4. Adding meatballs: If using precooked meatballs, add to the sauce 1 hour before serving. Do not microwave to thaw frozen meatballs as it will toughen the meat. If using fresh meatballs, brown the formed balls in a skillet before adding them to the sauce to cook through. About 2- 3 hours.

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Nemesis Horns re-released!

Nemesis Knapsack has completed testing and has been re-released with updates!  

I really enjoyed working with the people in Ravely's "Free Pattern Testers" group. :). If you are a desugner, check them out. 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nemesis-horns-free-pattern

Every yarn has a story...

Meet "Moody Cloud"

This yarn marked the beginning of my love affair with spinning.  The pencil roving had glorious color and an intriguing texture that made my fingers itch to work with it.  With my birthday money I bought the fiber from a friend, and borrowed her drop spindle.  With a few pointers we were off and running.  My arms ached but I still wanted to keep going.  I loved the transitions of one color to the next, fascinated with the whole process.  My children watched me wide-eyed as I played with color and fiber.

When it was time to ply I had so many variations that I could try.  I decided that I wanted to wind the single into a yarn cake and ply the center pull with the outside strand and just "see what the color does."  This was the best part!  What surprises I was in for.  Purples with purples, purples with pinks, and pinks with pinks.  Such a fun way to blend color.

Then I learned how to set the yarn by "thwacking" it.  Haha!  Such fun!

Now it's your turn to pick up the story.  Take this yarn home and write the ending.  Will the yarn become a purse?  Someone's toy?  You decide!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/243428978/handspun-yarn-moody-cloud?ref=shop_home_active_2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Handspun by Rachel's Cozy Knits & Designs
Fiber content: 100% wool
Color: "Moody Cloud"
2 plys
125 grams, 282 yards
13 wraps per inch, DK weight
Spun January 2014
Hand wash in cool water. Air dry.

Wilma

Ok, I'm back everybody!  Sorry for the cliffhanger.  Well, maybe I'm not sorry exactly but I'm glad you're back.  :P

I left off talking about Tour de Fleece!  I had set myself up with several ideas going in:

• stash busting
• trying new things
• washing, picking out vegetable matter, and flick-combing to prepare a bunch of my raw wool for spinning
• Play with dyeing!  
• two SAPGAP trades, one again with the same person I did before, this time with a Merino/Cormo cross and if I finished that I would start up on some alpaca/silk roving from the next SAPGAP trade.

I started off on the wrong foot.  I intended to start with the Merino/Cormo fleece but the carder machine I was using broke down.  So I had to try to get back out to my local yarn store to rent the big machine.  That didn't happen until about a week into TdF.

Let me take a moment to tell you about this fleece.  It's amazing.  Its the softest that I have spun to date and oh-so-squooshy!  If that wasn't a word before, it is now.  This is the seconds (it's not even the best stuff off this sheep!) from a sheep named Wilma.  There is something special spinning from fiber from a named sheep.  I can feel the love that went into the care for the animal.  I hope Wilma is happy with how I've been spinning her fiber because I feel that she is now my animal friend.

The first skein I just went for it.  I tried spinning long-draw as finely as I could make this fleece work with me - and it took forever.  Spinning and plying all day for 3-4 days (I forget exactly now but it was the aforementioned "forever").  I knew I would never finish before my August 1 due date.  I shared  pictures (the ones below actually) with the person who owns the fleece and she liked it but felt it was too thin.  So I set it aside to add to my share and moved on.

624 yards, 100 grams; 23 wraps per inch

Next I tried spinning short-draw and making it a bit thicker and fluffier.  It worked perfectly.  I hit right in the 17 wraps per inch range which is fingering weight.  This style of drafting also allowed the yarn to be even sqooshier.  It'll make lovely baby clothes, as she said that's what she wants to do with the yarn.

Unfortunately after I finished this skein I got side tracked by life.  My kiddos and home needed tending to.  Always going on about the "I need clean clothes," and "I'm hungry," and some such.  Then my 14  year old wanted a birthday party.  Ugh.  I just want to spin!  lol

So then I got back to it and got two more 100g skeins done and two singles for another skein as Tour de Fleece came to a close.  The next day I plied the two together and washed & set all the yarn to date.  At this moment I have to finish spinning this last single, ply the fourth skein, wash, set, dry this last skein and then I can mail them home. :)  I'm cutting it close and its making me nervous.  I know she'll be okay if it's a day or two late but I like things to be on time.

Here's a purdy picture I took of her yarn modeling my yarn bands I've put up for sale.

So I probably should tell you about these yarn bands.  I made these up for my first SAPGAP order and since then I've updated them.  Two days I found out that my rent is going up so I had the brilliant idea of selling custom yarn bands & tags.  So, I fixed them up a bit more, made a second page for small skein tags and put them in my online shop.  They'll make your yarn and roving look more professional and at a measly $5 they'll pay for themselves in no time.  Take a look! 

Tour de Fleece results:

• stash busting  Got some stash spun!
• trying new things  Tried new things!  Spinning from the lock and new fiber.
• washing, picking out vegetable matter, and flick-combing to prepare a bunch of my raw wool for spinning  Eh, not nearly as much done as I wanted.
• Play with dyeing!  Nope, nothing got dyed. :(
• two SAPGAP trades, one again with the same person I did before, this time with a Merino/Cormo cross and if I finished that I would start up on some alpaca/silk roving from the next SAPGAP trade.  Didn't get the first one done but I'm okay with the progress I made.

My project Moleskin with TdF numbers

In closing today I'll flash this pretty picture at you.  This is everything I spun and plied during Tour de Fleece.  Again, the dates for those who forgot was July 4 - 26th.