Back To Nature-Again

We are finally at that time of year that I can snap pics of the butterflies. This little tiny guy is one of my all time favs. He is only about 1" long and except for the brilliant orange on his wings he is entirely gray in color. But he is one smart little butterfly. The way he lights to feed makes bigger butterflys think the orange "eyespot" in the front end of him. And when they come in to attack he can fly in the opposite direction than what they think he is going to. Cause his head is really at the other end. In the pic it is obvious what end his head is at but it is not always as easy to see in real life. This is what you get with a decent lens and a close up adaptor!!

And now my dyeing has gone back to nature also. When in North Carolina I scraped a bit of boring dull green and grey lichen off some trees and brought it home. I made sure I identified it first and found that it was a very common lichen and could be harvested without harming the population. That was actually kind of obvious to me as it was everywhere in my daughter's neighborhood, in the Camp LeJeune Marine Corp base-heck probably everywhere in N. Carolina. But I only brought home 2 little baggies. As soon as I got home I stuck most of one baggie into an ammonia/water bath hoping to get the elusive purples that can come from some lichens. Never mind that none of the experts or veteran dyers had said they could get purple from this variety. But I am the crazy soul who thinks that she will be the first on the planet to mysteriously get purple out of common Hypogymnia. But after 2 weeks the liqueur was a rich brown with no tint of red or purple. So I drew some off hoping to make use of the rich brown. I threw in a small amount of yarn but it barely came out beige after 2 days What to do, what to do?? Well there is always the other method-boiling water. But I just figured I was going to get some boring color similar to the lichen itself. But ever curious I gave it a try. I threw the rest of the lichen in a large enamel pot, poured the boiling water over and set it in the garage for overnight. Shortly after DH goes out and knocks the whole thing over, comes in and tells me I have something to clean up and "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT STUFF ANYWAY"?? So I go scoop it all back up and start over-it's the best I can do at that point. The next morning I dish some up into a jar and see it is a pretty cool orange. I stick a yarn sample in and it turns that lovely shade of orange. So now I am jazzed and decant and strain a good sized amount off and run get my last bit of pre-mordanted yarn to throw in. I let it sit for about 2 hrs admiring it much of that time!! When I finally could not wait any longer I rinsed it(a little ran off) washed it and let it dry. And if I have to say so myself it is gorgeous with a capital "G"!! I threw the rest of the dye back into the pot, threw in a very small amount of ammonia as suggested by the experts whose books I now finally own a few of, and it is sitting out in the garage for a few more days of dye extraction. It is looking a little stronger and darker in color now so I should be able to get at least one more real different color out of it and then whatever happens when I dye with any exhaust left. I was so excited I had to post about it on Ravelry and even suggested a lichen swap. But I have to wait til I can get out to the Witchita Mountains and see what I might be able to collect there. Every description given of the Witchita's includes "Lichen covered granite rocks" so that does sound promising. Audry II reached a milestone this last week. She both passed the 600 mark and became a square!! My girl is growing up. She is now 18 sq's wide by 18 sq's long but I have since started in on a new row. I am trying to make her at least 4 more rows at a row a week more or less. I still love her but I sure am tired of the process and want to be done!! I also just finished a new sock for Maddy out of the new Lion Brand Sock Ease. I am finding the yarn to be quite pleasant and at the price it could be my go to yarn for quickie socks. I will post pics once I am done with the second sock in a week or so.

Another project his last week was to make some home made Feta cheese. It was pretty simple and the end results taste great but my cheese has had 2 issues I will correct in the future. First of all it is too soft. I think this is a result of using commercial milk which often does not have quite enough calcium to give a firm curd. One cheesemaker suggested using a gallons worth of reconstituted dry milk with 1 pint of cream. That would also take care of the problem of finding milk that is not ultra=pasteurized which also works against the cheese making process. And a few recipes call for using Lipase powder, an enzyme that helps sharpen up the flavor. I will probably not buy any for the time being but after I move I will get some to have on hand. I am finding cheese making to be a blast and well worth the time. Out of 1 gallon of milk I got about 24oz of cheese which will keep well until I use them as they are stored in a salt/whey brine in a jar. Other cheeses besides Feta might not last long enough to use that much and I would make smaller batches if I made them. Hard cheeses last really well if waxed and stored properly and I will wait to try my hand at that until I have those conditions to work with.

It may actually rain tonight-Yippee!! It has been a really hot miserable week-like the door from Hades had been left open. And it may still be fairly cool on Monday which I plan on taking advantage of by going out to the Witchita's to look for more lichen. God I am obsessed!! Meanwhile everyone go out and make the world more beautiful one stitch at a time...

You Dye Easter Eggs-I'm Dyeing Yarn!!

One of my favorite signs of spring is the Bradford Pear in bloom. But somehow I never noticed that the smell from the flowers is not the nicest smell in the world. The other day I was out in front where our tree is in it's full glory and I kept smelling a slightly rotten meat smell. I thought maybe something had gotten into the garbage that was really rank. I stuck my head in all my garbage cans and they didn't have any odor to speak of. But on my way back inside I noticed the smell was worst right by the front door. Looking around the only thing different than usual was the tree in full bloom. So I turned my nose that way and sho-nuff, that was it. But the smell only lasts a few days and I still wouldn't trade the sight of Bradford Pear's in bloom. I just won't keep sticking my nose right up the tree. Well unless I decide I have to take close-ups of the flowers!!

The weather was all over the map this week. Everything from 17 degrees one morning last week to a high of the mid 80's a few days later. Luckily we finally got some rain, 1.5" to be exact. It was a nice steady soaking rain that will really start to green things up nicely. Of course the weeds are already greening up and taunting me from the back lawn. I've pulled a few but not much else has been done in the way of gardening.

Knitting is another story tho. I have done my share and then some. Audry II is growing by leaps and bounds. She is up to 211 squares when I took her picture 2 days ago. She is finally as wide as she is going to get so now I just need to keep doing straight rows across til she is tall enough. Which is going to take some time yet-maybe another 4-6 months?


I also have gotten the Aran Cardigan almost to the point where I have to do the sleeves. Maybe another 1/2" of knitting is all I need. I am dragging my feet a bit because before I can do the sleeves I will have to do more math and more spreadsheeting, more planning and probably more cursing to get the sleeves started. But it must be done or I will just have an Aran tube to look at next winter.






But the most fun of the week came when I was finally able to start dyeing yarn. My KnitPicks order came in last Friday but I knew I had to wait until Tuesday to do a thing with it. About the only thing I could do ahead of time was wind the yarn from the skein in came in to a ball. Then I could re-skein it into workable portions for the dyeing process. Finally on Tuesday I got out all my supplies, queued up the best of the dyeing tutorials, drapped the kitchen with plastic and got started. So far I have used 5 totally different methods and have gotten 5 different results with lots and lots of learning as I went. All came out usable and 1 even came out great. But each time I know I can do better on the next batch I try using that method. By the time I am done with this 200g of yarn I ought to be pretty settled in my methods and have it all down to a science. Of course it would be better if I was making notes along the way, but that would be so not me!! And I will pay for it I am sure. But Audry II will eat all my yarn samples and be happy for them. In fact all my hand dyes are knitted into Audry at least once. BTW-I was very impressed with the KnitPicks Bare sock weight yarn. Very inexpensive and held up well to the abuse of dyeing and knitted into my project like a dream

I finally got to the doc this week and he feels a lot of my current symptoms are menopausal related(I could have seen that one coming). So I got put back on HRT, stonger than what I used to take. But he is also very concerned about my thyroid. Says I have every symptom in the book, even ones I did not notice or attibute to anything. So he is doing a more thorough work-up on that than any of the other docs have. I have had the basics run many times and have even had them come back off the charts low and then a month later be normal when they re-run them. So if my thyroid in low then please let it show this time and if not-great. But it would be great to have a few things explained and fixed and thyroid would be a better explanation than alot of other things would be.

Well aside from having a birthday tomorrow and it being the first day of spring to boot, this next week will probably be the same as usual. I am trying to bump my walking up a notch since it is only a little over a month til the marathon(pretty much decided to do) and of course my knitting projects will be what they have been for awhile. I still have over 100g of yarn to dye, lots more ideas of how to dye it and Audry II whispering from the living room, "Feed me....Feed me....."