I had a great time this weekend, doing lots of dyeing. It is so exciting, watching to see how it will turn out.
I have made a bit of an investment in Landscape dyes as they have the most beautiful colours. Well worth the money as they go a long way.
Some 100% wool felt, which just feels divine. I must admit to previously buying the cheaper felt to save money, but after working with the pure wool, it is just not worth buying anything else.
Some 10 ply yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. The Bendigo wool always dyes beautifully. This is destined to be a gnome for Cuddlepie for Christmas.
And some rainbow silks. I am always dyeing silks as I am now selling them. It is so wonderful as I have an excuse to make heaps and try out lots of different colours!
Next in the pipeline is some more handpainted yarn as I have nearly knitted up all my stash.
Honey, I'm home!!
After just a TINY break in blogging, I have finally made it back!! Circumstances just seemed to make it difficult to get to blogging over the last six months, and I have missed it! I will post in more detail tomorrow and try to catch up on all we have been up to.
Blessings,
Jayne
Linking to Ginny at Small Things for this week's Yarn Along.
This week I have started these wristlets for Miss Butterfly from Vampire Knits. There are some silly things in this book that I would never make, but there are actually quite a few patterns I really like, such as these wristlets, some capes.
The yarn is a grey/blue tweed from Bendigo Woollen Mills.
I am reading Down To Earth by Faith Addis, an English bookabout a crazy family that just keep taking on new country projects and often get in over their heads. It was made into a series that was great. This said of the few episodes I managed to see as ABC put it on at 6.30 pm! Can you imagine?! Is there any mother who could manage to sit down and watch an hour episode at that time?!
First, my boys!
And does Cuddlepie remind you of something else in this photo?
Close resemblance, huh?!!
Not much in the schoolroom this week, due to illness enjoyed by all. Just kept up with our letters and lots of reading aloud.
The letter S was accompanied by the story of The Six Swans, my favourite fairy tale. And I absolutely love the Sevenwaters trilogy by Juliet Marillier inspired by this story.
The letters B and F are a bear and a fawn - you can tell that, right?
And R for Rapunzel. And that is the end of our first Language Arts block. 16 consonants and 4 vowels. The rest will follow in the next block.
This week we are onto a one week Autumn block which will round out the term nicely. And of course, Easter very soon!
We have been reading a fabulous little book found at the op shop - always find the best things there!!
The Dwarfs of Nosegay by Paul Biegel. It was originally published in the Netherlands in 1976. Absolutely delightful drawings and stories. In the story we read last night, little Peter Nosegay, the youngest dwarf, had been to visit Queen Zoe in the bee city as the dwarves had run out of honey for their Midwinter Feast.
I just love what you can find for 50c.
After reading this post and this post at Adventures In Country Living, I decided to give this challenge a go as a way of helping me along and making me more accountable. I had just finished reading the Sharon Astyk book when I stumbled across Anita's blog in that convoluted rabbit hole way you find things on the internet!
Anyway, this is my first challenge update so here we go! (I know, it should have been Monday, sorry about that!)
Plant something
There is a nursery next door to hubby's work and they often give us past sellable seedlings - still fine though, just a bit too leggy to sell. So planted some lettuce and onions. Unattractively covered in chicken wire to deter chickens!
Harvest something
Peaches, peaches, peaches! I wish I could send you some, Anita! Any recipes (especially if they don't involve peeling!) gratefully accepted. And, as you can, still tons more on the tree. We have been harvesting them a bit green as our district has a wasp problem this season.
Preserve something
Roasted pumpkin seeds, dried apples and dried tomatoes. See those tomatoes - that used to be a whole bag of tomatoes! I am also currently drying some peaches and have stewed and frozen batches of peaches.
Waste not
We always feed our food scraps to the chickens. I get a bit stressed out when we visit people and see them throwing food in the bin!
We have also been feeding the fallen peaches to the cows - the boys think it is great fun listening to them crunch away at them and then spit out the stones.
Want Not
Not sure what I can put here; maybe that we went op (thrift store) shopping and I found quite a few items of boys' clothing in bigger sizes to put away.
Whenever I grocery shop, I always buy at least two of each item, so we stay well stocked up. Everyone in the house now knows to get stuff from Mum's 'shop' in the plastic crates under our bed (even though they think I'm crazy)!
Eat the food
Spaghetti bolognaise last night from last year's cow we raised. And surprisingly, peaches!
Tonight a dried tomato, fetta and spinach quiche.
Build community food systems
We gave away some of our peaches to a friend who previously gave us some plums. We were given some beetroot by another friend. It all just seems to go around.
Skill up
Don't know - I would say just 'meeting' new people on the net and finding out how they are doing things. There is always something new to learn!
Here is the link to Anita's post for this week.
So how about it?! Even if you are not a full-on preparedness, self-sufficiency crazy nut, it can only help to do one, some or all of these things on a regular basis.
