Happy Olives and Happy-Ending Wool

Happy, smiling olives in brine, just waiting for the time when we can eat them - 10 jars! They'll need to be soaked in clear water for 24 hours before we add herbs or garlic and olive oil, and we're really looking forward to sampling our own home-grown olives.  I tasted one before I bottled them and they were quite peppery with lots of flavour.  Apparently they need to stay in the jars for between one and two months before they're ready. Clock's ticking!!

Remember the alpaca Jak was helping me to card?  I spun a bobbin of it, navajo plied it (for non-spinners, that just means that instead of plying the wool from two bobbins which gives two strands twisted together, this was done from one bobbin in a sort of chain - one strand is continually pulled through a loop to create 3 strands twisted together) and then washed it.  I thought it would be a really nice white after washing, but actually it just looked dirty.

No problem, I decided to dye it.  A friend had just given me some pomegranates so I chopped them up and dyed the wool.  It should have come out a nice muted yellow colour . . . but all that happened was that it just looked a little bit dirtier.

OK, still not a problem, the pomegranate acts as a mordant because of it's high tannin content (which helps the wool absorb the dye and makes it "fast" - in other words, it's not going to wash out) so I decided to throw it into another dyepot, this time carrot tops. Again, it didn't quite turn out as planned, in fact it just looked dirtier still!

By this time I was getting a bit fed up, so I left the wool in the pan, drained off most of the liquid, and randomly poured in some red dye and also some hot pink.  After half an hour on the heat, this is what came out :-

which I was really quite pleased with.

Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out, after all that activity - wash, dye, dye, dye, wash - it had started to felt and the strands stuck themselves together.  It took a bit of separating whilst I was making it into a ball, but the nice thing is I ended up with really soft, floofy wool.

Nice little tufty bit!

Now, my last problem is, can I repeat it and make another ball?

Dodgy Phone Line

Just a very quick note to say we're having trouble with our phone line, yet again!  Which means no internet.  It's just come back on briefly but don't know if there'll be time to post this message.  It comes on for a few minutes then it's off for hours again.  Needless to say, France Telecom didn't replace our phone line the last time we were having trouble.  Ah well, c'est la vie say the old folks!

Hopefully they'll fix it on Monday, in the meantime things might be a little quiet on here.

Made with Love in France . . .

Hey, I finished something else!

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to knit one of these :-

Sorry about the model, she was the only one available at the time.  Must speak to the agency!

I only realised afterwards, it looks rather odd with my plait hanging over my shoulder as well.  Too late now, the hat was delivered this evening, so can't take any more photos.

This pattern is an adaptation of one in Lexi Boeger's book Intertwined.  I love this book, every spinner should have one - amazing!  Instead of using the same wool as the hat for the plaits, I used camel wool and just ran some sparkly wool through each strand of the plaits.  The camel wool really does look like hair, and when I've worn mine people have actually thought the plaits were my own (from the front view anyway).

The hat was made of merino with a touch of silk, and some of the colours were hand dyed using plants from the garden (can't remember exactly what was used, but there was definitely some madder in there), and the sparkly wool in the plaits was Sirdar Vegas which I really love to use as an "add-in".  Think it might be a bit much on its own though.

Made with love in France . . . and a helping paw from Jak!

Al Fresco at Play

Our band, Al Fresco, had a rehearsal today at Ken and Angela's house.  Everyone took new songs, we tried seven new ones, ate, drank, gossiped, took the world to bits and set it to rights again - all the usual stuff.

. . . and there were cats - always a bonus!

Eric Claptout on vocals and lead guitar

Spikey Pipsqueak on cushion

Ken on vocals and rhythm guitar

Katharine on vocals and percussion

Angela on Congas and Cajon

Petr on Cajon

and, last but not least :-

Moi on vocals and percussion; Poppet on my Knee!

Not many words today, but the photos say it all!

11.11.11

What a date - and, if I time it just right, this will be published at 11 a.m.

This post actually has absolutely nothing to do with the time, or date though.  Being a mushroom-oholic I'm always on the lookout for interesting specimens (edible or not), and yesterday, whilst driving to the nearest town on a back road, I suddenly spied a nice sized clump of mushrooms in a field.  I was pretty sure they were parasol mushrooms (edible) so had to stop for a look.  Unfortunately, the field was all fenced off - not sure if it was electric fencing, but the fence was there for a reason, not only to keep animals in, but probably also to keep us out!  Luckily there were three specimens at the side of the road (which didn't stay there very long - I love getting something for free!)

These two were tight round balls last night, so I put them in water hoping they'd open up today, and they do seem to be doing that.  The third mushroom wasn't photographed - we ate it.

Might just have to go back today to see if there are any more.  Mushroom omelette for lunch!

Colette's Sweater

Well, I finally finished something!  Colette's sweater has now been delivered, and here she is wearing it :-

. . . sexy or what??  Wait till she changes the jeans for a pair of fishnet leggings!

You may notice two differences in the above sweater from what was originally planned.  Firstly, there's no hood.  We changed this because she wanted a slash neck and it was going to be difficult to fit a hood without it dragging the neckline out of shape.  Secondly, there's no slash neck!  The reason for this was that, when the sweater was almost finished, I tried it on and discovered that there was no way she was going to be able to wear it next to her skin - it was just a bit prickly - therefore, she'd have to wear something under it.  A slash neck would have been OK, but it does limit what you can wear underneath it. So, no slash neck and no hood either.  I think it looks pretty good on her though.

First Olives

I picked my first olives this morning, one or two of them were starting to get pecked by the birds so it was obviously time.  We did have olives last year, but we were away when they ripened and the birds got the lot.  (The year before, we got one!!)

I found a recipe on the internet which explained how to remove the bitterness, and they are now soaking in a brine solution - all 1.75 kg of them!  It may not sound a lot, but should fill quite a few jars.  The olives have to soak in brine for at least ten days, and the brine must be changed each day.  To test if they're ready you have to taste one - if you've ever tasted an olive straight from the tree you'll realise this is not something to be undertaken lightly!

I'm not sure what I'll do with them after that - need to do a bit more research.  The recipe says to bottle them in brine with a centimetre of olive oil on the top, but I think there are ways to add other flavourings too, i.e. herbs, garlic etc.  How exciting to have our very own olives!

I've saved a couple of stones from the ones the birds had pecked so I'll plant those to see if they'll grow.  We're a long way off an orchard though!