A Good Day

Yesterday was a very good day. It started out with an actual sunrise. We couldn’t believe it. We haven’t seen the sun for what feels like weeks. And it stayed all day. No gray clouds, no rain, no mist and no fog. It was almost blinding. The wind blew, but that is just helping to dry out the wet fields.

Sun peaking through the trees.

I decided I didn’t want to waste such a day, so I hauled buckets of water out to my shop, aka “the cat house”. My shop is a closed off room in a small garage that we use to store the snow blower and lawn tractor. It also houses the cat’s food, heated beds, and heated water bowl.

Shop door and the covered cat beds.

They have a pet door so they can come and go as they please. In the summer, they only go in to eat. However, in the winter, they can be found most of the time sleeping in the heated beds and getting fat. Anyway….

I started a fire in the stove (I have a wood stove, wash tubs and a ringer washer in the shop) and set the water to heating. I tried some jar dyeing on a Corriedale roving that I had.

Shades of blue. This didn’t work like I wanted.

Then I tried a new method of dyeing fleece that I had read about. I dyed some of Maple’s fleece while I was washing it. I put soap, vinegar and the dye in warm water. Then I added the dirty fleece and stoked the fire. I let it heat up and keep it hot for about 20 minutes, took out the fleece, drained the water and then rinsed the same way. When I left the shop last night , it was draining and it looked great. This morning it looks like it came clean with 1 wash and 1 rinse. And the color is stunning.

A gorgeous shade of peach.

I wanted a peach to comb into some of her natural color and think it is going to be beautiful. I found a shawl pattern to make for myself with Maple’s wool, and hope the peach blend will add an extra zing to it. And I did get to comb a lot more of the fleece that had already been washed. Now there is more to spin.

My brother from Oklahoma is here for the weekend staying at Sister Connie’s house. He and Connie’s husband came over in the afternoon. Hubby and the boys had a football party and watched the Vikings win again. Since they were occupied, I cranked up the music in my shop and I had the best time singing and combing wool. It’s scary what makes you happy, isn’t it?

And although the wind was howling outside, with the new windows we didn’t hear it in the house. No rattling windows, no extra cold drafts blowing through.


New and Old.

OK, I admit it. The new windows were a good move. Next year….. new siding?

PS. As I post this, the clouds are back. The gray is back and rain is on the way. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.