Have Ewe Any Wool?

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Glorious Sunrise!


I just LOVE the sunrises I see out my back door...they are just beautiful!   Everyday brings a new and exciting sunrise!

The view over the barn....




The closeup - this looks almost like a watercolor!   I love it!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Dyeing with Mushrooms



This month at our Foothills guild meeting, Nancy Reeves did a presentation on dyeing wool with mushrooms.   The presentation was fabulous.  The yarns in the sweater she's wearing were all dyed with mushrooms - it's absolutely stunning!   I believe that most (if not all) of the yarns are her hand spun as well.  




 


I had no idea you could get such a wide variety of colors - some very bright -  from rather dull looking mushrooms!  It seems like magic!


 



 A good book about mushrooms as dyes...and a few tools are very helpful when "searching" for mushrooms to use for dyeing. 


Monday, September 08, 2014

Mmmm.....Garden Goodies and Tomato Jam

Out to the garden.    We have a thistle bush that we're cutting down, but first, I had to take a picture of one of the thistles.  I don't know what it is about thistles, but for some reason, I love how they look!



The garden harvest is slowing down, but I've still managed to get a nice basked of goodies!  It even included a small cucumber and two tiny Jalepenos!   Wahoo!!!!


When I took the canning class in August, I discovered Tomato Jam.  Wow!   Is it delicious!   I decided that I needed to try a batch myself!  


Step 1 - Gather and wash the tomatoes.   (I used small tomatoes - the teacher has used grape tomatoes, I used a variety of small salad tomatoes - I didn't have enough in my garden to do this, so I bought them at the Purcellville Farmer's Market.)




Step 2 - cut all the tomatoes into halves or quarters.  (Thankfully, there's no need to peel!   When I get done, I'll blend it with the emmersion blender.)

 


Step 3 - Add the spices - mmmm.....cloves, cinnamon, sugar.....lots of goodies!




Step 4 - Stir it all together and then cook it down.  Once cooked down, I blended it with the immersion blender and then and poured it into sterilized jars.



 Step 5 -  Hot water bath all the jars for 15  minutes......and you're done!  



And finally, a sunset picture.   Not your typical one though - in this case, the sunset was reflecting on the clouds to the east...creating a beautiful backdrop of pinks and purples.   (I liked this much better the the orange and yellow that the sun was displaying to the west.)