Woven : The Fuzzy Afghan

Remember when you were a kid and you used to hide under blankets and try to peer through the cloth at the outside world? And remember getting distracted by the way the yarn in the blanket went over and under and the colors crossed in interesting ways?

You don't? Ok, so maybe it was just me then. Or maybe I had a magic blanket. Or, perhaps, I was just a really strange kid.

Still, I do like to look at things from a different perspective every once in a while. So when I was putting this afghan outside to dry on and absurdly warm day last week I was inspired to snap a few photos. This one's just about my favorite.

Yup. I had the afghan hanging on the fence (over a towel, of course) and just couldn't resist sitting on the ground, making a cozy - if slightly damp - tent and peering at the world through a fuzzy stained glass window of mohair and alpaca. My neighbors already think I'm a bit eccentric. I'm good with that.

It surely was nice to finally finish this project. The weaving was done a (ahem) while ago. I twisted the fringe this past winter. Then all it needed was a nice wash. I'm a firm believer in wet finishing fabric. It gives all those yarns a chance to relax and get cozy in a nice soapy bath. Makes all the difference in the world. (Naturally I forgot to snap "before" photos to illustrate this point.)

The black warp stripes and the weft are alpaca.
The rest is mohair.

This project was designed to use up a large skein of mohair yarn that I had space dyed in some rather odd colors. I decided to put it with some purple mohair that I'd had forever since purple is a neutral and goes with everything. :-) Ditto the black alpaca, which I had hoped would tone down the whole mess a little bit.

I was playing with designing with stripes at the time (more about that in another post) and decided to try a "random stripe" for my warp. Really, if you saw my notes you'd realize I was just making the whole thing up as I went along. The transcript follows. It's short. I'm not that precise about keeping records.

Fuzzy Afghan
8 warp ends per inch
Black alpaca
Plum and space dyed mohair

Originally warped at 40.5" - too wide, removed 4" from each end to be 36.5" in reed.
(I wove this on my Glimakra 4-H Countermarche. The reed was wide enough for 40.5", but the heddle bars weren't cooperating, so I had to remove some warp ends.)

87" warp length
Threaded on Harnesses 1 & 4
*must tie up all harnesses for countermarche to balance
*a b---- to weave. Must clear each shed. Would be better on jack loom.
(I'm planning a future post on using mohair/fuzzy yarns for warp, so more about that last comment later.)

Finished dimensions: 34" wide x 60" long. Not including 4" of twisted fringe at each end.

You can click on the photos if you want a larger view.

Fringe. Twisted.

Random stripes with space-dyed yarn.

 The finished afghan is fuzzy and soft and warm. I'm pleased with the results, and will now go take it for a test drive. Nap time!

Garlic on My Windowsill

The head of garlic started sprouting, so I stuck it in some water on my windowsill to see what would happen. After sprouting like mad it started going brown around the edges, so I put it in the compost pile. The photos were taken with ambient light, eastern exposure, mid morning on a gray day.

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Layers unfolding inside a leek.

When you slice open a leek and see this (above) you stop thinking "soup" and start thinking "photo op." At least I do. :-)

Usually I rely on "Better Than Bouillon" Organic Vegetable Base to make the stock for my soup, but this weekend I thought I'd try a vegetable stock recipe from scratch.

Recipes from the Root Cellar, by Andrea Chesman, is a cookbook that I've been using a lot this winter. It's a great collection of recipes that use seasonal autumn and winter vegetables. Got celery root, rutabagas, and Jerusalem artichokes in your CSA food share? This book has you covered.

Some of my favorites include Maple-Balsamic Root Vegetables, Potato-Carrot Tart, Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Winter Vegetables, Barley-Vegetable Soup, Pasta e Fagioli, and the recipe that inspired my broth-making adventure, Winter Minestrone.

Since I was using Chesman's Minestrone recipe it only seemed sensible to use her recipe for Vegetable Broth. It's super easy, and relatively quick. Unless you decide to stop and photograph produce. Then it takes a little longer.

Once you're done photographing the cabbage, garlic, carrots, onion, leeks, fennel bulb, and dried mushrooms, peel, trim, and quarter the appropriate amounts, throw them in a big pot with dried thyme and water, simmer for about 30 minutes, add white wine and black peppercorns and simmer for another 10 minutes. Strain out the solids and you've got about 4 quarts of vegetable broth. It's pretty tasty even without salt. I'd estimate about an hour from start to finish (without photography), and most of that is just simmering time. Easy-peasy!

That Minestrone is going to be delicious!

Cool Beans

These are the Yin Yang beans that I grew in my garden last year. The bean beetles were fierce, but I got just enough from my 4 x 4 foot patch for a pot of soup. Aside from being pretty, they were also very tasty!

Too Many Cats

Since December I've been returning to my fiber roots with a new project.

One of the very first  yarn crafts I learned as a child was crochet. I taught myself from one of those little green "Learn How" pamphlets you could buy in the crafts section at Woolworths. Among my early projects was a round coin purse shaped like a cat's head.

Crochet was followed by embroidery, needlepoint, counted cross stitch, spinning, weaving, and finally, knitting. Looks like I've come full circle now.

How appropriate that my return to crochet is with a scarf pattern called "Too Many Cats." I snatched it up at the gift exchange that my spinning group has every year. This package was contributed by my friend Lynn, who raises beautiful Merino sheep. It's a brilliant pattern, easy to do, and it's so satisfying to complete each little row of cats in a new color.

Can you see the cats? They're standing on top of each others shoulders, with their little kitty legs framing the head of the cat below.

Like I said, brilliant.

Lynn picked out as many cat colors of this yarn as she could. I've got about two dozen colors to work with, and since it only takes three rows of crochet to finish a row of cats I can't get bored.

So far I'm up to 120 kitties. That's a lot of cats!