More about Melody

So when I posted the teaser picture of our new dog (Melody), I think I promised to tell you a little more--and to share a few more photos of Her Cuteness. Because my brain isn't feeling up to a technical fiber-related post right now, I'm going to do that today!

Some background: our last dog (Magic) was a Samoyed. He was my family dog and then became my dog, and was a total sweetheart. We had him for 13 or 14 years until he couldn't walk anymore--that was a bit over 3 years ago. This was mostly before we owned a digital camera, so the only electronic photo I have of him is this one:

Yeah, that's us curled up on the couch, both sound asleep, with the moving boxes stacked in the background.

After some time passed, we knew we would want another dog (probably another Sammie), and wanted to go through a rescue group to get one. A fenced yard was a requirement, though, and at the time our next door neighbors' houses were still under construction so it wasn't a great time to put up the fence. We finally got a fence put up, and then we realized that we were probably going to be moving soon--so another delay.

And that was wise, because for a while we were living in 2 different cities with lots of commuting back and forth, and even when I moved to Waterloo we were in a condo and both gone long hours. Would not have been a nice life for a dog. Anyway, we finally got into the house this summer, and had a fence put up soon after--and before that was even done, I started scouring rescue sites to see if I could find a good fit for us.

The Sammie rescue group in Michigan had a few dogs, one of which sounded like a good fit, so we agreed that while I was down there visiting my mom I would also go meet Melody. Here's a picture from that first meeting:


She was a bit shy and stressed, I think, but was clearly very sweet. We were able to learn a bit about her--she's 5 years old, and (along with her "brother", Mozart) was surrendered to a shelter in Kentucky. We don't know why the family gave them up--they both seemed well cared for, and had been with this family for their whole lives, so we are assuming it was some kind of hard times. So sad--I can't imagine having to give up my dog because of money or a move, it would be heart breaking. Anyway, I went home so we could talk it over, and we agreed that we would like to adopt her. We had a big trip planned, so we agreed that we would pick her up when we returned. And the rest is history.

But, just so you can share my joy, here are a few more photos! :-)

When we first brought her home, she made this face every time the camera came out:

She still makes that face sometimes, but we're finding her a bit more relaxed, so eventually we started to get some photos with her ears up where they belong!


Like this one, hanging on the couch with my mom.

And this is her on the loveseat that she has claimed as hers:

We get the big couch, and she gets the little one. Sometimes she curls up really tiny on it, and other times she sprawls out like this. Beware--if you come to visit and are wearing black, don't sit on the loveseat. Really, coming to my house wearing black is dangerous no matter where you sit, though. The fur sticks to everything!

A Tough Nut to Crack

Anyone have much experience with black walnuts? I'm pretty certain that until this week, I had only experienced them in chopped form in some desserts, although I can't swear to that right now. I really didn't know much about them at all when they appeared on the list for the buying club. I knew I wanted to get some local nuts to try this fall, and walnuts are a favorite, so I decided to go for it. There was a caution on the order form that heartnuts would be hard to crack, so I assumed that everything else on the list could be cracked with a nutcracker.

Well, that was wrong! Several attempts and some very sore hands later, we decided to search for more information on how best to crack them. One method that was mentioned repeatedly was to boil them, so we moved on to that:


On the left, before boiling, and on the right after

After boiling, they still couldn't be cracked with a nutcracker. It did make them slightly easier to smash with a hammer, but this is a messy process. And the result was not a lot of nut:

And yes, apparently those small pieces are normal. The meats of black walnuts are quite soft, so they don't stay together well.

However, I did notice one thing after boiling--I had a pot full of lovely dark brown liquid. So I grabbed my dyeing books and discovered that walnut is a substantive dye. This means it's among the few natural dyes that becomes fast without any other chemical additives (known as mordants in the dyeing world, these additives are usually various metals). Well, you know what I did then, of course:


See that lovely dark liquid in the middle? Pretty, no?

And the after:


It's a lovely light brown! Of course, this got me searching for other substantive dyes that could be easily obtained. I haven't played with any yet, but may soon try various barks, teas, lichens, onion skins, etc. It seems that most will give colors in the brown family, but you can sometimes get oranges, pinks, etc.--so I will have to play and see what I can do.

And as for the walnuts? Well, I'm thinking I'll try to see how many times you can boil them before you get all the color out. Perhaps repeated boiling will improve cracking, but I'm not counting on it--so maybe the squirrels will want them? And next month, I'm ordering Persian walnuts from the buying club! (having now learned that Persian walnuts are what I know as English walnuts, and are generally crackable!)

Going Batty

As I mentioned before, I left the Spinning Loft with more than just all my fun & funky sample yarn. Of course, I scarfed up some fabulous fibers (There was some to-die-for black merino, among others). But I also came home with some new toys.

This one I was pretty sure I was going to get before I got there:

Schacht Ladybug wheel! No regrets at all so far, I'm really loving her. Interestingly, I had expected that my Symphony would still be my "workhorse" wheel, better for laceweights and high yardage. But the Ladybug can churn out some pretty fine yarns at a pretty high speed. And its smaller footprint works well in our smaller family room, especially now that we have the dog. (Oops, first blog mention of the dog? OK, picture time!)


That's Melody, 65 pounds of beautiful Samoyed from the Michigan rescue group. I certainly have plenty more to say about her, but I'm trying to stay on topic today.


And that's the other toy, there--my new Strauch Petite Carder. I'd been pondering a drum carder for a little while, especially since seeing what some people have done when they "batterized" some hand dyed fibers from Spunky Eclectic and elsewhere. So I brought home this new toy, too.

It's had a bit of a learning curve to it, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Something clicked a few days ago, and I started cranking out lots of batts:


Some of these will be among my upcoming Phat Fiber samples. And one set will be listed in my shop by the end of the day today as my first for-sale batts:

Those are 2 batts in "Dreamsicle" that will be sold as a set. I'm off to weigh & measure now so that I get the vital stats right, then they will be for sale. They are very thoroughly blended and super soft, and I think any spinner would enjoy them.

Eating Seasonally: Squash Muffins

A while back I had written about my quest to find more local food sources. While this was a surprisingly big struggle when I lived in the country, it's easier now here in Waterloo. This area has an incredible concentration of local food sources, including many CSAs, farmers' markets, and (possibly my favourite) a local buying club, Bailey's. What I love about Bailey's is that it makes it possible to find local sources of things that aren't commonly available from the market or a CSA--flour, nuts, crackers, you name it.

Anyway, now that I have access to an abundance of local foods, I'm making a more concerted effort to eat what's in season (with some attempts at preservation for the winter, of course). And I know I'm not the only person around trying to do that. So I thought I'd make some time once in a while to write up some recipes and ideas I have in my quest to eat mostly local, seasonal food. (It should be noted--I am not eating 100% local, or any strict percentage. I still love coffee, chocolate, olive oil, citrus, etc. So my recipes won't necessarily be "100 mile", but they will always include local ingredients.)

First up--the squash muffins I made yesterday. My inspiration was a pumpkin bread recipe from Alton Brown, which I made a few weeks ago. It was delicious, but it didn't really seem healthy enough for breakfast. I felt like I could up the healthiness while still preserving flavor--and using a different gourd. Here's what I came up with:

1 C Brown Sugar
3/4 C Pear Sauce (or Apple Sauce. I had pear sauce cooking anyway, so I used that!)
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 T maple syrup
4 C shredded squash (I used 2 acorn squashes & 1 sweet dumpling. Shredding them by hand is a bit of a pain--I peeled them with a veggie peeler and then shredded in my food processor)
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 325 F and prep your muffin tin
2. Beat brown sugar, pear (apple) sauce, eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup until smooth. Stir in squash.
3. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until just combined. (proper bakers would sift them all together. I never do. Do as you like!)
4. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and make 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top. Move to a cooling rack and let rest until cool to the touch.

A few notes:
* This made 21 muffins for me, and not huge ones. However, my baking powder and baking soda are old (I learned yesterday that they start to lose effectiveness after 6 months and really become ineffective after 10. This was news to me!). If you have fresh, you'll probably get better rise.
* I took my muffins out close to 30 minutes into baking, and they were still quite soft. I think this is because of the pear sauce--the interior of the muffin has an almost custardy texture. I think it's delicious, but felt you should know.

Here's another look--as you can see, they didn't rise much:

All I Need to Know...

...I learned from Amy King. For those of you not completely immersed in the world of spinning, Amy King is the woman behind Spunky Eclectic, a fabulous fiber store in Maine (and online)! She is also the author of Spin Control, and in September she was a guest teacher at the Spinning Loft in Michigan.

Even though it was the weekend of the Knitters' Fair in Kitchener, I signed up for both the Friday & Saturday classes and am very glad I did. I feel like I've known Amy for a while from Ravelry, but this was my first time meeting her in person. She's just as funny--and wise--in person as online. She taught us several of the techniques in the book, and at the end of the weekend I left with these sample skeins:


OK, you can't see much of what's going on there, so let me show you two of my favorites. First, the bobble yarn:

Is that not cool?? OK, you wouldn't want to knit a whole big project with it (and if you did, it would take a LOT of fiber!), but it's so much fun. The only problem was that the bobbles were too big to easily slide through the orifice on my wheel--or on most other people's. But I have plans to deal with that!

And the marled yarn:


which knits up like this:


The marled yarn seems practical AND fun to me, so I'm working on perfecting that so I can start selling some in the shop. Two I've tried this week:

Cranberry-Orange


Boy or Girl?

Excuse the bad photos on a few of these, the sun hasn't been out much lately. That's all for today, but in my next installment--look out for what else I left the Spinning Loft with! :-)

Back in the Blogging Game

I think the blog has largely been replaced in my life by various other social media (Ravelry for my fiber friends, Twitter for shop news, and Facebook for my other friends and family). But I think there is something to be said for trying to write regularly (and not being limited to 140 characters!). I've been inspired by Catt to try to get back in the blogging game.

I have a few ideas for posts in the next few days, but they all depend on my camera cooperating. At the moment there are some pictures trapped in there that I need access to if I'm going to write about them. So stay tuned for further news! :-)

So much news, so little time

So we did successfully move into the new house (if by successful you mean that ourselves and our possessions are in the building. If unpacking and getting organized are required to achieve success--give me another month!). And I survived the end of school year stuff, although it was quite a slog to the finish. Oh, and I feel like I spent all of June on the road--visiting Michigan, Denver, and working a few extra days in London. I'm sure some other stuff happened too, but by now it would be old news!

So what's the plan for the summer? Three main goals, in any order:
1) Develop the etsy shop more: Expand the stock, promote the shop, consider selling wholesale, etc.
2) Fix up the house: Finish the unpacking, organize the wool & office space, fix up the outside space to enjoy this summer (deck needs to be stripped & refinished, we need a new BBQ, etc.!)
3) Seriously consider the next step career-wise. I'm thinking of taking my Principal's Qualification courses, because there were things about administration that I enjoyed. But I'm also considering other ideas, and still harboring the dream that Waterloo Wools will just take off! :-)

And for some photo content today, it's back to goal #1. I have decided to have regular shop updates every Tuesday (and if it's a busy week, maybe other days too--but we'll start with Tuesday). I have created a flickr set for my first regular update, which will happen tomorrow. I tried to create colourways that relate to Ontario tourist attractions. I had grand ideas in my head about how they should look--some turned out better than others. My surprise favourite is:


Monarch Migration in Falklands.

Stop by the flickr set, or visit the shop for the update tomorrow and let me know your favourite item!