Take 5 pears

Take 5 pears, British conference pears that cost just £1 for 6 at Booths. This BTW was the smallest of the 6.

Add a chunk of freshly grated ginger, some local honey and a little local orange marmalade

Top with a crumble made from flour , butter , barley flakes, dark brown sugar , allspice and a few left over pecan nuts. 

Bake in oven until golden and you see pear juices caramelising on top of crumble.

Serve it with fresh live yoghurt

Delicious taste of Autumn.

I've been chatting to a friend about colour and its effect on  our spirits, especially during the dark half of the year. I mentioned some merino silk I had dyed and how I was trying it out on a spindle. TBH once I started to spin it I realised I wanted to use a wheel not the spindle as it just felt so gorgeous and was so bright. As its getting quite late in the day the full glory of the yellow doesn't show, its almost fluorescent 

As you can see and for some reason this photo has turned sideways. Very weird. The fibre is 70% merino and 30% tussah silk from Adelaide Walker and I dyed it with procion acid dyes.

Today is all about colour

Today is a colourful day and I thought you would like to see some of the pictures. Above is my latest shawl, based on the Vixen pattern but modified somewhat. The yarn is Posh Elinor fingering. 1 skein of Waving Not Drowning and 1 skein of Nice Weather For Ducks. I think they go well together
Then keeping with the blue theme for a moment some pictures from the full moon the other night.

It was a very clear evening as you can see

Mr Mog has strung up quite a few solar lights around the railway and they always add a magical touch to the garden when the day fades.

A close up of the shawl modelled by Minerva my new mannequin

 This was the pink fluff I made a donation for at Wonderwool, I've plyed it with a fine glittery thread, you can't see the glitter in the photo but it is there as a sheen more than overly brassy.

I had a few curls lying around and decided they would look better with a little colour so into the pan they went, they will become another free form shawl or wrap I think.

This outfit was a very pale greyish green and a bargain at the charity shop. Viscose always dyes OK so I thought I'd give it a go

As you can see it didn't come out too bad

While at Wonderwool I obtained a skein of Silver Sparkle lace yarn from Andy at Bluefaced.com. It is  75% extra fine merino, 20% silk and 5% Stellina which gives the subtle sparkle. 100gms has 800 metres. I wanted something citrusy so this also went into the dye pot with 3 different yellows, a touch of orange and a smidgen of lime green. I deliberately left some white showing.

 

 The sun has shone here all over Easter so the roads and beach have been very busy. We have stayed at home, I usually don't like to go out on bank holidays if I can help it as it gets way too hectic for me.

The pain levels haven't been good this past few days, it is hard to focus on 1 sore point if there are lots. Distractions have included citrus and raisin muffins, spinning merino silk, finishing the shawl and starting another Elsewhere jacket. The jacket is being made with some destash yarn I purchased and there won't be enough for a full jacket. I'm going to do short sleeves or none and I'm going to adding occasional stripes or splashes of other colours to the dark purple/twilight  I have.

I'm also rereading the Moonheart/Spiritwalk books by Charles de Lint as I felt the need for some urban fantasy:) I love Charles's books they always take me out of my pain zone with the poetry of his writing. 

Beltane approaches fast, how will you be celebrating this turn of the wheel? We had hoped to go to Glastonbury but sadly both the places I like to stay are full up. I think it may be a Beltane at home:) I can feel the energies starting to rise and the warmth of the festival approaching.

Don't you just love colour?

For the first time in ages I dyed yarn.

I wanted to knit a fabulous shawl pattern that used sock yarn(wollmeise to be specific) I couldn't find any sock yarn but a search through cupboards found a skein of dark greens which I'm using for the shawl.

Pamuya is the pattern name and it is almost a sampler of stitches.

.
However the search did turn up 7 skeins of assorted undyed yarn.

Obviously you can't leave it like that so it had to be dyed.

What do you think?

More on colour

More colour.

Firstly , the tulips are opening beautifully and I love this snap of them.

My Alveare hat is finished, yarn is my own handspun:)

love the little tassel on the back:) A really quick hat to knit and easy pattern to follow.
This is the stormy skies alpaca merino I dyed the other day. I've started another Alveare hat with it.


Love the way it looks in the ball.We had a fabulous trip to the woods today to celebrate the imminent Spring Equinox. Pictures in a couple of days when I can get them up on my blog. I love Spring Equinox, I always feel that it truly marks the light half of the year, especially when you consider that the week after the clocks will "spring" forward one hour making the days seem longer:)

More colour

More colour for you especially for this dark cold day. The Ides of March no less. Who is for a little Shakespeare?
This is some of the recent dyeing chez Moggie.
Firstly bright and breezy, reminds me of a cottage garden in high summer, full of delphiniums, cornflowers, roses, calendulas and more. Blue faced Leicester fibre.

This next one is for a scraps swap on Ravelry. Solstice dawn, also BFL

This one is spring on meadows, also BFLThen something different. This is some alpaca merino yarn around an aran weight. It did have a fling last year when I dyed some for socks in bright primary colours. I found the cone the other day and it seemed a shame to leave it languishing. I wanted something gothic and I think I'm almost there:) This is to make some of Woolly Wormhead's hats, firstly Alveare.
Not sure which other to do, I love Ruth's hat patterns they are always well written and easy to follow.
The colours are darkly different (top) and stormy skies(bottom)

My sore hand has now transferred itself to the other arm and that too is extremely painful today. Methinks my pain is having a little game of hide and seek around the body. Oh what joy:)

Today the sky smiled

It started out a grey dark mizzly day with intermittent rain. I saw no end to it even at 3 this afternoon.
But now, as the clock strikes 5pm, the sky is transformed.
Indigo blue with bands of red and vivid orange shading to gold.Some highlights of crimson, scarlet and magenta. The moon has risen and she shines down upon the beauty of the evening display.
I feel a lifting of tension, a lightening of worry. A giddy feeling occasioned by this simple pleasure of looking through the window.
Such colours I could never hope to reproduce with dye and fibre but I'll try some day as a shawl shaded dusk with moon highlights would be beautiful.
A magical shawl to take you into the night, to warm and encourage all endeavours.
A simple thing made from skies of mystery.
Who knows what magic could be made when wearing such a shawl? What places the mind could travel wrapped in threads of light and dark.
What energies could be spun within the yarn made from colours such as these?
To sit with coloured fluff and turn it into yarn so bright, so deep, so special.
As the wheel turns to twist the threads I need it twists in strands of stories not yet heard or seen.
A promise of a journey through landscapes new and old, seeing the path with eyes wide open.

Following a silver thread uncoiling before us as we walk.

The time at dusk and dawn is when the veil is thinnest. It is when we can glimpse the mysteries that lie all around us should we chose to see .

If only a fraction of these colours could be copied they would still bring all the magic with them.

I promised you knitting.

I promised you knitting so here goes.
The autumn greenery jacket is finished. Here you see it taking a little early evening sun with the very berry elsewhere jacket.

I really love the colours in this despite them not being what I set out to dye. I had it in mind to dye autumn greenery as a more faded and darker green. Seemed the dyeing fairy had other ideas. That notwithstanding I love it and the fit is perfect.
The colours blend yet don't which is just what I wanted. Why have matching sleeves and fronts if you don't have to?
This was going to be Autumn greenery Elsewhere jacket as I said but the goddess had other ideas as I dyed the yarn.
What was going to be faded greens going darker and more fragile became spring greens. The beauty of the trees awakening and unfurling their leaves. No two trees have the same shades of green so my jacket reflects all the green spectrum.
Sometimes the Goddess takes a hand. Autumn's glory has within it Spring's awakening.
It comes from there via the nurturing touch of winter's earth.
Could be her way of reminding me once more that the wheel is always turning.
We live on a spiral so we are always moving onwards and outwards.
From the faded ideas and completed projects can grow new plans, new dreams and new hopes.
The trick is to move with the energy not at right angles to it.
To be open to growth at the right time and to know when to be quiet and let the seeds germinate.
Sometimes I feel I miss the messages. My ears aren't tuned in or I hear and don't decipher the words.
Awareness can be lost in the day to day things if I am not in the now.

I did mention I wanted to knit another Elsewhere jacket. This will be my Winter Blues jacket.
Dyed in honour of the winter Solstice and the dark velvet nights of that portion of the wheel.

What do you think? Have I captured it do you think? This time I was listening.

Then I was out of dyed aran to start another so had to have something on the needles.

Here you see the sunny day socks. These are for me to wear of an evening while sitting reading, knitting or the like. I have very bad circulation and always feel cold so these will be ideal for winter. The yarn is some double knit alpaca merino I dyed some months back.
Very speedy knit as it is double knit yarn. Very warm also.


There has also been spinning and here you see the latest yarn off the bobbins


Fibre was from limegreenjelly and spun beautifully for this newbie. Didn't half leech a lot of colour when the yarn was set though. The water was vivid green:(
I'm very pleased with this, it is still thick and thin but it is getting better I think.

Some fibre and some berries

Some colour to brighten up this dull day here in Moggieland.
I decided to have a go at dyeing some fibre for spinning. I read up on the hows and whys of doing so and asked some very knowledgeable friends because I'd read that if you aren't careful it is very easy to felt unspun fibre. I didn't want that to happen, not unless I wanted felt for my femmes.
I soaked the fibre in a mix of citric acid and washing up liquid for a couple of hours. At this time the sun was shining and it was fairly breezy which are ideal conditions for drying fibre.
Did it stay like that? Did it heck as like.
Undeterred I assembled all the ingredients, plastic cover for table? Check
Cling film for wrapping fibre? Check
Dyes? check
Rubber gloves? Check
Steamer? Check
Laid out the fibre on the cling film, a rough S shape, splodged the colours I wanted along the fibre, wrapped up in the cling film and steamed for 25 minutes. Left too cool a little, couldn't wait til it was fully cool I was way too excited to see if it had worked.
Rinsed, fluffed out slightly and Mr Mog put out on line.
Weather changed, grey sky and dull, very cold and moisture in the air. Oh rats, would I end up trying to dry it inside?
As you can see I didn't:)


This was a mixture of red, earthy yellow and dark green. I love the finished fibre and can't wait to try spinning it up.
But this, ah this , it is the bees knees:) My most favourite colours and they blended perfectly. What do you think? It is a mix of electric blue and vivid violet.
The fibre is BFL, my favourite of all to knit with.
Then I did promise you a picture of current progress on my very berry elsewhere jacket so here you go.
Doesn't it remind you of berry feasts, crumbles and fruit fools? Purple stained lips and hands from picking nature's bounty that she gives us at this time of year.
Dark dark purples and plums demanding we try a taste, just one that all too soon becomes dozens. Do you remember stumbling home under large baskets of brambles and elderberries? Do you remember the satisfaction of tasting the crumble your mum, or in my case Nan, made and saying "I picked these"?
I can remember days lying in woodland watching the fruit ripen or so it seemed. Waiting for the first dark berry, eager to taste. Then what seemed the very next day a positive abundance weighing down the branches.
I love the perfumed taste that blackberries give when you simmer them to extract the juice. Well you have to taste it don't you to ensure there is enough sugar?

Dyeing and harvesting

The sun has been shining today, a great tonic for the spirit. I wanted to make another elsewhere jacket out of blue faced Leicester aran yarn as I love the first one.
I had an idea what colours I wanted but surprise , surprise I ended up doing something entirely different:)
My ideas were bright reds, oranges, golds something zingy.
I received some dyes a few days ago in colour scheme Earth so I thought I would give them a trial. However I couldn't not have something scorching so I added brilliant orange.
Here you see them hanging out to dry, what do you think? I love them and I think they reflect the theme of Lammas and harvest exceedingly well.

They will of course look entirely different when knit up, that is the fun of doing your own dyeing. Well doing it with the help of an exceedingly able assistant in Mr Mog. He is super at getting all the water out and hanging them to dry. He also took the pictures you see.
BW I used several different colours of reds and oranges on the Lammas shawl. I sploshed the colours on, nothing scientific about me:) Wrapped in cling film then steamed in electric steamer for 35 minutes. Rinsed after cooling in plain water. Final rinse with a little ecover conditioner just to add a little more softness and make it easier to use.
Then as it is almost Lughnasadh it seemed the right time to harvest a small part of the lavender we have growing. I asked the bees who were busy working on it themselves and they graciously gave me permission to take some of it. I've left lots for the insects as there will be more than enough here for storing to use in incenses, infusions, tinctures and the like. I also am earmarking a bunch for breads and biscuits. I love lavender bread and biscuits the smell when baking is gorgeous. You can use both fresh and dry lavender for this.
We will be baking some tomorrow for our celebrations.
Those are big bunches and the kitchen smells wonderful.
We may harvest some more as we have a few different varieties of lavender growing.
A more upbeat day today, Mr Mog took me up to the promenade for a meander along the sunken gardens and it felt good to be out in the sunshine.
I've edited my profile. I was going to keep the flagrant soul but decided that BWs suggestion of fragrant was far better:) I don't want to be obnoxious or conspicuously bad, well not too often and of course with all this lavender I'll be very fragrant:)

The reason for the orange fingers

As the yarn is all dyed, rinsed and dried I thought you might like to see the finished colours. I am so thrilled with how it has dyed
I wanted vibrant fire colours for a fire shawl and I think I've succeeded


The yarn was given to me by a fellow raveller fibreclaireUK and it has a glittery thread throughout it.

The colours I used were Crimson, scarlet, orange red, brilliant orange, buttercup yellow and aztec gold.
All procion dyes and all splashed on liberally with no plan in mind. I did 2 x 25gm skeins at once so I had a rough idea that 2 would be same each time.
Steamed for 40 minutes, left too cool then rinsed.

Can't wait to start knitting this up:))

Elsewhere jacket is finished

My hippy Elsewhere jacket is finished. I love it, I love the colour that Laal Bear dyed for me and I'm going to make another.


You will notice that the picked up borders are wavy, that is because I haven't blocked it yet. I am not very good at picking up stitches and I think I've gone a bit overboard doing so:) However I love the effect and I'm contemplating making one with a ruffly border next. I want to do shades or fire, reds oranges and golds.
Not sure if I'll dye yarn before hand or paint the finished garment. Watch this space.
I have been dyeing some glittery mohair to make a fire shawl. Can you tell that the gloves had a hole in them?