We had a lovely first day of winter here.  We celebrated by going to see a play, opening gifts, and having friends over for a feast.  So glad the days are lengthening again!

Kaia’s favorite gift this year has to be her skates.  She can’t wait to get to the skating rink to give them a try.

Leif finally got these wooden toys that I purchased over a year ago from Clickity Clack on Etsy.  They were sanded, had patterns burned into then, painted with water colors, then sealed with a beeswax varnish (the trees have winter on one side and spring or fall on the other).  His favorite thing to do with them is push them around in his new dump truck.

Toby got a new hat:

And we had a wonderful dinner (of which I forgot to take pictures) and fabulous yule log for dessert. (Recipe from Tenacious Lace).

Such a beautiful day!!

Okay, well only one mouse was away … Kaia went to her Nana’s house for a few days.  But even with the other little mousey around, this ended up being the weekend of getting stuff done!  Maybe it’s the energy of fall making me want to put my house in order.  Or maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment and try to do too much.  (Probably more of the later.)

Friday morning Leif and I headed out to a local farm and picked up a few bushels of apples and 5 gallons of apple cider.  The 5 gallons of cider went straight into the carboy (big glass jug) along with 2 pounds of honey and 2 packets of champagne yeast.  It now sits on our counter while it ferments into a yummy and sweet hard apple cider. Mmmm! (Note:  I let the cider come to room temperature before adding the yeast and honey.)

After that was taken care of, I went outside with Leif and Heidi and scraped a bunch of lichen off of branches that had fallen in the woods.

Why would I spend my time doing something so seemingly pointless, you ask?  Well, because when you boil this funny little plant, it creates a wonderful rusty brown color to dye fiber with.

I have two skeins of white alpaca/wool mix that I want to use to make this vest for Leif.  So, I thought I’d make it a more seasonal color first.  We soaked our fiber in hot water while bringing the Lichen to a boil (we ended up having about 4 cups of lichen and wrapped this in muslin cloth before putting it in about 2 gallons of water).

I had 2 skeins weighing about 7 ounces and Heidi had about an ounce of unspun wool.  The rule of thumb when using lichen is 2:1 lichen:wool.  We ended up using 4 cups (I don’t know the weight) of lichen to 8 ounces of wool.  If we had gone by weight I’m sure the color would have been stronger.

The lichen boiled for 30 minutes, then we turned it down to simmer for an hour and added 2 big pinches of salt (to help the dye set).  Then we tosses the fiber into the pot and let it simmer for a few hours.  Once the heat was turned off, it was left to sit overnight.

While all this stuff was boiling, I decided it was time to reorganize my art closet.  It had become a huge clutter … and I don’t like clutter.  So, once Leif was down for his nap, I dove in.  I even had enough boxes to organize our medicine section of the closet.  I know I didn’t include the before picture, but believe me, it looks much better!

Leif was very helpful with my projects as long as I kept him supplied with crackers and apple cider (the non-alcoholic kind!)  He even let Suki clean up after him.

Saturday, I drained the fiber and rinsed it in warm water.  It came out a nice earthy brown color.

Heidi took her wool out, but I wanted a bit of yellow in there, too.  So, we decided to do a second dye with marigolds.  First we needed to boil the wool in Alum (Alum is used a lot in dying as a mordant, or a chemical that is added to the dye to make the color stay in the fiber).    We stirred 2 ounces of Alum into about 2 gallons of water.  (We were using ~10 ounces of fiber, my two skeins of yarn and Heidi added more undyed wool.  The general rule is 3 ounces of alum and 1 ounce of cream of tartar per one pound of wool, but Marigold doesn’t need cream of tartar.)   Then we tossed in the fiber and brought it to a simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Once it had simmered, I tossed in a basket full of Marigolds

(yeah… so, I’m not so good a measuring out everything… but if you want to, the general rule when it’s not Lichen is 1 pound of plant/dye material per one pound of fiber) and let it simmer for a few hours, until I got the color I wanted.

Of course, doing all this wasn’t enough for me (I really do like projects!)… I had to cook and can 8 quarts of Emeril Lagasse’s Potato Leek soup, too! (Can you say YUMM?) (edited to add: the dairy was left out of this recipe for canning.  I add it when it is being reheated for a meal.)

All the while, the fermenting cider bubbled along…

Sunday I rinsed and dried my yarn.  It came out perfectly!  Just the color I had envisioned in my mind.  I think it looks like pumpkin pie.  It will make a lovely ‘little man vest”!

Lichen-Marigold Yarn

With that out of the way, it was time to tackle some of those apples.  So, I peeled and sliced up a bunch and tossed them in a pot to make cinnamon apple sauce (17 pints), apple pie filling (6 quarts) and dehydrated apples.  And I still have about a bushel of apples left!  Shesh!  Got any good apple recipes?

Taste testing apple sauce

I think I’m going to go put my feet up!

We have had such a wonderful last few days.  Being snowed in has been a great adventure for all of us.  The power was out for 24 hours, but we enjoyed the peace it brought and we kept ourselves fully entertained!  There was tent building:

There was lots of snow play (sledding, snow men, snow ball fights)!

We’ve perfected our snow cream recipe and began experimenting with flavors!!

Snow Cream – basic recipe:

• 1 cup cream, milk, or other milk like substance (coconut milk, chocolate milk, rice milk…)
• 1/2 cup sugar (maple syrup would work nicely too)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix well, and then add enough fresh snow to thicken like ice cream.  Then enjoy!

Variations:

Mint-Chocolate Snow Cream:

To the above add:  2 Tbsp cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp. mint extract

Eggnog Snow Cream:

To the basic recipe add:  1 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

We all enjoyed opening our gifts this morning!  I’m happy to say that Kaia considered her new skirt her best gift! (Take that Santa!)  She’s worn it all day and we had to order her to take it off before she went to bed.  When she loves something, she can wear it until it’s worn out very fast!

Toby’s gloves fit him perfectly and Leif likes his new stuffed, felt toys:

Leif also seems to like his new mittens (I’ll post the pattern soon.  It’s really simple!)

I knitted myself a new hat:

And Toby made me a oriental style shelf/unit to put above my computer!!  (pictures to come once it’s installed)

This evening, we ended with a lovely meal and a yule log bread (smothered and stuffed with chocolate!)

Have a beautiful winter!!!  Hurray for the return of longer days!!

Here it is!  Kaia’s Flower Fairy/Pearly Mermaid/ Blingy Princess skirt!  It is a holiday gift for her and I can’t wait to give it to her!

I’ve published the pattern, for free (yay!) in the links at the top of my blog!  Enjoy!!

When I found out I was pregnant with Leif, I had a blast creating a basket full of hand made toys for him.   They are so fun and squishy!  And something he can pass on to his children if he wants!!

Garden Mama is interviewing Down in the Meadow about her hand made toys and having a contest to win some!!  Check it out!

I finally finished his piggy pants!!  I love how they came out.  They should fit for a few winters.  He’s already 20 pounds (and 4 months old!) so as he lengthens out, I imagine his belly won’t get much bigger for a few years   Kaia is 6 and fits the pants (though they come down to her knees).

I don’t know if you could really call it nesting, ’cause my house is in shambles and I’m not really ‘creating a nest’ for the baby, but all I want to do is sit on my butt and make things. Really, it’s been going on since last Fall. So, I think this baby has some serious crafty genes that are coming out through me!

So, inspired by a little felted gnome that I got from Kristine

I decided to make a leaf blanket for the baby. I got some green fleece (on sale! Yahoo!) and made a pattern on large construction paper. Then, using some of Kaia’s washable markers, traced the pattern on the fleece and cut it out. I also cut out a triangle to go at the top of the leaf for a little hood. Then I marked a vein pattern on the leaf and sewed thread on top of that. Came out cute, eh? From tip to bottom, the leaf is a little over 3 feet, so it should fit for a while. I have a magnetic snap that I might put on after the baby comes and I see where it will fit best… or I may use something that is more adjustable for the baby to grow with.

Of course, now Kaia wants one, but I’m tired of the needle work, so, maybe I can just make her a hooded cape like thinging without a leaf pattern….

And once you open up the leaf blanket to reveal the baby, you might see these:

I knitted up some baby leg warmers for the little one…. They turned out really cute, but much too big for a newborn (maybe 6 months to a year). So, I plan to knit a much smaller pair once I find the right yarn (man I love yarn

Kaia took the leg warmer and put it over her hands and said “Look mom! It’s a perfect hand warmer!” So, since I can’t stop, I knitted her a muff out of some fuzzy yarn from my stash. It turned out really cute, but man was that fuzzy stuff hard to knit with!

All else is cruising along here at the homestead. The chickens are all laying again (except the younger ones), the guest house is livable though not complete (needs finish work and for the water to be run), and my belly is getting ever larger! Anytime in the next month we will finally get to meet this little one!