Cold water natural Dyeing

Well, in my attempt to be even greener and cheaper I have now started experimenting with leaving the yarn to dye in cold water. I read somewhere that if you have a cold water bath it just takes a lot longer. I will post up the results, but am expecting it to take a week.

An update on the bees!

Well, the last colony just dwindled to nothing. The queen seemed to dissapear into thin air and the numbers dropped rapidly.

The last few months have been very depressing, after a great deal of effort I now have 1 very small colony, consisting of 3 frames!

I currently have them in a nuc and fed them today with a Vitagreen supplement which is supposed to build them up, they need something!

I am hoping I might be able to get a swarm from somewhere over the next few weeks, I really don’t want to go into the winter with only one colony!!

I put up some nucs with swarm bait, didn’t work , that’s the second year I have tried it. I keep living in hope. When I opened the hive up I found a visitor, the bait seemed to attract something else, and later I got a look at her, the LARGEST flying wasp thingy I have ever seen. I took a fuzzy pic of the nest, its not easy when you are wearing a bee suit. By opening the hive up I destroyed the nest, and went through a guilt trip about it, however I have since found out it was a European Hornet, which can sting five times! They are not native to these shores and are moving in because of climate change. That’s salved my conscience a bit! However, I have also since found out their numbers are declining in Europe because people think they are much more dangerous than they are, they will only sting when defending the nest, in fact it illegal to destroy a nest in Germany!! Oh dear! See URL for a pic, I have never seen one before….still perhaps she flew off and built another little nest?

just coming out to face the world

Hornets nest ( rather fuzzy)

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/04/29/european-hornet-queen-perhaps/

Ever onward in the spinning department

Having taught myself to spin with a drop spindle I plod on and on with it. I am beggining to wonder if a spinning wheel might not be such a bad idea. I am rather ambivilent about it, a spindle is so much more portable, cheaper and takes up less space, but I only do a small amount of spinning in between all the other things I do and it does seem very slow. My hunch is I shall be shelling out in the future for a wheel.

I am very lucky as I get a fairly constant supply of fleece from freecycle. I dont mind paying for fleece but I DO mind the cost of postage, which is totally disproportionate. The fleece I usually get is from Lleyn sheep. For  a description of this breed click here

http://www.lleynsheep.com/ For a list of other British breeds or US breeds scroll down to the spinning link on the right.

I have bought other posh fleece but I actually find this easier to handle, if its too fine I find it rather slippery. Its probably my inexperience. But there is something very rewarding about starting with a raw fleece and ending up with something to wear. I need a lot more experience before I become competent.

lleyn fleece

On another matter, I have finally decided that the ‘indeterminate’ wine is apple and ginger, except its a bit more gingery than I was expecting! That will teach me to label things in future!

My 2nd ever homespun…..

Well, it took me forever and a day but I finally finished my 2nd ever homepsun item. The first thing I made was  a hat. To be honest this is hardly spectacular but we all have to start somewhere. I spun it on  spindle, I havent graduated to a spinning wheeel yet.

I am currently crocheting the worlds most boring jumper…………………………I started it ages ago and need to get it finished…………………..its made with commercial yarn, but is so dull to do!!

my main problem was getting it even but the uneven parts have evened out!