Friday, June 15, 2012

Of food and fiber

Prepped and ready for the oven
Last night we had roasted vegetables for supper. The new potatoes, over-wintered beets and onions were from our garden; the yams, garlic and oil were purchased. Boy, was this a tasty batch! And probably full of fiber, although that is not what my title is referring to.

This is Brava's neck wool from two years ago. It was too pretty to toss and I'm so glad, because Brava died that spring leaving me just this (I'd already sold her fleece) and an orphaned lamb. That lamb matured into my handsome smooth-polled ram Blake; this wool has been collecting dust on my office floor. This year I decided it's high time to deal with it, so I've made spinning it one of my goals for the Tour de Fleece (a spinning challenge on Ravelry coinciding with the Tour de France bicycle race). That means getting all the VM picked out of it so I can wash and card it before the TdF starts June 30. Being neck wool there is a LOT of VM, but I'm making progress, collecting the picked stuff in an oversized lingerie bag:


Taken with flash

Taken in natural light
I've been working on my homespun Taygete since May 25, and am just about finished with the lace section. I love how it just worked out that the deeper burgundy yarn ended up next to the striped section! The edging/bind-off will be done in the orangey contrast color, but once the lace is done I will put this aside in order to knit a special friend a going-away shawl before she leaves on July 18.

That's it for today from . . .

6 comments:

Thistle Cove Farm said...

The veggies look amazing; bet they were delicious! Like the other fiber as well LOL.

farmlady said...

The neck fleece is lovely. Brava would be proud. It's a beautiful color. Cleaning fleece is no always fun but the results are always worth it.
Those veggies look wonderful...

Leigh said...

I don't know which looks yummier, the veggies of the fleece, LOL. Your knitting is superb too.

Eat To Live said...

I love oven roasted vegetables, so good. I haven't oven roasted beets yet. Gotta try this!

Terry said...

Michele,

Hi, I'm a relatively new Shetland breeder originally from SE MN (I have several Bluff Country Shetlands from Nancy Krohn). We recently retired and relocated to our hobby farm in Northern WI. One thing that I've tried with my fine white Shetland's neck wool full of VM was to put the dry, washed wool in our dryer (loose works best if it is still in a clump together, otherwise in a mesh bag that has large mesh openings, like a sweater bag). Set dryer on air fluff. Check it every 15-20 minutes and clean the dryer's air filter every time you check it. You will still need to do some hand-picking to get all the VM out, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much the dryer removed for me first.

Michelle said...

Sandra, they were! Even the next day. :-)

Farmlady, thanks. I'm so glad I kept it to make something to remember her by.

Leigh and Sara, thanks for the compliments!

Journey, I roasted them all together; the beets were tasty!

Terry, thanks for reminding me about that. I've done that before but had forgotten!