End of the week domestic

[lizwilliams]

It's still raining and it is cold. We've been eating light, healthy food - toad in the hole, kippers, kedgeree. Soon we will smother ourselves with lard and sew up our clothes. I am about to make a vegetable soup and some banana bread in tonight's cookathon.

Reading at the moment: Terri Windling's THE WOODWIFE, which was a present and which I am greatly enjoying. I've just finished docbrite's LIQUOR, which was excellent. I will be looking up further book(s) in this series. I liked Poppy Brite's earlier novels very much and this is a new departure but, I think, a highly successful one.

I also went to my spinning and weaving class, and the results of the last few weeks are here:

http://pics.livejournal.com/mevennen/gallery/0000g8q2

The blue was dyed in an indigo vat and I can't remember what the orange and apricot were dyed with (onion skins, I think, and possibly sumac). The plan is: spin enough wool, dye it blue, weave it into something, probably the kind of lumpy scarf you give your mum when you're 10.

Comments

[boxerpixie.livejournal.com]

I loved 'LIQUOR' as well, I read it just a few weeks ago. And then saw a television program where a chef was making deconstructed foods and foams -- and immediately thought of this book!

Your spinning looks great! Out of curiousity, what kind of wheel are you using? I'm meeting up with a spinning friend tommorrow afternoon for a refresher course on plying.

And if you interested in having a fun weekend in the states, come to the June weekend with me here:
http://www.thesheepshedstudio.com/Academyofspinsters.html

My husband would LOVE to see T again, so he'd need to come as well. :)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

It was a castle wheel - an ordinary spinning wheel, but a rather more compact version. I'm learning to adjust the tension on these things - this isn't complicated, just a matter of fiddling about with the knobs! High tech, you see.

I have a feeling a friend of mine knows about the sheep studio thing - I will check. It sounds great!

[boxerpixie.livejournal.com]

correction on the book I read, it was 'Soul Kitchen'....I just went and reserved Liquor from the library's online catalog!

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

How nifty! I once spent an evening hanging out with a friend and watching her spin on a drop spindle -- it immediately went on my "I have to learn how to do this someday" list.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

The drop spindle is harder than a wheel, I found, but I'm persevering with it!

[vogelbeere.livejournal.com]

I am deeply impressed - I had a go at drop spinning and found it nearly impossible!