Spring has Sprung!

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Deborah

Thank goodness the cold and snow is now behind us and we can look forward to (in my opinion) the shortest and BEST season we have ~ SUMMER!

I have been so busy this past 6-8 weeks, not just with work (my busiest time of year) but also ramping up my gardening chores. The raised beds have had their plastic rolled down to thaw the frozen earth and 2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to get some radishes, chard, beets and lettuce seeds sown. These are cool weather veggies and have a much better appreciation of early Spring cold … Read more...

Meet Fert and Palladin

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Deborah

Fert & Palladin are Alpacas living on a farm just outside Niagara Falls, ON. In October 2014, my daughter and her hubby went to go visit the farm on one of their very few days of the year that they allow visitors. Unfortunately I couldn’t go with them that day (boo), but they did bring me back a piece of the farm. In the form of 2 alpaca fleeces. Not just a part of the fleece, but the-whole-fleece of 2 animals, which weighed about 3.5 lbs each.

Fert is a lovely brown fleece with highlights of red on the tips … Read more...

Cake Dyeing Experiment

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Deborah

Sounds yummy doesn’t it? Cake Dyeing…. Unfortunately no yummy cakes were baked, dyed or consumed for this project.

Cake dyeing is taking a skein of yarn and winding it into a “cake” with a ball winder and then dyeing it. The word “cake” came about due to the resemblance of the wound yarn to a stacked layer cake. This creates a centre-pull “ball” of yarn to knit from.

Ok, enough of word origins, on to the experiment! I found 3 balls of sad looking yarn in the “free bin” in our condo craft room. 2 were an ugly golden-yellow colour, … Read more...

The Great Avocado Dye Experiment!

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Deborah

Yesterday I posted a recipe using avocados, and in that recipe I said to save the pits and skins for later use. I guess I *should* have been more specific, but I thought it would be interesting to see how many people would be wracking their brains wondering what the heck would you use them for. I mean, they are inedible after all, and unless you are wanting to grow an avocado tree, why save the pit?

So here is what I do with them….

To one 500ml canning jar, I added 3 oz of chopped avocado pits. Combined 3/4 … Read more...

From Ewe To Me

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Deborah

With Love.

Which is absolutely spot on.

Over a year in the making, I have finally completed a project that started with roving from sheep fleece, spun it into yarn, then wove it into a blanket.

This is my ‘practice’ blanket. I have another one planned for the alpaca I am still spinning, but this was a test to see if my handspun can hold up to the high tension requirements of loom weaving. It is comprised of rough, lumpy, bumpy yarn that were mostly spun a year ago, which I then spent last summer experimenting with natural dyes and … Read more...

2016 ~ The Year of the Wheel!

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Deborah

Happy New Year to everyone! Yes, it has been awhile, but how many of you had the time to try and keep up a blog AND do all things Christmas-y? Baking, cooking, shopping, wrapping, visiting, etc?

That is my defence and I am sticking to it.

I can also add spinning, knitting and weaving into the above as many of you who follow me on Facebook can attest to as I regularly post pics of FO’s or WIP’s (Finished Objects or Work in Progress) to brighten the days of those cruising on FB.

Now that the holidays are fading in … Read more...

Alpaca Throw Blanket

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Deborah

I have a serious flaw. I come up with crazy thoughts and ideas that cause me to spend days, weeks and even months doing something that results in an object I could have gone to the store and bought. This time? I am making an alpaca throw blanket from scratch. Way more fun than buying a made-in-China-piece-of-crap-knockoff.

Last Fall my lovely daughter and her husband visited an Alpaca farm just outside Niagara Falls and brought me back 2 alpaca fleeces. As I was in the throes of Christmas prep, house renovations and purging/packing to move, the two fleeces were washed … Read more...

2015 Summer Vacation

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Deborah

*Hello*!

Can you see me waving?

No, not the loon (who seems to be waving) but me! 😉

Long time, no chat everyone! Totally my fault though as the past year has been nothing short of controlled chaos (and I use that term loosely). Last summer hubby and I started getting our house ready for sale, meaning de-cluttering, purging, building a new bathroom, gutting and renovating the original bathroom and sprucing up the property. All that effort eventually paid off, even if it tried our patience (and bank account) as we sold promptly this past March in 3 days.

After … Read more...

Do You Hear Crickets Chirping?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Deborah

It has been a crazy few months around the Southern Homestead. So much to do in so little time that I have neglected one of the things I love to do most….write my daily adventures. Hence the title of this post…the long time sound often used to denote nobody or nothing is around or listening.

Let’s see if I can catch y’all up here…

I spent almost every waking moment from January until 2 weeks ago purging, cleaning, primping and staging our home for sale. I sewed new throw pillow covers for pretty much every room in the house (14 … Read more...

Seaside Throw

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Deborah

Just before Christmas I embarked on the largest weaving project since I have owned my loom, which is a year and 5 months now. I usually start my weaving projects (and knitting) with some sort of inspiration, whether it be a photo, nature, yarn sample or a snippet of a textured pattern.

The seaside throw concept was born from this photo…

A picture of the Caribbean taken a couple years ago from the Mayan Riviera. With this picture in mind, I designed a pattern…

All the words and numbers below the design are the calculations needed to measure out yarn … Read more...