Woodpeckers, Eco Print Dyeing and More on Knitting

Here on the West Coast we had a cool start this morning,  the hummingbirds were busy looking for nectar but the silly birds kept going to the one feeder where the sugar solution had frozen. I had put out a new smaller feeder with fresh solution but they kept going back to the frozen one ….silly birds, so I brought the frozen one inside for a while to thaw out and it gave them a chance to find the good stuff!

We have all kinds of woodpeckers here in our garden, Downy, Hairy, Pileated and the Northern Flicker. I had never seen the first two types but now that we put out Bark Butter….they come everyday and eat it as quickly as I can get it out there. It is a spreadable suet that can go into a small log feeder.  One and half inch wide cavities have been drilled into a small branch or log, pack these holes with the spreadable suet and hang somewhere away from squirrels. ( That is quite a challenge around here.) My log has a small eye screw on the top to make hanging it a bit easier. All the small birds love it too  including chickadees, nuthatches and bush tits.  Even juncos fly up to it although I have to say they look a bit precarious, they are usually ground feeders and don’t quite know where to land on the log and madly flap their wings, most figure it out and eat quickly.

 

My apologies for the rather poor quality of the above picture but I was inside looking out but I hope you can see the log feeder hanging below the squirrel proof suet feeder. There is a tail prop feeder close up with some bark butter spread on this side and a hopper (House) feeder in the background. The woodpecker photos came from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Pileated on the left and the Downy on the right.

Now onto other things…the knitted mitts. I am not sure if I will make this into a pattern to sell, as much as I would like to, I don’t know how too ! so I have a little learning to do first. Here are some of the proto types.

The yarn in the top pair is Patons 100% wool with added felted cuffs and the pair below are made from handspun silk and wool. ( not mine,  but a lovely lady called Lyn who lives locally.)

Lastly I would like to show you some more of my eco dyeing projects. Some went well others not so good but all have been  great fun….now I have to decide what to do with them. I think I will definitely hand stitch over some of them. The one with the pink lines in it was a mistake I tied the bundle with bright pink yarn never thinking the dye would come out I thought it was acrylic ! oops…oh well maybe it will be better with added embellishments. As you can see one of them is very yellow, I used saffron which a friend had given to me….but I was rather heavy handed with it … a little goes a long way !

 

De-Stashing Yarn A Knitted Project

My latests de-stashing project is a knitted cardigan using various odd balls of yarn. I used to buy yarn one ball at a time, I would see something great and think OH! goody what can I make with one ball from this gorgeous colour. Also it was affordable BUT not very economical or smart. Nevertheless I have a few balls to use! so begins my side to side knitted cardigan. I have admired other knitted side to side projects that I have found on Ravelry and thought surely I can do this too ! I have knitted from the top down, making a sweater with Barbara Walker’s helpful guidance. So I felt sure I could use a little help from Debbie Bliss to make my side to side cardigan. This is it so far…

I am surrounded by these colours in my world…the greens of the garden, the blues from flowers, sea and sky and the purples from the flowers in our garden.

Are you inspired by your surroundings ? what have you made ? would you like to share ?

April

I am currently working on some new designs and hope to have lots to show you in a week or two. I have chosen some lovely felted fabrics and will be using more recycled items as I go along. I plan to keep knitting and felting as well but will make just change purses lined and unlined with minimal embroidery.

So to-day I will leave you with a great quote: The winds of grace are always blowing but you have to raise the sail.

and some garden abundance pictures.