Destash time and etsy shop sale

SALE TIME IN MY ETSY SHOP.  Special coupon just for you.

I just got butt in the hand by a goat, so I'm going to make this quicker than I wanted to.  It's still too early to really hurt, but it's developing a deep ache in the bones which makes me feel I bruised it pretty bad.  Oh well, they are cute so what are you going to do?



It's time to really clean out my life, or more specifically, clean out the stuff from  my life.  Events are starting to circle around us like wake of vultures and we really need to have less stuff for when they land.  So I'm going to be adding more and more stuff to my etsy shop and reducing the prices.


A special price just for you dedicated readers (who stick with me through the years even when I spend months at a time away from this blog) here is a coupon for my shop.

Use the code: DESTASHTIME for 35% off the price of anything in my etsy shop.  Anything at all.  Just be sure to use the code DESTASHTIME at checkout to get the discount.

The new me - sewing clothing... the plunge

Medieval English Woman's Costume - Women's Clothing in the Time of... (clipped to polyvore.com)

Probably not the best choice for a new me to wear around town, even if it looks comfortable.  Might be nice inspiration if I ever get a chance to join the SCA.

The quest is to re-vamp my entire wardrobe this winter.  I don't wear a lot of different clothing as a rule, so here is what I imagine a person like me needs:

• 2 winter skirts
• 2 light weight skirts
• 2 pairs of trousers
• 4 to 6 blouses or other tops that fasten and look good over or under things (short sleeve and long)
• 2 cardigans
• 1 pullover
• 1 semi-formal dress, not too fancy, can be worn with blouses or cardigan in the winter or by itself in the summer, probably black
• 2 to 6 under-shirts like tank tops that can be worn for warmth or as part of summer garb.
• 1 winter coat, one spring/fall coat
• unmentionables

Now, personally I really like wearing vests, however, I find it really difficult to get one that fits well and looks classic.  For me a vest should just blend in, creating a nice backdrop for the rest of the outfit.  The only time it should be the star of the show is if you knit it (and preferably spun the yarn) yourself.  But that's my opinion.  I have to feel comfortable in this new wardrobe of mine, so I might as well be honest with myself.


I look at this list and it seems very daunting.  It's not just the amount of time it would take me to sew these clothes (or buy them) or the cost of materials - a few of these things I already have - but rather the sheer difficulty in getting them all to match each other so that I can simply pull random things out of the closet, put them on and not worry about colour or style clashing.

I already feel like I'm being smothered by the weight of all these clothes.

Maybe this task is too big.  Maybe I'm just not made right to have an easy to use matching wardrobe.  Heaven knows how I could go about affording it, clothes are pricey enough here, especially if you buy ones that will stand up to wear and tear, but sewing my own is not as coast saving as it might seem.  Fabric and thread are often more expensive than pre-fab clothing.  As I don't wear synthetics, I'm doomed to paying far too much for my cloth.

Sewing is more for filing in the gaps that the main stream shops cannot fill.  If I don't have to sew, I won't.  But often there is an article of clothing that I would like to have but I cannot find it in cotton, only synthetics 

Feeling very overwhelmed and self concious about my image now.  I should stop thinking about how terrible I look and crawl back into my little ball of self denial.  Maybe this project was a bad idea.

Google Adds, you decide

Some of you might have noticed that I've put the google adverts on the blog a few weeks back.

Why?
Well, because it makes a (very) little bit of money (apparently) and it didn't seem very intrusive.  I'm not 100% sold on the idea of keeping them, so I thought I would get your opinion.

What do you think?

Does it make me a sell out?  Do they bother you?  Did you even notice them?

Shall I keep them or go for something a little less intrusive like a custom built Amazon thing?  Or should I just avoid adds all together?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Need a new me. revamping my wardrobe to avoid reverse ageism. please advise.

Oh, I am so rubbish at this.  Anyone want to tell me what I should wear?

I'm not one to notice clothing very much.  Especially when it comes to my own clothing.  The main factors that influence my cloth acquisitions are 1) it's going to last a long time,  2) it doesn't clash with what I'm wearing at the moment, 3) it would be fun to try and make that.  I know, it's not the best way to go about dressing myself, but hey, my brain isn't built right for high fashion.

Lately I've had a lot of trouble with people mistaking me for five, ten and even fifteen years younger than I am.  This can actually be a bad thing.  It's called reverse ageism and is very prevalent here.  It can be anything from undercover police officers harassing your with loads of questions when you go to buy cooking sake in the liquor store, to shop keepers refusing to acknowledged you or take your money in the store.  Heaven forbid that you should be responsible for training a woman who thinks you are the same age as her junior high school kids when in fact she is only five years my senior.  The resentment she expressed got worse when she found out how old I actually am.  I think I made her feel that she looks old.  Sigh.

So maybe it's time to care a bit more about my clothing.

Perhaps create a unified theme to my closet?

At the moment I usually wear jeans, tank top or solid colour tea shirt with a blouse over top.  In winter I usually add a cardigan or pullover.  The dressing in layers thing is very important in this climate.

As the clothing ages, it get's downgraded.  City clothing, farm clothing if I think people might show up, digging in the garden clothing, and mucking out the chickens clothing.  There is no real difference between the actual outfits except how threadbare the cloth is.

Personally I always thought this looked more like country/farm clothing than something a teen would wear, but apparently I'm wrong.

Time to revamp my wardrobe.  But what kind of clothing would I like to wear?

Well, I know I look best in jewel colours.  My clothing gets dirty quickly, so something that wears well and doesn't show the dirt (earth tones?).  So earth and jewel colours.  Do they go well together?

I like blouses, I like cardigans, and I like long skirts.  I like bottoms that don't fit too snugly, but that don't look floppy.  I have some rather female curves (and an over-ample endowment), so perhaps I could choose something that shows these off just slightly, not too fitted, but not too frumpy.  Possible?

A Neo-Victorian hint to my clothing would also be nice, but I could always just find a fob watch and put it on a chain I suppose.  But if I could achieve the same feeling by colour and cut, so much the better.

And a slightly, very slightly Asian feel would also be welcome.

Now for the hard part...

...I don't know any shop that can do all this.  Shopping is not my strong suit, so perhaps sewing could come to the rescue?

I found Simple Modern Sewing at the library (yes, I actually know where it is.  It's the place full of ink-stink with the free wi-fi) and I think this might be a good place to start revamping my wardrobe.  It's got skirts, loose fitting stylish pants, shirts, all sorts of good things to wear.

What do you think?  Anyone out there want to give advice?  Got any great sewing patterns that would fit my new style or recommend some fabric?

tdf came and went

The tour de fleece came and went, and I somehow got overwhelmed with farmstuff... again... as usual.  Oh well.

But I'm still around.  Doing farmstuff.

There are sheep in the front yard, but they aren't mine.  I'm just 'holding' them for a friend, honest.

be back with photos and yarn and stuff in a few days.

Tour de fleece 2012 - day five

Been busy like crazy but still got a bit of spinning in.  Mystery brow fibre plied with some merino Habu lace.

Tour de Fleece 2012: stage 2 and 3

(sorry all, don't know what's wrong with the formatting today)

Yesterday, Stage 2 of the Tour de Fleece, was for me what they call, off the back. Didn't do quite so well as I had planed. But I did manage a small sample skein of novelty yarn. A small skein of yarn is still a skein, right? So I'm still on target with my goals.






30 yds of wavy rick-rack yarn. I spun up some dark chocolate brown mystery fibre in a regular slub (think and thin) pattern and plied it with a lovely orange Habu merino cobweb lace. I think the brown fibre is alpaca with perhaps 20% wool, but I can't be certain.






This makes quit a stunning effect, and I think I might make some more of this yarn later on. But what do you think? Any good?




















Today, Stage 3 was a much better day for spinning. I didn't get up early enough to watch the whole race (4am is difficult at times) so I hope to watch the repeat this evening and spin some more then.






Today's spinning is 75yds of soft alpaca 2 ply worsted weight yarn from Herman's fibre. I can't get over how nice the drape of this yarn is. Even though I spun worsted style (for a denser, smoother yarn) it's no where near as heavy as alpaca usually is when done this way.






As you can see from the photos, these two yarns are already good friends. They somehow make me feel like they should be used together for something, but what, I don't know.























By the way: Special Tour de France discount at my etsy shop. Type TDF2012 at checkout for 15% off fibre, yarn, well, actually everything.

Tour de Fleece 2012 - Stage 1

Goals are a very important aspect of yarn sports.  You may be tempted to think that an event like the Tour de Fleece, is a bunch of people watching sports on TV while engaging in their favourite craft activity.  But it's much more than that.  I suspect far fewer than half the people who participate, watch or even follow the actual sporting event.  Even so, the competition is fierce.

Like the cyclists of the Tour de France, we spin our wheels.  And just like those super-human athletes, our biggest challenge is to overcome our own limitations.  Of course, they have the advantage of being in top physical shape and training all year long.  But both groups do what we love best and peruse it with the single mindedness that only great passion can impart.

For the Tour de Fleece, everyone (just about everyone) has to goal to spin each day the riders race.  That's three weeks of spinning yarn with only two rest days.  For most people, this is challenge enough.

But then there are them others.  Others like me who challenge themselves further.  

My goal is to spin 1 skein of yarn per day or to prepare 1 lb of fibre each day.  

Although not the most challenging goals I've set myself for a TdF, one has to take into account the conditions of the road.  To strive to achieve something amazing given your limitations and the conditions that surround you.  A cyclist that rides beyond their skill set is going to crash.  But one who can cycle just at that leading edge of their abilities, be consistent and always pushing themselves to expand their abilities, well that is what it takes to be amazing.  

Today's spinning, 120 yds of a very soft alpaca, worsted weight yarn.

Herman, one of our rescue alpacas, has beautiful cream fibre with a couple of brown patches.  I washed and carded the fibre earlier in the year and finally had a chance to spin some up.  I'm surprised at what a treat it is to spin, though, perhaps I shouldn't be.  Herman is the only one who doesn't roll around in the mud every chance he gets.

By the way: Special Tour de France discount at my etsy shop. Type TDF2012 at checkout for 15% off fibre, yarn, well, actually everything.

I'm in a contest!

I wonder if you've ever come across the Etsy Contest?  It's actually quite a fun little game.  They show you two photos from two different etsy shops, and you click which one you like better.  It doesn't cost you anything to play, you can just click on one choice, or you can keep playing and click a whole bunch.

Basically it's a tool to help the shop owners to learn how successful they are doing with their photos and portraying their product.  It's a fantastic learning tool for us poor shopkeeps.

Of course, there is always the small chance that someone clicking might actually see something they would like to learn more about and perhaps, occasionally, even buy.  But that is just extra.

So, if you have a few moments today, please click this link here.  It will take you directly to where you can vote for (or heaven forbid, against) my picture.  I'll be in the contest today only - it would be great if you could click for me.

Tour de Fleece 2012 - Prologue

Today is the first day of the Tour de France, which makes it the start of the Tour de Fleece.

The Tour de Fleece is a yarn-sport where we honour those heroic athletes by, um, playing with yarn.  For me, it means getting up at ungodly hours to watch the Tour live on TV while I spin yarn.  It's a fantastic motivator and comes at the time of year when I need motivating the most.

This year, I'm sticking with the Peloton.  My goal is to transform some of my fibre stash into yarn.

Today being the prologue, I basically just cleaned off my bobbins and tested my muscles.

A beautiful hand dyed Marino fibre, dyed by Ryan of Knotty by Nature.  I had spun it up durring the yurt adventures earlier this year, so today I navajo plied it and now it's 100yds of lovely, soft, sock/fingerling weight yarn.




By the way:  Special Tour de France discount at my etsy shop.  Type TDF2012 at checkout for 15% off fibre, yarn, well, actually everything.  Sorry, does not discount shipping.

The Grimms' Fairy Tales

Yet another yard sale find.   I'm very tempted to use this book in a steampunk project; however, I don't want to cut it up and regret it later.

I have another copy of the Grimms tales, which is printed with paper and ink that don't cause a reaction for me.  This copy, although beautiful, smells strongly of cheap tobacco and mildew.

I spent a few hours searching the web for the value of this version.  I can't find any instances of it so it's either so rare and valuable that I've won the lottery and should auction it off quickly.  Or, it's so common, no one cares about it.  Either way, the illustrations are gorgeous.

Can any book lovers out there tell about this tome?




Update - the decision is this is too nice a book to cut up and use for an art project.  Apparently the illustrator is moderately famous and the translation was the definitive version for many years.  It was published in the late 1920s, and I was able to find one person selling a copy of it for $90 asking price.

Since space is limited around here, I'll just take this book down to the local book shop next time I'm in town - middle of July at the earliest. If anyone on the net want's this book, drop me a line.  we can negotiate a price that's fair for everyone and I can stick it on my etsy shop.

Inspiration for steampunking the bees

Because I wanted to share this photo with some people and couldn't be bothered to find my flicker account password.

It's from the book Beekeeping For All by Abbe Warre.  It's a really interesting bee smoker that I hope to use for inspiration for making my own affordable smoker.

Yes, we hope to get bees, but first we have to build the hives and equipment.


Edit:

Here are some photos of potential bit of metal to make this smoker.  The 1.5" brass tube costs about $5 but the rest were salvaged from yardsales.  Total cost so far, about $8.50.

Just a little bit of creation

So, here's some more photos of the current mystery project.

I got some free things from a yardsale, brought them home, took them apart and then combined the components in new and unusual ways until I arrived at a satisfactory arrangement.

Things are coming together at a slow and steady pace.



In other news, goggles are not that easy to make, steampunk or otherwise.

The idea is good, and the fit, but I think I chose the wrong materials.  Buy the time I'm finished, the whole is too small to see through.  Might be fine for hanging around you neck as a fashion statement, but I'm hoping for something a bit more practical.

I actually got a few stages further than theses photos show, creating and installing a gasket from an old leather coat.  But what I really need to make the goggles of my dream is some 1.5 inch brass plumbing couplink.  I think this town must be crowed with steampunkishly minded people, because there isn't a shop in town that carries it.  Ah well.

Little brass lamp

Yesterday's yardsale finds included a big box full of brass stuff.  At the bottom of the box was this lamp.

A bowl on a stand doesn't look like what we generally think of as a lamp these days, but it's actually quite amazing.  It is a very traditional style (although this one is more ornate and built for the tourist market) and runs off of almost any kind of fuel from old cooking oil to rum.  Vegetable or fish oil is more traditional.  This is very economical as you can save your old cooking fats and use them in this lamp.

I've read about these but I've never seen one used.  Books say that they are very dirty and smelly kind of lamp.    But when I tried it out, it turns out that this is even better than the 'standard' oil lamp that we use during power outages.

Fill the bowl with oil (in my case sunflower oil) and stick a cotton or linen wick in it (some weaving thrums).  Leave the wick in the oil for several hours (the longer the better - but at least 5 hours) to soak up the oil.  Then hang one end of the wick over the edge of the bowl slightly with the other end in the oil.  Light the end of wick that is not in the oil (this takes a few matches on the first go, but gets easier the second time).

Now we have fire!

But, um, we also have smoke!

Don't worry, there is a way to fix that.  Simply get something nonflammable like a knife or sewing pin or whatever, and use it to carefully adjust the length of the wick.  Make sure the wick stays against the side of the bowl. 

Once I get around to polishing up the inside of the lamp bowl, it will reflect more light and make the lamp an even better light source.

When comparing this to the 'standard' oil lamp, it has some considerable advantages.

First off a 'standard' oil lam only works well with lamp oil, an increasingly expensive petrol product.  This traditional oil lamp works with any fuel but best with vegetable oil.  I'm going to give a try of using it with old cooking oils next, as that's what many cultures use to use.

It produces quite a lot of light, maybe four to eight times a single tealight candle does.  This depends on the fuel and the length of the wick.

This brass lamp doesn't produce much heat.  It would be enough heat to say, run a Stirling engine, but not as much heat as a 'standard' oil lamp.  About the same amount of heat as a tealight candle.  After burning it for quite a while, the brass remained cool enough to touch.

Vegetable oil as fuel seems to last long than lamp oil for the volume of the fuel.  

I can see all sorts of uses for this from emergency light to, um, I don't know, a way of fuelling a Steampunk device using reclaimed oils as an environmentally friendly fuel source.

7 year fleece! or Llama gets a hair cut

Last summer, a rather harry llama adopted our heard.  He's big and strong and we call him Tom.  Tom belongs to our neighbour who lets our fibre boys graze on the pasture on the hill.  Neigbour said it would be okay to have llama Tom shorn when Rose the Llama Lady was next in town.

Hug the head close to your chest so they can hear your heartbeat and they calm right down.

That's at least seven years of fibre growth on this llama.  As you can see he's a mess.  However, it is unbelievably soft for a llama.  If I can get the veg. matter out of the fibre, this is going to make BEAUTIFUL yarn.

It was so long that he needed to be shorn by hand.

I actually really like hand sheering - perhaps because I'm not the one doing the sheering.  It leaves a raggy looking coat for a few days, but after a week, he looked far better than he would have with the electric sheers.  The animals seem to feel comforted by the hand sheering whereas the machine scares the spit right out of them.

Isn't he a handsome boy?  Not sure who's happier in this photo.  Well, it's not the jealous alpacas in the background, that's for sure.

Feeling mighty handsome, but ready to go eat some grass now thank you.

I have to sort through the fibre and pick out the guard hairs.  The guard hairs are just like human hair, and as long as my arm.

We didn't have our alpacas or llama shorn this year.  They just had a trim.  They were so cold last winter, especially our oldest one Max, who is very old in llama years apparently, that I didn't have the heart to shear them this year.  Llama Lady said it was actually good for the llamas and alpacas to go a year between full sheering so long as they get their under arm hairs trimmed in the spring and we keep an eye on them in hot weather for overheating.  Personally, I'm glad for the longer fibre staple that two year growth provides.  Longer fibre = more fun to spin... at least for me it does.

"IT WORKS!" Dances about the farm, in an over enthusiastic manner humming a little song about, "IT WORKS"

I've been tinkering away at my latest slightly steampunk mystery project where I convert an old (non-restoreable) vintage sewing machine into an Other-machine.  Well, last night - rather late last night - finally finished modifying a piece of perspex and put it into place.  I now have a fully functioning other-machine.  Photos to come later, once I've finished decorating it.

Now, how to decorate it?  I still have to install the cooling system.  I'm also thinking of installing a clock (clocks are pretty standard for steampunk) - but I'm tempted to install a radio instead.  I have this gaping hole to fill you see, and adding leavers, nobs, or other decorations that don't do anything doesn't really strike my fancy.

Yes, I know I've been remiss with my blog, my zine, my etsy shop, my online presence in general.  But I figured you didn't want to hear me moping about deaths of Cockylocky and Chicken little, the epic battle of the rose that went on in the household - and still isn't over I think - Talk about projection and deflected anger (some of it mine I'm sure, but from my point of view I care for the roses daily, it wasn't the first bloom or the only blossom on the bush, I just wanted on little flower for my room, there was no need to yell at me... never mind).  And then there is today's battle: trying to teach a professional cleaner how to clean efficiently without chemicals.  A box of borax lasts 8 to 14 months, not 2 hours!  This week, since reading instructions is obviously not working, I've tried repackaging the materials to look more like store bought chemicals and hidden the ingredients for making more.  See how that goes.

For those of you waiting for the next Crowing Hen Guide.  Inspire me!  What do you want to hear about?  Over view of natural cleaning materials and a few recipes for your house?  A treatise on composting?  How to rid your roses of aphids and black spot in under a week WITHOUT using those nasty chemicals?  How to clean and oil a vintage sewing machine?  An in-depth discussion (okay, monologue) on how to clean floors using natural products - many of which are already in your pantry?  

I'm overwhelmed with things I want to write about that I'm having trouble just sitting down and getting started.  I really don't know if anyone's interested in these things.  Am I just writing them to stop bending the ear of every poor chap that chooses our driveway to turn their car around in?

The steampunk vintages Singer sewing machine mystery project

Take a couple of broken sewing machines, some stuff found in the back of the workshop and a bit of creativity, and you get something that looks suspiciously like a science fiction ray gun.

I assure you, it's really not.  It's completely designed for function, the fact that it looks awesome is just a side effect.

Think cutting rather than shooting.  This is for the nether regions of my currant mystery project where I transform a damaged vintage Singer sewing machine into something a little bit different, yet highly functional.

Yet another sewing machine, steampunk mystery project.

I spent a good chunk of the day - when I wasn't wrestling llamas or tending first aid to llama related injuries -  dismantling a Singer 15 sewing machine for yet another steampunk mystery project.

The project involves this machine, or what's left of it, plus a table, saw blade, and some decoration.  

I'll tell you what, this machine is a thousand times easier to deal with than that 1970s Brother I was dealing with last month.  I have yet another box overflowing with spare parts for future steampunk projects.  How many parts boxes does a girl need I wonder.

Changing the function of this from sewing machine to other-machine (that's the mystery part of the project) is going to be relatively easy.  What's going to be difficult for me is the decoration aspect.  It's not steampunk unless it has copper pipes, some gizmo's, dials, maybe a touch of leather.  I don't know if I'm lucky that I'm starting with something already reminiscent of the Victorian age, or if that just makes it more difficult to decorate.  

I don't think this is going to be the ultra-decorative Steampunk object of the upper class adventurer.  Rather, I suspect this is going to be more Frontier Steampunk.  I am in Canada after all - the New World.  Something utilitarian made from cast off and recycled parts, with a little bit of whimsical flare to it.  Sounds about right.

For inspiration sake: if you were to decorate a machine head in a steampunk fashion, what would you do?

Steampunk sewing machine - in search of ideas

I've been wondering how to steampunk (yes, apparently it is a verb now) an old sewing machine.

Although this machine could be made to work, it has too much damage to the outside to be worth anything even if it did work.  It's a Singer 15 built in 1948, and is just about perfect for this project.

These old Singer machines already have the look of cutting edge Victorian technology (oh wait, that's exactly what they are) but I'm wondering if there is something more that could be done to expand on that.

The technology aspect of Steampunk, to me, is about taking disused items (junk) and repurposeing into something creative and useful.

There are basically three things I could do to make this more Steampunk.

1. I could just glue some gears on it and call it steampunk. (click the link to see why that's not acceptable -  wonder where I can buy the album?) 
2. I could change what drives the machine.  I've read once about a fictional steam powered home sewing machine.  Or I could make it solar/battery powered (not very retro-futuristic) perhaps a Stirling engine hooked up to an old sewing machine motor turned generator connected to a hidden battery.  Boy that would be heavy.  Foot treadle, hand crank, and electric have already been done.
3. or I could transform it's use from sewing machine to something else, then decorate it.

But what to do, what to do?

How to transform this machine into something that is creative, beautiful and teaches me something new about mechanical devices?

What would you do if you wanted turn a sewing machine into something Steampunk?  What creative ideas spring to mind?

The waxing moon