Weaving Away

Despite my shameful non-appearance in blogland I have been doing stuff !

Really I have .

I just finished weaving a couple of rag rugs.

Here they are in progress, at this point I had finished the blue rag rug and just started the orange bath mat.

 

I made the bath mat from recycled towels, donated to me by my friend Danielle, (Thanks Danielle !!).

I dyed them using some RIT dye from the thrift store and they came out this orangey colour that reminds me of summer and beaches. I also used an old, worn turquoise towel I had.

When I cut the fabric up for the blue rug I cut it into strips and glued them, which left hard chunky bits where the glue was so for the bath mat I found another technique here. Basically I cut the edges off the towels, sewed them into a tube and cut up, but not all the way through.

 

Then I cut diagonally from the bottom right of one strip to the right side of the next strip and ..

ta da

a continuous strip.

I know that didn't make much sense but if you look at the link I posted, Sarah explains it a lot better than me.

The Big Reveal,

 my favourite part,

 cutting and removing the rugs from the loom.

Here is the bath mat finished.

 I wove a narrow header and hemmed each end by hand.

And the blue rug, with knotted fringes at each end.

Of course none of this could be achieved without the help of my trusty assistant, Scout, A.K.A. The Bugger.

Red fruit

... from the garden today.

Some beautiful redcurrants.

I've been picking them off the last few days and freezing them to make a big enough batch to do something with.

I'm thinking redcurrant jelly and if there's enough, redcurrant and raspberry cordial. I haven't tried it but sounds yummy.

And the rhubarb, what can I say, it just keeps giving and giving.

I picked this lot today and there is still some to pick, amazing !! I think the variety we have is known as strawberry rhubarb which is why it is so pink and looks like a strawberry at the cut end.

Here is some more info about strawberry rhubarb.

We're onto making our second batch of rhubarb champagne.

Simon got the idea from here, thanks to Nellymary. We really enjoyed the first batch.

 Super easy to make, very tasty and VERY fizzy !

and look how pretty it is.

Afternoon In Pictures

For once no words.....

The Garden Equation

So the equation goes something like this........

TIME necessary to spend in garden to keep it tidy..

minus ACTUAL time spent in garden

EQUALS rather messy and untidy garden...

 open bracket ( sigh !) close bracket.

On the plus side, there are lots of things growing in said untidy/messy garden,

redcurrants, rhubarb, beans, red onions, yellow onions, potatoes, tomatoes (lots), cabbages, chickpeas, raspberries, blueberries, grapes and strawberries.

I'll save the greenhouse for another day !

Mmmmm.... Rhubarb

 We have some lovely rhubarb in the garden at the moment,

Red and ripe

And ready for harvesting.

So this is what I made with it today.

Victorian Barbece Sauce from the Bernadin Complete Book of Home Preserving.

I've made it before and it's very good brushed on meat for the barbecue or just served as a chutney.

I had so much of it I made this great big jars of rhubarb and sweet cicely cordial,

 recipe from here,

 adapted by me to add the sweet cicely,

(we have a forest of sweet cicely so I'm always glad to use some of it up).

Isn't it a gorgeous colour ! I'm about to try it with some club soda and ice cubes.

.

Nuno Felt !

Today I experimented making nuno felt. It was a lot of fun.

(Click here if you want to find out what nuno felt is.)

I made these 2 pieces with a chiffon scarf from the thrift store that I cut in half.

The one on the right was an experiment to see how different wool and fibres would work.

This piece I made to be a like a kerchief. You can wear it on your head or around your neck. 

Here is a close up.

I followed fantastic instructions from Terri at http://www.feltinglessons.com/

so "Thank you" Terri.

She also has instructions for felt rocks, so I made some of those too.

Funnily enough I keep a rock on my bedside table to hold down the pages of whatever book I am reading. Now I'll have a lovely felt rock to use !

Now there's just this to deal with, (sigh, I hate the clean up)

Saltery Bay Picnic

It was such a beautiful day yesterday here on the coast.

We decided to make the most of it and despite the increasing afternoon cloud, headed out for a picnic.

A flask of soup, sandwiches, Walkers cheese and onion crisps (special treat from the UK, only broken out on very special occasions) and a beer/cider to wash it down.

In past years it has become a tradition for us to have an early picnic with our friends Randy and Fern.

In past years we have sometimes had our picnic in February.

They have moved away, (we MISS you guys !) so we are left to continue without them.

Here is beautiful Saltery Bay, a provincial park 

It's in two parts. This part of it encompasses the campground and has this wonderful little rocky promontory set up with picnic tables and benches and views to the south and north. This is also where the bronze mermaid is underwater and offers wheelchair accessible scuba diving. Amazing !

And here we also found the first periwinkle of the year. Just being a few miles south and near the water clearly makes a difference as we don't have any blooming at home quite yet.

 A lovely sojourn and a day later, back to the rain !!