Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I am thankfully for my family, my good health, and my friends. I am thankful for being able to live the life I have, and I am thankful for all my cyber friends that I have met the last couple of years. Thank you all.

I would like to share with you the dressing recipe that I made to take to my in-laws. It is super easy and really good!

Crock-pot Dressing
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
1 can chopped mushrooms
1 cup butter
12 cups dry bread crumbs
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon poulty seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups chicken broth

When I chopped the onions and celery I used a Universal Grinder and it worked so much faster than cutting!



Universal Grinder set up and ready to go




Celery chopped






celery and onion chopped

 So once you have onions and celery chopped:
Saute onion celery, and mushrooms in butter in skillet. Pour over bread crumbs in large bowl and mix well.
Add eggs and seasonings and mix well.
Stir in enough broth to moisten. Spoon loosely into Crock-pot. Cook on High for 45 minutes then turn to low and cook for 4-8 hours. Add more broth as needed.

Sorry I forgot to get pictures of it in the crock-pot. But it tasted wonderful!!

Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful rest of Thanksgiving!

I think I am hooked!!

Finally got my, new to me, wheel put completely together and adjusted. Now I think I could get used to using the wheel more than the drop spindle!
After reading many posts from different groups I started slowly..... well sort of.
I just sat there and threadled for about ten minutes, just getting the feel for it. Then I tied on some plain old acrylic yarn from Wal-Mart and spun until the bobbin was almost full. That really helped me adjust the tension so the yarn would take up. And I did not have to worry about what I was really doing with my hands.

Then the test came. I put a leader yarn on the bobbin and tried to spin some on my own. The hardest part was attaching the fleece to the yarn and stopping and adding more fleece. But all in all it was pretty smooth going. Little bumps here and there but it really looks like yarn!

Now I just need to get a couple more bobbins and plied yarn here I come.

I AM HOOKED!!

Fleece, combs, and top?

I've been cleaning fleeces for the last couple of nights. Well.....let me re-phrase that.... I've been cleaning A fleece for the last couple of nights. Let me explain. Last winter when I was cleaning fleeces I used two large 15 gallon tubs with a five gallon buckets in each one and heated the water to VERY hot with a bucket heater that will boil water in a five gallon bucket with not problem. I had these tubs in our bath tub so to fill them I used a pitcher and poured water into each tub and bucket. Very time consuming!! But I was able to get very clean fleeces.
So on several groups that I am on people talk about using there washing machine to clean fleece. Fill it with hot water and soap, put the fleece in, let it soak for 20 minutes, let it spin, then take the fleece out and refill with clean water and do several rinses the same way. I tried this several nights ago. I have to admit it was much easier on my back. But once the fleece dried it still looked dirty. Just not as soft and high sheen as the ones I did last year. So after rewashing some of it again I have decided the washing machine is not the method for me!

Here is some of the double cleaned fleece. So nice and soft and shiny. :)

Can you guess what this is?
These are my new wool combs! They look kind a evil don't they. But, if I can figure out how to use them correctly and without hurting myself or anyone else, I should be able to make some nice combed top to spin with. I have played around with them the last couple of night and they are not as easy as some of those youtube videos I have seen, but hopefully the learning curve won't be too steep.

Ashford spinning wheel????

I have been searching high and low for a spinning wheel in working order of a very reasonable price. So when I checked out Craig's list and found one VERY reasonably priced AND within driving distance I pounced. But....... There are a few thing not quite right. Maybe someone out there can help me.
I checked on the Ashford sight and it is really, really close to the Traditional wheel they have. So I am thinking maybe a later model that they have since improved on?
Here are a couple of pictures.

 The lady I bought it from used it only as decoration. And it only came with one bobbin. And it is heavily varnished. It looks beautiful, I just hope it is functional.

 It seems to have the correct belt on it. And the flyer seems correct. But the difference from this one and the pictures on Ashfords web site is the bobbin brake? Not sure if that is the correct term or not. But on the website the tension for the bobbin brake is on the right side toward the front and this one has it on the left toward the back. And it did not come with the brake 'stuff'.

 When I take the the little 'knob' out that is on the left hand side it appears that there used to be a small hole in the dowel part, but it is completely filled by varnish or what ever they put on it.

 Here is the end that should have the Ashford name on it. It looks like there used to be something there but I can't make anything out now.

And on the Ashford website the screws had hex heads on them and this one has just slotted screw heads.











So, I am hoping I can figure it out and make it work. Any suggestions would be greatly appriecated!

More fleece...better pictures?

From the inspiration of Michelle and her new camera, I thought I would.....maybe read the manual for mine?
The last blog I did was of several fleeces and I was not happy with the way the colors turned out. I was thinking it was probably the lighting and others confirmed that was probably it. So I kept thinking I would take some picture outside. Well, that has not happened and I was getting antsy to get a blog post done again. So I did a little reading and I think I may have learned a little, with a long way to go.

Hopefully, these fleeces will look closer to the real colors



Hosta a white Icelandic lamb


These next two are both of Hazel, but they look different from each other. Now if I could just remember which one was what setting!


Hazel a moorit Icelandic lamb




Hazel a moorit Icelandic lamb




Black Icelandic lamb



Evra a three year old black badgerface Icelandic ewe

Let me know if you think the colors look better.
I also found a small basket (thanks, Terri for the suggestion) that I think the fleeces look pretty good in.
Now that I got all the fall fleeces skirted it is time to figure out what I am going to do with them. But they are for sale first and for most, so if anyone is interested please email me at mgcaretakers@yahoo.com

Have a wonderful weekend!!