Yarn with a Re-purpose

I've written before about the upcycling & unraveling of sweaters for their yarns.  I haven't done much unraveling of late, but recently, I've been going through my studio, cleaning, sorting and purging to make room for baby's new space.  And I realized that I hoard old clothes.  Whether it's because I think I can alter them because they don't fit quite right (why do I think this?  I'm not a good sewer!) Or I can re-purpose them for something else (for a long time, I wanted to introduce a line of re-purposed, felted sweater garments such as hats and mitts), or I can unravel them for their yarn.  I had quite a few nice sweaters that had been half unraveled.  So, I hunkered down, unraveling some, deciding to just pass on others (acrylic isn't worth my time).

Of course, once I had finished a good round of sorting and purging, I was in the thrift store one day, and I spotted a creamy white, super soft, hand-knit shrug.  No tags or labels, the fiber content of this one was up in the air.  So I added it to my cart and debated whether I should get it or not.  Obviously, someone had spent a fair amount of time knitting such a pretty shrug... but honestly, I don't wear shrugs.  They had also spent a pretty penny on 3 or 4 skeins of what I now think is pure baby alpaca yarn.

So for $6, I grabbed it and came home and unraveled it days later into 3 and a half balls.  I wound off a couple of skeins for dyeing, one in pink (I was hoping for more of a red.. oh well), and an earthy green.  I quickly knit the pink skein up into a pair of Camp Out Fingerless Mitts (pattern by Tante Ehm).  Great pattern, and great yarn!

I'm now slightly addicted to the pattern and decided to gift the first pair to my mom, who is more fond of pink than I.  Maybe the green ones can be for me!  One certainly doesn't need full on mittens with our unseasonably warm weather and lack of a real winter. 

Have you ever unraveled a sweater?  What did you make?

Eatin' Weeds

My edible weeds article got published on Etsy this past monday!

I've been going on about purslane ever since I found out it was edible.  We have sooo much of it in our garden!  It's a pretty darned amazin' plant if you ask me.  A bugger weed to have in your garden, of course.  When I weed, I usually let the weeds dry out on the sidewalk for a few hours before I get rid of them.  Purslane sat there for 3 days and it still looked juicy!

It was really rewarding to read all the comments people left on the article.  Many people said they had been pulling lots of purslane but never realized it was edible.  Others were familiar with it and told stories of their families eating it.
I also received some really yummy sounding recipe ideas including:

I usually saute it with garlic (gotta use fresh garlic), chopped onions and tomatoes (plus salt and pepper) with either cubed chicken breasts, ground pork/beef, but my fave with it is sardines (with tomato sauce, not the mackerel ones). I know that not everybody is a fan of sardines. I've seen on magazines & other TV shows where they simply blanch it and include on their salads, while some put purslane in stew - I already tried that. I served it on top of rice... Yum yum! Just thinking of it makes me hungry. I better grab some now on our backyard, we have a lot of them in the garden

One of my all time favorites! After cleaning the leaves, I mix them with plain yogurt, add a little garlic, salt and chili pepper. It makes a refreshing summer salad! You can also cook purslane any way you prepare spinach. I just LOVE it :)

Here in Cyprus it is eaten raw in salads. I never thought of cooking it tho! I got lots of this "weed" growing in my garden.

We make purselane pickles from ours! Try it, you'll like it.
Crunchy and delicious.

In Turkey it is also considered a veggie. Besides in stews we eat it raw mixed with thick biological yoghourt, fresh garlic, salt and olive oil. Leave it a couple hours like that to get the flavours mixed well and ieat it with fresh bread, delicious! :)

Purslane is also a great addition to soups, thickens it up a bit!

Thanks everyone, for all your comments.  It was pretty exciting to not only have my article published, but get so much positive feedback and know that people have been inspired to try it themselves!

Do you have a favorite edible weed?  How do you eat yours?

Marigolds in Bloom

What a nice surprise this morning to find out one of my yarns had made it to the front page as part of this lovely treasury:

Its the bottom on, second from the right!!
And in the shop here:

(I also have more that can be dyed up, if you're looking to do a larger project)

And how appropriate that it's a yarn named after the honorable marigold flower:

A very useful plant to have in the edge of your garden.  It's strong scent keeps many pests away.  In my last garden, marigolds started to self-seed and I didn't even need to plant them every year!
On the topic of gardens, ours is pretty much complete.  Seedlings are coming up already too, and it's only been in for 2 weeks!

1 (among many) Idea for Creative Reuse

It finally happened! The book came out- the first craft related book I've been in!
My day was made on Tuesday when the article on etsy came out about the book (read it here).  I got the book for the holidays it was so satisfying to see one my projects in there- I was so excited I couldn't find Aaron, so as I was looking for him in the bookstore, I couldn't hold it in so I told the people working there- and then they gave me a discount!

There's little me with my hobo bag!

Apparently Garth, the fella who put the book together wanted it to be sort of a guessing game, so he didn't put what everything was made out of with the pictures.  So you flip to the back and you find out!

The bag that was in the book sold long ago so I decided to make up a new custom listing, since I only have a tiny bit of that yarn left (most of it has went into these).  So, practice what I preach, I went to goodwill and found a bunch more wool sweaters to start unravelling:

Sometimes I find it a bit difficult finding sweaters to unravel- it seems to be the time where I can find ones that I would actually wear!  Had the yellow one been a different color, I probably would have kept it.  I did also bring home a nice blue one that Aaron decided to keep.
I'm waiting next for my ball winder to arrive, my little holiday/birthday present to myself! 
In the meantime, yay for creative reuse!  Check out the book for some fabulous ideas & inspiration!

No Good Yarn Shall be left Behind!

Lately I've been addicted to Ravelry.  It's a "place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration" and most of the content is user-driven.  Recently I stumbled upon the Handknit Liberation Front.  I chuckled as I read their group description:

Do you ever find yourself distraught at a charity shop, thrift store, or yard sale, because you find some gorgeous piece of handknitting (or extremely good quality-machine knitting), but you have to pass it by because it’s not your size or color?
Are you disgusted by the unknown people who would relegate a perfectly wonderful piece of knitwork to a secondhand store, just because it has a few stains, which they lacked the ingenuity to either remove or cover up by dying?
Do you wail and gnash your teeth at a sweater kicked to the curb, simply because it has an unremovable stain, or holes due to vermin or burns, when there are so many meters of reusable yarn in a fabulous fiber that could be frogged and recycled, if only someone took the time and effort?
We are the Handknit Liberation Front (HaLF for short), and we believe that every piece of quality knitwear deserves a good home!
We will scour the secondhand stores, thrift/charity shops, and yard/garage sales of the world for the downtrodden, the cast off, and the forgotten, and we will elevate them and give them new life!
We will remove quality knitwear from the apathetic and ignorant (please note we do not advocate sweater-theft), and put it into the hands of people who truly understand it, and know how many hours of someone’s life that sweater represents!
We will wash and block used garments, so they look like new! We will identify mystery fibers! When we cannot clean, we will dye! When we cannot dye, we will frog! When we cannot frog, we will felt! No good yarn shall be left behind!
We will swap, both whole garments and recycled yarn! When we cannot swap, we will sell! When we cannot sell, we will give away! No good yarn shall be left behind!
We are the Handknit Liberation Front! This is our manifesto! Join us, and make it a better world for knitwear and fiber-freaks alike! (Crocheted garments and crocheters are naturally welcome as well.)

This is our motto: NO GOOD YARN SHALL BE LEFT BEHIND!

These sentiments definitely resonate with me; I do feel a little bit of sadness when I see a handmade blanket in the thrift store, no matter how ugly.
I've been making most of my fingerless gloves for the shop lately with upcycled yarns, here are just a couple recent ones:

The first ones (going clockwise) were made with a frogged (unraveled) Nepalese wool sweater, the 2nd ones were made with some thrifted vintage yarns, the 3rd ones were made with thrifted, hand dyed yarn, the 4th ones (cream colored) were made with a felted, upcycled sweater, and the last ones, I just finished, were made with thrifted yarns and then embellished and needle felted with my own handspun, hand dyed orange yarn.

no good yarn shall be left behind!

Feeling Dandy about fresh food

I'm feeling kind of sad that the weather has suddenly turned cold. If I don't close the windows at night, its so chilly in the morning I have to turn on the oven just to warm up! I've been spending lots of time in the Kitchen, trying to preserve the abundance of food I know I'll be missing in the middle of winter. So far I have made some strawberry+rhubarb, Apricot, and Raspberry jams:

Blanched & froze rainbow chard & kale, made a huge jar of super-yummy bean salad, hubby and friends made a huge batch of apple wine, and we spent a whole night collecting wild saskatoon berries, sour cherries, and wild hazelnuts (below):

Finding the hazelnuts made me so happy- I didn't know for sure that they were hazelnuts but I had a hunch, and luckily it was correct! The ones shown above were collected in late July, we went back about 3 weeks later and there were barely any left; as they ripen & mature, the squirrels raid the forest. The amount of shells I found on the ground was evidence of this phenomenon. But I can't wait till have time to roast & eat the ones I did collect- what a treat!

We have about 40 tomato plants, most of them were planted by my hubby from seed back in March. Some of them were "volunteer" plants that must have sprouted from seeds in the compost heap- oh, how I *love* volunteers! Below is a shot of some of the "tomato bushes", as I like to call them, and some of their fruits. It's been such a cold summer that the tomatoes are only now starting to ripen :(



And lastly (for now), also somewhat garden related, I'm even sad about seeing the dandelions die this fall. I wanted to mention my Dandelion handspun, handpainted yarn is in this week's Etsy Voter. There are some lovely yarns chosen, so please go take a look, and if you feel inclined, please give my dandelion yarn some love! Also exciting: dandelion is off to Holland for my very first international order!!! So pleased that someone there loved it enough to order it!

Eco Etsy Interview

Today I'm happy to be featured on an interview for the Eco Etsy blog, come check it out here.

Also I've get a great sale going on in the shop, come check it out if you have a chance! I'll be posting some new yarns and items in the next couple of days too.

Just got back from a great mini-trip to Lesser Slave Lake, we had fun taking zero gravity pictures on the beach:

Gettin' Down with Upcycling

"Refuse becomes fertilizer. Trash becomes treasure. Creativity IS survival."
-Keith Recker, editor of HAND/EYE, on Africa's eco-craftiness in a recent Storque Article.

This fall, I'm focusing on using more upcycled and thrifted yarns for the production of my items. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. As many of us know, there is a huge emphasis in the handmade movement right now on eco-friendly. Even box stores like Michaels are carrying more 'natural' and 'recycled' fibers these days. That's all fine and dandy, but these commercial yarns are often produced overseas- adding a huge, unecessary carbon footprint to your ball of yarn. Alot of these yarns also cost an arm and a leg; and since labour is cheap in places such as China, I wonder just who is making a profit off these 'eco-friendly' products- and how can they be genuinely 'eco-friendly'? It's a pretty loosey-goosey term that's often used just to make a profit these days. I think people should take it more seriously. Anyone can call anything eco-friendly, it's not as if it has to be certified as organics do.

Anyways, to put a more positive 'spin' on things, this is why I think recycling, upcycling, re-using, repurposing, reclaiming... whatever you want to call it... is a much more eco-friendly option when it comes to hand-making (that is... if you don't spin your own yarn- but I won't get into that now!) It isn't as if there's not enough yarn out there already! Plus it keeps the cost down for the artist & consumer and lowers your carbon footprint!

Below, a picture which was used in an Etsy article recently shows a group of people at the Museum of Arts and Design unravelling sweaters (and having a beer- boy that sounds like a great night to me!)


I have been on the hunt for new sources of preloved, 'eco-yarn' lately, and with the right eye, it's not hard to run into great materials. I'm looking for mostly natural yarns, as these are my favorite to work with, and are the easiest to dye. A few new pairs of fingerless gloves have been created with some recent finds:



Both of these are made from wool, the Hinterland gloves on the left were also embellished via needlefelting- something I have just learned to do, and boy, it's fun! The orange needlefelted yarn is my own handspun & dyed farm wool from our local mill. The Blackberry Patch gloves on the right were made with some crazy bubbly wool yarn that I just love!

On my horizon: a 100% wool gap sweater to unravel & dye, some thrifted dutch yarns, and a new eco-friendly 'gaywool' dye!
Fun times!

Fun with Tea Dyeing

I'm always on a search for eco-friendly dyeing methods. I recently tried out Tea Dyeing, and it was a delightful process! I brewed up a jar of really strong black tea (which also had some other herbs such as rose petals and lavender in it- I'm not a big fan of rose-tasting anything) and submerged a skein of 100% cotton yarn in it overnight:



I pulled it out the next day and it was stained a lovely antiqued color. Black Tea is naturally high in Tannins, which have been used for thousands of years to tan animal hides to make leather. From all the sources I have read so far, people have done dyeing with teas and their tannins without having to add the toxic mordants that a lot of natural dyeing requires (thus, making it not so natural anymore). From my understanding, this is because tannins have their own built-in mordants (pls correct me if i am wrong here!)

Anyways, one of the projects I have been wanting to make this summer has been sunhats, and I thought cotton would be the perfect fibre for this. So here is the hat I made:

It has a few rows of some other pre-dyed yarn in it as well that I thought mixed nicely with the tea yarn:It is really hard to capture the subtle variations in the yarn on camera.
I listed the hat in my shop the other day, and hope to experiment with some more tea dyeing again!

Fiber + Yurts= Paradise!

On my holidays, we stopped in at a wonderful place on the sunshine coast that was a fiber-only gallery, workshop and studio, all in yurts!

The place was absolutely amazing! I think I just about fell over when I walked into the studio:

The round room was filled with shelves and shelves of dyed wools, fleeces and yarns, all arranged by color. There was the biggest loom I had ever seen in the middle, and 3 spinning wheels scattered throughout. The fiber artist who owned the place was so talented and provided me with so much valuable information. I picked up some fiber from her including bamboo, soysilk, and wool, as well as some special dyes that do not leave any chemicals in the water after you are done dyeing.

One can dream, right?

Eco tip: Vacuum with Lavender!

Having just gotten back from a very refreshing holiday on the west coast, I am once again wishing I lived in such a place that grew so lush! I saw tons and tons of lavender growing, I loooove the smell so much and so I started thinking about how I could use it more often as a natural air freshener. I started by picking a few of the flowers and I just kept them in my car during our trip. Since it was so hot, the car would often be filled with the aroma.

Then I was cleaning house when I got back (cats made a bit of a mess!) and while I was vacuuming, I thought why don't I suck some up into the vacuum? I remember when I was younger we had once bought this stuff that was synthetically scented that you sucked into the vacuum (thinking back now, I think it was vermiculite! eeew.) Anyway, My friend Mandi had given me a bag of lavender a while back that she had originally used for baking these wonderful lavender shortbread cookies. So the vacuum sucked a little up (a palm sized amount) and immediately I could smell the aroma. Definitely better than smelling dust!

New Eco Trivets

This weekend, I made a couple more eco trivets this weekend with some really bright, vibrant fabric:
The process is really gratifying- i love ripping up the fabric into strips (very soothing!), and then seeing how the colors and patterns concentrate when crocheted. These ones are a bit smaller than my other ones:

(don't they all look great together?)

My new favorite term: Ecological literacy

I am currently taking a naturalist course- in fact, at the end of it I will be considered a "master naturalist" (wow!) And boy, am I ever learning what ecological literacy means.

One of my recent classes dealt with urban agriculture, something that I am so passionate about! We got to visit a local garden that incorporates things like urban farming, native plant species, composting, mulching, forest gardening, naturescaping, rainwater harvesting, and grey-water usage, of course, all by organic means.

This hilarious script of a conversation between God and St. Francis of Assisi (the patron saint of ecology) about us westerners "gardening" habits was read:
(from biohabit: http://www.biohabit.org/?q=node/632)

GOD: St. Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the World is going on down there in the USA? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honeybees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers weeds and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, sir -- just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back On the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the gro wth and saves Them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a Sheer stoke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the Winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy Something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It's a real stupid movie about.............

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

And that, my friends, is a pretty funny, yet sad account of what is going on in North America. It makes no sense! If I actually owned my house, I can guarantee you there would be no grass- at least no kentucky blue grass (common lawn grass). I'm so happy that weed & feed pesticide & fertilizer is finally being banned in Alberta. Now we just need to get with the times and do as other provinces & states have done and ban pesticides & fertilizers all together! People wonder where all this cancer, asthma, and other diseases are coming from- for example, think about your pets- they spend tons of time down there on the grass, peeing, sleeping, rolling around, and eating it, and the stuff is covered in chemicals. The school yards and public parks- where children play. These chemicals often affect the immune systems of children the most.

But on a postive note, I'm loving learning about all the other options that are out there instead of cookie-cutter, chemical-laden lawns. Here's some pics I found on the net to get you inspired:

above: from the edible estates project: visit here for more info

above: growing food in your front yard? more information here

above: an award winning natural habitat in portland; read the article here

I would love to hear what you're doing to challenge the myth that green lawns (and not to mention that awful gravel!) and non-native/edible plants are the only way to landscape. And I hope to do some more postings on this very, very, important topic real soon!

Contest! Kootsac re-usable bulk/produce bags

Fellow TransCanada Etsy & EcoEtsy team member Morgen; aka kootsac and inkyspider (and whom I'm so jealous of for living in the beautiful kootenays, bc!) has a contest running now over at indienorth. You can win one green produce bag, and one set of 3 red food bags! These bags are a great alternative to throw-away plastic bags- especially if you buy in bulk. They are lightweight, strong, washable and reusable and are designed to hold nuts, grains, flours, spices, herbs, dried fruit,vegetables and fruit.

The contest is open until Sunday, May 31st. All you have to do is click on over to indienorth to get details on how to enter!!!

New Eco Projects

I've been in a creative mood lately- I have felt more like crocheting than anything. Now that my studio is semi-clean, I am able to find things that I forgot I had- including lots of really pretty fabrics. I'm not much of a sewer, so I decided to make fabric yarn. I've experimented with it before, and found it's not real great for apparel items, unless you need something really thick & sturdy. So I thought it would be great for houseware-type items, so I made these eco trivets:

I love having cute kitchen accessories! These trivets/pot holders are perfect for protecting surfaces from hot dishes, pots and pans; great for your next indoor/outdoor picnic, bbq, potluck or tea party. I even thought a few of them displayed together would make unique wall-hangings. Best of all, they are made with upcycled fabrics!

I love seeing how all the colors and patterns condense when I crochet them!

(this teapot & cup set is one of my favorite garage-sale finds!)

Wonderful Eco Etsy

I recently joined the eco etsy team- I'm so glad I did!! They are such a solid team- everyone is so dedicated to being genuinely green; these folks have found some pretty innovative ways to create with an eco consciousness. The team supports each other in promoting green products on etsy, and finding new ways to package our products more environmentally friendly.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the eco etsy blog I would definately suggest you do- there's heaps of eco tutorials such as making your own laundry detergent, recycled envelopes & packaging, yummy recipes, stencilled t-shirts, and all kind of great how-to's to get you inspired to be green! I'm currently arranging to have one of my tutorials posted on recycling yarn- I will post here when it's up.

The blog also does a feature on it's members- it's so neat to have a peek inside each one of these creative minds! Members come from all over the place (but I am so amazed at how many are Canadian- us canucks really seem to have a green streak!)

You can easily locate eco etsy members & their products by doing a search on etsy for "teamecoetsy"- or click the birdie below!

Web gems: CraftStylish

Ever end up finding a gem when you're surfing the web? With sites like Etsy and Flickr it's hard not to fall in love with everything you see! And isn't it fascinating how you find things? It's something like chaos theory- one thing leads to another, and pretty soon there's an explosion on the other side of the planet (ok, i'm not too science-savy but its something like that!)

In my surfing journeys lately, I stumbled on this great site, CraftStylish. Don't ask me how I found it- but I'm glad I did! It has heaps of tutorials on resytling and crafting some pretty cool items, often with recycled materials. Of course, I clicked on the crochet category first, and what a small world- one of my favorite etsians, hodgepodgefarm aka CalPatch is a contributor! Among many, she has this How to Upcycle a T-shirt into a Cardigan tutorial. I'm so going to make it! I love lightweight, t-shirt fabric cardigans- and they are so hard to find!

Tomato Flowers, Overflowing Compost, Vegetarian Goodness, and Springtime Skeinlets

I had such an excellent time this past weekend. It was around 20 lovely degrees, and honey and I got tons of stuff done in and around the house. I finished painting our kitchen, which was half painted for the last month or so (between getting a bit of a cold, and the stiffness I felt doing the first half, I was doing some major procrastination!) It is just plain and simple white now, which highlights some of the artwork I hung up, and all our lovely plants.

Meanwhile, my honey was working his butt off outside, getting our garden ready. He's also been doing lots of seed starting indoors, and we discovered that some of our tomatoes already have flowers coming!!!

I am not sure this is a good or bad thing, as it's going to be a while before we can plant them outside. We also discovered that our compost heap was getting so big that it was actually caving in the side of our shed and moving it off it's base... (here is what it looked like after some of the compost was removed)

Oops! Luckily the thing is on it's way out, thanks in part to our neighbourhood squirrel who has burrowed and hides his stash under the subfloor; (and who coincidentally lives in the abandoned stove/oven inside).

It was nice enough to have dinner outside, so I made a lovely vegetarian dinner- baked brown rice and red lentils with tomato, basil, thyme, and white cheddar, as well as a lovely spring salad with some shaved zucchini (one of my fave ways to eat raw zucchini), spinach, and orange peppers, and some crisp pickled asparagus on the side. Topped off with some lovely brown ale. We had received this beautiful set of dishes for Christmas, and I hadn't opened the box until this weekend:

I call them my foodie dishes, now I can pretend I'm up there with my fave chefs Jamie Oliver & Michael Smith (small confession- in the winter while I craft, I'm usually tuned into the food network). aaanndd to finish off... we had strawberry pudding- i didn't get a pic cos we ate it too fast- but I think I discovered how to make a really good pudding- I'll have to share the recipe sometime. We love going to Indian Buffets sometimes for the mango custard. I've realised I'm not a very good baker, but I think I can make a pretty good pudding.

Oh, and somehow I did manage to spin up some little skeinlets (my term for small skeins of yarn) out of some bright bits of fleece I had hanging around just asking to be spun up. They are just 2 small skeins, perfect for some embellishing or a small project:

Here's to great, sunshine-filled, productive, but fun-filled weekends!!!