Gouda

A few months back, Sharon, Katie and I made a cumin gouda and tonight I finally cut it and it’s delicious. I had a lot of trouble keeping it mould free so after a few weeks I waxed it instead of growing a natural rind and I’m so very very glad I did. The red bits you can see on the cheese is the wax (obviously) and the little brown specs are the cumin seeds, yum).

I tend to get out the habit of making cheese as often as I’d like, ultimately I’d love to be making a cheese every week. Anything from a monthly batch of feta or something that needs to be aged for months on (or years) on end to a lovely soft camembert reading to eat in a week. This is a definite feeling of self satisfaction and personal accomplishment that comes from serving up a slice of your own cheese.

 

Plans, plans and more plans

Well it’s now the start of October and we are still waiting to get our house plans into council. We changed some aspects of the house design which delayed things but now we are waiting on the engineer (who had previously been the snappy one) and the grey water system design guy and THEN we can submit them. I was hoping to have them in by the end of next week at the latest and if they are not ready by the end of this week – heads will roll!

We’ve also been working on some plans for the gardens. Right now the focus is on the white picket fence that will be running around most the main platform, the path and the gardens beside the path and the terraces directing below this, all now being referred to as The Westbank. Some planning is also going into the area beside The Westbank, now know as the Gazabo Strip (because that’s where the gazebo will be going – ok that’s a bad pun). The strawberry patch and care of the existing fruit trees is also high on the list. I have yellow note cards with lists and everything!

Bellow or two sketches of the proposed picket fence/path garden area. The square in the top left corner is the planned fort/castle/cubby house and sandpit, the curve on the right indicates the terrace where my gazebo will be and near that is the strawberry patch (the big rectangle down the bottom left represents the house).

This is a closer in view of the “Children’s Garden” area. Sandpit/Castle/Fort thing is the main feature here, with a trap down, ladder and slid plus arrow slits in the walls. The picket fence will run up to this area on two sides and the building itself will have walls to stop unwanted escapees. The planting on the terrace bellow is probably going to be trees and bushes, spaced apart so as to afford small army’s to creep up to the castle and some cover from arrow fire above. To feed the besieged villagers and knights inside the castle I’m planning on edging the fence with loads of edible pick-and-eat fruits (like orange berries, blueberries, thornless-non-spreading blackberries and anything else I can find that doesn’t grow taller then the fence or have prickles and thorns). I’m also hoping to create a few small garden beds for kids to plant their own edible delights like carrots, lettuce, beans and peas.

I’d like to make the area feel enclosed, without blocking the view from the house exactly. I really want this to be a space kids can disappear to, get up to all sorts of mischief without feeling like they are being constantly watched, but I can also feel that they are safe. Another thought that just occurred  to me is putting up a really small shed for them to store their own gardening tools, bows and arrows, swords etc in. The walls on the south and west sides will probably be lattice and I’ll install hooks and shelves for storing of various sandpit tools and whatever else the kids choose.

As you can probably tell, I’m really excited about this space and it’s potential for fun and creative imaginative play.

The strawberry patch will be tackled this week by Pip and myself (hopefully tomorrow if the weather stays fine). I’ve already netted the 3-4 meter area to help keep birds away from the strawberries that are currently growing. Tomorrow we need to really get into some weeding, checking the PH of the soil, fertalising and mulching the area as well as planting a bunch more strawberries. I’m hoping to plant a few different varieties with different growing times, spread out the growing season, yum I believe the ones that are there are probably summer ready and they don’t seem to send out runners.

Lots to do, it’s great to see daylight savings here and the warm welcoming weather.

No more supermarket

As part of goal to become more resilient we’ve decided to avoid supermarkets as a source of food. We’ve gone cold turkey and are only using it for things like toilet paper now. Eventually we will fun alternatives to other supermarket items as well, but baby steps.

As part of the changes, we have to find alternatives to pre-made lunch box items for Pip. Today I’m planning on making some cookies. I like to do double or triple batches and freeze the extras, this means I cut down on baking and frees up time for other food prep, like cheese making (restarting this on Thursday) and extra food prep such as the soaking beans you see above.

This is the first time I’ve ever used beans that weren’t fresh or out of a can. I’m trying with the overnight soaking method, I’ve got the beans soaking in three times as much water as beans. Another method I cam across suggests placing the beans in cold water, bringing them to the boil and then letting them soak for 1-2 hours. To cook them you then need to drain them and cook in fresh water for 1-1.5 hours. They can be kept for up to 4 days in the fridge or frozen at this point and then added dishes.

These beans are destined for a nice batch of chili tomorrow night. So I guess I will need to start dinner at around 4 to ensure its all cooked by 5.30. I’m hoping that 2 cups of beans plus 250g mince beef will make a lovely large pot and I can freeze at least half of it.

The main ingredients I’ve had trouble replacing from the supermarket just now include ice cream, butter, tasty cheese and oil (other then olive oil). I’ll be replacing the cheese with my own homemade cheeses and I’ve got a local source of raw milk. Hopefully this milk will result in enough excess cream as well for various sweet treats, maybe even ice cream every now and then. Instead of flat breads I’ve started using crepes, but I’m not sure I want to do these every week. I’ve started cooking bread again but I’d like to add crumpets, English muffins, and flat breads on regular rotation.

The real problem for us isn’t so much finding ideas for alternatives or making our own replacements, its me (Tracey) needing to do all the cooking and prep work while also trying to do some weaving, looking after Pip, cooking regular meals and getting enough rest so I don’t crash (becoming complete useless to do anything).

Satsuma Plums

Sharon has just harvested a load of Satsuma plums from the community orchard, I’m so excited that these are the red fleshed variety of plums that I dream about. We had a tree across the road from my school when I was just a wee little thing. After school we would rush over the road and climb into it’s branches and gorge on these delectable fruits – until the council started to spray all the roadside trees and we were no longer allowed to eat them

I actually don’t recall the last time I had the pleasure of eating one of these plums so I’m so very excited that I’ll have a chance to grab a few kilos to preserve as well as eat fresh.

I’m going to preserve them nice and simply like in the link for Canning with kids. Making pies this winter out of these plums will (as Pip would say) “make me super happy”.

Soda bread and mushroom soup

We’ve been getting back into watching some old episodes of River Cottage this past couple of weeks, and as usual we’re inspired to take the kitchen by storm. Tonight I was inspired to make a quick and easy soda bread to go with my mushroom soup.

Mushroom Soup

• homemade chicken stock (inspired by River Cottage)
• dried wild mushroom mix from Neudorf Mushrooms (purchased and the Neudorf festival held on the weekend)
• Slightly old “fresh” mushrooms”
• Riverside cream skimmed from the top of raw milk (just down the road from our place)
• fresh parsley from my garden (the parsley “bushes” are wild and lovely now)
• chunk of butter from Wangapeka Downs (another local dairy)
• black pepper and salt to taste (I LOVE loads of pepper in this dish)

Served with Soda Bread ala River Cottage I did not think this was going to work out in the end. I had no buttermilk and only a smidgen of yogurt left so I performed the old vinegar to milk trick (1 tsp vin to 1 cup milk) and added what I had of the yogurt then accidentally added it all to the bread flour and ending up with a slightly wetter bread mix. Added to this little stuff up I had the dedicated help of a 2.5 year old who wanted to poor in everything he could reach, stir and stir and stir and then throw in handfuls of flour. So between juggling him on a chair up to his elbows in flour, the visit from a friend and her daughter who had dropped Pip off and not quite getting my measurements, I ended up throwing a fairly wet pile of ahhh, slop, onto the baking tray (there was no way I could cut a cross in the top as the knife just stuck it was so moist) and closing the oven door and ignored it for 40 minutes while I whipped up the soup.

The result was an absolutely delicious and filling dinner of hot bread and hot soup – and I don’t even like mushrooms!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the cold glass of Elderflower cordial we made a few weekends ago (along with Elderflower Champagne that should b ready in a few weeks).

Tea Towels

I really didn’t think the 30/2 cotton was getting onto the loom, but it’s there with only a few tension issues (a tension box or an AVL warping wheel would have made this much smoother). I’ve finally had a chance to sit and weave, fiddling around with tension issues, catching threads, making a temple and what-not, I’ve managed to do 1/4 of a tea towel this evening (it’s only taken me about 2 hours!) I really need to weave a tea towel from throwing that first pic to throwing the last in significantly less then that time then that – possible? I hope so.

As you can see from these photo, things are progressing, the pattern is developing (although not quite how I expected from the software rendition), and I’m enjoying using only white and natural.

I have several patterns to tryout so each of these tea towels will be in a different pattern. I also have a bunch of 22/2 cottolin colours I want to try so I’m sure I’ll be mixing up the white and natural with the rust, green, blue and brown. I also have a small quantity of Thai cotton that I’d like to incorporate (but then I might use them in a different warp).

After searching the net for various homemade temple ideas, I have to say that this one I’ve chosen to try is working pretty well, although the better and the bulldog clips do clash if they get too close (I would like them closer then they like to be).

(bulldog clip tied to a 100gm bag of rice)

Learning about 2/30 cotton

It sticks! Well at least raw 2/30 cotton does. As soon as you release the tension from the warping mill it twists up on its self, and I can’t believe that all 640 ends, 4 ends per dent, are actually all now on the loom. However, my sticking issues are still not over! Each time I make a shed, a few threads grip to others and I have to go and release them before I can throw the shuttle

Update – these seem to be getting less sticky the further into the weaving I’m getting and the further from the heddles I am. Although there are still a few that stick every other treadle change. This has also caused 2 threads to be skipped over in an entire 1″ of white strip *grrrr* as per this photo:

Putting the warp onto the loom

I’m about to transfer my 30/2 Ne Cotton warp chains onto the sectional wheel on my dobby loom. Before I do this I thought I’d go over the teething warp tie-on that I did with Karuna first, luckily I took photos to help remind me, so here we go:

Warping onto a sectional warp beam on an AVL 16 shaft dobby loom

Once you’ve created your chains it’s time to take them to the back of your loom

Hook the lease sticks over the raddle to support it and keep both your hands free for tying on to the lead cords.Makes sure you’ve put your lease sticks, one on each side of the cross.

Secure sections by tying a knot in the end of the section and then make a loop with your lead yarn (from the sectional warp beam) and hook it around your knot and pull tight. A great example of this can be found here.

Apply even tension as you wind the sectional warp beam and start rolling it on. This is where a second person comes in really really handy, while one of you turns the sectional warp beam, the other one applies tension to the warp threads and ensures everything stays snag free.

Once most of the yarn has been wound onto the sectional warp beam, tie the two chains into a loose knots leaving enough yarn to thread your heddles and tie on to the front beam

Remove lease sticks from raddle and pass through rollers

 

Pull towards front of loom and place two extra lease sticks under the lease sticks holding the threading cross to support it at the back of the shafts.

I placed a smidgen on blue-tac under each spare leas stick onto the loom frame, providing supporting so everything held steady and didn’t slip off

Support sticks seen from the front resting on front apron rod

Now it’s time to thread the heddles!

I thread from left to right, dividing the heddles in half, one set on each side of the shaft and then I count out from the left the required number of heddles to be used, in total, for that shaft, then do the same for the other 15 shafts. I then find my first 4 warp ends, note that this is of course where your cross comes in handy because each thread is in order and you can clearly see which is the first thread and the next etc. Put one thread between your fingers and using your threading hook, pull the first thread through the eye of the first heddle and follow in using your threading plan.

I might do a post with more details of threading heddles and tying onto the apron rod at another time, but that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope this is helpful to to others, it’s helped me with my cotton warp.

Regarding my cotton warp, I’ve decided two things – I want an AVL warping wheel! Cotton does not like to sit nicely once it’s been put under tension on the warping mill and then chained off. THe threads relax and twist around each other, the wool did that too but was a hell of a lot easier to separate. And secondly, I need some way to secure my sectional warp beam so that it doesn’t move when I pull the yarn been warped on. If I could do that I could probably warp on by myself.

The new (old) dobby loom

Dobby, (a corruption of “draw boy” refering to the weaver’s helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads), is a type of floor loom that is able to fully utalise all possible sheds ( a 16 shafts dobby loom can utalise 65,534 possible sheds!). “A manual dobby uses a chain of bars or lags each of which has pegs inserted to select the shafts to be moved… Another advantage to a dobby loom is the ability to handle much longer sequences in the pattern. A weaver working on a treadled loom must remember the entire sequence of treadlings that make up the pattern, and must keep track of where they are in the sequence at all times. Getting lost or making a mistake can ruin the cloth being woven. On a manual dobby the sequence that makes up the pattern is represented by the chain of dobby bars. The length of the sequence is limited by the length of the dobby chain. This can easily be several hundred dobby bars, although an average dobby chain will have approximately fifty bars.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobby_loom

Can you believe that, 65,534 possibilities! It actually starts to make my brain hurt just think about all those possibilities, seriously I’m still getting my head around 4 shaft patterns (oh my!).

Right now I want to get my head around how the dobby beg and chain system works. In a future post I’ll go step by step through the warping up of my “teething” warp and thus the various parts of the dobby loom from sectional warp beam to front apron, tie up and my sampler of various weaving structures (that will be a photo heavy post).

Ok, so dobby pegs and chains. The dobby box is made up of bars linked together with a few chain links, forming a long chain of bars. My loom has wooden bars and metal links and pegs, I’m not sure about other dobby looms though. Each bar has 16 holes, 1 hole for each shaft. A peg in a hole indicates that shaft is to be lifted for that rise of the shed, obviously if there is no peg then the shaft stays put. A single bar for plain weave might look like this (with a x indicating a peg): [xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo]. Incidentally, there are only two treadles for the dobby loom and they turn the gear to move the next bar into position and thus creating the next shed. To continue with a plain weave (or Tabby if your prefer) you would program the next bar to be: [oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox] (the opposite of the first one). The shortest chain you can make is 8, so you would continue to peg all your 8 bars with the alternating pegging:

[xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo]
[oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox]
[xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo]
[oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox]
[xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo]
[oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox]
[xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo]
[oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox]

The AVL manual recommends starting all your projects with this tabby weave for the first inch and or as a header to ensure you’ve got all your threading up error free.

Instead of using a tie-up and treadling plan like you use for other floor looms, with a dobby loom you create a “peg plan”. This is a graph showing the order in which pegs are placed into the dobby bars. Now, lets see if I can explain how to convert a tie-up & treadling plan, into a peg plan! (This is mostly for my own benefit, I could just cut and past the info from the AVL manual, see link below, but I believe I will start to understand the process better myself if I can write it out).

You can see in diagram “A”

that the harnesses are represented down the side of the tie-up, in a peg plan the harnesses are at the top. To convert the tie-up from “A” to the peg plan in “B” simply convert black squares down the left hand side of “A” into pegs going across the top (from right to left) on “B”.

So in “A” you have a black square in harness 2, treadle 1, in your peg plan you would move that square up the top to Harness 2, Dobby bar 1. Continue with 6, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15. (see chart “C”),

continue to the next treadle and harness sequence (see chart “D”).

Now take a look at chart “E”, see how in dobby bar 30, harness 2 there is no peg? And that continues in a diagonal to form a “V” – compare that to the treadling plan in chart “A” and notice how there is an “x” in the same position, showing when the shed will be formed and thus creating your pattern.

Now, the one last bit that I’m trying to work out is how this all relates to the threading of heddles into shafts. If I was to just see that treadling plan without the words “treadling” I would have assumed it was the threading plan. I would have turned the chart onto it’s side like this:

I would have threaded the first warp thread into the 1st heddle on shaft 1, the second thread into the first heddle on shaft 2 and so on up to shaft 16, I would then thread the 17th warp thread into the second heddle on shaft 15 (so shaft 15 now has 2 threads) and so back down to shaft 1. In this case, shafts 1 and 16 would only have 1 thread each. Somehow this doesn’t seem quite correct to me…

Really useful tips from the manual:

“There are times you will find it helpful to use blank dobby bars to mark your place in your pattern. For instance, if you need to know where the beginning of a pattern is, leave a blank bar just before the dobby bar corresponding to the first shed of the pattern. When you are weaving and come to this blank bar, no harnesses will raise.”

“Keep in mind that the direction the chain moves can be reversed at any time. This feature can save pegging time and dobby chain. One example of its use is with a pattern where the second half is a mirror image of the first half… by reversing the dobby unit, the second half or mirror image is automatically produced. When using this technique, you may want to leave a blank bar as a signal at the point at which the dobby is to be reversed… This feature can also be used where long lengths of tabby are to be woven between pattern borders. Simply peg up part of the tabby and by repeatedly reversing, as much tabby can be woven as necessary. Here again, use blank bars between the tabby part of the chain and the pattern part.”

(Further reading of how this particular loom operates can be found here on the AVL USA website’s manual)

How the time has passed!

It’s been a really, really long time since we’ve posted anything to this blog. I’m hopping to change that once again as things are getting interesting again in our lives (at least for us) and we are slowly finding more time to do a variety of things.

Mostly I (Tracey, your most frequent poster) will be doing a few more articles on weaving, including my exploits into the use of my new (old) 16 shaft AVL Dobby loom. This is not a computerised dobby, but a peg system (I’ll talk more about this later) and weaves a width of about 36″ happily (although it’s about 40″ wide full width). I’m really really loving this loom, loving it like I never have loved a loom before (and remember I now have a large Ashford Rigid Heddle and a 4 shaft countermarch). The Rigid heddle is back in use, currently it’s warped up to teach a friend of mine to weave, but I’m starting to get interested in weaving on it myself once again. However, I’m thinking that I might purchase a small folding loom around 12″ wide and leave the larger rigid heddle for friends to learn on.

The other wonderful treat that came along with my gorgeous new loom was the visiting instructor in the form of the equally wonderful Karuna. It has been invaluable to have Karuna come and visit with me on a few mornings, going through how to setup the loom, warp on a “teething” warp as she called it and weaving through half a dozen or so weave structures. I’ll go over this experiment in more detail in a later post too.

In other related exciting news, we are about to embark on a 10 week holiday to the USA, primarily New York and North Carolina. Craig will be attending a bunch of woodworking classes and also going along to the American Woodworkers Conference in Ohio (is it Kentucky?). I will be attending a week long class at the John C Campbell Folk School on 18th century household textiles which I’m really excited about. I could probably spend a good half of the year attending full-time classes at the folk school by the look of their class list. So hopefully this trip will also trigger some other amazing posts full of colour and interest

Until then, happy crafting.