Kyrie

Spinning and Puppy Stuff

July 25, 2022 Kyrie

Tour de Fleece finished up last night. I didn’t finish as much as I usually do, but I had puppy distractions! My final tally from left to right – two bobbins of mulberry silk singles from Allons-y fiber, one plied bobbin of BFL/Silk from Flying Goat Fiber, one skeined and washed BFL/Tussah (Allons-y) gradient skein – 472 yards, and one bobbin of Tussah silk from Allons-y, plus a smidge on the second bobbin that I didn’t photograph.

I am not sure of the yardage yet on the FG fiber, but I would guess around 500 yards. I am planning on a hat, or maybe will use it as weft in a weaving project.

On the puppy front, Livie had a litter in May with three puppies and this past weekend, two of them went to their new homes and I am keeping the third. They have occupied much of my time over the last two months and it has been SO fun! Livie has been a great mom. She was still feeding puppies up until the day they left and is still letting Amelia take a little taste at the snack bar from time to time!

This litter was named after adventurers and they have definitely lived up to their names -I used Puppy Culture protocols to ensure that they are curious, bold and well-started. They know their names, have a pretty good recall, and have started heeling a little.

Liv and the puppos at the milk bar – Polo, Amelia and Milo

Introducing the family: Polo (Marco Polo) is the blue merle puppy. He is a total character! High energy, fun, chompy (nick name velociraptor), but also sweet and cuddly (when he’s sleepy!) He went to a friend in Virginia who has a horse farm and that will be a perfect fit with lots of room for him to romp and play. She has two corgis already, so he has plenty of company!

Milo (Milo Thatch) is a more serious sort of puppy. He’s as sociable as Polo, but much more cuddly and less chompy! He’s the big guy of the litter – the kind and sweet big brother. He has one ear coming up, super cute with one part way up and one down! He went to a friend who has one of Livie’s brothers, so he will be hanging with his uncle!

Amelia (Amelia Earhart) aka Mimi is staying with me. She is the consummate adventurer – in fact, her roaming ways as a teeny puppy are what decided me to name the litter after adventurers. She is a bold little girl, always looking for the next adventure! She loves Grammy Cammie, who is not totally sure about the whole thing! I am not sure about those little devil horns!

Amelia – little devil or just a bad hair day?

The two black puppies are almost peas in a pod in appearance, except that Milo is much bigger.

This gang of pups has been so much fun. Livie had fun too! There are a bunch more videos on my You Tube video channel and I will be keeping track of Mimi and the big girls!

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Spinning – Tour de Fleece

July 24, 2022 Kyrie

Tour de Fleece is when hand-spinners spin along with bicyclists! It’s fun. Today is the last day, so here’s some of my spinning.

This is a Blue Faced Leicester (BFL)/Silk blend dyed by Flying Goat fibers. A friend gave it to me as a gift some time ago. TdF is a great time for getting into stash to spin something a little different. This spin is from day 6. I spun this on a Hansen Mini-spinner Pro. I like spinning on my treadle wheels better, but I am learning to appreciate this tool. This spinning is a little dicey because I usually spin laceweight and I am trying to spin a heavier weight yarn.

This is a crappy shot of the original fiber. It’s gorgeous purple & blue-green. I took the first bag of fiber and spun it straight, maintaining the color changes. That’s what’s on the bobbin above. For the second bobbin, I split the fiber in half, then I split it in half again, and split one of the halves in half, then I spun that from smallest sections to largest.

Now I am plying – twisting the two separate bobbins together to make my final yarn. It’s more uneven than my usual spinning, but I think it’s still beautiful. This was snapped sometime yesterday afternoon.

I have been spinning quite a bit today, so here is where I am now. You can see both singles (a single ply) bobbins and the (much fuller) bobbin with the finished yarn. I expect to finish this in a few more hours.

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Pork

December 20, 2018 Kyrie

Gosh I love pork.

I got a beautiful new cookbook for Christmas – it’s called Bread and Beauty by Claudia Kousoulas and Ellen Letourneau. It’s all about a year in the life of Montgomery County, Maryland’s Agricultural Reserve. The photography is amazing and the recipes are interesting.

I was cooking dinner for my friend and had a pork shoulder, so I looked up pork and there was this interesting recipe with celery and wine, but I kinda was missing a bunch of ingredients, so I substituted most everything.

I marinated the roast in some lime infused olive oil and black cherry balsamic (from Lebherz in Frederick) tossed it into a dutch oven with a little oil in the bottom and browned it, then sliced up a bunch of sweet potatoes and yukon gold potatoes (actually my friend sliced those up) and threw them in the pan. I had some cherry stout, so I added that. Then I added some berbere kraut from Sweet Farm and threw in some dried tart cherries for good measure. Now that was yummy! Next time I will take a picture.

Recipe:

2-3 lb pork roast
1/4 c Whole Fruit Persian Lime Olive oil (plus a tablespoon or so for browning the pork)
1-2 TBS Black Cherry Balsamic
4 medium sized Sweet Potatoes
4 medium sized Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 Bottle of Bells Cherry Stout
1/2 jar of Sweet Farm Berbere kraut
1/4 c tart dried cherries (cranberries would work too)

Preheat oven to 350.
Make Olive oil/Balsamic marinade and coat pork
Warm up Dutch oven on stovetop – medium & add about 1TBS olive oil – when olive oil shimmers, add pork and brown each side for about 3-5 min.
Add potatoes, stout, kraut and cherries. Add any remaining marinade.
Put in oven and cook until done – about 30 min/lb of pork or until 135 degrees on a meat thermometer.

If the roast is smaller than 2 lbs, toss the potatoes in olive oil and balsamic and roast them separately. They need at least an hour in the oven.

Serve with a tossed salad or warm greens with some crusty bread for sopping up the juice. Luscious!

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