Portugese Knitting

I am working away on my ten sheep breeds project (somehow I have increased it to 15), where I spin a woolen and a worsted sample of each breed, plus knit up a sample of each. Therein lies my challenge...knitting. I can knit and purl and that is about it. I thought I should take this opportunity to better my knitting skills and embarked on journey to find out how to knit continental style as many say it is more efficient. I tried it and found it better but the purl was a challenge. And then I discovered Portuguese Knitting. I had seen pictures of Spanish knitting where the yarn is wrapped around the back of the neck and thought that strange, but after learning Portuguese knitting I know why, and why it makes it so much easier for knit and purl! Check out this video:

Spider silk

Photo and article at Wired.com

1million spiders, 70 people, 4 years, 80 million feet of silk = an amazing piece of fabric. Check out this article from Wired: 1 million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth

And here is a CBC interview an interview with Nicolas Godley, the man that milked the spiders and wove that tapestry of spider silk.
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20090929-aih-1.wmv

And, another article along with a video interviewing the visionary behind the spiders.

Good God, it is September

So much to write, so little time. so much has happened, so I will try to get more up here to cover the past couple of months. This will take time to catch up. In the meantime, here is a great video on creative herding sheep.

Iceland

Summer included a trip to Iceland in search of our family roots. We not only found a family tree, we also found cousins we didn't even know we had! The 'Quest' for this trip was to find a fleece from a 'Leader Sheep' to bring home. I didn't manage to find a complete fleece, not one that was guaranteed to be from a leader shepe but the shepherdess and weaver thought the fleece prpbably was made of fibres from regular Icelandic moorat (reddish brown - here's a picture) fleece and her leader sheep which is the same colour and she cards them together. Close enough I decided.

So what is a leader sheep?
According to a few web sites like this one:
The Icelandic leader sheep is a separate line within the Icelandic breed of sheep. As the name implies these sheep were leaders in their flocks. The leadership ability runs in bloodlines and is equally in males and females.

Sheep of this strain have the ability, or instinct, to run in front of the flock, when it is driven home from the mountain pastures in autumn, from the sheep sheds to the winter pasture in the morning and back home in the evening, through heavy snowdrifts, over ice covered ground, or across rivers. Sometimes the Leaders would take the whole flock of grazing sheep on winter pasture back to the farm, early in the day, if a blizzard was on its way.

The Icelandic sheep are a very interesting breed having evolved in isolation for over 1000 years. They are a triple purpose breed: excellent meat (some say the finest taste and texture), milk (for cheese), fibre and pelt. And the fibre is somewhat unique having two types of wool: the tog - the long fibre of the outer coat that helps shed the rain, and thel --a fine inner down wool for warmth. These can be spun together to make lopi or separated into two different fibres to produce different types of yarn.

Icelandic sheep were central to their economy for hundreds of years. This picture is a replica of the interior of a turf house. Note the spinning wheels and spinning tools.


Here are a few more pictures of very old spindles





A picture of an old style loom (apparently floor looms were developed sometime after the 16th Century (sorry I can't remember exactly when, it could be the 17thC).
and a replica of a viking boat. This one sailed from Iceland to Canada to prove that it could be done.
While they used handspun, handwoven sails in 800-900, they didn't in the 20th C as you can see.
....

Reef Party

We had a two hour window in which to set up a party, have it and begone, before the tide came back up and covered the party grounds. This was the challenge that Jurgen had to deal with in organizing the first annual Satellite Reef party. The loest tide of the year fell mid-day on July 22, 2009 the next tide that low to expose the reef would be midnight sometime in December. He wisely chose the July date. The barge boys, Will and Gonzo his trusty helper, loaded the barge with a piano, BBQ, table and a few lounge chairs, filled the space with people and off we went. It was a lovely party. The Gabriola Ferry had been warned to slow down when passing the reef, else we might have been awash. We sand, some danced, we ate and drank and two hours later packed it all up just before the tide once again covered the reef, and all signs of a party vanished into the sea.

Nanaimo River Estuary Dig

I was lucky to be able to spend a day on the Snuneymuxw archeological dig in the Nanaimo river Estuary helping to find old fishing weirs. They have found many many stakes indicating many fishing weirs. Two of the stakes have been found to be over 1000 years old. We had to work between the low tides. It was hard work as you can see from Gary's pose!

Master Spinners Level 1 Course

I survived the level one week. The Master Spinners program is offered through Olds College out of Alberta but this cohort was held in Victoria. There are six levels, so I have five more to do. The course was great fun but I didn't expect so much homework. I am not complaining. In fact, it is great to have some projects outlined to do after the course. So the next few months (year?) I'll be busy completing my assignments.

Here are some pictures of the commute. I took my bike and peddled the Galloping Goose trail which took me to one block of the course location right downtown Victoria. Note my spinning wheel on the back of my bike! Another first.