Early Surprise in the Field

My son and I take a walk everyday in the field outside the trailer we rent on a ranch in Alberta. One day we decided to walk all three fields with me pulling him on a sleigh. I went out to try identifying the various animal tracks in the snow. One other thing I did was check the animal poop to see how big these animals were. I seen many from deer and some from quite a large moose. Near some of the deer tracks I noticed a bit of what looked like a small bit of blood in the snow and I went to investigate. At first I thought that it was possibly a dead rabbit buried in the snow but it wasn't. I started kicking away the snow from around it and found a fresh antler shed. The part that looked like blood was from where it was attached to the head of the deer. Then my son found the other antler in the snow beside him.
The antlers are fairly thick which indicates that it's from an older deer. The shape of it shows us that it's from a white tail deer. They normally don't shed their antlers this early in the season but obviously is does happen. They shed them to grow back new ones that are thicker and bigger than the ones before.

Ugly Christmas Sweater (Grinch inspired)

I had to give away a Christmas present early so this one could be worn to all the Christmas events this year. This sweater has got it all. It's inspired by Jim Carey in "The Grinch". You know, the sweater intended to completely humiliate him?
If your looking a this and wondering, "How did she do it?"... let me break it down for you.

"The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" allows you to make a custom design sweater in any gauge and any size. It may look incredibly intimidating to begin with but trust me, it's so easy! I went to the Raglan (adult) sweater pattern. I created my swatch to check what my gauge was, found out the chest size I needed and cast on.

The "HO HO HO" around the bottom edge was done afterwards so I didn't have to worry about it, I just followed the pattern until it came time to do the sleeves. The sleeves I simply made in red and white stripes with equal rows of each colour. I attached the sleeves and continued following the pattern to shape the raglan. This was all done on a circular needle so every row that had red on the sleeves was started new and cut every time I changed to white.

When the knitting was done I took the red thread and stitched the "HO HO HO" on the bottom (making sure I was giving equal spacing)

I bought a durable felted material from Value Village, washed it and cut it into the shape of the tree and three small trees for the back. I bought stiff felt from Michaels as well as 50 silver jingle bells and small battery powered LED lights.

I sewed silver beads all over the big tree and cut out "I (heart) X MAS" as well as the star for the top and "HO HO HO" for the back. Then I sewed on the felt pieces in the correct places.

to attach to the sweater I got a sharp darning needle and threaded it with the red yarn and sewed the trees and star on using hand sewing applique methods.

For the lights! I simply poked the lights through the knitting around the tree. For the battery pack, I created a pocket and sewed it on the inside of the sweater with a button loop and button so there's no way the battery pack could fall out

All loose ends get woven in.

Last is attaching the bells, these are sewn on around the red and white stripes of the arms.
This is last because it's much better on the ears than if it was one of the first things.

Walnut Husk Wool Dye

The beautiful rusty orange colour above is the result of my walnut husk dye project.

My great grandmother ran an orchard in Trout Creek that my family visited when I was younger. Among the cherries, apples, plums, and pears there were also walnut and hazelnut trees. I remember going out to visit in the fall when the walnuts were ready and seeing my great grandmother's hands were stained brown from removing the green hulls that encased the walnuts.
My Grandma has now taken over the orchard and the family still delights in the fruit and one of a kind "spencer" apples my great grandfather created when he worked at the Summerland research station.
This year when the walnuts began to fall from the tree, I asked if I could have the hulls. The hulls are not useful in any way to my grandma, in fact they're a bit of a nuisance because they are not allowed in the compost. Walnut husks have a chemical in them that kills off some plants, they're also not good to keep on the ground because they kill the grass too.
So she happily bagged up a whole bunch of the hulls and gave them to me to use as a dye. I figured if they dye your skin then they must dye wool quite well and it did!

I took one bag of the walnut hulls (I didn't weigh them) I put them in a nylon sock and soaked them in water for 3 days.
I washed my raw wool in three baths of detergent (greasy wool is not meant to dye well) I then boiled the water with the husks and 1 tbsp of alum for about half an hour. After I took it off the heat I took out the husks, strained the water and put the wool into the dye solution. I left the wool in overnight.
After taking the wool out I soaked it in a vinegar/water solution, rinsed and air dried.


Here's a picture of the hulls in the bag after I took them out of the freezer (freezing them keeps them from getting moldy)

whoa Nessie!

My new favorite book from the library is "Amigurumi Knits, patterns for 20 cute mini knits" by Hansi Singh. What sold it for me was the Nessie pattern. When asking my kids which cute and cuddly amigurumi they wanted the answer was, "the eggplant" and "the peas"... haven't made those yet due to lack of suitable yarn laying around the house... I can't exactly make Nessie colour peas in a pod or they might look like they've gone bad and a blue or red eggplant would just be wrong! I am planning on making the peas and the eggplant though so check back. Anyway I made Nessie here and thought it was going to be one of the hardest things for me to do but with the pictures and clear instructions in the book, I had absolutely no problem. I'd recommend the book to anybody. And see the background of tartan, it's the Heritage of Scotland tartan and is also my new kilt what you see is the pleats (back).

Also, I've been getting ready for Halloween! The countdown has begun and I'm already making my final stitches on everyone's costumes. This year it's going to be so good I bet one of them might even make the Christmas card photo.... I know you probably don't know what I mean but trust me it's going to be good!

A long awaited post on "plarn"

Now that I have my spinning wheel, I've been spinning and imagining spinning all sorts of different materials.
One of the things I've spun is "plarn" (plastic yarn) recycled from shopping bags. I cut the bags into long, thick stips. Then tied them together and spun. I filled up a couple of bobbins and proceeded to make a two ply plarn using half grey wal-mart bags and half white (mixed with blue and green) grocery bags.
I will then make a re-usable shopping bag.
go green :)

Kilt Business

A year later after our initial idea to start a kilt making business, finally we have started. Our business license has arrived and so far we have made two kilts under our business name with the promise of more kilts to come in the future. As the parade season dwindles to an end, pipe bands (as well as our own) take a break and start back up in the fall. Paul has been practicing his bagpipes with renewed enthusiasm by putting a positive outlook on the outcome of his efforts.



But back to kilts. We are ready to go with buckles, straps, canvas interfacing, cotton lining, threads and spare sewing needles lined up and ready for action. If you want to see some more pictures about our kilt making, I have designated a separate blog that will focus only on the business. Check it out at http://mcphailkilts.blogspot.com
All of our kilts are traditionally hand sewn. We go through two needles (both of different sizes) per kilt because after the amount of sewing it takes to make a kilt the needles get dull quickly and as Paul found out in Keith and the kilt making school, you should only use sharp needles.

Paul also designed and built a table specifically for kilt making with a long and wide table top and a shelf below for storage. (shown above)

As for the future of Rapid Panda Express... I will continue blog writing about personal adventures, wool spinning, knitting/crocheting, and anything else that arises that is interesting.

Making yarn while the sun shines!

Let me paint a romantic picture for you of me basking in the beautiful Okanagan sun, sitting in front of my spinning wheel wearing my floor length sun dress. A light breeze rustling the leaves of the trees, my bare feet treadling and my hands spinning soft white wool.... I don't think I can find anything more therapeutic than that!

Now, let me update my findings on my Turmeric Dye. I am 100% positive that there is no way to make Turmeric colourfast. One day left in the sun and the brilliant canary yellow turned to a dusty off-white that looks like it's yellowed from age. I was so disappointed, but alas! I have a solution. I will dye those items with onion skins which I am told by many sources is an excellent yellow dye.



Above is one of my recent projects. The wool is from a small farm in Alberta that I happened to come acquainted with while I was living out there. It's called Ravenwood Farm and they're well known for their meat and own a meat shop in the village of Caroline. All their meat is 100% ethically raised and 100% tasty!

As for the yarn itself. I spun it to be a kind of lumpy bumpy art yarn which is plied with a thin single ply and a chunky/lumpy single ply... not getting into anything technical here or anything. Anyway I made a lovely toque out of it that I may wear in the winter or give away as a gift... who knows.