I finally finished my first bobbin of singles from my 12 Days of Christmas spin. At this rate I should have a finished yarn by the summer! I’ve also been making progress on my Boxy but there still isn’t much of interest to see there either.
In spinning news I reactivated my School of SweetGeorgia account this week as I’ve got more time at the moment to dip into some of the workshops. I’ve been wanting to get started on a breed study as I have box of breed specific fibres in my fibre stash so I took a look at the Spinning Sheep Breeds workshop with Rachel Smith. The workshop covers four breed types: fine/medium wool, long wool, Down and Down-like breeds, and primitive breeds. There’s an overview of each breed, followed by tips on preparation methods and three or four examples of spinning fibres from each category. I’ve made a start on Down breeds because I have very little experience of these. I’ll be using a mix of commercially prepped fibre and some fleece samples I have. I also booked on to an online silk spinning workshop being run by Katie Weston of Hilltop Cloud so I’m looking forward to that at the end of this month.
Sadly this weekend the weather has been awful so there has been no activity in the garden. I have, however, made a start on chitting my potatoes. I have somehow managed to end up with all second earlies so if I’m not careful I will end up with huge glut of potatoes at the same time. I’m going to try and stagger the planting a bit if I can to try and get around this, and I might try leaving some in the ground a little longer and experiment with using them more like a maincrop. The varieties I’m using this year are Charlotte, Jazzy, and Ratte. My new raised bed arrived this week so I’m hoping the weather will clear up enough later in the week for me to get that in place but it doesn’t look great for the rest of the week so maybe it will have to be a crafting week.
Ceulan Fibres 
Ahh, to live where it is warm. Gardening for me can’t begin till mid-May due to potential frost. I did recently sign up for Tenth Acre Farm. She is big into micro gardening and encourages everyone to start small so they end up overwhelmed. Sounds like some fun spinning lessons coming up.
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We do get light frosts until May so there are only a few plants that can go out this early. The potatoes won’t go out for a few weeks yet but I’ll cover them with fleece at night if temperatures drop.
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Well I had to look up Chitting before commenting so now I am wiser than I was a few minutes ago. My mum used to grow german fingerling potatoes and I loved helping her dig them up.
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I love the taste of homegrown potatoes.
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The courses sound interesting and I hope you’ll share your thoughts with us, especially the breed study one. I have merrily been spinning breeds and not really knowing what notes to write about them 🤦♀️. I’ve only grown maincrop and I always leave them in their grow sacks and pick as needed which can be weeks. I hope this is possible for your varieties. I have successfully frozen potatoes I’ve baked first and wrapped in tin foil. But they were main-crop too.
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Yes I was wondering if I could just leave them in the ground, I’ll find out this year I guess or I’ll be eating nothing but potatoes for a month! I’m not sure yet what to note for the breed study beyond the staple length and maybe how it spins with different prep and spinning methods. Maybe I shouldn’t over complicate it…
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You have quite a bit of spinning to look forward to. I think you will have yarn well before summer hits. Besides potatoes, what else do you grow in your garden?
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I’m quite new to vegetable gardening so I’m still experimenting. I’ve had some good success with potatoes and shallots, also later in the year with courgettes, peas and beans, and chilli plants. I want to get some root veg going this year and I might try tomatoes one last time before I give up for good. We don’t seem to get the sun when we need it for ripening things.
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I think a spinning breed study is always a really smart idea. You learn SO much! Enjoy that and your classes. What kind of containers do you prefer? We’re looking at expanding our garden space near our deck and it will likely be a work in progress for the next couple of years, but I’d like to get some smaller containers I can use now, move around as needed, and then add into more permanent bed design layout once we get there.
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I have a mix of containers for the garden. For veggies I have some very large felt bags which I can empty, wash, and put away at the end of the growing season. I use some more robust plastic containers for perennials like fruit bushes as they don’t dry out as quickly if we do have a run of dry weather. For flowers I like ceramic or wood although I don’t have many of those as I tend to find I kill flowering plants. It’s almost as if I’m not interested if I can’t eat it 😂
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Your courses sound like so much fun. There is nothing like homegrown potatoes and it’s so fun to dig them up! I keep thinking I won’t garden because my water bill goes up so much and it is so hot here I sometimes have to water twcie a day. I wish you luck with yours!
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Thank you. We have the opposite problem here, we have too much rain and not enough sun!
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I will be making a start on our potatoes soon. My favorite by far are Pink Fir Apple – they’re delicious!
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Thanks for the tip, they’re on my list so I’ll hopefully try them next year
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Your courses sound interesting. I’d love to do a breed study at some point, it sounds like a lot of fun. We’re going to try potatoes this year in the garden. We’ve picked two varieties to start with.
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Good luck with the garden, I hope you get some good crops!
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Thanks! Me, too 🙂
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