Shearing Day 2018

With 30 sheep to shear this year I hired a professional to come down from Grand Rapids. He finished in just under two hours. That's 15 sheep an hour! It took me longer to sort and skirt the fleece than it took to shear off the sheep! I'm lucky if I can handle shearing 5-8 sheep a day so I'm glad there was a budget to hire the help this year. 

These are the results - notice all the different color shades from our mixed-breed flock. I sorted into three separate mixed-color lots. Two lots will go to the mill to be cleaned and carded so I can hand spin them into yarn. One lot of finer quality will become garments and another will be used for rug yarns. The third batch went into the compost pile (yes, wool is biodegradable).

The newly bald sheep had no interest in posing for pictures. They're enjoying their new freedom by walking to the new pasture I built for them in the vineyard.

Chocolate Tort - Oblande

These thin layers of wafers make eating rich, homemade chocolate fudge seem a little less decadent.  

I try to keep oblande (wafer sheets) in my pantry at all times. Easy to do as when they're on sale at Chicago's north-side Balkan grocers (City Fresh Market or Devon Market). They're sold with a plastic wrapping keeps them fresh for long-term storage. Most packages will include multiple recipes on the label and I've kept this one for years and regularly replace the ground hazelnut with finely chopped walnuts. 

Ingredients:

7 oz. melted chocolate

6 egg yolks

1-1/2 C heavy cream

8 oz butter

1-1/2 C sugar

7 oz finely chopped walnuts

Blend the sugar, egg yolks and cream and pour into in a pre-heated pot over low heat - stir until the custard-like mixture foams and rises. It will lighten in color as the eggs cook to a safe temperature. Make sure to stir constantly to prevent curdling or burning.

In a separate, heat-safe bowl combine the butter and chocolate and melt it in a pot of water (careful not to let the water in the mixture). A microwave will do the job quicker but I don't have one in my kitchen. Fold the butter/chocolate mix into the custard then fold in the ground nuts. 

At this point I lay down parchment or waxed paper on a cookie sheet and place the first wafer sheet. The wafers have two sides, one with a wide grid and the other with a finer grid pattern. For the inside layers place the wider grid facing up. Fill evenly with 1/4 the still-warm fudge mix (most tort wafer packages include 5 sheets). Repeat until the last sheet, which I flip to show the smaller grid pattern on top. Place another sheet of parchment on top, add a cookie sheet on that, then add some weight. I use two large cookbooks. Refrigerate overnight. Cut with a sharp thin knife diagonally into diamond shapes. Oblande store best in a closed container in the refrigerator.

This text was also on the label I saved that included the recipe. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia only existed from 1992-2006.

Fried Dough

I'm fighting the "woe is me" syndrome this winter by sharpening my DIY skills. High gas prices and a limited winter income have kept me at home more than I'd like these days and I'm shifting my grocery budget to seed buying for the summer.
Every once in a while I crave junk food but my pantry is only stocked with basic staples these days: potatoes, apples, flours, sugar, cooking oils, spices, cocoa, coffee. . . when I have a snack craving I'm forced to make something from scratch. I tried a few cupcake recipes from the Wednesday Tribune food section but they didn't delight.
Today I went for a childhood favorite. Fried dough. I use a basic recipe similar to krofne but I make up the recipe every time. Today in an attempt at frugality I used just water instead of milk. I simply put some warm tap water in a bowl, added a sprinkle of granular sugar, a packet of yeast and stirred. Then I added flour, without measuring, and kneaded the sticky dough in a bowl on my lap with one hand while I read Facebook updates on the computer. I hate kneading dough, always have.
Instead of cutting out circles in the dough, I rolled it out, cut them into diamonds/rectangles, sliced down the center and pulled one end through the slice. You can see in the picture it gives them a bit of a flourish. I'm sure there's a proper name for these pastries, if you know it please share. I cooked the dough in hot oil, today I had sunflower oil in the pantry so that's what I used. After they browned I put them on paper towels to absorb the extra oil, then placed them in a gallon-sized zippered plastic bag, sprinkled powdered sugar inside, and shook the bag. Now I've got a stash of sweet fried dough to snack on for a couple of days. Great with coffee.

* * *

The coffee I'm drinking now is a Yakuza special from Resistance Coffee. I splurged a bit on these locally-roasted beans because the company includes my friend David Meyers, who I met years and years ago when I lived and worked in Wicker Park and he was writing for Letter X, a Chicago poetry journal. I find it a bit weird that David's been farming within miles of my farm for years. This coffee is a special "Yakuza" blend (I think all the Resistance coffee is the same, they just put a different sticker on the bag) is for one of my favorite bands, fronted by my friend Bruce Lamont, founder of the Empty Bottle Farmers Market and longtime Videnovich Farms supporter. Another way my worlds collide is that the illustration is by Scott Fricke, a dear friend I met when we studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Video: Traditional way of processing wool

That's wool and flax (or hemp). Love the little detail of the baba spitting on the flax (or hemp) which explains the one time I spun that material it gave me such a hard time.
It's been a while since I've traveled but the next time I visit Eastern Europe I'm going to find women like these to teach me how to use the vreteno (spindle) and the preslice (distaff) as seen in the video. When I visited my uncle in the house my dad grew up in I saw my grandmother's preslice leaning against the wall in the front room. Gorgeous detail in the woodwork. If you look at the vests the babas in the video are wearing you can see more ornate flourishes.
I have to re-watch this video a few times because it sounds like they're dyeing that wool with a rich batch of walnut hulls. If I could get that strong black I'd try a bunch of new gothic-y yet folk-inspired pieces! There are a few walnut trees on the farm and I'm tempted to get messy next autumn! The knit pieces in this video must be like cardboard if they're beating them in the creek like that. While visiting my great-aunt she once asked if I needed laundry done and proceeded to pound my Girbaud jeans in a similar fashion and I didn't have the heart to tell her my clothes weren't made as well as hers!

Process

"How long did that take you to make?"

I've decided to stop answering that question because I find it has a touch of the passive/aggressive and the answer is kinda obvious.
First I have to shear the sheep. Well, I have to take care of the sheep which includes shearing every spring after the weather has warmed. My personal deadline is the first of May but there are a few ewes that don't get clipped until Mother's Day. Some years a few keep their coats until the Fourth of July if the garden keeps me too busy.

Since my electric clippers are aging and never seem to work as well as my old-fashioned spring-action hand-held type. The girls in the photo above are of the Corriedale breed, which includes a Merino bloodline and the wrinkled skin, especially in the neckline, that makes it so hard to shear.

I usually wait a few months after shearing to take the clipped wool to Allegan's Michigan Fiber Fest in August. To keep costs down I try to save money on shipping by dropping of to the visiting Zeilinger Woolen mill for washing/carding. Within a few weeks it's shipped back to me and I start spinning.
Sometimes I leave the yarn in singles like the photo above, but prefer the stability of a double-ply and run them through the spinning wheel again.

I'm usually not ready to knit after spinning (and washing and blocking) because each batch of yarn has a different weight and thickness. I run a few test swatches to determine the gauge and also design a knit pattern that best suits the fiber.
So do I keep a time clock? No. So I'm not going to answer "How long does that take you to make."

Snapped!

checking in
Originally uploaded by jima

I had no idea my photo was being taken at the 8th annual DIY Trunk Show!

Arts and Crafts

It's been a while since I've had any of my work on exhibit so when Annie Holm asked to include some of my fiber projects in A Prairie Primer: an exploration of the intersections of art, history, 
and stewardship, I gathered up the following pieces for display:

Handspun wool yarn dyed with plants found around the farm (marigolds, cosmos, walnut leaves, and goldenrod).


Overshot weaving sample using natural shades of handspun wool with a few sections of goldenrod flower dyed wool.


My signature piece: the A-line, cable-knit miniskirt. This one uses yarn made with marigold-dyed handspun wool.

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Sheep nibbles

Shoulder Problems

I've been "sketching" out a sweater pattern in some Red Heart black acrylic for too long. I think I started this sweater a few years ago and I'm still trying to figure out the sleeve. Normally a gusset in the armpit would be added but there won't be a tapered sleeve, it'll have a 3/4 full sleeve in a moss stitch pattern. Just can't figure out how to shape it. The sleeve will be taken apart and I'll try short rows along the cable on the top ridge. . .

Vintage Friends

I live in a building with more residents than my entire hometown. When I moved in almost ten years ago I was taken aback by how chatty everyone is, I've never entered the elevator without someone greeting me kindly and on the short ride we chat casually about the weather. It is Chicago after all and the old saying goes "if you don't like the weather, just wait until the afternoon."
Weather is what brought up a discussion on what to wear in Chicago's ever-changing climate. I've been known to grumble about not being "put together" on many occasions. Part weather. Part budget.
My neighbor, Wini, mentioned that she stopped dressing up as she got older but still had many of her more "formal" gear. I mentioned I wore vintage dresses in college and had a hard time finding the longer, formal gloves that went with a 3/4 sleeve. Wini said she had LOTS, some even handed down from her mother and other female relatives. A day or two later the doorman called me to tell me I had a package. Wini had left a box of about two dozen vintage gloves at the front desk for me. The photo above shows her kind gift.

Bureks I have loved

I've never met a burek I didn't like.
A last-minute invite to a Local Beet staff meeting at Deta's Cafe in Rogers Park was more than welcome. It came after I finally posted a Farmer's Almanac update to their site, which I had put on hold after last summer's devastating tomato blight (which wiped out my entire crop as well as any residual energy I had left).
My late arrival didn't stop Deta from going back to the kitchen to get me a warm bowl of chicken soup before I dug into the spinach-filled burek (a Balkan-style savory pastry) and beef goulash. I don't know if the staff mentioned my Balkan heritage before I got there but she quickly picked up on it and Deta and I were chatting in Serbo-Croatian before too long. You have no idea how excited I am to be invited to visit her kitchen to learn how to make the hand-stretched dough used to make burek and Deta seemed a little thrilled to meet a farmer who grows a lot of peppers and eggplants. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Flickr Finds

Spun and Crocheted audio tape Cell Phone cover
Originally uploaded by dumpsterdiversanonymous

My friend Adamandia told me about seeing work made with hand-spun audio-cassette tape. At first I thought "scratchy" then I saw this link she sent me.
Lovely.
Want.

pink hyacinths

pink hyacinths
Originally uploaded by Verica

The Flock. Hanging.

The Flock. Hanging., originally uploaded by Verica.

The flock stuffed after grazing in the fields. Notice how the ignore me when they don't need anything from me. Within a few minutes they all sat down in the sun.

Guitars of Oak Park

A while back I saw Goran Ivanovic on Chicago Tonight with his guitar-making dad. Hand-crafted guitars? So Saturday I took a short break from selling at farmers' markets (one in the morning, one in the evening) and visited Danče Ivanović's shop.

Of course the first thing Danče asked, in Serbian, was if I married "one of ours" or "one of theirs" which made me laugh. Old school, like my dad. Actually, talking to him made me miss my dad a bit. . . the cigarette smoke, the laid-back attitude, the Turkish coffee, and that accent. Well, the accent was probably mine because he's more comfortable speaking in his native Serbo-Croatian and I fell into the language a lot easier than I have in a long time. Oh, don't get that marriage question wrong, he was only asking where my loyalties lie. He spoke about his wife and asked how I knew his son. I don't know Goran all that well, mostly I'm a fan of his band Eastern Blok and I worked with the saxophonist's sister a while back. Goran also performs guitar duets with Andreas Kapsalis, a cousin to one of my best college buddies, Adamandia Kapsalis. Small world syndrome.

The shop is on a quiet stretch at 906 Madison in Oak Park. A few guitars line the wall, including a few hand-made by Danče. Behind the counter, though, is a workspace with hand- and power-woodworking tools. Danče pointed out a storage loft that holds wood he brought from the old country. He uses that aged wood for his custom guitars and it's probably older than his sons! And in the front corner is an amazing hand-carved wood and glass, um, guitar armoire. I wish I had taken pictures as the double eagle on top made me smile.

I have another farmers' market in Oak Park at the end of the month and may make another visit, pictures next time!

Miniskirt

Miniskirt, originally uploaded by Verica.

I love making these miniskirts.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Winter is great for hermits. I finished two complete batches of yarn, shown drying in the bathtub. I finished spinning all of 2007's shearing (undyed, hanging on top) and plyed a not-so-bright dried marigold dye batch with some undyed wool. The result is a subtle heather-y effect. The purple-ish stuff is the Merino batch that I thought I messed up and looks fine in a single-ply. The black? Ah, that's the black Merino fleece I bought over the summer at the Michigan Fiber Fest. Deep, rich, and soft. Yes, that's a natural shade.

I like winter

I like winter. Scenes like this snow-covered garden mean I don't have to weed, cultivate, or harvest. As much as I love this garden I do get worn out by September and in 2008 I was harvesting through late November.
I'm staying in town until March. The farmhouse is shut down, offering me no heat or water. I've moved all my wool with me and am spending my time watching (cable) TV and spinning, spinning, spinning.
I'm nearly done with all the naturally-dyed wool. 2008 was the year of the marigolds. Golds, greens, yellows. I also had a small batch of dusty yellow from the walnut leaves.
More sales are scheduled. If you're in town the weekend of January 10 I'll be at the Handmade Market at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, Chicago, from noon-4:30.

Spinning my wheels

I've got two spinning wheels going. . . several yarns in process.

I'm three pounds into the four+ pounds of llama/wool blended roving. I bought some raw llama fiber from Booming Acres (old family friends) and had it processed (70% llama/30% wool) by Pufpaffs. It's a dream to spin up and I've got four shades.

Still trying to get my head around Saturday's spinning class. I've only got about two hours to go over fiber, spindles, wheels, and dying. Click here for info.