Over the weekend I found myself having to slow down and take it easy more than I really cared to. It seems the pesky head cold I recently got over decided to settle in my left ear and by Friday night I was dealing with a fever and quite a painful earache. And I thought only children get earaches! Ha! This one sure did force me to take it easy. As of today I am feeling quite a bit better thanks to some needed downtime as well as some homemade herbal preparations.

Nearly every year I make an herbal oil out of mullein flowers, garlic, and calendula flowers. Who knew this year I would be the one needing the oil! { For some great info on making herbal infused oils be sure to check out this post found on the Mountain Rose Herbs blog.}

Throughout the weekend I placed 3 drops of my oil in my ear four times a day. I really should be treating both ears but am not (hope I do not regret this.) Within about 24 hours of using my herbal eardrops I noticed a significant difference in my ear. I am going to continue the drops for a few more days to make sure everything clears up well.

I should add that as well as using the herbal eardrops I have also been drinking large quantities of liquid which includes herbal teas made from anise seed, thyme leaves, elder flowers, lemon balm, and echinacea root. All of these herbs are good for congestion as well as the immune system. I know the earache stems from congestion building up so it is very important that I focus on ridding myself of it. On top of all of this I have also upped my Vitamin C intake to also help support my immune system (which has obviously taken a beating this year!)

I intentionally moved at a slower pace all weekend to force rest upon myself. This has not been an easy thing for me to do lately as there has just been so many things piling up needing my attention. I tried to focus on my knitting and spinning. I finally got back to work on Ariella’s sweater and made some progress on it. I also got a little bit caught up on my reading that I have fallen way behind on. And I was finally able to finish spinning up this yarn that I have been desperately trying to get around to finishing.

Isn’t it pretty? It is 4 ounces/210 yards worth of superwash BFL that I dyed with cochineal prior to spinning it. I decided to 2 ply it and am glad I did for it looks so lovely. It is about a sport weight and I am thinking it might make a really lovely pair of fingerless mitts. I so badly need a pair of fingerless mitts! My hands are always so cold. It seems I am always knitting some for everyone else, now I think it is time I knit myself a pair!

Hope everyone is well and healthy. Are you as anxious for spring to get here as I am?

XoXo, Cynthia

Where do I even begin? It has been quite the month! These days find me overwhelmed with trying to stay on top of everything and feeling like I am accomplishing nothing. More times than I can count this month I have considering letting some things go as I feel I just do not have the time nor the energy for it all. This blog being on top of that list. I feel guilty when I cannot write a post on a regular basis like I like to and I just cannot seem to get to the blog these days. I keep reminding myself of all that has gone on in our lives recently. So many changes and adjustments. It really is no wonder I am exhausted. I feel as though I am walking a tightrope lately and am trying desperately to keep my balance- balance that seems way off right at this moment.

I worry about keeping up with my blog but am torn because my younger children need me so much. We are still going forward with homeschooling Ariella but that is proving to be so much harder than I imagined considering her autism. Gabriel is rapidly approaching two and boy does it show in his behavior! He is so full of the devil and wanting to assert his own mindedness. As I sit and type this I can hear him downstairs running my husband into the ground. The little man is unstoppable! Some days it feels as though all I do is chase that kid out of trouble. He has the sweet face of an angel but oh my goodness, don’t let that fool you!

We are (so far!) having a rather dry but chilly fall. Today we absolutely loved the sun streaming into our windows despite the quite chilly and even icy weather outside.

A few days ago I did some experimenting with some of the plants in our new garden. We have inherited a thornless hawthorn tree and it is dripping in berries right now. I decided to see what color of natural dye these berries might hold for me. I’m still testing them out but below you can see I did indeed achieve a nice color off of them.

I have been attempting to squeeze spare moments out of the day every chance I get for holiday gift crafting. I do hope to share some of that with you here very soon.

I  will try to be find my way back to this blog this week….

Until then,

xoxo

The blackberries growing in and around my garden are now way past their prime with all the heat we had last week. They are far too overripe for eating and preserving. Seeing that it seemed like such a waste I decided to go out the other day and pick all that was left. Extremely berry stained fingers later, I ended up with enough berries to dye 4 ounces of wool and one silk scarf and even freeze some for later use.

I had previously applied an alum mordant to both the wool yarn and the scarf.

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To make the dye, I first mashed up the berries before adding them to my pot of water. I then brought this berry mixture to just under a simmer for about 30 minutes. I was very careful to not get the dye bath too hot as this would make the berries a more tannish color due to the tannins being released. I allowed this berry stew-like mixture to cool overnight before I strained it and added it back to my dye pot.

I then added my wet fibers to the dye bath and turned the heat on slowly. As soon as the dye bath was just under a simmer I turned off the heat and allowed my fibers to stay in the dye pot for a full 24 hours before removing them and rinsing them.

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As you can see the silk scarf really took up the color of the blackberries. It is such a rich shade of plum. It amazes me how much it looks just like the blackberry juice stains you get on your hands from picking berries! The wool yarn is also a lovely shade of purple. It is not quite so vivid and maybe a tad bit more gray but still beautiful nonetheless.

All in all, I am very pleased with the results I achieved and will definitely be using blackberries to dye with again. This would even be great for children to attempt seeing that the berries are rather easy to gather and collect.

If you try this out yourself be sure to let me know (or better yet send me a picture!) I love to hear about everyone’s natural dye adventures.