Luckily, i already wrote a little summary about knitting and beeswax harvesting from earlier this month, and so i just had to process some picture files. Read on: Knitting: I ended up knitting a bunch of hats for Ukraine this January(well a small box of hats anyway). I was originally planning it to be a project for December, however things ended up taking a bit longer than anticipated, and I ended up recruiting the help of some local kids plus some old knitting-pro ladies from church. I thought I was already an expert on the hobby knitting machines however I made a few more discoveries while doing this project, notably using a sport yarn(rather than medium) really improves the operation of the machine. Even better, doubling up the yarn(you cannot do this with medium yarn) seems to totally solve all problems related to tucked or dropped stitches. Running 2 strands of sport yarn added a slight bit more resistance to the crank, and there were twice as many yarn splices needed, however i found it didn't add significant extra time, and other improvements like no longer needing to weigh down the workpiece or dance my fingers along the knits while cranking sort of outweighed the cons of having to manage extra threads. Note, usually with single strands of yarn, i end up having to manually brush the knits down as they go by to get them to fall down the needles, so the next row gets hooked on properly and the machine doesn't jam. All in all, it maybe took about 20% longer per hat, however the final product i think ended up being much nicer. Knowing what i know now, perhaps I would have only used sport yarn, and doubled up the strands. I imagine it would have been much easier on my helpers who were all newbies, and had never seen a knitting machine before. At this point i think it is a little late in the season to make more hats, and i have some other pressing projects i need to get on with, however I have done some tests using cotton yarn, and i am not yet convinced the machines could not be altered to work with cellulosic type yarns(note we used 100% acrylic yarn for this project). Also, the crank-counter broke on one of the machine so i used a little manual clicker. And I eventually plan to build little round stands for each machine - my whole setup was very makeshift this go around.
Beeswax Harvesting: I found some time and set up my hive melter, and melted down a few beehives. I was a bit eager to finish, and so didn't cook each hive to the full optimum temperature, however all the hives in questions were from some failed splits this summer when there was a big storm that shut down FedEx and all my queens were late arriving, and so i am not too concerned about AFB or other diseases. It is too bad i did not get to them sooner though, since they were completely taken over by moths(and ladybugs), and i probably lost a lot of wax to the moths. Nevertheless, i did collect a good chunk of wax, and I later filtered it in the crockpot. The next step is probably a 2nd filtration and then pouring some candles. I have set up a little beeswax station in my parents' mudroom - my mom is not happy about that, though i don't know where else to do it. At this point i have a nice stack of filtered wax cakes. I am sort of thinking of getting one more crockpot or water-boiler, so i can have one more stage in my filtering setup. That way, I can save the last crockpot for strictly melting only pure filtered wax to make candles. I am thinking the problem with my first candle-making test was that my wax was not sufficiently filtered. Perhaps adding one more stage in my process will give me that extra nice and clean wax i want(note, the latest batch actually looks very nice after the 1st filtration, though there are still a couple small spots with crusts on the bottom of the cake). i also still need to figure out candle-molds. Perhaps i will stick with the little cylindrical molds i made last year, or maybe not - i don't know yet.
We are snowed in today. On top of that, i borked my nice wooden DIY snow-plow this morning. I supposed it is my fault for following advice of the old man, and not plowing yesterday while the snow was light and fluffy. This is going to be a major time-waster rebuilding this thing. Also, the snow is too much for the truck, and there is a snowdrift across the door to the tractor-barn(not to mention the tractor has a leak in the tire), and so it appears we are completely snowed in! It is so dumb how we got here. I was ready to plow and shovel yesterday, however they pleaded with me not to because "it would be easier and safer to do so tomorrow". Obviously this was wrong. Shoveling crusty snow turns out is extremely difficult. Anyway, i am stuck inside today. Perhaps this was their plan? Either way, i guess it is a good opportunity to catch up on updating this blog with this year's progress so far. On a positive note, my greenhouse weathered the snow quite well, however there is still so much i need to do to make it ready for use - i wonder if i will ever find the time?? ...also, i think i'm developing a toothache.
