Thumpyfuzz Fiber Arts

Cherry Rhubarb Jam

2010-07-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

Sweet cherries have enough pectin in them to make a jam set. The problem with sweet cherry jam is once you add all of that sugar it is overly sweet. This is why I have decided to try it with rhubarb to tart it up a bit! As it cooked it still seemed a bit too sweet so I added some lemon juice. Lemons are not very local for Ontario but it did improve the batch. The next time I will increase the ammount of rhubarb to about 50-50 with the cherries and see how that goes. For now it was tasty jam but a bit on the sweet side. I will probably be excellent between chocolate cake layers.

Cherry Rhubarb Jam with No Added Pectin

9 cups sweet cherries
3 cups rhubarb
8 cups fair trade evaporated cane juice (or granular sugar)
OR 6 cups honey
Juice of 2 lemons

Mash the fruit into a pot with a thick bottom and add the sugar. Heat to boiling over medium heat stirring occasionally. Allow the jam to simmer for about 30 min until it starts to thicken. At this point test for set. If it is not set keep re-testing every 5 minutes until the jam has a loose set. Ladle the jam into sterile jars and put on the lids. Place jars into boiling water bath with the jars submerged by about 1cm in the water. Bring to a boil and set the timer for 5 min. for 250 mL jars, 10 min for 500 mL jars. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and let it cool about 20 min before removing the jars. Enjoy!

Cherries, cherries, cherries

2010-07-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today is all about cherries! I have another box coming today from a local organic grower so I will be canning and drying for the winter. I try to can 52 jars of everything that I make. This gives us one per week for a year. Here is how I go about it. Canning cherries is very easy. You can pit the cherries or you don't have to. If you are canning for toddlers or the elderly I recommend pitting.

I wash the cherries and pack them raw into clean jars. I don't worry about sterilizing jars that are going to be in the canner for 20 minutes or more. I usually use 500 mL jars. If you have a large family and want to use 1L jars, just increase the time in the boiling water bath by about 10 min.

I then prepare a very light syrup of 5 parts water to 1 part evaporated organic cane syrup OR 3/4 cups local honey. Bring this to the boil. Pour over the cherries in the jar leaving about an generous inch or 3cm of space at the top. Put on the lids and place the jars in the canner. Fill with water so that the lids are covered with about 1 cm of water. Bring to a good rolling boil and set your timer for 20 mins. Turn the pot off when the timer goes and let it cool for about 20 minutes before removing the jars. Check the jars for a seal and store until you are ready to enjoy them. I love these on top of a bit of yoghurt for breakfast!

In addition to canning, I dry cherries to enjoy as a snack or make fruit cake out of. I love Christmas fruit cake when it is made with real dried fruit and not the awful candied stuff!

And a final note on the 'use everything' front. I take all of the pits that I have removed from the cherries and wash and dry them well. The clean dried pits can then be sewn into a 'magic bag' for those sore muscles or to warm your bed on a cold winter night. They also make an excellent low cost homemade gift!

Very old fashioned strawberry jam

2010-07-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

I have not been keeping up with this at all but have decided I need to turn over a new leaf. I'm starting with a strawberry leaf. :-) Strawberry season is almost over here so after freezing 70 medium freezer bags of berries I decided it is time to do jam. I should explain that I try to eat local foods as much as possible. A few years back, I read a story in the local paper about peach trees being ripped out on the Nigara Penninsula. There are no commercial canneries left in Canada that I am aware of which means that all of our canned peaches, etc. come from overseas. I find this unacceptable so I decided to do something about it. By October, I will have a year's supply of local (mostly organic) food squirreled away in my coldroom and two freezers. This is my fourth year of this mission and it gets a bit bigger each year.

Back to strawberry jam. I have had many people ask me how to make strawberry jam using no commercial pectin. All jams were originally made this way but these days people have become dependant on the pectin purchased in grocery stores. I don't like to use these products because I am nervouus about the pesticide content in a product often made from citrus skins.

Here is a very simple recipie for strawberry jam. It works for raspberries as well.
The product is usually a bit runnier than the store bought kind but much tastier! If you want a thicker jam, you can add the juice of one lemon or a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to increase the acidity as well as cook the jam a bit longer. The longer you cook the jam, the more carmalized it will become.

9 cups of ripe hulled strawberries
3 cups of hulled unripe (white to pink coloured) berries
8 cups of organic evaporated cane juice
OR 6 cups of local honey (for true 100 milers)

Place the berries in a pot with a thick base and crush with a potato masher. Add the sugar. Cook on medium low until the mixture comes to a boil. Let the mixture simmer for about 15 minutes stirring regularly. Skim the foam off the top of the pot
as needed. At 15 minutes test the jam for set using the method of choice. I usually put a small plate in the freezer for 10 minutes. Draw a streak through a bit of jam placed on the plate and tip the plate sideways. The jam should not run into the streak.

Place the hot jam into sterile jars. I sterilize mine in the dishwasher with the Sani wash and rinse cycle on. Put the lids on and place in a hot water bath. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Enjoy your jam all year!

Handsupn Hat and Scarf

2009-01-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have been having too much fun spinning this winter. I carded up three different blue dyed wools I had and added some dyed purple mohair locks while I spun. I ended up with some really funky and fun singles that I loved the colour of.

I made them into a tam and scarf for my neice. Here is my lovely model June showing them off.

Sharon's Bag

2009-01-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

Here is my most recent felted bag. I made this one for my friend Sharon who has moved away to France. I miss her terribly. It is so special to have a good friend that lives just a few houses away. We were always dropping in on each other for tea or picking up something at the store for each other. Our kids enjoyed each other's company as well. If I can get the money I'll have to go see her in France. In thie mean time this one's for you Sharon.

A Pile of Foof

2008-11-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here is one German angora worth of carded fiber. The whole pile weighs about 4 oz and is softer than you can imagine. If you open your hand and close your eyes I can place a large piece in your hand and you won't even know it is there. Totally wonderful! Do I ever love my bunnies.

Baby Shower

2008-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent project I made for a neighbour's baby shower. It used up a bunch of odds and ends I had in my basket. I like the top four colours on the hat together. They remind me of mountains and sky. I think that I will make my next landscape knitting project with this as a theme.

Fleeces, Fleeces, Fleeces

2008-07-01T15:47:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I just can't imagine the work that our female ancestors went through in order to clothe their families. I can certainly understand why the average person would have had two outfits: good and everyday.

I am glad I have the luxury of being able to enjoy this wonderful art that was so necessary to our ancestors. Here is a bit of the process.

This is one of two raw fleeces I am working on processing right now. This one has had nothing done to it yet. You see it as it came off the sheep.

Here is half of it after it has been washed.

And here we have the end products. A bit of combed fiber waiting to be spun and a skein of three ply yarn. I haven't dyed any yet but am looking forward to having some fun hand painting this when I have more of it spun.

Lyme Life

2008-06-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have been a knitter for many years but got very serious about the whole fiber arts thing because I managed to contract Lyme disease. I became very ill with terrible neurological symptoms and fatigue almost three years ago. The beauty of knitting and spinning is that you can sit in your rocking chair all day on days where you are incapable of doing anything else and still have something to show for your time at the end of the day.

All of that being said, here is some information on Lyme in Ontario and how to prevent it.

In a research paper published last week, 67% of ticks collected at Turkey Point Provincial Park were found to be infected with Lyme disease where none had been infected only 5 years ago. Lyme is moving very quickly into Ontario and research is not keeping pace with it. Birds, deer and mice are moving infected ticks around the province at a rapid rate.

I have spoken to people infected in Brantford, Waterloo, Toronto, Lake Lake Erie shoreline, Thousand Islands, Cottage Country, Sault Ste Marie, Thunderbay, all over Ontario really. There is no possible way to determine if the ticks in your area have or do not have Lyme apart from collecting and testing the ticks. Even then, the one biting you could be a tick recently brought into your area from a high risk area by a migrating bird. Never assume that a tick does not have Lyme because it is 'not' in your area.

Many people who become infected with Lyme in Ontario are currently seeking testing and treatment out of country in the US because our Canadian doctors are woefully under educated about Lyme. The testing methods currently used in Canada are also generating an inordinate number of false negatives. Because of the trend for the majority of Lyme infected individuals to leave the country, these statistics are not being reported to local health authorities. This means that the number of Lyme cases in Canada are grossly under reported.

The best policy at this point is to take precautions against tick bites. Wear long sleeved, light coloured clothing with pants tucked into socks when working in potentially tick infested regions. Also spray an insect repellent with DEET or a good quality herbal repellant on clothing. After being in the outdoors, remove clothes and place in a hot dryer for 15-20 min. to kill any ticks on clothing. Perform a tick check taking special care to look behind ears, backs of knees, scalp, groin, armpits and other areas that are likely to be overlooked. If you find a tick, be sure it is removed properly in a way that will not cause the tick to vomit into the wound as this increases the chance of infection.

See the www.Canlyme.com website for tick removal methods as well as all other things to do with Lyme. Never burn or coat a tick with anything to remove it as this encourages regurgitation into the wound.

In other research, single ticks have been found to carry up to 6 different pathogens. This means that you can get multiple illness from a single tick bite. Lyme is not the only concern. Diseases like bartonella, babesia, ehrlichia, mycoplasma, tick paralysis, and tularemia can also be transmitted by ticks.

I personally would err on the side of caution where ticks and Lyme are concerned. At this point, there is no vaccine for Lyme so the best policy is prevention.

Putting the thump in thumpyfuzz

2008-06-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas we had two new additions to the household in the form of a pair of extremely wonderful extremely furry angora rabbits. Here they are kicking back and watching a bit of TV.

In addition to making wonderful pets, these rabbits have provided some wonderful spinning fiber for my daughter and I and a heck of a lot of garden compost. I swear I have the happiest organic tomato plants on the block thanks to the rabbity compost contributions. I just wish they would 'fertilize' the couch a little less often. It seems that this is the bunny way of saying "this is my space". They aren't totally stupid either. It works like a charm. If it comes down to sitting in bunny poop or choosing another chair, I mostly choose another chair and leave them the couch. Being able to discipline the small creatures in my life has never been high on my list of accomplishments. A five pound bunny can walk all over me and make it look easy. Thank goodness for washable slipcovers.

Recent projects

2008-06-16T18:27:00.001-07:00

This is my first blog so I am just going to outline some recent projects. I have been working on combination felted / fulled items. I started working on bags because I am trying to get away from the use of plastic and the huge number of bags that seem to multiply in my cupboards when I am not looking. If I can inspire a few other people to use their own shopping bags by replacing plastic with something beautiful, Why not?

Here is the first bag I made that I ended up giving to my mother for Christmas. I know it will see some good use.

These are the second and third bags. These became Christmas presents for my mothers in law. (My husband's parents are divorced and remarried so I have two.)

Here is the most recent bag.

I have made two or three other bags but ended up giving them away before I photographed them There is a theme her and if I am ever going to get a gallery show going, I am going to have to stop giving things away.

Currently I am working on a sweater using the same techniques as the bags. I'll post more on this one later.