Knitting Quiviut

Making the last of my Christmas projects. For those of you who aren't familiar with Quiviut, it is the undercoat of the Muskox, a remnant animal from the last ice age that lives in the Canadian Arctic. It has curved horns and a very long outer coat. The undercoat is a couple inches long and lighter than a feather!

The people on Banks Island hunt them for food and sell the undercoat of the slaughtered animals for their cash source. It is VERY expensive! To buy a 28 gram skein the price last year was $70 Canadian!! The yardage is very high, from 180 meters to 245 meters. This piece is being knit on 3 mm needles and it is killing my eyes.....no matter! It is for a very special person and I hope they like it. The piece is a cowl, a very flattering head garment. This one has four lace panels of twinning flowers that is very complicated to knit. An inch to go, then blocking, and I am finished.

Red Sky in the Morning

A couple of mornings ago we had a fantastic sunrise. At this time of the year the sun is very low on the horizon and takes forever to come up. Then it goes down about as long. Only a few hours of actually sunshine. Of course we live in the mountains so they block the sun too! Never mind, once January is behind us the days will start to lengthen dramatically and the true glory of living up here will once more shine out.

Christmas craft sales are finally over. I did four of them over three weekends. They were very successful. I would like to thank all my wonderful customers. I hope you enjoy owning your new pottery as much as I did making it.

Today was the last day of school for three weeks. Last evening the last after school pottery of the year. Back here at the ranch I am carding dog fur and wool and trying to get all my orders finished. Can't get into making pots again until the weather warms up in the Spring. Takes too much wood to keep the shop going and getting up in the night to go out there and put wood in the fire is a non starter for this kid!!

I hope everyone has a nice and safe holiday and all the best for 2012!

First Sale of the Season

Some pictures of the pots I had for sale this morning at Tagish. We had packed them into the truck last night.......then it got to -29.....needless to say they were FREEZING COLD when I unpacked them today. Yikes, was afraid of getting frostbite. They didn't take that long to defrost thank goodness.

For a very short time and small customer base it was an amazingly good result. Thank you neighbors and friends for the support!! We will be at Marsh Lake next Sunday morning and then at Carcross On the 3rd of December.

Kiln Opening

We have some seriously melted cones here! And this was from the top of the back shelf.....that Aussie flamethrower technique really works. Dumbo here forgot to wad the conepack so I am hoping a hit with the chisel will take it off. Lost two pieces to ugliness and two big ones to cracks. One of those was a combo of crack AND ugly.

The pack was fairly light. I did the classic pear shape that works best for this kiln. Also lots of little pieces. For only 12 hours there was plenty of ash, too much in places. Now I have some glued on wads to grind off feet. Never a pleasant task, but more so when it is supposed to get in the -20's this week.

The cage on the table is a chipmunk and squirrel size Havaheart live trap. We had a plague of them and their friends the voles and deer mice this past Summer. An ermine has moved in so that should help.

Did It!!

Well, the mouseholes are still open but the rest of the kiln is clammed up and waiting for the couple of days it will take to cool off. This was the fastest firing I have ever had. Weird too as it was -12 this morning when I started out at 4 am. When I looked at the cones at 4 pm both 8 and 9 were down!! I am really tired but HAPPY!! Lots of stuff for my Xmas sales are in there.......

The amazing thing is all the wood I still have. I used some different spruce from the bush across the road instead of just straight slabs. Seems like lots more 'punching power' in that wood. Anyhow there are tons of dead trees that are just a fire hazard so I will be doing a good deed by burning it up to fire my lovely pots.

Got some good shots of the flames coming out of the chimney in the dark....all in all I am glad it is finished and am looking forward to my nice bed.

Another Visit to the Slab Pile

I spent the day glazing pots, getting ready for another firing. Actually it looks like two firings back to back...... It takes a while to recover.Be nice to have some help.....guess I am lucky to have some in getting the wood.

This pile used to be lots bigger. I thought I had a lifetime supply if no forest fire got to it first. However it now seems like some of my neighbors have discovered it as a handy source of firewood. We need someone to do some saw-milling, too bad the government makes it so difficult!!

Snow has come and gone a few times. It probably won't be long before we get some that stays put. More later!!

They Call It Termination Dust......

Blogger has gone all wonky with the order of my photos! The full moon was up the Takhini river on a fun fishing trip last week. We fished a big eddy FULL of grayling. You could see where the fish were holding and watch them feeding. Lots of fun putting a fly right over them and then to watch them refuse your offering....but that's fishing! We finally found some irristable flies and caught some. We saved two for a very tasty dinner.

All the big peaks have snow caps. It might melt off, but I doubt it! August turned out to be a lot like a normal September and September has been about right. The long-range forecast doesn't look good.....so if it turns out cooler than normal it won't be unexpected.

We are off to the Hot Springs at Liard River, last taste of warmth for a bit! Nice way to celebrate the end of the tourist season.

Coming to the End.....

It has been quite a while since I have updated this blog. Been a very busy Summer, with weddings, a couple of wood kiln firings back to back, teaching, watering the garden everyday, chickens, and the list goes on and on. Finally started to rain, just at the tail end of gardening season.

We saw a huge number of bears this year. Every time we went to town or Skagway we saw at least one. Usually more than one. They haven't been in the yard thanks to Cassie the dog. Also it has been the year of the mouse. An amazing number of the little devils have met their maker thanks to our traps and the trusty mutt. Voles, deer mice ugh!! One night we caught EIGHT in our root cellar.

My next task is to fill up the wood kiln for another firing (or two) before Winter arrives. Yep, the fun never ends around here!!

Bears!

I saw this pair of black bears on the way to school and the way back. A couple of miles down the road there was another very small black bear sitting on it's rear watching the road. These guys were munching down the dandelions that are coming up on the verge of the road. they were paying zero attention to me.

Avalanche!

On Monday we went to Skagway to deliver the first shipment of my products. Every Winter there are several avalanches in the White Pass area. This one was a smaller one near Fraser and the Canadian customs station. The most interesting thing was that the younger understory trees were all still standing. They will now get a headstart on their growth with no competition from the older, now chopped trees. These are Sub Alpine Fir......the air was perfumed by their scent. Some of these trees were uprooted. It is amazing how much power the moving snow has. Several years ago there was a monster avalanche at the south end of Tutshi lake. It was so powerful it took the ice out! It was a quarter of a mile wide and was estimated to be moving at over 200 km per hour.

Avalanche!

On Monday we went to Skagway to deliver the first shipment of my products. Every Winter there are several avalanches in the White Pass area. This one was a smaller one near Fraser and the Canadian customs station. The most interesting thing was that the younger understory trees were all still standing. They will now get a headstart on their growth with no competition from the older, now chopped trees. These are Sub Alpine Fir......the air was perfumed by their scent. Some of these trees were uprooted. It is amazing how much power the moving snow has. Several years ago there was a monster avalanche at the south end of Tutshi lake. It was so powerful it took the ice out! It was a quarter of a mile wide and was estimated to be moving at over 200 km per hour.

Avalanche!

On Monday we went to Skagway to deliver the first shipment of my products. Every Winter there are several avalanches in the White Pass area. This one was a smaller one near Fraser and the Canadian customs station. The most interesting thing was that the younger understory trees were all still standing. They will now get a headstart on their growth with no competition from the older, now chopped trees. These are Sub Alpine Fir......the air was perfumed by their scent. Some of these trees were uprooted. It is amazing how much power the moving snow has. Several years ago there was a monster avalanche at the south end of Tutshi lake. It was so powerful it took the ice out! It was a quarter of a mile wide and was estimated to be moving at over 200 km per hour.