Spinning with the Schacht Matchless

One of the best purchases I made in 2016 was the Schacht Matchless spinning wheel.  I was a little worried this wheel would be technically above my skill level.  It has the potential to spin anything.  After considering the Schacht Ladybug, I decided to go all in on a wheel that could grow with my experience.  Maybe due to my newness, the learning curve felt less threatening.  There were no new techniques or operations to learn, since my experience with other wheels was virtually non existent.  I did decide to go with a double treadle this time and must say overall , "I am in love!"   Here she is...  

 

 

I started out practicing with some more combed top from Edgewood Garden Studios from Etsy.  At this point, I was still counting my treadling.  It made me kind of panicky causing thick and thin spots.  To be truthful, counting was taking all the fun out of spinning. :(

Then, I practiced making thinner singles to ply.  My singles started becoming more consistent.  :)

I decided to jump back to thicker singles to ply and let myself spin without counting treadles all the time.  What a difference!  I found that as long as there isn't any crazy music in playing in the background, my treadling has its own rhythm and my hands work naturally along with it.  Got a little crazy with my color.  Didn't I?  LOL

I now have it in my head to make some 3 ply sock yarn.  The singles need to be thin.  How is this for consistency?  No counting treadles, just spinning to my own rhythm.  I guess it should be called, " Letting go and trusting myself."  There are two bobbins down with one bobbin to go!

I have moved my fleece storage and spinning wheels into the new location of my studio area.  I cannot wait until my drafting table and sewing machines join them.  It will be so exciting to get back to drawing and quilting again!

Have a Safe and Happy Easter!

Memories of the Fall ~ Kitchen Aid Fruit & Veggie Strainer Review

I thought I would reminisce about the last apple harvest with a review of Kitchen Aid's Fruit & Vegetable Strainer.  A perfect topic for today as I sit with a cold and slight case of laryngitis.  Could be worse right?  On the bright side, my mug of chamomile tea is being sweetened with some local honey purchased during the summer.  This unfortunate affliction has given me  a reason to test out the home remedy property of the honey.   I am finding the taste is wonderful combination and will get me away from white sugar as my "go to sweetener" in the future. 

Okay, back to the topic... My mind has always been drawn to a faster way to do applesauce.  Okay, faster and a whole lot cleaner way to make applesauce!    The Kitchen Aid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer has been on my wishlist at Amazon for a long time.  So when Farmerboy and his lovely wife purchased their farm complete with two gorgeous apple trees, I knew the time was right.  Here is a pictorial review of my first harvest season using the Kitchen Aid attachment.

The farmyard has two unbelievable apple trees.  One is some strain of Golden Delicious and the other is possibly a Snow apple mix.  The trees ripen about a month apart which is perfect for processing the apples.  Many families benefited this year.  The harvest was so huge that Mr. Hollow and I did not bother visiting any orchards this year; although, I did miss my Macintosh apples with melted caramels!  *sigh*   There is always next year.  ;)

The prep work was minimal for making the sauce.  I cored the apples, quarter them and boiled them with a little bit of water until soft.  (Next year I may use the trick of using a little cider instead of water for an extra kick in some of the batches!)

 

 

 I let the bowl cool as the next batch of apples began to cook.  It was a really efficient production line.  :) 

I did purchase the top feeding platform separately.  It holds a lot more apples to feed into the tube of the strainer.  Definitely a must have add on for me, since it kept the work area free of spillage.  I would highly recommend it.  The small area the unit comes with is just asking for a ladle to over shoot the mark.  :(

 

 

 

The apples (skins and all) are funneled by a spooled device down a metal cone with holes all over it.  The apple sauce is forced out of the holes and runs backwards out the bottom flute.  The skins are extruded from the whole in front into its own bowl.  How easy is that?  Instant pig or chicken feed!

 



Dark skins make for a pink sauce with these particular apples.  The sauce is beautiful and smooth.  I do like to add sweetener to my sauce.  So, it was popped back into a pot, sweetener added, brought up to a boil and canned.  No splattering-- No sweating-- No mess!

Seriously, this is all that was left from the apples! 

The process was a fraction of the time from the old way.  Clean up was a breeze.  It made me wonder what took me so long to try the strainer attachment.  The Kitchen Aid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer is a complete winner in my book!