Preparing for Winter V

Laura_Elsewhere

@Primrose I just freeze fruit if I have no time to make the jam or jelly or cheese- I often carry ziplock bags with me from now til October, and just pop whatever mixed fruit I come home with from a trip to the optician or the shops into the freezer and sort it out later- or make "hedgerow jelly" or "hedgerow syrup"!  

One niece has a greyhound/lurcher type dog, so I have jsut agreed to knit her a hood for winter as apparently those kinds of dogs get terribly cold ears, aw bless... in the same yarn I'm using for niece, so they will match as they go around the local fields and footpaths in their bright deep pink hoods!  

I have thick felted house-socks to re-sole for my husband, so I must knit those soon, loose and floppy and oversized, and then just put them through the nromal wash-and-tumble-dry with ordinary laundry to shrink and full them really densely, before sewing them onto his old pair of thick socks. I also need to knit myself a pair from scratch! 

We treated ourselves to a new British-wool duvet at the start of this year and there was a very minor flaw, so we contacted the company who were very sneeringly dismissive, so we cleared our throats meaningfully at them by email and pointed out that the small flaw actually contravened several acts of consumer legislation, at which point they suddenly perked up and send us a free replacement, adding that they are not able to take back the original as it's been used. So now we have two, one unused- but if we need it this winter, we shall be toasty!! My friend made us a patchwork quilt for our wedding and that comes out, over the duvet, in colder months (it also went camping with me on holiday this summer )   

I think we probably should consider our pillows though... a bit flat and bumpy... 

Floss

@Laura_Elsewhere what was the problem with the duvet? I'm considering a wool duvet, so it would be helpful to know what to check for.

Auti

@Floss - I have a wool duvet, a combination one comprising a summer light weight and a thicker winter one so you can have them singly or popper them together to make a super warm one. My niggle is that if you popper them together they often unpopper inside the duvet cover which is annoying but to be fair having both together is exceedingly warm so not really too annoying to me.
For washing mine can go in the machine on wool setting and using a wool liquid with no conditioner. They dry fairly quickly outside and with a dehumidifyer indoors if needed.

i also have a wool mattress topper which is good. 

I cringed at the price of them but am pleased with them and would buy again - so much nicer than other ones.

Just my experience

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

One niece has a greyhound/lurcher type dog, so I have jsut agreed to knit her a hood for winter as apparently those kinds of dogs get terribly cold ears, aw bless... in the same yarn I'm using for niece, so they will match as they go around the local fields and footpaths in their bright deep pink hoods!  

...

I think we probably should consider our pillows though... a bit flat and bumpy... 

I love the mental image of your niece and her dog, depths of winter, landscape shade of brown, white and grey: they are two tiny, distant dots of bright pink, visible a mile away!

Pillows: I can highly recommend getting a wool-stuffed one if you can find them. I probably got the information about the properties of wool from you and it makes the perfect stuffing for a pillow. Mine was about £40 but is a few years old and still very good. It unzips so the filling can be removed and the cover laundered, and this also means it's a one-size-fits all - there's enough filling in there for a firm pillow but if that's too big, just pull some out. It needs re-fluffing from time to time but that's quite a nice task if you spend it thinking about how sustainable it all is!

Laura_Elsewhere

Floss said:

@Laura_Elsewhere what was the problem with the duvet? I'm considering a wool duvet, so it would be helpful to know what to check for.

Ih, it was the silliest thing- it had no label sewn in with eg cleaning instructions! We asked them just to send us one but they got quite obnoxious about it so we got arsey back and pointed out that by law a duvet must include ie fireproof label, allergen label etc., and they sent us a second duvet to shut us up…! Silly of them when we only wanted the label…

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

One niece has a greyhound/lurcher type dog, so I have jsut agreed to knit her a hood for winter as apparently those kinds of dogs get terribly cold ears, aw bless... in the same yarn I'm using for niece, so they will match as they go around the local fields and footpaths in their bright deep pink hoods!  

...

I think we probably should consider our pillows though... a bit flat and bumpy... 

I love the mental image of your niece and her dog, depths of winter, landscape shade of brown, white and grey: they are two tiny, distant dots of bright pink, visible a mile away!

Pillows: I can highly recommend getting a wool-stuffed one if you can find them. I probably got the information about the properties of wool from you and it makes the perfect stuffing for a pillow. Mine was about £40 but is a few years old and still very good. It unzips so the filling can be removed and the cover laundered, and this also means it's a one-size-fits all - there's enough filling in there for a firm pillow but if that's too big, just pull some out. It needs re-fluffing from time to time but that's quite a nice task if you spend it thinking about how sustainable it all is!

That’s exactly how niece & dog will look, yes!  

I have a wool pillow that Mr E originally bought to reduce his snoring but he didn’t like it- I love it and it sounds like yours… the right time of year for me to open it up and wash the pillowslip while I have the contents spread all over the bed for hours with the window open- then when I put them back in, before zipping it closed I sprinkle lavender essential oil in there

but all our other pillows are synthetic, which I loathe but Mr E prefers, even though they last only a few years.

London_1

My daughter has a rescue greyhound called Stan and yes they do feel the cold a lot as they have little fat on them and their coat is very short
Our Stan had two nice warm ones plus a ‘cool’ one for the hot weather we have been having and even a waterproof Mac type one for rainy walks 
he’s better dressed than I am at times her other dog little Ted is a Westie and doesn’t have hair but fur but he has to be clipped fairly often as it grows very quickly around every 6-8 weeks her dogs are both rescue ones and are very well looked after 

Cherryfudge

@Laura_Elsewhere, I wonder what's the best way to restore synthetic pillows? We have a had a few where the filling went lumpy, especially after washing. I've done better if I pin or tack the filling in place but I suspect the way to do it is to take the filling out, wash the cover in the machine and pull apart the middle before washing by hand. Washing them with a few tennis balls in the machine is supposed to plump them up, but perhaps mine were a bit too far gone for that.

Nelliegrace

A word at WI, and other social groups may get you plenty of empty jamjars, @Primrose. Check the cupboards for any nearly empty jars of jam or mincemeat you can use up. I remember Mum using glass coffee jars with the old fashioned waxed disc and cellophane cover, and the plastic lid on top.

Could you buy a bulk order of jars with other jam makers? We have used this firm in the past. We had bulk orders with a discount for BBKA registered beekeepers.  
https://www.freemanharding.co.uk/traditional-1lb-jam-jar-pack-of-33?gad_source=4&gad_campaignid=21891444223&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnJfEBhCzARIsAIMtfKKfmJGNQZxUIUOny3AXqdkAE-gBERY4XtkDK9F8-a3mXbzGeNCzF6gaAsL1EALw_wcB

sammy_kaye18

amber03 said:

Have been thinking of winter myself recently. I get to the stage where I have had enough hot weather and welcome the beginning of Autumn. With all the heatwaves we have been having I know the harvests are going to be poor this year and people have been commenting on my fb posts about the price of hay etc for their animals in the next few months. Whilst it is nice will give the blankets a wash and rested up. Start buying logs for the fire. At the beginning of august is when I usually begin buying for the C word, tho not got as much to buy this year, usually put tins of food away for that period.x

We have had a few people sating about the price of hay and animal feed as well. Has it really gone up that much? 
I will be doing the same, I think finding out blankets and getting them washed , dry and on hand if needed is going to be done sooner rather than later because I have a funny feeling the weather will shift. 
Im also starting the stock up as well because once bad weather comes and if it is icy/snow etc then transport and deliveries to our village stops because its just too dangerous for the lorries to drive.