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Actually, that isnt true! I washed raw fleeces when I lived on the farm - well water and septic system. Nary a prob.
You now have no excuse not to have plenty of fleeces in your new workroom!
sunny weather at last
Riverbend Farm in New Jersey sheared recently and Shelley sent me 4 Shetland fleeces. 2 are still unwashed - a charcoal fine fleece from Amelia and what appears to be a yearling fleece from Electra. I think these will go to Fire Mtn for processing. Beryl is my favorite of the new fleeces - sta...
Great list! I havent read A House Unlocked. Must add to my list.
I learned where the inspiration for Livelys Consequences came from.
Thats right at the top of my Lively list followed by A House Unlocked
and her memoir.
On the Nightstand Jan/Feb 2015
Margaret Atwood: Maddadam, Stone Mattress Penelope Lively: Dancing Fish and Ammonites, Family Album, Pack of Cards, the Road to Litchfield, Passing On, City of the Mind, Judgment Day, A House Unlocked, Spiderweb, Cleopatra’s Sister, Making it Up Robin Hobbs Fools Assassin It’s nice when my book...
What is the feasibility of spinning/knitting equine undercoat? To think all those years of brushing shedding horses and ponies and not even once considering spinning their short fur!
I still have mane and tail hair in stash but it's too harsh for gloves tho definitely spinnable. And I do love the dual-coated Shetland fleeces...
Rambling around Shetland, 2
When I was in Shetland last October for Shetland Wool Week, there was so much going on that I didn't have much opportunity at the Shetland Museum and Archives to do more than notice where the textile collection was and wave "see you later" at it. This time I followed up on that promise. Then and...
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I never equated Marble with marble. Another DUH moment! Just remind
me to stay out of Rifle.
Too funny. Though there is a small restaurant in Rifle where the
waitresses pack. Novelty to drive up biz, I assume. I wonder what the
food is like but havent known anyone who bothered to check it out.
Marble CO
First weekend of August, M and I decided to take a road trip to the Western Slope. Actually, it was a combination birthday trip for us Leos. We had a craving for a charo-broil burger in West Glenwood Springs and after that... Marble came to mind. This is 8 week old Teddy at Marble on his fir...
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Gah! Im sure you are all stir crazy inside your head! Im glad
you at least have some amusing things. Mindless isnt necessarily a
great thing, but if its amusing, at least you can live with that.
Living with it is no option since I am still low and dr just doubled my
mag supplements.
I still have a skein of your wonderful sock yarn to knit and that will
make time go a bit better!
On not walking
B, M and I spent hours wandering around at Estes Park Wool Market and while lunching at the Grubstake Restaurant (a favorite lunch spot – unfortunately the most recent owners knocked off the breakfast menu which was our delight for many years) I mentioned that my feet were tingling and I felt bo...
The solar dyed yarn is beautiful. Will it fade?
Nope - I havent had any trouble with any fading. I have the skeins line
drying in the sun right now.
C
spinning stuff
I've been playing with fiber and spinning wheels. Yesterday I did some solar dyeing with the 2 ply Shetland handspun. I used M's old solar tea jar and stuffed it full of balls of yarn before pouring vinegar and drops of blue food coloring with violet Wilton's icing. What makes this yarn spec...
Incredible - love the white fleece. And what is "toppy"? It sounds intriguing.
You know - I just love all the grades of Shetland fleeces and recently crocheted and fulled some of the primitive handspun into baskets. I can't tell you how much fun it is to do that.
Wait. I expect you might have a small idea. :-)
Wool and the idea of terroir
This is another post about my trip to mainland Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland, although it's also another digression from the chronological/topical sequence. It's about fleeces. And because my blog posts are never long enough, I'll add that the Rare Breeds Survival Trust has just released its 20...
Such a wonderful beginning!
it has begun..
We've been there and back again. Ha! Almost as soon as our last show ended, we got on a plane. Finally, we got to meet this little fellow. Our grandson. He's amazing! And big! If we'd waited much longer, he's have been holding me. Living so far away is terrible. We knew that before. Afte...
Right now I am spinning a primitive Shetland fleece which almost looks blue. The former owner of the fleece is "Seeley" which I am told is Gaelic for happy. I don't know that would work with sit, stay etc commands.
Mainland Orkney, and the Boreray boys (plus a new dog note)
The travel notes continue. I'm skimming the surface, and still there is so much to say. . . . The next series of posts will be about mainland Orkney. (To allay some confusion: I was in mainland Scotland; also in Orkney, where the largest island is called Mainland; and then in Shetland, where the...
That red! I love seeing it and wish my yard was large enough to have a burning bush in it.
And does that fungus not remind you of the rings of Saturn?
walk with me
The last of the bright colors are leaving in the wind. Amazing searing color! I'd like to be able to dye a red like that. Nearly neon. In the woods, the colors have relaxed. It takes a bit of time to appreciate the subtleties. They are a bit easier on the eye and to duplicate. I love...
Love the description of your mother's "brave, open heart". What a delightful thing to be able to write about one's mother.
Just finished reading Kingsolver's Flight Behavior and was amused Carol Ekarius "Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep" credited. Always a connection somewhere, huh?
Looking forward to your post on the EPWM. You sat behind us Sunday. Weren't the lambs and kids fun?
PLY magazine has arrived!
There's way too much going on around here, and I have posts-in-mind about Kentucky, and Estes Park, and some of my research into Shetland sheep, but meanwhile I've been, instead, writing things like my mother's obituary. As much as I love the other parts of my life, family comes first. (What's b...
Oh Deb. This is wonderful. Especially with shearing season upon us.
Why Shetland sheep as a research focus?
This follows the previous post and pertains to the reason for my next research area, Shetland sheep and wool, and to the impetus behind the Dreaming of Shetland project (website to come at dreamingofshetland.com). Donna Druchunas sent a link to some fantastic photographs of Shetland and of sheep...
I wasn't able to leave a comment in previous post but this is what I wanted to say:
"I could do a face plant in those books! And as a friend once said to me when I was hauling my horses cross country to compete "I'm living viciously through you". Vicariously, she meant. Though right now, I feel viciously enthralled in your fall plans. How wonderful. And yes, I'll be donating."
M and I want to visit the Shetlands before much more time has passed... you give me more incentive (as always!)
UK visa requirements for people like me who might want to teach a fiber workshop, as far as I can understand them
I'm putting together this somewhat technical post in case any other potential fiber instructors or workshop sponsors might want to try to figure out the visa situation as it relates to U.S. residents (in particular) who might want to teach short workshops in the U.K. I'm summarizing my research ...
The only fleece left in stash to spin samples of is River Bend Tippy - white fleece bought last spring!
Yahoo!!
more Shetland Samples Sept 2011
I would like to exclaim "where has the time gone?" but I know exactly where it went - catching up with fall garden and house chores. And spinning and plying (3 more Shetland fleeces spun, plied and the yarn put away) and knitting more Shetland lace samples. On the needles is River Bend Faith ...
Yes - this is my solar dyeing spot. I havent had a chance to solar dye this year - and with all those white/silver Shetland fleeces, I could...
I just love the yard and soon...back to walking.
I used to take my wheel out to this area to spin and of course, the long gravel walkway is perfect for drying fleece....
...I can remember lots of solar dyeing taking place here, am I wrong? Maybe it is where I imagined it to be?
You and M have done a great job of planning how to fit your garden into a narrow yard! And btw, it photographs nicely! A place for everything and everything in its
place!
gardening
Since I'm still recovering and can't dig or move plants or just fool around in the garden, M has become my right hand. For a long time I wanted to put a bench under the ash and lilac where the garden has the most shade. Unfortunately, we put a garden shed in that spot. M had to unload and move ...
"We are trying for rooing rather than shearing as that gives a better quality but have to catch them at the optimum time to roo but great way to collect from back and neck etc and keep each area separate."
Rooing! I cannot tell you how I've thought about this for such a long time ever since first seeing a photo of spinners rooing their Shetlands on an island (courtesy of the Shetland Museum). I so look forward to photos and details of this. And thank you and your friend for this wondrous thing.
Life just keeps happening :0)
Days become weeks and weeks become lambs, huh? No that is not a typo or me being even more mind numbingly dense than usual; one of the things that happened, whilst I was away from this place for almost a year, was small matter of five ewes and ownership, well part ownership being mine. It co...
Did my previous comment go through? If not... well, I would be interested in fleeces - let me know.
Life just keeps happening :0)
Days become weeks and weeks become lambs, huh? No that is not a typo or me being even more mind numbingly dense than usual; one of the things that happened, whilst I was away from this place for almost a year, was small matter of five ewes and ownership, well part ownership being mine. It co...
Whats so funny is having to scoot along in Ms desk chair and try to write down the titles without straining my leg. THEN - trying to decipher my own handwriting and not being able to go back downstairs to check spelling. I totally missed my poetry bookshelves - must have been from fatigue!
So yeah - a lot of little oddities show up...
Author list in my library
JK Rowling AA Milne Gerald Durell JRR TOlkien RD Lawrence Margaret Durrel CS Lewis Robin McKinley Peter Dickinson Clarence Day James Thurber Ursula Norstorm Laurie Colwin Margaret Atwood Mary Renault Colette Flannery O'Connor Mary McCarthy Rebecca West Nancy Mitford Mary ...
Tommy was my big brother. I rode my final endurance ride with him and
we sang some of his songs as we trotted through the TN woods. We talked about our grandchildren and horses and music and I just feel a huge hole in my heart.
mourning show
The other morning the sky was amazing. It's only fitting.
The assorted stitch patterns are from all the books I have on Shetland lace. I picked a few dozen, wrote them down in the little notebook to knit the colored fleece samples. Now I am knitting the stitch patterns in one long sampler so the stitch patterns which were knit in the colored fleece pop.
I have the regular knitted lace/lace knitting sampler on other needles with size 10 crochet cotton thread (from Lewis book) on hold right now.
More Shetland spinning and samples
I received a nice box of roving from Wooly Knob Mill - all but 2.6 of the over 18 lbs was natural Shetland but that 2.6 was of "OR" ("Other Ram" from 2008) Shetland/Barbados Blackbelly cross ram. I dyed this fleece purple/dark blue and the roving was too tantalizing to leave alone. The Kr...
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