Sojourner Design

Felt Hearts

2012-01-02T06:57:00.000-05:00

A goal for the New Year is to create more finished products with the wool from my flock. With that in mind, I created my first FINISHED ornament from some of my pre-felt on New Years Eve. It's the white heart, below. I've done lots of play with the prefelts, doing little sample pieces with various embroidery stitches; some can be found on previous posts (if interested, use the pre-felt and embroidered felt labels). I've displayed them at fairs and been asked if they're for sale. This year I still want to play... but I'd like to play with a purpose!

Felt Hearts

Felt Heart

I think I'm off to a good start. Yesterday we visited my dear friend Amy and her fiance David for what is becoming an annual New Years Day open house. Here's what our gift bottle of Merlot looked! Wishing a Happy, Healthy and Productive New Year to all.

Boot Toppers With Meadow Muffins Yarn

2011-12-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a knitter. I knit far too slowly and make many mistakes. Worst of all, activities that require my fingers to act as levers repeatedly cause much discomfort. I need to preserve my hands for the necessary activities so needle knitting is out.

I like to wear footless tights or leggings over fairly thin socks. The thin socks fit well in my shoes and are easily-replaced when they wear out. The leggings are so cozy with a dress or skirt. But something nice and bulky and hand-knit was needed between the socks and the leggings. Here's what I came up with:


Boot Topper on Knifty Knitter Loom with Meadow Muffins yarn

This is my first go-round with using a round knitting loom. I used a blue (24 pegs) and worked with three strands of Meadow Muffins yarn, working stripes of approximately one inch. No fancy stitch work... I just followed the directions that came with the knitting loom.


Boot Toppers on Knifty Knitter Loom: Close-up

Here's a close-up of the work. It shows that each stripe was actually made up of three closely-related colors. I used eight stripe colors, repeating once. Each boot topper used two ounces.

Boot Toppers from Meadow Muffins yarn

I really enjoyed using a circular knitting loom and plan to make more Boot Toppers. Next: I'll try working with two strands, one a constant color and the other will change as I knit. I will also use a different, more elastic method for binding off as using the bind-off directions that came with the loom resulted in a lower opening that I could just barely get my foot through.

Plant-Dyeing All Summer and Fall

2011-11-26T14:29:00.002-05:00

Japanese Indigo, Late Summer

Here I am trying to catch up again. This will be a whirlwind look at what has been happening with Sojourner Design since my last post.

The Japanese Indigo did splendidly this summer; as I recall, I harvested four times. I dried some of the leaves; supposedly one can ferment dried Japanese Indigo leaves, thus spreading out some of the indigo dyeing activity into the colder months. We shall see.


Fibers dipped in Japanese Indigo vat

I was pleased with my dyeing results with the Japanese Indigo although I'd like to have gotten more color from the dyebath and I found it difficult to find days when I could set aside the time to harvest and then immediately dye with the plant.

I also didn't succeed in harvesting seeds for next year. The plants flowered like crazy (see the tiny pink blooms, lower left, in the photo). Our weather was so wet and crazy this fall that I never detected what I thought were seeds. I'll plant more next year but have also bought woad seeds to try. Woad plants were used for centuries in Europe to obtain blue color.


Pokeweed Closeup; This bract isn't ready to pick

Pokeweed was FUN! During the early part of the summer I scoped out where there were accessible pokeweed bushes, then the rest of the summer I checked them regularly to be sure I was there to pick at the point that as many berries on each bract were plump and juicy.

Fiber Dyed with Pokeweed

Most plants had bracts ready to pick starting in the early fall and right up to frost.
I had only one dyeing session with pokeweed berries, dyeing with the bath until the dyestuff was exhausted. Numerous colors were obtained by over-dyeing other colors.

I harvested more bracts, however, for the freezer. I don't know if I'll succeed but I'll try dyeing with the thawed berries sometime this winter.

Pokeweed is considered to be an invasive weed. But, having gotten to know the plant better, I have an appreciation for the plant. I allowed a couple of the plants to grow up at the edge of my garden and enjoyed the lovely shape that the plant becomes when it's not relegated to neglected weed patches.


Pokeweed

I almost missed the boat with goldenrod. I had tried it a few years ago, getting the same predictable green/gold color that I associated with most plant dyes. Not enthused about trying it again, I waited until the goldenrod flowers were few and far between before discovering that they can produce a lovely soft buttery yellow if used correctly.

Walnuts soaking in water

The walnut dyeing continued, and will continue. I have several bags of walnuts slumbering away in my basement freezer, awaiting a mid winter dye day. Here is the large jar in which I soak walnuts. This photo was taken minutes after the walnuts were added to the water. They are floating at the top, out of range. The dyestuff is sinking downward from the nuts anc accumulating at the bottom of the jar. In a short time the water will be black!

Speaking of walnut dyeing, I shot a quick video about what walnut trees and their fruits look like and how I harvest them when I was out in the pasture one day moving sheep. Watch it here.

Finally, just last week, it was Shearing Day. Here's Bud keeping an eye on all concerned.

Shearing Day

Click here to watch my shearer, Kevin Ford, at work while sheep and Border Collie watch.

Summer, Swiftly...

2011-08-07T17:25:00.002-04:00

It's just not been a summer for blogging. I envy those who blog regularly, with beautiful and well-written posts. I take photos and they languish.

But that doesn't mean the summer has been unblogworthy. Here's a feeble attempt to catch up:

Natural Dyes Workshop with Sara Goodman

In mid July I spent three days with Sara Goodman, learning about using natural dye extracts for dyeing fiber. This was one of the seminars offered through NEWS: New England Weavers Seminar. I've kept quiet about it on this blog but using natural materials for dyeing has been on my mind this year. When it comes to natural dyes I'm most interested in sustainability and focusing on materials that can be gathered locally. This workshop involved using dye extracts from far away places... but I'm still glad I participated.


Samples from Sara Goodman's Natural Dye Workshop

Here are some of my projects from that workshop:
At twelve o'clock are some skeins of the first yarn that I had commercially-spun years ago; one dyed with walnut extract and one with a mixture of extracts. Perhaps a shawl.

At three o'clock is a skein of my sock yarn, originally dyed with a local plant material, then overdyed in the indigo vat that we learned all about. I tried to allow some of the original color show through the indigo.

Center: dye samples on a silk strip.

At six to eight: a small pre-felt dyed in a mix of extracts.

The remainder: some of my lambswool yarn painted with a variety of colors for warp, along with a skein of the same yarn for weft. Both were over-dyed in the indigo vat. Enough for two scarves.

Would you like to see how yarn dyed in an indigo vat changes color as it is lifted out and exposed to oxygen? Follow this link.

And here are my Pygora girls, up to no good. Notice that when I called Tina's name at the beginning of the clip, she answered.

Finally, yarn destined for Meadow Muffins, dyed with alder cones, and two intensities of walnut. Gathered from trees that are in or next to the pastures that my sheep graze. Cafe au lait?

Meadow Muffin yarn, dyed with locally-gathered dye materials

A Pause...

2011-07-01T12:33:00.000-04:00

During the last few months I've been reflecting on things and re-examining priorities. Available time has been channeled into addressing the fact that a slow economy is turning my studio into a warehouse. This can be ok up to a point. When it gets hard to find things, there's no place to work on projects, and only narrow paths wind through equipment and wool, the situation is out of hand.

I hadn't sold raw fleeces in years. But since I have far too much clean, carded wool waiting to be dyed or sold as is, I decided to sell the results of the last shearing at a very reasonable price in the Fleece Market forum on Ravelry. Fleeces have been making their way to California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Canada. I've also started listing roving in the same forum. These listings will continue until I can move around a little in my studio! I've added a page, listed on the sidebar of this blog, for photos of fiber that is for sale. If you're interested and don't see the link it may be because you're reading this in Google Reader and haven't actually clicked through to this blog. Click away!

It's not just a wool problem: I have more fiber equipment than I need. So I'm looking with a critical eye at the equipment situation. The Wolf Pup went to the home of a new weaver this week and The Big Wave will hopefully go to its new owner this weekend. I'm trying to get to the point where my equipment better reflects the type of fiber work that I enjoy doing. Not an easy goal for me!

I don't enjoy blogs that skimp on photos so it's time for one:

Japanese Indigo

I decided early this spring to dip try some dyeing with plant materials. This is a small patch of Japanese Indigo, started from seed in my sunroom. This month I'll be taking a three day workshop on the subject of natural dyeing at New England Weavers Seminar; indigo dyeing will one of the subjects covered in the workshop.

Finally, here's a farm shot of a few girls in my small kitchen flock.

Kitchen flock

And if you've stuck it out this far, you might enjoy a little video of my backyard chickens, produced a couple of weeks ago with my iPad: Free-range chickens

WEBS Fleece Sale

2011-05-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

Coopworth cross roving

It's tomorrow from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. I'll be there and I'm packing fiber now.

Sojourner Design roving at WEBS

2011-04-30T15:52:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I replenished the stock of Sojourner Design roving at WEBS. It's always fun to stop by the store with a basket load of brand new colors... and even more fun to walk back out with an empty basket! (If your plans involve a trip to WEBS, please look for my roving.) But the MOST fun was visiting the WEBS Yarn Store Blog yesterday and seeing a photo of my roving along with a ball of yarn spun from it!

Chicken House on Wheels

Yesterday I captured an annual farm activity here: my chickens' change of address from their winter quarters to their summer house on wheels. From now until sometime in October, they will lbe backyard nomads. Every few days the house will be moved and the portable fencing will re-installed, providing them with fresh hunting grounds. The house was built on an old trailer from wood framing and metal roofing, and can be hitched to my ATV.
After moving the chickens out, it was time to clean out a winter's worth of dust and debris. It all got shoveled into the bucket of my husband's tractor and was deposited in our compost pit where it will mix with grass clippings, kitchen waste, etc. This is very dusty work.

The photo is overexposed because the sun was streaming into the house... but it's clear that there was a need for cleaning!

And here's why: the fleeces from the last shearing in late February had been temporarily stored in the barn basement. It was time to get them into a more suitable storage space. I choose to store my raw fleeces in plastic bags. The bags are left open for ventilation and are placed on temporary shelves constructed from cattle panels (metal fence sections) to facilitate good air circulation. They will now be steps from my basement door, enabling me to pull out a fleece and get it sorted and ready for processing whenever I have the time to do so. By midsummer they will all be sorted, skirted, and ready to deliver to the fellows at Twist of Fate Spinnery for washing and carding.

This whole process of moving chickens out and fleeces in has developed a rhythm and is a spring ritual!

The Lucet: A New Favorite Tool

2011-02-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

Lucet and braid created with Meadow Muffins light sport yarn

A lucet is a very old fiber tool that has been used for a thousand years to create braids for closures (remember: no zippers, no snaps, no hooks and eyes, no Velcro when the lucet was first used). I'd been aware of it and it was on my list of things to try until my good friend Victoria taught me how to use one. I'd tried to follow the written and video instructions on the web but really needed a live demo to learn it. Then I was off and running!

The first lucet purchase was a failure: too small, too narrow, the surface was too rough, and the hole through which the braid passes was way too small. My second lucet from Lynn the Weaver is just a joy. Created from rosewood, it feels smooth and wonderful in my hand and is beautiful to look at. Lynn answered my questions and shipped the lucet promptly; her prices are very reasonable. She has other models as well as tutorials on her site.

A lucet and a small ball of yarn take up very little space so are quite portable. The technique is easy and the process is the sort of activity that can be pulled out at any time to work unobtrusively. Perfect for those times when all one can do is wait patiently.

Lucet braid and Meadow Muffins light sport yarn

Both photos are of two strands of my Meadow Mufifins light sport yarn worked together. I'm looking forward to moving on to combinations of various types of fibers.

There's a very quiet Yahoo list on the subject as well as a less quiet group on Ravelry. It's worth a try!

Just a Little More Embroidery on Felt

2011-02-21T06:24:00.000-05:00

Prefelt, embroidered

This was a circle of prefelt that I had sort of spatter-dyed with multiple colors. At first I tried stitches that encircled various areas of color but didn't care for the effect. I decided to superimpose a stitch pattern over the dye pattern (I love the concept of one pattern over another) and like the effects much more. My stitches followed wavy paths; the waves are a little hard to detect but I like it anyway. The stitch pattern would have shown up better if I'd used a backstitch instead of a running stitch. I also wish I had fulled this piece of prefelt before stitching. It's too spongey. But I do love the texture!

Felt Julehjerte Valentine

2011-02-13T16:53:00.000-05:00

Felt Julehjerte Valentine

It is a custom in Denmark and Northern Germany for families to weave paper hearts together to create lovely Christmas ornaments. Although I always think felt when I see a paper project that appeals, I have to admit that I was inspired to try one when I saw Jennifer Ackerman- Haywood's tutorial for creating Julehjerte valentine baskets on her CraftSanity blog. Jennifer's and my hearts are simple; she crafts with her children and perhaps I'm stuck in my felting days as a child. The felt used if from my own sheep, of course. But depending how the hearts are cut the weaving can be quite exquisite when paper is used. Happy Valentine's Day to my blog friends!

Weaving With Felt

2011-01-30T16:31:00.000-05:00

Weaving with Felt

Just a quick look at a project I'm working on, weaving with felt strips and vintage rayon fabric gleaned from thrift shop finds. This project will take time; I'll post more photos of little details here and there as I progress.

Fantastic Felt Fulling Flop

2011-01-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

A Basket of Flop

Actually, it was a prefelt fulling flop. But I just love alliteration. I was hoping to full one of my prefelts in preparation for a project I want to undertake as a participant in Jude Hill's Contemporary Woven Boro online class. I ran it through a full cycle in the washer. I knew this prefelt was a little iffy because its route to the machine needlefelter at my processor was a bit circuitous. I won't go into details here because this experience will be described in a prefelt fulling tutorial that I plan to write and post soon.

Here it is all spread out in its glory

Actually, I like it. It fascinates me and I think there are little areas that will find their way into some project(s) eventually.

I didn't get a shot of this fiber before fulling, but here' s an identical piece un-fulled.

Prefelt, Pre-flop

And, by the way, here's one of my regular prefelts which has been fulled in the washer and is ready for my class project.

Fulled Prefelt

Socks from Sojourner Design Yarn

2011-01-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

My local customer who enjoys knitting with Meadow Muffins yarn has been at it again! This time she used a more subtle combination of hues. Just in case you haven't seen them, here's the shot of her first pair of socks with this yarn.

I'm hoping to see more work from this gal! Also, notice the backgrounds. The first socks were finished early last summer and laid out on lovely green grass. The new socks ... done in December and resting on pristine Northampton snow.

Speaking of snow, here's a view of my sheep pressing in around the winter haylage feeder this morning as the snow was falling.

I've refreshed the Home Page of my website with a couple of photos taken this morning. In fact, you'll find a number of changes and additions (such as the Prefelt page) there. Here's one of the photos I added to that page:

I've added a few listings for carded wool to my Zibbet Shop... now I just need to figure out how to make all those Meadow Muffin hues available online!

SojournerDesign at Zibbet.com

2011-01-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

Zibbet? Zibbet? What's that? I didn't know myself until recently. I stumbled upon Zibbet.com when I had googled something or other and there I found a link to someone's shop on Zibbet carrying the item I was searching for. I liked that.

Many fiber and handmade enthusiasts know about and use Etsy. As an Etsy shop owner, I find the place very crowded. And adding a listing to one's shop on Etsy really tried one's patience. This is the year that I have to increase my presence on the web, so welcome to my Zibbet shop.

If you're reading this post in Google Reader, you're not seeing the button at the upper left hand side of my blog page for accessing my Zibbet shop because Google Reader cuts out all the stuff that appears along the sides of blogs. So here's a button right in this post, just for you:

So far there's just one listing there. But if you'd like to stock up on Angelina, hurry on over.

Zibbet. Zippit. Zibbet. Ribbit. Zibbet...

The Fiber Festival of New England

2010-11-09T06:34:00.000-05:00

My Booth at The Fiber Festival of New England

What a great weekend it was! The first year of The Fiber Festival of New England was a smashing success. Attendees came from all over, many travelling more than an hour to get here. Feedback from attendees was excellent; I and the other vendors (and there were lots of us!) were very pleased with the professional manner in which the event was managed. The event site at the Big E was spacious: wide aisles with lots of room. It seemed that the pace was leisurely. I had lots of time to get to know my customers and met many awesome people.

Next year's date for the event has already been set: the first weekend in November (5 and 6). I have already paid for my booth in full for 2011! I will be promoting The Fiber Festival of New England on this site during the coming year because if you are within travelling distance it's a shame to miss this event.

This was the most successful venue all year for me and I'm pleased that the direction in which I'm journeying with my products (felting/surface design) was validated by my customers.

Sandie, whose blog Rag Rescue I follow, asked me if I'll be selling my prefelts online. Yes, I intend to do that.

But buying a fiber item online presents its challenges since one can't handle the merchandise. One photo just doesn't capture the wonderful "color texture" of these prefelts. Each one is different. How can I present each one in its entirety, capturing the variations in hue and intensity?

Here's where I'd like a little help from any reader who can guide me. I do not own a video camera but have been seriously considering it since the price of those Flip cameras is within my range. If I set up each prefelt with excellent lighting and did, say, a 10 second shoot going from one end of the prefelt to the other, then loaded the videos on my web site with links to this blog, could that work? Is that realistic? Could I get good close-up images with an inexpensive video camera on a tripod? Thanks in advance for any comments about that.

Liz shares her lovely hat

Liz, who bought a bunch of my Meadow Muffin 1 oz balls of yarn last spring and knit some beautiful things, stopped by my booth Saturday to show me the items "in person." After buying one of each of my newest colors, she kindly allowed me to display her socks and hat next to the Meadow Muffins. I know I showed these earlier, but can't resist giving you another look. Aren't they wonderful? They're a perfect example of what I was hoping for in offering many many colors in small amounts for color work. Thank you Liz, and sorry I was taking a break when you came back for your treasures!

How could you wear these socks that Liz knitted and be grumpy?

The day is beginning and it's now light enough out (6:10 am EST) to let the dogs out without fear of some wild animal grabbing my littler terrier. Time to get dressed and do a few farm chores before heading off for one of the jobs that make up my Three-Headed Career Monster.

Prefelts Galore

2010-11-03T06:08:00.000-04:00

Prefelts

Over the last few weeks I've been replenishing my supply of prefelts, concentrating on colors for a certain upcoming holiday!

The Pygoras have all been shorn; they were in full fleece and I was worried that waiting until spring for shearing would result in matted, unusable fleeces. The shearing process wasn't pretty in the beginning because I do not have a stand with the proper fitting to immobilize a goat. I finally found it easiest to just hold them in my lap while shearing. There was initially some struggling, but once each goat realized I was relentless she relaxed and almost seemed to enjoy the process. I enjoyed it too; it was somewhat contemplative and I enjoyed what there is of afternoon sun in early November. Shearing took way too long and because I used scissors I left quite a bit of fiber, but that's ok since it's starting to get chilly here.

The Fiber Fest of New England is coming!

2010-10-22T10:44:00.000-04:00

Border Leicester Cross Roving

And I need to apply myself diligently in preparing for it. Please consider coming; more information about the event can be found here. My booth is #255-W. Here's how to locate it easily: after entering the Mallory building through the front door and proceeding straight to the larger space in that building, you will be walking along the widest, central aisle. The Food Court will be immediately to your right. My booth is along the third aisle to your right after going by the Food Court; it is a corner booth, the fifth one in from the center aisle.

This is will be my largest venue so far and I'm giving lots of thought to what I'll bring and how I'll display it. Although there's plenty to do between now and 6 November, I can't wait!

The photo above is a new roving that I'll have at The Fiber Fest of New England. I had actually dyed the colorway way back in May but hadn't gotten around to combining my colors. It's another example of my Mary Alice series: four coordinating strands in each bundle. The spinner may choose to blend them all together during the spinning process, or they may be spun separately or combined in any way the spinner chooses. I like choices.

This roving will be sold in four ounce bundles with a total of two pounds available. If you like it and are coming to the event, plan to stop by early if you want enough for a sweater. I do have quite a bit of the muted brass hue left over and I'll have that available too.

Time for more photos of my Pygora goats!

Here are my three little girls: Tina, Tulip, and Lilly from left to right, anxiously awaiting their daily treat of cracked corn. I am so fond of these goats, so glad I took a chance and added a new species here.

Tulip and Lilly diving into the corn. Tina, the smallest, is a little shy and usually positions herself behind the other two. Please note the yardstick behind Tulip; this gives you some idea of their size.

Here's Tina!

Sushi Checkers

2010-10-14T12:13:00.001-04:00

I worked on this project for more than two years; however, all but the last two months or so was worked out in my mind and in my sketchbook. The goal was to create a checkerboard and checkers that would be attractive as a wall hanging but could be easily disassembled for a game of checkers.

The material used is roving, yarn and pre felts from my own flock, hand-dyed. There is a piece of fabric interfacing between the weaving and the background to give the piece a more board-like feel. The work includes weaving of the strips to create the checkerboard, embroidery, and needle felting. They don't show up well in the photo, but bright poison-green beads are placed regularly to add contrast in texture, hue and value.

Many decisions were made as I worked, including the idea to hang the checkerboard from a corner and how the checkers would be incorporated into the hanging. I tried several designs for the checkers and found that needle-felting was most effective.

This piece was entered in the Creative Arts exhibit (mixed media) at the Eastern States Exposition where it was awarded with an Honorable Mention. Lots of fun to make but I was glad to be able to move on to other things when it was complete. And a weight was lifted when I was able to get the concept out of my head and into material existence!

But I Digress...

2010-10-04T07:00:00.000-04:00


Lockerhooking with Pre-Felt Strips

When it comes to getting Off Topic, there are lots of directions that I could wander. My original intent was to share information and photos of my farm, my animals, and the fiber they give me as well as providing a platform for the reader to purchase Sojourner Design products. I’m dragging my feet terribly on that last one!

I have to admit that when visiting the numerous (298 as of today) blogs to which I subscribe, I scan right past the travel accounts, the family photos and the photos of kitty cats in the studio. That’s just my way of making the best use of my online time, and I’d like to respect my readers’ time by keeping that sort of stuff separate.

I also like it when bloggers share music, but I prefer to have the option of choosing whether to listen.

So here’s my plan: If I just can’t help myself and must go Off Topic, I will do so at the end of each post. I will place any Off Topic stuff against a different background and label it so that it’s easy to spot and read or ignore.

But I Digress...I’ll also be starting a second blog soon in which I document my activities with fiber that is not of animal origin. More on that later!

Franklin County Fiber Twist...My Impressions

2010-09-27T21:14:00.001-04:00

My Booth

What a gem of a fiber fair the Franklin County Fiber Twist has become! I loved the venue this year, and hope we'll be there again. Lots of space, an accoustically peaceful atmosphere, good lighting (well, alright Claudia, it was florescent lighting), close to Route 91, great food nearby...

Up Close

The volunteer staff was excellent, helping me haul in stuff and even assisting in setting up my booth!

This fair was a feast for the eyes. Here are a few of the booths that caught my eye:

Mill River Rugs

This is Margaret Arraj from Mill River Rugs. She hooks her rugs with yarn, a departure from the usual wool strips that most hook with. Margaret was once my next door neightbor, when our daughters were babies. My daughter will be 30 this Saturday!

Mill River Rugs

On to Diane Welter at The Wool & Dye Works, a favorite shop for fiber lovers. Diane creates lovely hooked rug designs, available at her shop.

Wool & Dye Works


FABRICFOOTE

This is Angela Foote from FABRICFOOTE in New Hampshire. No web site, but her e-mail address is fabricfoote(at)gmail.com. She had so many delightful creations!


FABRICFOOTE

Here are Claudia Benoit and Linnie Dugas from Woolies of Shirkshire Farm. I share a booth with them at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Fair in Cummington, and every year their natural-dyed wool is better and better. No web site; they can be reached at woolies(at)att.net.

Woolies of Shirkshire Farm


Kangaoo Dyer

Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, and her husband had such lovely dyed yarn at the Fair.

All day I had the pleasure of looking at these happy things at the booth next to me. So glad I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Dorian of now & ZEN!

now & ZEN

Leyden Glen Farm

Finally, I caught up with Kristin Nicholas and a friend, and got to see those bright wool flowers she's been creating up close.

Spent the following day recovering and doing Absolutely Necessary Chores That Could Not Be Put Off and today started getting ready for Fiber Fesival of New England.

Franklin County Fiber Twist

2010-09-20T16:01:00.000-04:00


Pre-Felts

Franklin County Fiber Twist is less than a week away and since I'll be quite busy toward the end of the week I've started getting products packed. After weighing and labeling all my Pre-Felts, I just had to spread them all out for a group shot.


Pre-Felts

My Pre-Felts come from my processor with the edges un-felted; I choose not to remove this part as when I'm personally using them in projects I sometimes find it helpful to have a little carded fiber in the same color to use.

Pre-Felts

Thinking about Rugs...

2010-09-11T17:28:00.001-04:00

Sea Glass

This rug was actually completed a year ago but I don't recall putting it in my blog. It's going in now because someone asked about weaving with roving and fleecewoven rugs on a tapestry mail list to which I subscribe and I wanted to show an example. This 40" by 28" rug was handwoven with strips of roving from my own flock that I had hand dyed. It was very slow-going as I didn't find it practical to wrap lengths of roving on a rag shuttle but chose instead to insert each piece by hand.


Sea Glass, close-up

I had fully intended to place this rug on the floor in a guest bedroom. However... when I imagined dogs lying on it and wondered about how difficult it would be to remove dog hair from the roving, I decided that this would be a wall rug.

Because dogs are an important part of my life and this is their house too, I made the decision after weaving this rug that all rugs that go on floors will be small enough to pick up and hang over the railing outdoors, hosing off if need be, and they will be constructed of warp materials that can tolerate that treatment.

I have also learned to like using a temple since this rug was woven!

Here was my first rug, woven rather flimsily on a jack loom. It is on the floor of my sunroom and you can see that these rugs do indeed attract dog hair.


Fleece-woven rug, natural colors

A closer look:


Close-up, fleecewoven natural colored rug

Here's one that's dyed; it was the second rug I wove, also flimsy because I wove it on a jack loom. The rug was dyed AFTER weaving which was quite the project!


Dyed fleecewoven rug

And a closer look:

Dyed fleecewoven rug, close-up

Roving and fleecewoven rugs are in my opinion tedious projects. I would not undertake one again but I would use unspun wools in smaller projects because the nubbly texture, particularly with fleeceweaving, is luscious.

Here is, for me, a happy compromise. These are also a bit flimsy because they were woven on jack looms but they make nice scatter rugs that can be washed, shaken out, etc. I don't mind using them on the floor- your can see the dog hair as I didn't even bother to shake them out before photographing.


Rugs handwoven with hand-spun yarn

The close-ups:

These rugs were woven with some of the miles of yarn that I spun as a beginner. Here and there I laid in short lengths of dyed roving or fleece. These rugs wove up much faster and still had a nice texture. Now that I have a Swedish loom with an overhead beater I need to weave up some more of them. Come to think of it, I need to spin up more yarn to weave rugs with!

Pygora Update:

Everyone is settling in nicely. The girls are getting downright goofy, racing around and leaping off rocks etc at times. They are respectful of but quite curious about the dogs. The buckling, who must be kept separate from the doelings because they're too young to be bred, got a buddy today. I lured my meat goat wether into hip pen so everyone is happy.

New Fiber... On The Hoof!

2010-09-09T23:53:00.006-04:00

My new herd sire... hard to believe this cute little guy will soon be a stinky billy goat!

They’re here!

A truck and livestock trailer that had travelled a long long way rolled into my driveway today and we scooped up four little fiber babies. They are Pygora goats, six months in age, from Hawks Mountain Farm in Oregon. Pygora goats are a breed that combines the fiber length of Angora goats with the downy undercoat, stature, and temperment of Pygmy goats.

The doelings. Don't you love those ears?

Pygora goats can have fiber ranging from soft kid-like mohair ringlets to cashmere; each goat ideally produces one type of fiber along this continuum. The fiber from Pygora goats remains soft as the goat ages. More information about the breed and fiber can be found here and here.

I have started my little Pygora herd with three doelings and one buckling. My intention is to have an easy-keeping herd of yard care experts traveling between our house and that of our neighbor (thus, the portable goat house), and to breed these goats when they are old enough.

Conferring about the new digs

Why did I purchase THESE Pygora goats and incur the cost of shipping them all the way across the U.S.? Especially when it's so important to support local agriculture? The easy answer is that there are few Pygora goats locally so I knew I would need to go some distance to buy.

But there's more to it...Hawks Mountain Ranch is another farm that has certified status in the USDA Voluntary Scrapie program. As long as I maintain my own certified status, any future kids sold here will be certified free of Scrapie as they leave the farm. I've known about Lisa from Hawks Mountain Ranch for years and have been aware of her dedication the breed. I wanted to support that dedication and have the best genetics possible for this little herd.

Oh what a fleece.

More to follow! Please feel free to comment by clicking on the comment link below.

Getting Ready...

2010-09-07T17:09:00.000-04:00

We needed a portable shelter for the mystery critters. Here is my husband Bill creating the shelter from a primitive sketch I had given him:

Starting on the frame

Starting on the uprights

Looks like a roof

Time to add siding

Looking great

Today I pulled it to its first location with my ATV; now all we need are the mystery animals!

The View from My Door

2010-08-31T06:39:00.000-04:00

Certified...

2010-08-29T14:27:00.006-04:00

Sojourner Farm: MA #14

I am pleased to share the fact that my flock has been certified as a scrapie-free flock, effective 06-19-10, in the voluntary scrapie program conducted by APHIS (Animal and Plant Inspection Service).

Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. The USDA would like to eradicate scrapie in US flocks because its presence decreases the economic viability of flocks and prevents the exportation of sheep to some countries. More information about this disease can be found here; click on Fact sheet (PDF) in the Related Topics column to the right for a brief overview of the disease

Farms participating in the voluntary scrapie program have annual inspections by a USDA veterinarian. Farms that have been found to be scrapie-free for five years and whose animals have not been exposed to potentially infected animals obtain and maintain certified status.

I’ve been in the program since 2001 but the addition of sheep from farms that were not certified has set me back in the program twice.

I do not sell sheep for breeding stock, so why am I doing this? Back in 2001 I wasn’t clear about my goals for this flock. At this point my sheep are a motley crew comprising a fiber flock and I do not sell breeding stock.Yet...the USDA vet tells me that it’s still good to be certified because it contributes to the overall health of sheep in this country.

Glad to know that, but it doesn’t really have any impact right now on my little operation.

However, as alluded to earlier this summer, there will be some new arrivals in September and being a scrapie-certified farm will carry a little more weight here in the future. More to follow...

Summer is ending. On my morning walk with the dogs I looked for hints from Mother Nature that this is so. Hope you enjoy these photos, as well as Dar William's melodic poem about this time of turning. If you right click or control click you'll be able to switch back to this tab and enjoy the photos while Dar sings.

End of the Summer
by Dar Williams

I don't know what this plant is, but at this time of summer its flowers create a pink haze that captures the morning dew like tiny diamonds.


The Staghorn Sumac leaves have just begun to turn; soon they will be brilliant ruby.

Some, more enterprising souls than me, make a sort of lemonade from the fruits of the Staghorn Sumac.

Goldenrod, a flower that yields lasting color on wool.

Wild grapes. The sheep love them!

Thanks to my daughter Amanda for reminding me about Dar Williams.

What signs of summer's passing are you seeing? Please click on the word comment below to share your thoughts.

Socks! ... and prefelt.

2010-08-05T07:13:00.004-04:00

Aren't they just beautiful? I love what she did with the heels. The local knitter who is kind enough to share photos of her items knitted with my Muffins has done it again! And again I offer to put you in touch with her if you'd like more information about how she did it. Except this time I think it would work out best if you send me your e-mail address directly instead of through a comment. Contact me here. But feel free to post a comment on the blog too; comments create the energy that fuels blogging activity!

Same knitter, another splendid treat:

Her next project using my Muffins: mittens! Can't wait to see them!

About felt, and my Nearly Felt. Since I posted my last entry which included some comments about what defines felt, my words have not set well with me. I still believe that the definition of felt ought to be more inclusive... but there's no reason to be snarky about it. I have edited that entry.

And I'm changing the name of this product. On a recent foray to New England Felting Supply to buy felting needles I noticed that they now stock sheets of needle-felted wool prepared using the same method as my own. They are hand-dyed and beautiful, softer to the touch than my own. And they are called prefelt. I think that if Chris White, the charming and talented owner of New England Felting Supply and author of the title, Uniquely Felt, calls them prefelt, then I will too. There, that's settled.

I plan to add a few pages here with information about what's available for sale, relying less and less on the web site. Right now I'm rather focused on spending what free time I have on the construction of an item that will be entered in the Needlework, Mixed Media category at the Creative Arts show at the Eastern States Exposition in September. I won't post a photo here until it's on display at the Big E, but I'll share that it involves felt weaving, needlefelting, and embroidery.

Yarn, Felt, Nearly-Felt...

2010-07-11T13:58:00.001-04:00

Today I pulled together my contribution to the Silent Auction that will be held at the Taste the View event. This is a spectacular fundraiser held each year by CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). Well known in this area by the phrase, Local Hero, CISA helps farmers get their produce to customers and helps customers find local food. I no longer produce and sell lamb but I still participate as a Local Hero because I produce local fiber.

Anyway... my contribution is a gift basket of some of one-ounce "muffins" of my sock yarn for the knitter that enjoys color work. I stitched the basket together from some of my "Nearly Felt."

I'm sometimes asked why I call it "Nearly Felt". My processor needlefelts large sheets of wool for me; these sheets are not as strong and solidly-fulled as the wonderful felt that some of the talented felt artists produce. Rather, it's sort of a thick, cushion-y sheet of felted wool. I would not use it for any object that requires strength; if used to make clothing it needs reinforcement. But it's a pleasure to embroider with wool yarn; I love the texture that is created by stitching into it. To stay on the good side of the serious, talented felters whose definition of felt is not as inclusive as my own, I call it Nearly Felt. But... I believe that it is still felt. Cheesecloth and canvas are both woven cloth; they are very different and would not substitute for one another, but they're still both woven cloth. Stepping down carefully..

In preparation for the fall fairs I'm working on a collection of fridge magnets.

And finally, Bud has new work. He still does "sheep work" with relish (often more relish than skill, but the job gets done). But now twice each month he does "gentle work": he visits Hospice patients at a local home.

Farm Photos

2010-07-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some fiber work this weekend, but as of yet there is nothing photo-ready. So a few farm shots will have to suffice. Here's a little garter snake with blue eyes that lives in the planter where the horseradish grows. When I approached to take this photo there was another one with him; that one seems to be camera-shy. The snakes can be found in this same spot each morning once the sun's rays arrive. I think they're there to melt away the night's chill.

These sunflowers, blooming far earlier than I would have expected, are volunteers that have sprung up from last summer's seeds. I love sunflowers; they're so goofy, and happy. They attract lots of hungry birds and are charming to look at during the winter when snow piles up on the spent flowers.

I like this peachy-bronze one. I also like the fact that with sunflower photos it's so easy to lose perspective. This could be the alien sunflower that was peering through my window, ready to take over my studio.

The hens are enjoying their summer, sheltered by the travelling vacation home that my husband created for them.

And this was once a pop-up camper, converted to a utility trailer by someone. We purchased it locally from a very nice man this morning. Why? In preparation for the arrival of...
I'm not telling right now.

Studio Shots and a Question

2010-06-25T08:22:00.000-04:00

These are just a few shots that I took the other day of some of my fiber around my studio. I looked for spontaneous little corners of color that looked pretty without any special arranging.

Now, for those who have arrived here from Weavolution to respond to my question about where to find sectional hardware, here's the photo:

Just Wondering...

2010-06-20T16:18:00.000-04:00

How is it that a pile of Stitchlets tossed together on the bottom step and waiting for a lift up to my studio looks so much better than any textile collage that I could create?

Exquisite!

2010-06-12T14:50:00.006-04:00

I am now offering one ounce "muffins" of my yarn in many many hues, with the hope that they will provide the fiber for my customers to create fabulous colorwork. A local knitter bought a half dozen or so muffins at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Fair in Cummington Memorial Day weekend.

She's been knitting up some glorious socks and wanted to stop by my studio to see what other colors I can provide. We conversed about knitting and fiber while I wound off several muffins. She went away with a bagful and I came away inspired to spend the rest of the afternoon winding off more. I am so pleased to see this yarn being used so brilliantly!

She's wondering what she'll do once she's past the cuffs; I said, how about stripes? At any rate, if anyone wants to know more about her socks please send an e-mail to me at sojornerdesign@gmail.com and leave a comment to share your feedback.

I took a big step this afternoon: I mailed in my vendor application for the Fiber Festival of New England. I had been planning to sit the first year out but have had a change of heart. The location for this event will be great: the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield MA. It will be held Saturday and Sunday, 6 and 7 November. Mark your calendar now! I'll have more details here as it gets closer to the date.

Excuses Excuses...

2010-06-01T16:08:00.011-04:00

This post will consist only of excuses and pretty non-fiber photos.

Why haven't I posted?

(1) The main reason is the fact that I spent some time dealing with a family crisis... a parent one again. Things have settled down and are actually going quite beautifully now.

(2) The economic situation hasn't helped fiber sales and as a result I've been more interested in working with my fiber than selling it.

(3) I'd been getting annoyed with how difficult Blogger is to work with. I'd heard that Blogger has made improvements since my last post, but I still have to struggle to get my photos where I want them. And the published layout is radically different from what the editing mode shows. I may need to move to a different program.

(4) I've been re-thinking this blog. Obviously I'm not an avid blogger, yet I'm wondering if TWO blogs are called for.

One to let people know what I have available in the way of yarn, roving, "Nearly Felt", kits (eventually), my vending schedule, farm photos, and images of my own work with my fiber. That would be this one.

But it seems that a second blog is needed for me to share the things I'm doing with non- farm fiber... actually, not even wool. For instance, right now I'm working on creating a knotted shag mat with, of all things, POLYESTER from old clothes (not mine!) Eeeeeewwww! But as a hard core fiber snob I must say it's looking quite nice. The technique and the photo... a story for another blog.

The photos: shots from around my yard, taken this morning.
There, my blog is updated and even my web site is updated. But I didn't get my squash and my sunflower seeds in.

Diane

Gathering In

2009-12-09T17:57:00.005-05:00

The grazing season has ended. I had hoped to bring the sheep home for the winter in four days or so; but with seven inches of snow, turning to rain and then cold temperatures moving in, Bill and I decided it was time. The electrified, portable net fencing that protects the sheep all summer is very fragile in cold weather. I didn't want it to freeze into the snow and ice. In addition, snowmobiles traverse the area frequently and I didn't want to stand the chance that they might run into the fencing. So Bud and I went out into the sleet to do what we had to do.

Bud has been a bit of a yahoo with the sheep lately. Taking off like a streak of lightning after the sheep, and not responding when I called "Down!" the command that basically means "cool your jets."

Today he accomplished his task with finesse. When I said "down" he lay down. When I said "walk up" he approached the sheep slowly so that he didn't create panic. By edging into the zone of discomfort for the sheep he directed them where they needed to go. When one sheep separated herself from the flock and I said "look back," he realized that he needed to return and bring that sheep back into the group. I was proud, and Bud was praised profusely. Once in awhile things go smoothly.

Having moved the sheep into the pasture adjacent to the barn, Bud was told "That will do," and he settled down to monitor his flock while I climbed all over the hill, retrieving fence. I think I'll keep him.

Loom for Sale SOLD

2009-12-05T17:22:00.006-05:00

SOLD
After a long, long, long period of indecision, I am offering my beautiful cherry Norwood loom for sale. Norwood looms are no longer built with cherry wood. This loom has a 40 inch weaving width, has eight shafts and ten treadles. The back beam is a sectional beam. Don't be put off by the sectional loom; if you're not interested in sectional warping it's easy enough to warp in the usual fashion. It comes with a matching Norwood cherry bench. The seat flips up for storage and there is a storage bin on each side of the bench. This gently-used loom is a great buy at $1500; I just want to pass it along to another weaver while I focus more closely on what I want to do with my weaving.

That's My Girl!

2009-11-29T09:01:00.004-05:00

Since before birth, my daughter Amanda has been a lover of music. In the few short years since college she has accomplished so much in her career. Please click on the image for a link to this article. My favorite part of the article, of which I'm most proud, is the last paragraph.

Going Baaaaaa-less

2009-11-25T15:24:00.009-05:00

Well, not really. What I mean is that I haven't been weaving with wool lately. That's just a temporary situation while I get some wool rug warp dyed up and ready for rugs.

In this case, not even natural fiber!!!!!
I wanted a small rug to put in front of the sink in the upstairs bath. (That would be the bath that casual guests don't see so I went a little over the edge when I painted it. Note the outlet plate too.)

Anyway, I wanted something that would wash and dry quickly so I decided on a rag rug woven with strips of acrylic and polyester. My sources were thrift store finds and a couple of chenille throws that were deeply- discounted last spring.

The colors are a bit much... just right for that room!
I think I'm so used to dyeing multiple shades of several hues and then combining them so these clear tones in the rug are a little jarring to me.

My design was also limited by the colors that I had in the fabrics I needed. As it is I made a quick trip to two shops in town looking for acrylic sweatshirts in the right colors.

I needed to replace my ratty, faded crocheted dishcloths and wanted cloths that I could enjoy using. I put a 7 inch or so wide warp of mixed cottons on my workshop loom and wove up half a dozen cloths. The finished size is small but so are my hands and I find them more manageable than the store-bought ones.

Except for the sheep photo, the rest of these photos should take you to a larger image if you click on them. Should I provide links to larger images of the critters too in the future?

Hope everyone has a restful... and grateful... Thanksgiving.

The Last Batch of Potholders for Now

2009-10-29T06:01:00.006-04:00

Here I used the same overall technique for these two but wanted them to coordinate since I'd be donating them to a local Senior Center for their Christmas fair. I started experimenting with design. This is a fun way to learn about color and proportion because the projects are small and don't involve a great investment of time or fiber.

For instance, I decided that the contrasting yellow is more effective when placed closer together as opposed to alternating.

There's still room for improvement- particularly, the hanging loops- but I was satisfied enough with these to donate them. The others will reside in my kitchen where my poor tired 30-year old potholders will be retired.

More Potholders

2009-10-27T06:12:00.005-04:00

With the fourth and fifth potholders I started getting a little smarter. I decided to make my own "loopers" by wrapping strands of my wool yarn from one peg to the opposite peg four times and then tying off with a square knot. I found it easiest to do this on pegs that were near the corners as there is more space for fingers there.

Then I removed the looper and placed it on the loom where needed. So I created loopers as I wove, designing the color patterns along the way. I kept the knots in the middle of the fabric instead of the edges and used a crochet hook to work them into the weave; this helped keep the edges neater.

The number of passes around the pegs in creating each looper really depends on the thickness and "squishiness" of the yarn and it's a trial-and-error process.

I wanted my loopers, once they had taken a trip through the washer with hot water, detergent and a full wash cycle, then tumble-dried at the hottest setting, to "full" nicely; in other words, I wanted the yarn to fluff out into the spaces between loopers and to also be thick enough to be safe when handling hot items in the kitchen.

At this point it takes me about an hour to make each potholder. I'm slow at everything I do so it could take less time for manly people. It's very enjoyable to do while watching football games, etc.

More later!

Way Too Long...

2009-10-26T05:59:00.006-04:00

Back after an extremely long break. I've been focusing on other areas of my life over the past few months, starting a small part-time business within my nursing career and also re-thinking what direction I want to take my fiber business in. More about that later... for now I want to start sharing some of the work I've been doing.

I recently bought a potholder loom from Jennifer at CraftSanity. I'm a longtime listener to her Podcasts and have learned so much from them. She interviews various artists, many of them textile artists, in depth, asking many probing questions to help the listener understand how the artist evolved to her present level.

Back to the loom! Jennifer has started producing beautiful, meticulously-worked wooden looms in various sizes. The concept is similar to the old potholder looms we used as children; it is so much nicer using equipment like this! Loom dimensions available run from coaster size up to place mat size. Jennifer mentioned a loom large enough for producing small rugs but I haven't seen one yet. I purchased the large potholder size because I wanted to make wool potholders that could go in the washing machine so I needed to plan on shrinkage. That size is working very well for me. I think that the prices of these looms are quite reasonable for the quality of the workmanship; if you'd like a look, head over to her Etsy Shop.

The photo above shows the large potholder loom with my first potholders. On one on the left was made from loopers that I cut from old tee shirts. OK, quite similar to the ones children produce, but too bulky to be functional and I didn't care for the somewhat sloppy edges. On the lower right I tried some three and four ply yarn that I had put together from hand-dyed wool singles spun from local sheep. The colors are nice and it's a pretty cloth, but again not functional because even after a trip through the washer the fabric is too thin with too much open space to use safely. I can't remember exactly how I made the third one (upper right), but it involved using multiple strands of single ply, same yarn. Getting closer to my desired effect but still too thin. I'll be back later with more.

More Photos Than Words ... well, almost.

2009-05-02T17:58:00.010-04:00

View from the bathroom:

View from the kitchen sink:

On assignment in the neighbors' back yard:

Helena would be so embarrassed if she knew I'd caught her with her eyes closed.

A couple of the youngest members:

Love the coloring on these two; notice the knees.

FOR SALE

My latest Mary Alice roving (see a description of this method in my 04-20-09 post): hues of cantaloupe and watermelon with a bit of mink. One bag weighing in at 14.4 ounces; one slightly different in coloring at 8.4 ounces. $3.50 per ounce. These will go to the Fleece sale at WEBS in a couple of weeks; if you like it for yourself, just e-mail me.

Makes Me Smile

2009-04-27T07:51:00.001-04:00

A little off subject, but take a quick look at today's post in Helen Suzanne's Hebart Journal.

Lawn Ornaments

2009-04-25T06:02:00.010-04:00

A Weekend of Ragweaving!

2009-04-20T10:54:00.010-04:00

This was one of those stellar weekends. I hear that the weather was superb; I was stuck indoors at WEBS here in Northampton all day both days and didn't mind one bit. I was participating in a workshop with Johanna Erickson (author of Rag Weaving Gimmicks and Tricks) on the subject of Wearable Rags. We spent the whole weekend weaving up samples using several techniques and multiple materials. Rather than yarn for weft we used strips of materials.

This appeals to me as I have stockpiled old items of clothing for several years with the intent of doing some ragweaving. I also think that much of what I learned will apply to weaving with wool roving.

Here's a closer look at my samples:

This one included a quilted floral fabric like one would use to make a bedspread, then some pink knit fabric woven three different ways, then some shiny purple synthetic material interspersed with a weft here and there of multicolor; a large knitting needle was used to create the clusters of loops with the purple fabric.

The sample below was woven with a rather dense chenille warp. I experimented with wefts of batik-like cloth, seam binding, ribbons, rick-rack (the yellow stuff), and some brightly-striped fabric that had been pre-cut and supplied on a spool. I would have chosen a less-dense warp to allow more of the weft to show.

This piece involved weaving with strips of knit fabric such as tee shirts. It was particularly fun to weave with the blue and white-striped material, fiddling with each weft to create a checkerboard effect.

This was probably the most fun: picture weaving. A fabric with a design such as flowers is chosen, cut into strips, and the strips woven in order so that there is a squashed-down version of the images on the original fabric. The larger and simpler the images, the more the more similar the woven results will be. Here you can see I experimented with several different patterns.

I love attending workshops that involve creating samples rather than a finished item. Good food, good people, good weaving.

THOSE COMMENTS...

Thank you Michelle Ward, Sharon Bogon, and Tammy for your recent comments.

FIBER FOR SALE

These were two very successful and rewarding dye jobs in which I tried a new technique. In each bag there are several continuous strands of roving, each dyed a hue that is harmonious with the others. Because the colors are in separate strands the spinner can control exactly how the colors are worked up; either blended all together, spun intermittently, or even spun into separate colored skeins. The batch above includes strands ranging from a pale, polite yellow through several shades of green to aqua.

My friend Mary Alice bought a bag at the recent meeting of the Nutmeg Spinners Guild. When I saw her a few days later she told me how delighted she was when she looked closer at home and discovered that she would have so many spinning possibilities. So I've decided to call this dyeing technique my Mary Alice roving. It was nice to get good feedback from someone who appreciated my efforts to put more control into the spinner's hands.

Since Mary Alice asked me to set aside another bag of this, I only have one bag available now; it's 6.6 ounces of Finn Cross for $23.10.

More Mary Alice roving here, with shades of shrimp from pale to medium as well as a touch of pale mauve. I have four bags of this, each approximately one half pound; if you're interested I'll get you the specifics. Priced as above, at $3.50 per ounce.

I'm getting ready for my next selling event which will be the Fleece Market at the WEBS Tent Sale on Saturday, 16 May at WEBS here in Northampton MA. Although the main sale is a two-day event, the Fleece Market will be limited to Saturday. I have a new (to me) EZ-UP shelter which will hopefully function better than my shelter last year which blew down. My border collie Bud will be with me that day to welcome visitors.

Fiber for Sale

2009-04-06T16:55:00.008-04:00

I've been quite the slacker when it comes to posting fiber for sale and am going to try to be a little better about that. This is a dye project with which I was very pleased. It's the roving that Spike showed you in my entry on 21 March.

Spinners at the Nutmeg Spinning Guild were pleased too; more than half of the dye lot sold there this past weekend. The color of this Border Leicester cross roving can best be described as smoky opal; the hue reminds me of the lichen that grows on rocks with shadowy areas within that hue. The shadowing is consistently inconsistent; if your project calls for consistency you'll need to take this into account in your spinning. I have a total of 20 ounces available, and it's listed on Etsy so you can purchase it there.

Kreative Blogger Award

2009-04-06T13:51:00.014-04:00

I've been nominated by Janet Austin, a tapestry weaver in Rhode Island, to receive a Kreative Blogger award. Janet's blog can be found here: Tangled Web. I am honored to be nominated, particularly to be nominated by Janet. Receiving this award includes the following duties:

1. Copy the Kreativ Blogger Award to your blog
2. Put a link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate 8 other blogs and
4. Link to them
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated

Guess this will be the start of a list of my favorite blogs appearing over there on the right. There are plenty to choose from; I read blogs through Google Reader and subscribe to and receive updates from 147 of them! Each week I add far more than I drop. I think this might be a little problem.

Here are the blogs I selected to pass the Kreative Blogger Award on to, and why:

Craftcast: because it's the blog for show notes from Allison Lee's super podcast by the same name. I enjoy the podcast more, but it's nice to have a place to go to pick up links from the podcast. Allison's interview technique and podcast design are so enjoyable. Hers is probably among my two or three favorite podcasts.

Cre8it Art Blog: because Jessica has introduced me to so many materials and techniques, both through the blog and through her great online classes.

daisy yellow. Can't read this one too late in the day as it will keep me awake. This one is a recent discovery and is indispensable to me. I love the way she cross-references her technique-laden blog entries.

Getting Stitched on the Farm: Just about the first blog I read when I see there's a fresh entry. The author of Kristin Knits shares her farm and creative lives.

GPP Street Team: lots of technique and challenges from Michelle Ward.

Magstitch: Maggie Grey, author of several on-the-edge books represents how the UK is so far ahead of us, if there can indeed be an ahead. But how I enjoy eating the dust!

Pin Tangle: Australian embroiderer Sharon Bogon is a talented artist who is so generous with her knowledge. She has inspired me, taught me in several online classes, and regularly reviews other blogs that I might enjoy.

Textile Tales: Carol McFee loads her blog with photos of sumptuous little pieces of textile art.

Something's Different...

2009-03-21T14:14:00.008-04:00

This is Spike, my Silky Terrier, showing you some freshly-dyed roving destined to be barely spun into thick rag-like dreds and then woven into a rug. The colors I'm dyeing for this project are celadon (above), periwinkle, and a touch of yellow here and there. This rug is destined for a recently re-decorated guest bedroom; my goal is t eventually have almost every rug in the house handwoven. I'm so happy with this soft green-gray hue that as I write this blog entry I have two pounds of it in the dyepot to sell this spring.

An anonymous commenter asked me if Angelina can be wet-felted among the layers of wool when felting a table runner. Angelina can be incorporated into wet felting, but I would take care to be sure that it isn't buried so deep that it can't be seen. You could take a small amount of your wool and card some Angelina into that, then use it on the top layer. If you do this, you probably need to be using a wool that really felts easily such as merino wool. If you're reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about, read about Angelina here. I sell Angelina in my Etsy shop; that link is in the column on the right.

Here's another little stitchlet comleted one evening this week. I'd been thinking about incorporating beads into my felt embroidery, but decided to make my own! This bead was constructed of several layers of cardstock glued together and painted with acrylic paints and a touch of gold lumiere paint. I opted to use some card stock that had a little printing on it for a collage effect. A great use for old Christmas cards!

I've added a group of these felt vest blanks to my Etsy shop at a very reduced price because I want to clear out my inventory and make some room. Click on my Etsy link over on the right to get there!

So... why is this blog entry labeled "Something's Different? Take a look, below. Comments? Anyone?

More Color

2009-03-06T11:49:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I attended SPA Knit and Spin VII. This was my fifth year there; the event is described as a "Gathering of fiber art friends from across New England." The weekend involves several hundred fiber enthusiasts who commandeer two hotels in Freeport ME and just have a good old time pursuing their interest, socializing, eating and shopping. I usually go with three friends; we arrived Thursday so that we could extend our little vacation. I worked on more felt embroidery, above.

Upon my return home from SPA, I was thinking red. Monday was a snowy day so the dye pot was fired up.

So Tuesday I decided to even things up with Green. Forty skeins altogether! These will be reappearing soon on this blog.

At Peace

2009-02-12T08:31:00.003-05:00

Thank you to those who have passed along kind thoughts. My mother slipped away peacefully yesterday morning. My father was at the bedside, holding her hand as she left. I'll be taking a few more days off from blogging during this sweet, sad time.

A Parable of Immortality

A Little Silence Here...

2009-02-08T11:02:00.002-05:00

To my Blog Friends,

It will probably be a little while before I post again because my mother, who has been in failing health, has taken quite a downturn. I suspect that the next week or so will be a tough one and that I won't have too much online time. I'll be back soon though!

More Stitching...

2009-01-31T15:44:00.003-05:00

I imagine Sharon B will be moving on to a new embroidery stitch in the Stitch Explorer challenge, but just had to have another go at Chicken Scratch. I really enjoy this concept and see so many possibilities with it! This one involves small squares of multi color gingham lightly fused to a piece of my hand-dyed felt in a checkerboard pattern as a base for stitching, again with my own yarn.

THOSE COMMENTS...

Thank you Kristin Nicholas for stopping by my blog! Hope all is continuing to go well with lambing; I loved that last photo you posted!

Sharon, thank you for admiring my first piece I did for Stitch Explorer. Hope you stop back and see today's!

Now I'm off to feed some sheep.

FarmNewsFlash

2009-01-25T11:01:00.002-05:00

Kristin Nicholas has posted a beautiful short video of one of her sheep giving birth and caring for its new lamb. This would be a great video to watch with children.

THOSE COMMENTS...

Barbara G, thank you for the feedback. I missed seeing your new work at our last meeting!

A Little Thief...

2009-01-25T09:24:00.007-05:00

A couple days ago I checked in on my chickens just after lunchtime. This is what I saw: an opossum had found his way into the house, taken the top off the kitty litter pan I use as an egg box, had himself a tasty egg dinner, and snuggled in among broken eggshells for a nice nap. When I first saw him he was sound asleep in a ball. I was unable to capture that because I had to run back into the house for my camera.

Ever so slowly, he shook off his somnolence. He knew he was in an awkward situation and stayed curled up with his pointed snout open, showing some rather sharp-looking teeth. Most of the chickens were outside in their fenced-in area, but there were one or two walking around inside, unconcerned. There were a few eggs laid in the bedding in another corner of the coop so I'm assuming this fellow had been in possession of the egg box for awhile.

I don't want him to be a regular visitor so using a t-post I tipped him out of the box. He scurried out through the small chicken door, cowered in one corner of the outdoor pen, and eventually found a way out to freedom. He may have been helping himself to eggs all along but got sloppy in his burglary by snoozing on the job. I'll have to keep an eye on the situation and make some changes in the fencing if I see him again.

Time to show one of my projects from last summer. This is a ruglet, a small prototype for a rug. I tend to embark on rather labor-intensive projects so I like to do small samples and then make a decision about whether I want to invest the time on a larger version, or whether my idea would even work.

This ruglet was woven on my big Swedish loom on a cotton warp using several hues of hand-dyed wool roving. I didn't want the warp to show so laying in enough roving weft to cover the warp yarn was quite fiddly. If I were weaving a rug I'd probably use a nice dyed wool warp and not worry about whether the weft covered it completely. I'm also not sure about how this would function as a rug. I wouldn't want to put it in a high traffic area; it might be quite nice though as a scatter rug next to a bed.

I Digress... Often.

2009-01-20T06:42:00.007-05:00

I am, to a fault, a divergent thinker and a curious person. I'm always up for learning about, or at least admiring, a new artistic medium. The problem is that I often allow myself to be lured into trying my hand at these new adventures. I've finally decided that it's a good thing, something that I shouldn't try to reign in for now, but it definitely results in being spread a little thin.

Here's an example. I'm currently enrolled in a fantastic online course, Paper Quilting Explorations, with Terri Stegmiller. I'm not a quilter and clearly wool is my thing. The class is time-intensive (as evidenced by my lack of blogs over the past few days), but so worthwhile. I'm putting materials I'd purchased and stored away and learning about the characteristics of various surface design products.

This piece involved gluing white tissue paper to muslin after crumpling it up then smoothing it back out, spraying three hues of Adirondack Color Wash (I used hues close to the primaries I use for dyeing) and then spreading the dyes around on the surface. After drying I added a little gold Lumiere paint to bring in a little light, cut the sheet into six squares and darkened the edges with a black stamp pad that was almost dried out (oh well).

For the background I chose some sheet music that my mother-in-law had used as a young girl and glued it to muslin. The background was fused to Pellon. The squares were fussed to the background in a pleasing arrangement. Finally, a little machine stitching around the squares and the edges of the background were machine zig-zagged. I like it enough to hang it and will probably be matting it on a canvas, although I'm open for suggestions. I've added a close-up below.

THOSE COMMENTS...

JaneO, thank you the positive feedback on my chicken scratch embroidery. I took a look at the work you’re doing as a City and Guilds student, and it looks intense! I’ve been subscribing to your blog for awhile. City and Guilds, for anyone that’s not familiar with this, is an educational program leading to a diploma in stitched textiles.. At one time the program was supported by the British government! JaneO, if anything I said here was inaccurate or if you’d like to say more, please come back and leave another comment.

Helen, thank you for your compliment on the chicken scratch embroidery. Helen, also located in England, maintains a blog. It’s worth a click to check it out; scroll down a little to 11 August 2008 for a hilarious post on stash busting!

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your comments. I love the texture too- that’s one of the reasons I love working with felt. I realized that I had made a mistake in my description of the work. The lighter brown squares are couched, not appliquéd. Elizabeth has a great blog, Quieter Moments, in which she’s documenting her embroidery work.

Stitch Explorer

2009-01-15T17:03:00.005-05:00

I'm participating in the Stitch Explorer challenge over on Sharon Bogan's blog, Pin Tangle. Each month Sharon will be posting information about an unusual stitch or style of embroidery. She provides guidance and links to other sources of information about the stitch. Sharon challenges participants to try the technique, modifying it with their own ideas.

This month's challenge is "Chicken Scratch," described as a combination of simple cross stitches and a lacing technique. As always I'm partial to wool yarn on felt (from my sheep of course). Chicken Scratch is often worked on gingham; I chose work my own version of gingham by couching contrasting squares onto the background with the embroidery stitches themselves. I'm pleased with my sample (6 x 6); the photo doesn't really capture the texture. Lots of fun, so many possible variations!

Temperatures are predicted to be below zero in the morning, without taking wind chill into consideration. We're ready!

THOSE COMMENTS...

Thanks for stopping by, Elis. Her great blog, Into the Blystic, documents every few days another of her abstract paintings. I really enjoy seeing them, and lately she has started commenting on her technique. I think that enjoying another art medium helps me to be more creative in my own.

Longevity

2009-01-14T09:10:00.003-05:00

My husband gave me these flowers on my birthday. That was 23 December. I want what they're having.

THOSE COMMENTS...

Lynn, thanks much for your kind comments! The twined rug was fun to make, and not at all mentally taxing. I like that.

Evol-HUE-tion

2009-01-13T15:51:00.003-05:00

NEW OFFERING:

Evol-HUE-tion sock yarn dyed in my latest colorway. Two "cakes" available at $25.00 per. For more information about this yarn and how it knits up, please check out this web page.

Kristin Nicholas, author of Kristin Knits, reports that they're in the midst of lambing time at her farm. She lives in Northern Franklin County, not far from here, and her blog, Getting Stitched on the Farm, is one of my favorites. Over the last few days there have been lots of new lamb photos stop by and see!

Here's a photo of a rug that I twined this fall in a class taken with Alice Kane of Northampton. Alice does an exquisite type of embroidery called black work, and in addition she creates excellent twined rugs.

A beginning project, this rug measures 18 inches by 23 inches. It was twined using an inexpensive loom constructed of canvas stretchers. I tore strips from an old blue blanket, an olive Army type blanket, and added some purchased wool in a bright plaid. It is an extremely solid little rug that lays nice and flat on the floor and will wear like iron. This class was offered at the Wool and Dye Works here in town.

It's All About the Wool

2009-01-11T15:43:00.012-05:00

Here's a piece that I just finished yesterday afternoon. It's based on a project in a wonderful online course, Sumptuous Surfaces, that I took with Sharon B, author of the blog Pin Tangle, this past fall. We were charged with using monotones for this piece so that we could focus on texture and design. I chose to use several hes of brown, natural-colored wool, both felt and yarn, as well as some cotton chenille, cotton and rayon weaving yarns and three coconut shell buttons. My goal was to gradually build up the texture the center of the smallest circle.

I'm happy with this piece and will be hanging it in my home so I decided to use a blanket stitch to embroider it to a piece of felt, again from natural-colored wool. There's a pocket, created with blanket stitch, through which a dowel will be slipped. All the wool in this project was shorn from my sheep. I am many weeks late in finishing this project, but that's the speed at which I operate and that's why Sharon's online classes ( and those of a few others) work so well for me.

I had some unanticipated free time Friday afternoon, and had been notified by Jeremiah at Twist of Fate Spinnery in Portland CT that my latest batch of fiber had been carded and was ready to pick up. So I gathered up all the fleeces that I'd skirted and sorted for the next round and packed them into my back seat. When Bud saw that a road trip was in my plans he stationed himself by the door. Here we are, with bags of wonderful-smelling (really!) dirty wool and ready to go.

After washing my fleece in several rounds of very, very hot water in order to remove all traces of grease, the fiber is processed through their carder, below.

Here's Rick with some freshlly-carded fleece. They line tall buckets with long plastic bags and the roving from the carder settles neatly into the bag. I really like this arrangement because when I open the bag to prepare the roving for dyeing I can find the end easily and it feeds out without tangles or breaks. The bags also store well, either vertically or horizontally. They even leave a small piece of the roving hanging out of the bag before tying it shut. This enables me to evaluate the feel of a given bag of roving without actuallyl having to open the bag.

When I open a bag of roving I find the end and then pull roving out into a container until I have the weight that I need for a dye job. Then I usually skein the roving and secure it with ties so that I can manage it easily through the dyeing process. It really helps to have the roving feed out so smoothly without breaking!

I have not yet had any yarn spun at Twist of Fate but I probably will at some point. Here's Rick next to the spinning machine, in use.

Below Rick is skeining some freshly-spun yarn. To his right is the equipment that will wind yarn on cones if that's preferred.

Bud is cozied up to the thirteen or so bags of clean, soft fleece ready for my dyepot. Jeremiah and Rick also use special equipment to produce large sheets of needle-felted wool for me with the wool that's left after I sort out the best quality for roving. It's this felt that I use for my embroidery projects including the one above and my Stitchlets.

I think that's enough for today; I apologize for being so long-winded today!

Preparing for More Snow...

2009-01-10T18:09:00.006-05:00

Aren't chickens cute?

A little help from husband Bill, and a little extra haylage for everyone to get them through the coming snowfall.

Most of the haylage gets tossed into this feeder.

More experimentation from my summer fiber seclusion: twining. This is based on one of the exercises in Bobbie Irwin's book, Twined Rag Rugs. Except I used roving, for both warp and weft. This piece is about 12" square.

Tomorrow I'll upload photos from yesterday afternoon's project. And perhaps something else for sale.

THOSE COMMENTS...

Katie, Glad to read that a hooker is reading this! I hope to post more about rug hooking soon.

Robin, Yes! I think that's what appeals to me too about the embroidery on locker-hooking: somewhat disorganized stitches superimposed on a regular background.

Another Beautiful Winter Morning

2009-01-08T10:02:00.006-05:00

After the snow and freezing rain of yesterday, the scenery I encountered when I fed the critters this morning was delightful. A thin coat of ice and snow on the trees and bushes, but not enough to do damage. I could hear the ice cracking delicately with each breeze.

Here is another experiment in lockerhooking, this time with natural-colored roving and created on the sort of canvas grid that is used for rug-hooking. I then did a few embroidery stitches and decided it doesn't work. Now I'm not so sure, I kind of like it. Opinions?

THOSE COMMENTS...

Thank you Rayna, glad you're enjoying the photos. Anyone interested in surface design should take a look at Rayna's blog. She has also authored a book about creating your own hand-printed fabric; information about the book can be accessed through her blog.

A New Spinning Enthusiast

2009-01-07T07:39:00.007-05:00

There was a mixture of rain and snow overnight; there's now a thin crust over everything. Not thick enough to support Bud, but my Silky Terrier Spike was able to slip and slide over the top of the "wintery mix." As I stepped out to the woodshed there was a drizzly sort of mist. The dogs were wet enough to need a quick tour with the towel, something they always happily volunteer for (the trick is to get to them with the towel before they shake a spray of droplets over everything.) A good day to not be out on the roads. A good fiber day.

Last night the Parallel Plyers, our local spinning group got together. For some reason my fob wasn't working and I was unable to get us into our regular meeting place at WEBS. We decided to reconvene at my home where Bud and Spike had a most splendid time "working the room."

Bud settled in for awhile cozied up against Deanna Moore. Apologies for the dark photos; the lighting in my living room is terrible. I need to work on that issue. Deanna didn't get much spinning done because both dogs succeeded in enticing her into playing their various games with them. She didn't seem to mind!

Which way should I turn the wheel? Can this thing go any faster? I plan to have a sweater knit by the end of the evening, just as any respectable Border Collie would.

ABOUT THOSE COMMENTS

Thank you Hippopip for your good wishes for 2009! Hope your year has started off on the right foot :)

2009-01-06T15:19:00.006-05:00

A very eager goat at the feeder. I have a couple of these little guys to neaten things up around the yard all summer. They're quite charming, and compared to other goats (these guys are high percentage Boers, or meat goats) they are rather mannerly.

Probably one of the most invaluable technical projects I did this summer was to create a dye sample chart.

With rare exception, I rely on three dye colors to obtain the colors that I produce. Every hue on this chart- and I did eighty some-odd dye lots- was produced using one, two, or three of those basic three colors in varying proportions.

This is a priceless tool for me because it's far easier now to "nail" a color on the first try.

OK, here's something new for me. I'd seen lots of lockerhooking projects look just awful, even some in books about lockerhooking!

The concept still appeals so I tried using some of my roving "seconds" to hook a sample. This measure about ten by ten. I lockerhooked on a weaving warp (actually did it on my loom) which is a little unusual; most lockerhooking is done on a canvas grid.

A new offering:
Purebred Coopworth batts, originally gray and over-dyed in several hues of magenta. The variation is very subtle including an ever-so -slightly coppery magenta to slightly silvery magenta. When I look at it overall, I think "chocolate cherries".

Here's a close-up. This fiber was from Dooby, my ram. It is on the soft side for Coopworth.

$3.50 per ounce; just under 23 ounces are available but I'm happy to sell small amounts.

A Perfect Winter Day

2009-01-04T14:56:00.001-05:00

Feeding the critters was delightful today. The sun was bright; it was cold but there was no breeze and it just felt good to be working in the fresh air.

The critters had finished their first bale of haylage, opened for them on Christmas Eve. Haylage is hay that is cut and then gathered up before it has had a chance to dry out. It is compressed and wrapped in plastic; the absense of air in the bale causes the grasses to ferment. (Off subject: in the distance are, left to right, the woodshed, Fort Apache the chicken house, our home, and just the peak of the building in which my husband built me a beautiful studio.)

I feed my sheep haylage rather than bales of conventional, dry hay because haylage keeps the fleeces cleaner, the sheep waste far less, and it's more economical.

A bale of haylage weighs in the vicinity of 1200 pounds. In the lower right hand corner of this image you can see a wrapped bale; the one that I just opened is the brownish-green one behind it.

Here's a close-up. When opened, a good bale of haylage has an odor that's been described as "pickles and beer." It's actually quite an appealing odor.

A few words about why I was silent since my post in May. 2008 did not get off to a good start here. There were numerous sad events and losses, and even an attempt to get away from it all for a few days ended in failure. One of the losses was my part time job; my company eliminated an entire sales division this past spring.

I knew that I had an indefinite period of unemployment and needed to find a positive way to spend this time as I sorted through various issues. I made the decision to see this time as a gift and to spend it quietly doing a lot of creative experimenting. Those months were a sort of passage for me between a not-so-good beginning and a much better ending for the year. Not every issue has been resolved- some won't be- but in general things are much better (and, by the way, I was able to find new employment and am in a better place career-wise). But beyond 2008, I made several discoveries and conclusions that will probably shape the path I follow.

Here's the first of many images over the next couple of weeks to get caught up with what I've been up to.

These are what I call stitch-lets; little 4 x 4 samplers of embroidery stitches. The wool is two-ply sock yarn from my own and other Massachusetts sheep; the felt is made up in large sheets from the less desireable (to spinners or knitters) fiber that I separate out when my sheep are shorn.

I love embroidering on felt and am doing these stitch-lets to learn new embroidery stitches and to apply embroidery concepts to felt. Very different from working on evenweave or needlepoint canvas! While I'm learning how to work on a scale that's larger than most embroidery work, it helps to keep the projects... and associated failures as well as triumphs- small. I love the texture, the variations in color, and especially the fact that this takes me back to when I was a little girl experimenting with felt. It was during the summer that I realized this connection to my past. I'll most-likely be posting lots more stitch-let images.

Catching Up...

2009-01-03T16:50:00.001-05:00

I'll be catching up with photos and comments in no particular order. For starters, here are some of the critters yesterday, the day after a snowfall, awaiting their daily ration.

A long-overdue progress report on Bud! Here are a couple of photos taken late fall. As you can see, he has the sheeps' respect and he knows how to keep up the tension but not put his charges into a panic. He looks to me for direction (wish I could always be up to the task). We have a few bad habits to work on, but he is turning out to be a very good worker. And a wonderful companion off the job! He continues to be a food thief; his latest conquest was the last of a loaf of fruitcake today. Not the kind you're glad to get rid of; rather, the kind that you hate to see dwindle away. Dwindle it did not.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T06:50:00.000-05:00

Wishing you a very wonderful and peaceful Christmas. I'll be back soon with a few comments about my long silence!

Happier Days

2008-05-31T11:39:00.000-04:00

Here is Bud. Bud came to live with us one month ago today. When I ran into my good friend Victoria Huff the day after Abby died, she reminded me that there might be a wonderful dog out there somewhere, waiting to be rescued. I went home and began searching for the Border Collie rescue groups.

I found Sweet Border Collie Rescue at Glen Highland Farm. This organization is the life work of Lillie Goodrich along with her husband and co-founder, John Andersen. Since its inception, they have placed almost 1000 Border Collies. E-mails flew back and forth; Lillie selected several candidates, drove an hour and a half to the farm of Warren Mick, a herding dog trainer, and had each dog evaluated with actual sheep to determine herding potential.

Bud was the shining star among the herding candidates. Two days later we drove to Glen Highland Farm, located just outside Oneonta NY, along with our little Silky Terrier Spike so that we could all meet. Bud and Spike hit it off immediately and we began the journey home.

Bud is a treasure. Sweet, playful, attentive, grateful, comes when called, adapted quickly to the invisible fence, truly penitent- every time- when caught swiping food off the counter, devoted. He made many friends at my booth at the WEBS tent sale two weeks ago and charms all he meets when he visits my mother with me at Linda Manor, a local nursing home. He has stolen my heart.

It's hard to imagine that his first family gave him up! Sadly, this happens too often with Border Collies. Many people are charmed by the intelligence and playfulness of the breed, buy a puppy and then are overwhelmed when the herding instinct kicks in and they find that their sweet pup is chasing the kids and nipping at their legs. Although Bud negotiates that balance between good manners and herding instinct gracefully, at some point during his puppyhood the circumstances of his first family changed and he was crated constantly for the five months prior to being relinquished to rescue.

The Glen Highland Farm site is a wealth of information on the Border Collie mind, rescue in general, canine health and nutrition, programs bringing inner city kids and dogs in need of friends together, seminars, success stories about BC's finding meaningful work in keeping golf courses clear of Canada Geese, and profiles of adoption candidates. If you are as inspired by this organization as I am, please consider making a financial contribution. A donor has offered to match every donation dollar up to $15,000! This is a worthy cause for anyone who loves to wear or work with wool. There needs to be a role for Border Collies in this culture. Maintaining a pool of herding dog talent is part of the infrastructure that keeps sheep on our hillsides and local wool available.

Bud is just over one year old and it is still early for him to work sheep. He and I will be heading to Greenfield MA in a couple of days for our first lesson in working with sheep with trainer Denise Leonard. I'll keep you posted!

Remembering Abby

2008-04-19T11:42:00.000-04:00

Abby passed away very early this morning. She was 3/4 Border Collie and 1/4 Australian Shepherd, eight years old, and had the sweetest disposition of any dog I've ever had. Although not well-trained in herding sheep she was still very useful to me when caring for my flock and I'll miss her dearly, both as a friend and as an assistant.

In late March I noticed that Abby seemed a little less enthusiastic and her appetite wasn't up to par. We were away the first week of April and the friend caring for her reported that she hardly ate a thing. That trend continued, she lost weight, grew weak, looked anemic (gums and inner eyelids), developed labored breathing, and lay around all day. I don't know if there's a connection, but her beautiful coat changed: not as flowing, and brown hair started growing along her spine where she had always been blue merle. She remained sweet- can you see it in her eyes? This photo was taken three days ago before she was taken to a nearby veterinary hospital for an ultrasound.

Abby was found to have pancreatitis and treatment was begun (pain medications, tests, re hydration with IV fluids, fresh frozen plasma). We visited her yesterday evening and found her no better; I knew, just being with her, that her outlook was poor. Her breathing was even more labored and she was ill at ease. I asked the staff to let the veterinarian know that I wished to discuss taking Abby home.

A call came at 2:30 am. Chest films indicated that her lungs had extensive cancer, probably part of the process that had started destroying her pancreas. They had placed her on oxygen and it was time to decide how to proceed. We drove to the hospital; Abby seemed more like herself, giving us a slow wag of the tail when she saw us. The oxygen had probably provided enough pep for her to be acting more like herself. She lay down quietly on a blanket and we sat on the floor with her. I told her how wonderful she had been, how she'd help me with the sheepies. Then, as the vet helped her slip away, she gave me one last kiss.

Abby never really understood what toys were for but she did have a little stuffed, earless and bedraggled Lambie that she would sometimes seek out and deliver graciously to my lap. Lambie is now nestled with Abby in a blanket, under the apple tree in the backyard in which Abby spent eight contented years.

Please hug your dog. Monitor his or her health closely; your dog, like Abby may be a stoic and suffer without complaint. I think that Abby had a reasonably good life during her last few weeks, but I regret that her last 36 hours were spent in a hospital.

Undyeing Devotion

2008-04-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

I have a very large amount of yarn, shorn from Massachusetts sheep and spun into off-white sportweight yarn at a Massachusetts spinning mill. Although I'm a devoted dyer, I think I can spare a little. I personally sorted fleeces for this project, choosing mostly down and medium fleeces, with some longwool fleeces to add strength and luster. Before spinning, nylon was blended into the fiber at 15% by weight. This yarn was spun from the fleeces of white sheep only at a grist that yields 93 yards per ounce, under minimal tension, AFTER DYEING. One skein is more than enough to knit a pair of men's socks in size large.

Each four ounce skein is $8.00; for the next few weeks I'll be lowering the price of four or more skeins to $6.00 each. Drop me an e-mail (sojournerdesign@gmail.com) if you'd like some skeins!

And the day after....

2008-03-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

A damp drizzly cold day in Massachusetts, and the girls are dressed in only their skivvies! They've spent much of the day under cover.

Shearing Day

2008-03-28T17:38:00.000-04:00

Just a few quick shots of yesterday's shearing. Most shearers use electric shears: in my opinion, awkward and noisy. Kevin is a blade shearer: he shears by hand without electricity. If a sheep struggles he very quietly and patiently reassures her. It's usually the friendly sheep who are the least cooperative; the ones that think that all humans are axe murderers usually relax once they know that the situation is out of their control!

Gathering In the Sheep for Shearing

2008-03-26T14:38:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post and a few shots- this is a hectic week.
My dog Abby and I rounded up the flock, who were contentedly sunbathing in the pasture on the other side of the brook, and brought them in to prepare for shearing.

It's best to confine sheep in a clean, dry spot the afternoon before shearing so that they're all collected when the shearer comes and their fleeces are free of moisture. Now they will bide their time, chewing their cud, until Kevin the shearer gets here in the morning.

Wish I could show more photos- I have some nice ones just taken- but the software is insisting on them being placed right next to each other and I don't have time to figure out why.

I've gathered twenty-one large plastic bags, a trash barrel in which the bags will be supported as they're stuffed with freshly-shorn fleeces, a broom to clean the shearing surface off between each sheep, and 21 cards to identify which fleece belongs to whom. Now it's time to shower and go buy provisions for tomorrow's lunch. Shearing is hard work, and it's always important to feed the shearer! Then on to my crochet class taught by Linda of Northampton Wools.

2008-03-10T18:04:00.000-04:00

OK, this is one of the projects I've been working on lately: Evol-HUE-tion Yarn. Subtitled, Color Flowing Gracefully. Here is one of the skeins, dyed and wound into a center-pull ball so that the knitter can immediately start a pair using the two socks at a time method. Socks knit from this ball will begin with a magenta hue in the cuff or toe area that evolves through orange to a polite yellow hue around the instep, then back to magenta. More details about the yarn, as well as other colorways, on the Yarn page of my web site, here.

The sock, knit by Mary Alice Baker, is an example of a ball of Evol-HUE-tion with just one color change.

Two balls have sold since this post; there is one ball remaining of the Magenta/yellow colorway of Evol-HUE-tion yarn available at $25.00 per ball, and shipping will be free for the first Internet buyer.

How Do I Do This?

2008-03-09T17:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first Blog entry for Sojourner Design! I am Diane Roeder, CES and CED (that's Chief Executive Shepherd and Chief Executive Dyer) at Sojourner Design which is the fiber part of Sojourner Sheep. If you don't know me, please feel free to visit my web site at www.sojournersheep.com.

My main goal in establishing this blog is to do a better job of bringing my fiber products to market. I've found that my web site never keeps up with what's going on in the dye lab and hope that the answer will be this blog.

Although I'm not much of a writer, a secondary goal is to create a commentary, whenever possible, about lif as the shepherd of a small flock of sheep. I hope to include photos and perhaps, eventually, videos clips.

OK, for starters and just to see how easy it is to post photos, I've just taken a photo of today's work in progress. It's a pound of roving dyed in two colors that gradually flow back and forth into each other: lime and teal. Not yet ready for market; there's more of that roving that I want to dye in the same manner.

But it's a good first photo because in the background you can see my chicken house (called Fort Apache) to the right, a few sheep loitering near the haylage bales, and the funky little trailer that I use for summer quarters for my chickens so that they can free-range over the entire property, moving to a fresh area every few days.

Further into the background is the hill. Although my sheep are now in their winter quarters and confined to the area right behind the house, during the summer months my flock rotates through fresh pastures extending up the hill and over about 17 acres on the hilltop. During those months I drive my little Honda 4-wheeler up the hill (you can see the road meandering its way) to care for them. More on that in a few months.

Well this worked very nicely and it's time to publish. I'll be back soon with photos of fiber items that are ready to go to new homes.