Another Beautiful Winter Morning

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

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 :)

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

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...

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

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

Happier Days

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!