Working a difficult fiber and winning!

As I prepare for Festival season, I was looking upon the fiber stash and had green in mind, thinking Spring. I pulled out some mohair from our girls that was really dirty. I washed it a few times but it still had some vegetable matter in it. I tried the hand carders (pictured) but it was daunting. While dyeing it, it matted somewhat and was hard to do by hand.

I pulled out the big guns, the Drum Carder. I dyed the mohair lots of different shades of green so it needed some blending too.

Feeding the mohair into the bottom makes it easy to turn. My bucket list is an electric one! It gets rough on the arms turning.

It provided me with a nice blend of colors which will spin up nice.

Removing it off the carder is easy with this nifty tool

There it is! A beautiful batt, blended and ready to spin. 

So now, I sit down with a cup of tea, my blended mohair and some evening TV by the fire. This is called life!

A Taste of Spring

Perhaps the Groundhog has something on it's recent prognostication that we will have an early Spring. In Connecticut we are having a very mild Winter. These daffodils are coming up in our gardens. Everything is stirring to bloom. We had temperatures in the 50's today and it was beautiful! The honeybees were out having their cleansing flights.    

With just a little over 3 weeks until Spring and about 8 weeks until planting time, it was time to get some seeds started. This beautiful mini greenhouse was gifted to me when I went to pick it up after answering an ad. When I got there it was a long time fellow wildlife friend who wouldn't let me pay for it. 

I planted some early Basil and Parsley...

placed it in the front window and wait for them to come up. It's been a long winter with no snow, just a mediocre winter at best. We are ready for Spring!

Even Autumn, who by the way she was laying today, rather enjoyed the day too!

Pins, pins and more pins!

While waiting for winter to pass, sitting next to the wood burning stove and trying to stay warm, I've been busy at the felting board. With some Fiber shows coming up and thinking about doing some other shows, I was thinking I need to add something to my inventory. 

An old design I made necklaces from a few years back. I made these in many colors.

Thinking Spring I made some nest pins. We have not had much of a winter here in Connecticut, no snow, just rain and mud everywhere! This pin gave me inspiration for Spring which will be here in just 5 weeks!

As I got working I realized I needed a shelf to display all the pins. Tim has been working so much that he just didn't have time so I looked online and found this one! I measured it and realized I had to cut down my tags so I did. It is perfect for displaying all the pins. 

I had made these back in the fall and went looking for them. A candy corn says fall all the way!

I made this paw print one first..

which put me on a path to make a whole bunch of them in different colors! I was looking up different paw prints like bear, bobcat and others! The possibilities are endless. So as we wait for this endless winter to pass, I'll just keep busy!

The difference is real!

The difference is real, between store bought eggs (even if they claim to be organic) and ones from chickens that are raised in sunlight and fresh air. At the top is a store bought egg with claims to be organic and at the bottom a fertilized egg from our own chickens. Most store bought eggs from chickens that claim to be free ranged are often kept in big barns, packed together with no sunlight. They can get away with this claim because after all they are free to move around if that's what you call it. 

Sadly I had to buy eggs because our girls are laying slow these days because of the cold. The eggs are coming along, a few a day. It's a buyer beware world out there, know your eggs!