I just came in from watering my cotton plants. Planted brown/rust this year and five came up. They have been blooming and setting bolls for a while now. I thought this second day bloom was pretty. Too bad that the blooms do not last longer. First day it is creamy white and the second day it is pink and then it falls off. I love the little *hands* that the plant makes. They hold the boll that forms. I do not, however like them when they are dried up and I am picking the cotton. One has to be very careful not to have them crumble and get all over the fibers.

Okay, so it is not exactly like making a silk purse out of a sows ear.......but.. I have twin CoopworthXScottish Blackface wethers. The wool is not next to the skin soft, so what are my choices? I thought maybe something felted would work well. Yesterday I whipped out a Mesa bowl. Took no time at all to knit. This morning I felted it. Washing machine, hot wash/cold rinse/extra rinse. I did two cycles with old jeans and towels. I like the results. I am thinking that some embellishment is in order. Beads maybe. I think there is enough yarn for at least one more bowl, perhaps two. This is the ball of yarn that was in a previous post about dyeing. I like the shape of the bowl and the name. Mesa. Also that it looks like turquoise. All came together happily. I love it when that happens.

Bobbin Lace

Thought I would show a bit of bobbin lace. Really hard to photograph when it is behind plastic.That is why it only shows part of the ruler. (reflected flash) This is a book mark that I elongated to fit into a ruler. I have been making bobbin lace since 2000. Not a lot of experience yet. I really enjoy exploring it when I have the time. So far, I have only done Torchon and a bit of Bedfordshire. There are so many laces to try and so little time!

As I said, Christmas is coming. This year a lot of people will be getting something to keep their hands cozy. Wonder how many I can finish before December 24th? They are hand spun. Left to right, silk plied with angora rabbit, Merino, Merino and the one in progress is BFL. I have started another pair with mohair. Pictures later if I remember or someone reminds me. ;-)

I have been busy making things for the annual sale/trade day. I will be adding earrings this year that look like drop spindles and have used hand spun on them. Mostly silk. Sale/trade day is a lot of fun. This is an annual event and people come for the day. We spin and knit, shop, eat, and have a lot of laughs. The local group is very talented. Fiber, yarns, soaps and lotions, jewelry and all manner of spinning, knitting and weaving related things are available. If you belong to a group this is a wonderful way to trade or sell things that you have created or no longer use.

Gifts for Sheep Mommies

The hat is two ply ColumbiaXSufflok. Here name is Spreckles. This is a gift for her owner who does not spin, so I got the fleece. I also got a Dorset fleece from another friend called Honey. The ewe, not the friend, although I do not know what her husband calls her. ;-) I dyed the yarn with koolade. I had it on hand for dyeing with kids. Needed something in a hurry and no stock solutions made up. Pink lemonade for the mitts and cherry/black raspberry for the hat.

It has been a while...

Sorry Blog..............
It has been a lo-o-o-ng time. I have been so very busy. Keep thinking everyday that today is the day to update. So TODAY is the day. Will try to do better,really I will.
Now on to a small update. The group had a dye day recently and the few of us that were there had success with dyeing in skeins, roving and balls. It was fun to inject the balls and see the results when after dyeing they were wound into skeins to dry. It was about 108 degrees that day so they dried quickly! The lower picture is of the yarns after drying and rewinding into balls. Two are hand spun and two are KnitPicks Bare sock yarn. The dye did not penetrate well into the interior of the Bare so the insides of the balls are lighter. When I divided the dyed balls for sock knitting you could see the difference. I will have to knit socks two at a time from the inside and outside of a ball going as far as it will and then use the lighter ball to finish the socks, A bit of a pain to do it that way, but it can be done. The ball of greens in the lower picture is Nubbin, one of my CoopworthXScottish Blackface twins. They are a surprise as we did not know that Sequoia was bred when I bought her.
The balls below it are hand spun BFL with nylon that I had blended at the mill especially for socks. It is three ply. I used lavender/purple/emerald and injected the ball. We used Jacquard dyes.