I'd Rather Dye Laughing

That's actually the name of a book about dying! I have it here somewhere.
This washed out picture is of a huge hank of yarn I finished spinning yesterday. It's really nice. I'm running out of colored rovings, and all of my white fiber is at the processors being made into rovings. When they are finished, I'm going to be on a dying frenzy.


I couldn't wait any longer, so I put a skein of beige yarn in the crock pot with the cochineal that I got in Peru.
I could swear I've written about this already, I have a real sense of deja vu, but oh well, you'll get this twice.
This looks nice in the pot, but when I took it out and rinsed it, most of the color came out. That is the problem with natural dyes. We shall see how it looks when it dries.

This is how they dye in Peru. I think I'll stick to my crock pots.

I don't think they rinse the yarns after processing the dye bath. That is why his colors are so bright. I don't know, I'm not sure. But here we are with the fellow who gave me the cochineal. He was so excited when he found out I dye my own fiber, he gave it to me. This is a good picture to show the difference in the size of the Peruvians and the "healthy" Americans. I think at this altitude, about 12,000 feet, the air pressure pushes down on them so hard, they can't get any bigger. I know by the fifth day, I thought my heart was going to burst. I was very happy to get back down to sea level.

This is where you get cochineal. You can see the dusty grey that looks like mold. It is a bug that lives off the cactus. When you squish it, it bleeds brilliant scarlet. Just beautiful.

Last thing, I have a new follower: Labrador Retriever. Now what kind of name is that? I'll never figure out who it might be. I love Labrador Retrievers, so hey buddy, leave me a comment, woof woof.

Who Has Time for Housework?

It was a gorgeous sunny day today, the kind of day that makes you happy to be living in the Pacific Northwest. The girls were enjoying a sunbath, being fed up with the many days of rain we have seen.

After washing up the barn and doing some halter training, I made some phone calls and then went to work in the studio.




I was pretty happy with this little number until I photographed it and saw it was crooked.
I can't do any quilting other than in the ditch until I get my Brother repaired. My little old
'90 year old repairman seems to be out of town.


I've been working on some strip quilts, too. Fun and easy.
I have so many WIPs, I'm having a blast finishing things.




Here is a felt hat I made. It is sewn from alpaca felt from our critters, I needlefelted the flower, and I trimmed the edge with bias cut fabric.

I'm still working on this wallet, made of felt.

Gonna add some more contrast to this one.

A trivet. Sort of practiced my buttonhole stitch on this one and it is now much improved. Might do this over.

And, another hat. These look just adorable on young girls, but awful on me. I'm a real hat person and can usually pull any hat off with flair, but not these little skullcaps.

One last item. I had my colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago. Got the results back and the four polyps removed were pre-cancerous. They were entirely removed, but now I have to have the procedure done more frequently. Oh, goody. Hey, they can prevent the cancer, so I will do what I have to.

Purls of Wisdom from the Witty Knitters

We had another uproarious meeting at the library last night. I really think we need to find a name for this group. Knit Night at the Library is just too unexceptional for us.
I was working on my felt bags and hats, and Joyce was tying a quilt, so we don't just knit. Linda W. was helping Pat with a scarf she had made. She had dropped some stitches while binding off and couldn't find them. Linda said she was "tinking", knitting backwards.

Here is a poem that Shawndra wrote. I just love it.

Row by Row

Look at the skein,
touch it with your hand.
Roll it through your fingers
take the time
Let the memory linger.

Look at the pattern
Read the knits and purls.
See how the stitches flow
find the secret answer
That leads where to go.

Find the Guage and size
Pick up your best needles.
Ones your hands long to hold.
Start casting on
Let your love unfold

count your stitches
adjust it to your need.
Admire your beautiful rows
Smile when you knit,
Because your love will always show.

When you're almost done
Ready to cast off
Give it one more touch
Say godd bye friend
We've given each other much

It's okay to be sad
when the last stitch
from the needle slides,
Because another yarn
Is ready to unhide.

When you knit and purl
remember a few things.
It's not a perfect stitch
That makes the love show
It's the smiling heart
That is painted row by row.

Shawndra Gonzales
5-29-09

Memories and Panties

When I'm washing the barn out in the mornings, if I don't have a book to listen to, my mind wanders back in time. Today I was thinking of an incident that happened when I was in the 8th grade. Don't ask me why, who can explain.

These pictures are ones I have on my office wall. Not very clear in the interpretation, but you can see my Mom in the first picture, me and my brother on Easter morning, my mom and dad when they were "courting", and an earlier Easter picture.

I was pondering how well my parents raised me, and how they handled discipline. They had their issues which were hard on my brother and me as children, but as an adult, my Mom became my best friend. BFF. She was my rock, my cheerleader and my safe harbor. Oh, how I miss her.

So anyhow, back to the story. Remember PE class when you had to strip down naked and take a shower in front of everyone? What a terrible thing to do to kids in the midst of developing puberty. Well, one week, some of the girls announced we were going to have a contest for the wildest panties. I was not a popular girl from the "in" crowd. I was very shy. I know, hard to believe, but very true. On Friday the winner was announced and it was ME! I think you know I have always been attracted to loud and wild colors. My panties that day were a wild leaf pattern in browns, orange and greens. Wow, my first ever prize of recognition. My award was a roll of toilet paper that all the girls in the class had autographed. And as girls will, they wrote some pretty nasty comments about different boys in our class.
Somehow, a teacher got hold of the roll of TP and turned it into the Principal. Well, soon I, along with several other girls, got called into his office. I was a good girl and never got in trouble, and was totally devastated by this event. That night, as I was doing my homework, my right arm went numb. I freaked out and ran out to the living room to tell my parents. When I tried to speak, I couldn't!! It was like my tongue had swollen twice it's size, and I couldn't form words.
Rather than get hysterical, my folks turned the TV off and very calmly started asking me questions about my day. Finally, it came out and I told them about the trip to the Principal's office. Soon I had feeling in my arm again, and I could talk. I had tried to keep this from them and had experienced my first ever panic attack. They weren't mad at me, and gave me hugs, and sent me back to my homework without making a big deal of it.
What a silly little event in the life of a girl, but this has stayed with me all these years. Yes, I was a good girl, and I guess I couldn't bear the thought of my parents thinking anything other of me.

So now, the end, on to other things.
I am working on some felt purses and clutches that I will share with you in a few days.
DH and I are trying to edit our 577 pictures from Peru into a 30 minute slideshow to present at the Library on Sunday. Today we have carrots to freeze. Hmmmm, I wonder if I should save the carrot juice? No, we only parboil them, I don't think we'd get enough color. Oh, well.
On to work on the carrots. Thanks for joining me on my trip down memory lane.

A Yucky Day

I like to get your attention with pictures of Pippi Longstockings. She's so darn cute.

And did you hear? Gooseberry Patch is having a giveaway, calling all bloggers. Who doesn't love Gooseberry Patch?

It's that time for me again. I am getting all of my fiber ready to go off to the mill to be spun into yarn. Hmmm, I think I have about 300 pounds left to work on.
This second picture, for those of you who haven't seen it, is my fiber tumbler. I put the fleece in there and it goes around like a ferris wheel and all the dust and dirt come out. It's a messy dirty job. Hey, maybe I should call Mike Rowe.

I had more pictures loaded, but I guess the movie nudged them out.
Today we are freezing beets from the garden. I am reducing the beet juice to use as a dye bath. I'll let you know later how it turns out.

Winter is just around the corner, and we are having nasty wind and rain, and the ugly months are upon us. One thing I love about this time is the return of the Canada geese and the Trumpeter Swans.
The movie isn't much, but the sound is what I love. The geese are trying to decide whether to land in our corn field or the one to the south.
Keep warm and dry.

Fort Hood Quilts

Just a quick not to spread the word. Someone is collecting quilts for the 31 survivors of that terrible attack in Fort Hood. There are 31 victims in the hospital. Go to Lynda's blog for the details. She has a link to the person organizing it.

Santa's Workshop

Kimmie over at Art in Red Wagons commented that it looked like I had a Santa's Workshop going. Well, I do. Ever since I learned to sew in Junior High, I have made Chrismas presents. When I was in school, I would put a sign on my bedroom door that said "Santa's Workshop, DO NOT ENTER!". I always made my mom some sort of loungewear, my brother pajamas and my dad a nightshirt. The first year I made a nightshirt it was a bit of a joke, but he liked it so much, I had to make him one every year thereafter.

This week I made some potpourri from stuff found in my yard. It smells really fresh, like evergreens. I used sage, and cedar and fir, cones from the fir and cedar trees, yellow cottoneaster berries, the pink berries from my Yahoo tree, and some horse chestnuts. I dehydrated it all, and then put it in canning jars with these little petal type decorations.

It's been a wet, rainy, yucky day, and Eve is happy because all the other girls are in the barn with her. She is looking and acting much better.

That's it for today, unless someone can tell me how to delete a comment?

Oh, one more thing. I have greatly reduced the prices of my items on Etsy, so you should hop on over to take a look. There is a link on my right sidebar.