Showing posts with label fiber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiber. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wordless Wednesday - Not Fiber-Obsessed? Me?
Not that I'm fiber-obsessed or anything. Noooo. But I thought I'd share some of my Etsy favorites at the moment.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Back... How Do I Fit It All In?
Finally back to blogging. I's been an interesting couple weeks. We have spent most days going to dd#1's apartment, a 45 min. drive away. We packed, cleaned out, scrubbed, and filled a storage unit. Then they had nearly a week wait while their mortgage agent got the closing date wrong.
A week ago today they finally closed. We started going up to their house again, coming home at 11PM or midnight. We peeled old wallpaper and painted (most main-floor rooms needed 2 coats; the bath and kitchen needed 3 coats).
We painted trim in the kids' rooms and a mural in Jeremiah's room. He said it had to have a road, a car, and four buildings, one of which must be a gas station! I made 2 of the buildings be an actual pic of the house & storage building... and one is a train station! He was THRILLED!
Here is a preview. Apparently I didn't take a pic of the finished product!
When they took the living room carpet up on Sunday, there were about 20 years worth of pet pee, grime, mold spots, and a burned area that looked suspiciously like a cat under a Christmas tree. So I spent part of Sunday (after finishing the mural) and part of Monday this week scrubbing the hardwoods on my hands and knees. Hard work, plus I hairline-fractured my right wrist in my one and only motorcycle mishap 5 years ago, so that has been quite a strain. Anyway the floors are passable until they can light-sand and buff them.
Monday Tony and Artemas painted the ceiling twice (someone had painted it Charcoal, for some reason) and moved in the biggest pieces of furniture. Des and I arranged them, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned about half the other boxes out of the storage unit, put up curtains and art. The house is starting to look like home.
You can only imagine what effect all this has had on me own home life. Whew. Hard to keep up, really.
But! I did manage to finish a mini-quilt for a swap I was in. Being as I am a couple days late mailing it, I made a pillow cover that will fit a 14" pillowform to match. I hope the recipient will like it. Kaleidoscope is visually one of my favorite patterns, though difficult to execute accurately. These blocks are 4" finished, so the quilt top is 22" high by 26" wide. I called it Afrikaleidoscope.
And, Diantha and I managed to wash some wonderful raw Corriedale wool that we can add to batts to put in her shop. Here is a picture of the crimp on this fiber before washing. Note how fine it is and that the staple is 5" long! After washing, the wool is so white and fluffy, it is like a cloud. Simply gorgeous.
So Friday I bought a new weapon. I didn't go intending to purchase one, but my dh had seen a couple the day before at Coal Creek Armory, where we took our CCW class and where we go to use the firing range. So, being game, I went to look. I have had a Bersa Thunder UC9 on order since early Feb. which hasn't come yet. Apparently our non-2nd-amendment-controlling government is not allowing them in the country from where they are manufactured in Argentina. As you can see, it is a fine firearm.
But what they had at the armory was a Sccy (formerly Skyy) CPX-1 9mm. The weapon plus an extra, 10-round magazine was less than $200 so we bought it. And I absolutely love it! I took it into the range just for a minute to shoot one clip and I just LOVE the way it feels in the hands. It has an ambidextrous operation, slide locks open when the magazine is empty, manual safety plus a double-action trigger pull of 9 pounds, which is heavier than my dh's Keltec (at 8#), which is the entire safety on that firearm.
So today we went to the range to blow off some steam and some ammo. (All shots shown were from 21ft except those I shot from 45 feet.) Richard
did well. On the left, the grayed-out shots are from his Kel-tec, the white from my Sccy, first time he ever fired it. He said, "There is something wrong with this weapon... it is too accurate!" LoL!
This target of mine (on the right) has an interesting story. The brown shots were from 45ft., farther away than one should ever have to shoot for self-defense unless being fired upon. Most courts would say that if one is that far away, the threat of death isn't immine
nt and one should find another way out. Still nice to know, that any of these "brown" shots would land within the body, even at that distance. And note one of the shots went clean through the hole in the target that was used to hang it on the peg in the store! LOL! Total accident.
Oh here is another story about that target. See the ONE white shot way down at the bottom? I was shooting the small cluster in the upper right (1 oclock) in the 9 ring when a piece of brass ejected and, even though my tank top didn't have a very low neck, went RIGHT in my cleavage and burnt me! I clutched at my shirt to isolate the hot cartridge so it wouldn't burn me more, and completely forgot to lay down the weapon. For a second there I was jumping around with a loaded gun in my hand, trying to retrieve that shell! Thank GOD I didn't have my finger in the trigger guard, but I think I scared a couple people there for a minute. LOL. Anyway after that I musta been good and mad at it, cause that's when I got all the center-cluster shots.
One more. I don't like Richard's Kel-tec. The vertical grip grooves dig my thumb web and the gun, weighing nothing, kicks too much to suit me. But just to be a good sport, I shot a 6-round clip from it, the brown circles on this target. Where is the 6th shot, you say? It went through the tape holding the target to the backstop. Then just to be a brat and show I could do better, I did 2 mags worth of ammo (loading only 9 rounds each) from my Sccy.
I hope I never do have to use my weapon in self-defense. But if I do, watch out world.
A week ago today they finally closed. We started going up to their house again, coming home at 11PM or midnight. We peeled old wallpaper and painted (most main-floor rooms needed 2 coats; the bath and kitchen needed 3 coats).
We painted trim in the kids' rooms and a mural in Jeremiah's room. He said it had to have a road, a car, and four buildings, one of which must be a gas station! I made 2 of the buildings be an actual pic of the house & storage building... and one is a train station! He was THRILLED!
Here is a preview. Apparently I didn't take a pic of the finished product!
When they took the living room carpet up on Sunday, there were about 20 years worth of pet pee, grime, mold spots, and a burned area that looked suspiciously like a cat under a Christmas tree. So I spent part of Sunday (after finishing the mural) and part of Monday this week scrubbing the hardwoods on my hands and knees. Hard work, plus I hairline-fractured my right wrist in my one and only motorcycle mishap 5 years ago, so that has been quite a strain. Anyway the floors are passable until they can light-sand and buff them.
Monday Tony and Artemas painted the ceiling twice (someone had painted it Charcoal, for some reason) and moved in the biggest pieces of furniture. Des and I arranged them, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned about half the other boxes out of the storage unit, put up curtains and art. The house is starting to look like home.
You can only imagine what effect all this has had on me own home life. Whew. Hard to keep up, really.
But! I did manage to finish a mini-quilt for a swap I was in. Being as I am a couple days late mailing it, I made a pillow cover that will fit a 14" pillowform to match. I hope the recipient will like it. Kaleidoscope is visually one of my favorite patterns, though difficult to execute accurately. These blocks are 4" finished, so the quilt top is 22" high by 26" wide. I called it Afrikaleidoscope.
And, Diantha and I managed to wash some wonderful raw Corriedale wool that we can add to batts to put in her shop. Here is a picture of the crimp on this fiber before washing. Note how fine it is and that the staple is 5" long! After washing, the wool is so white and fluffy, it is like a cloud. Simply gorgeous.So Friday I bought a new weapon. I didn't go intending to purchase one, but my dh had seen a couple the day before at Coal Creek Armory, where we took our CCW class and where we go to use the firing range. So, being game, I went to look. I have had a Bersa Thunder UC9 on order since early Feb. which hasn't come yet. Apparently our non-2nd-amendment-controlling government is not allowing them in the country from where they are manufactured in Argentina. As you can see, it is a fine firearm.
But what they had at the armory was a Sccy (formerly Skyy) CPX-1 9mm. The weapon plus an extra, 10-round magazine was less than $200 so we bought it. And I absolutely love it! I took it into the range just for a minute to shoot one clip and I just LOVE the way it feels in the hands. It has an ambidextrous operation, slide locks open when the magazine is empty, manual safety plus a double-action trigger pull of 9 pounds, which is heavier than my dh's Keltec (at 8#), which is the entire safety on that firearm.So today we went to the range to blow off some steam and some ammo. (All shots shown were from 21ft except those I shot from 45 feet.) Richard
did well. On the left, the grayed-out shots are from his Kel-tec, the white from my Sccy, first time he ever fired it. He said, "There is something wrong with this weapon... it is too accurate!" LoL!This target of mine (on the right) has an interesting story. The brown shots were from 45ft., farther away than one should ever have to shoot for self-defense unless being fired upon. Most courts would say that if one is that far away, the threat of death isn't immine
nt and one should find another way out. Still nice to know, that any of these "brown" shots would land within the body, even at that distance. And note one of the shots went clean through the hole in the target that was used to hang it on the peg in the store! LOL! Total accident.Oh here is another story about that target. See the ONE white shot way down at the bottom? I was shooting the small cluster in the upper right (1 oclock) in the 9 ring when a piece of brass ejected and, even though my tank top didn't have a very low neck, went RIGHT in my cleavage and burnt me! I clutched at my shirt to isolate the hot cartridge so it wouldn't burn me more, and completely forgot to lay down the weapon. For a second there I was jumping around with a loaded gun in my hand, trying to retrieve that shell! Thank GOD I didn't have my finger in the trigger guard, but I think I scared a couple people there for a minute. LOL. Anyway after that I musta been good and mad at it, cause that's when I got all the center-cluster shots.
One more. I don't like Richard's Kel-tec. The vertical grip grooves dig my thumb web and the gun, weighing nothing, kicks too much to suit me. But just to be a good sport, I shot a 6-round clip from it, the brown circles on this target. Where is the 6th shot, you say? It went through the tape holding the target to the backstop. Then just to be a brat and show I could do better, I did 2 mags worth of ammo (loading only 9 rounds each) from my Sccy.I hope I never do have to use my weapon in self-defense. But if I do, watch out world.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tackled by Tuesday, Shoot, a Package, and a Product Review
Today we did a Tackle-it Tuesday with the end of our family room that holds videos, video equipment, etc. We must own several hundred videos, and today we sorted them, cleaned out that end of the room, put Xbox controllers all in a basket and the games all in a file cabinet, and generally made the area around the TV look peaceful again.
My original plan for the day was to pin out a quilt top that I have ready, and piece together 2 others. Sounds like too much for one day, but one is a mini and one is all laid out in order to sew. Alas, my plans aren't always, or even usually, what actually happens.
Instead I got up today and took 5 LARGE boxes of good, clean baby clothes to our local Project Hope. Then Artemas and I went to the range to shoot a little. I got these awesome pictures. The one of Artemas shooting, I actually and accidentally captured the cloud of cordite and the bullet, making its way to the target. Too cool.
These two targets are mine. The one on the left was shot with the .22 Ruger longbarrel. You can see the cluster is in an area 1.5" x 2". The other target, while not centered, still shows the shots clustered in a 2" x 3" area. To give me some credit, the target was only 6" across and was shot from about 20 feet away. I shot it with our Lorcin .380, which is the one I carry, until my Bersa Thunder comes in. I like the .22 better, but being a longbarrel, it looks funny down the back of my pants. LOL.
Ok, on to other things! When we got home, I tackled the laundry once again. DH was off work yesterday, and we ended up spending the entire day in Knoxville. Seriously we didn't get home until like 9 PM. That is kind of late to start Monday Laundry Madness. So I did all 7 loads today and folded them. As incentive to get them done and put away, I folded them all over our bed. Can't go to sleep until it is done! (And it *is* done.)
Here is one that tackled ME. We got a new computer, a smoking-hot Dell, a few months ago. Since then, I have put off and put off having to sift through files on the old computer, suck them onto a flash drive or something portable, and put them in the new computer. Today I discovered I needed an MSWorks type application and guess what? Our laptop AND the new computer do not either one have it. The old one did. So I had to sit down and transfer files. Note on the screen, this ONE folder it is transferring says it has 114 minutes remaining in the transfer! (Also note how many folders I had done already!) When I hooked the drive up to our new computer, it transferred ALL the files in 3 minutes 14 seconds. Quite a difference. I am so spoiled.
Ok yesterday I put out a teaser about a spindle sent to me by my beautiful friend Marion in Indiana. She has a shop, Mommbaear7, but she is in well-deserved vacation mode right now.
She sent me 5.6 oz of this gorgeous superwash in pacific blue with flecks of pink and gold... also 170 yards of incredibly soft 2-ply handspun in gray and white
(thinking a little top-down raglan sweater for Betsy on huge needles), and the spindle.
The top of the spindle is bone, carved with two elephants. On the underside of the bone, she has pressed and baked thin layers of this very Aborigine-design polymer clay cane in black and white turtles. I LOVE it. And you can see, I have already given it a whirl, so to speak, to test it out.
While I am mentioning whirling things, go on over to Feeling Sheepish for a wonderful giveaway of 2 oz. of handpainted milk-protein fiber!
I am going to close tonight with a product review. The other day I went in a grocery I usually don't patronize, and there were these chips made by Herr's. They had several interesting-sounding flavors, like Heinz Ketchup, Pizza, and Cheddar and Horseradish. In the interest of pleasing nearly everyone, I bought Pizza and Cheddar & Horseradish.
The pizza chips really *almost* taste like pizza. I have a comprehension problem with a product that tastes pizza-ish but is room temperature and crunches. Though I guess in my past, there were times I probably ate crunchy, 2-day-old room-temp pizza. Can't remember though (LOL!). Anyway, one with a really sensitive sense of taste can taste various flavors of tomato, garlic, oregano, and some stinky cheese, perhaps Provolone or Parmesano-Reggiano. Not bad for pizza that crunches.
The Cheddar & Horseradish chips are WOW, HORSERADISH! The cheddar flavor is a base note, but the horseradish (which I find to be slightly bitter) is strong enough to clear the sinuses after about 15 chips. Which is supposed to be the good-sense limit anyway.
My original plan for the day was to pin out a quilt top that I have ready, and piece together 2 others. Sounds like too much for one day, but one is a mini and one is all laid out in order to sew. Alas, my plans aren't always, or even usually, what actually happens.
Instead I got up today and took 5 LARGE boxes of good, clean baby clothes to our local Project Hope. Then Artemas and I went to the range to shoot a little. I got these awesome pictures. The one of Artemas shooting, I actually and accidentally captured the cloud of cordite and the bullet, making its way to the target. Too cool.
These two targets are mine. The one on the left was shot with the .22 Ruger longbarrel. You can see the cluster is in an area 1.5" x 2". The other target, while not centered, still shows the shots clustered in a 2" x 3" area. To give me some credit, the target was only 6" across and was shot from about 20 feet away. I shot it with our Lorcin .380, which is the one I carry, until my Bersa Thunder comes in. I like the .22 better, but being a longbarrel, it looks funny down the back of my pants. LOL.
Ok, on to other things! When we got home, I tackled the laundry once again. DH was off work yesterday, and we ended up spending the entire day in Knoxville. Seriously we didn't get home until like 9 PM. That is kind of late to start Monday Laundry Madness. So I did all 7 loads today and folded them. As incentive to get them done and put away, I folded them all over our bed. Can't go to sleep until it is done! (And it *is* done.)
Here is one that tackled ME. We got a new computer, a smoking-hot Dell, a few months ago. Since then, I have put off and put off having to sift through files on the old computer, suck them onto a flash drive or something portable, and put them in the new computer. Today I discovered I needed an MSWorks type application and guess what? Our laptop AND the new computer do not either one have it. The old one did. So I had to sit down and transfer files. Note on the screen, this ONE folder it is transferring says it has 114 minutes remaining in the transfer! (Also note how many folders I had done already!) When I hooked the drive up to our new computer, it transferred ALL the files in 3 minutes 14 seconds. Quite a difference. I am so spoiled.
Ok yesterday I put out a teaser about a spindle sent to me by my beautiful friend Marion in Indiana. She has a shop, Mommbaear7, but she is in well-deserved vacation mode right now.
She sent me 5.6 oz of this gorgeous superwash in pacific blue with flecks of pink and gold... also 170 yards of incredibly soft 2-ply handspun in gray and white
(thinking a little top-down raglan sweater for Betsy on huge needles), and the spindle.The top of the spindle is bone, carved with two elephants. On the underside of the bone, she has pressed and baked thin layers of this very Aborigine-design polymer clay cane in black and white turtles. I LOVE it. And you can see, I have already given it a whirl, so to speak, to test it out.
While I am mentioning whirling things, go on over to Feeling Sheepish for a wonderful giveaway of 2 oz. of handpainted milk-protein fiber!
I am going to close tonight with a product review. The other day I went in a grocery I usually don't patronize, and there were these chips made by Herr's. They had several interesting-sounding flavors, like Heinz Ketchup, Pizza, and Cheddar and Horseradish. In the interest of pleasing nearly everyone, I bought Pizza and Cheddar & Horseradish.
The pizza chips really *almost* taste like pizza. I have a comprehension problem with a product that tastes pizza-ish but is room temperature and crunches. Though I guess in my past, there were times I probably ate crunchy, 2-day-old room-temp pizza. Can't remember though (LOL!). Anyway, one with a really sensitive sense of taste can taste various flavors of tomato, garlic, oregano, and some stinky cheese, perhaps Provolone or Parmesano-Reggiano. Not bad for pizza that crunches.
The Cheddar & Horseradish chips are WOW, HORSERADISH! The cheddar flavor is a base note, but the horseradish (which I find to be slightly bitter) is strong enough to clear the sinuses after about 15 chips. Which is supposed to be the good-sense limit anyway.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Getting Just a Little Done
Today I got the binding cut and done around 9 potholders. They were Diantha's, and she cut 5" charms for the swap for me while I did her bindings. My machine was messing up so I took a break in the middle of it so my head wouldn't pop off. I would post a pic, but they are for the 
Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge so... you just have to wait!
I also got a handbag made for my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. I called it "O My Handbag"... it is pale pea-green felted wool/angora from a recycled sweater, it has a cotton webbing and leather recycled belt in green, cream, and tan for a strap, and it is lined in deep pea-green with white polka dots. It has 2 inner pockets and zips shut at the top. A nice roomy 12" wide by 9" high by 3" deep too!
Diantha spun up one of her lavender wool/cashmere, orange corriedale, teal merino batts today. I don't know how much yarn she got but it is every bit as fun as what she spun yesterday. See?
I got a Treasury West tonight, called Much Ado About... Nothing? or is it Zero? Or is it an O? Here on the left is a screen shot.
Be sure to stop by and click around!
And, ADustyFrame from SHEteam generously included my Daffodils
recycled yarn in her main Treasury, Daffodown Dilly. Be sure to visit hers and click around too. The She team members all homeschool their kids, so being able to maintain an Etsy shop on top of it is a real feat!
I was JUST reminded that we not only have 4-H in the morning, one of the kids was supposed to submit a tabletop exhibit on processing fiber. I have all the caption labels and fibers, but used the exhibit board last week on gardening. Even if I ran up and got one, it would take til 2 AM to put it together. Then be up at 7 to make the meeting in the next town over, by 8:30. I just can't. So GREAT, I just got the 2nd Bad Mom award in a week. Must be a record.
But, on a happy note, it means picking up donuts for breakfast.
Heck, for donuts, I would just about stay up glueing fiber to cardboard.
Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge so... you just have to wait!I also got a handbag made for my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. I called it "O My Handbag"... it is pale pea-green felted wool/angora from a recycled sweater, it has a cotton webbing and leather recycled belt in green, cream, and tan for a strap, and it is lined in deep pea-green with white polka dots. It has 2 inner pockets and zips shut at the top. A nice roomy 12" wide by 9" high by 3" deep too!
Diantha spun up one of her lavender wool/cashmere, orange corriedale, teal merino batts today. I don't know how much yarn she got but it is every bit as fun as what she spun yesterday. See?
I got a Treasury West tonight, called Much Ado About... Nothing? or is it Zero? Or is it an O? Here on the left is a screen shot.
Be sure to stop by and click around!And, ADustyFrame from SHEteam generously included my Daffodils
recycled yarn in her main Treasury, Daffodown Dilly. Be sure to visit hers and click around too. The She team members all homeschool their kids, so being able to maintain an Etsy shop on top of it is a real feat!I was JUST reminded that we not only have 4-H in the morning, one of the kids was supposed to submit a tabletop exhibit on processing fiber. I have all the caption labels and fibers, but used the exhibit board last week on gardening. Even if I ran up and got one, it would take til 2 AM to put it together. Then be up at 7 to make the meeting in the next town over, by 8:30. I just can't. So GREAT, I just got the 2nd Bad Mom award in a week. Must be a record.
But, on a happy note, it means picking up donuts for breakfast.
Heck, for donuts, I would just about stay up glueing fiber to cardboard.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Who the HECK is Squanto anyway?
My latest yarn series is Squanto and The First Thanksgiving. Why would I choose that? I have some GREAT ideas for yarn series for Christmas... why not go on and get those up? Some reasons:
I LOVE Autumn! For those of us who are Olfactory learners, it is a Smell-O-Rama! I LOVE Thanksgiving. Not only is it a uniquely American holiday, but how can you go wrong with an entire holiday devoted to eating? Break out the Maternity pants and pass the yams with marshmallows, I say! I LOVE the idea behind Thanksgiving. Most of us aren't NEARLY thankful enough. No, let me rephrase that. Most of us don't give a minute of thought to anything we have to be thankful for. In fact I would venture to bet there are a lot of us out there who think we don't really have anything to be thankful for.
It irks me that our Major Retailers skip right from Halloween (news flash, not all of us "do" hell-oween) to that Major Moneymaker, Christmas. Every one of my kids so far has loved the book Squanto and The First Thanksgiving.
So who was Squanto anyway? He was an Pawtuxet Indian brave (hey, I know the Politically Correct term is Native American, but as a partial Native American, I don't take offense to the term I grew up with, Indian. Besides, you expect a woman with 7 kids to be politically correct? HA!) under the leadership of Samoset. Their tribe befriended our totally discombobulated Pilgrim ancestors and kept them from starving... teaching them to hunt like snipers, plant a dead fish in with their corn and bean seeds to fertilize them, showing them how to survive the drastic climate changes of our Northern Atlantic coast. (For more info, visit http://www.nativeamericans.com/Squanto.htm )
Because of these, some of my yarns are called:
Squanto - a lovely wool in self-striping reds, oranges, and tans Venison - earthy tan and brown wpp;cashmere/acrylic
Planting Fish with Corn and Beans - pale gray wool hand dyed with yellow and green Cornucopia - deep rich colors! Log Cabin - deep red, tan, brown, black in 100% rustic silk Johnnycake - looks like homemade bread! A nice thick chunky yarn. and Pumpkin...
Well what can I say? Pumpkin is a very fine 80% wool/20% nylon yarn in pumpkin tweed with slubs of cream, tan, and blue. The entire sweater this came from weighed a mere 204 grams... not even 7 oz. At 800 yards to a 100 gram skein, this would make great lace or the softest socks. I said to Richie (my dh, who for years went by Dick, until one of our pastors' wife couldn't bring herself to say it), "Shall I hand dye this yarn?"
" No, honey... it looks great just like that. "
And I tried to listen to him. Really. In fact most of the time I do listen to him. No REALLY! But after being up several days, poor lil' Pumpkin has no one to heart it. So today my itchy fingers, that haven't had a good coat of dye in a week, got hold of Pumpkin. I overdyed some areas a nice earthy olive green, and some areas a nice dirty brown. Now Pumpkin will be Pumpkin On The Vine, and I think it is much happier.
Speaking of pumpkin, I have a funny story. We built a scarecrow with a Cashmere sweater (don't gasp, someone partially felted it so I can't unravel it) for a head, a flannel shirt, my old jeans, and my dh's ancient boots that he wore on a 22,000 mile motorcycle trip. No really. We set him (the scarecrow, not my dh) up on a haybale with some pots of begonias and some pumpkins, out under this totally ridiculous shelter that some previous owner of our house built out near the road.
I came home from my daily walk escape a day later to find the scarecrow lying on the haybale with his "head" on a pumpkin, a newspaper as a blanket and his boots off and setting next to the haybale like he took them off for a little nap. I figured the Neighborhood Vandals got to him. But no, one of my kids said to me, "Mom, the scarecrow kept falling over so I gave him a little res
t." Hmmm. My kid is the Neighborhood Vandal.
Tomorrow is busy... I have handmade double-pointed knitting needles to mail, my daily walk, three of us have quilty objects to finish for a challenge, by Wednesday. School for the kids, two more yarns to unravel/dye/put up in the shop and I have some merino batts I am nearly dying to try to spin. But finally I got a chanceto take a picture to share, of the scarecrow.
So who was Squanto anyway? He was an Pawtuxet Indian brave (hey, I know the Politically Correct term is Native American, but as a partial Native American, I don't take offense to the term I grew up with, Indian. Besides, you expect a woman with 7 kids to be politically correct? HA!) under the leadership of Samoset. Their tribe befriended our totally discombobulated Pilgrim ancestors and kept them from starving... teaching them to hunt like snipers, plant a dead fish in with their corn and bean seeds to fertilize them, showing them how to survive the drastic climate changes of our Northern Atlantic coast. (For more info, visit http://www.nativeamericans.com/Squanto.htm )
Because of these, some of my yarns are called:
Well what can I say? Pumpkin is a very fine 80% wool/20% nylon yarn in pumpkin tweed with slubs of cream, tan, and blue. The entire sweater this came from weighed a mere 204 grams... not even 7 oz. At 800 yards to a 100 gram skein, this would make great lace or the softest socks. I said to Richie (my dh, who for years went by Dick, until one of our pastors' wife couldn't bring herself to say it), "Shall I hand dye this yarn?"
" No, honey... it looks great just like that. "
And I tried to listen to him. Really. In fact most of the time I do listen to him. No REALLY! But after being up several days, poor lil' Pumpkin has no one to heart it. So today my itchy fingers, that haven't had a good coat of dye in a week, got hold of Pumpkin. I overdyed some areas a nice earthy olive green, and some areas a nice dirty brown. Now Pumpkin will be Pumpkin On The Vine, and I think it is much happier.
Speaking of pumpkin, I have a funny story. We built a scarecrow with a Cashmere sweater (don't gasp, someone partially felted it so I can't unravel it) for a head, a flannel shirt, my old jeans, and my dh's ancient boots that he wore on a 22,000 mile motorcycle trip. No really. We set him (the scarecrow, not my dh) up on a haybale with some pots of begonias and some pumpkins, out under this totally ridiculous shelter that some previous owner of our house built out near the road.
I came home from my daily walk escape a day later to find the scarecrow lying on the haybale with his "head" on a pumpkin, a newspaper as a blanket and his boots off and setting next to the haybale like he took them off for a little nap. I figured the Neighborhood Vandals got to him. But no, one of my kids said to me, "Mom, the scarecrow kept falling over so I gave him a little res
t." Hmmm. My kid is the Neighborhood Vandal.Tomorrow is busy... I have handmade double-pointed knitting needles to mail, my daily walk, three of us have quilty objects to finish for a challenge, by Wednesday. School for the kids, two more yarns to unravel/dye/put up in the shop and I have some merino batts I am nearly dying to try to spin. But finally I got a chanceto take a picture to share, of the scarecrow.
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