Cranking away at the drumcarder. I like so much this part of the fiber preparation. The part where you have bags of colored fiber and it is up to you to create the next blend. Instead of my plans to have two pounds of each colorway, it looks like there will be five ounce offerings instead. That amount is just enough that I don't feel like a factory.



Acquired a nasty cold from somewhere (where?) and yesterday was the worst. So much mucous. Slept many hours. Today, I feel better.

I am still able to process some fiber. It is so cool how five different shades of purple and pink can coalesce into fibery goodness. This shows the merino, silk, and angora blend.

In an attempt to use what I have on hand, these are socks being made from five or six different leftover sock yarns. They will be fraternal twins.




And here is Ginger - just because she is so cute.

I'm a knit dweeb

Aw Shucks. Your flattery will get you nowhere - nowhere, I say! The latest shawl was merely a baby step on my way to knitted shawl stardom. Really. After Greencastle and after painting the front living room - I have paint and supplies at the ready. Since mid-February even.

Also, Franklin has been knitting lace, too (copycat) and he shows a yarn-over (eyelet) alphabet. It might be interesting to knit some message... or a labyrinth. Then there's crop circles. Lightening bolts. The sun. Flowers. Elvis.

I'm seeing lots of lace knitting lately and that's great. However, what I am seeing is designers looking to the past for inspiration. I want to see some designs from a forward looking designer person. Is there anything like that floating around the internet?

Oh, and we had hail this past week! What a racket, especially in a metal-roofed house.
Interesting weather, I say.

Keep on Truckin'

I really want to thank everyone for their comments and emails about Murgatroyd. Y'all are so sweet. Now. (deep breath) Let's move on.

Blocked the shawl yesterday, not taking too much time or care at first. Then that sucker began growing and getting prettier as I kept hand patting it from the center out. Then I took some time and care to block it sort of "correctly," which means no pins because I'd left them downstairs, so fuck that. If I do say so myself, WOW! It's all from Fuzzarelly Fibers. Spun fine, 2 ply. One of the merino/silk/angora blend and one ply of silk.



It weighs less than ten ounces. Amazing. I used the fifteen ounce shawl as my winter coat, and it kept me plenty warm. Guess this new one will be my spring and fall one.

The little babies are doing pretty good. Anna's two babies are huge things compared to Precious'. I trimmed P's belly wool this weekend and I can't believe she raised eight babies last time. She only has six nipples. That explains the two runts! I am fostering one of her kits to Anna, who has a ton of tits and milk, (note the irony) and the other four are small, but they are growing.

Heizen and Ginger are getting along nicely.



Ginger is just nine weeks old, eight more than the new guy here. I am still gob smacked at how fast these critters grow.

Murgie

It's a sad day in Bunnyville. Our delightful baby, Murgatroyd, has gone over the Rainbow Bridge into Bunny Heaven. I'm glad to have had him for almost a year and I will never forget his happy-fo-lucky attitude and sweet nature. Sweetie and I, along with Blue Acorn, miss him a lot.

Here we is...

"Surprisingly, each year, there it is again; yet it never fails to amaze. For me, it's the sight of the forsythia and the redbuds; it always gives me the same rush. I could almost be a totally obnoxious optimist in Spring. Almost. And then the Inner Cynic comes out again to play, and I feel more normal."

That is a quote from my friend, Ms. Neverswept. Couldn't have said it better myself and I am glad I am not alone in my adoration of spring. The forsythia and redbud abloom are like a time/date stamp for the arrival of the season.

Overnight, the asian pear blooms have appeared and the lawn needs serious attention. The white violets and the gypsy wallflowers are evident and the honeybees seem to have come from nowhere to begin their pollination frenzy.

Then there are the bunnies. Those little darlings.

I knew that Anna Nicole was due to give birth on or around the 28th of March. I have gotten into the habit of checking on pregnant does early and often in the mornings near their due date, and so I was doing that. No bunnies for her then, but fortunately, I looked in on Precious and found a mass of kits all over the place. Really, I had no idea that she was pregnant. No nest at all. Some were, sadly, dead already, and some were stuck in the cage wire, but I gathered up six squirmy babies, all black like before, and brought them inside for warming. I began wondering how in the hell she'd gotten pregnant in the first place. It took me awhile to figure it out. Note to self: never place a caged female on the ground when there is an uncaged male in the same room. Where there is a will and all that. I reckon she was so turned on by the commotion that Precious and Percival were making that she wanted in on the action, too. I've heard it was possible and now I know it is true.

Later that day, Anna did produce two live kits, one of which is BROWN like Ginger. These are the first viable babies from her ever and I am so delighted. She is doing a good mothering job in the barn so I left her there, but I did bring Precious inside after I had built the kits a nice nest and lined it with Lucy's fresh cut wool. One of the six didn't make it - mom nibbled away not only an ear but also some of its hind end flesh and the poor thing wasn't strong enough to overcome the trauma - but the other five are doing peachy.

The older fourteen are all doing well! No repeat (touch wood) of the pasteurella plague of last spring. The new hygiene has worked. Apparently.

Right now, thirteen of them are in a big wire corral in the front yard, helping to keep the grass in check. These guys are ravenous! Seriously, the corral gets moved to new ground daily and it looks like crop circles where they have been. Nothing elaborate, just a nicely leveled, round area full of fertilizer.



The fourteenth, Ginger, has made herself at home in the kitchen with Heizen - who seems to have forgotten all about the outside-the-house world. Seriously, they both are content to stay in the kitchen and they both use the litter box for all of their pee and most of their poop. How cool is that! No electric cords for them to chew on in there, either.

The shawl is through being knit but still needs blocking. It will be smaller than I intended (the vagaries of spinning, plying and knitting, I guess) but is really a more manageable size than the last one. I especially like the ruffle. (There were over thirty-two hundred stitches on the needles when I began binding off.) So, yes, I do love me some ruffle. I love the movement, the weight, the romance of ruffles. No photo, though - not until the thing is blocked.

One last bit of news - Habitat for Humanity will pour a foundation for a new home across the street at the former Camp Swampy in the next couple of weeks.

Now, I think Jimmy Carter is the best ex-president we have ever had and I am particularly glad for his involvement in H for H. I am also glad that we had a plot of land to sell - at cost - to them. I wish we could have donated it, but, well, finances and all.

Here is more Buster.

And a cute bunny picture

Blue Acorn sent me this intensely crazy sock puppet. What a friend!


I have been dyeing and drumcarding like the crazy person I am. The Drive by Knitter wondered where she could get my stuff, since my website is still so lame that I am not offering fiber online, yet. Answer, email me! Or come to Greencastle next month.

The fiber will be a blend of angora, merino and silk and will be produced in two pound lots. I think. Colors will be similar to last year with purples, greens and russetts mainly. I might create smaller amounts of several other shades. Maybe dye some silk for plying. Yeah, I'm on top of things!

In the end there will be pounds of fiber and it will be lovely and easy to spin. Eight dollars an ounce. What a bargain.

It's a grey and wet day. Not so cold. Cool. The weather this time of year can be exciting. Two (three?) years ago, Sweetie and I had a tornado go over the house. Most exciting! I recall that we were watching one of the Louisville television WEATHER STORM TEAM stations. They reported on possible tornadoes all over everywhere-else-but-here Kentucky. Please, we're just over the river, people. To the west of you. You know - the WEST? Where your weather almost always comes from? Eventually, after an obscenely long red light in hot afternoon traffic, the computer graphic focused on southern Harrison County and "Hey, isn't that swirly symbol right over Laconia?" We grabbed Bonnie and Buster and tucked ourselves into the front room closet, located under stairs, the safest place in our house. Full of nails, tools, and all sorts of sharp, metal things.

After 15 seconds and as I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of our refugee locale, we heard the freight train go over the house. We felt the air being sucked out of the building and a sort of shriek. That was it. (The smartass question - What did tornadoes sound like before freight trains?) We lost a tree and a half at Camp Swampy and one of the dwarf apple trees in the side yard is now canted at a 60 degree angle. One neighbor lost the roof to one of his outbuildings, about 40 ft x 120 ft. He said it took off in one piece like a sail. It was an exiting night. For around here.

The thing about tornadoes is that, like the rain, they happen to both the wicked and the holy. Except that they do seem to pick on unsecured mobile homes, don't they? I am sure that both wicked and holy people live in trailers.

Had another stress dream last night. No Tom Cruise. No Space Opera. Just another of those backstage-opera-near-tragedy dreams. Sweetie said I woke him with my wriggling and mumbling. He told me that I said, "You're not sewing it right!"

I remember it being one of those long, tedious, all-night-long dreams. I was in charge (?) of costumes for a big opera, name unknown. I seem to recall that I spent sleepless days working on the wardrobe (with side trips to search for snaps and boning) and, just before the buzzer, everything was done on time and beautifully. If I do say so myself. There were Scarlet Pimpernel style tailcoats in dark green wool. Oh yah, leprechauns.

I've named the lovely brown, I think female baby "Ginger." She is living inside with Murgie and Heizen.



All the other bunnies have been sent to the front porch gulag. They love daffydils.



This is the green angora that I have been drumcarding.