Great Lakes Fiber Festival

This past weekend was the Great Lakes Sheep and Fiber Festival in Wooster, OH (about 2.5 hours from our farm).  What a time we had.  All of my baskets went and were a big hit (this is why there are currently none listed in my shop, but don't worry, more to come!).  Above is some of the beautiful roving in one of the booths.  The colors were fantastic!  Here's some other pictures from the festival.

Our booth.  It was shared between Stramba Fiber Mill who is a local alpaca farm and fiber processing mill and Alpaca Fiber Studio and Friends who specializes in beautiful hand dyed and painted yarns, batts, and wearable art.  

Here's one of my newest creations!  I call it the "Zombie Scarf".  Maybe because of the colors.  Some people call them Fairy Scarves, but the zombie name just stuck in my head!  I'm fairly new to water/needle felting, but folks, this is fairly simple!  For those of you looking for a way to take your own wools and process them into something beautiful without having to spin them, felting is it!  There is so much potential with felting.  I never knew.  Check out this book if you need some tips and ideas: Fabulous Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagan and Jorie Johnson.  And there's one of my baskets hiding down there.

Here's one of the fabulous hand felted works of art by Robbie Grodin of Alpaca Fiber Studio and Friends.  She has an amazing talent for color!  We bartered a basket for some yarn.  A good trade.

 Another shot from the front of our booth.  There was just SO much wonderful color there!  I especially love the colors in the alpaca rug in the center.  I was able to be a part of the process.  It was so neat to see it come together.  Terri from Stramba Fiber Mill processed the rug yarn, I dyed it, and my friend Lisel from the Harmony Weaver's Cabin wove it all together.  How amazing when you get to see a work of art that used the talents of so many hands come together like that.

 Here's some lock spun yarn from another vendor's booth.  This was spun from Wensleydale sheep.  Another of my favorite which I hope to own some day.  I bought a few fleeces at the show and hope to combine it with some other fleeces waiting to be spun to create some yarn like this.  I had to post this as a large picture so you could see better all curly locks spun into a strand of yarn! 

Here are a couple Border Leicester Ewes in the barn.  I bought a couple of Border Leicester fleeces in what we like to call a 'behind the barn' sale.   It's not as mischievous as it sounds.  Many shepherds bring their fleeces to festivals to sell.  They are somewhat confined to the barns with their animals (as opposed to a booth in one of the buildings), so we simple asks ask them if they have any fleeces for sale.  Most of them do, and you can get them for a great price that way.  

A few of the finds from the festival.  The huge ball of roving was used to make another zombie scarf.  It in the process right now.  I'll post pictures of it when it's finished.  There was so much fiber there though that I think I'll spin the remainder into yarn.  Same with the smaller green/gray ball.  They yarn was my barter!  I also found a needle felting kit, and some silk hankies to spin, which I've never done yet.  This along with the three raw fleeces I found, should keep me pretty busy all summer!


On another note, I'm recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and two other upper molars.  I lost a front tooth as well!  It was an old root canal from trauma as a kid.  Seven all together - Yikes!   Sounds so, for lack of a better word, Redneck.  It was the first time I had ever had anesthesia before.  What a weird experience.  Took eight sticks to find a vein.  I inherited my mother's veins, apparently.  But once they got it, I was given something that made me pretty loopy.  I started talking about all sorts of things!  I remember that, but I don't remember going to sleep, just waking up.  It was pretty quick.  In and out in two hours.  And surprisingly, I'm not even noticeable swollen this morning, nor did I have to take some of the stronger pain meds, just Motrin.  Tomorrow I will have that front tooth replaced.  I'll try not to smile until then.  Might scare someone away!  =)  No rest for the weary, though.  I've got potatoes and onions still to get in the garden, herbs and lettuces to plant, and another bed to weed and plant.  Add that to basket-making, felting, laundry, and washing fleeces and you've got one busy girl.  
Lastly, on a 'better' note - we got some rain!  And the plants soaked it right up.  It was nice to not have to water the garden, at least for one night.  

Weekend Full of Activities

This past weekend was a whirl wind of activities.  I don't think we got to truly sit down once.  Saturday began early with a trip to the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival just south of Pittsburgh.  This was my third year attending, but the first with out my husband.  He's been so busy taking a class and working full time.  He needed to stay behind and get caught up.  This was okay, as I headed down with a friend who we've met up with the past two years at the festival anyway.  Last year I rode back home with her to 'chaperone' the two pygora goats in the back of her car.  Oh the adventures we have!  I'm really not much for garage sales (I've got enough junk I'm trying to scale down), but we stopped at a few along the way.  I did managed to find this wicked broom!  

I think I'm going to hang it on the wall in my craft room.  Perhaps it will get some use one day, but for now, I just want to admire it.  I attended a broom making seminar last September at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA.  I couldn't believe what all went into making brooms, especially if you grow your own broom corn.  I guess that's why I couldn't pass this one up - for a whole $2.  What a deal!

The Fiber Festival was actually rather small this year.  Perhaps people were still getting over there fiber shock from the recent Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.  Still I picked up some roving to spin.  Here's the before and after.  At least for the purplish one.  I've a ton of fiber I need to process and dye.  I'm hoping these beautiful colors will give me the motivation to get some art batts made to spin.  I've yet to really try some of the core spinning.  There were some amazing handspun yarns at the festival.  We refrained from bringing home any goats this time, but my friend did find a great little loom.  So it wasn't a complete bust, but we didn't stay as long as we have in the past.  


The remainder of the day was spent working in the garden.  We've really been working hard the past few years to try to build up the soil.  We even brought our own compost pile when we moved down here.  Sound silly!?  Well it took at least a year to establish those beneficial microbes and attract the worms!  How could I just leave them behind.  It was only a large Rubbermaid container-full, but we made it, and I wanted to bring it.  Now our pile is 20 times that size (or more).  We're working on building semi-raised beds within the area our landlord has offered for us to garden.  It's just a corner off of his corn/soy field, but I appreciate it all the same.  The only downfall has been that the soil has been stripped over the years from growing just those two crops.  So we've been building the compost to help rebuild at least our little section of the field.  We'll see how it goes this year.

Here's a small section.  We used grass clippings to lay out the plots
for this summer.  We move them every year.

Notice that there is some growth already?  The garden was full of weeds two days ago.  When we went to weed-wack, we discovered that our Parsley and Cilantro came back from last year!  I was really excited to see that. We'll let some of it go to seed.  The Cilantro is already flowering.

Cilantro!

Parsley!

Genesis 9:13

¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a
sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

These were captured on a hilltop locally.  What a beautiful reminder! 

A Much Anticipated Break

Yay!  I made it through another busy semester and now I have a couple weeks to get caught up around the farm.  Monday was officially my last day, and I have spend the past two days sewing up a storm and getting some more baskets listed on Etsy (including the one above - don't you just LOVE those colors!?).  I finished a few Baprons (baby aprons) for a friend, and made a few for my next door neighbor's little one.  It's such a fun and simple pattern!  I also finished an adult apron pattern that I'm working on.

A few months ago I bought the Book "Spin Art" by Jacey Boggs (a fabulous book, which I'll blog about another time).  It came with a DVD where she demonstrates some of the spinning techniques.  And I noticed that she was wearing a long apron while she was spinning.  That of course got me thinking, "Why haven't I thought about that before?"  I'm always covered from head to toe with fiber when I spin.  Wearing an apron would be a perfect solution.  So I began designing my own - a Craft Apron.  I think the pattern still has room to grow, but I'm loving it's development.  I've made a bunch as I've been tweaking the pattern and am hoping to offer them on Etsy soon.  Actually this one above was suppose to be for sale, but I made enough "mistakes" that I didn't feel I could sell it.  So, I'll add it to my own personal collection.  =)  I love this fabric!

Those patterns go so perfectly together.  Perhaps I will have to make another like this.  

There is so much that needs to be done around the farm.  While we got our garden fenced in, only one 4X4 plot is ready to be planted.  I think I will put in some purple potatoes I found.  We did sweet potatoes two summers ago and they grew wonderfully.  But the red potatoes we planted last year - not so much.  I'm a little overwhelmed this year by what to plant.  I'm going to move the sunflowers up to line the garage.  I think they will look so pretty there.  That will free up some room.  We also will have the "experimental" plot free for more vegetables this summer.  Our experimental plot ended up being flax from the rabbit food.  It sure was pretty to watch grow.  I might just have try planting some in a pot for the fun of it.  Either way, I'd like to get the garden in before June this year.  We were a bit behind last summer.  That's coming up soon.  

Perigee Moon

There's been so much going on this past five months, it's hard to know where to start.  I suppose the best place to begin is with the present and then continue to revisit the past until I've covered it all.  At least what I can remember.

This past Saturday was this year's Perigee Full Moon (aka. the Super Moon).  Did anyone get to see it?  The perigee moon is it's point in orbit where it is closest to the earth on it's elliptical travels.  This actually happens once a month, but doesn't always coincide with the full moon (which only happens once a year). Because it is closest to the earth, it appears much larger and brighter.  I have always had a fascination with the moon.  I stare at in amazed that there is this huge orb floating out in space, circling the earth, affecting the tides and perhaps all other life on earth.  After all, we are 70-ish percent water.  So I had my photographer husband outside taking pictures for me.  He doesn't yet have a telephoto lens, but I'd say his pictures still came out pretty good.

We finally got some rain today.  It's been hitting just about every place but on top of our little hill lately.  And we've desperately needed it.  I took a friend for a hike to Hell's Hollow on Saturday and can't think of a time that I've ever seen the creek so low.  This concerns me as this is supposed to be the rainiest time of year, and already the water table is low.  Those of us who rely on well water have to think about these things.  Even now it is thundering outside.  I'm very thankful for this.  Rain plus thunder, who could asks for more.  

We got our garden fenced this past Sunday.  Clearly you can see that it's not ready for planting.  But now that it's staked out we can begin preparing the mini plots inside, and keep the chickens out.  They were quite helpful in scattering the rabbit droppings, though.  Handy little birds, those chickens are.  Hopefully this rain will open up the soil a bit.  It was so dry.  And we've accumulated a great compost pile to mix in since last summer.  Here's a few other recent shots from the farm:

There's a few Jersey cows on the farm now!  

Found some Lemon Balm growing in a pot my mom gave me last summer!
Yay for Lemon Balm!!  What a nice surprise!

My new love...hanging my batik fabric out to dry on the line.
It looks so pretty blowing in the wind.  

And I'll end with the story of this little bird.  Yesterday I found her wandering around in the "seed row" where we scatter seed in the morning for the chickens.  I picked her up hoping that her mama and papa were somewhere close by, but no one came squawking.  I put her next to the garage in a grassy spot hoping she'd find a safe spot for the night, but fearing that she'd be.....er.....food for someone else.  This evening I went out to collect eggs with my husband, and who did I find in the seed pit?  This little girl.  I knelt down and she hopped up into my had chirping.  She then hopped right up my arm to my shoulder and started pecking my nose!  I think she thought maybe it was my "beak".  She stayed on my shoulder for a bit and then flew away.  She's not quite a competent flier yet, but I figured she flew well enough that I would just leave her be.  

Well as dark grew closer I went out to close up the chickens for the night.  I got them all in and accounted for (we just integrated our new spring chicks), closed the door and heard a peep at my feet.  Lo and behold, there she was looking up at me.  It was like she was saying, "what about me?"  She then began scurrying around the coop trying to find a way inside.  Finally I just scooped her up and took her in the coop.  I had a broody hen that I thought would keep her for the night.  She snuggled right into the hen's feathers, and the hen certainly didn't mind.  Those chickens would mother an alligator when they are broody.  I thought I would check on her once more before coming back in the house.  The hen was on a roost and the little sparrow had fallen off.  She was asleep in a corner, but I wanted a safer place for her.  So I put her in one of the least used nest boxes and surrounded her with a bit of hay.  She immediately fell back asleep.  I don't know what will become of her.  And I typically try to let Mother Nature take care of her own.  But there's something special about this little sparrow.  If she thinks she's a chicken, so be it.  That's all for now I suppose.  So I will bid you all a good night and head off to enjoy the thunder and rain.