Beautiful, Inspirational Orchids

I have only a few minutes tonight to blog, so I just thought I would post some pretty flowers for you my followers. These have made me consider form and the bright colors have made me think of ways I might try to dye some of that roving in my living room.


All these were taken at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens this past weekend. Some of these were in the temperate house and the house with all the rose trees, whatever the name of it is. The orchids were from the show we went to in the main building.



It's going to be interesting to see if I can make yarn to reflect these wonders of nature. These flowers had such a sheen and soft texture.



What fibers could possibly come out as dewy and fresh as flower petals? What sort of draw would I use? What
sort of dyes? I feel a project coming on here.


















Last but not least, here is a parting shot of one of my most favorite places in the gardens. May all of you have enough time to stop and sit in the garden every-once-in-a-while. Have a wonderful day!

Isolated from the Spinning Wheel

I'm in spinning heck! I've been at the in-law's place since Friday and haven't been able to spin a single, well, single. There is the consolation of being able to periodically pet the yarn I brought with me to show everyone. I've spent several hours explaining how different fibers spin up in different ways. My mother-in-law patiently listened as I pushed skein after skein into her lap, she even tried to be enthusiastic, poor woman. She's an avid scrapbooker, maybe I should have pushed that angle. She's not a fiberholic like me. The withdrawl has been brutal, but they're trying to help me through it by keeping me otherwise occupied.

On Saturday Dear Hubby and I met my sister and her beau at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens, otherwise known as Shaw's Gardens. There was a beautiful orchid show set up in one of the wings and it was so worth the trip. I love going to the gardens, but have never been there during the winter before. We were surprised to see pansies blooming outside already, but they were off the paved path and I couldn't get a good picture of them. I got some inspiration for a few things for my shop from some of the things we saw and can't wait to download the pictures we took so I can see them larger.

Today we had lunch at my parent's place and then came back to the in-laws to watch the Daytona 500. I watched the greater portion of it with the roof of my mouth and started snoring very loudly several times. So embarrassing! I guess my feminine mystique has been shattered, not that I had much to start with.

Tomorrow we go home. Tomorrow evening will be spent with my wheel. Sweet, sweet spinning.

Nothing is Certain but Yarn and Taxes

Ah, another day, another wonderful fiber to discover. It seems that recently I have really put the peddles down on my wheel and cranked out the yarn. This weekend I managed 7 skeins, out of 20 ounces of fiber. One was really really bulky and ended up being almost 6 ounces of fiber for 100 yards of yarn, but I really love the way it turned out. Look how fuzzy it is! It's going to make a wonderfully thick and squishy scarf for someone. It's a merino/alpaca blend and it just lept on to the wheel when when I spun it. This particular roving came from Winderwood Farm
and was hand dyed by Bob.


I also used another one of his rovings this weekend. It was my very first experience with a bamboo blend of anything. I blogged about it last time, but now it's dry and I have a picture of the end result. I wish you guys could touch it because it feels heavenly, so smooth and silky. It's the one on the right here. All that shine isn't just the flash, it's the sheen from the bamboo.

So now I come to the taxes part of the blog here. It has been brought to my attention that now that I am self-employed I should be saving back 1/3 of my income for taxes. Does that sound like a good number to the rest of you? I had already been doing this, but I want a little advice from some of you more seasoned veterans of the home crafting world. What works for you when it comes to giving Uncle Sam his dues? I'd love to hear from you.

Yarn Yarn and More Yarn

Hello all you crazy crafters!

What a weekend! I have spun and spun and spun and finally have some yarn to show for it. Both of the yarns in these pictures have been spun from Linda's rovings. She runs Sunset Fibers on Etsy. I named the orange one "Poppies and Daffodils" and the blue one "Forget-Me-Nots and Violets". Nice Springy names for yarn I thought. The orange is a 2-ply sport weight and the blue is 2-ply aran weight. Too bad I didn't end up with more of it because I would really like to knit some up, but had to list them both in my Etsy shop instead to get the inventory up.

I also spun up my very first bamboo and Merino blend today, (from Bob at Winderwood Farm)which I have to say was different. It wanted to slip a bit more than I am used to and took a little while to learn to control. It was spun in fingering weight singles and then plied for a sport weight result. The yarn felt soft before I set the twist, but afterwards it has really relaxed into a supple strand that looks like it will have a very nice drape when knitted. I will have to put some pictures on here when it dries all the way. It's really beautiful, all multicolored and shimmery. Very nice.

Believe it or not, I also spun up 8 ounces of Merino/Alpaca yarn tonight in a very bulky weight. 100 yards of 2-ply yarn tips the scale at 5.75 ounces. Very heavy, but very beautiful. I had 50 yards left over which will probably end up as a nice hefty scarflette. The big skein will be listed in my shop when it dries and I can get a good picture of it.

I dare say the bunnies and hubby are feeling a bit neglected these past few days. I'll have to make it up to them tomorrow because tonight, I'm pooped.

Everyone have a wonderful week!

Lovely Squishy Corriedale

I have a secret shame. I don't think Merino wool is the one and only king of sheep fiber anymore. (Gasp!) Here's the thing, ever since I started wanting to learn to spin, people have told me that merino is the softest, has the finest micron count and is the best wool to spin. They said that I should start on other fiber and then work up to Merino. For months now I have been gathering bits of Merino roving like gold and hoarding them. Then something happened.

One day I was on Etsy.com, again, and came across Sunset Fibers. There are the most delicious rovings listed there and my fingers itched to be spinning some of them. One thing held me back though. She didn't have any Merino listed at all at the time. How could it be? In fact, one of her listings even said that she "preferred Corriedale over Merino"! Could I have found a spinning miscreant, a breaker of the rules, a fiber delinquent? The answer is most emphatically, YES and with good reason.

She hand paints her fibers and then sends them off to be processed by a mill of her choice. The result is an exquisitely divine roll of fluff that just melts into yarn effortlessly. I spun up four ounces last night of the February fiber of the month and am now the proud owner of 160 yards of 2-ply gorgeousness. I still need to wash it but will post pictures after I do as it fluffs up quite a bit after the twist sets. Even before a wash it is soft and just begs me to pet it. Actually I need to go squoosh it now...be right back.

To tide you over, here are some pictures of some of her fiber before and after being spun. This was the first fiber I ever got from her.


I just made a lovely neck warmer with this and it's gorgeous. I'll have to get a picture of it too. For now, I say goodnight to you and sweet dreams.

Bunnies say "Feed Me"

Being a bunny momma is a big responsibility. Every day starts out much the same, with the opening of the office door.

"Hello babies! How are my little sweeties?"

This is usually greeted with a mad dash towards the food dish and then a lap or two around my legs. I've heard that in nature animals have certain ways of letting their will be known. For instance bees do an intricate dance allowing other bees to find the nectar stash. Perhaps this little daily bunny ritual is really a mind game they play with me so I can remember where the food dish is. Sometimes I hold it over their heads so they will play with me for a few minutes.

Next it escalates to more of a feeding frenzy.

"Wow! Gidget, get off Willie. Geez, it's not like you're wasting away to nothing!"

She has a habit of pushing his nose away so he can't get at the food. At nine pounds, she's twice his size so sometimes she just drapes herself over him and eats while he wiggles around trying to free himself. I should keep a camera in there and get a picture sometime. It's actually kind of funny.

Having sated their appetites for the time being, they head into the rest of the house to pillage and murder some unfortunate electrical appliance I have failed to sufficiently protect. Once they climbed up on a plant stand and nibbled an African Violet to the nubbies. It turns out that African Violets are not toxic to bunnies. On a good day I rescue a book or two, on a bad day we splice together the sound system, again.

"Oh man! Not again!"

Sometimes I wonder if they're getting enough to eat. They've eaten bookcases, cabinet doors, the legs to the couch and plaster pillars. When I open the fridge Willie is right there begging for a handout. We do the actual feeding ritual twice a day, and yet they still poke around for more. It's almost as if they know I'm holding out on them. Somewhere there is a grape or a dried papaya fragment that should be in their belly.

They have the ultimate weapon, extreme lethal cuteness. One nose bump or binky and I melt like putty in their little bunny paws. I am the faithful bringer of the food and the remover of the poop. They have me right where they want me and it shows. So tonight when my husband and I herd them back into the office and observe the dance, we know what they really mean.

"Feed Me!"

And we will.