Another post? It's about time!!

Well, I see from the blog site that it's been right at 3 months since I have posted anything. My "silence" has not been wholly intentional but with all that's been going on, posting has been something I've "thought about" usually around 1 in the morning when I'm FINALLY crashing for the day. I could say that "life" has overtaken us but in all truth, I think life not only ran over us, but then turned around and ran over us again! Between working 2 jobs and the commute, plus mowing well over 3 acres with a push mower, my computer time has rather taken a back seat. This time of the year is sort of a "love/hate" relationship for me. I love being out in the hills and hollars but the heat and humidity, not to mention the chiggers and ticks, do take a toll on me. We have the garden in full production right now but am still trying to get at least an 8' fence around it to save the food for US rather than feed the deer which out number humans around here by at least a gazillion to one! The picture I've added here is the view from the kitchen porch in the SPRING when it's REALLY nice around here!

On the studio scene, we just purchased a used second loom! It's a small 24" 4 harness, 6 treadle loom that Susie's sister saw in the paper up in Illinois. We will be traveling up there in a couple weeks to attend a family reunion and will pick it up then. Once we get it home and go over it and clean it up, I will post pictures. I'm not sure where this one is going to "live" but the price was low enough that we couldn't pass it up.

Other news, I purchased the stainless steel I needed to make the wool combs so as soon as I can get some shop time, I will start cutting and grinding them into points and see what happens with making our own combs. I have had a number of people asking about purchasing combs so maybe I have found myself a new career!

And lastly, we received our "sample" of some BEAUTIFUL gray alpaca fleece that we saw in Indiana last fall but someone else bought before I got back to it. We had asked the breeder to let us know when they sheared this spring and low and behold...they did! It's nice to work with someone that actually does what they say they will and keeps their word.....it's VERY refreshing! We washed the 4 ounces that I bought using a different scouring technique that worked very well and I already have it hand picked and LOVE it! You can hardly tell you have anything in your hand, it's so soft! I have them holding the other 3 pounds of this fleece till I can make arrangements to get the money to them and have it shipped. As soon as I can, I will post pictures of this fleece along with another Shetland fleece we bought this spring. Hopefully it WON'T take 3 more months to get that done!

V. Howard Johnson Jr. 1932-2009

I had thought that this posting would include all the fun information about our trip to The Fiber Event in Greencastle Indiana but things changed rather suddenly with the unexpected passing of Susie's father. We were actually loading the car for the trip when we received the call from family so rather than attend the festival, we attended to more somber matters and made a trip to Illinois instead. Even though we have been married for 30 years, I didn't really know Howard in anything more than a superficial way. For the past 20 plus years, he had been confined to a nursing home and his condition didn't allow for any type of deep relationship. Most of what I knew of his life, I learned from listening to Susie and her brothers and sisters conversations over the years. What I DO know is that before becoming ill, Howard was a consumate artist, musician, and photographer. He held a number of classified and non-classified patents and was one of the most intellegent men I have known! It seems a shame that this talent was never realized to it's fullest potential and it will only be on the other side of eternity that what "could have been" will be known to us. In the meantime all I can do is be supportive of Susie and her family in their time of loss....and wait for the day when it will be my turn to grieve.

Our First Clam Shell Box!

We recently completed our first clam shell box to house a book project we worked on as a group with the Tennessee Book Arts Guild. (Actually there were a LOT more that started this project than finished it!) The choice was made to make an accordion book with each of the members contributing a printed page demonstrating their art "forte". Once the pages were shared with each member and bound, our good friend John Smith began the task of teaching us how to make the box. Making a clam shell box was something that we had wanted to learn how to do for a LONG time so Susie and I were delighted to finally be able to try our hand at this. What we didn't realize was the amount of extremely detailed measuring and cutting that is required to make one of these WELL and that FITS. (Out of over 20 people that started this project, I think the final count of actual boxes made stands at 3) John put a LOT of work into his instructions and while my end result does fit well, it has a number of things that I'm not happy with but for a first attempt, it's not bad! (Now we just have to find a place to start working on the second box to house Susie's book and I'm sure that one will turn out much better!)

Lace weight Alpaca

What can I say? I realize that it's because Susie has been spinning for a lot more time than I have but I'm still rather jealous when she seems to effortlessly whip out MILES of lace weight yarn while I'm still making "rope". (Actually my spinning isn't THAT bad but compared to hers it's rather pathetic!) This black Alpaca was purchased from the Greencastle Indiana festival last year and Susie has been spinning it very fine and plans to knit it into a lace shawl.....for HERSELF! We will be heading north to Greencastle again in just a few weeks and I've already made connections with several of our vendors who are already holding fleeces for us. If I can figure out the camera, I will take it with us and get some shots of the festival and those breeders who keep us up to our armpits in fleece. (Last year I came home with 10 fleeces and an assortment of other fibers that I just couldn't pass up!)

THE hat and mittens

Here are the hat and mitten set that Susie did for our friends Christmas gift. I wish I could have gotten better shots of these that showed more detail but being new to the digital camera, I'm not too proud to say I have LOTS to learn! (To be honest, I miss my 35mm camera.....IT took great pictures!)

Our first dyeing!

This was our first try at dyeing and it turned out rather well, if I do say so myself (and I do!). Susie had spun the yarn from some of our huge stash of Finn fleece and after doing the math on brewing up the dye bath, we started! Since this was MY first time ever dyeing, I found the whole process very interesting and couldn't wait to do more! After we dyed this yarn, Susie was asked to do a hat and mittens for a friend of ours to be used as a Christmas gift for his wife. He requested a light pink so we were able to do a SECOND dyeing project right on the heels of the first. The dying on these went very well and after spinning, dyeing, and knitting them into the finished items, they were well received.....especially since we were in the middle of some VERY cold weather at the time. SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING!

We FINALLY have our own!!!!

After getting the wool combing book through inter library loan for about a dozen times, we finally found someone with a copy and now OWN it ourselves! I have been wearing out our Louet double row mini combs processing a number of fleeces and have been really wanting to make our own English combs so having Peter Teals book at hand for reference is a God send! I've also located a local supplier for stainless steel welding rod to be used for the tines so hopefully in the not too distant future, I will be able to actually START making a set of these lethal looking instruments. Now the big decision will be what wood to use for the combs themselves. I have some nice flame Birch left from a kniddy knoddy I made for Susie so I may use that....otherwise it will be some old growth Cherry salvaged from a barn one of the neighbors tore down to use for firewood! (Don't get me started on THAT topic!) Right now I'm finishing us a couple of dizs made from an old coconut we've had for years. This is the first time I have ever worked with coconut and I'm rather amazed at how this looks as it nears being finished.