The Boy Who Cried WOLF!

No, I'm not going to tell the old story about the boy that cried wolf....this is the story about a bit of commissioned spinning that Susie recently finished. A young man from around here advertised for someone to spin some special "wool" for him which turned out to be undercoat combings from his dog which is part wolf. We met with him and looked the fiber over and Susie took the work. There were almost 6 ounces of fiber that averaged less than an inch in length which proved to be somewhat of a challenge but since Susie can spin cotton and other short staple fiber, she prevailed! Tomorrow we are meeting him in town to deliver the finished 3 skeins which he is taking to his mother to have knit into something for him to wear.

Another Christmas Present

I guess I need to post something that I made just to prove that I DO actually build things once in awhile! This is the doll bed I made for our middle Granddaughter, Lily. I made it out of 4/4 and 8/4 butternut and even turned the spindles myself on the mini lathe. It's approximately 15"x27" and while it's made for her dollies, SHE was the first "sleeper" to get into it! I wish I had managed to get a shot of her laying in it since her legs were draped over the foot board! (This is the reason I tried to build this bed strong enough to park a truck on!)

Merry Christmas!

Well.....Christmas has come and gone again. I think the older I get, the faster it runs over me from behind! I mean....it IS the 25th of December EVERY year....it's not like the date changes! Try as I might, I seem to be less and less ready every year. This year, after dealing with catastrophe after catastrophe due to weather and vehicle problems, Susie and I found ourselves burning the midnight oil in the final days prior to Christmas eve to get presents ready in time. This baby jacket was for our newest Granddaughter , Liberty, who was born in November. The pattern was from Elizabeth Zimmerman and is called a "Baby Surprise Jacket". Susie used a baby yarn that I picked up locally (which is another story revolving around security being called because of how long I stood in the yarn isle!) Susie managed to get HER project done with time to spare...but I was still putting finish on MY project almost as the grand kids were walking in the back door! As soon as I can, I will post a picture of Lily's new butternut doll bed!

Merino Roving -#3

Here we are! This is the FINAL yarn from the Merino. We were both very pleased with the finished piece since the color blended well and the "visual" effect of the different weights being plied together is extremely pleasing! Once Susie decides what she is going to knit with this, I will post a picture of that as well! (I apologize for making multiple posts to tell a story but for the life of me I can't figure out how to place photos throughout the post. Everything I try "piles" them all at the top and I don't like the way that either looks or reads!)

Merino Roving-#2

This is the first stage of the finished yarn. Susie stripped the roving out into thicker and thinner sections, then spun both a "thick" and a "thin" yarn. Once these were done, she plied them both together again on the Country Spinner and once that was finished, we skeined it off and washed it. I will post a picture of the "final" finished yarn momentarily!

Merino Roving

When we purchased the Ashford Country Spinner from Alaska, we were sent a fair amount of dyed Merino roving as well. This was something somewhat out of the "norm" for us since we tend to mainly spin natural colored fleece. I have a hard time knowing what the finished yarn will be like by just looking at the top or roving, but Susie felt the end result was going to be very nice. (I don't have ANY problem knowing if I like it BEFORE it's spun but the finished piece can sometimes be very disappointing!) These colors blended well at the wheel and the spinning went very smoothly. Susie has something different she is doing with the yarn and I will be posting pictures of that as well!

The 2010 Cotton Is In!

We finally got the rest of the cotton that was planted this year in today. This was the first time we had planted these three varieties and even though we got them in almost 2 months too late, they still produced very well.
The browns were Mississippi Brown and Sea Island Brown and the green was called Eileen's Green. Even getting them in as late as we did due to the flooding, the plants still managed to grow close to 6 feet high and were still setting blossoms after the first frost!
Where we live, the growing season is JUST long enough for cotton IF (key word here is IF!) nothing goes wrong! This year EVERYTHING seemed to go wrong from the May floods that destroyed not only Nashville but many of the roads and structures around here, to the unreal heat and humidity we experienced the bulk of the summer! If we had been able to get the crop in sooner, I have no idea if the result would have been more or if it would have all died from drowning!

Today we spent several hours cutting the remaining branches that were heavily laden with unopened bolls and bundling them in groups. Once bundled we tagged each one (experience is a HARD teacher!) so we would know which ones were which, and hung them in the living room to hopefully continue to dry and open. I'm curious if the quality of the cotton may suffer somewhat from not naturally maturing but it's a chance we are willing to take at this point. The only other option would have been to leave hundreds of unopened bolls out in the garden to rot. At least this way we have a chance to get some more! Next year we hope to return to planting white Pima AND get it in the ground much sooner. If all goes well, I will be documenting the planting and harvesting next year and will post it here!