Sunshine and Snow for St. Patrick's Day

The weather is the usual unpredictable stuff - snow from 7am to about noon and now at 5pm we have gorgeous sunshine and all the snow (about an inch) is gone.  Unfortunately the mud continues and after digging out all the silt that has built up against the barn I know of at least one project for either the kids' spring break or summer.  They hate it when I have a list of projects to keep them busy during breaks.

Last weekend I was in Port Townsend, WA attending a wonderful spinning seminar put on by Beth and Kevin Hansen, of Hansen E-spinner fame. Judith Mackenzie was the teacher and it was fascinating from minute one. To make a long story short I'm going to let the pictures tell the story of my spinning seminar:

The complete treasure trove

my alpaca on the left and the 2-ply of alpaca and buffalo on the right

three different rovings made of wool, alpaca, and silk

texas mohair in amazing colors

naturally colored cotton - the little wad of yarn on the left is the first cotton I've spun in DECADES

bamboo that I'll be blending with alpaca for spinning and felting

novelty slub yarn on the left and a four ply that was used in "Binding" around a fifth ply on the right

And Now for March!

Unbelieveable!  It's now March - where is the year going?!  We were busy in February - clearing the fallen trees in the pasture, repairing fences, working on scarves and hats, taking fiber to Superior Fiber for processing into roving and yarn.  Not to mention making more cheese and taking care of the farm and the kids etc.  Oh- and the day job, can't forget the day job. 

Thanks to my day job I spent two sunny days in San Leandro, CA learning how to safely climb ladders and drive defensively.  The upside is I get to see if I get a discount on my insurance since I passed the driving class.  Yay me!

This weekend I'm headed to a three day retreat focused on spinning with my Hansen E-spinner.  It's the first spinning lesson I've had in YEARS, if not actual decades!  I'm very excited about it and can't wait to be on my way tomorrow!

I mentioned that I spent Frideay making scarves and hats and I actually have the pictures to prove it.

hat and scarf ensemble

This is a matching hat and scarf made from beige fiber from Samson.  I thought it needed something so needled on the flower and leaves.  The two were created using warm soapy water - the scarf was rolled in bubble wrap and the hat was made "on a ball". 

I made four sets of matching hats and scarves including the black hat on the right.  I'll post pictures of the other two as soon as I take some decent photos - the pictures I have are terrible.


I also found a wonderful scarf idea in the handbook I got with my new felting machine from Anne Vickrey Evans (FeltCrafts).  These are two scarves, silk, that started out the same length and width.  I used white fiber for the scarf on the right and brown for the other one.  They were rolled on the machine and then fulled in the dryer.  Besides color the only other difference was the amount of fiber used - I used very little for the brown scarf and quite a bit more for the other.

For the scarf on the right I used a navy blue dyed fiber and filled it fairly full.  I'll have to add a finished picture when I get it along with the picture of the scarf I filled with black fiber - that one is pretty amazing.

I'm also working on more fish and have decided to try a slightly different approach - insted of felting the tail and fins as part of the body work I'm going to needle them on after the body is complete and stuffed.  Along with the lips, eyes and other details. 

My goal is to make a bunch that I can take with me when I got to Detroit for the rest of my training in April.  I'll be there six days and this should give me something to do - plus I can always bring my e-spinner and fiber (-: