Another Pygora Baby Video

I brought my iPad with me when I made my first visit of the day to the mamas and babies.  Enjoy it!

Rock Climbing 101 for Baby Goats

A little iMovie knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Weaving on a Spriggs Adjustable Rectangular Loom

I recently acquired a Spriggs seven foot adjustable rectangular loom.  This loom is designed to be worked diagonally with one continuous strand of yarn.  For my first project on the loom, using some of my earliest hand-spun yarn, I opted to use my own method, as described here.

Scarf woven with hand-spun

Close Up

And here's another look at Brenda's Santa doll, described in my last post:

Brenda's Santa Doll with Pygora Beard and Hair

Pygora Fiber

First use of pygora fiber from my flock!  Isn't Santa's beard lovely?  Here's the story:


This year I've been taking a painted floor cloth class at the Hill Institute here in Florence, Massachusetts.  Our instructor, Brenda, a talented and energetic woman, also quilts, weaves, and is a doll maker.  Since last fall she has been asking me to provide a sample of pygora goat locks for her to try for her doll-making.  I've really stalled in getting the accumulating pygora fiber put to use and/or ready for market.  I finally provided Brenda with some fiber earlier this month... and within a week this is what she created!

Santa Doll with pygora beard

Apologies for the pixelated quality... I need to learn more about editing and transferring the photos taken on my iPad and am also doing my blogging with a new Mac Mini.


If you would like to learn more about Brenda's work, she can be contacted at beebee2ATcharter.net, with the AT replaced with the usual character.


I've been sorting through the pygora fleeces, skirting and dividing into piles to send off for de-hairing, washing and carding and piles of locks suitable for use as is.

Felt Hearts

A goal for the New Year is to create more finished products with the wool from my flock.  With that in mind, I created my first FINISHED ornament from some of my pre-felt on New Years Eve.  It's the white heart, below.  I've done lots of play with the prefelts, doing little sample pieces with various embroidery stitches; some can be found on previous posts (if interested, use the pre-felt and embroidered felt labels).  I've displayed them at fairs and been asked if they're for sale.  This year I still want to play... but I'd like to play with a purpose!

Felt Hearts

Felt Heart

I think I'm off to a good start.  Yesterday we visited my dear friend Amy and her fiance David for what is becoming an annual New Years Day open house.  Here's what our gift bottle of Merlot  looked!  Wishing a Happy, Healthy and Productive New Year to all.

Boot Toppers With Meadow Muffins Yarn

I'm not much of a knitter.  I knit far too slowly and make many mistakes.  Worst of all, activities that require my fingers to act as levers repeatedly cause much discomfort.  I need to preserve my hands for the necessary activities so needle knitting is out.

I like to wear footless tights or leggings over fairly thin socks.  The thin socks fit well in my shoes and are easily-replaced when they wear out. The leggings are so cozy with a dress or skirt.  But something nice and bulky and hand-knit was needed between the socks and the leggings.  Here's what I came up with:

Boot Topper on Knifty Knitter Loom with Meadow Muffins yarn

This is my first go-round with using a round knitting loom.  I used a blue (24 pegs) and worked with three strands of Meadow Muffins yarn, working stripes of approximately one inch.  No fancy stitch work... I just followed the directions that came with the knitting loom.

Boot Toppers on Knifty Knitter Loom: Close-up

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of the work.  It shows that each stripe was actually made up of three closely-related colors.  I used eight stripe colors, repeating once.  Each boot topper used two ounces.

Boot Toppers from Meadow Muffins yarn

 I really enjoyed using a circular knitting loom and plan to make more Boot Toppers.  Next: I'll try working with two strands, one a constant color and the other will change as I knit.  I will also use a different, more elastic method for binding off as using the bind-off directions that came with the loom resulted in a lower opening that I could just barely get my foot through.

Plant-Dyeing All Summer and Fall

Japanese Indigo, Late Summer

 Here I am trying to catch up again.  This will be a whirlwind look at what has been happening with Sojourner Design since my last post.

The Japanese Indigo did splendidly this summer; as I recall, I harvested four times.  I dried some of the leaves; supposedly one can ferment dried Japanese Indigo leaves, thus spreading out some of the indigo dyeing activity into the colder months.  We shall see.

Fibers dipped in Japanese Indigo vat

I was pleased with my dyeing results with the Japanese Indigo although I'd like to have gotten more color from the dyebath and I found it difficult to find days when I could set aside the time to harvest and then immediately dye with the plant.

I also didn't succeed in harvesting seeds for next year.  The plants flowered like crazy (see the tiny pink blooms, lower left, in the photo).  Our weather was so wet and crazy this fall that I never detected what I thought were seeds.  I'll plant more next year but have also bought woad seeds to try.  Woad plants were used for centuries in Europe to obtain blue color.

Pokeweed Closeup; This bract isn't ready to pick

Pokeweed was FUN!  During the early part of the summer I scoped out where there were accessible pokeweed bushes, then the rest of the summer I checked them regularly to be sure I was there to pick at the point that as many berries on each bract were plump and juicy.

Fiber Dyed with Pokeweed

Most plants had bracts ready to pick starting in the early fall and right up to frost.
I had only one dyeing session with pokeweed berries, dyeing with the bath until the dyestuff was exhausted.  Numerous colors were obtained by over-dyeing other colors.

I harvested more bracts, however, for the freezer.  I don't know if I'll succeed but I'll try dyeing with the thawed berries sometime this winter.








Pokeweed is considered to be an invasive weed.  But, having gotten to know the plant better, I have an appreciation for the plant.  I allowed a couple of the plants to grow up at the edge of my garden and enjoyed the lovely shape that the plant becomes when it's not relegated to neglected weed patches.

Pokeweed

I almost missed the boat with goldenrod.  I had tried it a few years ago, getting the same predictable green/gold color that I associated with most plant dyes.  Not enthused about trying it again, I waited until the goldenrod flowers were few and far between before discovering that they can produce a lovely soft buttery yellow if used correctly.

Walnuts soaking in water

The walnut dyeing continued, and will continue.  I have several bags of walnuts slumbering away in my basement freezer, awaiting a mid winter dye day.  Here is the large jar in which I soak walnuts.  This photo was taken minutes after the walnuts were added to the water.  They are floating at the top, out of range.  The dyestuff is sinking downward from the nuts anc accumulating at the bottom of the jar.  In a short time the water will be black!




Speaking of walnut dyeing, I shot a quick video about what walnut trees and their fruits look like and how I harvest them when I was out in the pasture one day moving sheep.  Watch it here.


Finally, just last week, it was Shearing Day.  Here's Bud keeping an eye on all concerned.

Shearing Day

Click here to watch my shearer, Kevin Ford, at work while sheep and Border Collie watch.