Snug as a bug in a rug

Finally! That project I talked about forever ago, it’s happening!

It’s taken me quite a while to card out enough roving for the backing to the rug, but I’m ready to go. I selected fibers of varying lengths from two fleeces (corriedale crosses) that I got a few months ago. There is a mixture of brown and white with vary shades in the brown. I wanted a very natural, rough look to the finished rug. I (very carefully and with much frustration) stood all the raw fleece pieces tip end down, trying to vary the lengths and colors and trying to create a natural wave of length like in a whole fleece (shorter pieces on the ends). Then several layers of the washed roving in perpendicular angles to each other. The final layed-out piece was nearly 8 inches tall.

 

 

 

I very carefully ladled hot, soap water onto the piece and slowly smashed it flat on top of the bubble wrap. I then covered it with more bubble wrap and lightly rubbed it until the piece was starting to felt.

 

Once the rug started to hold together on the back I rolled it up with a rubber shelf liner around it to help hold it together and started to roll. First I just sat and rolled it with my feet, but that wasn’t great and I didn’t have enough patients.

 

So I turned to the dryer. Tumble dry low, no heat. As it turns out, my roll was just wide enough to fit in the dryer and tumble around. I added a small towel to make sure it was knocked free from the sides while it tumbled and let it go. For the most part it stayed rolling and worked out quite nicely.

 

It took a few hours to dry out well, I think it was a good bit faster because the centrifugal force of the dryer. The final piece is about the size of a bath matt and I love it. I think it will end up as a cozy cushion for my office chair.

 

 

-M

 

Spinning in circles

I’ve had a little down time and have gotten back to the wheel. Mostly I am plying some reclaimed yarn from a few sweaters I bought at the thrift store. This one is a really nice green cashmere sweater that was very fine and I thought the yarn would work better for me as a Navajo-plied yarn. I think it will work nicely as a shawl, it should have a lovely drape to it.

 

 My other project has been to take apart some tips. We have had some of our wool made into very nice, thick socks and the company asked us if we wanted the tips that they cut off when they finish them. It is about a ½ inch bit of sock, almost like a hair tie but not elastic. We said sure, why not? Well, as it turns out there are several yards of a thin single-ply in that ½ inch and I’ve started un-knitting them and putting them on some dowels in a make-shift lazy kate. Then I’ve plied those together to make a heavier three-ply yarn. I’m not sure what will happen to it next, we shall see. It is the brown skein in the middle.

 

The other two are my funky art yarn that is plied with a reclaimed green cashmere yarn and a solid white, single-ply yarn from the bag of starter yarn that came with my wheel.

 

I should probably stop bouncing around between projects, but I can't help myself. Happy spinning everyone!

 

-M

Oh baby!

I went over to help my friend for a little while, and look who showed up? Little Pixie Stix had a cute little kid just as I was visiting

 

 

-M

"A man on a tractor with a dog in a field"

The look of a freshly mown pasture.

 

 
 I can’t help but smile looking at it. Even with the huge hedge of privet and roses. Actually, I wish I could keep the hedge, but unfortunately a hedge doesn’t actually keep animals in and the fence under it is too old and weak to do much of anything so it all has to come down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But we are trying to at least get some good out of the hedge while it is here. By cutting through the fence and hedge just enough to slip a chain link panel through on either end we are making portable goat grazing pen.

 

 There was a lovely little spider on one of the panels. I've seen a few like this so far this year, but I've never seen them before. They almost look like they are carrying a little shell on their back.
 

 

Added bonus, the panels fit nicely on the bush hog so we can move them around to different areas fairly easy.

 
Not a bonus- little dogs like to roll in things when they are out running around. She looks guilty.

 

-M

Bringing In The Sheaves

 

Ok, so maybe it’s not exactly sheaves I’m toting around, but look at this crop!

 

 

 

We started harvesting our grape and apple crop a few weeks ago and it is everywhere in our house. We only have three apple trees and two grape vines, but I couldn’t imagine having more than this. The grapes we have are tiny (maybe a problem with our willingness to prune? It just hurts to cut up the vines!) but even though they may be small they are mighty! They have an amazing amount of flavor. The best way to describe it would be to say “bright”. Yeah, I know, how can something taste bright? Well, these are, they light your whole mouth up. We’ve washed, plucked (sounds more like a chicken), boiled and mashed them and have made several pitchers full of juice to making jelly. The apples have been split between making jelly, apple butter, and pie filling. Mmmm, mmmm. I love the harvest.

Here's the grape mash. It had an interesting aroma, very woody. I presume it was because it was hot and the grape seeds were adding to the smell.

 

 

 

 

 MmmMmm good. Honestly, I didn't know home made jelly would taste this good.

 

 

 And some apple butter to boot

As the harvest has gotten slim and our determination to weed and trim has waned, the zinnias have started taking over. We left them spread through the tomatoes and green beans to attract insects, and the butterflies are feasting now. Yeah, butterflies aren’t really the main insects that we were going for, but they are nice to have around at the same time.

 

Little Winston, showing off his belly. I think he prefers to see the world upside down.

 -M

Newest Project

So, I've been pondering for the last year and a half about a wet felting/needle felting project I would like to do. The first CVF Mission trip I took, our devotional was over the Beatitudes. It was a phenomenal devotional written by one of our doctors who had also gone to seminary school, and it has always been one of my favorite verses. I've been looking for about a year for a version of the verse written in the Dine language (Navajo). I had been thinking about it so long as just a project i was interested in, but earlier this year we found out the doctor who began this trip to work with the Navajo people has become seriously ill and I realized I should make it for him. He has been such a blessing in my life and a great model for walking in God's word for many veterinary students and everyone he meets.

This year, we actually had found a Dine version of the Bible and brought boxes of them with to give away, so while I was waiting one morning I copied down Mathew 5: 3-12. It takes up quite a bit of room in the Dine language, and there are a lot of unique characters that I hope I copied properly. But here is a picture of verses 3-10.

 

 

I think I would like to make a wall hanging out of wet felting and then needle felt the words over it. I haven't decided the pattern for the background, but I think I will incorporate the four main colors used by the Navajo (white, blue, yellow, black) or create a pattern like the Navajo rugs with black, white, and red. I still have to sketch it out to see how the words will work against a pattern. It may be simpler to have a solid background with patterns around the edge. I never can tell where I am going when I start a project, the wool just takes over somehow. I'll post some pictures when I actually get something together.

 

 

-M

Queso in the Wool

We spent this morning at church at Good Shepherd Mission. It was beautiful to hear the people singing in their Dine language.

Afterwards we took lunch at the mission with the church members and then our group split up. Part went to hike canyon De Chelly and a small group went to meet Dr. Ruby, a Hope veterinarian on the Navajo Rez who was participating in a traditional ride. She has a wagon (pulled by two gorgeous horses named 'Fred' and 'Wagon Wrecker') and several people in her group on horseback who all rode into Window Rock for the camp meeting. A handful of us stayed back at the mission to clean and keep and eye on dinner and spend some time resting. It was storming pretty bad at the mission so I was a little worried about going hiking in the canyon so I stayed back and spent the afternoon on the porch felting Queso. I thought it would be appropriate to wait and work on him in Az, which is where I met his owner the first time I went on this mission trip. Arizona is beautiful country and gave a great backdrop to my time working. And here he is, finally finished:

I took a little walk over to the church and took some pictures with the bell and mission house in the background as well. 

        

 

 

 

-M