hummers, the good kind

I think I'll keep him

getting the news

Living in a rural area, newspapers are sometimes hard to come by. A friend recently turned me on to Newspaper Direct, an amazing service that provides over one thousand papers from around the world electronically — on their date of publication. Now every morning I can sit down with the Washington Post for an hour and keep in touch with "reality". A random sample...

relic

July coupon!

Due to technical difficulties, the coupon isn't working on the website, so here it is. Click on the image to enlarge, then right click to save, then print.

summer sale

Sale flyer for the one week summer yarn sale at Pocket Meadow Farm!

monetize?

That really isn't a word, you know. Its something google came up with, and I've caved in to. Maybe a few clicks will buy me a bag of dried beans at some point, and that's a good thing.

You gotta like this though — how many blogs are going to come up with the keyword combination to generate these listings?

New weaving project!

Just got this on the loom — it's Louet's Cottolin, a 60% cotton, 40% linen weaving yarn. I sell it in the shop, and it's on sale now. This is my first project using it. The sale is to celebrate the launch of Weavolution, the social networking site for weavers.


I'm playing around with randomly varying a few individual strands of the blue-greens in the warp. It might be nice to throw in some warm reds and oranges; I'm still debating it. Opinions?

The NEW New Deal

Growing up as an artist in Washington DC, I had great appreciation for the wealth of public artwork in town, but little more than a basic understanding of how it came to be created. Given our current disastrous economy and my fears — as part of the arts community — about my part in it, I've been reading up on the Great Depression. Some of the approaches to tackle the joblessness back then seem relevant right now.

I'm talking about the New Deal, the WPA, and the CCC. Not only did the WPA create jobs for thousands of artists, artisans and craftsmen (as well as the general population), it left a legacy of public art that is a fascinating look into the social values of the time.

Wikipedia has a great overview on the WPA. It got me thinking...

Maybe it's time to revisit this idea.

new in the shop

Pagewood Farms sock yarn. These + lots more colors!

the seven farm essentials

Continuing on the "essentials" theme...

Aside from good infrastructure such as high tensile woven wire fencing, a reliable source of water, a decent pasture and a good hay farmer nearby, there are seven farm essentials I absolutely can not live without —

1. Muck boots. Worn every single day of the year. A good pair will last forever.


2. Hog panels. Just about the most useful dang thing on the planet.


I have used them for displays, keeping goats out of the new apple trees


a sheep fold, gates, pens, a five-bay composting bin and temporary fencing.

3. Pallets. If you don't store your hay off the ground, you'll be wasting a lot to mice and mold. Good for stacking firewood in the winter. Good for firewood when they start breaking up. I don't lust after $400 Italian shoes (actually, these are three times that much).


Well, okay, those are kinda cool.

I lust after 40 new solid-top hardwood pallets.



4. T-posts and a post pounder. It's pretty hard to get a 6 foot fence post through clay and shale unless you have one of these.

5. A rooster. Ornamental, protective and loyal to his girls.




"How about me? Am I essential to you, mom?"

Hmmm.

Moving along...

6. Muck buckets. The more the merrier.


7. A couple of goats. Anyone with even a quarter acre of yard could use a goat or two to trim weeds and poison ivy. The nicely distributed fertilizer is an added bonus.


8. How could I forget? the best thing to have on a farm is a couple of good friends to help out when you can't manage to do it all.

essential essentials

I've been making small batches of soap for a couple of years, and they are starting to sell well at the farmer's market and in the shop, so I had nearly depleted my stock of essential oils this month. My new order just came in today and opening that box was like a kid's Christmas. Lemongrass and lavender; ylang ylang, orange and star anise; Siberian fir needle and rosemary — these are a few of the scent blends I do. These are all true botanical essential oils and are a bit pricey (the oils shown here were about $300 including shipping) — but worth it when you experience the finished product. Synthetic "fragrance oils" can not compare.

I also got some good emollient oils — avocado, hemp seed, castor and aloe. One of the additives that I use on a regular basis is beeswax. This adds a silky feel and longevity to the soap. New blends for the summer are grapefruit with lime and cornmeal as a kitchen bar, and lemon with basil and pumice as a gardener's soap.

Essential oils are not used in commercial soaps (like you'd find in a grocery store) but you will find them in artisan soaps everywhere (check the label). Next time you go to a farmer's market, organic food store or bath shop, treat yourself to a hand made soap — you'll be supporting a craftsman and enhancing your everyday life.

Spin-in-Knit-in

From fiber to fabric in record time...hand teasing longwool locks, spinning, and knitting from the bobbin.


This is the start of the mitered square shawl that will be donated to the Morgan County Arts Council in November. Thanks for everyone who attended and participated in our Sorta-Sheep-to-Shawl event!

pretty spectacular!

Isn't this gorgeous? Its spun by Andrea, from my dyed fleece. I am so excited to see this kind of stuff being done with the wool produced by my flock.

I got distracted today

I've been seeing this cat hanging around the last couple of days, been hearing mysterious little squeaks and mews...this is why, I guess. I gave mom a good meal to get her used to people (part of the evil plan to one day nab her and take her to the vet for the Big Op).


I found another one later, and they all have no tails, just like the mom. It's a Morgan County feral cat thing, just a huge genetic pool of tailless cats with this coloring.



I am NOT taking these cats in. No. No. and NO. We have six already. But my backyard is pretty idyllic for wild cats to live in, and there is plenty of shelter for the winter with the derelict animal houses, so as long as I can capture them at some point for neutering, it's all good. They'll be on their own mostly, with occasional meals from the Big House, and I'll put out water, but I'm really maxed out on being able to feed the existing crew right now — with lambs on the way in a couple of weeks!

Berkeley Springs Studio Tour + Knit-In and Spin-In

The Studio Tour is coming at this Memorial Day weekend. We are planning a special event here — a "modified" sheep-to-shawl demo (modified because the sheep were sheared a month ago! and because everybody is invited to help).

We are inviting your participation! I'll show you how to prepare and spin from longwool locks, so bring your drop spindle, wheel, and knitting needles (size 5 or 6). Our spinning teams will handspin the dyed longwool locks, and the knitters will create small squares (any size) which will be pieced together for the shawl.

The finished shawl will be donated to the Morgan County Art and Elegance fundraiser in November.

Please note that individual instruction in spinning or knitting for beginners will not be possible during the event (there's only one of me!), so some basic skills will be needed to participate, although everyone can help with fiber prep!

The artwork shown above was a group project to showcase the artists on the tour. My square is the felted green leaves on the top row.

Date and time: May 23, 24, and 25, 11 to 5. I hope to see you here!

country scene

Blackberry nibbles the grass while I learn to scythe it.

mm-mmm-mushishi!

New in the shop! Isn't this gorgeous?


It's a wool/silk self striping yarn from Italy, (via Plymouth). Don't go into sticker-shock — it's $30/skein, but the skeins are huge — 250 grams, 491 yards, enough for a number of project types.

hand towels

Here they are off the loom, hemmed and finished.

Nina's Towels

Yarn — mercerized cotton flake, blue-gray and cream. Hems done with 5/2 cream cotton.
Pattern — Pinwheel twill on 8 harnesses, 12 epi (ends per inch), 12 ppi (picks per inch).
Size — on loom 18" wide x 26" long + 1.5" hems, finished 14.5" wide x 22" long.
Start — waaaay back in February
Finish — May 8

I had to take these off the loom before the entire project of 8 towels was completed (four were a commissioned gift due for Mother's Day). This was actually pretty easy, just cranking out a few extra inches of warp and tying overhand knots in front of the reed to hold them in place for tying onto the apron rod again.

This yarn looks really different on the loom. The weave seems way too loose, but when they are washed the thick/thin nature of the yarn settles itself into place and blooms beautifully, making a dense, absorbent fabric.

PMF and the Temple of Loom

Here's a quick photo of the "simple temple" setup on the loom. It's weighted to keep the selvedges even. That's exactly a pound of two inch washers per side. I tried using machine knitting claw weights at the cloth attachment point, but they damaged the fabric and were hard to move; sometime the simplest thing works best — two bent paperclips in this case.

And it's about time some of that tablet weaving served a purpose!