It's Definitely Been Indoor Weather

Dobby the House Elf

Are those not the funniest ears you've ever seen?  And those huge eyes and long pointy nose!  House elf indeed!

It is January.  No doubt.  That's what the calendar says.  The weather however, is all over the place.  One day it is 11 degrees in the morning when I get up and the next day it is 49.  It has been a weird winter thus far.

It has been good for indoor projects.  Outdoors, the animals are just getting by.  Twice a day I slog out through the mud and give them fresh food and scoop up what needs scooped.  We had a minor crisis when the Nelson automatic waterer stopped working during the coldest days earlier this week.  Since about 30 alpacas and 2 dogs depend on this for their water, it makes for a touchy situation when it stops working.  I have to find another way to keep unfrozen water available for everyone.  Fortunately, Sam was able to take the waterer apart and replace a filter and clean out several years worth of mouse turds and it is once again working.  We've had that for at least 10 years and it has been very low maintenance.  Well worth the $350  we paid for it.  

So back to the indoor activities.  I use this time of year to get in as much fibery fun as I can since in a few short months I will be spending a lot of my time outdoors.  I wove a baby blanket on  my big loom here at the office and this week I finally hemmed it and washed it.  While not perfect, I am pleased.  It is wrapped and ready to drop off.  Blue and white for a baby boy.  I must add that this is NOT alpaca.  It is a machine washable cotton blend.  Baby items need to be easy maintenace.


 

I am still working on the neon green yarn on my frame wheel.  But I got sidetracked by another project this week.  I took 6 ounces of rose grey fleece from this guy and put it in my dye pot and dyed 1/3 lilac, 1/3 sky blue and 1/3 teal.  I got very muted colors as expected.  I separated the colors once the fiber was dry and made 2 1 oz batts of each color on my drum carder

While carding the teal fiber, I added in a little green sparkly fiber, seen in the photo to the right.  Not a lot, just a little.  The white fiber you see is bamboo.  

Once the three colors were carded, I then made layered batts by carding 1/4 oz teal, then 1/8 oz bamboo, 1/4 oz blue, 1/8 oz bamboo and then 1/4 oz lilac.  I now have 8 layered batts.

I got the bamboo in trade a while back and have never worked with it.  It is similar to silk, but not as "fly away", so easier to work with and no little wormies had to die.  So far I really like it. 

I started spinning this up last night and it is spinning beautifully.  I plan to spin it as fine as I can.  There are 2 lace patterns I have my eye on.  This is on my big Reeves Saxony 
wheel. Here is a link to a post with my wheels

http://straightforkfarm.blogspot.com/2010/03/feels-like-spring.html

I think this yarn will be gorgeous with some sparkle and shine and some color variation, but not too much.  

Tuesday, it poured rain all day and was in the mid-50's.  The creek was really up.  And there is mud everywhere.  

Yesterday, it was back below freezing all day  though the sun did shine for a while.  

Today, I stopped along the road on my way in and took photos of the cool icicles that form on the rocks every winter.  

 I am worried about getting to my Bee Class this Saturday morning.  The forecast is calling for freezing rain and sleet overnight Friday and into Saturday morning and Bee Class is 45 minutes away over twisty turny hilly state highways.  I guess we will have to wait and see.