A little quickie....

... project, that is! After all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I was craving the chance to felt something (other than a birdhouse) that would incorporate all that I find satisfying in felting.

That means lots of experimenting, unpredictability, texture, color, and a little bit of "magic" added to the mix. This scarflet (mini scarf) fit the bill.

I used a bit of silk chiffon that I had hand-dyed and didn't particularly love the result enough to invest in a large shawl, so I cut it into a smaller piece and began grabbing colorful bits of merino, soft, hand-dyed milk fiber, a bit of angelina, and baby alpaca. I decided to leave the edges unfinished, rough and ruffled.

Since this was going to be a short scarf , it needed a pin and I wanted to use a complementary color that would stand out from the scarf itself. I felted a flower pin and added a turquoise bead for the center.

P.S. Welcome to the new visitors and followers to the blog! If you didn't notice in the comments, I've decided to extend the giveaway until Friday at noon!

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A Colorful Month

My right-hand salesperson at the Festival

Phew, it's been a run of one thing to the next lately, and I'm really relieved that I'm skipping out on the AOBA Alpaca Nationals this coming weekend! Most recently, the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival kept me on my toes. It turned out to be a great event, especially for the first year, and was really well-attended. I met lots of fun people, and had great interest in felting classes. Check out my new class schedule here.The animals drew a lot of interest- these three little girls were soooo cute with Jasper!

I had great sales at the Fiber Festival (THANKS to everyone!), but I had plenty of dyed rovings left. Darn, now I'm gonna have to use them myself! Here's a skein of yarn I spun up from some hand-dyed baby alpaca.And some felting projects... I'm getting new things ready for this Saturday's Art in the Park at Big Spring Park in Versailles. Hope to see you there! Pin It Now!

Feeling Fibery

This morning I was working with some roving I dyed yesterday, and felt a zen-like trance come over me while I was feeling fine fibers running through my fingers.
The colors and tactile experience in my quiet studio were mesmerizing.

Reality hit, and I realized it was time to go feed my famished, fretting fuzzy friends who gifted me their fleeces.SSF Peruvian Midas

What's with the F's all of a sudden? Oh... it is February! Pin It Now!

Summer Hodge-Podge

We have been in no particular routine around here, just a little bit of this and that. Here's a sampling of what's been keeping us busy! I've been doing a lot of felting and dyeing of yarn and silk. The garden is producing at least a little bit, though it's extremely handicapped by the skyscraper-ish weeds which I've given up on at this point.

The weather has been the prettiest I can EVER remember for a Kentucky summer.... rain every few days, cool nights and highs of 70-80. Heaven.
Last night, we went to the Kentucky Cup Reining Championship at the Kentucky Horse Park. It was the first of several preliminary "trial" events in preparation for the September, 2010 World Equestrian Games. Reining is kind of like dressage, Western-style. (Like most athletic pursuits, equine or otherwise, it looks really easy when someone's super good at it, but it's NOT). We're preparing for the National Elite Alpaca Auction in Leesburg, VA. Check out the two beautiful girls we have consigned (that's our full Accoyo fawn, Noel, above)! Information is available on our farm blog.

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Time for creativity

This has been a good week so far, and I think I know why. First of all, it is feeling like spring will come around sometime soon.... I saw my first foals of the year this past weekend, and heard a tom turkey gobbling yesterday morning. It's a LOT warmer, and even our koi fish are visible in their pond after hiding out for weeks during the bitter cold. I got to have lunch yesterday with Marti and MB, the first time the three of us were together in months, and it felt so good to be laughing with them again.

Our new farm manager is back and getting into her routine, and best of all I've found a little bit of time to be creative! I got on a roll with some needle felting, and here are some of the results. I have lots of alpaca fiber dyed up to use for soaps and other projects, and it's so fun to pull out bits here and there for quick projects like these. Just for a few days, I'm trying to procrastinate without guilt... and not think about the billing, taxes, and other tasks that are always waiting in the wings.

All of the projects shown here can be found at Truly Bluegrass in downtown Versailles. I have taken new Seldom Scene alpaca yarn in, too, and will be adding more in the next week or so. I don't know about you, but having a chance to make things is great for my spirit at this gloomy time of year. What are you working on these days?

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Up to my ears in Fleece!

As a world-class procrastinator, I have let a surplus of alpaca fiber (what I didn't have processed for myself or direct sale) build up for longer than I can publicly admit here.... I had the good fortune of having my friend Mamie (an alias since I haven't asked her permission to use her real name) offer to help me skirt and sort it, as well as box it up for free shipping to the AFCNA (Alpaca Fiber Co-Op of North America). How could I turn that down?

It's a dirty, smelly job, especially in 90 degrees plus weather, but having a fun and chatty friend definitely helped it go more quickly. Last night we got over 60 pounds of our fiber boxed up, a very small dent in a mountain of fleece but a start nonetheless. I do enjoy seeing the luscious colors, since alpaca fiber comes in 22 different natural shades. Here's a large medium brown fleece...

A super-crimpy dark fawn or light brown fleece that I'm showing from Jolly Mon... And a true black....
Actually, white has become my favorite since it can be dyed any color- here's some that I dyed which will soon be turned in to a rug for our new addition.

After we'd had our fill of fleece sorting, we headed to our pontoon boat on the Kentucky River and were greeted by some friends who were fishing beside our boat. We headed off to a sandy spot downriver where the kids could swim and we could picnic, drink wine and tell stories. Time flew, and we had to find our way back in complete darkness- thank goodness our friends had the good sense to have a flashlight on their boat! (My McGyver husband normally has all the right gadgets, but not this time).

I took our herdsire Sinbad to a farm in Stamping Ground this morning for a "drive by" breeding, a follow-up to a visit to a female he bred a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, "Gabby" was still receptive to breeding (she'd have spit at him if she was pregnant) and they bred again. Sinbad felt it was quite fortunate and worth his while to take a ride in the back of my Suburban for such a treat awaiting him!

This afternoon I'm back at it, sorting through fiber and determined to continue chipping away at the pile. Makes me tired thinking about it, I'm gonna go take a nap!

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