Basket Weaving Class

I took a basket weaving class this weekend. It was a fun time with a gourmet lunch. It is a 2 day fiber workshop with several different classes offered at Shearbrooke Farm in Standish, Maine. For the basket weaving class, we made a potato basket.

Getting it started is the unfun part. You need 6 hands to keep everything in place until you get it going.

Then it got fun after things would stay in place on it's own.

This is my finished basket with Ben modeling in it for me. He was being a very good model which is unusual for him.

It is plenty big & will hold lots of fiber. My husband couldn't believe it when I showed him. He said "You didn't make that just today." He expected me to come home with a little bread basket or something a lot smaller than this.

If you want to check out the workshop info, go to this link. It is held once a year, always in July. http://www.sacovalleyfiberartists.com/shearbrooke.html A portion of the proceeds go to the Guatemala Education Fund, in support of the children of Maya weavers and crafts people.

We had beautiful weather here in Southern Maine this weekend. It's about time.

TTFN.

Summer Excursions

Aaaawwwww, ain't they cute! Sadie was laying on me Oreo came up & laid on her. I wanted to be in the picture but had to get up to take the picture.





We took a little day trip to Popham Beach here on the coast of Maine. It was about a 2 hour drive from our house. On the way there I stopped in to Halcyon Yarn & bought 7 cones of unmercerized cotton for weaving towels & napkins.



It was very overcast at the beach. We collected seaweed for our compost bin, driftwood & sea sponges.

Hubby posing by one of the cannons at Fort Popham near Popham Beach. We had lunch at a little seaside restaurant that is behind the cannon. They had awesome clam chowder.

On the drive away from the beach, hubby spotted this deer drinking from the river.

This past weekend we went to Rangeley, Maine. It is over a 2 hour drive from our house. We stopped & took this scenic photo along the way. It was so beautiful.

And then we continued on after a day at Rangeley to a July 4th get together with my family. I had a really nice time with my family. My Mom is doing this new needle work that she recently learned. It is called Amish Embroidery (also known as chicken scratch). It is pretty cool how it looks like lace & it is just cotton gingham fabric & cotton embroidery floss. My Mom did the blue one & I wanted to try it so I am doing the green one for her.

Well, that's all for now.

TTFN.

Christmas Ornament Exchange

I feel very badly I have not posted about this yet. Back in February I participated in a Christmas Ornament Exchange thru TylerFarm Homestead. I have not yet posted a pic of the wonderful ornament that I received. Kristi from Harvest Thyme Homestead sent me this cute little snowman on skis. She got it from her favorite Amish store in her region in Ohio. And I love the sheep card, too! Thank you again Kristi & I apologize for not blogging on this back in March!

TTFN.

I Haven't Forgotten About My Blog

My new alpaca Robin was not allowed to eat from the hay feeder for quite a while. Only a couple others were the mean ones who would not allow him & then eventually it was just Christopher. Christopher beat up on him terrible for several weeks. I had to put a tote near the door where he would stand & watch everyone else eating. It was pitiful. A couple of them wouldn't even let him come in the barn so he would just stand in the doorway & watch them all eat & he would lay down there & hope to be accepted. Here he is eating from his own private tote of hay. I eventually added a second smaller hay feeder just for him & things were much better. None of them minded eating with him out of that one. And!....tonight for the first time, he was eating out of the blue hay feeder after grain time & Christopher came over & ate too & didn't drive him away! Then Robin went over to his own feeder (I call it his feeder but the others eat out of it too) & Christopher eventually went over & ate out of that one with him. I'm glad it all eventually worked out. Took a while though. Boy, he doesn't let himself get pushed out of grain time though. He always (now, not in the beginning) gets the first, second or third dish of grain.

I had them sheared a week ago. My friend Jan came over to help.

Dreamy was the first to get "de-fleeced".

I wanted to get more pics of shearing day but this was the only one I got.

I had some fun taking pics a few weeks ago of my flowers.

Lilacs

Bleeding Heart

Pansy

And this was our flowering crab this year.

The bees were aaallllllll over it.

That's all I have for now. Just a quick update since I haven't posted for a while.

TTFN.

Welcome Rockin Robin!

Meet my new alpaca Robin! He arrived last night, is almost 2 years old (this September) & dark brown. He has had a tough time his first 24 hours here being accepted into the group. Two of them are fine with him but Christopher beats him up, won't let him eat, Chestnut won't let him eat & Nevis tried to breed him the within the first 15 minutes after he arrived. Luckily, he will eat out of my hand easily so I hand fed him this morning & tonight. I will probably have to fix him a dish at the other end of the barn for now until the others get used too him. I just love his color. Tonight in the drizzly overcast light he looked dark maroon brown. Funny, he has a lot of guard hair on his brisket. Isn't he beautiful!

TTFN.

Daily Grommet & New Spinning Wheel

Well, I have been busy with my new job. I went to New York again this past week for more training. I will have to go one more time, probably in a month.

One of my products from my little soap company was selected to be featured on Daily Grommet (http://www.dailygrommet.com/products/132-Steep-Falls-Soap-Company-Lavender-Pillow-Mist). This is a link to the feature & video. My Lavender Pillow Mist is a favorite of the founder of the online business. They did a wonderful job, professional photographer & videographer. I was flattered & they really did a lot of work on my behalf.

I also treated myself to a new spinning wheel, the Kromski Sonata. I have had my eye on this wheel since it first came out. I decided to finally get it & sell my Ashford Traditional. The Sonata is a folding wheel with a really nice carrying bag so I can take it with me much easier than trying to take the Traditional & it is also much easier to just take it to a different part of the house to sit and spin. I have spun on it two evenings now & I really like it. It is beautiful mahogany.

The carrying case is REALLY nice quality (as is the wheel).

I also did the Denmark Sheepfest a few Saturdays ago. It is a very small fiber fest & is really fun because it gets a lot of traffic for such a little event & I know most of the people....... AND it is local, so I really enjoy doing it. I bought some roving to try water color needle felting. I thought this blue and green would make a nice background for flowers or fish in the sea. I've never done water color needle felting but I bought a book & would like to try it.

I also bought a spinning wheel basket at the sheepfest. You hang it on your spinning wheel & you can put your oil, hook, pens, notepad and whathaveyou in it. I don't know yet if I'm going to hang it on my wheel or use it for something else.

While at the sheepfest, I had brought my drum carder so I could get some carding done that I had been wanting to do for a year. I wanted to blend some of my black alpaca with brown alpaca. So I got some done! I've already spun a couple of batts on my new Sonata.

When I went to visit Romney Ridge Farm last fall, Kelly gave me a sample of Southdown Babydoll sheep's wool to try spinning. I haven't gotten to it yet but I think I will within the next couple of weeks. I've had it setting on my table so I see it everyday & won't forget about it.

Oh, I made yogurt for the first time last weekend with my new yogurt maker & it came out great! The only thing, which didn't bother me anyways, was that it was lumpy like cottage cheese. I didn't care, it tasted wonderful!

Well, I am headed to Foss Mountain Farm in New Hampshire this afternoon to look at a couple of brown alpacas.

TTFN.

Sadie Got a New Bed......

and Oreo thinks she's awfully nice to share.