Wooly Days

I spun, dyed, knitted and felted these fingerless gloves that I hope to sell someday. I am also spinning some Cormo-Romeldale fleece that I got at a fiber festival - check out the pics. I plan to ply it and knit up some nice soft socks. The wool is so dreamy to spin - Cormo is so on my sheep wish list!
In other news, the peas are being eaten and the squash and melons suffer from powdery mildew. I plan to use enzymes to kill the bugs and spray the mildew with diluted milk - heard about the second tip in Grow Great Grub, by Gayla Trail. Great book, she also wrote You Grow Girl. Grow Great Grub is definitely more guy-friendly, and has great tips for growing organic edibles in small spaces. So, what's going on in YOUR gardens and fiber workshops?

Musings of a Teenage Spinner

I am carding and spinning my Suri alpaca outside where my allergies don't bother me. It is pleasant work, when the fiber doesn't get dirty. People come and ask what I am doing, and I try to explain: I am spinning, making yarn. One man remarked that you don't usually see kids my age doing that kind of thing. I know it must look odd, but I like how much more intimately involved you get to be with your fiber than just knitting. It does feel weird, however, that doing what people did to clothe themselves for thousands of years costs me most of my allowance.

Green Pastures GIVEAWAY!

Enter here to win $70 worth of Green Pasture products including fermented cod liver oil and coconut ghee.

A dream to spin

I went to the Indiana Fiber and Music festival last week, and got a pound of Cormo-Romeldale cross wool, and 12 ounces of Suri alpaca! I started spinning the Suri and it is tricky, but so soft and such a long staple length, it is just begging to be knitted into something lacy. I am also knitting a sweater from Ethnic Knitting Discovery (the Dutch Sampler Pullover, actually) out of some handspun a friend gave me. Fun stuff!

Milk can't make an optimist fat!

Here's my logic: The cream is low-carb, and the skim milk is fat-free. So it's all safe to drink, and won't make you fat. :)
That is, of course, if you are an optimist.
Her's another one: An optimist says every cloud has a silver lining, but a pessimist says every silver lining has a cloud behind it.
An optimist sees the glass as half full, and a pessimist sees the glass as half empty, but they're in fact both wrong if it is slightly more or slightly less than 50% full.

Sad

Yesterday we lost our gerbil, Pippin. He had been very sleepy for several days but we didn't think anything of it. Yesterday morning he was hunched over, had ruffled fur, and wouldn't eat even if we tried to hand-feed him. We did some internet research and fed him porridge, which he ate a bit of. We tried to give him some antibiotics for wet-tail but he wouldn't take them. He just got worse and worse and in the afternoon he stopped breathing. He is in the freezer and we will bury him in our garden plot at Blackacre Farm but he really is in pet heaven with our cat Debbie. They are friends because 'the lion shall lay down with the lamb' ought to also mean 'the cat shall lie down with the gerbil'!

Cultures for Health Water Kefir Starter GIVEAWAY!

Wellness Mama is having a giveaway from Cultures for Health of water kefir starter! I have never made this but really want to! It is like healthy soda pop.