Dazzle’s Blog

I haven’t blogged in a while.  Yeah I know that you know…and you have made sure that I know that you know that I haven’t!

Still really physically drained.  Still trying to find out what is going on with my body.  We do make some progress but it is slow going.  So, I get as much as I have energy to do, done.  We have been working on the garden area.  Building an “adult area” where the “kids” (goats and dogs) are NOT allowed unsupervised.  In fact, many of them are NEVER allowed in there EVER for ANY reason!!

I have done numerous raised beds that until I got my things planted just looked like newly buried dead bodies in the backyard.  Now they look like buried dead bodies with flowers, veggies and herbs sticking out of them.  Much more attractive.  I have discovered two new plants that I have never had before that I just adore.  Hyssop and Bee Balm.  wonderful flowers, smells, colors, and boy does it bring in the bees and humming birds.  I actually planted them to harvest them for the bunnies to eat as well.  Wheat grass is another wonderful thing I have planted for the first time this year.  it is growing like a weed and about ready to be harvested for the bunnies as well.

When Chaz gets home, we have to crack on getting that new chicken coop area finished so we can move the chickens over.  Than we clean out the old chicken coop, take down the wall, finish the paneling and put in the new rabbits stackers.  Well used rabbit stackers that are new to us, need to be repaired, sanded, primed and repainted..than they will LOOK brand new.  I think all the new rabbits might arrive before we can get all this done.  I do have stackers and most of the parts and bits that need to go with them to get them all outfitted.  We have to do some fence repairing on the current rabbitry as one of the goats threw a temper tantrum and ripped it all up.

Speaking of goats, I have sold off several of the goats, and have another 2 for sale as well.  once they go and I put the wethers into the freezer, I will be left with 3 does and a buck.  One of the does is older and may need to be put down, so I may end up running out of milk this winter.  oh well, starting with a couple of new kids next year but not planning on having much more than about 5 goats on the ranch any longer.

We have both culled, skinned, gutted and ate our first rabbits.  I did some culling on my own this trip but it didn’t go as smoothly as the last time.  I still managed though.  However, the dogs refused to eat the rabbits becuase they had their “jackets” still on.  talk about picky dogs.  next time I can give them a knife and fork and they can cut up their own rabbits!!

We have a few more babies growing up and some French Angora rabbits that are about 1 week away from being ready to go for sale as well.  I just got my new giant Cochin chickens and sold off half the silkies.  I do like the Cochin and the eggs they are starting to produce as well.

I have also been crocheting again.  I finished the rug that I hand spun, plyed than crocheted out of the teeswater/cotswold ewes fleece.  I have been making some cotton wash clothes with matching drawstring little bags that can be used for whatever including putting in slivers of bar soap when they get small and using the entire bag with soap slivers as scrubies.

We have been included in another treasury.  Actually this is the second one recently but I was seriously lax and didn’t do anything about copying the last treasury so it is gone already.  Anyhoo, the new treasury is live and it is called Buttercups and Bluebells!  Lovely sound that title is.  It just slides off your tongue and makes you want to lie down in the woods and watch the clouds puff on by.  The colours are gorgeous with all those yummy blues and stunning yellows.  Hmmm…what do you think?  like it?  if so, while it is hot and live, go to HERE, and comment on what you think.  Remember the treasury is only there for 2 days and than it is gone to make way for new material keeping things fresh and new.

Of particular note I think is the “Gate to the Bluebells” by consumedbynature.  I think this is a stunning photograph.   kudos to you!!

On another note, we have rehomed the last of the sheep, sold off more than half the dairy goat herd, sold off half the chickens and are getting down to a more manageable size.  I plan on having a handful of dairy goats for our own milk, some chickens for our own eggs, dogs, cats, and our new bunnies.  I have both French Angora rabbits, which are my first love, and some Silver Fox and white New Zealand rabbits.  The Silver Foxes and New Zealands are for meat.  That is an experiment that I am not sure on.  We will see.  If it turns out that they are not for us, than it will only mean more rabbit cages free for more of my baby Fur bunnies (ie. the French Angoras!)

I just listed a new Art yarn in the shop.  “Bunny White” is a merino angora 2 ply art yarn that I hand spun.  If you want to see the entire listing with more pictures from various angles go see it here.

I also listed 3 hand dyed bunches of Wensleydale locks in pink, purple, and a blue that is sort of aqua and sort of columbine.  Listed 2 purses, 1 crocheted basket that could be a yarn basket, a fuzzy trivet, and another art yarn called European Yarn as it is the Angora Merino Art yarn that I made the European Scarf and Purse of Many countries from.  I still have a large amount left and decided to sell it as a skein instead of making something else from it.  You might like to visit the shop and see all the updated and new listed items for sale.  The shop is here.  Happy Spinning!!

I have been listing up a storm in the shop these last few days.  I am scared to see my Etsy.com bill!!!  eek!!  Since I discovered my allergy to mohair, I have been listing all that on the shop as well.  I only have one bag of rovings left to list, however I ran out of the two size bags that I use specific for listings so must make a store run later this week.  Finding the motivation to finish the listings might not be as easy to locate! LOL 

If you want to see all the new listings, 30+ or more, as I am now officially over 100 items for sale,  you can view the shop HERE.  It is a perfect locations to find all your Christmas Shopping needs and have them delivered to the person that you are buying for.

This lovely little number is my Black Cherry Merino Alpaca Mohair Scarf.  I hand dyed the Merino 2 ply light fingering weft with Black Cherry Kool Aid.  I was disappointed when it did not come out the dark purple sort of cherry colour I expected, until I put it with the Red Alpaca and Faded Red mohair blends with white merino.  I just love the colours of this.  I think it POP!!  What do you think?

I also hand wove the entire scarf on my Ashford Rigid Heddle 30 inch loom, and I hand spun the bulk of the yarn, hand plying the rest of it.  This was a fun Scarf!!  You can see its entire listing HERE.

This is my Grape Merino Scarf.  It is 100% merino, hand woven, with the wefts being dyed with Grape Kool Aid to get this wonderful colour.  Smells nice too!   This is a 2 ply light fingering yarn I had spun up by Shepherd’s Mill and it took me about 3 days or more to weave this scarf while most of the others I can do in a day.

So what do you think of this one?  It is extra long and extra wide so it can be wrapped around your neck several times.  The listing with more photos is HERE.

This is my Alpaca Merino Mohair scarf done in natural tans, taupes, browns, fawns, creams and whites.  I hand wove this one, as well as hand spun the yarn, and hand plyed it all.  This is one Hand Made Scarf!    Its Listing is HERE.

What are your thoughts on this one?  Feel free to leave comments here on the blog so that I can see what you think.  It is all a learning experience with me as I am now weaving with yarns that I have spun, plyed, dyed and custom made myself.  It is much different than working with mill or store spun yarns.

This is a little lovely that I hand crocheted with a larger size hook.  It is 100% pure Red Kid Mohair.  The scarf is about 2 oz or a little under so you can wrap it around your neck several times and almost forget it is there.  It is an open lace stitch, soft, light, airy and delicate.  Truly luxurious.  Its listing with more photos is HERE.

So again, what are your thoughts on the new scarves?  what is your favourite and why?  any ideas or suggestions? any others that you may like to see?  Remember, all the scarves are listed for sale in the shop and came be see there.

I bought a bunch of angora goats to have my own fibre to spin.  Than the herd grew to large proportions and I coudn’t keep up so I started having them sheared and sold some.  I really enjoy the critters but I had not spun any of their fibre. I started after 1.5 years to spin their fibre and realized I hated it.  It always seems to go up my nose and irritate me.

So I cut back on them more, but I missed them greatly and decided to give spinning their fibre a second chance. I tried and it wasn’t as bad as it was the first time as I had gotten into more spinning, gotten better at it and started to enjoy spinning again. but the mohair was still not my favorite.

My health started to go down hill.  The animal numbers started to go uphill.  something had to give and it appeared to be ME!!  I started to sell my angora goat herd off, put a lot of the sheep in the freezer and went from 40+ head last winter to only 15 head right now with perhaps another 5 going here shortly.  10 is my magic number that I think I have to be at or BELOW! to be able to find a balance somewhere.

Been weaving up a storm lately, a lot with yarns that I have spun myself.  Found a lot of things I can’t do, some that I can do and make numerous mistakes.  still learning on what I can and can not do and what does and does not work with weaving hand spun yarns.

What does all this mean?  well after making at least 4-5 scarves in the last week, I realized I can’t wear Mohair.  apparently I am allergic to it.  maybe that is why I have hated spinning it, working with it, touching it and wearing it.  Anything with mohair in it gives me the creeps and I tear it off in less than a minute.  I had a sample of a 2 ply yarn that had been spun and given to me.  one ply was 100% angora bunny and 1 ply was 100% alpaca.  I wound the skein of yarn around my neck and wore it outside for 2-3 hours while I did my chores yesterday.  not only did that skein of less than an ounce keep my neck warm when normally I wear a scarf wrapped around my neck 3-4 times, but I didn’t claw it off.  That is a good thing!

I finished a 100% merino scarf the other day, and it was OK for me to wear as well.  so my intuition of having merinos and angoras for my new fibre seems to be accurate.

Today I cleaned out my entire fibre room of anything that has mohair in it.  Raw fleece, Mill processed Rovings, yarns, and even blends that have mohair in them.  Expect to start seeing me list them on line as I am going to clear all Mohair from my ranch as I have sold off all the angora goats so there will be nothing new coming up.  Wow, can’t believe I am allergic to the stuff. Maybe I should have worked with the fibre before I bought a herd of angora goats 3.5 years ago.  can you say DUUUUH!!!!????

I have just listed Europe-Scarf of Many Countries!  You can see the listing with even more pictures HERE.   What do you think of it?  Leave me your comments below as this was a total experiment and is the first ever scarf that I 100% hand spun, than hand wove as well as it was the first time I had spun Angora.  There is English Angora, French Angora, and German Angora in the scarf as well as Merino.  Europe-Scarf of Many Countries!!

I also listed my lovely Christmas RED tonight.  This was so much fun to spin, than to ply and than to hand dye with Kool Aid to get this SMACK in your face RED!!!  I love this colour and can’t stop looking at the photos.  What do you think of this one?

I think the colour is just vivid and really have enjoyed this yarn.  I think that I may be going to do even more hand dying of yarns in vibrant wild colours.  What fun!

If you want to see the listing with even more photos, you can see it HERE.

I also listed another of the 2ply chunky merino yarns like I did last week.  That listing is HERE.

so what do you think of my new listings?

I have been spinning a lot of yarn recently.  I listed two new hand spun art novelty yarns tonight on etsy.com.  One is a single ply chocolate twist, fat and thin novelty yarn.  I put a picture to the right but if you want to see more of it, you can see it HERE.  The second yarn was also somewhat of a thick and thin yarn but a lot more even and not as many bumps and twists to make it as much fun.  It is also a 2 ply yarn so it can be used for knitting as well as crochet or weaving.   You can see it HERE.

If you wanted to jazz up the natural colour, dye away as merino takes dye well.  What do you think of my new yarns?  leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts!!

Charlie has had another photograph be included in another treasury.  This treasury is on Treasury West instead of the main one.  It is his 5×7 photo of “Old Bridge at Invermoriston”, you can see his photo here.  The Treasury again will  only be available for another day or so as they are usually only live

for a couple of days so that we have a constant gallery of new treasuries revolving out of all the lovely work from the artists on etsy.com.  The treasury if you are quick, can be seen HERE until the early morning hours of Sunday, Novemeber 1, 2009.  so if you want to see it in its entirety, you must be quick about it.

I really do like the piper practising on the lonely more in the lower left black and white photograph.  Very lovely!  The entire collection is very nice and reminds me of Aberdeenshire.

This started last night after she rode in the back seat of the Jeep with her head on Nate’s lap.  I had my hand carders and a bag of fleece on the other half of the couch where Charlie normally sits.  She took her nose and pushed it out of the way and climbed up.  Out of the blue…

She had better just be warming my seat till I get back!!!!

I have been hand spinning yarns coming out of my ears.  I decided to take a pic of them hanging from my inkle loom.  I can’t believe how much fun it has been recently.  The one on the far left is a 2 ply of mohair, alpaca and merino.  I like the chunky red one as I achieved the colour with Kool aid.  so love those dyes and how fruity the yarns smell afterwards.

My most recent endeavour has been spinning white merino roving drafted evenly and somewhat thinner than my bulky yarns, than pinching a bit of angora bunny fluff and sort of core spinning it onto the outer bit of the merino.  I am not attempting to cover the merino but let it twist into the merino and around it making a twisty spiral sort of yarn that is totally cool. Than I ply it again to make a two ply and get a thick chunky yarn that is probably around 3-5 WPI.  The last ball of yarn I made was what finished off my weft in my new scarf, although I still have a large bit of it left.  Here is a picture of the small ball of yarn BEFORE I did any weaving with it.  The red water bottle next to it is for scale as that is a ONE LITRE bottle.  It was extremely hard to wind that yarn into a ball as my hands got tired.

I like this yarn as it is merino yarn from my merino ewes, blended with French Angora Rabbit, German Angora Rabbit and English Angora Rabbit. A truly European yarn!

So what do you think? leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts