The Woolen Rabbit

Can It Be?.........Mar. 29, 2005

Contemplate in the morning.
Pull weeds in the afternoon.
The joys and labor of a single day
Are part of a whole journey.
~Den Ming Dao

Woo hoo!! 
The last few days have been mild enough, that the sizable snowbanks in my yard are quickly shrinking.  This morning as I was heading off to to the vet, I was amazed, not only to see that my garden bed was now snow-less.........but the green little buds that will become my day lily's were showing signs of life.  Even though fall is my favorite season........seeing the new beginnings of life each spring is always such a breath of fresh air.  How can we not be inspired by Spring?

I see from my comments last week, that this winter has grown wearisome for many of you.  As the above passageway mentions.....the labors of the winter are all part of the journey and thankfully that part of the journey is making way for new things.

Knitting

As you can see, I am moving right along with the Casual Cable sweater.  I can not say enough good things about this Peruvian Highland Wool.  I will be curious to see how well it holds up against pilling as it is so soft.  It does seem to have enough crispness though, that I feel pretty confident that it will be fairly sturdy.  I just love working with this yarn......pure joy!

Now......why is that big ball of yarn sitting on that sleeve, you may ask??  Well, let me tell you......<grin>.  Margene.......I am not copying you, I swear.....but I fell in love with that Twinkletoes Alpaca that I saw on your blog and knowing how nice it was going to look against Paprika, I couldn't resist the temptation.  Not only is the color scrumptious.........the alpaca is sooooo soft!   It is destined to be some sort of shawl for this sweater....or maybe I will give in and try Clapotis.  I'm not sure of what it will become, but I am sure that I will be pushing to have both done for the fall fiber festivals.......Rhinebeck??.....(can you believe I am thinking that far ahead......LOL).  Truly though.........I am so enjoying the process with this project.  The Peruvian yarn is just so nice to work with!

Spinning

I don't know what I was thinking about when I started my daughter's roommate's scarf??  With only 2 oz of the deep purple fiber, even spun as thin as I could spin it (a little finer than sportweight.....but certainly not lace), there was no way, there would be enough for a scarf.  Acckk!!!

Sooooooo, digging deep into the piles,out came this roving.  The colorway (Water Lily) was from last spring and I have more than enough for a good sized scarf and then some.

This one particular roving was a slow seller........and now working with it, I am not sure why.  The colors as they are spinning are so pretty.  It will be interesting to see how it knits up.  Sonya has dark skin, so I think that the Raspberry/Mint colors should look lovely on her.

It is nice to be working with soft luxury fibers again!

and lastly......the Pups

Isn't it amazing how much they have changed in 7 short weeks?  Each puppy is such a little individual now.
Mouse is a little tyrant.  So feisty and full of life for such a wee thing!  If one is going to find some trouble........she is the one....LOL  She may be tiny in size, but she is HUGE in spirit!

     This little guy is a quiet little soul.  Very introspective and tends to watch before he moves.   Very rarely is he a bully.  Such a pretty boy.  He looks very much like his grand-dad.

Nellie as we call her is full of it!  She chases the boys around and terrorizes them.  With a cute little, stocky body, she runs around the kitchen like the wind, nipping at your heels.  She doesn't miss a thing!

An lastly, the biggest of the bunch.  He may be big in size, but he is just the dearest one of all.  Always at your feet, quietly wagging his tail, waiting for a pat on the head.  Always sitting still for a picture.  Grabbing at your heart-strings all the time. 

~

My time with them is growing short and while it is sad for me to see some of them go, it also warms my heart to see them grow into happy, healthy pups who will bring joy into the lives of others. A bittersweet time.   I am not sure yet, who is going to stay, so the next week will have me spending alot of time just sitting and watching them run around and playing.  Hopefully the yard will dry out enough for them to get out and run.

I hope that the sun is shining and bringing Spring to your corner of the world this week!  Enjoy the season~

Spring is in the air.........Mar. 23,2005

Attunement

Traversing sun leads to a new season,
Vernal breath attunes the leaves
When the sun begins its new pattern, spring follows.  The air warms, and the world rejoices.  A new breath comes over all things, and even the trembling leaves are attuned to the vernal rhythm.  Turn your face to the sun, as flowers know how to do.
Den Ming-Dao

Winter this year, has been a difficult season for me......and I am not even sure why.  There has been a looming cloud over my mind and spirit.  I have had a hard time getting out of my own way and have not found much joy in things.  I wouldn't say that I have been depressed, yet, something has been out of kilter.........stagnant.

Saturday was a mild day, with a hint of Spring definitely in the air. I spent the day in the barn, cleaning rabbit trays and clipping down a few rabbits.  With the windows wide open, fresh air and yes......even birds chirping, I felt a breath of life that I haven't in some time. 

As I was working, many thoughts crossed my mind.  Going back to my Spring cleaning post, the need to simply was definitely one of them.  My health and the way that I view myself was another.  One of the things that I let lapse this year was my weight.  I am not obese..<grin>, but I need to loose a good 35 pounds (ouch).  So, along with simplifying, I am also determined to become fit again.  Of course, the first week of eating right, sets the sugar cravings screaming.  It has been a long few days, but the cravings are quieting a bit and I can get my thoughts straight again.  When a person quits smoking......they stop smoking, however, you can't stop eating, therefore the temptation is always there in front of you.  What I need to discover, is why food is such a crutch for me.  I don't know if I will succeed this time either, but I am going to turn my face towards the sun and contemplate the new season. ~

Bunnies

After the cold winter, it was nice to be in the barn and not freeze.  Because the winter was so blessed cold, some of the rabbits went too long between haircuts.  I thought I would start with the few rabbits that are to be bred this Spring, move to the ones with salvageable coats next and then do the matted few last.  Sunday, I clipped 2 down and bred them.  Even though I thought that one of the coats had gone too long, I was pleasantly surprised at the good condition of the fiber

Today, I set about to shear Sambuca.  She had been sheared in the middle of the winter, so I figured she would be a fast and easy clip.  You can see that her coat is at a perfect length for shearing.

As soon as I started clipping, I knew I was in for trouble.  DRATS!!  Darn pesky mites!!!

I don't usually have too many problems with mites, but every now and then I will have a  rabbit who becomes home to these nasty pests.  Fortunately, humans are not a host for this type of mite.  However, dogs can be, so I am careful to remove my clothing and toss them right in the wash.

If you click on this picture, you can see evidence of the mites.  Rabbit mites are often called "Walking Dandruff"  Treatment for mites is 1% injectable ivermectin.  I do however give it to my rabbits (and dogs) orally and the problem is quickly resolved.  I usually dose all of the rabbits not being bred at this spring clipping and then again in the fall.

Sambuca was slated to be bred this week, but I will hold off now for at least a month, as I had to treat her with Ivermectin and I do not give this to animals that are going to be bred.

She is much happier now with that itchy coat off!

Knitting (love~hate)
It is finished!!!!!!!!!!!  All that is missing are the buttons.  I wasn't going to put the picture up without them, but it will be at least a week before I get down south to buy proper buttons for this vest.  I have to say that I did NOT enjoy this process at all. (if you hadn't guessed...LOL). I know that everyone in blog land seems to be on a BWA kick, however, I can honestly admit now, even after washing, I HATE this yarn. I guess that it just goes to prove.....truly......different strokes for different folks. 

No sooner did I finish blocking the XO vest, did I pull out the Peruvian Highland Wool that I ordered from Elann earlier in the winter. (there's that paprika color again)  Now........this is LOVE!  All's I can say is Wow, Wow, Wow.  This yarn is so soft and cushy, but still gives nice definition to cables.  I am working on the sleeve of this pattern.  I can easily tell that I am going to thoroughly enjoy this process...........and I will be visiting Elann in the very very near future again!

I am also working on another Opera Scarf.  This time it is for my daughter's college roommate.  Her roommate has admired Ashley's seaman's scarf from Woolen Rabbit yarn so much, that Ash asked me to knit Sonya up something lacey in my angora blended yarn for her birthday.

This is such a fun, easy pattern!

Puppies

Betcha' thought I wasn't going to ................ I really wasn't......but here they are.  It is getting hard to get a picture of all of them together.......they are busy enjoying life!

Happy Easter!

New Adventures...........Mar. 15, 2005

After the dumping of snow that we received this weekend, combined with my longing for Spring and finishing the back of the X/O vest, it was time for a treat.

It will still be weeks before the crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops, peek thru the snow here......so.......we will just pretend.  The Yellowstone colorway of Lorna Laces is so soft and springlike, that it made pretending easy!

I fell in love with this sock pattern, when I first saw it on Margene's page and then on Jackie's page, that I just had to give it a try.  The pattern is from the Folk Socks book and I used size 1 double pointed needles.  It is a fast and rewarding sock to knit.

Not much else has been happening on the fiber front, other than finishing up these skeins of yarn on the wheels.   Being an "Autumn" person..........do you notice a color preference?  Other than when I am longing for Spring, I am always drawn to this paprika color.  Doesn't matter, if it light, dark, muted or bright......it is always one of my favorites.  The darker skeins are a border Leicester/mohair blend that I got at NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck.  The lighter shade is one of my angora/merino blends here at the Woolen Rabbit.  When I had my last batch of angora processed, I snagged this bag of rovings for myself.  I so enjoy spinning this blend up........I have enough to make myself some sort of lacey vest.  Angora is so warm, that I don't know that I could wear a sweater made from this blend, but a vest will be nice.

Puppy Adventures

This has been a week of many "firsts" for the puppies.  They literally outgrew their whelping box, so over the weekend, they moved into the kitchen and were introduced to the litter box.  From the looks on their faces, you can see that they were curious and completely unsure about this new experience.  It is amazing how quickly they figure out what the box is used for.  The litter is compressed newspaper litter, called Yesterday's News.  It is completely safe, in the event that they try to eat it........and they always do...LOL.

The next introduction is food.  I usually start the puppies on a porridge mixture.  I make up a formula of evaporated milk, egg yolk, water, Karo syrup and gelatin.  Into that a little bit of baby cereal gets mixed.  The babies loved it!  I will gradually start adding soaked kibble into it, until they are eating mostly kibble.  It usually takes a week or so of this before they are eating just kibble.  Mom still spends nap-time and the evenings with the puppies.

Today, was the first day that I let them venture out onto the kitchen floor.  I try to do things in baby steps with the puppies, so that they are not overwhelmed with changes.

As you can see, in true puppylike fashion, this little boy is terrorizing his sister, chewing her neck.........OUCH!   
Amazing to me always, is how quickly they grow.

Hmmm...........

......................Can I?

...........................................Should I?

PLOP!  Not too smooth, but down and running!!

Mouse and her biggest brother just sit and observe their sister taking her chances at jumping off the ledge...........

Hmmmmm................can we do that??

Can you guess which one does and which one does not?

Mouse is off and contemplating her next move, while big brother decides to take a nap instead.  All of these adventures tire a puppy boy........

Aaahhhh......the life of a 5 week old puppy~

Spring Where Art Thou?

Another 15 inches of snow.........uugghhh!!!

Cycles..........Mar. 8th, 2005

   It is wisdom to know the cycles of life and where any particular circumstance that we are involved in stands on the curve.  If we want to perpetuate something, we should join it to new growth to compound our progress. If we want to destroy something, we need only lead it to its extreme, for all things decline after their zenith.         Den Ming-Dao

My stash spring cleaning last week got me thinking alot about excesses, and left me feeling unsettled all week.  When I do something, I have a tendency to jump in with both feet and am frequently led by impulse.....not always a great combination.  In reading my Tao Daily Meditations book, I read the above quote during one of those introspective moments.  I realized that in my tendency to carry things to an extreme, whether it be fiber, spending, food, etc...what I am doing in reality is setting myself up to self destruct, because it is all too much.  Now, I know that sounds somewhat exaggerated, but in looking around my house and what I have amassed, in both fiber, fiber tools, rabbits, books and my never ending inability to say no to myself, what I see, is that I am going around in circles with so much to do, but never getting anywhere, but larger.

So, over the next few months, I am going to seriously lighten my load here and simplify my life a bit.  Perhaps with less on my plate, I will actually accomplish more.  I will always keep my wheels and my loom as they give me great pleasure, each in a different way, but the stashes of fiber are going.  I am also going to re-evaluate my rabbits here.  By thinning out the numbers, I think that I will actually get more usable fiber, because shearing time will be easier all around.

I am also going to try to stay more focused on projects as I mentioned in my last post.
My nemesis right now is the X and O vest from Folk Vests.  I love this vest, but, the yarn has made the process less than fun.  I find black abbey yarn to be very hard on the hands, even though I love the vest done up in it. This pattern has you work the entire body up to the armholes, on a 25 inch needle.  I finally broke down and got a 32 inch turbo needle
which did help to move it along much quicker.  The yarn gives fabulous definition to the cables and seed stitch, I can see why it was the yarn that was chosen in the book for the pattern...........but if I were to do it again, I think I might go with something a bit softer.  At the SPA weekend, I saw a woman with this vest done up in Peace Fleece and it was lovely.

Normally, I will allow myself one error in a pattern, if it is not too obvious.........I tell myself, "character", it lends character.

Can you tell the error that I made where the arrows are pointing?  It is an easy one to miss and because I didn't notice it myself until I was a good 3 inches above it..............and because I couldn't bear to knit it all over again, I decided that it was a mistake that I could live with.....could you?

Escapee's

Hey.............how come Mum is on the outside and we are in here??  Little does Breeze realize, her days of stretching outside the whelping box are quickly coming to an end.  The puppies have discovered that there are some exciting happenings on the other-side of that box.  One by one, they have jumped, climbed and scratched their way over..........PLOP........out they come!!

FREEDOM!!!  We are out!!..........What an experience it is to watch puppies on their first venture out of the whelping box..it is too funny to watch them slip and slide all over the floor.  It is such a different texture than the woolies that they have been walking and crawling on.  It takes them a good amount of sliding backwards before they finally can get their feet underneath themselves...LOL

Even little Mouse (eekk...the name is sticking) is up on her feet and exploring her new surroundings.

Normally, I have the puppies out of the box before this, but with the cold weather and this little girl's very slow start, I feel that she needs the extra warmth from the smaller, closer, confined area.  Usually they go into a big pen in the kitchen, but I just may set that pen up in the living-room where it is alot warmer for a week before moving it into the kitchen.  Mouse still shivers from the cold, which tells me it is just a wee bit too soon for her. 

Of course, the rest of them really are ready to make the move.  They are getting fat and rambunctious.  Their teeth are in and they are terrorizing each other.  I have made their box a little more interesting for them, by adding toys......some that that make noise, some that are big enough to climb on and some for chewing, so that they don't chew on each other quite so much.  Those sharp little teeth hurt when they play fight with each other.

With all of that new activity, this little one is tuckered out and taking a nap on the HUGE wooly bone shaped pillow.

A day in the life of a 4 week old puppy!   
~

Secret Pal 4

What a lovely surprise awaited me this week in the mail!  It appears that my secret pal is from France!! 

These last 2 secret pals have been fun as well as international for me!  My last secret pal was from Germany.  How fun!

Ariane sent some lovely soft spring green Berger de France yarn, that should make a lovely something for my youngest daughter or granddaughter, some cute little puppy bones, a great sheepie pen and a knitting tool for making i-cords that my daughter has already claimed for herself.  Also included was an Elle magazine in French........hmmm.........I am putting my 4 years of highschool french to use....LOL!

Thanks Secret Pal!!

Spring Cleaning a Wool House......Mar 3, 2005

Is It Spring Yet??

I am soooooo ready for Spring, but looking at the 4-5 foot snowbanks in my yard, it feels like Spring is not a happening thing here in the mountains any time too soon.  This little Robin sits atop my computer screen.  She has been sitting there for many years and always brings a smile to my face come this time of year. Nestled with her in the snow are a few skeins of Lorna Laces sock yarn .........I couldn't resist the Spring color of Crocuses.  It will still be many a week before we even see a hint of Snowdrops or Crocuses poking their noses out

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday after looking at Julia's blog, I went around the house taking pictures, thinking yup.......I too live in a wool house.

What you see here is the little nook between my office desk and my file cabinet.......a huge stash catch-all! 

Believe it or not, my office shredder is hiding behind there, but you could break your neck just trying to reach it.

What A Mess This Wool House is Becoming!!!

On to the living room.......this is where I spend the bulk of my spinning and knitting time and boy, does it show.  Where my computer/loom room is my "stash" room, the living room is , well.........a lived in room...<grin>......can you tell?

Piles in every blessed corner in that living room.....God forbid I might have to get up to reach for another project.

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Then we move onto the hallway.  We live in an old New England Farm house with a pretty large front hallway, that no one really uses, except to go upstairs.........another perfect spot for stashes galore

HOLEY MOSES.................How did I let this happen???

After looking at those pictures, I decided that I needed to pretend it was Spring and do some heavy duty cleaning out.  Being stuck inside this winter has made me a careless housekeeper........eeekkkk!

Hey........you can see my shredder.  The rovings in that basket were all labeled and put into plastic bags. Any roving that I didn't think I would use, went into a basket for a future sale.

All of the various yarns, also were bagged and labeled and put into a large plastic bin next to the loom. 

I have decided that I need to finish up my various knitting projects before I dress the loom again, so I cleaned and oiled the loom and folded both beams, tucking my sheepskin covered bench in tight next to the treadles. 

Next it was onto the living room.  My DH likes to refer to this chair as my throne...LOL  This is usually where my piles tend to accumulate.  See.........no piles!!  Tucked in the far corner is a basket with the few works in progress and another small basket with empty spinning bobbins. 

My stool has storage under the lid and that is where my knitting needles live.  The X and O vest is sitting ready to be worked on.  More about that in my next post...ggrrrrr.  No new un-commissioned projects until it is finished!

The living room spinning wheels all found their personal corners. All dusted and polished.

(That nasty paneling is going as soon as the kitchen is finished)

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And the hallway, that houses my big Antique Canadian wheel is once again, just a hallway.

My large triangle loom hiding behind the wheel is going to be taken apart and stored until it is time for a project to go onto it.

Whew!!  Thanks Julia................I probably never would have accomplished all of this today, if your blog hadn't inspired me to start taking pictures!    Flylady would surely be proud of me!  Look for a big stash sale this Spring........

Customer Service.......March 2,2005

Fiber people are wonderful!  This week has been a week of fabulous customer service!

Some of you may remember in an earlier post (scroll to Can you Cami?) where I wrote about the wonderful lace weight Morehouse Merino Camisole that I made for my DS's girlfriend.  I loved the yarn, but somehow the dye did not penetrate evenly on this black yarn, leaving a faint grey stripe......making it look a bit dusty. (Dusty, like in the dust in my house)

I talked to the folks at Morehouse and they had me send the Cami to them to see if they could over dye it.  After looking at it, they told me that dyeing it would not help.......however, one of the ladies who works there loved it so much, she was willing to pay me for it...<grin>.  Laurel had her heart set on the black Cami, even with the grayish striping, so I had them send it back to me. 

They included with my Cami, a color sheet of all their lace weight yarns and asked me to choose a color for another Cami.  I sent it back with a circle around a lovely shade of lichen, but I wrote that it was not really necessary to send me another kit.  Lo and behold they still sent me another camisole kit.  Maria in customer service even threw in an extra scarf pattern, just in case I didn't feel like making Cami again.  Needless to say, I have only the highest praise for this company.  They went way over and above anything that I ever expected from them.... and...... their yarn is so luxurious!

Next surprise was this..............I had purchased this colorway from Twinkle Toes Yarn on eBay.  I wanted to make socks to go with my jeans.  I loved the dark navy blue against the coral.

Imagine my surprise when this came.   It is pretty, but not what I had expected.  I emailed Maryann and told her that I thought that she sent me the wrong colorway....(you don't see the big green streaks in this picture and the blue is much more turquoise than it appears), and that I would send this one back to her, so that she could send me the one that I ordered.  Maryann, immediately put the right one into the mail and told me to keep the other one.  I insisted that it was no problem to send it back to her.....I was afraid she had just mixed up her orders, but she insisted that I just keep it.

I am not one to call customer service...actually I really feel uncomfortable doing so....... these 2 examples are probably the only time I have ever done so, and I was just blown away with not only the kindness of these vendors, but the generosity as well!  Fiber people are amongst some of the kindest people that I have ever met!

Pups in Pots

This has been a blissfully quiet week on the dog front!!  I have actually slept in my own bed for almost a week and Breeze is back to her old self, leaping up on the sofa again with nary a wince.  It does my heart good for sure to see her feeling so much better.

As you can see, the puppies are growing fast!   I have taken a series of silly puppy pictures.......Please excuse the kitchen in progress which surrounds the pups......someday it will be finished~

The boys are still looking great!  The puppies are now up on their feet and learning how to play.  I wish I could tape the little noises that they make......when they are growling at this age, they sound like pigeons cooing.  It is too funny.

This little girl is a cutie......but she has the funniest little mustache.  The mustache is pigment, but I have never seen this in any of my pups.  Breeze and Max (dad) both have very dark pigment, which is very desirable.......but I am not sure that this mustache is...LOL

and lastly.........our little one.  The girls call her Mouse, because she really looked like a little Mouse last week, but she is now growing into her own.  Of course, she was a wee bit small for the bigger pot, so she is pictured in her very own small pitcher..LOL.  This little girl is the very image of her grandmother, who is the foundation of my breeding program.  She is mismarked and tiny.........but I am going to be very hard pressed to part with her.   Time will tell...............but she is so very much her grandmother, who is so dear to my heart, that I just don't know.

How can you not love this little face?

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Weaving

Finally, a finished project!!  These towels have been on the loom for what seems an eternity.  Do ya think I just try to do too much?  There's that ADD thing rearing it's head again.  You would think with my loom being right behind my office desk that I would whip right thru weaving projects.......but nope.  I am just way too easily distracted.

I read Julia's blog the other day about living in a wool house and had to chuckle.  Her pictures, could have been my pictures.  A pile here.....a project here........this wheel with one roving going and another with that roving going......and then of course there is the loom........and the yarn, yarn, yarn......eeekkk!

The above towels are a waffle weave.  The pattern comes from the Handwoven Mar/Apr 2002 issue.  The pattern calls for 8/2 cotton, but I re-adjusted the pattern to work with the 10/2 organic natural cotton that I had from The Chamomile Connection .  This yarn is fabulously soft and the colors are next to impossible to capture with a digital camera. 

I know that I said that my next weaving project was going to be an overshot runner for my dining room, however, that would require me to go out and purchase some new wool weaving yarn.  After reading Julia's blog and looking at all of the piles that are growing in my house, I decided that this chenille that I purchased in Rhinebeck, would be perfect for my next weaving project.  There is enough chenille, that I can make one for me and one for a friend :-)........and I could eliminate a pile!