The Woolen Rabbit

Overwhelmed.....Aug. 31, 2005

Drop.
Water cleanses,
Gathers in the earth.
Tender. Invasive. Subtle
Emerges a shining river.
When small, it is weak.
When great it tumbles mountains.
Deng Ming~Dao

I have sat down to my desk to write a few times over the last couple of days, but could not find any words.  I find it so hard to sit and write about knitting right now.  I am completely overwhelmed by what is happening to our Southern friends.  I had received a call from a friend in the dog club on Saturday.  I was not home, but she left a message on my machine, saying that they were being evacuated, she lives in Buras, LA.  I really had not been following the storm, and hadn't realized that it had gathered so much power, until later that evening when I saw the news.  Over the last few days, I have watched in horror as we all have at the devastation that this storm has left behind.  My mind and my heart just aches for these people.  This year was to be my first trip to New Orleans in December

We are a generous country and I hope that everyone donates a little of what they have to helping people rebuild. Tomorrow  in NH, there is to be an all day telethon at WMUR for the victims of Katrina.

A little knitting
August was to be dedicated to finishing old projects, but I slipped this one in.  The gold yarn that I spun last week, became this scarf.  The fall fairs will be starting soon, so I am trying to get items ready for a few of them. It is so blessed humid out today, it is hard to believe that we are thinking of fall and the wonderful harvest and fiber fairs that happen.....but it is just around the corner.

Working in the Fiber Building at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine is the largest fiber event that I work at.  I spend the week working as a demonstrator. One of the projects this year that I will demonstrate will be using various triangle looms.  The yarn pictured is going to be put on my large 7 foot triangle loom.  I was gifted this yummy Mountain Colors Alpaca/wool yarn last year and I have been saving it.  I have decided that instead of trying to get a sweater finished for Rhinebeck, that I would use this yarn for a Ruana made on the loom, as I think the alpaca will lend nice drape to the shawl.  I will get it started here and use it to demonstrate at Fryeburg and it will be ready to wear in Rhinebeck.

As I end this post, I do hope that you all will take a little bit out of your pockets to help our Southern friends.

As a footnote.....I just want to thank Liz Deane for her generous donation to Oliver's fund.  Liz had the winning bid on the scarf that I put up on ebay.  Thanks Liz!!!!

Jeepers Peepers........Aug. 25, 2005

Finally.........fingering weight!! 
2 oz.....250yds  ( 2balls of Fields of Gold)

Summer Rambles.....Aug. 23, 2005

Thus we are helped
by what is not.
To use what is.

Tao~te Ching
from the book,
The Tao of Watercolor

This morning I read Margene's post as I had my morning coffee and I smiled.  Margene and I must be on that same zen wavelength this week.

The other day as my DH and I were watching our grandchildren, Oprah was on TV.  The subject of her show was hoarding.  I have to admit, that I sat thru the entire show, spellbound with my mouth gaping at the complete and utter mess that these women live in day after day and the fear that they have in letting go of their "stuff". I saw the pain inside these women and it troubled me.  Ken and I talked about it on and off over the course of the weekend.  His take on it was how we live in such a "throw away" society, always buying something new instead of fixing something or being content with what one has.  What I saw was this overwhelming ADD, always looking for something new, the next "high" and it made me look within myself and how I look at fiber. 

Now mind you........I do not come anywhere close to how these women live........but I could relate to their fear in not having their "things"....and it troubled me, that I could even relate.  Why DO we go from website to website or LY'S to LY'S looking for more and more yarn, patterns, fiber, wheels, looms, etc, when we already have so much?  For me it is that new beginning......a new start........ kind of like chasing that elusive boy when we were in  high school, and being totally bored once he was caught.  I have decided to make a commitment to the projects that I have started and then ignored.......I will finish the ones that I love.  The projects that I find that I am not enjoying, I will gift onto others, as life is too darn blessed short to surround oneself with clutter that is not enjoyable. 

Now mind you again......I WILL go to Rhinebeck and I WILL be a spender, but perhaps I will think about the projects waiting for me at home when I shop.......:-)

Soap
This part of my post is for Vi.  Vi always leaves the nicest comments and has been such an uplifting and supportive blog friend. 

A few months ago, I was birching about having to use freezer paper to line soap molds.....and how very much I HATED it.  Vi suggested Upland molds and their silicon mold liners.  I came within a hair of ordering custom liners, when some kind soul decided that she wanted to sell her Birchwood molds from Bramleberry Soap.  These soap molds were perfect for my soap recipe and the price was very right, so I thought that I would take a chance and buy up her supply.

I was so pleasantly surprised!!  The parts of soapmaking that I hated, such as lining the molds with freezer paper and cutting the individual bars were all eliminated with these molds.  As you can see, the inserts that are placed into the wet soap mixture, create individual bars.  Vi.......these molds are pretty sweet!!!

Bunnies
Vi also asked me to post some pictures of the fur covered family members.  Vi has always left some of the nicest comments when I have shared pictures of my little zoo here, so I thought that I would humor her with a few bunny pictures taken this week.

The adult picture is our dear little Butterscotch (Butter).  She is an English/ German cross and her coat can be beastly to deal with at times, but she is such a little character and the friendliest bunny you could ever want to meet, so we will forgive her for those blessed matts now and then.

Next is Java.........with her new haircut.....LOL!  This girl definitely is going to rival Butter for the friendliest bunny in the rabbitry.  She is such a dear little bunny that always makes me laugh!

My daughter, Courtney who feeds the rabbits every day, commented to me that Java and Puff Dandy seem to be joined at the hip.........and.......judging from the picture to the right, Courtney is  right......haha!

So there you have it.  There is no new yarn, no new knitting projects........no new anything.  I am going to try to work on the things that i have before I start on or buy new things.........well.........at least until..........RHINEBECK.......but I am pretty sure that I am going to be conservative this year as those hoarding homes definitely left a huge and unsettling impression on me.

Fairies and Pixiedust.....Aug. 21, 2005

The Song of
The Ragwort Fairy

Now is the prime of Summer past,    
Farewell she soon must say;

But yet my gold you may behold
By every grassy way.

And what though Autumn comes apace,
And brings a shorter day?

Still stand I here, your eyes to cheer,
In gallant gold array.
Cecily Mary Baker,
A Deluxe Book of Flower Fairies

This evening as I was browsing thru this little book, I came upon this Summer flower fairy and it made me smile.  Being highly allergic to ragwort (ragweed), I usually curse this summer weed, but reading this little poem, has given me a different perspective.  Perhaps I will smile a bit as I am sneezing this year.

Experiments in Color continued....

Once I had decided that I preferred the more muted color blend of the rovings that I showed you last week, I thought as I had suggested, that I would toss in some pink to waken the rovings up a bit......

I have to say that I am much happier with this blend.  Of course, it no longer can be called Morning Glory, as the pink has given it a whole new look, but I like it.  It amazes me how much that little addition of pink has just made the roving go "Pop"!  Fascinating......it is always fun to learn!.  As I was looking at that little fairy book this evening, the cover of the book has all of the colors in this roving, so I have decided that this roving will be called "Pixie Dust"

Lemonade
This weekend I was scheduled to attend a dog show in Sturbridge, Ma.  It is a show that I look forward to as it is one of the closest CKCSC,USA ones for me.........however, life had other plans for me and I had to return home after attending the board meeting on Friday.  No fun dog showing for me.

As I was wandering around the house and pouting, I thought that I would take advantage of free time that I didn't think I would have and decided to work on some loose ends. 

Project:  Latvian Socks ~ Folk Solks
Yarn:  Lorna Laces, sock weight yarn
Needles: Size 1
Started:  A long time ago


I also took advantage of that time to do some spinning on something other than my rovings.  This is a blend of ......you guessed it........angora and something else, that someone else prepared..LOL.  I purchased this roving last month.  The woman who I bought it from was not sure what type of wool was blended with the french angora.......something soft was all she said.  It was fun to ponder what type of wool it might be, as I was spinning it.  It has some spring to it, so perhaps it is one of the softer down breeds.  Hmmm.....it is very soft, so maybe some Columbia or Ramboullet?  But then, there the teeniest bit of a scratch, so perhaps it is Shetland...........  Usually, spinning white roving bores me to tears, but playing the guessing game, has really made spinning this fun!

I have been working really hard at spinning thin, consistent singles and hoping to get a lace to fingering weight.  I haven't taken the time to measure the wraps per inch yet, but I am really hopeful that this 2 ply skein may measure out to be a fingering weight.

This bobbin full gave me 300 yards and there is a lot more in the bag to continue with.  I like the texture of this wool/angora blend very much.  Even though it is a 30% angora blend, there is very little bloom and more body to it than if it had been blended with merino.  Very different........but very nice.

~Thank you~

I want to thank everyone who has commented and bid on the scarf that I put up on eBay for Oliver.  There are only 3 more days to bid on this scarf.......lets do our best for Emma and Oliver.  I will toss in a few extra goodies to the highest bidder.  I have linked the wonderful button that Jean designed to the auction.  The blogging community is such a kind group of people!!

Lotus Blossom Scarf.....Aug. 17, 2005

A few posts back, when I was being tempted away from my beloved Birch......this sweet little number, was one of the bewitching "temptresses".

I would like to introduce the Lotus Blossom Scarf.

Anne of Beaver Creek Farm was kind enough to create an exclusive pattern for The Woolen Rabbit. (the website is a work very much still in progress.....I am learning as I go along)

I will be sending my next batch of angora out to the processor to be made into fingering weight yarn, which I will then hand-dye for this pattern.

My prototype was done in Blue Lagoon singles and I surprised myself. My singles ended up being lace weight (eekk), so when knit up in fingering weight, the scarf will be a wee bit wider.  This pattern is geared more towards the intermediate lace knitter and is a fun scarf to knit up.  Anne is an incredibly gifted fiber artist.......thank you Anne!!!! 

Update....I just read about a little boy named Oliver.  He is a disabled child in need of some very costly equipment, that will help make his life and his family's life a little easier. Following Kerrie's lead,  I have decided to put this scarf up for auction here  All proceeds will go directly to Emma and Oliver.  I know how many generous people there are out there ...... let's help this little guy and his family.

An Experiment with Colors

Last week, I was wavering between layered color in roving or a more blended version.  This hat is a combination of both rovings.  The bottom lace portion of the hat was done in the more muted roving, while the
layered roving was used on the top portion. For this project, it worked surprising well, as the top of the hat almost has a sunburst effect, however, if I had been knitting a sweater, there would be large splotches of color here and there broken up by the solid blue and I don't know how appealing that would be.......so as much as I like the bolder colors in the roving, I think that the more muted roving with the addition of some pink would work better in the final knitted project.

This was a fun trial and error project :-))

Morning Glory....Aug. 13, 2005

Peacock iridescence in veridical shadows,
Violet blooms spread to noonday sun.
The world's beauty is a swirl of color,

But in the flower's center is bright stillness
Deng Ming~Dao

I think that I may have found a name for the newest batch of roving.......Morning Glory.

I spun up both samples quickly, to see if I preferred one to the other, but I am still not sure.  The blended one is very muted, but not muddy, the other is much brighter....and maybe a wee bit too bright, so I am going to knit something up this weekend using both skeins to see which I prefer in the knitted item.  As many know, I am so not a pink person (although a pink flower basket shawl is in my near future), however, I am thinking that I may toss a tetch of pink into this blend to waken it up a bit~

.~.~.~






Birch and I have come to a happy ending!

Colors of Summer.....Aug. 10, 2005

In dwelling, live close to the ground.

In thinking, keep to the simple.

In conflict, be fair and generous.

In governing, don't try to control.

In work, do what you enjoy.

In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell

 

A Conundrum
(A question, a riddle, a mystery, an enigma....)

Now that I have been processing a good amount of my own wool, I have been trying different things.  In the latest batch that I have dyed, I am looking to you all to give me some guidance as to which roving you find
more appealing.  The picture above has been layered in strips, with definite color beginnings and endings.  The roving to the right has the 3 colors all blended and a lot more subtle.

Sometimes I just get dizzy from looking at the colors.......and it is nice to get a different perspective.  I look forward to hearing some feedback.

Marigolds

Now, I know that there are a few out there that balk at orange....and I can't for the life of me understand why.

Orange is such a happy color.....so rich and sometimes complicated. 

As I end this post today, I will leave you with some pictures of my all~time favorite flower in the garden.  As fall approaches, these babies just get better and better.

 

Some interesting Marigold tidbits of olde,

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Marigold is chiefly used as a local remedy. Its action is stimulant and diaphoretic. Given internally, it assists local action and prevents suppuration. The infusion of 1 ounce to a pint of boiling water is given internally, in doses of a tablespoonful, and externally as a local application. It is useful in chronic ulcer, varicose veins, etc. Was considered formerly to have much value as an aperient and detergent in visceral obstructions and jaundice.

It has been asserted that a Marigold flower, rubbed on the affected part, is an admirable remedy for the pain and swelling caused by the sting of a wasp or bee. A lotion made from the flowers is most useful for sprains and wounds, and a water distilled from them is good for inflamed and sore eyes.

An infusion of the freshly-gathered flowers is employed in fevers, as it gently promotes perspiration and throws out any eruption - a decoction of the flowers is much in use in country districts to bring out smallpox and measles, in the same manner as Saffron. Marigold flowers are in demand for children's ailments.

The leaves when chewed at first communicate a viscid sweetness, followed by a strong penetrating taste, of a saline nature. The expressed juice, which contains the greater part of this pungent matter, has been given in cases of costiveness and proved very efficacious. Snuffed up the nose it excites sneezing and a discharge of mucous from the head.

The leaves, eaten as a salad, have been considered useful in the scrofula of children, and the acrid qualities of the plant have caused it to be recommended as an extirpator of warts.

A yellow dye has also been extracted from the flower, by boiling.

---Preparations and Dosage---
Fluid extract, 1/4 to 1 drachm.

From Eleanour Sinclair Rohde's Old English Herbals:
undefined marygold we learn that Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng contet with the naturall colour which God hath geven the.'

 Dodoens-Lyte (A Niewe Herball, 1578) says:

undefined hath pleasant, bright and shining yellow flowers, the which do close at the setting downe of the sunne, and do spread and open againe at the sunne rising.'

All quotes are from: http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/marigo16.html

Cate............watch for my next post........<eviLgrin>

A Visitor!.......Aug. 9, 2005

Look who came for a visit!!  Why it's our little girl Mouse!!  As you can see from my daughter and my granddaughter's faces, they were ecstatic to be able to spend the weekend with this little one.

When I sell a puppy, I always tell the new family that I would be happy to board their dog when they go away on vacation.  It gives me a chance to see how they are growing and it gives the family a little piece of mind, knowing that their pet is staying someplace familiar to them.........and it saves them a little money.

Of course.........Mouse is no longer Mouse, but Connie.  I still can't get my hands wrapped around her new name, but she was named for Conway, the town that we live in.

As you can see in the photo with her new family..........she is very well loved. 

It was such a nice visit!!

Fibery stuff
We are fast (not fast enough in my book) approaching my favorite season......Autumn!!  Woo hoo!!  Usually, I am sad to see summer come to an end, but I am not quite sure that I am going to feel that way this summer.  It has been one very long, hot and humid summer.....ick!

As the fall approaches, so does my interest in color and dyeing.  I love the golds, russets, greens and deep plums of Autumn. 

Autumn also means that Rhinebeck is not too far away.  A group of us are going to take over a B & B......it is going to be fun!!  After this long summer, I am soooooo looking forward to this weekend in NY!

Meme
Ok............Chris, I will be a good sport........even though I would like to pull a Norma!  I am not good at these kinds of things.......no imagination what. so. ever......aacckk!!!!!!

What was I doing....ten years ago?

I had recently come thru an excruciatingly difficult and emotional time.........shortly after I met my current husband and 2 years later, we were married.  Ten years ago, I gave birth to my youngest daughter, Hannah.  At that time, we were deep in the everyday drama of raising 5 children. Definitely a roller-coaster time.....lots of good ...baseball games, theatre, plays, and general good times.  Bad.....a little marjuana, fighting, staying out all night and typical kid going ons.

I had also discovered Cavaliers, which as you know has become a huge part of our lives and especially Hannah's

5 years ago?

Still raising kids, but now one is married and has a daughter, and the other is flunking out of college.  Sensing that same roller coaster action??.....LOL. 

I also at that time got the job that I am still working at.  The registration supervisor for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, USA..  How fortunate for me that I am able to have a job that I love.  One of the things that I love to do the most, is study pedigrees and watch how successful breeders, breed.  It is so nice to look forward to work :-).

I also discovered the big wide world of fiber, beyond knitting!  Five years ago was my first trip to Rhinebeck and my first bunny purchase, ISeeSpots Dandy (she was 2 years old).  Spinning and knitting and fiber, oh my!

1 year ago?

I discovered the world of blogs .  I have made so many wonderful new  friends over this year.  There have been some wonderful highs,  such as the birth of my grandson a little over a year ago and some heartbreaks.....losing Dancer and Dandy, but all in all, it has been a wonderful year!

Yesterday?

Playing in the dyepots and creating fun fibery things.

Today?

A little housework......a little work.........and a lot of fibery stuff

Tomorrow?

Cleaning bunny cages.......ewwwwwwwww. 

5 snacks I enjoy

Chocolate.....wine.......chocolate.... ice~cream.......wine

5 bands and singers for which I know most of their stuff

Sting, Nickle Creek, Cowboy Junkies, Nancy Griffith, Robert Cray

What would I do with $100,000,000?

Like Chris, I would like to buy a farm, with a custom bunny barn and a house with the perfect set up for the dogs......a few alpacha and the Volvo that I have been wanting all my life..<grin>

5 locations I'd run away to:

The British Isles, Utah (now seeing from Margene and Anne how gorgeous it is), Stowe Vermont, Alaska and Germany

5 bad habits:

Oh dear......do I have any??  hehe.....
ignoring housework
leaving my shoes all over the place.....gotta get them off when I have a hot flash quick!!
my aging and selective memory,
(clutter) filling every bare spot with fiber, and fiber books and fiber tools
not listening to my children when using the computer

5 things I like doing:

Fiber stuff, traveling, dining out, dog showing and playing with bunnies :-)

5 things I would never wear:

Real fur of any kind that the animal was killed in order to get.  Polyester pants, knits with metallic, stilettos or bikini (those days are over) 

5 TV shows I like:

Law & Order shows, CSI shows, Nova, This Old House and Saving Jordan (the fake Boston accents give me a good laugh every week), given that I grew up outside of Boston in a big Irish family..hehe

5 famous people I'd like to meet:

I don't know that there is anyone famous that I would really want to meet......I would hate to be disappointed if they turned out different than I envisioned them to be.

5 biggest joys at the moment:

Air conditioning, my family, my family of dogs, being surrounded by wonderful fiber both on and off the animal and my collection of spinning wheels

5 favorite toys:

My new carding machine, my Lendrum production wheel, my robin wheel, my computer and my dye pots.

Tagging three people - I learned the Norma way.......not to do this......hehe

and there you have it.....pretty boring...LOL......but pretty boring to me is so much better than some of my earlier crazy years....and there were some wild and crazy ones  There is something to be said for the quiet saneness of life these days, that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Update

The UPS man delivered that naughty Birch back home.  We are going to be working on a happy ending soon :-))

 

Meet Greenberry's Morning Dew...Aug. 5, 2005

Morning

Morning.
New Day.
Joy of Birth
Deng Ming~Dao

 

I would like to introduce you to Greenberry's Morning Dew (yup, an aging Dead Head)...aka "Java".  Java comes to me from Leslie Shelor of Greenberry House.  Now mind you, I wasn't going to post a picture of Java just yet, as well........um...........she has been having some bad hair days..........however........

Watching these 2 little girls wrestle over a piece of hay was just too darn cute not to photograph and Java doesn't seem to be the kind of girl who fusses over her hair before a photo session anyways..

Angora babies sharing space together can wreck havoc on each other's coat.  Chris of Woolybuns was kind enough to bring Java up from Virgina to me. Puff Dandy and Java became cage mates in the trek up to the North Country. Both are getting their first haircuts this weekend and seeing just how much they enjoy each other's company, I think that I will let them stay together a little longer, at least until I have to start worrying about their second coats getting damaged........after that, they will be housed side by each as they really do seem to enjoy each other.

Damn that Cheatin' Heart

You may be wondering why Birch is folded so serenely in her basket, looking so soft, sweet and innocent??

Let me be the first to tell you that she is NOT sweet or innocent!  That Birch, left me high and dry.  With only 60 stitches left on my needles, she read about my cheatin' heart and promptly ran out on me.  I suspect she will be back sometime next week......rumour has it, she is rendezvousing with the UPS man. 

Hurry back my fuzzy one.......

What A Colorful World!....Aug. 3, 2005

Color is something that never ceases to interest me.  Whether it is a trip out to the yard to look at the flowers in the garden, the incredible overload of color that visits us here in the autumn in NH, or just the subtle colors of the weeds and geese against the pond that they reside in, across the way from my house.  I love it all!  I can honestly say that there really isn't a color that I dislike (well maybe pink.....but sometimes I even like that when it is combined with another color)

Last week, after I said good bye to the last little bunny baby, I headed over to Denmark, ME, for a dyeing seminar that I had signed up for.  This was the second of a 2 part seminar, put on by Linda Whiting of Pinestar Studio .  Linda has been a student of color for many years and put together a wonderful class for those of us who attended.

After we listened to some general information and some sensible safety tips, we set about the business of dyeing.  We were given 3 colors each to work with.  Red, yellow and blue.......from these colors, Linda had given us different combinations of the 3 colors to work with and as you can see above, we were able to make a complete color wheel with just these 3 colors. 

As a girl who dyes quite frequently, it was fascinating for me to see that with only 3 colors, I actually had the capability to make 66 colors from just red, yellow and blue.  If you look at the triangle to the right, those numbers are meaningful.  Yellow being at the top, tells you for example that 730, means 7 parts of yellow, 3 parts of red and 0 parts of blue will give you this color.  What fun!!!!

This next picture is the yarn that we dyed to the colorwheel.  After we nuked them for a few seconds in the microwave, we wrapped them in plastic wrap and then put our complete color wheel bundles into a bigger plastic bag, which was then put into
a pot on the stove to be steamed.  Here Linda has a few cups in the pan, with a cake rack resting on them, so that the little bags of fiber were not sitting in the water.  To the right, you can see Linda looking over our samples.  As you can see, there is a wonderful range of colors that were made from just those 3 basic colors.

From the first exercise, we moved onto the next one, which was Gradient colors.  Here we took one color, mixed full strength at a 1% solution and then diluted it by half and by half again, again and again.  You can see the various depths of shade in the cups being steamed as well as in the picture of Linda with the yarns.  Again......quite fascinating.

From there we moved to mixing complementary colors, analogous and finally triad combinations and watching how the color shifts with just a little color added from one of the other one.  This was my favorite part.  Taking 2 colors from the opposite sides of the color wheels and combining them in different percentages from the outside (each color on one end) to the middle and seeing what color range you got, was just mind boggling and so fun!

At the end of the class, we had a number of samples to take home and a good list of reading material. 

This morning as I was reading a few blogs with my morning coffee, Cassie directed us to Sara Lamb's website, which in itself is very interesting.  Sara had a link in her post to Elaine Benfatto's website, which given the class that I had just taken was so timely.  There is wonderful information on Elaine's site.  I got lost in it this morning.  Tomorrow, I will take another trip to Sara's to read more about her weavings and her usage of color.  She is such a talented fiber artist!

Pro Chem, in Massachusetts offers weekend classes very similar, but in much more depth to the classes that I have taken with Linda.  I hope to take one of them this winter. It is all so fascinating!