Sept. 10

It's definitely nasty out there. Rain and wind and cold. Weather man says that we could have frost this week. So, I'm trying to find enough covers to keep my garden for just a little while longer. The pumpkins are turning orange and the tomatoes are turning red. Today it's off to the dentist and then a road trip to pick up a couple of sheep. Not sure of the breed, but the price is right, free. I really don't like shearing sheep, takes me way too long to do one. My honey doesn't like it either, but he's a lot faster than I am. I really do like the fiber to mix with my mohair and angora. I'll get pictures and post of the new members of the farm. Be a blessing. Glory Farm

Roo the Day

Roo-verb-Process of removing fleece by hand plucking * This is how I prefer to get the fiber off of my Angora rabbits. I only have four, so it isn't a full time job. Today was Charlie's turn to get a grooming. He gives so much fiber that it's amazing there's anything left of him. Here is Charlie after I pulled most of his fur.

And here's the pile of fiber-

My son said the pile is bigger than the rabbit! Good bunny. :)

Dyeing With Spices

I have a new project in mind that requires wool yarn. I have a bag of wool yarn that I purchased from Goodwill for 3.99. Unfortunately it's all white. I thought I'd try using spices to dye it. I've used commercial dyes, Kood-Aid dyes, natural dyes, so this is new for me. * First I tried chili powder which was supposed to give me a brick red color. Here's the yarn, pre-dye.

I used 1/4 cup chili powder for each 4 cups of water. So that was 2 cups total.

I put the powder in cloth bags and boiled it for an hour and a half.

I added a cup of vinegar for every four cups of dye bath.

This is the color of the dye.

I simmered the yarn in the dye bath for an hour and the color just didn't take. Either this isn't wool or the chili powder is too old? It's been sitting in my pantry for at least 6 years. :) So I decided to try dyeing with turmeric instead. Here's the comparison of the colors-

The top photo is the one with the chili powder. The color is a tan/very light brown. The bottom one is the turmeric. Too much color??? I love yellow-good thing. Paprika is good for dyeing, also. I buy my spices in bulk from the local buying club and they're very reasonable. * Now I'll do a sample swatch and see if this yarn will felt. If anyone tries dyeing this way, maybe you could share some photos of the end results.

Blessed New Year!

I could start the new year complaining about the weather. Uh...but part of my New Year's resolution is to stop complaining and work on a grateful heart. Look on the bright side-my mom says with weather this cold those nasty cold and flu viruses die. Getting outside every morning to do chores is a real push, but once out there it's very refreshing. With Christmas behind us, I'm going to start working on prepping my fiber. I have bags and bags of mohair, angora, alpaca and wool up in the cubby. I have plans and ideas and seems like this would be the ideal time to get going on these projects. This is some of the angora/mohair that I carded up yesterday.

I'd like to dye and card up some of the alpaca so I can try doing some felting with it. That will be next. This is so much fun. Spinning and carding are very addicting. From Glory Farm-Blessed New Year.

And Here's Peter....

We had our second little kid born early Sunday morning.  He is very little and a bit wobbly on his feet, not big and stocky like his sister Lydia.
His color is beautiful chocolatey brown.  I love the color and am looking forward to spinning it.

See-his legs are a bit wobbly.

Isn't it a pretty color?  He is a honey.
Now if the weather would warm up and these two goats -Lydia and Pete- could get out of the house.

Angora Rabbits-Post 2

I guess when you make up your mind to do something-Just do it-is a good phrase.  Upon deciding to get rabbits, we went and got them.  Two Angoras, brother and sister.  These are French/Satin Angoras.  Bred especially for their fiber.

This is Cordelia, the girl.  My daughter was busy brushing her out this morning.

And this is Edwards.  He got a good brushing too.
Now we're going to get them set up in the barn, in a temporay cage, until we get the hutch from my grandparents house.
These guys are so soft.  I can't wait to spin this fiber.

Angora Rabbits

I like to try new things.  So here we go...we've agreed to let our daughter get Angora rabbits.  We've been reading up on them and the lady we're getting them from is knowledgable.  We have Angora goats and Icelandic sheep for fiber, so we're adding a new fiber to the mix.  I hope this works.  It sounds like a lot of grooming, but my daughter wants to give it a try.

There are a lot of sites that have information on Angoras.  This one seems to have good information on all types of fibers and spinning.  So----anyone have some good advice?  Or just come along and learn with  us.