Finished shawl turned bag.....

I thought I would finish this shawl quickly, but I have not been feeling very creative lately. You know that feeling when you feel as if you are going through the motions, not really into what you are doing? Yeah well, I've been there....
I actually had to spin more yardage for this shawl. But, it is done and because the hand spun is so thick, I am going to turn this into a bag. It would be great as a cowl if I lived in Alaska, but since I do not foresee that move happening any time soon, it will be turned into a bag. My next post sees me moving back to my wet felting roots. I think I have enough yarn to weave with for the rest of my life, so I am moving myself back to what I love. I will still spin, but I miss wet felting and so I will show you a nuno felting project next time!

Spinning, Felting, & Weaving

For the past few weeks I have been working on a special project. It includes all of my favorite fiber hobbies into one. I bought a beautiful gray Lincoln wool fleece a few months ago and knew I had to do something special with part of it. I lock spun it with some of my hand dyed purple fibers. I then felted a pile of flowers using the same purple fibers I included in the yarn. Once I finished the flowers I spun a single with the leftover purple batt. Using a tapestry needle I strung the flowers onto my purple single and I plyed it to my original lock spun yarn, sliding the felted flowers up onto the plyed yarn. Now I am on the final step of weaving it on my tri-loom. I'm about 1/3 of the way done, but I love the results so far!

My New Craft Cottage

For the past few years, I have been felting, dyeing, and spinning all over the place! Not having a dedicated space has meant that I have had to limit myself on some of my projects because we have not had the room to keep projects out for a period of time. Fast forward to a month ago. We had a modular building built and delivered. My wonderful husband them installed electric and an A/C in it for me. I painted the walls and had a textured floor put in. For the past few weeks, I have been moving my fibers and crafting supplies in. Slowly but surely, it is starting to take on that cozy cottage feeling. I have plenty of space to set up my large table for wet felting and outside have my fiber table for working on my raw fleeces. The decorating will take time but so far it's perfect!

Our new LGD's

Yesterday the Florida Great Pyreneese Rescue called to let us know they were ready to bring our new rescues to our home. They had 2 dogs who were turned in from a farm that was liquidating their animals due to an illness in the family. These dogs had been together at the previous rescue home and needed to stay together, so we adopted them both!!

Snow, the male, is HUGE! He is a sweet dog who started working as soon as he was taken off his lead. He had a broken right leg a few years ago and has a slight limp, it sure does not slow him down. When he was turned in to rescue his hair was matted on his back end. So they had to shave him down. He looks just like a cream lion!  He is quite fond of the goats and walks to them with his tail wagging.

The female is Peaches and she is bonded with Snow. She had a rough start. They believe she was abused as a young dog, so she is very timid. She is going to take some time to trust us, but it looks promising because she let us approach her without running away.  She has the sweetest face and is very alert, she also went right to work once she was taken off the lead. It sure was something to watch them both work the perimeter of the property together.

I am going to enjoy getting to know these two sweet dogs, we are happy to have been able to give them both a forever home and are happy that we now have LGD's for our goats, chickens, and alpacas!

Peaches sitting in the shade under the pole barn.

Snow and Morgan getting to know each other.  Look at his haircut, he looks like a lion!

TDF and other new stuff

So today was day 4 of TDF.  I did no spinning today.  My alpaca Jack was gelded today so between checking on him and keeping all of the other animals cool, (the heat and humidity has been awful) I had no time to play.  Jack is recovering nicely and I did get a moment to get my craft area packed up and ready to move into my new workshop- that will happen tomorrow!

Tomorrow we will have a home visit from the Florida Great Pyrenees Rescue.  We are looking to add a LGD (livestock guardian dog) to our family.  We have so many coyote around here that I worry non stop about our animals.  I am hoping they will approve our fencing and allow us to adopt!  Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.  If we are able to get a LGD, then I will be able to add Gulf Coast Native Sheep to my farm!

Off to dream land for me!