dicentra

All posts tagged dicentra

Textures and Colors and New stuff!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 30, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 8 Comments

One of my favorite things about Black Sheep Gathering is walking around and taking in all of the colors and textures.

It is a bit overwhelming at first and many people can be seen with a glazed over look on their faces – a sure sign of trying to take it all in at once.

Judy Taylor at Little House Rugs  and her hooked rugs are always a favorite of mine.

I always have to buy a little bit of dyed fiber to play with and the Bluefaced roving at Dicentra’s is a new favorite.  So many vivid colors to choose from!

Jacob sheep will always be my favorite, but I do love all sheep.  This particular one has lots of character 🙂

This little guy really had the ‘cute’ factor.  He is a Navajo-Churro ram lamb…

and this is a yearling ewe of the same breeding.

This is a Lincoln ram and he was getting the best rub down EVER!

If I had the room, this is the other breed I would have.  I love the Bluefaces and their ridiculous ears!

A HUGE thanks to my sister-in-law, Erica, for manning our booth so I could walk around and take in some sights.  Showing sheep, doing herding demos, and sitting at the vendor booth is very hard to do all at the same time!  I couldn’t have asked for better help, she restocked the tables, answered questions, and did a fabulous job with no fiber knowledge!

Here is my little pile of goodies that I brought home.  The book is one that I have looked at before, but the price tag has always held me back.  Thanks to a friend for making me buy it, it is a treasure!

Here are the colors I decided on from Dicentra – I can’t wait to use them!

I ordered a few more of the lightweight panels from Shaul’s.  They are easy for me to move around and they have already come in handy…more about that later.

 I also have a few new sheep!  A few more Mud Ranch girls, a ewe lamb from Meridian Jacobs, and a yearling ram from bide a wee farm.  They deserve their own post though, so I will share pictures of them in the next day or two.

Rainy day projects

Posted by kenleighacres on March 21, 2012
Posted in: Chickens, Farm Life, Fiber, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 6 Comments

I have been singing ‘Rain, rain, go away…come again another day’ all day long, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

Today is the first day of Spring, but it feels more like a good ol’ NW winter day…cold and gray.

Part of me would like to crawl into bed and stay there until the sun is shining again, but that really isn’t an option, so I am trying to keep myself busy with fun stuff – inside!

I set two fleeces aside for myself to work with and washing them sounded like fun.

Here is one of the fleeces…

Byeburn Hector is the donator.

Here is his fleece separated and washed.  I still have the mixed section, black/white, to wash.

Infiniti’s is the other fleece I washed.  Here is her mixed section…

and her black fiber in the sink.  I am starting to run out of places to dry them!

Another product from our sheep – horn buttons!  My husband cut a bunch for me and I sanded them, sprayed them, and drilled holes in them.

Here is another type.

He also cut some bigger pieces and I was experimenting with what I could do with them.  I’m sure someone who is good with wire could do something very cool, but it was fun!

 

I also started laying out my Black Sheep Gathering Fiber Art project.  This is my pile of goodies that I bought at the Spring Fiber Sale last weekend.  I don’t usually buy much at the fiber shows, but I had a list of colors I was looking for and I was delighted to see that Dicentra was there with her beautifully dyed Bluefaced Leicester roving.

I used some of her roving for the background of this wall hanging.

For my Black Sheep Gathering projects, I chose…

Maritime and…

Sienna.  These colors are vibrant and bright and different than outside today – just what I wanted 🙂

These poor little guys need some sunshine to play in, who knew the lambs born in January would have nicer weather than the guys born in March!  They seem quite happy to romp and play inside.

 

I think the chickens are starting to morph into ducks…they don’t even seek shelter from the rain anymore and I found them in the creek eating tadpoles and little snails.  True northwest chickens!