The wheel isn’t turning

Posted in Fun on the farm, Fun with fiber, Gardening, Sharing is caring!, Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

And that is because my spinning wheel broke today, I am hoping that it is an easy fix because I was in the middle of plying this gorgeous romney I blended together.

I have been having so much fun blending batts lately, I wanted to finally spin some up to see how they turn out….I’m also trying to keep myself occupied spinning these batts while I impatiently await my recently purchased wool combs from Susan’s fiber…I won’t lie, the fact that she allows sheep to roam around her shop was the reason I choose to buy from her 😂

I have so much merino waiting in my basement to play with, but it does not turn out well when I run into through my drum carder….the one I spent almost two years researching…the one that claimed it was for fine fiber like merino (it was written right in the description!!!)

I am excited to try out these combs and see how well they work (Hopefully better than my handmade combs 😞 not very pretty & it’s just tetanus waiting to happen)

The snow is starting to melt, the chickens are laying over 80 eggs a day, we have 150 chicks arriving any day now (I hope) & seeds have been started for this years garden.

We have been making plans for when the snow melts. A wattle fence is on the list, more fruit trees & berry bushes (Elderberry Jam anyone?).

The fiber festival is happening soon, because of course the 60lbs in my basement just isn’t enough, one must try out all wool options before choosing a breed of sheep.

Another big trip will be to Fedco in Maine, for their annual tree sale, lots of fun planned for the year!

Have a great weekend folks!

12May2014

Blogiversary!

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

Happy blogiversary!!! Yes folks, it has been a year since I moved my blog over from blogspot to WordPress, and while I didn’t exactly stick with making my clothes for a whole year, the intentions were good and you folks keep coming back so I must be doing something right!!

Here is a little year in review!

I learned to weave and I bought a spinning wheel

I made a Jane Austen inspired dress!

I sewed some Christmas presents, among a few other things

I got Carrick, my English angora. We had baby ducks born, and my husband learned to carve.

I attended a natural dye day with my guild (the very last picture on the bottom is my lot)

I spun up some nice yarn

I did a ton of canning

I went to Georgia and watched my cousin build her house…I held screws and got to use a mallet, but unlike my father, I am not a master carpenter.

All in all I am happy with the few things that I did get done, and will continue to knit, sew, attempt to crochet and of course continue on writing here. We are still searching for our forever home, a homestead to enjoy, raise animals, food, and our little family.

For those of you who keep coming back, you rock!! For you new readers, you rock as well! I can’t wait to see what will happen in the next year!!

Coming up soon: move number one of two! Our days at this house our growing shorter, we’ve run out of time to buy and will be renting elsewhere while we look for our dream home.

Thanks reading folks!!

27Feb2014

Busy as a bee

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

We have been busy around here folks, I’ve been cleaning (with one hand), making sure everything was spotless, it seems every time I finish with one room there is a little boy following along making a mess.

We also had a massacre occur sigh, we lost all but two birds, blood & feathers everywhere. Very disheartening, I’m still flabbergasted that something could pull apart metal bars and grab my birds, but alas it happened. We worked on the barn this morning, so hopefully there are no more issues.

I’ve also been spending the evenings house hunting, the landlord out our house on the market on Monday, and a prospective buying is coming by tomorrow so the race is on. We’re looking in New England, very exciting to hunt for our own little homestead.

I am also excited that the spring session of knitting starts at the school next week! It will be five weeks long and I have two 8 year old girls who I have been teaching to knit for the last several weekends, who will be my assistants.

I wish I had more to say, pictures to share, or crafts to talk about. Alas, my hand is still healing and I’ve been rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Have a nice night folks!

13Nov2013

Surrender

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

Well my friends, I am sad that I have to write this, but we’ve decided to butcher some of our birds and re-home the rest. In the last week we’ve had issues with foxes, a fisher cat, one of our neighbors saw a bobcat nearby, and another shot a coyote. As we only rent our house, we are not in a position to further enhance the the area in which our chickens roam to keep them safer from predators…they are walking meals for all the wild critters.

It’s not fair to the birds that we weren’t ready to butcher and it isn’t fair to us that we are losing birds that we spent a lot of money on. We will try again when we own a home and can do with the land what we like. Until then, it will just be Ailey, Moose, & Carrick.

I suppose that is the downside of living on a farm, losing animals….this has just been too much.

To leave on a brighter note, here is one of the Christmas presents I started the other day.

Have a nice night folks.

29Jun2013

Guard duty

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

Half an hour after my last post, the sun came out and I thought to myself Thank you Mother Nature, I’m glad we can still be friends.
I gathered my carders and bundle of wool, headed out doors and decided to card a few rovings before gathering my cherubs and heading out toward the riding ring to do a little wild blueberry picking. Ten minutes into my spinning I received a phone call about a large black bear in my area.
Now, I no longer live in Maine but I do still live out in the woods, this is the first time I’d ever heard about a bear being in my area, then again two years ago we were living on an island. We have coyotes and fisher cats, yet bears never crossed my mind.

Oh well, I figured as long as I stayed in the vicinity, there was less of a chance running into a bear. The blueberries would still be there tomorrow….hopefully. I decided to just carry on carding in the backyard. I noticed a squirrel over near my bird feeder, they’ve already knocked down and broken two feeders & I figured maybe I could scare them off if I shot an arrow in the direction of the feeder. Two minutes after I came out with the bow & arrow, Romeo (one of our roosters) ran into the back yard followed by a fox, luckily for the fox I am not great at using a bow, I managed to miss him by half a foot and he ran off into the woods.

I spent the next twenty minutes banging around the back, back yard (we have 8 acres, the back yard & back, back yard a separated by hedges) with pots and pans. Alas Mr. fox managed to capture one of our little baby chickens.

That brings us to today, my husband & kids went off to visit family and go see fireworks. I didn’t want to be a jerk and leave Moose hooked up near the coop for 12 hours, so the resident Mountain Cur and I are on guard duty

So far, so good.

Have a nice day folks!!