Blog moving

Due to my web host vanishing and leaving me "high and dry" last fall I am moving my blog to my new website at:

www.briarlyhill.com

Thank you! Hope to see you there. Koni

My sheltered children

Tonight, I ventured into cuisineland and served my family homemade French Onion soup. A recipe I snatched from Susie at Juniper Moon Farm. (I left out the wine and the cognac.) The comments ranged from A.) son C- " What's in it?" Me - " onions" (duh!) C- "nothing else?" "what am I supposed to eat?" He was frantic! funniest thing ever! B.) daughter D- "This isn't soup" Dad... "why not, it looks like soup." D- "no, soup is water, seasoning and chunkies" I give up. It was delish and I was pleased with how it turned out. Try it if you're up for a yummy soup!

What I did this week

What i did this week...

Took some very old and sticky black wool yarn and put it on my loom...

In a twill pattern...six yards of it...

Put together a Valentine swap package...with pink

hearts...

and buttons...

I put away more Christmas...


and saved the day, by turning failed pumpkin sludge (ie fudge) into a very yummy pound cake.

Remember the "Push me, Pull me" from Dr. Dolittle? Well, that's kind of how i have felt lately.
Torn between, designing jewelry and my fiber addiction. I have a wonderful opportunity to be in on the "grassroots" development of an art venue in Dayton, Virginia. I love the fact that it is outdoors in a beautiful park-like atmosphere. Probably will regret that when the elements torment me, but for now it seems ideallic. Sigh, I really want my muse to hit me on the head with a 2 x 4. ummm, maybe not. Theoretically, at least. Do I do both? Tell me what you think.

Lichen

Back in December, (it sounds so long ago) I entered a naming contest for Cladia's hand-panted yarns . Low and behold I won! Their new color-way will be called "Lichen".
Over the holidays i knitted and knitted, completing my first lace knitting project since learning to knit in April. Thought i would share a few pics graciously modeled by my gorgeous red-haired daughter.

Dare

I dare you to try something out your comfort zone.

Recently, whilst slogging through the blogging world came upon the cheery blog of Flaming Nora. A Brit and a avid sewer/crafter I took her up on reducing her "scrap heap"dilemma and added to mine. Now I am an avid sewer and crafter, but my challenge was the color of the scraps. I love color! but when i sew, knit, spin or weave I am a very neutral/ fall colorway type person. WOW!

Talk about bright colors and all of them taffeta and duponi? silk? What to do? Luckily the shape and texture of the black saved my day.


I'm thinking Moroccan lights similar to this one. A purse perhaps? I have started and hope to finish before Christmas takes over my life. Try something out of your comfort zone!

Rust

mmmm, how I love rust!
From rusty bolts,


to the color of my youngest daughters hair.

spin it,

Weave it, dye it!

Love it!

View from my window

I really do love the views from my windows, especially now with fall in the air! The pics are a little blurry because I literally took them through the "window". Hope you enjoy my little piece of Virginia!

South - ish, My little shed!


West- Giant pine in the middle of the yard. complete with creeper squirrel.



East - ish, better view because it's of my garden!


North- ish didn't want a picture of the neighbor's house.

This week...

I wove "something"...light brown, didn't like it, so i over-dyed it brown(er).



I made a shawl pin...


Dyed....anything that was laying around.


and... found a huge garden spider, who fortunately for me is a good guy!

Flowers to dye for.

As many of you know i love to dye! Once i have a pot brewing, i dye anything i can get my hands on, (barring the husband, children and pets.) Needless to say i usually make a mess leaving splatters everywhere all over the counter, floor and myself. I had this strange notion over the dyepot on Friday to drop some of those splatters on a piece of watercolor paper i had in the other room, mostly to see how the color was progressing. Later that night as i vegetated in the living room i started doodling around the blobs and making flowers.

I am quite impressed if i do say so myself! What do you think?

TDF

Well, such is the end of TDF. I won a really cool shirt from Wonder why gal. Girls camp in the middle threw me for a loop and i took a week just to get back on track. In the end i didn't spin as much Wookie as i would have liked, but i did make a dent and also found that i like it blended with a fleece that i purchased at the Shenandoah valley fiber fest. Still slapping myself for not getting the venders name or the type of fleece. More care this year.

TDF

You may ask what is TDF ? I mean in this world of blogging, texting, and other achranms why would i be blogging about TDF?
TOUR DE FLEECE of coarse!
What else would Mamma LLama blog about? I am so excited to get motivation and friendship out of spinning. We start Sunday, July 2 just like the bikers. I have an entire Alpaca fleece to spin, and since i am on Team Wonder, the Alpaca loving team what a better time to get that puppy spun, uh i mean that 'paca spun. LOL No, it is not a Wookie!

Morning Song

The day breaks cool and refreshing after day(s) of rain.

As i let the minture sheep, aka my dog out for her morning ritual, i hear the birds, beautiful birds.

Suddenly gray skies and wet, wet, wet don't seem so bad.

Scarfing

Spring, rain need i say more?

It has been positively dreary here the last couple of days.

I finally got the nerve to try knitting again, and if i do say so myself i did quite well. I found out that for being predominantly left-handed, i knit right handed. No wonder i struggled trying to turn it around! So i took my first handspun, yeah I know, 20+ years laying around.

Well it took weeks but now i have a scarf! Just in time for....spring!


I am making progress on my 50 list, i promise! Less than three weeks left!

Silk Part Deux

So onward through the silk experience! Today we have rods, bells and cocoons! Oh my!

Silk Rods

Silk Bell



Cocoons!

After trying to spin the silk rods i here by declare that they aren't worth the time or the money spent on them! The silk bell was interesting to spin kind of like a cob web. The silk cocoons were just cool to say "yup, i did it". Plus they have the grossest little worm that you have to extract.



And...this is what i spun from the silk bell and the cocoons, not much, but it was fun!

Thank you Mr. Webster!

This is in response to my last post. Which, given the responses on FB, this definition would duly apply. No comment on the last definition.

wool·ly also wool·y (wŏŏl'ē) Pronunciation Key adj. 1. Relating to, consisting of, or covered with wool. 2. Resembling wool. 3. Lacking sharp detail or clarity: woolly television reception. 4. Mentally or intellectually disorganized or unclear: woolly thinking.

Purple armpit

Ok, funny and yet embarrassing story. I was sitting in a meeting this morning with two women. I was explaining something when i lifted my arms over my head, both of them burst out laughing.
" You have something purple in your armpit!" one of them exclaimed. Lifting my arm up again and peeking tentatively i noticed a purple haze. On closer examination i found it to be a piece of purple mohair that i was spinning last night. How i love fiber! i don't care if it is all over me!

Adventures in silk, part 1

So, one of my goals is to learn how to spin silk. Honestly one of my first questions was; who stood by a mulberry tree in Japan, saying " i wonder what this white thread is coming out of this worms butt, i think i will spin it and make a shirt." Seriously! I decided i wanted to spin silk from several different methods; cocoon, roving, and rods. Over the last several months i have acquired some silk. The roving i bought at the Shenandoah fiber festival in October from The Flock Bransonas www.bransonas.com Beautiful colors of blue, green and purple. It was a dream to spin, I probably shouldn't have started with it, i don't want to spin anything else!

New

Ah, nothing like getting something new. New year, new socks, new yarn...yes! Last March i made a list of 50 things to do before i'm fifty... i have completed 5...sad days. I am such a procrastinator. Now it's January and i have 12 weeks until my birthday. I can do this... yes?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, just doesn't seem to cover it this week. I am so cold and very grateful for my little propane stove in my studio. I did a show earlier in the month, JMU artisans fair. Over half of the booths were jewelry. All in all i did remarkably well, which made my heart happy! I can't wait until January so i can get back to playing, (preparing for my girls right now). Warm thoughts!