Dog Biscuits

Found a great dog biscuit recipe, Garlic and herb. I love making my own because I know what goes into them. I had these alphabet letter cookie cutters which worked out great.

Polygonum or Woad

Last Friday, a friend Cathy and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and dyed some yarn with the woad I had grown. The day started with the intentions of dying with Japanese indigo which I picked early Friday morning. When I began reading Rita Buchanan's recipe for dying with my polygonum it stated that very little dye is present after the plant had bloomed. Well, I can undoubtably say how true this is. So, on to plan B. We picked about 1 and 1/2 lbs. of woad and proceeded with the dye recipe. We were able to dye two skeins of Cathy's alpaca and overdye two 4 oz. skeins of yarn, one previously dyed with goldenrod. The results were very beautiful skeins of yarn.

National Spinning and Weaving Week

October 3-9 is National Spinning and Weaving Week. So I've been continueing my stash busting quest in honor of all my fellow spinners and weavers. The fiber of choice is if course BFL and BFL blends. Left to right is BFL/alpaca chunky yarn, BFL/suri(soft and light), BFL/suri with a silk single, plied.

Stash busting

Now that my time outside in the garden is slowing down, I have more time to spin, knit and weave. I have been going through my fiber  to see what i can create with what I have. I found some dyed roving and gray mohair and carded batts to spin up in a chunky yarn. I am also finishing a sock and a mitten to complete it's mate. I am warping up my HD studio loom with 8/2 cotton to weave some more towels for Christmas gifts.

A Wool Gathering

We had a beautiful weekend for a fiber festival. Young's Dairy does a very good job pulling this event off. A very family oriented time for everyone, including the vendors like myself. Of course my favorite thing to do is to watch the herding demo, but talking to people all over the area is fun too! I took a little survey and learned that people come from far and near like, Tennessee and just down the road in Kettering. This was my first time setting up at this festival with my friend Cathy Moore. Our little vendor space was packed,  all with products from our own farms and processed in Ohio. Thanks all for supporting our small farm businesses.

Honey Bees

What beautiful weather we're having. Time to rob the bees for the last time this year. My TTH checked for varroa mites and found a few weird wings on some bees so we will be treating with a natural product this fall called Vita-life Var.Despite all the rainfall, and swarms our honey production has been very good. Honey is one of those natural sweeteners that can be good for you and dietbetics can use it in moderation. I put a tablespoon in a glass of my raw goats milk and drink it before I go to bed.

BFL/Shetland Mule Roving

Last week I recieved my roving back from OVNF(Ohio Valley Natural Fiber), and is it soft. A blending of white BFL, Shetland Mule and Colored BFL. The color is an oatmeal when spun. I will have this for sale at the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs on Sept. 17-18. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.