Spring Fiber Show

Come and join me for the first "wool party" of 2009! I'll be vending at the Black Swamp Spinners Guild Market Day and Fiber Fair this Saturday March 28, 2009.

9 am to 4 pm

Junior Fair Building, Wood County Fairgrounds

13800 W. Poe Road

Bowling Green, Ohio 43402

The best part is that the admission is FREE!!!

Door prizes galore and lunch is available from a local scout troop.

The show will include rug hooking supplies, yarns, rovings, fleeces, spinning and weaving supplies, handcrafted items, books, dyes, and much more. We vended at this show last year and we had a wonderful time!

I'll be bringing the newest Spring rug hooking patterns, lots of freshly dyed woollens, and some charming items from Marlene Dusbiber (shh...the newest secret is that Marlene is now making hand carved buttons for your knitwear...come and check them out!)

See you Saturday, rain or shine!

Can A Dog Get A Little Respect Around Here?

An amusing little story played out today. Here are the characters....

Nokie, the guardian dog

The twin angora goats, Zack and Zion

Emma (that girl always has hay on her face!)

Lumi
~~~~
And the story goes like this....

It's a cold blustery day in Michigan today. We are so glad that we are not getting any more rain as we have had 3 inches over the past few days. When the temperatures dip and the wind is chilly, the goats particularly love to get a nice warm drink of water. So every morning, after the hay has been tossed into the hay feeders, I carry down large buckets of warm water. Today, the twins were especially in tune with what I was doing and anticipated that their delicious drink was on its way down to the pen. They milled around the gate, pacing back and forth, occasionally peeking over the top of the gate to see if I was coming. Somehow Nokie was standing in the middle of this churning mass of goats. She had a funny look on her face as if she did not like the situation she had gotten herself into, but couldn't figure out how to get out of it...and in her mind, the closer she stood to the gate, the better her chances were of escaping.....
I shouted a warning to her but it was too late....wham!....she was butted directly in her side by Zion and pushed to the ground.
Poor Nokie, she looked so embarressed and tried to do her best to let Zion know that she did not appreciate the butt by showing her teeth. Then up! She jumped up on her feet and rushed past me, through the gate as I was trying to get in with the buckets of water. She quickly ran to the sheep pen and looked over her shoulder at me as if to say "I'd rather be in here where it's safer."
~~~
I put Nokie in the sheep pen as she asked. Now, Lumi stayed as far away from that dog as she possibly could. She has never liked Nokie much and she's not going to change her mind now. However, Emma was very curious about this big white creature. When Nokie was not paying too much attention and sniffing the ground, Emma walked up to Nokie's tail and began to sniff. "Yikes", Nokie thought, "I could be clobbered again!" So she trotted away to stand at a safe distance...to which Emma responded by following after Nokie because she wasn't done sniffing that tail....so Nokie trotted a little further away, and Emma followed....and pretty soon, Emma was "chasing" Nokie around the sheep pen!
Imagine that, a sheep chasing a dog?
I never have my camera ready at the right time....

Need wool for flesh colors?

I used to struggle with finding the right "flesh" color for faces and arms, legs, etc, for my rugs. I didn't want anything too pink, nor did I want anything that turned out too peachy/orange. What a dilemma! One day I got out my dye pots and started throwing together a little of this dye color and a little of that dye color until I came up with a great formula. I dye this flesh formula over a textured wool that is very light and has a slight gray line running through it. Trust me, when you hook this up, you never see the gray lines...it's like magic!(Not the greatest photo but hopefully, you'll get the "picture"...ha! pardon the pun!)

I used this flesh wool in my Herb Angel rug. I think it could look a little "pinky" in the photo.
For another great example, go to Marlene Dusbiber's blog and see how she used it in her latest stair runner (hey, the color turned out pretty good in her photo!). Back in December, she told me that she was struggling with completing her stair runner because she couldn't find a satisfying color for the hand. I suggested my over-dyed flesh wool....and voila! her project looks wonderful!
One fat-quarter piece (26 1/2" x 14") of over-dyed "flesh" wool is $12.00. Give me a holler if you would like to purchase some.