Bonus!

Well, what do you know! I looked at the nest this morning and now there are FOUR eggs!
I'll give poor mommy bird a break and I won't bother her for a few days. Then we'll see if there are any new baby birds to take a peep at! (ha...pardon the "cheep" pun!)

A Sweet Little Discovery

Here's a lovely little discovery while walking by the pond today....a red-winged blackbird's nest! It was cleverly disguised and I'll bet I've walked by it dozens of times and never knew it was there. Look at those sweet little blue eggs.It's incredibly amazing how perfectly it is woven and formed.

The outside layer of the nest is created from dead cat tail reeds and woven like a basket around the live, green reeds. It's suspended over the shallow shoreline and built so sturdily that I'll bet even the strongest wind couldn't topple it.

Momma bird was keeping a very close eye on me!

The (Unimpressed) Audience

This spring, I've started my own little exercise program. I take a brisk one-half hour walk every single day, unless the rain is pouring down. It makes me feel good and I sleep better too. When I started considering my options, I decided not to walk in the subdivision across the street. It would have been easier to walk on the pavement, but I didn't want to deal with cars driving by, kids playing in the street, and possibly a dog or two chasing after me. So I decided to walk in my own backyard, between the house and the barn, and around the animal pens. I walk at a brisk pace, swinging my arms, singing out loud to my i-pod music, and generally looking like a real corn-ball (yup, just another good reason not to walk in the subdivision). The only audience I have is this....And this.....

And this guy, who looks a little startled...maybe it was my singing?

And occasionally, this guy is my audience too......

No one looks terribly impressed....

Sheep Shearing

Yesterday was sheep shearing day at Liz's farm. It's always a fun day that I look forward to and this year was full of surprises too! Here's Doug starting to shear Lumi. She was the first sheep to get sheared in the big barn.

It's amazing to see how the fleece comes off the sheep in one big piece. It sort of looks like Doug is peeling Lumi right out of her wool!
***
Meanwhile, there were several sheep lined up, waiting on a ramp in a narrow chute so they could get sheared. Emma was in the queue with the other sheep. Doug placed a board at the end of the ramp to keep the sheep in place and it was about knee-high to the sheep. He said that even if the sheep managed to step backward down the ramp, they would never be able to step over the board. Well! Not only did Emma back down the ramp, she stepped backward over the board, and then took a leap over the little fence that was containing the rest of the loose sheep! Luckily the barn was enclosed so she couldn't get outside. But here is a photo of my darling escapee, visiting with some of her new friends! Yes, she jumped over that wooden fence with the metal hinges (in the foreground).

Doesn't it figure that Emma would be the renegade of the whole bunch? That's my girl!

I guess Emma didn't figure that we were smart enough to catch her and she'd have to face the clippers eventually! Here's Doug starting on her.

As always, I am amazed at the lovely pile of curls that come off of her!

Doug certainly has a way of flipping the sheep around and getting the job done quickly. I can't believe that he can stand up straight at the end of the day!

Emma's all done ... and Doug still has a smile on his face! She was so shiny after she was sheared. It gave her a beautiful glow!

No spa treatment would be complete without a girl having her nails done. This contraption may look wicked but it works like magic and the sheep are perfectly fine. The sheep walk into a chute and they are "locked" in place. Then a handle flips them sideways so the guys can trim the hooves. Trust me, this is a really efficient way to do it. Much better than trying to hold a squirming sheep on the ground!

Go ahead...say it....AWWWW!!! Isn't Emma adorable?
Thanks to Doug for his shearing abilities! You can tell he is so proud of his work!

Happy Easter!

I hope your day was full of sunshine, warm love, and big smiles.
Spring is on its way!!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Today was Emma's first birthday! She got some extra hay this morning and a kiss on the fuzzy head.
She has grown up to be such a beautiful girl, hasn't she? She's already bigger than Lumi (but Lumi is still the boss).

And here she is, the first day I saw her when she was three days old.....looks like she finally grew into those big ears!

Adorable!
If I had extra money and more property, I'd have a hundred more of these cute little critters! But none of them could match the sweet, silly personality that Emma has; she is one of a kind!

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.

Having Fun In Emma's Garden

I was in Canton, Mississippi recently teaching a workshop at P is for Primitive. Most of the participants worked on the Emma's Garden pattern. We incorporated antique paisley in the leaves, hooked with roving and sheeps' locks (Emma generously donated a small bit of her locks to everyone's rug), flowers were given dimension with proddy and beading. We talked a great deal about my favorite subject: the life and behavior of sheep and goats! The most thrilling part for me was to see the rugs develop into their own personalities. Everyone did their own thing and added their own personal touches....which is exactly what I had hoped for!!! Here are just a few samples of what was going on......

This "Emma" belongs to Candi. She looks beautiful with her curly locks.

This is Carol's version of Emma. Carol was using a lovely roving that was natural taupes and light browns.

This is Melanie's rug in progress. You can see her lovely prodded sunflower at the top of the picture.

This is Ginger's rug. Ginger added some "foofy" yarn to the plumes on the bird's head which added some great dimension and interest.

Now isn't this a fun little Emma? Becky made a glamerous pink lamb....err...Becky calls it "Glam-ah".

Kala hooked her "Emma" with gray roving. Her sunflowers are big and bold!

Bette's "Emma" has some special meaning to her. She used roving from her granddaughter's sheep! I also love how Bette thought "outside the box" and hooked her flowers in different colors.

The last two photos are views of Martha's work. She chose to make her lamb with dark features, more like a Suffolk sheep. Her bird and flower were turning out great...she used "foofy" yarn too!
~~~
Thanks to Lisanne Miller, owner of P Is For Primitive, for organizing, making sure everything ran smoothly, and cooking lunch.
And thanks to all of you who brought snacks and food everyday...I loved the King Cake...probably a little too much...yikes! Now my jeans are too tight!

Emma's Garden

Here's a new design I hooked up for a workshop I'm teaching later this week in Mississippi. I named it "Emma's Garden", in honor of my lamb Emma (of course!). I hooked it up to be a sampler of various techniques and materials. The leaves all have antique paisley veins, the flower petals are prodded using various lengths and widths of wool strips, the seed part of the flowers have an accent line of beading, the little sheep is hooked with Corriedale roving, and curly sheep locks were worked around the lamb's face. Yes, those are some of Emma's real curls! The lamb's ear is also dimensional...it's a proddy strip that was trimmed in the shape of an ear, pulled up through the backing, then the two pieces were sewn together. Three different textured wools were hooked into the background and I echoed around all of the shapes to give a nice soft movement to the rug. The rich plaid in the border helps bring the colors of the rug out to the edge. I think it has a nice flow all the way around.
But of course, this pattern could be entirely hooked with wool strips without any special embellishments and it would be equally wonderful!

Where In The World Is Kris Miller?

It's been so long since I posted on my blog but the explanation is that I've been on the road teaching some rug hooking workshops. I'm going to show you some pictures and let you guess where I've been lately....

Hmm...let's see...beautiful mountains....

Stunning red rocks with distinctive formations.....

Yes! If you guessed these pictures are from Sedona, you are right!
I've been in beautiful, sunny, warm Arizona!!!
Below is Bell Rock....

And below is a picture of one of my favorites...I believe it is called the Madonna. Doesn't it look like a mother holding a baby?

Here is a picture of the busy rug hookers in my first workshop at The Quilted Apple in Phoenix. (sorry to all of you in the second workshop, I didn't get a picture of you!) I love all the creativity going on here, all the stacks of wool and the cutters waiting to be used...

It was such a fun time! I'm glad I got to spend a little time in warmer weather. So many talented rug hookers and beautiful rugs....and now I have some wonderful new friends too!

Frosty!

Need I say that it's c-c-c-old here in Michigan? This morning it was -9 degrees when I went out to feed the woolly critters. Yes, that's MINUS NINE DEGREES! I also noticed this morning that a beautiful shimmery frost had covered a lot of the branches, along with the snow. The sun came out and the frost didn't last long. But for a brief time, it looked just like a winter scene from a Christmas card! Here are some branches on our burning bush:

A lovely snapshot of one of our pine trees...

Here is the frost on the pine branches...simply beautiful!

The animals seem to be coping with the extreme cold by digging in the straw and forming little "nests" where they snuggle down to keep their legs warm. It's amazing that their ears don't get frostbite! Me? Well, you'd laugh if you could see me bundled up in my "gear". A turtle neck, a sweatshirt, three pairs of socks, big snow boots, a Carhartt insulated suit with a hood, double insulated gloves, and an old lambswool scarf tied double around my neck. And I dress like that and brave the cold twice a day to feed my sheep and goats. Ah, for the love of wool!!!

Wooly Weather Forecasters

Happy New Year! Well, I think it's hardly considered the New Year any more. Everyone is getting back into their old routines. Here in Michigan, nothing has changed....not even the weather. It snowed all day yesterday. It was a constant, dense snow with small flakes. That's the kind that piles up fast, and that's exactly what it did...pile up.
Funny thing, the sheep have had ravenous appetites. My hay grower, Paul, told me last summer that when their appetites increase enormously like that, it means there is much colder weather on the way. And sure enough, the weather gurus are now predicting sub-zero temps later on this week. I could have predicted it at least two weeks ago.
Anyway, as the snow was coming down, Lumi was digging through the snow, looking for bits of left-over hay to snack on. She got quite a crusty coat of snow on the top of her back. Kevin said, "Mom, she looks like a Frosted Mini-Wheat". To which I answered, "yes, and she's loaded with fiber too".
***
That's your dumb sheep joke of the week!