Harper's New Hobby

I had been thinking that the studio looked a bit ratty lately with bits of paper on the floor, this in addition to the occasional bit of hay and or oats from Harper's dinner dish. Not to mention the dog dish that is filled with oats and timothy pellets that is for Frisbee who decided when the rabbit came to live her that she would now eat oats and timothy pellets since he did too. You should see them share a carrot. She eats the orange end while he munches happily on the green part. He does not share his banana with her which seems to be fine as she is not a fan of banana. But back to the point - I had noticed these bits of paper on the floor, quite small and chewed looking. On further inspection they turned out to be the labels from my yarn skeins in my personal stash. I have one of those basket drawer holders that you get from Lowes. You know the kind where the basket is wire mesh and slides out. I actually caught the long eared culprit yesterday afternoon pulling out a basket and choosing a nice new ball of yarn with a good label on it. Sometimes he flings the entire ball across the room and then chases after it and happily rips the label to shreds. Apparently the skeins of yarn are no longer interesting after being de-papered and they remain on the floor or nosed into the corner. He is happiest when I put an entire wicker basket of yarn on the floor and he can get into the basket and root through it to find just the right skein to de-paper. This is all very cute but now when I look at those skeins I have no idea how many yards they are or what they might be fiber wise. Before you get the wrong idea entirely we are talking here about my personal yarn stash which is mostly commerical yarns bought (expensively) from yarn stores around the world. Things I might one day want to knit into something for myself. Does that seem strange to collect yarn when making yarn is what I do for a living? Maybe. It wouldn't be the only strange thing in my life. The handspun that is for sale along with the roving never comes into contact with the rabbit, so he doesn't know what he is missing. It is packaged and labeled and put away so that when someone buys it, it doesn't look like it has been handled by a long eared customer service rep.

June Already

I am not a fan of summer. It cannot get over fast enough for me. When faced with 100+ degree days I wonder why I don't live north of here. The mornings are lovely but the afternoons are perilous to your health with heat and smoke from the fires in Arizona. Late in the day our sky is clear but the light is a strange amber color.

Harper is a year old. His birthday was June 11. He was out in the early morning with me last week enjoying the grass and shade under the willow tree. He is getting ready to molt again, this will be the third one in his short life. I think with temps like they are he will be glad to get rid of the hair this time. He live inside so the heat is not as critical to him as it would be otherwise. He spends his days stretched out on the cool tile floors under the A/C, usually behind a sofa or under a chair. For his birthday he got a new wicker ball and some organic dragon blood carrots from the Farmer's Market.

New roving. Merino and Corriedale. There is also new corespun available in my etsy shop here: http://www.dedriquillin.etsy.com/