Bunny Royalty

Photographing the rabbit is kind of like trying to get a headshot of someone in the Royal Family when they don't want to be photographed.

He quickly turns around and looks like a big fluffy mushroom........... with ears.

He is hard to resist with these beautiful markings. I took him out this morning into the yard so he could eat grass and weeds and be a semi wild bunny for a few minutes instead of a house rabbit.

His Royal Bunnyness is about ready to be sheared.

The ball on the left was today's spinning on the Turkish spindle.

 Plied on the Lendrum. 5 HOURS to spin on the Turkish spindle. 10 MINUTES to ply on the Lendrum.

This is why spinning wheels were invented. Because soon there will be bunny fur to spin.....

Monday Slow Wool & Projects

This is how the morning is beginning here at the sunrise of the week. The bunny (who has been absent from this blog FAR TOO long) has been out checking out the little bunny yard that I've constructed for him outside. This is basically a dog exercise yard that can be moved around, which is helpful because Harper does not like heat and sunlight. As you can see he is in Large Bunny mode and about ready to be sheared again. He produces about 8 ounces each shearing which happens about three times a year. Harper is a Satin Angora.

Slow wool - also know as clean fleece ready to be combed. This is part of the combing for this week. A super nice Corriedale that won the NM State Fair Blue Ribbon. From Westfarthing Farm in Edgewood, NM. The sheep is named Tim McGraw........ how do country singers feel about having sheep named after them? Is it because you like the singer or because you don't?????

This last project is the beginning of the knitting needles we sell that are size 50. I paint the tops and this being so close to Easter a friend asked me to paint some wooden eggs he made. That is all on the docket too....

Hope you all have a grand week.

Bunny Valentine

How does a Bunny send a Valentine? Harper stays pretty busy around the house redecorating the bookshelves and the yarn basket. He decided to do his own recycling this year with the old calendars and this is what he came up with all by himself one day.

He is just doing his mid-winter molt and there is a lovely bag of angora just waiting to be spun.

Kits Are Coming!!!

Autumn is just around the corner (some of us are counting down the days!) and new SCARF and HOODED COWLS are coming. Where? With me to the Farmer's Market and also on my Etsy shop HERE The first kits going in today are four Hooded Cowls that knit up super fast and easy.

If you can cast on, cast off and knit you can make this easy pattern. The textured boucle is commerically spun and hand dyed by me to match the Corespun that is all hand dyed and hand spun by me. The patterns are easy to read and are included in each kit. The cost for kits are $35 each with $3.50 shipping and handling. If you pick it up at the market you save the cost of shipping. Special orders for specific colors are being taken now with kits for special orders shipping in about a week. Premade kits, like the ones in the photos are ready to ship now.

And of course what would an update be without a picture of Harper, the CFO (Cheif Fiber Officer) who is looking fluffy again from the last molt. It has been too hot for his comfort even though he is a house rabbit and he is also looking forward to fall coming.

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/

Getting Ready for Market

New yarn and roving this week. The two top skeins are blended wools with silk, all hand dyed fibers mixed on the drum carder. The bottom photo is roving, Blue Faced Leister and Wensleydale. The Wensleydale is a hair roving more than a true wool and it takes dye beautifully and almost shines. Another positive about it is that it is not as itchy as Lincoln but is still soft and nice to spin. There was a an article in Spin Off this month about using Wensleydale and now that I've dyed it and touched it I can see why a person would want to try this unique roving.

The helper at my feet.....

In bunny news: Harper is beginning to do his second molt, so in the picture below you can see some of the pink skin on his back. The new hair comes in very fine under the old. I have to admit that this happened quicker than I thought it might but he is a fluffy thing so it is probably time. I sit with him in my lap to pluck the hair and he doesn't object too much, but the whole process really bothers the dog who seems to think I am doing something terrible to Her Bunny. She sits on the couch across the room and whines and watches very closely.......

Harper's House

This is Harper's Bunny Condo. It is fairly large - 42" the long way across the front 28" from the front to the back and 29" high. It even has a cute little ramp for him to go from the first floor to the second floor. The lower floor is where he eats, drinks and has his litterbox, it is some kind of gray laminated plastic that is textured so that a bunnie's feet don't slip around too much. Very important. Also easy to clean. The second floor is short carpet and there is a piece of pvc pipe that holds the second floor securely up there so it doesn't bounce around while being bounced on. The whole thing went together with zip ties and was made by Lucas M. who sells these bunny condos on ebay. The entire thing took me about an hour to put together. The base is nice wood underneath and has casters so you can move the entire thing around - providing it will fit through a door, it is rather large. Harper seems quite happy with his new place, although he is probably happiest hopping around the house tormenting the cat (who still doesn't like him) and finding new things to explore.

The corner of Harper's condo is visible in the right hand side of this photo. The drum carder (Louet) sits on a table where I do the carding and the closet door is ajar. Why didn't she at least close the closet door before taking the picture? Because it is the whole point - when a rabbit moves into your house you discover that all kinds of things that were once commonplace like closed closet doors become up for debate. If you have a long thin closet with those doors that hang from the top and slide side to side this area may become a Fascinating Place for a rabbit. It is very much like a warren with two exits and it is nice and dark inside and some thoughtful person has included things inside that you (the rabbit) can spend endless amounts of time rearranging and tossing around. Instant playground.

Why wasn't Harper in any of those previous pictures? Because he was Busy. You will notice that he is a little blurry in this picture - because he is Busy and cannot be Bothered to Sit Still and have his picture taken. You will have to be happy with pictures of where he lives. And of the Very Patient English Cocker Spaniel who Waited and Waited while I was trying to take a picture of Harper to have HER picture taken.......

She always looks so serious about having her picture taken. She is ready for spring with her plaid bandanna.

And for those of you who insist on some kind of yarn  and roving news, yes there will be new Falkland and Coopworth roving at the market on Saturday.