Southwest Spinners Retreat

It is finally the end of July and time for the Southwest Spinners retreat held each year at the Methodist Assembly Camp in Sacrameto, NM. We gather for classes and time to spin with other like minded fiber fanatics. I will be in Sacramento this weekend and not at the Farmer's Market in Las Cruces - look for me back next weekend across from the Rio Grande Theater.

Harper recommends a little fiber with your yarn..............

Back to the Market

After being gone from the Farmer's Market for a couple of weeks due to the heat around here, I will be back tomorrow July 2nd - Across from the Rio Grande Theater as usual. We have had quite a spell of hot weather here with a week and a half over 100 degrees, some of that right around 110. Even I don't want to touch wool yarn when it is that hot. Of course my A/C has been in and out this week, mostly out so I've had to sequester the Bunny in a cool place. He is happier now that things are pretty much back to normal and he can help around the house wherever he wants. Here he is rearranging cones of yarn on a shelf. He likes to be able to get up on things, you will notice that he is at table height.

Here he is hanging out in front of his condo waiting for me to bring him his evening salad. Is he seriously fluffy or what? He is molting right now and the angora coming off him is 3+ inches long. Really nice fiber. He would be front and center in my affections anyway even without the fiber but it is an amazing bonus, four times a year. Right now he is really glad to be getting rid of it.

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/

End of April

April blew through southern NM like the proverbial Lion. Wait, that is supposed to be March...... well what I mean to say is that April went quickly and that the wind has been blowing like crazy all month. No April showers around here, this place might as well be a dust bowl. Indoors my helper has been sorting the roving...

He believes in getting into the middle of a project.

In other un-bunny related  news I've been setting up an etsy shop and if you would like to visit the link is

 Etsy Store

There are yarns that I do not have with me at market and also some destash items as I'm moving slowly away from weaving and more permanently into spinning. I've thought about changing the name of this blog but since it seems to be mostly about Harper anyway the new name would have to be something about that rabbit.................. He always seems to make it into every conversation. As this is the season of Easter I will share with you a photo of Tolerance on both their parts. The cat because he really really doesn't like the bunny and the bunny because he doesn't think the cat should be allowed in his room.

Anyone need a yarn fix? Here are some pictures of yarn I've been working on this week.

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.......

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who came out last week to wish us Happy Anniversary at the studio. Lots of people came and ate cake and some even came and bought yarn and roving - thanks for that too!

A certain bunny likes to lay like this in front of his bunny condo to make sure a certain cat does not intrude. Recently Harper decided that he did not want the cat even in the studio where his condo is and so he has become the Guard Rabbit. The cat (Murphy) has an unappreciative habit of growling and hissing at the bunny when the bunny is trying to get the cat to play or be friends or just hold still so he can lick his nose a little bit. After lots of growling and hissing the rabbit has decided that he has had Enough. If you can't be nice, you can't come in his room. It's hard to argue with his logic. The cat now gets charged at and swatted with front bunny feet if he doesn't leave immediately. I would like to restore order but usually I'm laughing too hard to assist in any way while this is going on.