lulubeans

i tore myself away from the hunger games* to do a little batt update in the shop:

 

there are just a few days left to get a 15% discount with the code JUNEBATT.  i guess this month decided to just whiz by!  slow down, summer!  

*i'm pretty obsessed right now.  like, walking around the house with a book under my nose and staying up until 4 in the morning to read just one more chapter obsessed.  these books are making me feel like my intensely book obsessed 9 yr old must feel all the time, and it's pretty awesome.

more rainy* day dispatches

the garden is not complaining.

and neither is this little bird.

however, the gray weather means that everything is taking foooorrrrever to dry.  my work room looks like one big drying rack right now.  after hitting the dyepots all weekend, i'm getting impatient. (and my drum carder is too!) 

the sun did sneak out for a little stretch yesterday, and small batches of freshly dyed fleece are making their way into my shop here and there:

blog i'm loving: 44 ways of looking at an apple (i love a good theme.)

*or cloudy.  whatever. either way, NOT sunny, and brrrr, not so warm.  summer, where'd you go?

kid friendly dyeing

 

kool-aid +  freshly washed wool fleece + fairly-independent-in-the-kitchen 9 yr old = rainy day fun.

i started dyeing wool by playing with kool aid and recycled sweater wool some 6 and 1/2 yrs ago, before moving on to acid dyes and spinning my own yarn.  i had forgotten how fun these colors are, and how yummy they smell while the wool is simmering.

natasha was able to do this dyeing pretty much all on her own.  she wanted a little bit of help with the oven, especially with taking the pots off the burners once dye baths had exhausted.  but she mixed the koolaid with water all on her own, and even improvised her own smoosh-the-wool into the dye method using old paintbrushes!  i had a good time hanging out with her while she worked.

i love the way her colors turned out! (clockwise from top right: black cherry, blue berry blast (or blue lemonade maybe?), pink lemonade and lemon-lime.)

dyeing is the extent of her fiber interest right now.  she has big plans for me to spin and knit her fiber though.  i spun up her first colorway, some border leicester which i believe she is calling, um, "bloody sheep".  it's so much fun to collaborate with her!

our little garden

it's coming along, so i wanted to join in sara's  thursday "around the farm/garden".

we have lots of greens coming up. we planted tatsoi for the 1st time this year, plus a mesclun mix, kale, rainbow chard, radishes, carrots, beets, soybeans, peppers and a bunch of herbs.  we have a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes too, and i still need to get squash and cucumbers in there but we've temporarily run out of space!

our garden is a collaborative one this year.   we're sharing our space with our friends who live in our building's first floor.  it's great to be able to share space, seeds, ideas, work and, ultimately, food!  

with a few exceptions, we grow pretty much exclusively out of containers and raised beds because our soil, like most of the soil in cities with lots of old houses, is full of lead.  

 

i'm hoping we actually get a few strawberries this year... there's this little garden pest who keeps wanting to add the blossoms to her bouquets. i keep trying to tell her that she'll like the berries even more!  all of those morning glory seedlings were self-sown from last year's flowers.

 

i'm loving spending time out here, by the garden. and it's all the better when enjoyed with wool!

i've been keeping busy scouring and picking some recent fleecey aquisitions that i picked up at the lovely maine fiber frolic this past weekend.  i came home with nearly 13 pounds of fresh fleece (merino, border leicester, and a really cool romney X), one toddler girl who likes play "naughty baby goat" and one bigger girl who likes to be our family's patient but exasperated sheep dog.  sheep dog commands have entered our family's daily vocabulary and a double feature family movie night with babe and pig in the city is on the agenda. i love those movies!

a shop update

 

                                        

 

i had a chance to update my shop yesterday.  lots of fresh (and affordable!) handspun, and don't forget that there's a discount code on farmama's blog for my shop.  you still have time to enter my handspun yarn or drop spindle kit giveaway on the farmama blog too, if you haven't yet.  comments will close over there monday morning.  happy sunday, all!

happy may day!

 

             

 

we totally forgot to do our traditional basket making this year.  and i completely dropped the haymarket ball on talking to my kids about worker solidarity.  BUT YARN!  these two match my mood today.  and they're reminding me that i should never underestimate the elation making powers of green grass underfoot, warm sun on my face, fresh leaves on every branch.

funny enough, i dyed the fiber (80/20 merino/silk) way back in the dark days of january, but geez, they're a perfect tribute to utter sweet fabulousness that is this spring season.

                            
                                          (both yarns are available today in my shop!)

-also today, i just have to say that i am so into having a president who's smart and articulate (two yrs in and the contrast from his predecessor still strikes/delights me) AND funny!

oh, happiness!

the sun is extra extraordinary today, buds are bursting and my toddlergirl just played contentedly while i snapped many, many photos of fiber!*  i'm happy.

 

i've added new learn-to-spin kits to my shop.  i'm experimenting with my spin kit formula a bit.   i'm putting kits together with 2 ounces of soft and oh-so-spinnable falkands wool, a top whirl spindle, a muslim project bag, and detailed instructions.  less fiber than before, but at a lower price and with a higher quality wool that i still think works really well for spinners of all experience levels.  

and!  just a reminder- i'm offering a 15% discount when you enter the code "SPRING" good through midnight tomorrow!

 

*i couldn't resist snapping a few photos of her too.  man, i love that girl so much.

new handspun + a new coupon code

i am really proud of these four:

 

and i've added a coupon code good for 15% off anything and everything in the shop, good through the end of the month. just type "SPRING" at checkout! happy weekend!

today i labeled

 

and counted. and weighed. and sorted. and all that other organize-y stuff that i just have to be in the right mood to do.  i think that i am more or less all ready for the big thaw tomorrow. yay! (i just really need to get my fair knitting organized, and that means making sure i have something reasonably-mindless-but-still-fun to bring along.)

 

 

today i also entertained these three buddies.  or, more accurately, they entertained themselves, and i got to watch, which was very entertaining for me too.  greta was cracking up so hard that she had tears streaming down her face.  it was pretty awesome.

today i took stock

in preparation for saturday's craft fair!  i'm geting ready for the BIG THAW- come by and visit us at the mayo street art center in portland (maine) this saturday, 4/16, from 10-4!

 

 

the fair's organizers did a nice little interview with me here. thanks shanna!