Chicks with Fiber

The chicks are now a little over 3 weeks old and don't seem to mind sharing their space with some freshly-dyed Shetland fiber.

They are now starting what we refer to as the "baby dinosaur stage". Their legs stretch out and look too long for their bodies. Many of their feathers have come in, save those on the head which are still downy.

They are now rather scruffy, awkward-looking little birds that look like nothing more than miniature prehistoric creatures.

Frosted Colors

Probably not your normal blog post about fall colors, but we've never been ones to fit the "normal" mold.

Yesterday Mom & I spent the afternoon playing "mad scientist" up to our elbows in acid dyes, wet wool and plastic wrap. The newly dyed wool hadn't dried by the time the sun went down so I just left it hanging on the line. Luckily, Blue and Luci have never shown any interest in the wool as long as I keep it out of easy reach.
This morning when I went out to check it, the fiber was mostly dry, but gilded with a frosty gleam. Wish I could keep that look when it was spun, it was a pretty "cool" sight! Now to get it all spun into a more useful (and salable) form.

Technicolor Bumps

Normally a headline like this would be followed by a photo of a really spectacular bruise somewhere on the body of a particularly graceful farmer. This time it just indicates that I finally got enough accomplished in the garden that I had time to dye some fiber (bumps) this past weekend. Fall is the time that the hand-spun yarn sales tend to take off and we were running woefully low. So now that it is getting dark earlier in the evening, I am ready to do some serious spinning.


Oh and FYI for those of you who might find this interesting, there is such a thing as "too windy to dry wool".
I had hung all the newly dyed fiber on the clothesline to dry and when I looked out the kitchen window later it was as though the house was being surrounded by a crazy, windblown palette of cartoon squids. There was brightly colored wool strung everywhere, all through the garden borders along the house, it was pretty exciting! And when I went out to reclaim it and wind it into the bumps you see in the photo above, the tendrils wound around me too. It made me laugh out loud, though maybe a little nervously!