Although I've enjoyed very much blogging on this site, new projects and new directions are leading me away.  I have become involved in an exciting new on-line magazine, with the focus of fiber and women in fiber, at Fiber Femmes.  The first issue will be coming out in July, for July/August.  In support of this project, Sandra and I, as co-editors, have worked up a blog that will focus on the magazine and our individual businesses, as well as our other cooperative efforts.  I simply do not have enough time to keep yet a third blog going, so I'm going to have to let this one go, replacing it with Fiber Femmes.  I'll miss this community; I've placed links to some of you on my blog, At the Top of Squirrel Spur, which was always my personal space on the web. 

I hope you will all come out to visit us at Fiber Femmes and at the Fiber Femmes blog!

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Greenberry's Blueberry Bell

It's shaping up to be another cold, wet spring here, with a couple of thunderstorms to make things interesting.  We had hail on Sunday; it didn't seem to hurt anything but it drove us away from the craft tent.  I've spent most of this week on the computer.  Monday we went to a series of seminars on starting businesses.  The most useful seminar was about the tax requirements; most of the rest was pretty general because of time issues.  More stacks of paper to bring home!

I sheared two rabbits this week so far; Blueberry, my blue doe, had a wonderful fleece that I packed up and sent off to a buyer that was waiting for it.  She's a nice doe that always has lovely color.  Chocolat was fine for shearing, too; he's always such a sweet fellow.  There are baby bunnies in the bunny house: Joy has a litter of five and Mary has nine.  I don't think all of the nine will survive but Mary has raised eight before.

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It seems that we're getting our April showers now.  Normal, really, but I want to be out a-planting and cleaning the bunny house.  I did get a rabbit sheared yesterday, a nice old buck that is slowing down a bit with age.  He's almost six, seems a little stiff in one leg sometimes, but eats well.  His wool production is way down, though.  This is the oldest rabbit here, and he and one doe have been here almost since I started with the rabbits.  There have been some longevity issues with the Germans, and I'm glad to see that these two crosses are doing so well at this age.

No big news here; I've been working on my crocheted rug for the craft booth and doing a lot of computer work.  Sales of Angora wool and books have been good lately; I need to rework the web page and put some of the new rovings up.  Hard to be inspired on such a wet day but time to get to it all!

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Greenberry's Bina Wade

Busy week, catching up on computer work and doing some needed bunny chores.  I sheared this lovely pure German Angora doe on Friday.  Bina's mother is descended from some of my earliest lines; her father is from new lines that Chris over at Woolybuns.  Bina is one of the nicest angoras I've bred here, with record production of wool and a nice temperament.  Bina's mother, Greenberry's Highland Mary, is an excellent mother, raising nice sized litters with ease.  I tried to breed Bina to Woolybuns Puff 'n Stuff on Friday; she was NOT happy about it.  She was more cordial yesterday and we should have some nice bunnies in about a month.

Painted Coopworth Roving

I popped this Coopworth roving into a crockpot, and painted it with turquoise and purple dye on Friday as well.  The colors are a little darker than they appear in this shot, but there is a nice variation from turquiose to purple to deep navy blue.  I'm running low on this roving, finally.  I plan to spin the rest and then dye it in my favorite "Blackberry Vine" deep purple for sale.

Yesterday's craft tent went pretty well, although we fought wind all day.  A minor mishap with falling displays was annoying.  Today it's raining, windy and cold; we decided to stay in and I hope to do some computer work, and maybe paint some Shetland/mohair roving. 

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Recently the other editor of the Blue Ridge Gazette and I were kicking ideas around and we (mostly he) came up with the idea of putting together an on-line group blog with articles about fine fibers. So here's another blog called Gossamer Strands. Our focus will be on fine fibers, angora, silk, alpaca, bison, fine wools and other elegant fibers that are spun, woven, knitted, crocheted or felted. Articles can be about techniques, the animals, the history of the fiber, tools, whatever....the only requirement is that the theme be fine fibers and their use.

Writers are NEEDED! The guidelines are in the sidebar of Gossamer Strands. There are some wonderful writers out there in the blog world (you know who you are!) and I think we could put together an awesome site for reference and that would be a lot of fun. Soon I'd like to put together another magazine, like the Blue Ridge Gazette that would feature articles from the blog plus new articles. The only limits are our imagination; if the magazine is successful our writers could be PAID for writing a blog!

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Linda Painting Yarn

I sometimes wonder if I deserve all the wonderful people that come into my life and the neat things that happen because of them. Yesterday I was honored to host a mini dye day with Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm and Linda, who has a fun blog called Goin' Up Cripple Creek. They arrived with knitting, books, fiber and food; what more could anyone ask? Lily was happy to greet them; TJ stayed in the yard to keep him from participating too much in our dye adventures.

Painted Yarn

I was so busy talking and getting the dye stuff ready that I didn't take many pictures. We worked in my kitchen with acid dyes and vinegar, and had time to do two dye runs. Linda is a new spinner, and she brought her first skeins of singles to be dyed. She's going to keep them as a reminder of her new venture into spinning. Sandra brought some lovely millspun yarn; large skeins of soft and beautiful wool. We painted the first two skeins with squirt bottles. We used water bottles, which work pretty well, although you don't have much control of where the dye ends up. We used turquiose, violet and gold Jacquard dye. Sandra is experienced with natural dyes, but she hadn't used acid dyes before. Linda is new to it all, so I showed them both how to measure out a stock solution of dye and explained a bit about how to get predictable results. With painted dyes I don't get predictable results; I imagine there is a way to know what will come out of the pot but I like being surprised. We painted the skeins, one of Linda's and one of Sandra's, and then put them in the dye pot to steam. It wasn't long before we had the lovely yarn above. Sandra's is the lovely lighter shades on top; she used gold with hers. Linda's turned out darker and more turquiose and green.

Bunny House Scarf

Our next experiment was with vat dyeing; we filled the pot with water, dumped in the dye solution and some vinegar, and put in a skein each for Linda and Sandra. We used Jacquard Dye again, this time violet. I dropped in a scarf I knitted years ago which is mostly twisted stitches of mohair and angora yarn. Sandra's yarn turned out rich purple; Linda's was lighter while the bunny house scarf came out somewhere in between. Each item was made of different fiber and it was interesting to see how that affected the results. All during the time we worked we talked, of course. Fiber people always have lots to say. Lily shared our lunch with us, doing the sad eyes and begging. Busy and intelligent women are wonderful to be around; the many projects considered, debated and invented at my kitchen table yesterday were exciting to think about. Too soon it was time for them to leave; Sandra had a long drive home and Linda had to work. I saw them off hoping they had enjoyed the day as much as I did. Today the tidy house seems empty; I'm looking forward to another dye day soon!

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I don't do much shopping.  At least, not for recreation.  My dad and I live here alone, and our needs are pretty simple.  But this past week I wanted a lot of odds and ends because of putting together displays for my booth and because of other things that happen occasionally on the farm.  One day last week the pump in the spring house quit.  The drive band on my spinning wheel broke.  And I needed hardware for the displays.

The nearest 'box store' is 40 minutes from here.  Naturally, all the things I needed weren't required on the same day.  With gas prices the way they are, I estimate that each trip to pick up a needed item would have cost about $7.00 round trip with my economical little pickup.  I don't enjoy either burning up money, or the time it would take to travel to the nearest town.  I do enjoy a trip every couple of weeks to town to have lunch with my favorite cousin, and that's when we do our 'big' shopping.  We really make that trip count; with recreation and necessities combined.

The pump needed a switch, so I called a local hardware store and ran to pick it up.  Ten minutes down the road and maybe $1.25 in gas.  I tried to make do with the drive band for the spinning wheel with a nylon cord that I had here, but that didn't work.  So I walked to the local store to pick up some cotton string, which has been working perfectly.  A couple of days later I walked up there again, to pick up the hardware I needed for my booth displays.  The fabric I wanted for a screen was available at another small shop twenty minutes away.  On that trip I combined grocery shopping and banking with the fabric purchase.

Over and over again I hear people talking about running to a chain store.  I know people that go several times a week.  Around here that's quite a trip.  These people think they are saving money; a widget at Wal-mart costs less than it does at the store here in my little community.  But if I buy the widget at my local store, I'm not only supporting my neighbors and adding to the local economy, I'm saving very expensive gas.  It's long past time in this country that we started thinking about shopping locally. 

I'm probably luckier than people in some areas; the little stores in my community are operated by women that are talented in buying and we have a tourist trade that helps keep the stores open and available.  Fresh produce, meat from a local butcher, groceries, a deli and bakery are all within walking distance for me.  One store has an extensive hardware section and there's even a little greenhouse and they sell garden seeds.  Even though we have a tourist trade, none of these shops would stay open if the local community didn't support them.  As time goes on and I find the trends in big business more and more disturbing, I tend to spend more time and money in the local shops and small businesses in my area.  Since my own business is small, it makes sense for me to support the local economy as much as I can. 

And it's fun to go into a shop and know everyone there, to be greeted by friendly faces and interesting talk.  Our shopkeepers pay attention to the needs of their community, and keep items available that are needed, interesting and sometimes unusual.  Prices are only a bit higher than the chain stores, but the convenience is more than worth it to me.  And I know that my dollars are benefiting my local community instead of some impersonal big business with a dubious reputation.

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Farmer's Market at Spring Fest

We had a lovely, if chilly, weekend for the Spring Fest here at Meadows of Dan.  I got up early both days to tend the animals and get things packed up and ready to go up into the field.  Tents spread across the area, with kettle popcorn, funnel cake and a church group with hot dogs and baked goods setting up when I arrived.

Greenberry House Booth at Spring Fest

I spent a great deal of time last week working on displays for my booth, as well as all the time getting things ready to sell.  I added shelf units and standing screens to try to get the stock to look more appealing, and changed the colors of my table cloths.  I could probably use one more tall unit of some kind to display shawls; have to think about that awhile. 

Greenberry House Booth

The horticultural talks went well on Saturday; Sunday's speaker had to cancel due to a family emergency.  Sue won a flowering tobacco and gave it to me, since she knew I'd love the rich reddish purple color.  I planted it in the border along the house. 

Sammy Shelor and Friends

Music attracted people; Saturday's performer was a talented local lady, Sue Nester.  On Sunday Sammy Shelor entertained with some local friends.  Sunday was busier than Saturday; the plants Sue had for her farmer's market were very popular and she also sold asparagus and had rhubarb from my mother's garden.  Mom included her great recipe for rhubarb pie!

I did pretty well in sales, especially since being so close helps with the expenses!  The green roving I dyed recently all sold, along with some of the blue and pink.  Nice people from Kentucky came in and she was a spinner.  Then I sold several pieces of painted porcelain; have to get some more of that done.  I picked up some different colors of paint this week.

The craft and farmer's market will be open every weekend from now on, and I'll be there until we get my shop up and open.  The block man is coming next week.  Again.  I'm excited today, though, because Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm and Linda of Goin' Up Cripple Creek are coming here for a dye day! 

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