Florida Buttercup Meets GC Ewe

This dye job was a complete surprise. About a month ago, the fields were just full of masses of a tall weed with teeny yellow blossoms. The golden fields were too pretty to cut. At the end of their blooming, I decided to throw some in a dye pot to see what would happen. This intense cinnabar green is what happened. A dusky yellow verging on green. Oh Yum!

Here’s the start of something good…I’m thinking a fine 2-ply would be just the ticket. And what’s left will get spun into some bulky wacky hat yarn!

What?

 

Familiar?

A Summer Wool, Anyone?

Gulf Coast Sock Yarn Blend

Here’s a 4 oz knob of a blend of GC, bamboo, and, I think, silk. This was a gift from a gal who is trying very hard to move to this area. She was attempting to come up with a sock yarn for Florida using her wool. I am finding it easier to spin than knit. And, boy, do I need to get knitting. It has been hotter than the hinges of hell…and I’ve been finishing a big oak dais outside, wearing a rubber mask, and boy oh boy…am I a miserable beech when I’m sweating to death. So…I haven’t started the knitting projects.

Ever Get a DWS?

Spindlespun GC and GC Blend

Driving while spindling.  Well, no, I didn’t either. But then, I wasn’t doing both things at the same time. This was a road trip yarn. I’m not in love with this GC blend. Lends itself to lumps and knobs…it really drafts awfully. Ah well, it was a gift. Maybe if I prep the roving it will spin better. Pre-drafting is a good thing.

Month Ends with Beginner’s Mind

Beginner’s Mind: Border Leicester, CVM/Romney, Gulf Coast Native 40 yd about an Ounce

To end the month with a spin is good. To end, as one might begin, even better.

This yarn is spun with ends of runs…blobs with alfalfa, neps galore, uncombed locks. Just a pile of scruffy stuff that I loaded onto the handcards, cleaned, carded, and spun. I plied the dark CVM/Romney/GCNI with a fat Border Leicester single. Soo soft and delicious! Lumpy, bumpy, irregular, thick, thin, and a yarn any beginner would be horrified to spin.

This ends month #1 of Yarn Every Day on Ravelry. What a wild group! If you are a Raveler…come on by…we’ll be giving it a go next month, too!

3-ply on a Sad Day

This is the yarn I spun today. It’s from Holly, one of our dear Gulf Coast girls.

We’re very sad this evening. Wingie, our heroic mother hen, died today. She leaves 4 chicks who will be 5 weeks old this week. Oh, what a heartbreaker.

Back to the Garden

Twenty four hours is a long while to be gone from a place like this: a labor intensive-dependent place, with living, breathing, eating dependents. We got back late yesterday afternoon, ate, relaxed, and slept. This morning, the celestial choir awakened us. All 9 roosters were going off, simultaneously, in pairs, in quartets, in…well, you get the idea. They were just so needy. Artie, the muse, on the other hand…

Content-o-Cat

She is laying on, you guessed it, Sally’s fleece, all rolled up in an old sheet. I haven’t yet had time to skirt, weigh, etc, so there it sits. And, as you can see, she knows a good thing when she feels it. The gal who has to sleep with mommy, and has, for 15 years…well, there’s something better.

The garden needed attention. I planted borage seedlings, cotton seedlings, a couple rows of Jacob’s Cattle beans, and lo, oh, yeah, and behold…the Contenders are blooming. Also, we have 3 little ears of corn on corn stalk #1. Also, we pulled a dozen or so plump crisp red potatoes out from under. Also…oh pah, I won’t go on. I did have a lot to do out there, though. Fertilizing the Seminole squash and the Cocozelle…good ol rotted chicken poo hay. Watering the onions and the Brandywines. Half the dang day.

Then there was food to make. Blueberry muffins, daily bread, sausage & peppers…another good chunk o time. And, needless to say, I had to drive to the feed store.

So…the spinning didn’t get going until about an hour ago…and what should I spin? Well, Gracie came today. Gracie is a CVM Romney cross. The darkest dark brown. And as soft and silky as a bevis.

An Ounce of Gracie

This is what I did. This soft, slidey stuff takes a little bit of gettin’ used to…so, I took that ounce that I washed this afternoon, and spun ‘er up using a variety of tensions and ratios and speeds. Light, medium, and slow. There you go.

Back from Barberville

All I spun today was a bit of coreopsis dyed Gulf Coast Native. I cannot resist showing off the first skein from my little girls along with that apricot colored yarn.

We screamed to Barberville last night, after the Morningside shearing/festival day. Played a very hot dance. We were joined by Katie Bailey Waller and Joe Waller on the stage. Pat Czar called. Dancers come from all over the state to have a weekend of non-stop dance with a different band/caller every hour. It was great to have the honor of playing the last dance.

Today, we had a performance gig and an afternoon dance with Roy Moye calling. Katie and Joe were up for playing again, so we had a Turtles Wallerv sound. Now, we had a lot of down time between gigs. So…Mr Spindle came in handy. But, not for long. At music festivals, you end up, well, if not making music, then talking about music, or getting together to laugh with musicians you haven’t seen in awhile. It was one of those days. So, most of the spinning was of musical tales.

A Dash of Apricot & a Map

The apricot-coreopsis fluff from yesterday’s post (below) is being transformed into yarn. But, there are so many last minute things to do before tomorrow’s big reveal, that I just can’t fit one more centimeter of yarn into my day.

Tomorrow Holly & Sally get loaded into the truck (that ought to be a worthy sight) and driven back to Morningside, where they were born. There, they are destined to meet a shearer called Joel, who came all the way from Alabama to shear a few Gulf Coast Natives.

Before the haircuts, I will be dressed up like your maiden great-grand-aunt who lived in the sticks in 1880. I’ll be setting with Susan the soapmaker, showing off these plant dyed yarns of mine. I can’t bring the Fricke, but I have many a handspindle to accompany me. I promise to sneak a certified non-authentic camera in, to take a couple pictures.

After the haircuts, Tom & I will drop the naked girls off back home, feed the chickens, and depart for Barberville, where we are scheduled to play the last dance at 10:00. Then…who knows. We will probably drive home so as to be here to feed the critters first thing. Then, it’s back to Barberville for more pickin’ and fiddlin’ – a midday gig and an early afternoon dance.

Hence the book of maps.

Ah, to be Single & Orange

172 yd/1 1/2 oz Gulf Coast Native Singles – Coreopsis

The dyed locks from last summer ran out, but gave up a nice soft singles yarn. I’d like to ply it, and the choice I have is between waiting for coreopsis to bloom and dyeing more, or plying with a different color. This time, I’m opting to wait for flowers. I’m hankering for solid colors.

Today, our fiddle band played for the opening day of Morningside’s Farm & Forest Festival. Many many elementary school kids were let out of jail and brought to the farm to enjoy a day of earthiness. They made rope, watched a blacksmith, a tanner, and a banjo maker, they ate kettle corn and roasted corn, they saw a “cracker” barnyard and an heirloom garden, they touched tanned pelts, and they sat on benches and sang along with the Flying Turtles String Band. We return on Saturday with our sheep and my baskets of plant dyed yarns. Our gals, Holly and Sally, will get their very first shearing. We are very excited! Holly and Sally…well…not too much.