As a kid growing up, the 4th of July signaled the beginning of Summer, and this year’s holiday was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing 4th’s in a long time.  My DH and I headed to a favorite local watering hole, where we met up with some close friends for a relaxing lunch full of laughs. .

Later in the day we gathered up the 2 youngest daughters and headed into North Conway for the yearly fireworks celebration, meeting up with my oldest daughter and her family.

While my daughter, Hannah and my granddaughter, McKayla, laid side by side, giggling and eating candy, my grandson, kept us laughing with all of his antics.

This year’s entertainment was Tom Dean of (Devonsquare) and Acoustic Nuisance.  The weather was perfect, the company was good and I was able to spend the evening knitting on  Anne, while we listened to great folk/celtic music.  It was like having folkalley in our back yard. (take a visit to folkalley for the BEST internet music)

The firework display didn’t disappoint either………a wonderful relaxing entrance into summer!

No Typepad = Free Time for Knitting

No doubt, many of you were very surprised to see what blogland looked like on July 2nd.  I guess I should read typepad’s front page notes more often…LOL.

Instead of birching about it, I  took the weekend to just kick back, relax and knit.
OMG……I LOVE kidsilk haze!!

Well…….I ran out of yarn for the Smoke Ring………and whilst I have the yarn for Birch, I am still waiting for the book.  A dilemma, what’s a girl to do??

Hmmm…find a new project of course….LOL.  A bag of light blue handspun Polwarth yarn, with hints of meadow green running thru it called out to me.  I decided to give the Lacy vest from Mountain Colors a try.  The bonus is, that the green that is in this yarn is the same green that I will be using for Birch.

In between spinning up another skein of Opalessence, I worked on this lacey vest.  Normally, I don’t name projects like other knitters do….but when I think of this vest, I think of the flower, Queen Anne’s lace….so this vest has been dubbed, "Anne".  I have to say that I am so enjoying knitting with this Polwarth.  It is very soft.  To my spinning friends out there…….if you get a chance to work with Polwarth……go for it.  Knitting with it is a joy!

It is such an easy lace to remember, making the vest move along very quickly.  This may just become my Rhinebeck vest to wear along with Birch :-).

What Kind Of Knitting Needle Are You?

Ok……in my in between projects boredom yesterday, I found this cute little quiz.  So what kind of needle are you……….they had me pegged pretty good…..LOL!

You are pink aluminum. Retro, straightforward and fun, you love classic things. If they’re 99 cents at Goodwill all the better! You are moved by striking colors and tasty morsels, and you like a stitch-n-bitch session in the sun. Just remember, while you’re being kitschy cool, don’t get too cold. Ice cubes are best kept in your cocktails, baby!

Curious Louie

Today we had a family come to visit the dogs.  Part of being a breeder is entertaining folks who are interested in the breed and allowing them the opportunity to see if a Cavalier is the right dog for their family.

Louie enjoyed his visit, can you tell??

Look what I found waiting for me at the Post office today!!  Whoo hoo!!!!

Lest you think that I am being untrue to my Faux Russian Stole, let me assure you that she will be worked on…….when it is a bit cooler.  It has just been to darn hot to have Shetland wool on my lap, but promises of cooler, drier temps are promised for the weekend!

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!!!!~~

Cultivation

Imagine a sculpture
You work on every day.
If you stop, the beauty
goes away.
.

Deng Ming~Dao

In the midst of this heat~wave, some lovely things are popping up in the garden 🙂

Celebrations

Today has been a day of celebration in our house, for various reasons.   I finished planting my garden, in spite of the nasty hazy, hot and humid weather.  We celebrated my middle daughter’s 20th birthday and today is the first anniversary of my blog!

In honor of this anniversary, I ordered a little something.  If you click on the "celebrate" picture, you might be able to guess……..what is it??  Why, I have broken down to celebrate my "birchiness"  Normally I don’t like to do what everyone else is doing, but once I caught a glimpse of birch done in this colorway on Jackie’s site…….there was no turning back.

It has been a wonderful year blogging.  I have met new friends, broadened my horizons and have pushed myself to be a more consistent fiber person………..Thank~you all for being a part of my year!

Lazy Hazy Summer Nights
Summer is here with a bang.  The temps have been in the 90’s for the last few days and no end is in sight. 

Living in New England can be a challenge, but the best part is if you wait a few days, the weather will change. Keeps life interesting 🙂

One of the things that I love to do on hot summer evenings is to sit out in the back yard and watch the dogs romp, with a glass of wine, a book or some knitting………..and of course, part of living in New England are the PIA black flies and big fat mosquitoes…….so a bottle of botanical OFF, is always on my table.

I am working away on my smoke ring on the evenings that I get to sit out in the yard.  I had hoped that I would be finished, but I still have a few more inches to go. 

I really love this pattern!  It is an easy pattern to memorize, which makes it fun and easy to carry along.

Isn’t the pattern pretty?

I will leave you with this picture.  Tonight as we celebrated Ashley’s departure from her teen years, my grandson discovered chips.  My dad, his great grandfather, plopped him up on the island between 3 different bowls of chips………you have to click on this picture to appreciate his expression.

MINE……….they’re all MINE!!! Mwaa ha ha!!

God help his mother………haha!!

Have a great Monday!!   Stay cool~

What a fun weekend Bliss and I had!  We traveled down to Danbury, CT for CNE’s 30th Anniversary show.  It was a 3 day show, with puppy sweeps on Friday evening and a show  both Sat. and Sun.  Our little Bliss won her class both days and we came home with this lovely trophy.

I had to laugh………this is the 3rd time, this particular trophy has come home with us.  In 2000 Windham Kerry at Ballymena won it and then again in 2001, Milkeyn Felicity at Ballymena brought it home again, so it had a little extra meaning this time when we won it with Bliss.

Friday evening puppy sweeps judge, was Ann Moffat of Milkeyn Cavaliers , who is a dear friend of mine from the UK.  She was a co-breeder of my Download Shelley1.jpg.  It was fun to socialize with she and her companions, after the show on Saturday evening and catch up on each other’s lives.  Such fun people!

After the show Saturday, was our AGM and I was elected Vice President of CNE.  I am looking forward to doing my part in this organization 🙂

With all of the excitement of the weekend, Little Miss Bliss was exhausted.  The hotel was a very nice one with soft, comfy duvets………..do you think she approved?

Fibery Stuff
Last week, I worked on spinning up a little bit of the Opalessence roving that I have.  Although it is hard to tell in the picture, the yarn has a lot of shine from the silk.

I started Flared Smoke ring.  I figured it was small enough to bring with me and I found the lacework, very easy to memorize.  It will be nice to have this to wear during the fall fairs here in New England, when it gets cold.  There is a great picture of what a smoke ring looks like when it is finished on Melinda’s blog

In the rush to get ready for the Fiber Frolic, I just plain ran out of time, getting fibers processed.  I took half of this batch with me that weekend and didn’t get a chance to card up the rest until today.
This is another angora, silk, merino blend, similar to the Opalessence above.  This colorway is Blue Lagoon……and I have tucked some of it away for myself…yum!

A Gift

When I came home, from our travels this weekend, a little present was in the mail.  Jackie sent these pretty markers and some lovely stationary.  What a nice surprise…….thanks Jackie!!

I had sent Jackie a little bit of dandelion roving to try, after she mentioned that she would like to give angora blends a try. 

I don’t know if you remember, a while back I left the ROAK ring, as I was struggling with randomly sending gifts to people that I had virtually no connection with. I felt that I would rather focus acts of kindess to people that had touched my life somehow.  Over the last year of blogging, I have learned so much from the kindness of others.  I have been introduced to Tao and have been gifted with the friendship of so many.  These random acts of kindness have meant so much to me!

~Enjoy the Sunshine in your corner of the world~

Do you know
Where you are
On your journey?

If you are confronted with a pivotal decision and cannot think of any other way to act, write down all the good things and all the bad things about a given situation.  Also include how much more you want to do.  See if staying your course will give you what you want.  If not, change, no matter how deeply that will disrupt your routines.  Some people never know where they are in life, and that is one of the biggest reasons that they are unhappy.
Deng Ming~Dao

The above quote is meaningful to me this week as I am at a pivotal point in my life, in regards to continuing forward with breeding dogs.  We are facing some difficult challenges with some new health issues in the breed.  I will do exactly what is suggested and spend some time contemplating before making any decisions.

Fiber Frolic

Oh boy…….do I ever feel like a bad blogger!  I had my camera and my empty disk loaded and did I take any pictures at the Fiber Frolic?? 

Nope…….I was soooooo bad!  I did take this one picture of Mr. (or is it Miss) Llama that visited our building a few time.  He was an entertaining fellow and a good sport in the dreadful heat.

It was HOT, HOT, hot!  Who would ever imagine that it would be 90 plus degrees and 90% humidity in Maine??  However, in-spite of the heat, many NETA members and bloggers made the trek to Maine.  You can see some great pictures at Julia’s, Liz and Kristen’s blogs.  It is always fun, no matter what the weather to meet with fellow fiber enthusiasts.  As always, it was wonderful to chat with my good friends Robin and Gil Gonsalves of Robin wheels.  Gil has just finished the protocol for his new traveling wheel and is taking orders……what a sweet little traveling wheel!  Now it is time for him to start working on that Production wheel that we have been chatting about.  I have already put my order in for the first one…..in a nice curly maple…<VBG>

I was amazingly well behaved this weekend.  My only purchase was 4 oz of the luscious dark grey cria alpaca in the picture above and some all natural herbal spinning wheel wax from Bristol Springs.  It was nice to meet Angela of Bristol Springs…….another angora rabbit breeder.  I do like to support fellow fiber people when it comes to purchasing products. 

Bunny Genetics 101 cont.
Last week I spoke about Agouti Angora Rabbits and some of the things that defines an agouti.  This week I thought that I would write in layman terms (the only ones I know..LOL) about Self colored angora rabbits.

Self colored angora means that the color goes right to the skin.  Where as the agouti’s had those very definite bands of color, a self colored angora should not have distinct bands, although, in a baby coat, you will usually see some.

Above is a picture of a black angora and the reddish torte baby from my current litter.  If you look at the closeup of their wool that has been parted, you see that the obvious banding of last week’s rabbits is not there.  There is a faint shading of color in the smaller rabbit, but after a few clippings, it will be much the same as the black rabbit’s coat, except it will be a nice apricot color.

I have also included a picture of an adult torte, so that you could see the distinct face mask that distinguishes a torte from a solid colored rabbit.  Although, both rabbits are self colored, the torte rabbit has an additional color pattern over the original color.  You will see that pattern as a face mask, deeper colored ears and feet, as well as markings on the hunches and sometimes on the belly.  This adult torte is considered a chocolate torte. Her name is Belinda, daughter of Glinda.  Glinda was bred here and then went to Claudia of Countrywool.  Belinda came back here when she was a wee one.

The black girl is Spinning Bunny Sambucca.  Even though her body color is grey, she is considered a black rabbit (with excellent body type) and one with very nice complete color.  She will be bred later this summer.

Fibery stuff

Not much knitting has been happening here as it has been just too darn hot to have a lapful of wool.  I did however get a little spinning accomplished. 

I like to spin up some of the roving that I am selling, so that I can make sure that I am giving correct information to people as to the ease or difficulty of spinning.  This blend is call opalessence and I will definitely be doing up more of this fiber blend in different colors.  The silk gives nice strength and shine with extra softness from the angora.  I’m thinking that this may become my first Smoke Ring

And finally…..

Emperors uphold censorship,
But extreme repression leads to extreme reaction.
Individualists believe in freedom.
But extreme expression leads to extreme reaction.
Deng Ming~ Dao

Those in power should be careful: Push the people too far and they will rebel.  Those who create must also be careful:  Challenge the people too much and they will rebel.
also Deng Ming~Dao

I placed this down at the bottom of my post as I do not like controversy.  However, there have been some goings on in an organization that I have recently resigned from, that have caused me some angst and I couldn’t stay completely silent.  I feel very very strongly about censorship, so when I read today in my little devotional book the above excerpt, it just jumped out at me.  Life is a balance………if you swing too wildly in either direction, there will be problems.  Censorship is wrong.  I strongly believe in giving people ALL of the information, so that they can make informed decisions, and that is all that I will say………..

~Keep Smiling and Enjoy Your Week~

It appears that we have skipped Spring this year.  Last week we were moaning
about our cold, rainy days and this week we are all dripping in sweat.  The day
before yesterday, it reached 97 degrees…..ouch! 

My days have been filled with stirring the dye pot and sitting behind the carder.  Although I really enjoy this part of fibering……I enjoy it a bit more when I am not so pressed for time.

The Fiber Frolic is this weekend and it promises to be another fun year.  Lots of fun classes for both children and adults.  You can see some of the fabulous workshops being offered here.

Out of the dyepot and carder comes this Opalessence blend of purples, apricot, greens and blues.  It is a blend of angora, silk and merino and has lots of luster.  My youngest daughter, Hannah, has informed me that I need to make her a shawl with some of this.  At 10 years old, she already loves fiber.  It is nice to see young people interested in fibery things!

Bunny Genetics 101

I have been breeding animals for a good number of years now and whilst I find color genetics in the dogs, very straight forward and easy to understand, the bunny colors are a challenge.

Now that these bunnies are older, you can definitely see the difference in their colors. Even though they are both buff colored, they are different.  The little one on the left is a dilute of chocolate, Lynx and the bunny on the right is Fawn

It appears that both bunnies are what is called Agouti’s, which in general terms means that their fur is banded.  As you can see in this picture, both bunnies show a distinct separation of color.  The Lynx’s band is white now, but when his second coat comes in, that white will be replaced with an almost mauve color and the tips will remain darker.

The Fawn’s band is an apricot color and will probably be the same when his adult coat comes in.

One of the things that identifies an Agouti rabbit, are the circles of white around their eyes and typically inside of their ears, it will be white as well.

The other places you will see white is on the belly and under the tail.  It is pretty obvious with this rabbit, that he is indeed an agouti and because of his orange color, the term for him would be Fawn.

I had a wee bit more trouble identifying this little guy, the Lynx.  As you can see, the coloring around his eye is not quite as distinct as his brother’s is.  He is also sporting a light chocolate nose and some grey on his feet.

Lilac and Torte are referred to as Self colors, in other words, they will not show the banding of color.  The color is the same all the way thru.  Tortes have a pattern on top of the color, and they have a dark mask on their face and their bellies are much darker.  In a previous litter of this same breeding, there was a Lilac Torte.
In her baby coat she showed this same banding, which caused me some
confusion in identifying this boy.  Her adult coat, however is solid and she sports a milky chocolate mask on her face.  She is one of my favorites here and had this little guy been a doe, he would have stayed as I really love this almondy color.  Next week, I will show you some examples of torte and self’s.

All of the bunnies will be heading to their new homes over the next 2 weeks.  I will miss their cute little faces.  My next litter of bunnies will be a pure German litter and while I am excited about the breeding, I will miss seeing these colors.  Pure Germans, are always red eyed white rabbits.  The challenge with them, is trying to remember who is who….LOL.  I use colored magic markers to put different colored dots on the bottoms of their feet.

If any of you are at the fiber frolic this weekend, please do stop by and say hello!

Sleek sky of cobalt blue;
Water like nectar satisfies deeply.
Air sweeter than the best perfume;
Sunlight warms a grateful cat.
Deng Ming~Dao

The sun is finally shining in New Hampshire!!  Thank Goodness!!  I can honestly say, that I can’t ever remember such a rainy spring, but the last few days have been delightfully warm and sunny.  It is nice to see people smiling again~

I have been out straight busy, getting ready for the Fiber Frolic next weekend.  Given that I lost what I was going to bring with me, I have frantically fired up the dye pots.  Because I am a bit thin on angora right now, I am making 20% angora/ 80% merino balls, instead of my usual 40% angora blends..

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this Patrick Green Carder?  It does such a wonderful job processing this wool.  For anyone out there that is contemplating this machine and is not sure…..go for it!

Because I sell my wool by the ounce, I carefully weigh the wool and then the angora to the proper blend per ounce and then feed it into the carder.  I set the speed at a very slow speed and by doing that, I am only having to pass it thru once with this blend.  With the higher angora amounts, it really does require 2 passes to blend it properly.

This is one of the things that I love most about this carder.  The roving attachment……..which is just a glorified diz..LOL.  At first I thought…geez……this will be so much work, pulling it off of the drum with a diz.  However, the big drum is a free moving drum, which makes it extremely easy to diz off of it. 

With just a little effort and a few minutes, I am able to pull off these nicely prepared rovings

Although, there are some amongst us that are not fans of green……..next to paprika, it is my favorite here…….so being green this time is a good thing for me :-))

This is what I finished last night, while desperately trying to get caught up on my blog reading and emails.

I also want to say, just how wonderful I think you all are!  The other day when I was feeling so bummed out about what happened to all of my fiber, your notes really made me smile……..and I was astonished at just how quickly those pilled up rovings sold.
Thank~you!!!

After I pulled out the wool from the dye pots, I tossed in a few skeins of merino silk yarn to see how it would dye and I was very pleased with how it came out.  Dyeing yarn, has never been a strong suit for me……somehow I usually botch it up, because I don’t leave it alone.  This time I resisted the temptation to poke at it and I am happy with how it looks.  Maybe I will try to get some more finished for the fair

We will see ……..there is soap still to be made and more dyeing and carding to be done.

Life is busy right now……….but it is such a wonderful kind of busy!

As you can well imagine, I was very excited to pick up my bags of angora roving for the spring festivals.  I had kept 1/2 of it out to process here myself on the Patrick Green carder and this other half, I sent off to my usual processor.

With anticipation, I pulled out my scale and set about winding the rovings into one ounce balls……..OH DEAR!!!

What I found when I dug into 3 of the four bags were rovings that were full of pills…aacckkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am devastated!  I spoke with the processor and she didn’t notice that the fiber was different than usual.  I am not one to complain or whine…….and I didn’t……..but I just don’t know how she could have missed this??   I am just sick about it.

This was to be what I would have for sale this spring at the fiber festivals, but I can’t in all honesty, sell anything, full price, that I would not want to buy myself.

Thankfully, I kept 1/2 of it out to process myself, and what I have finished has come out nice

Sooooooo………to anyone who is interested in giving angora a try or would love some for felting, this angora will be selling for 2.00 an ounce instead of the usual 6.00  I can vouch for what wonderful fiber this is to make felted mittens.  It looks like I will be making a lot of felted mittens for the fall fairs.

Ugghh……Even though the sun came out today………it feels like that black cloud is following me…aacckkk……<grin>

Hopefully, I will smile a bit more tomorrow 😦

The actual
Is only actual
In one place
And one time.
What we do only has meaning in the here and now.  It will not remain in the next instant.  Just do what you can for the present, and leave everything else to happen naturally.  Be born again each morning.
Deng Ming~Dao

I have mentioned over the last few weeks about a difficult journey that I had to undertake.  This weekend our trip had a much better result.

Two years ago, a big fat singleton puppy was born here.  He was doted on and much loved.  Such a fat little puppy, he was dubbed "Bubba Louie" and it was a name that stuck, although the Bubba part was dropped.

Louie went to live with a very dear older breeder friend of mine, who owned Louie’s father.  Due to some unforeseen and difficult circumstances beyond his owner’s control, we decided that it would be best for Louie to come back home.  This is one of the dearest and sweetest dogs ever………he encompasses everything a true "Cavalier" should be.
~Welcome Home my little traveler~

Will the rain EVER end??
You guessed………it is STILL raining!  There must be a huge rain cloud hanging over New England, that just does not want to go away.  May has been a complete wash-out! 

Being stuck in the house away from my flowers, I have had to bring the colors inside.  Working on the carder again, I dyed this angora blend with the soft pastel colors that I love in the garden, with a splash of brightness here and there.  This is a 20% angora blend, for those that do not like all of the bloom from my usual higher angora percentage blends.

Staying with that pastel theme, I picked up the sock needles again to finish the mate to the Folk Sock sock that I started back in March.

I always whip thru the first sock as the excitement of a new project always keeps me interested……..but somehow that second sock, seems to languish a bit.

The pattern is Latvian socks, done on size one needles in Lorna Laces sock weight yarn. This is a great lace pattern for beginner’s……very easy to remember and very easy to pick up any mistakes right away.

I hope to get these finished up this week.

Red……I LOVE that color!
Years ago, I went to a Color Me Beautiful party, where they told you which "season" you were, dependent on your hair, skin and eye colors.  I was told that I was an "Autumn".  I guess it is no wonder then, that I am perpetually attracted to various shades of red.  Paprika, Russet, Apricot.  When I try to steer away from those shades, it then is green, gold or brown that I choose.

I guess it is no surprise that this little guy will be staying in my rabbitry.  Even though, I really don’t need another buck here……..who can resist such a lovely redhead??  Not me………..

~Enjoy your week!~

        Candy Apple Angora Batts

What a long and dreary week it has been up here in the mountains!  I believe that it has rained something like 17 out of the last 25 days and we have not had a rain free weekend in 5 weeks!  YUK!!!

To keep myself busy, I have been playing with my new carding machine and the above Angora blend batts are the result.  So incredibly soft these batts are!  I have a bunch more to work on, then I will have to snag one or two for myself, this time.  My Spring  Angora Rovings and Batts will be up on this website next week.

Having played with Angora on the carding machine all week, my fingers were itching to knit up some of that softness.

This lace hat, is patterned after the one on Fall 04 Spin Off cover and is going to a well deserving friend, who could use a lift.

There is nothing quite like the softness of angora, especially in a hat or a scarf.

Puppies

Needless to say, with all of this rain, you can well imagine what my back yard looks like……..pools of water and Mud………great if you are a duck…..or a puppy.  The puppies love getting dirty……YUK!!!

Last night, the puppies and Hannah, all freshly bathed, sat for a few photos.  I thought I would share a few with you, before the last of the bunch started heading off to their new homes.

This is Nellie, she will be going to her new home in a few weeks.  Her new parents are school teachers and asked if we could keep her here until school gets out in a few weeks, which we were happy to do. 

Little Miss Mouse, is finally big enough, that I am feeling comfortable enough to contemplate letting her go to a new home.

She maybe small in size, but she lacks in size, she has in spirit.  This is one happy and busy little girl, who doesn’t let the other puppies get the best of her.

How can you not love a face like that?

Lastly, our boy, Kai.  Remember when I wrote that I would not be keeping a puppy from this litter?  Famous last words……LOL. 

Keeping a boy in a household with girls, is always a challenge, but this little boy is just as quiet and as sweet as they come.  Not only is he such a dear boy……..but he has a fabulous  little body and a lovely head.  These are the assets that a breeder is looking for when continuing forward in a breeding program, soooooooooooo…………….this little guy is staying…at least for now 🙂

I am heading out once again, this weekend, on the same trek that I made last week, but this time I believe it is going to be a better trip.  I will post more about it when we come home.

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who offered such kind words of support this week.  It is so nice to know that there are so many caring people out there.  Thanks!!

~Enjoy your weekend…….and keep dry~