Friday, July 11, 2008

More Stuff From a Very Hot Farm

It's 102F today. Whew! We got the chores done early and ran to the house where we've been hunkered down in the air conditioning. The irrigation water will run all on its own until it cools off this evening and the animals all have plenty of shade and water, so we're fiddling with our own little projects.

Yesterday, a nice thunderstorm rolled in around 3:00. We're hoping for the same today.

Did I mention that I'm spinning dog hair for a woman from the Boulder area? She's saved the hair from her four dogs for 13 years. I'm working on just over 8 ounces of Golden Retriever undercoat and will start on a blend of black standard poodle and black alpaca next week. There is also a white poodle and something called a labradoodle (?). Interesting stuff. It's coming along well, but the stink--even after washing--is something else. It all smells like old dog, which will probably be a great comfort to the owner, but is just stinky to me. The black poodle died just after I collected the hair from the owner, so she's looking forward to having something from that animal. I don't blame her. I'm pretty attached to my animals as well.

My Abby is again creating cupcakes and cookies with her decorating skills and once again I'm impressed with this youngster's ability and eye. She worked with a recipe this time instead of just a boxed mix, so they taste good this time.



This is the latest bear in our growing collection. It's turned out to be a girl. Since I haven't gotten around to knitting any clothes for it, we used my daughter's doll clothes to cover the "bearness". No name for it yet, as it's gender could change with a simple change of garb. This one is made of handspun alpaca mohair blend, silver gray alpaca, and some bits of gray angora bunny. The ears and paws should fuzz up significantly with time and handling. However, I think it's time for something a little more traditional in the bear department. Jean Greenhowe has some very nice bear patterns and so does Debbie Bliss. I'll start there.





The summer cold finally caught me. The rest of the family had it last week as I gloated over being more hardy and vigorous than they. I've been fighting with a sore throat for three days, although I wouldn't admit it was actually sore--just a little tight is all--and today I have the running nose, slight fever and puffy eyes. Yuck. I hate that feeling when you're not sleepy, but your eyes and head say to lay down and sleep. As I lay there, my mind says, "The windows need washed. The weeds need sprayed. The website needs updated. The floors need scrubbing. What about the painting project? When are you going to clean the carpets? Weren't you going to sort through the storage shed?" Oh my. Why can't I remember all those things when I'm feeling good?

It's a good thing it's HOT today and I have a good excuse to give myself to neglecting all of those things, eh?

4 comments:

Debra in France said...

Ooh, cupcakes! I could just eat one of those right now! Perhaps Abby could post me one! She is really artistic with her decorating. Your bears are so cute, nice that you have some free time again. Hope baby alpaca is doing well. WOuld some to see some more photos. How many do you have?

How is the dog fur spinning? Does it feel nice? Will she use the wool to knit with?
Debra xx

Kathleen said...

The dog hair project sounds interesting. I have often said that there is something comforting about the smell of a dog, but I'm not sure I'd like to actually WEAR the smell as a garment. Still, if I were to have a dog with spinable hair, I might be tempted to make something from it. At the moment, Celeste is so amazingly RIPE that I'm not sure this would be a good time.

Gosh, the cupcakes just keep getting more and more beautiful! Abby! Send me a care package!

CAMILLA said...

Hello Woolworks,

Just trying to catch up. So sorry to hear that you have dreaded sore throat, hope you will feel much better soon.

Love that little girl bear, sooo sweet, and how interesting about the dog hair for spinning. Adore Cupcakes, reminds me of when my Mother to used to bake them when I was small.

Camilla.xx

Casdok said...

Hope you feel better soon, the smell of old dog proberly dosnt help!