New spinnings, a small Miracle, a frog?!

Lots of photos! We found a frog, A FROG, in our water oasis for the birds and other critters. Can you spot the frog? There are literally frogs coming out from the woods! We spotted another one, smaller one, yesterday coming out from the woods. Weird. I didn't think these frogs were terrestrial.
There is also a picture of the polyphemus cocoon I found which I boiled to unstick the silk from itself. Pretty and shiney stuff!!

There is a closeup of that loverly pink cotton and purple wool batt, and the resulting yarn. BTW, I am starting an etsy shop, this is listed for limited time for $5 at C4G2.etsy.com . I will probably have more on there in the coming weeks.

The little miracle is that a Monarch laid an egg, right in front of me, on the milkweed skins I was stripping for the fiber. I do it outside because the sap tends to stick to everything. The Monarch comes out of nowhere and flutters all around us (the BF was being curious about what I was doing so he saw it too), acted like it was gonna land on the stripped skins, then fluttered about some more. When she finally landed, she laid a single egg on a stripped skin hanging out off the edge of the container I had them in. Then she fluttered around and around acting like she was gonna land and do it again but never did. That single egg, the one I call Little Miracle, hatched Saterday and I am now raising one more Monarch. I though the Monarch breeding season was over. I guess not! I feel it was a special gift from the Monarch...and I wonder if she is one of the five I released several weeks ago? I'll never know for sure, but I can dream!

Until next time...






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Milkweed!! The all-in-one wild miracle plant!!

I found the most amazing article in the 2003 Winter issue of Spin-Off...rendering fiber from MILKWEED!! How flippin cool!!

While we were at the park yesterday, I found four plants that were not flowering and harvested them. I don't want to harvest a bunch right now because most of them are flowering and I do not want to possibly jeapordize next years new generation of Milkweeds.

I set to work stripping the skins off the woody stalk and setting them aside. I found that a lot of the fiber likes to stick to the stem instead of the skin, so I scrapped of the stems as well with a sharp, two sided knife.

I only had about an ounce of material so I had to downculate (calculate down) the amount of lye and soap called for. What you do is boil the skins in a solution of water, lye, and dish soap. It doesn't say in the article, but I figure the lye eats away the plant material and the soap gets the tacky milk off the fiber. The article says for 3 ounces, sprinkle four heaping tablespoons of lye over the material in a glass, enamel, or stainless steel pan which is in enough COLD water to just cover the plant material. Then add 3 teapoons of soap. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. Afterwards, CAREFULLY drain the lye and soap water (rinse the drain afterwords), but leave the material in the pan covered. Let the material sit in the pan covered for anther hour. After the second hour, rinse the material in cold water until the water runs clear. Then, place the fiber in enough cold water to cover it all and add a cup of vinegar. This helps to brighten the fiber and to nutralize any lingering lye. Let the fibers sit in this for a couple more hours to overnight. Afterwards, rinse, seperate the material, and lay out to dry. Once dry you can run it through a drum carder, or if doing by hand cards-card just a little at a time.

If you try this, plan of having your place well ventalated so don't do it on a day you have the air running with no movement of fresh air because it smells kinda funny. I do plan on creating a photographic tutorial when I get some more milkweed.

I am so planning on harvesting a lot of milkweed stalks this fall and letting them sit outside to ret naturally throughout the winter. I am also gonna get a bunch of seeds and start a milkweed corner. Did you know that all Milkweed parts are usable? The leaves, flowers, and young pods are edable (some prep to get the milk out is needed) , do a Google search on "cooking milkweed" for even more resources and information, the skin has fiber that is spinnable, the floss found in the matured pods can be used for stuffing and insulateing AND paper making and I think you would be able to card mature fluff into batts on a drum carder. The dried pods can be broken down to make paper, the seeds can be ground up and used to kill nematodes and fall armyworms (seeds are not edable and can cause heart problems), the sap is medicinal, and the inner stalk is woody and can be used to make baskets! Sweet mama!! Now THAT is a valuable plant that I wanna grow! OMG, the more I search the more I find!

Until next time...






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New Spring Slideshow!

Slideshow removed because I hate automatic play and it gets real annoying real fast.
You can find the slideshow here instead.

Until next time...






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Spot the baby birdie!!

Can you spot the baby bird?









How about now?






Now?

This guy is about the size of a half dollar! I found him and one other sibling that did not survive a fall from the nest. I found this guy in the middle of our walking path, and moved him to saver cover. I hope he makes it. He is so damned cute! This is a red-cap something or other.

Until next time...






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Baby Robins, WIP's, other stuff

The babies in the Robins nest outside my residence are growing quickly!! In just over a week they have gone from sightless fluffs of flesh and blood to having pin feathers and sight! They is so cute! I check on them every few days and the one in the forground of the second photo looked streight at me and went back to sleep. Not a care in the world!!

I found a hawk feather in the driveway this morning. I think it is a redtail, but I am not positive. It rests on my dreaming altar in the bedroom.

Here is my progress on the second bycicle handlebar pack. I love how the varigation of the yarn marbles when felted!! Writing out the directions for this is a pain in the ass and a big headache, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end.

Then I got the Mason Dixen book from the library and I am knitting a mini-Kimono for my teady bear. I am just cutting the stitches in the directions in half. Instead of 40 CO I did 20-etc, etc, etc.

I contacted Blogger CS about the handfull of sheep who are flagging my blog and why. They told me they did not see anything objectional on my blog so I do not have to worry about deletion. HOWEVER, they are gonna contact the blog host of the person who is instigating all of the flagging. MMMmmm, sweet-sweet, poetic, justice. 'Nuff time wasted on that!

Until next time...

Nature Walk-Pictures

Here are some pictures of the nature walk we took over the weekend. There were turkeys out in the open so we figure they must be very hungry to risk exposure. There is a photo of turkey tracks in the snow, and one comparison to my new boots. Then we found a lone pincone still hanging onto the tree. Got some great shots of that one. Then some wintery sky and a picture of a turkey in mid wing stretch. Walk this way!

Until next time...