Terrabyte Farm

The last two weeks have been filled with fiber finishes.

I finished my log cabin quilt.  I am very happy with the way it came out, one side is a bit wonky, but I love the way to colors look together and it is very soft and warm.

I finished the pair of socks I had been working on.  I knit socks from the toe-up using the “magic loop” technique.  It is a great way to do socks (and also hats from the top down) as you can try them on as you go and get the sizing exactly right.

I tanned all of my rabbit pelts.  I have a total of 28 tanned pelts, one was “sacrificed” to try knitting with fur last summer, and Zsaka ripped the other one up.  I will use 16 to make a quilt/pad for the baby.  I need to block all of the pelts to take the wrinkles out and then decide if I want to make a free form quilt and try to maximize each pelt, or cut them all in a uniform fashion.  I will use cotton batting and a silk backing to finish it.  I need to get a walking foot for my sewing machine to stitch the fur and then do the quilting.  I have several books coming soon on sewing with fur and leather, surprisingly little on the internet about the topic.  I will use the rest of the pekts to make a few hats and maybe glove cuffs and maybe a really nice wrist rester for Mike while he is working on his computer.

Most exciting of all is that I got my spinning wheel, a Lendrum that a new farm friend was looking to sell.  She dropped it off almost two weeks ago, but with the quilt and pelts already in progress and Mike traveling, I wasn’t really able to sit down and spin until this weekend.  The kids helped me clean one of our sheep fleece this week and I carded 4 oz of Leicester Longwool and also mohair from our female Angora goat into rolags.  I tried spinning those, but had much more luck with some mohair that was processed into roving at a local mill (the roving was bought form the same woman we bought our goats from, so in all likelihood, our two goats fleece was spun by me today).  I actually did better than I thought I would, but the yarn is a completely typical newbie spinner yarn, full of thick and thin spots, bumps and slumps.  BUT, I did it and am happy to finally be spinning!  I plied the blue mohair that I spun with a grey yarn that was left on one of the bobbins, presumably from one of my friend’s Blue-faced Leicesters.  As I type, I am “setting the twist” having wound the yarn into a skein and soaked it in warm water.  It is now hanging with a weight and hopefully tomorrow I can take a few pictures, and maybe even knit it into something.  Both kids are VERY into the spinning wheel, so I think once I am good enough, I will try to get them involved in some way as well.