Badlands Wander

Last Saturday my family and I wandered through Badland National Park... taking pictures and hiking...




The Haystack Mounds (these yellow and red striped mounds are my very favorite part of the Badlands...normally the Badlands are very dry, so the green is quite unexpected.

The prickly pear cactus are blooming insane amounts this year...so i grabbed a few pics of those too.

This lovely little guy has the auspicious name of Gumbo Lily...much prettier than it sounds!

These rounded tops and sides are what give the Haystack Mounds their names.

I was enthralled with the watercolor like valley here...I've never seen colors like this in the badlands before.

The yucca are also in full bloom

with all the rain the striations are more visible than usual.

my little guy said he was airbending...with gusts of 60 MPH plus...it was exciting.

my 14-year-old was loving the climbing at the end here...

and my 6-year-old had to follow suit.

Here's all three of my wonderful kids...

It was beautiful and wonderful...and new Badlands Yarn is around the corner....

a simple cardboard loom--for a tiny tapestry

So, for those of you who want to weave tapestries but can't afford, or don't want to purchase a big tapestry loom, here's a reasonably priced, simple alternative. Go to a local frame shop (not a place like Michaels or Hobby Lobby) and ask them if they have a small scrap of mat board. In the range of 10 inches square or a bit smaller works great. Have them cut out the center of the mat, like you were going to frame a picture, leaving about an inch and a half edge. If they are cutting scraps, this shouldn't cost you much.

Now, take your loom home. You have a bit of work left to do. Take a ruler and on the edge of the mat, starting where the center cutout is, measure and mark in incriments of an 1/8th of an inch all the way across. With a scissor cut slits in the edge of the of the mat board about an 1/8th of an inch deep. You need to do this on two opposite sides of the mat board and you're ready to warp your loom.

Warping your loom is easy too...taking some strong, smooth yarn (I like white sock yarn) slide the yarn into the slot all the way on one end, then stretch it across to the slot on the opposite side. Then, put the yarn across the back tightly, into the slot right next to the one you just used. Continue across this way, until the whole loom is warped!

Tomorrow...weaving a tapestry....

leaf dyeing

Yesterday, while out mowing the lawn in the 2 hours of not rain...(don't ask...what a mess) I trimmed a couple very low hanging branches off the apple and the aspen tree. Because i had already trimmed them i decided to try dyeing with the leaves. I'd heard some pretty impressive results and had to try for myself. Anyway...i stripped of all the leaves and cooked both the apple and aspen (separately) for an hour or so. the results are really lovely!

apple leaves--first bath, second bath

aspen leaves--overnight soak, 20 minutes soak...as typical i find that a shorter soak gives a much clearer, cleaner yellow.

wholesale order

So--in spite of my yarn blanks being on backorder (ARGGGGG) i am sending out half of my latest wholesale order. These are all Yarn(scapes) yarn--

colorways:

Early Hyacinth, Mom's Iris, After Sunset, Badland Evening, Bear Butte Morning, Grape Hyacinth, Prairie Pasque and Dakota Dawning

now...lots more to dye, lots more to spin. I actually did spin something today. I know it's shocking, because i am just entirely too distracted by politics and a new house...

more lilac dyed silk pictures

here's more pictures--

first i boiled the lilacs (about 2 quart jars full) in water for a couple of hours. i strained off the flowers. then i put silk in the dye pot and cooked it for about 3 hours. I wanted as rich a color as i could get so i left it longer than i normally would. when i took it out there still seemed to be a bit of color left so i added more silk, cooked it for about an hour then let it sit overnight. it probably soaked for a total of 15 hours. i pulled it out this morning and got a yellow-y-er green.

left: 3 hour soak

right: overnight soak

Lilacs

it's raining hard today...and the lilacs are blooming in my backyard. i love the way they smell...and the way they look. so i was curious. will they DYE???? i picked about 2 quarts squished and boiled them up in water. DANG...my house smells awesome! and here is the silk--

Natural dye class

so--i taught a class at quest on natural dyeing. the results were not all that exciting unfortunately :-( this early in the spring i have no dye plants that get awesome results unfortunately. anyway...we tried some tree lichen, collected on the site, some heart wood that i got from Mebd of twin rose, and some gladiolas that i froze last fall...

i'm not sure what i'll do with the yarn but...here it is!

not my fave flower but...

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

warning political rant ahead

I sent this email to NPR today:

Today I listened to Dakota Midday (May 12, 2008) and I was sad to see NPR and SD public radio buying into the media nonsense. I hear your “political junkies” saying that the primary is effectively over and that Hillary continuing to run is going to make her a joke. A couple points:

1. The media may be painting Obama as the presumptive nominee but the last I checked Obama did NOT have enough delegates to be the presumptive nominee. Unless things change radically over the next few weeks Obama will NOT gain enough delegates to be the nominee without the super delegates, and since they can change their affiliations right up until they vote at the convention this means there will be no presumptive nominee.

2. When my son was in cross country I encouraged him to run his very hardest in every race. He was not a particularly good runner and his chances of ever winning were very slim. But I always thought that our country valued finishing races. We also value underdogs. When the boxer gets up from the mat after being counted down to the last number we cheer mightily for him. And when, just once in a while, he throws the knockout punch, we all feel a little bit better. We cheer for the last person to finish the marathon. No one runs out in a race where someone is two strides behind and tells the second runner to quit because they have no chance of winning.
3. I do not understand why these same values that we hold onto and tell our children to abide by: (Finishing what you start. Never give up. ) are not equally important in politics. No matter who I intend to vote for, I value Hillary’s insistence that she will finish what she has started. Her insistence that we, here in South Dakota have as much right to vote and have our voices heard as does Iowa when it caucuses first. It bothers me that the mainstream media has declared Obama the winner, despite his not having enough delegates to win. BUT it bothers me so much more when NPR and Public Radio do the same.

I hope that in the future you report more facts, and fewer opinions. If the “political junkies” have opinions, they should very much state that this is an OPINION. Saying that Hillary has lost and Obama has won, is NOT a fact. It is not even an opinion. It is too soon to declare a winner when two runners are still in the race and one is a few strides behind.

Finally done...

I've been knitting these lovely socks from handspun yarn for several months. I have found out precisely why one should knit two socks right after each other. I knitted just the same number of stitches, etc. but i was knitting more tightly on the second and in particular the sock is slightly smaller around. But they look fine on!
The darker yarn is handspun 80% wool, 20% silk, the lighter yarn is 100% tussah silk naturally dyed with black lilies. I'm really thrilled with how they fit and they feel AWESOME.

So...I need to wait on the Egyptian socks because i need to dye the yarn with natural indigo first! So... i can't decide what to cast on. Any thoughts?

One down...

one to go. I finished the first sock i've made from a single strand of spaghetti dyed yarn...it turned out beautifully. It's a shorty sock because I had less than a full skein of yarn.

Because my SSS is pretty bad i intend to finish the other of my handspun socks, then cast on these socks:

or maybe these:

I haven't decided which for sure. Anyway...I'm thinking i'll start with commercial yarn but indigo dyed for realism (or whatever). Next time i'll go with handspun. probably. Anyway... I need to finish my handspun socks...Cuz i want them for Quest!

May 2nd

Ok--we were looking at lovely tulips getting ready to bloom and daffodils actually in bloom and then the morning arrived and we saw...

WELL, we didn't actually see this because as you can see here: there was snow stuck all over the outside of the house and windows so we couldn't see anything out at all...

Eventually, in the afternoon the snow stopped and the sky cleared and we could see what the blizzard had done

We were left with huge drifts in some places and no snow at all in others.

Tuck didn't seem particularly happy with the drifts halfway up the fence...

In some places the drifts were about 17 inches deep...others...were a lot deeper than that!and some were not.

666

I hit 666 sales on Etsy today! YAY! In honor of my evilness I am planning a stash busting contest... I have not come up with all the details yet but they will follow soon. This lovely custom silk roving was the 666th sale.



It's so beautiful...and i'm so excited about being able to do this for a living!

Gosh...instead of evil.. i guess i'm blessed!

Spring!

The flowers in my garden are coming up! The crocus are already blooming... other little green things are coming up and starting to bloom. I reminded of The Secret Garden...

I'm not sure what these little guys are yet...maybe tulips? But i love the color.

I love the crocus... Can't wait for tomorrow to see what else will open!

I'm a bad blogger! :-( here's what i've been doing in the past while. some dyeing, a bit of knitting, and working at Smatterings!

tiny sock for sock class

more grape hyacinth yarn

Bear Butte Morning

Faded Roses

Raspberry Parfait (hums Raspberry Beret to self)

Box of Colors

Warmin' Up

James Van Nuys yarn...check out Yarn(scapes) blog... what's your guess on what this new yarn line is?

downright unimpressive

so, rose hips were on my list to try dyeing with. the results? ehh





Just not that impressive. not worth the time, i'd say.