Kentucky Fiber Festival, summer color and spinning

Yes, fiber people get excited about spinning in the fall, when the air starts to get nippy...but I also have this spurt of inspiration at the beginning of each summer...it may be softness of the greening leaves, or the bright colors of the flowers that gets the creative juices flowing. I start picking up my knitting and spinning more often, I start making more time in the evenings after long days of work and gardening.
 Or maybe it is the way dew on the petals reminds me of dampness on wool and how well it cocoons and protects us..or maybe it is the smell of all that freshly shorn wool waiting to be washed and dyed.....
ahhh, anyway, I just got back from the Kentucky Sheep and Wool Festival in Lexington, and it was certainly a wonderful time, I played with lots of lovely wool from the mostly finn sheep of Bella Luna Sheep and Wool
I think I am in love with spinning finn, especially the way Susannah has it prepared, in pin drafted roving that is "fluffy not flat".. it drafts divinely.
I talked to some very talented spinners, knitters and felters at the festival, and picked up a tip or two about dying.
Here are some photos from the festival. None of me (of course) but some of the spindolyns and Susannah teaching some future fiber addicts artists to spin.

Mr. Rodgers sweater, spitting snow and hot pink

If you ever wear an Angora sweater while turning wood on a lathe, that sweater will never be used for anything else, as it will be impregnated with a thousand little slivers and curls of wood. I usually start out with my denim "turning coat" over my sweater, get into the moment, get warm, and take the denim coat off...

So, having ruined two (already worn out) sweaters in the shop (slow learner?) I have adopted a new "Mr. Rodgers" technique. I leave the "turning sweaters" in the shop on a nice coat hook. I wear my normal farm sweater out to the shop, and upon arriving, I take off my farm sweater, neatly hang it on the hook, put on my turning sweater, my turning hat and my dust mask...for some reason, all this clothes changing at the beginning of the task makes me a bit like Mr. Rodgers.....all tidy and kind .

I can not say it has been a hard winter, no terrible cold waves, no mounds of snow, but it has been a dreary winter, lots of bitter winds and overcast days. We finally had a "real" snow recently...well, it stuck on surfaces anyway, first of the winter and not till March.

I took a walk to enjoy it and my little flock followed me around the pasture.

Here they are up the lane behind the wood shop, which you can see in the background.

And again, on up in the pasture, enjoying the view.

Finally! a little while back I finished the hot pink socks and have had plenty of opportunity to wear them this very cold late winter (not yet spring, though it aughta be)
These were completely spun and plied on the spindolyn (navajo three plied as I went, aka "ply on the fly") The fleece was pretty neppy, so are the socks, but that's all good, they are not for competition They are also a bit strange, as they are toe up, and I forgot which pattern I used for the first one, and so the heel is completely different on the second one, and sadly, I can't find the "recipe" for the first one, which I really liked better, as the heel was a bit rounder, and I can't even remember the how of it. Oh well, another thing to relearn, and learning is fun. ; )

wildcrafting wood for spindolyns

Technically, wildcrafting refers to hauling yarbs and plants out of the woods to make up medicines and potions. But gathering anything from the woods, even interesting rocks, or twigs or feathers is healing in and of itself.
And so in my lifetime I have drug home plenty of limbs because they were "special" in some way. And I would have hauled home entire tree trunks that had fallen if I had had a way to do so.
Everywhere you go, there is downed wood to be reclaimed and rescued!

See this cherry the storm blew down? taking down a maple and hackberry with it.

(for more on my affection and inclination for using native species instead of exotics, see this old post)

I got me a thing for wood, always have. It has always been hard for me to burn a pretty piece of wood in the wood stove. Somewhere between the wood box and the firebox something about a stick of stovewood will catch my eye, and I will admire it and set it to the side for a few days, reluctant to burn that lovely curly cherry, or a log of hickory with a nice little burl on its side. Pieces of wood that could make something, something pretty. Some of those piece never do make it into the stove, but have ended up in the corner of my shop, sometimes turned into little things, sometimes still waiting.

How many species of wood can you see in my firewood shed?

Here are my old timey tools that I use for getting usable wood out of stove wood.
 

Happily, the time has come that I have a chance to spend a little more time with some of those pretty pieces of wood.  In the slow time after the holidays, I have been learning ways to prepare stove wood and downed tree limbs and other findings to work on the lathe. It is not so easy as just chucking it up in the lathe and having a go, there are technicalities to overcome..wood too punky, or too much moisture, or too cracked, or worm holes, well, all kind of things...and you just have to learn about those things as you go along. A couple modern things that have helped me out a lot recently are a wood moisture meter, and an old microwave in the shop. If you google microwave drying wood, you can read lots of people's takes on it, but the one thing they all say, and that I have learned the hard way, is that you can't rush it, unless you want your wood to dry too fast and split and crack till it is not useable. Ah, patience,one of the most difficult of words.

Here are my "new timey" tools for wildcrafting native woods.