Fun With Fluff

Last week, I got rid of some spinning stuff I never used that was just taking up room in my closet (for the curious, it was a flyer for a wheel I didn't have and, sadly, will not be getting anytime soon). I was able to make a trade with someone on Ravelry for some old carders and a bunch of lovely dyed fiber! I got a beautiful assortment of Merino, Corriedale, Alpaca, Mohair, and even some silk!

After I opened the package, stopped drooling, and watched a few tutorials on Youtube, I got to work with my new-to-me hand carders! I blended some of the red mohair with Ellie's white hair at about a 70/30 ratio and got this:

Guys, it is SO SOFT. I made about 5 rolags of it and found an appropriate home for the delectable fiber. It even smells like chocolate now!:

Since then, I've spun two rolags onto one of my drop spindles. At first I was terrified to mess up, but you know what? I've got a renewable source of fluff in my back yard. If I mess up, I mess up, and I'll learn from it and move on. Here is what I've got so far:

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it as I don't really know what qualities these two fibers have (memory, drape, etc.), but whatever I make, it is going to be SOFT! I'm thinking probably fingerless gloves. Easy first project for my first hand-carded fiber :)

Also, for anyone interested, the person who traded with me has an Etsy shop. You should go check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Taneliearth

Have a good Monday, everyone! :)

Gardening Woes

I love gardening. Where I grew up in the middle-of-nowhere Michigan, we had beautiful black soil, and our yearly gardens flourished. I always helped my dad plant and care for our gardens. My favorites were always the tomatoes. There's nothing better than a plump red tomato, straight from the vine, still slightly warm from the sun. A close second would be the root vegetables because I loved pulling them up at harvest time. I think  I enjoyed the surprise. You have no idea just how big that carrot is going to be until you pull it out of the ground.

Maybe it's because of the poor soil, maybe the heat, and maybe it's because my dad's not here to help me weed and water (let's face it; he probably did most of the work anyway), but I have had the worst luck with gardening in Arkansas. The soil is hard clay, and the summer heat is much, much hotter than I'm used to. I've tried planting in the raised bed garden that came with our rental, I've tried container gardens out of 5 gallon buckets, and I've tried hanging plants. Everything I've ever planted has died horribly, save for the herbs in the pots on my back porch. But still, no sun-ripened tomatoes for this girl. I had all but decided to give up when my bunny gave me an idea.

Oh that's right, I haven't introduced her yet! Meet Eleanor:

I call her Ellie :)

So, Ellie and I have this idea to turn that garden spot into a little run for her, like what I used to have with Neville, only bigger and with bunny-safe plants sown into the soil. My plan is to till it up and plant stuff like strawberries, dandelions, grass, timothy hay, wheat seeds, oats, carrots, and other various bunny-safe herbs (that aren't used for specific medicinal purposes). Hopefully planting mostly grasses and herbs will make it easier to keep alive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

So, while I may not have the pleasure of plucking tomatoes off the vine or pulling up giant carrots this summer, I will have something growing in my back yard, and that will be enough.