Here are three more blocks for the Farmer’s Wife quilt. The center block needs to be ripped and redone. My scant 1/4 is a little too scant. Sometimes it doesn’t matter but in this case it would clip off the points of my little squares. By the end of the year I should really know my 1/4-inch seam quite well!
and what would I do without my helpers?
Comments Off on Farmer’s Wife progress
Tagged cats, Farmer's Wife, quilt, quilting, Sewing
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| The future home of Midwest Yarn! |
I'll be hosting our first knit along on Ravelry.com. This will start as soon as there is enough interest in the knit along. In fact, I'm starting on my pattern early because I couldn't resist the piles of silky soft Findley Dappled yarn. I'm knitting the All the Stops Dress, featured on the cover of Juniper Moon Farm's Findley Dappled booklet that was just released.Comments Off on Good Things to Come
Tagged Findley Dappled, Juniper Moon Farm, knit, knit along, pattern, Sabine, yarn, Yearling
Comments Off on Keeping Busy
Have I mentioned?
We think Milkshakes is expecting again.
She’s still nursing, yet we think she’s expecting again.
It all started when Adelaide and Sophie were about 2 or 3 months old and we brought Solomon the ram to service the ewes. That’s sheep talk. Sheep. Not goats. Solomon was to service the female sheep. There was even a green marker put on a special harness he wore so that once he had serviced a lady you’d be able to see a green spot on her back end.
There were lots of ladies with green butts out there. Lady sheep. Because Solomon was also a sheep.
Yet somehow Milkshakes wound up with a green butt.
Bless her little heart, she just couldn’t control herself.
Don’t worry, she’s not prego by the ram. She honestly can’t be. They’re not the same species. Any fertilization that may occur in such cases ends up in a misfire.
So she started breaking out of the lady pasture and into the pasture with Jack, her stinky one – time beau and baby – daddy to Addie and Sophie. Not that I can blame her, he’s quite handsome. And he was still stinky, which is how the ladies can tell he’s willing and able.
And now lo these many months later, she’s looking quite fat. I’m not sure when she’d be due because we don’t know when exactly she got herself knocked up.
I snapped this picture the other day with my phone. She wouldn’t look at me. Or come near me. Most likely because I had no food on me. If you look closely you can see she’s sticking out her tongue.
Me calling her “Whorey Mc-Shakers” probably didn’t help.
That’s Birdie (Bertie?) in the foreground. She was slightly less willing to give up on the possibility that I had food.
Comments Off on The Nanny Goat Waiting Game
Tagged Farm, Pets, Uncategorized
We asked for your nominations and you gave them to us, now it’s time to bring on the democracy! Please take moment to vote for your choice of naming conventions for our 2012 lambs and goat kids. You can only cast one vote in each poll, so make your vote count.
FYI, the names listed after the conventions are just examples of the convention, not necessarily the actual names we will be calling the lambs and kids.
The polls will close on March 19th and the results will be posted here.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
And while you’re in the spirit of voting, don’t forget to vote for Juniper Moon Farm in About.com’s Readers Choice Awards for Best Yarn Company. Tiny Juniper Moon Farm is up against the biggest names in the industry! It’s super-easy to vote, you don’t have to register and you can vote every 24 hours till March 21st, 2012. Thank you!
Comments Off on Let’s put it to a vote!
Tagged Naming Conventions
The internet is a wonderful thing. I’ve been so lucky to meet so many wonderful people online, especially since I won the goats. Anna Branner is one of those amazing people. She is an extremely talented spinner, weaver and potter. She has created a wonderful hand thrown tumbler just for Gilead Fiber Farm!
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I had purchased a couple of mugs from Anna, featuring adorable sheep, from her etsy shop. And I just fell in love with her portrayals of farm animals, especially the angora goats. So, I approached her about doing a special design for the farm. My only real input was the shape of the tumbler, I like a big mug, and am not so keen on handles. I had some tumblers at one time, made by another potter friend, whose shape I loved, but they were long broken and lost, so I knew that I wanted something in that basic shape.
Anna has outdone herself, the tumblers are gorgeous. They are also nice and thick, so your coffee or tea or whatever stays nice and hot. I love the Gilead stamp at the bottom so much, it makes my heart swell every time I see it.
The tumblers are available for sale now! You can get them from Anna’s etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/ClothnClay?ref=em .
You’ll be supporting both Anna’s pottery and the Gilead Fiber Farm with your purchase. Anna very generously directs a portion of all the tumbler sales to me to help with expenses around the farm, hay, grain, medications etc. If you’d like to read a little about Anna’s motivation to be my clay goddess hero, you can check out her blog post about it at
I apologize for the formatting weirdness and link issues. WordPress has changed the way you insert these things since I’ve been on blogging hiatus and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. But I wanted to share in the meantime. I appreciate your patience with me :)
Comments Off on And now for something completely different.
Tagged Uncategorized
Despite the crazy warm winter, it looks like my daffodils are right on time for a mid-March bloom. The honeysuckle is all set to take over the world and other garden beauties are not far behind. Meanwhile I have that lovely red braid from SPA already on the wheel. It’s a merino/nylon blend probably meant for socks but I am undecided if I will use it that way since it’ll need to be a two-ply judging by the thickness of my singles. I have yet to spin fine enough for a 3 or 4 ply sock yarn but I’m sure I”ll get there. Perhaps I need to try out that lace flyer sitting patiently in my spinning bag.
Comments Off on Flower are coming
Tagged daffodils, garden, gardening, honeysuckle, Mad Color Fiber Arts, merino, nylon, Spinning, spring, yarn
I shared one of my favorite places in all of Virginia with my in-from-out-of-town friends this week and it occurred to me that I’ve never shared it with you. Shameful of me, because I know you will love it.
A&W Collectables is a gem of an antique store located just outside Charlottesville, VA. I am here to tell you that if you live with in a couple of hours of this place, you should get your backside in the car right and set your gps for A&W!
This isn’t the curated, ten-lovely-things-on-a-pedestal kind of antique store. A&W is a charming jumble, the kind of place the makes you hunt for your treasures. And the hunt makes finding something you can’t live without all the sweeter, in my opinion.
The only thing better than spending an afternoon poking through the rooms at A&W is taking new people there and watching their reaction. Picture the scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when the Golden Ticket holders are let into the room with the river of chocolate and you’ll get the idea.
We hadn’t even made it inside before Kimm found a covetable collection of vintage aprons, priced between $3 and $6 dollars.
Vintage buttons? 6 for a dollar.
Caroline investigated a gorgeous old ceramic water jug.
I suspected that my friends would be gaga over the vintage jewelry and clothes upstairs and I was right. Several pairs of vintage earrings went home with Lizzy.
But the vintage hats were the showstopper.
As you can see, a good time was had by all and each of us left A&W with a prize! Caroline bought an antique darning egg. Lizzy has four new hats in her wardrobe. Kimm bought some lovely aprons. Virginia scored a 50′s era enamel-line water cooler. Zac left with wood working tools, but I think I got the deal of the day with a $15 Underwood typewriter.
If you love lovely old things like I do please schedule a visit to A&W soon. The owners are just the sweetest people and there shop is a goldmine.
