Finally A Lamb Post

It's taken me ages to get some lamb pictures up, sorry about that. 

Anyhow here are the 2012 lambs, all doing great and running and jumping around the field.

We decided for our naming theme this year we would use 20th century authors !

So here they are in no particular order,

The black ones, (who are not twins),

Humbug's ewe lamb, her name is Beatrix (Potter) and Marmite's little boy Zane (Grey)

 

Next up is Dandelion's ram lamb.

His name is J.D. (Salinger)

He's a real mummy's boy and they hang out together a lot.

And then we have Cashew's twins. They were born a few days after the other three and and still quite small.

They are called Dylan (Thomas) and Enid (Blyton).

Cashew is our Babydoll Romney cross so they are mostly Babydoll but not pure bred.

They are enjoying the sunshine, (while we had it !)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1qwu9noKEA&context=C314541dADOEgsToPDskL_o-owoTSRlsR9g8ODaCx9

 And a link to more lambs on my youtube channel. You need the volume up for this one.

I must confess to have not read anything by Zane Grey but all the other authors were favourites of mine growing up. What kid doesn't enjoy Beatrix Potter's tales of bunnies and animals, Enid Blyton's adventure stories ? My Dad gave me Catcher In The Rye to read and it made a lasting impression and I had a small bit part in Under Milk Wood at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds. My only brush with the smell of grease paint and stage fright !!

So that's it for now.

Will post more pics and movies soon.

Destashing

I've been having a sort out, and between you and me there's an embarassing amount of fleece stashed away in brown paper grain bags here and there.

So I'm making a concerted effort to rehome some of it ! 

I've even put up a couple of signs.

It's all washed up and $10 for 500g.

This is a nice soft dove grey Babydoll fleece that used to belong to Anise.

This is Tansy's fleece. She is a Babydoll Southdown with a bit of Romney thrown in.

This is Kirby's fleece. He is our Babydoll Romney wether.

 This is some more of Kirby. It's very nice to spin.

Just a small smattering of some of the fleeces. There are lots more. Come and have a look !  I also have dyed fleece in lots of colours.

Lastly I thought I'd show you a picture of the great set up I have to wash up the fleeces. It's an industrial skillet we bought at the hospital surplus equipment sale last year. It does a fabulous job. When it's done it tips forward and drains out through the basket.

A Sneak Peek

...... at the first lamb of 2012.
She arrived at 3am this morning.

She is gorgeous and Humbug is the proud Mamma.

More to come soon hopefully !!

We LOVE upcycling and reusing at Periwinkle

I thought I'd show you a couple of upcycled projects.

First up is the little table in my weaving room.

 I was tired of not being able to see my handspun skeins

 so I came up with this.

A small discarded fishtank

A piece of aluminum framed window

A printer's drawer I picked up at a 2nd hand store.

Voila !

 And here we have the recycled towel rail that I spotted on the back of a camper van at the wrecking yard.

                         It hangs perfectly on the shower door.Almost like it was made for the job !

      Even the cat participates in the recycling around here.

She resides in this reusable paper bag.

 (Thank you Quality Foods !)

Weaving Away

Despite my shameful non-appearance in blogland I have been doing stuff !

Really I have .

I just finished weaving a couple of rag rugs.

Here they are in progress, at this point I had finished the blue rag rug and just started the orange bath mat.

 

I made the bath mat from recycled towels, donated to me by my friend Danielle, (Thanks Danielle !!).

I dyed them using some RIT dye from the thrift store and they came out this orangey colour that reminds me of summer and beaches. I also used an old, worn turquoise towel I had.

When I cut the fabric up for the blue rug I cut it into strips and glued them, which left hard chunky bits where the glue was so for the bath mat I found another technique here. Basically I cut the edges off the towels, sewed them into a tube and cut up, but not all the way through.

 

Then I cut diagonally from the bottom right of one strip to the right side of the next strip and ..

ta da

a continuous strip.

I know that didn't make much sense but if you look at the link I posted, Sarah explains it a lot better than me.

The Big Reveal,

 my favourite part,

 cutting and removing the rugs from the loom.

Here is the bath mat finished.

 I wove a narrow header and hemmed each end by hand.

And the blue rug, with knotted fringes at each end.

Of course none of this could be achieved without the help of my trusty assistant, Scout, A.K.A. The Bugger.

Red fruit

... from the garden today.

Some beautiful redcurrants.

I've been picking them off the last few days and freezing them to make a big enough batch to do something with.

I'm thinking redcurrant jelly and if there's enough, redcurrant and raspberry cordial. I haven't tried it but sounds yummy.

And the rhubarb, what can I say, it just keeps giving and giving.

I picked this lot today and there is still some to pick, amazing !! I think the variety we have is known as strawberry rhubarb which is why it is so pink and looks like a strawberry at the cut end.

Here is some more info about strawberry rhubarb.

We're onto making our second batch of rhubarb champagne.

Simon got the idea from here, thanks to Nellymary. We really enjoyed the first batch.

 Super easy to make, very tasty and VERY fizzy !

and look how pretty it is.

Afternoon In Pictures

For once no words.....