new creations

finally! new stuff up on etsy. purses! headbands! flower pins! adorned with hand-carded and hand-spun yarn! pics below. or check out my etsy store at: www.etsy.com/shop/dallehouse

band your head...

for sale! headbands adorned with crocheted flowers made from hand-carded hand-spun yarn. all fiber compliments of the lovely animals at provenance farm. $15/each

right now i've got them in red/orange, blueberry, espresso, and teal/pink. will take custom orders if you want a different color.

blueberry

espresso

teal/pink

tonight's the night.

well, tonight is finally here. the greatest show in st louis. all my friends getting together to play some music and help me forget my troubles. i am so completely blown away by all the outpouring of support. i'm speechless. or shall i say, type-less.

saw new specialist and had a pulmonary function test. it came back normal. was kinda hoping for asthma. i know it's weird to hope for asthma. but it's better than the alternative. so i'm back to square one. a follow-up PET scan should be next on my calendar. maybe for may or june. to check and see if my spots have grown. so, more waiting.

in the meantime, i've been trying to get back to a normal life. got 3/4 of my garden ready for planting. and actually did plant the strawberries, leeks, and collard greens. might try and get my herbs in the ground today or tomorrow.

we had shearing day on the farm easter weekend. i now have my days and nights cut out for me for the next 6 months. beautiful mohair, pygora, and icelandic wool to wash, card, and spin. promise to have lots of yarn, hats, and accessories available for opening day of tower grove market on may 8th. this is the first year our farm will be participating. look for us, provenance farm. we'll have eggs, fiber products, and will be taking orders for duck and turkey meat available this fall.

herchel & bianka before

bianka, leon & herschel after

bianka's beautiful locks washed and drying

yarn!

finally! i'm selling yarn! right now i have two skeins of yarn (soon to be up on etsy). and i'm taking requests for custom orders. i can do mohair, icelandic wool, llama, angora and/or blends of any and all. my yarn is 100% natural, hand-carded and hand-spun using a drop spindle. each skein is a unique creation!

fine mohair lace yarn

llama/mohair blend chunky yarn

New stuff on etsy.

A rose red flower pin just in time for Valentine's Day!

And a warm and woolly Llama, Icelandic wool, & Mohair crocheted scarf.

Click on the links above to take you to my etsy store. All items are made from hand-carded, hand-spun yarn by me using a drop-spindle.

Icelandic Wool and Mohair Hat

i have a new item up on etsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! keep posted for lots more additions. i've been spinning myself dizzy!



"A cozy and fun winter beret made of all natural (no dyes or chemicals) hand-carded, hand-spun mohair and icelandic wool yarn. All fiber comes from free range goats and sheep raised with love and care. The mohair in this unique piece comes from none other than our handsome buck, Herschel. And the icelandic wool was donated by a friend's organic farm (as our icelandic sheep are still too young to shear)."

baby hat (as modeled by panda).

another new item up for sale at my etsy store. click on this link for more info.

baby goat, baby hat.

my lastest creation.....

the bianka bernadett guinevere flower pin.

my latest creation is the bianka bernadett guinevere flower pin which was commissioned by a good friend of mine and fellow blogger ann. the center is pure angora rabbit (guinevere), the petals are kid mohair (bianka from her first shear) and the petal tips are made of mohair from the rook farm matriarch, bernadett.

sold!

my first mohair item, the bernadett beret, sold today on etsy !!!! i am currently working on a mohair/angora flower pin. i'll be offering more hats, scarves, and pins soon. and maybe mittens. if anyone has any requests, let me know.

bernie is oh so pleased!

bernadett hat for sale!

i have my first hand spun and crocheted creation available for sale! check out my new etsy store for more items coming soon.

the bianka scarf.

i finally reached the bottom of the fleece bag. all of bianka's beautiful first-shear has been spun into yarn by hand using a drop spindle. it took a long time. and i suppose i rendered about two skeins worth of yarn. i made this first batch super thick. partially because i like chunky yarn, and partially because i was still learning. next time i might try being a little more conservative. would like to spin thin enough to be able to create a two-ply yarn out of it.

next, i employed my almost non-existent crocheting skills. i took my little basket of mohair yarn and crocheted a scarf. it's a bit messy but i like it. it reminds me of bianka: soft, curly, & cherubic with just a touch of clumsy.

bianka in may 08 before her first shear

the bianka scarf

up close

flame retardant living.

here's a neat bit of trivia.... mohair is flame retardant. porkchop is trying to convince me to crochet a green mohair suit. because.... 1. he's a big gram parsons fan. 2. he's been reading amber's books and is suddenly very concerned about my safety.

friday was...

figuring out that my ball of yarn doesn't go very far. i started crocheting a scarf. didn't even make a full two rows. so i hit the cards again and started spinning more. hopefully, i'll have enough by the time snow rolls into town this winter.

whilst i was busy spinning, i heard a clatter in the kitchen. looks like del ray has figured out how to climb/jump/fly? he was on top of the kitchen table rearranging things.

spent some time with the chickens. they haven't been laying eggs for a week or so. we had to call in reinforcement last week. we moved in 20 baby female chickens. i had a talk with the older hens. explained the situation. i think we came to an understanding.

checked on stella (still pregnant). since i moved stella to the cow field, baby snakes has latched onto her like a parasitic twin. they are inseparable. for better or worse.

tended my garden. picked my first batch of sweet red peppers. looks like i'll be having grilled peppers for dinner.

sweeeeeet!

future egg-layer of america

i've got a llama on my back!

from goat to yarn.

i'm still in the learning stages of transforming lovely locks into mohair wool. it's awkward and foreign and tedious. but it's a tediousness that is strangely appealing to me. i'm not exactly sure how or why it all works, but i will and it does. here's a short sweet synopsis of the process:

first, you must obtain an angora goat....

bianka says, "pick me!"

bianka is a kid (baby goat). she had her first shear or "first clilp" back in may. first clips are more valuable because kid fleece is super fine. after we sheared her, i placed the fleece in a paper bag and stored it in the closet awaiting the next step... washing.

washing can ruin a fleece. if it is done wrong, it will turn to felt. you can't spin felt. you can maybe make christmas ornaments. being my paranoid self, i kept the bag in the closet for months. came up with all sorts of excuses why it wasn't a good time to wash. pregnant donkey. del ray training. hornworms. all were valid distractions but the truth was simple... i didn't trust me. finally got up the nerve with a little help from jason and i washed and dried fleece with success! sorry folks, no felt christmas ornaments this year.

i then proceeded to the next step.... carding. this stage is perhaps the most unatural to me. i bought books, studied articles, watched online videos. just didn't make sense. you take these cute little curly shiny locks and rake them through two metal brushes attached to big heavy wooden paddles. seems like a horrible idea. first time i tried, it looked like crap. but i practiced and got better. and formed a loose section of wool called a rolag.

final step.... spinning. i'm not going to spell it all out. cause i'm an amateur. but somehow you magically attach the rolag to the drop spindle, you hook, and twist and spin and pinch and pray that it all turns out ok. and eventually the spindle gets full and you can either make a skein (those cute little figure-eight-type packages storebought yarn comes in which seems way too complicated for me and is usally made with an instrument called a "niddy noddy" which i can barely type no less say without laughing) or you can roll it into a ball. i chose the ball.

cards, rolags, washed locks, and spindle

ball o'yarn