I tried adding some more colored sari silk waste to my cream alpaca fleece and went too far. Instead of touches of brilliant color I have a muddled pastel mess. Hm.
I did learn that trimming the silk threads down to about the same length as the alpaca fiber helps with carding, but gives more loose ends when spinning. Time to try again, maybe with trimmed silk, but less volume.
I’ve started a new spinning project. I read about using waste sari silk threads in spinning and had to order some.
To get the color to pop, I chose the lightest color fleece I have, which is a light cream from an alpaca named Sugar Plum. I carded a small amount of the sari silk with the alpaca before rolling up the rolag.
I’m spinning this up on my favorite drop spindle as I walk the neighborhood. The bits of color are nice, but I think I need a bit more.
Oh how joyous it was to get back to walking and spinning!
They have returned! After being eaten down to nothing but stems, the passion flower vines have started to grow leaves again, hurray! This time, I am going to give the plants some time to grow and fill out before I let them be butterfly host plants. I picked off the caterpillar I found, then sprayed the leaves with my diluted neem oil mixture (neem, peppermint, Castile soap). Once the plants are well established, then I’ll let up on the neem treatment so the caterpillars have delectable bits to gnaw.
For a roly poly little cat, she sure is maneuverable. We replaced the gaping hardware cloth with 1/2” hardware cloth to remove the exit Sophie has been utilizing. So she just took another way. This escape route is the same spot she gets in if we aren’t attentive enough to open a door for her. So I screwed in a piece of scrap board to see if that foils her. We’ll keep the camera set up to see where she finds to escape next. Despite all her protest otherwise, our other cat Izzy does not have the same burning desire to be outside the catio by herself, as she has not squeezed out anywhere.
My hens have started their molting time. The coop and run, from a distance, look like there has been a small snow flurry. The hens themselves look moth-eaten and disheveled. Egg production has slowed to a near stand still; I’m getting maybe one egg every other day. About this time last year the eggs stopped completely and they didn’t start laying again until the end of January. That was fours months without eggs. Hello powdered eggs, lets see how you do.
Critters and Craft 