As we sat iced in and watched the birds eat seeds, I took pictures. I managed to get shots of most of the menagerie. The iNaturalist app helped me with identification.
I did not get photos of the titmouse, or the blue jay, or the crows. The jays and crows kept their distance, but the titmouse were all over the feeder, so there wasn’t really a reason they did not make the roll.
I did stop to take a pair of pictures of foot steps in the snow while I was out checking on the chickens (they are fine, cold, but fine). These are the stereoscopic photos, in parallel view and cross view (which I still can’t see).
These don’t have the depth I’ve achieved in other photos. The vast stretch of white probably doesn’t help. The photo really gets interesting in the top third. Hm.
One of the entertainments during the cold lockdown was watching the birds on the back porch. I threw seeds out onto the snow (haha, “snow”, it was solid ice), and we watched from our kitchen table. I saw one unusually colored bird and snapped some photos. SamBiology on iNaturalist figures it is a piebald dark eyed junco. Neat.
Piebald: having irregular patches of black and white.
“Piebaldism is a genetic condition caused by the improper migration of melanocytes during development. As a result, birds develop irregular, unpigmented (white) patches on their feathers or skin, while the rest of their body retains its normal pigmentation.” – Nature’s Way Birds
My friend brought me a bag of dog hair! For a spinner, this is an exciting thing, especially when the dog has an undercoat.
I chose to separate out the white and fawn colored hair, because it didn’t seem right to blend it when Baxter the dog is spotted. The hair was clean with only a slight doggy smell, so I did not wash it. I did card it with a fine toothed set of carders.
I chose to spin Baxter’s fur with a spindle shaft without a whorl, so I could have absolute control over the twist. It was a moderately difficult spin, not as easy as Samoyed, but still spin able.
I chain plied the singles to make a three ply yarn. I like chain plying potentially delicate singles because if I do get a break, I can ply it together relatively easily.
Because Baxter is a beloved pet, I decided to make a small keepsake with this yarn. I crocheted the white yarn in a circle, then used the fawn colored yarn to crochet a heart shape.
I believe scent is an important link in memories, so I did not block or wash the heart, but instead placed it in a plastic bag to preserve the scent so it will be a comfort when my friend pulls it out in the future.
In September 2016 I made a braided horse hair bracelet for a friend with tail hairs from her three horses.
There are other jewelry makers that glue the ends into metal caps. I don’t trust glue to hold, so prefer to pair glue with a mechanical join as well, in this case crimping down a wire wrap on the ends of the braids. When I do this again, I will do a different clasp, because the clip is difficult to get on, but easy to accidentally pop open.
Critters and Craft 