My suburban princess cat likes to come into the backyard with us. She gets quite sassy about it, but has to be watched carefully that she stays in the fenced part. She did not grow up here, and is no match for the home-grown true country cats in the neighborhood, let alone the raccoons or coyotes or bobcats. Well, I wasn’t watching carefully and she slipped through a gap in the fence.
I finished the small bag I started. The initial ball of yarn was spun on a drop spindle using scraps of green colored roving from my Mom’s old stash. After spinning the single, I doubled it to make a 2-ply, fingering weight yarn (about 20 wraps per inch). I started with the opening using a single crochet, made ribbon holes by alternating single crochet and chain stitches, then the body of the bag is made of five chain lace with some picots. It only holds an apple, but its worth is more in the process, which showed me that my handspun, even with rougher wool, does fine as lace. And I still enjoy crochet.
It must be spring. Our wild plum trees are blooming. The first year we moved here there were actually tiny plums in late October, early November. The last few years the summer has been too dry and there has been little to no fruit, certainly not enough to make some wild plum jam. Maybe this summer will have more moisture, maybe. We are currently under wild fire alerts, so hopes are not high.
Crocheting in a hammock while my youngest plays in the sunshine is a rather nice way to spend a spring afternoon. We’ve been cooped up for awhile, and the weather was great, so I grabbed a ball of yarn I spun a while ago and a crochet hook as we headed out the door. The plan is to make a small bag, because there isn’t much wool, using crochet lace stitches, so I can experiment with more lace.
Faverolle hens are suppose to lay pink eggs. The “pink” comes from a white coating over the brown coating, as far as I can tell from personal observation. Some of my hens lay these pink eggs, some lay brown eggs, and one lays these speckled brown eggs. The speckles are always different, and definitely not consistent, but they are my favorite. Especially when they have a beautiful speckle pattern like the one pictured above. Since I don’t plan on ever showing my chickens, the “hatchery quality” doesn’t bother me. I did luck out that their temperament is consistent with the breed, and the variation in egg color is a bonus.
Critters and Craft 