Crouching Dragons, Hidden Treasure

Look what's hatched out of Linda's fertile imagination now:

More dragons.  With a completely unique addition to their treasure horde: butterfly wings.

Yes, those are pieces of real tropical butterfly wings, encased in plastic. They are scraps left over from the wonderful jewellery made by our friend Wendy at Asterlea. She imports butterfly wings from farmers in South America who protect rainforest habitat through sustainable butterfly farming.

Homegrown hand-dyed Shetland fleece and salvaged tropical butterfly wings are an unlikely combination, with magical results.

It Must be the Hormones ... or is it the Weather?

Shirley let me scratch her! Linda has been buttering her up with hand-fed alfalfa cubes in the hopes of earning her trust, and it seems to be working. We are really hoping that there are twins in there somewhere. Of course I got distracted by the fleece starting to roo around her neck, and missed my chance to grope a little further back.  

Cairo is still pretty skittish, although she will come in to nibble treats from our hands. It's still five or six weeks before we can expect these girls to lamb. Until we actually see them bagging up we won't be sure they are pregnant, but Cairo is looking rather smug, isn't she?

Here's Linda, Lucy, and Bluebelle, an astonishingly friendly little ewe who squirms with joy when petted and will follow you anywhere. Belle has many names: Fleece Mountain, Pig Pen, Get Off Me,  the Walking Compost Pile ... you get the idea.  

She is also very thoughtful, and packs a lunch for everybody. 

We are having a freakish spell of very warm weather. It is unsettling to see all the snow gone and yet the dugout is nearly empty in the middle of March. Plants are way ahead of schedule, and today I saw a red admiral butterfly. Linda was saying "Well at least the frogs aren't fooled" and then we heard one lonely wood frog beginning his spring song. 

It's going to be an interesting year.

Watcher in the Woodpile

Look who is surveying the world from the safety of a shaggy, lichen covered woodpile. 

This wallhanging is about two feet square. The background felt was created with a combination of wet felting and needle felting, creating a unique texture. The lighter locks on the right are from Linda's favourite coloured fleece. Some days that colour is Archie's only redeeming feature! That, and our sentimental attachment to our first born.

The really shaggy pieces are from the britch, or backend, of our older ewes. 

This wool is relatively coarse and tough so it adds an interesting dimension to the felt. 

Linda and Archie, her fair haired boy.

Dancing With Dragons

Linda has been confined to home for a couple of weeks recovering from her knee replacement surgery. Thankfully she is mending well and needle felting passionately.  This piece has been taking shape in her mind for some time, just waiting for such an opportunity to spring forth. 

"Dancing With Dragons" is large, about four feet across its longest dimension. The base is three wildly asymmetrical pieces of uniquely textured handmade felt: a centre white piece is the background for the Shaman figure, while two dragons emerge from the grey depths on either side.

Pictures cannot fully convey the rich texture and sumptuous detail of this work.

I love the way the coloured fleece is needlefelted around the natural colours of the felt base creating great layers and depth. Linda has kept the structure of the locks intact in many areas of the felt.

"Dancing with Dragons" has been an exciting and satisfying piece for Linda to work on during her enforced period of stillness. With this kind of power and vision swirling around, I think she will be up dancing (and riding!) again really soon.

What the Chickadee Knows

There is something going on out there ... have you noticed? The chickadees know.  More and more often these days they interrupt their usual chick-a-dee--dee-dee song with the fee-bee call that means romance is in the air. And when that sweet song catches your ears, and you lift up your eyes to look around to spot the birds, suddenly you realize ... it's LIGHT!

February 2nd -- half way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox -- is a very significant day to those of us in the northern climates. Whether you mark it as St. Brigid's Day, Candelmas, the Presentation of our Lord, or Groundhog Day, its place on the wheel of the year is the same. This is the day we can really know that the promise of the returning sun is coming true. The days really are getting longer! 

Don't be fooled by your local groundhog. No matter whether he sees his shadow or not, it's still six weeks until spring. Six glorious weeks of gradually increasing light and birdsong. Enjoy!

Year of the Dragon

Here is the latest addition to Linda's mythical creature creations, just in time for Chinese New Year.

 The Dragon has gossamer thin wings in a rich deep red colour.

The eyes, fangs, and tail are highlighted with bright beads.

Dragons are reputed to be powerful, if somewhat capricious.  

I'm hoping that this one is a harbinger of good things to come! 

It's a Shetland Sheep Heid

I bought myself a wonderful gift -- a kit from Jamieson and Smith wool brokers, on the Shetland Islands.  I was ridiculously excited at the very idea that wool from "real" Shetland sheep actually living on the islands was on its way to my house. And look at this beautiful hat pattern "Sheep Heid " by Kate Davies. (This picture is from their website. I haven't even cast on mine yet. )There is a circle of ewes around the outside, and a pattern of ram's heads on the crown. "Heid" is Scots dialect for head.

The pattern is described as "a celebration of Shetland sheep in their marvellous, many-hued variety", and the kit includes nine different natural colours of wool. Soon after the package arrived I took it out to show Linda, and we had fun comparing the balls of wool to our flock. Of course we concluded that we need more sheep, as we don't yet have the full range of colours!

Now, in actual fact, this little hat is way beyond anything I have accomplished as a knitter. I am extremely slow at that skill. In the last two years I have managed exactly one and three-quarters socks, and nine-tenths of a scarf. It may be some time before I get past the front page of this pattern, where they have listed all the names of Shetland sheep colours and patterns in their delightful Gaelic glory. It's a poem, really:

black, yuglet, sponget, krunet, moorit, bersugget, sholmit, bioget, blaeget, 

musket, emsket, bronget, skeget, shaela, mioget, mooskit, marlit, ilget, flecket, 

kraiget, fronet, moget, katmollet, smirslet, gualmogot, sokket, 

snaelit, mullit, mirkface, white

Aren't sheep wonderful? The not only provide us with boundless raw materials,  they also inspire us in many ways. And they are always ready to pose, showing off their perfect comic shape. Here is one of Linda's needled felted sheep designs on a little pocket purse. It has great texture, especially on its fuzzy "heid".

Doesn't that fact make you smile? The picture of innocence! I must try to remember that the next time they all decide to do exactly the opposite to what we are asking ... like the other day when some opportunistic butt-head squeezed through a gate and the whole herd went bounding gleefully around the yard, pursued by three enthusiastic but decidedly unhelpful dogs; Linda on her one good leg;  and me bellowing out something that sounded like "get away from the blaeget flecket burrs you snaelit mirkface fleece brains!"  

Yes, I think the sheep get their fair share of entertainment from watching us, too.