The new Dyed in the Wool banner finally was finished this week.  Getting the silly thing designed was the easy part – getting it installed into a banner base with a broken internal part was not so easy.  Still, here it is!

At 86″ tall, it ought to be seen easily above the shelves and clothes racks – At least Dye-Anna should be.

Also, Sandy and I have 10 processed fleeces to sell to spinners.

If this doesn’t encourage people to touch and feel, I don’t know what will.  I can hardly keep my hands off of it and I made it!

I am so psyched about this weekend!  It is going to be lots of fun.

On the way home from work last night, I noticed the license plate on the car in front of me.

TBL – Through the Back Loop!!!  With the road trip this weekend, Sandy and I are going to keep our eyes peeled for other knitting or fiber themed plates.  I doubt if this person even has a clue to what a cool plate they have.  With most of Indiana plated, there are three numbers and three letters.  Let’s see…  I wonder if I can find an SSK?

Well, one eagle that is, and not exactly at my place, but at my in-laws’ in Plainfield, Indiana.  This guy was in one of the trees outside their house.

My MIL took this with her phone and she said lots of their neighbors were out taking pictures as well.  She said his wingspan was huge when he flew off.  They live near a creek and they believe the eagles have built a nest there in the trees along the water.

Seeing a bald eagle in Indiana isn’t all that common, but in our part of the state, it is rare, indeed.

Sandy and I are down to the last few items to finish before we head to Lexington for the Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival on Friday.  The lists we start out with at the beginning of each day are quite long, but surely and slowly, items are getting marked off.  With the tie-dyed stuff all completed and packed, we are concentrating on the spinning fiber we are taking.

Right now, besides the bags of batts we have, we have 10 washed and prepared fleeces we are taking to sell off ounce by ounce (or pound by pound).  One of the fleeces we are selling is from the 2010 Indiana State Fair Reserve Champion sheep, a Cormo named Monty.  Others include four different Corriedales (all different colors), a Romney, two Lincoln/Suffolk crosses, a deep, black Fresian and a few other crosses – Really nice stuff!

So, if you are planning to come to the festival this weekend, please be sure to look us up.  Also, while supplies last, we have a special goodie for those who come by on Sunday and wish Sandy a Happy 60th Birthday.

So, I didn’t get to teach my workshop last Saturday.  Instead, I went to Summit City Comic Com in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Rather than take the spinning wheel, though, I just took my knitting.  You can see the sock I am knitting in the picture below.  Don’t tell my mom, but these are for her.  She said the hospital where she gets her chemo treatments is freezing, so the least I can do is to knit her some nice, warm, wool socks for treatment day.

Here Scott and I are each holding one of the two graphic novels we have produced to date.  The one I am holding is the one hot off the presses – actually these are our proof copies, so we don’t have the “real” ones yet.

It was a fun day getting to see and catch up with all of our friends.  The “big” name there this year was Geoff Darrow, who was the set designer and artist behind the Matrix movies.  Super nice guy.

Today is our wedding anniversary and as we approach the 30 year mark, we both know we are blessed indeed to have found one another.

Because the natural dyeing workshop didn’t come off as planned, I will be able to be with Scott on this anniversary.  With what all was planned, we weren’t even going to be able to give each a peck on the cheek until Sunday night.

Instead, today I am cleaning house, mowing the yard and getting all manners of things caught up.  Everything has been so busy lately, that spring cleaning has just been a niggling idea in the back of my skull.  While I’ll not accomplish everything I want to do today, I should at least get some dusting, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming and rearranging in the studio done.  That will make me feel better and not so much like a slovenly housewife.

The natural dye workshop that was to happen at MoonTree Studios this Saturday has been postponed until September 22.  Not enough students signed up to come up to the minimum requirements, so if you are in northern Indiana, southern Michigan or northeastern Illinois and you want to have some fun learning about natural dyes (and go home with tons of samples), put this date on your calendar and contact MoonTree to sign up (moontree@poorhandmaids.org).

And there is still time to register for the beginning weaving workshop on July 13-15 at MoonTree Studios.

You really need to go out and watch the time-lapse video of this very talented young lady as she creates a piece of ikat fabric from measuring off the warp through the weaving process.  I have watched it several times and I learn something new each time.

Say “hello” to the second graphic novel in the Johnny Saturn series – Johnny Saturn: Homeland Insecurity.  This graphic novel covers issues 6-11 of the ongoing webcomic series and we are very happy with it.

Between now and when we receive it from the printer, we are running a presale on it.  The books sold during the presale will be a bit special, too.  No only will you save $5 off the cover price, but these will be “Artist’s Editions,” which means Scott will draw a bust shot of one of the characters in the front of the book.  Also, all of these bo0ks will be signed by both of us.

In order to place your order, click here.  You can also get the first graphic novel, Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father, if you don’t already have it.  The first trade is also available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  The second is available, too, but it won’t be an artist’s edition.

Wow!  Did Sandy and I (and Scott’s help on a couple of things) get a lot done this weekend.

We finished pricing and loading the box and tubs for Kentucky Sheep & Fiber with all the tie-dye we have done.

There are three containers of tie-dye – a box about 2′ X 16″ X 1′, an 18 gallon tub and a 45 gallon tub with wheels.  Thank heavens for the wheels.  These containers contain everything from baby onesies and burp cloths to dishtowels, a table cloth, beach towels, scrunchies, text book covers, PJ sets, panties, boxer shorts, socks, tank tops, t-shirts, shoe laces, purses, tote bags and draw-string project bags.  Whew!

Sandy and I also dyed some shirts for a repeat customer and more purses because we sold out of them and needed more.

Also, Sandy helped me get the sample yarn prepared for this next weekend’s natural dye workshop that I am teaching.

We took yarns in three base colors from this…

to bundles containing one piece from each base yarn,…

to this, which contains 200 bundles of three colors of yarns each.  Now multiple this by 5 and add knots to the yarns to indicate which mordant was used – none for no mordant, 1 for alum, which is in this picture, 2 for tin, three for copper and 4 for iron.  That is a lot of knot tying, let me tell you.

This helped.  We watched Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, which Sandy had never seen before.  We also watched nearly every Eric Clapton video we owned, including Live at Hyde Park, 24 Nights, and The Cream of Eric Clapton.

We spent 7 hours Saturday, Sandy took some home to work on Saturday night and Scott and I worked for about 3 hours yesterday getting the main bundles made.  I still need to bundle the bundles for dye-pots, but I can finish that up tonight, I think.

And we had a cute mascot while we worked.

Isn’t he becoming the most handsome cat?  His coloring is getting darker and darker and his blue eyes just sparkle.  Dylan doesn’t like people other than Scott and I so he hid the entire time.  He won’t even let Scott or I hold him when there are people around.  Pete, on the other hand, doesn’t have a shy bone in his body and gives Sandy kisses just like he does Scott and I.

And, please ignore the glass behind him.  I did clean my windows, but some of those are nose and paw prints.  We have three outdoor cats who live in the barn and between them, moths hitting the glass at night and the birds during the days, that glass door is better than TV to Pete and Dylan.  I’ve even caught them licking the glass.  Bless their hearts!