And then there were two/Dyeing Fiber

Apparently this is a good time of year to find homes for indoor kittens. We have only two left and we wanted to keep them both, but the black one is now spoken for too. In a few weeks, momma kitty will be spayed. She's been a great mom, but 7 kittens was plenty to bring into this world.

I've been dyeing fiber like crazy the past three days. First I did handpainted roving in the microwave and then two days of stove top batches. And there is still plenty of dye in the water, so I guess I will keep on until the dye exhausts and the water is clear.

I wanted the colored wool for felting, but now I'm thinking of making a Fair Isle sweater from it. I dyed all of Hetty's roving, thinking it wasn't the best stuff. But it turned out so pretty, now I think a final tribute to poor old Hetty would be nice. Maybe I can incorporate some her daughters' fleece too. She was my only ewe to produce twin ewe lambs last spring.

I finished up a pair of felted slippers last night, they were so easy! I plan to make some more as Christmas gifts. The pair in the photo is made of dyed black iset Shetland fiber, it looks so cool when felted because the iset fibers fuzz out so much. And they're warm too.

The sheep are all back in their own paddocks. The rams are getting along quite well after their exciting reniting on Sunday. The ewes are calm and hopefully pregnant. And the BFL's have their own paddock too. Life is much easier with fewer pens to feed and water twice a day. The 11 hens are laying like crazy and now we're getting green eggs too. It's hard to remember this is December, the weather has been so warm! I'm just relieved to have gotten my frozen electronet out of the ground.

Oh and today is Stan's birthday, I just took his cake out of the oven. That means I'd better start thinking about the Christmas cards...