Sheep Pottery, etc.

Here's a photo of some things I wanted to share with you. First is the beautiful sheep pottery.  You may recall that I got the two sheep mugs in trade this past year and now I've been gifted with a matching pitcher!  I will get better photos later.  These were done by my friends Paul & Denise Morris.

Also notice the cute little felted baskets/bags given to me by my new friend, Bro.  The one on the left has a wire handle. They have wonderful little leather labels inside and a hang tang complete with a photo of their makers.  Very cute and a great idea for labeling.  I've been pondering how to label my felt pieces for a while now.

I finished the diagonal lace alpaca scarf a couple weeks ago. It's really long.  I don't know why I made it, I can't wear alpaca, it makes me cough.  Same thing happens when I wear angora.  I found that out way back in high school when I bought the cutest soft pink angora sweater.  Anyway, I've had this alpaca yarn for about 4-5 years so at least I've finally used it up and this scarf can be a gift or put up for sale.

And you can see in the photo, I broke down and bought myself a cute little RED poinsettia.  I always try to resist buying poinsettias at Christmas time because they never die!  I've had a plum/mauve one for a couple years now. I put it outside in the summer and it gets big and bushy.  It's blooming now too...but I wanted a real red one, so now I have yet another thing to take care of.

And last, but not least in the photo are two balls of combed top ready to be boxed and shipped out to my friend Di in New Jersey. I love that musket combed top!The white is Shetland Mule fiber (50/50 BFL and Shetland).  The Shetland mule has luster thanks to the BFL genetics.

I made jams the other day. I always freeze my raspberries in the summer and fall since I have everbearing plants. My usual raspberry jam went perfectly according to plan/recipe.  Raspberry jam is my favorite. 
But I also had odd amounts of blueberries and wild blackberries in the freezer too, not enough for a whole batch of either one, so I mixed them together and made Black and Blueberry Jam.
It turned out very tasty despite all the mistakes I made.  I couldn't believe how many things I did wrong on that batch!  I used 2.5 cups of crushed blueberries and 2 cups of crushed blackberries.  Instead of seven cups of sugar I put in NINE!  So I decided to add water - what the heck.  And then it boiled over (just took a quick glace at my email), oh my, what a mess!  But it's jelled and tastes great, so all is well in the end.

Sorry this is so short and rambling, I've got to get out and feed the sheep before I head to work.  Thankfully our temperatures have risen overnight. I don't mind the snow, in fact I love it, but the cold temps and blowing wind-- no thanks.