Confessions of a Fiber Drunk

The 20-Year Wedding Afghan

2012-01-07T13:07:00.010-05:00

I began this Feather 'N Fan Afghan in 1992. It is my most outstanding UFO (unfinished object, to the unwashed). I was a complete beginning knitter at the time. I bought the yarn at America's oldest yarn shop, Heindselman's in Provo, Utah. I had been married for 2 years at that point. I was seduced by the beauty of the yarn, which is called Fingerlakes Unspun and comes in blocks of "cheese" rather than in skeins (see bottom photo)... they call them "wheels" now. The yarn was in my wedding colors: heathered burgundy and pink, and I've always nicknamed this "the wedding afghan" because of the colors. The yarn isn't yarn at all, but very delicate laceweight unspun pencil roving that falls apart in your fingers as you work with it, if you are not very careful. The owner of Heindselman's recommended I "knit it double-stranded," a tip that probably saved me hours of aggravation, and saved my knitting hobby. That gave the yarn a little more strength while working with it. Knitted up, it seems strong enough, though I do not know if the finished afghan will be able to handle rough handling at all.

I had meant to finish this afghan by my 5th wedding anniversary, but here it is, 20 years later and I am still not finished with it. It does cover my lap as I work on it. The pattern is easy, but because the yarn is fine and difficult to work with, and because as a beginner I did drop a lot of stitches and had to rip back and begin many times, all that has added to my frustration and reluctance to work on the afghan over the years, and hence are some of the reasons for my slowness. But there is a metaphor for marriage in this "wedding afghan," too. Even despite problems and frustrations, we hang in there, pick up the work, and begin again because it's worth it in the end. And so I persevere, rather than abandon the project entirely for something easier.

I also did a little math last night as I worked on it. I timed myself; I'm not a fast knitter, even with thicker yarns perhaps. But it takes me one-and-a-half hours to knit 3 rows of this afghan (which amounts to 756 stitches)! 4 rows of this pattern amounts to about 3/4-inch of finished afghan. No wonder it's taking me so long! I have started and completed several afghans over the years, no problem, but this one is the one that is just taking forever! My hands are becoming arthritic, too, and I realized if I don't keep working on this while I can, a time may come when I can't complete it. Both of my great grandmothers had to give up their love of crochet because of arthritis. So tragic!

I'm not even sure I purchased adequate amounts of yarn. I have noticed I have gone through the pink yarn faster than the burgundy to the point that I am short one "cheese," so there is obviously an unequal amount of yardage from "cheese" to "cheese." Interestingly, the pink is slightly thicker than the burgundy. There's no chance of obtaining any more of this yarn. I will keep working on it until all the unspun yarn is used up.

My only other knitting UFO is also an afghan: the Barbara Walker Learn-to-Knit Afghan, which I began in 2006 while pregnant with my daughter. It is a knitting technique sampler with 63 squares (and I have done 20 so far). I perhaps complicated it by wanting to turn it into a spinning sampler as well, so I am spinning the yarn as I go. But other than these 2 outstanding UFOs, I'm usually quite diligent about finishing what I start!

Pattern: Rhodia Cozy Necklace

2011-12-27T16:58:00.014-05:00

After designing the Fountain Pen Cozy Necklace last week, I went ahead and knitted its mate: the Rhodia Cozy Necklace. Now I can have my pen and paper hands-free on the move. The Rhodia notepad is 3"x4" and the finished dimensions of this cozy are 5" x 4.25". This is knitted all in one piece (except for the cord), starting at the flap tip and ending with the bottom of the pouch.

I give this pattern freely, so please do not sell or give credit to another for this pattern. Thanks! (To get the .pdf free, go to the 4shared file-sharing website here.)

Rhodia Cozy Necklace

Knitted specifically for the Rhodia Bloc No. 11

Yarn: DK weight mercerized cotton. Use a washable yarn as it will get sweaty. This uses less than a half skein of yarn. Use a yarn that doesn't make your neck itch!

Needles: #5 DPNs (you'll need 4)

Gauge: 6 sts or 8 rows per inch in stockinette

Note: After you've created the flap, from time to time, slip your fountain pen into your cozy as you knit to be sure everything fits and lines up properly, and to be sure of the correct length. For the M increases, I used the thumb cast-on.

For the flap

CO 4.
1. Knit.
2. K, P2, K.
3. K, M2, K2, M2, K. (8 stitches are now on the needle)
4. K, P6, K.
5. K, M3, K6, M3, K. (14 sts)
6. K, P12, K.
7. K, M1, K6, 2 YOs (for bobble hole), K6, M1, K. (18 sts)
8. K, P16, K.
9. K, M1, K16, M1, K. (20 sts)
10. K, P18, K.
11. K, M1, K18, M1, K. (22 sts)
12. K.
13. K, P20, K.
14. K. Place marker.

From here on out you'll feel like you're knitting upside down. You'll be creating the opening of the pouch, with the open edge moving beneath your needles as you work.

For the pouch

On wrong (purl) side of the flap, CO 22 sts (cable cast-on) at the beginning of the
round (for 44 sts total). Divide up the stitches on 3 or 4 DPNs. Join. Knit for 1 1/2 inches.

Slide the Rhodia notepad into your knitting and pull the flap down over the front. Gauge where you will need the bobble to line up with the buttonhole on the flap. Then K10, make one stockinette bobble (* see instructions below), K rest of the round.

K for another 3.25 inches. Slip the notebook into the pouch from time to time to see when to end. End at the marker.

Divide the stitches equally onto 2 needles and do the Kitchener stitch to bind off (if you don't know how to do Kitchener stitch, try this YouTube video).

For the cord

Make a 33-inch 2-stitch I-cord and attach it to the underside of the flap.

*How to make a stockinette bobble stitch:
K5 by knitting into the front of the stitch, then into the back of the stitch, then the front, then the back, then the front one last time, and then slide the old stitch off-- 5 stitches in 1, essentially! Turn your work so that the wrong side is facing you. The stitches will be on the left needle. Purl the 5 stitches. Turn the work again, and with the stockinette side facing, knit the 5 stitches again. With the left needle, pull the 2nd stitch up and over the first and then off the right needle. Repeat pulling stitches up and over with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th stitches. There's your bobble!

Together at last!

Pattern: Fountain Pen Cozy Necklace

2011-12-24T00:16:00.031-05:00

When I walk, I often get ideas for creative writing projects. Years ago, my husband bought me a mini ballpoint pen that has a chain attached to its screw-top lid (shown on the right in the photo above), for wearing around the neck while I walk. It's a great concept for a writer. It made it easy to jot down ideas as they came, and it kept my hands free the rest of the time (and for us tomboys who can't stand to carry a purse, it's even better to be able to wear it around the neck!) I've often wished there was something similar available for fountain pens, as those are my preferred writing implement. So rather than wait around for this idea to come into its own, I decided to try knitting a wearable fountain pen cozy. I've never designed a knitting pattern in my life, though this wasn't exactly rocket science! It only took 2 evenings to make. I've scarcely done anything fibery all year, so it's nice the skill has not abandoned me yet. I may have to try inventing a matching wearable cozy for a mini Rhodia paper pad next!

Without further ado, here's the pattern as a Christmas gift to my readers. So, Merry Christmas! (I give this pattern freely, so please do not sell or give credit to another for this pattern. Thanks!)

Note: If you'd like a .pdf file of this pattern, you can download it for free at the 4shared file-sharing website here.

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Fountain Pen Cozy Necklace (AKA Wearable Fountain Pen Cozy)

Knitted specifically for the Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen

Yarn: DK weight mercerized cotton (a tightly-plied yarn is recommended so your pen clip doesn't catch on the plies). If you're going to go walking often with your pen, use a washable yarn as it will get sweaty. This uses less than a half skein of yarn. Use a yarn that doesn't make your neck itch!

Needles: #5 DPNs (you'll need 4)

Gauge: 6 sts or 8 rows per inch in stockinette

Note: From time to time, slip your fountain pen into your cozy as you knit to be sure everything fits properly, and to be sure of the correct length.

CO 9 stitches and join. Place marker at the beginning of the round.
K in the round for 4 1/2 inches.
K 4 sts, make 1 stockinette stitch bobble (*see instructions below), K4.
K for 2 inches.
K3, BO 3 sts, K6.

You will now be knitting back and forth, rather than in the round, for the flap.
For the flap:

Knit in stockinette for 2 inches (do garter stitch on the first two and last two stitches of each row, to prevent curling on the edges of the flap. Do this for the entire flap.)

K3, do 2 YOs, K3 (the YOs are the buttonhole for the bobble. Pull your flap down to the bobble to double check that your buttonhole lines up with where the bobble is. Adjust by doing the YOs on a different row, if necessary.)

Continue in stockinette stitch for 3 more rows, then BO. Weave in the ends. For the bottom of the pen holder, thread your tail through all the topmost loops in the very first round you knitted. Pull tight to draw it together, like you would for a hat. Knot it off and weave the end on the inside.

For the necklace:

Make a 2-stitch I-cord that is 33 inches long (or to your desired length). Try it on and see if you like where your pen will hang. Attach the I-cord to the inside of the back of the flap. If you don't know how to make an I-cord, watch this YouTube video. Only cast on 2 stitches, however (the video shows a 3-stitch I-cord). (If you prefer, you can do a crochet chain.)

*How to make a stockinette bobble stitch:
K5 by knitting into the front of the stitch, then into the back of the stitch, then the front, then the back, then the front one last time, and then slide the old stitch off-- 5 stitches in 1, essentially! Turn your work so that the wrong side is facing you. The stitches will be on the left needle. Purl the 5 stitches. Turn the work again, and with the stockinette side facing, knit the 5 stitches again. With the left needle, pull the 2nd stitch up and over the first and then off the right needle. Repeat pulling stitches up and over with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th stitches. There's your bobble!

Another Egg Post

2011-12-11T18:42:00.012-05:00

(click on images to enlarge)

Just a quick update. Our chickens have been laying eggs for a couple months now. Two of our Ameraucanas consistently lay rough and bumpy calcium deposits on their outer shells. I'm not really sure what causes this. Too much calcium in the diet? Not enough? None of the other chickens or turkeys lay eggs like these. The one on the left below reminds me of a globe!

One of the turkeys has started pecking at the eggs and has discovered they are a tasty thing to eat (this, despite keeping golf balls in the nest boxes for several months, to dissuade this very behavior. The idea being that, by pecking at a hard ball where nothing happens, they won't be tempted to try it on the eggs when they start laying). We may have a bad problem on our hands if this is the case. We collect eggs several times a day and at night, trying to get them before they're broken. But I'm wondering how we'll be able to correct this.

One fun thing: hens are consistent in laying a certain shape/color of egg, so we can pretty much identify which of our chickens laid this egg or that.

Deflated Turkey Egg

2011-11-18T12:49:00.011-05:00

(click to enlarge)

Our turkeys have been laying eggs about every other day or so for a few weeks now. They tend to lay them in the middle of the coop, rather than use any of the nest boxes, and they do it during the night. We got a surprise one day this week when one of the turkeys laid a deflated egg! It feels papery and does not have a shell, only the membrane. We hope this is just because she's a new layer and her body is still sorting things out. She has laid normal eggs since. This kind of thing can be a sign of calcium deficiency, too, but our birds get plenty of oyster shell. We also feed their egg shells back to them (after baking and crushing them to powder in the blender). So I'm hoping we don't see this again.

Our turkeys have brought a festive air to the holiday this year. Just having them around screams Thanksgiving, especially when they display their tail feathers proudly (they are our walking decorations). Mono & Chrome are not destined for our Thanksgiving table. We enjoy all of our poultry as pets far too much to eat them. We are truly thankful for them and the gift of their eggs-- even the interesting surprises that afford us learning opportunities. Gobblers rule!

Make sure you catch the new documentary on PBS's Nature called My Life As a Turkey. It is airing this month. You can watch the full episode at this link, too.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

First Turkey Eggs!

2011-10-24T18:30:00.009-04:00

(click to enlarge)

We got our first egg from one of the Narragansetts turkeys today, about 6 1/2 months after we brought our hatchlings home. It's the white speckled one in the photo. For size comparison, a green Ameraucana chicken egg is to the left of it. We found it in the middle of the coop floor-- I guess turkeys don't like nest boxes like chickens do! I'm guessing since this was a first egg, it is on the small size, but in time the eggs will get larger, just like the chicken eggs did. Happy day!

eta: A few hours after posting the above, Carl caught our second turkey (Mono) in the act of laying an egg. Now we know for sure that we have 2 female turkeys! They both laid on the same day for the first time! Mono's egg is on the bottom and has more pronounced markings than Chrome's. Mono at least used a nest box, though she went into it head first with her rump sticking out.

Poultry Update

2011-10-22T13:04:00.009-04:00

Our Narragansett turkeys, now 6 1/2 months old, are always surprising us. Mono, the most dominant and active of the two turkeys, has started displaying her (or is it his?) tail feathers this week. It's really a magnificent thing to behold. Whenever Mono does this, it reminds me of a peacock-- only with that bald, prickly, nubby head of theirs, it's like a peacock gone wrong!

Mono has been displaying other dominant signs, too. She (he?) often chases down the chickens and we're having to keep an eye on that. One time she got behind me as I was sitting at the picnic table, and suddenly got the notion to roost on my head! The next thing I knew, she was tangled in my hair, panicked, and pooped on me! I told her (him?) she shouldn't do such a thing so close to Thanksgiving!

Anyway, it's possible this turkey is turning out to be a male after all. I haven't heard the turkeys gobble, exactly, though they do make a worrisome sort of warble when they're disturbed by something. Chrome is very docile and plops down on the ground to let the kids maul her. She often falls asleep while they pet her.

They truly are odd creatures. I joke all the time that they are really aliens sent to observe us. They seem a step or two removed from reality. They interact with you, but not in ways you would think. They have an odd way of just sidling up to you when you don’t realize they’re there. See that snood above the beak? I think it's an antenna, transmitting back to the mother ship! Their heads change from gray to red to blue and back to gray again-- certainly not the normal behavior of any earthling!

eta: Both our turkeys turned out to be females. They both are laying eggs. I am told the way to identify a female is to look at his back feathers. If they are white-tipped, they are female. If they are black-tipped, they are male.

Our hens are all laying regularly now. Whereas our Ameraucana-turken hybrids began laying at about 4 1/2 months old, the purebred Ameraucanas were about 6 months old before they started laying for the first time. Before the 6-month mark, we were still having to buy some eggs from the grocery store. After the 6-month mark, we're now officially inundated with eggs, with 4-5 eggs daily. I'm looking into freezing and perhaps dehydrating the eggs.

Our coop has 8 nest boxes, but the hens have decided they have one favorite nest box. Yesterday they stood in line, patiently waiting for Rusty (who is usually the first to lay each day) to finish laying, as though they were in line for a ride at Disneyland! But today they just piled on top of each other in the same nest box! I guess they couldn't wait!

What can I say, chickens and turkeys are fun (except when they poop on your head!)

Dean's Cotton Maze Revisted

2011-10-09T14:20:00.010-04:00

Our family went to Dean's Farm in Wilson yesterday and we had a great time. This was our third year going (blogged previously here). We enjoyed the hayride and of course the cotton maze. I asked permission to pick cotton (which they've told me in the past that they merely plow under after October) so I picked 2 bagfuls while the kids played in the play area.

We noted the improvements they've made since our last visit. They've expanded the play area and have many swings, a huge slide, and a large sandbox. They've also added several picnic tables. They added some educational signs about cotton and NC agriculture inside the cotton maze and on the hayride tour of the farm.

Other things we love about Dean's: we always get a year supply of honey while we're there (they grow strawberries here, so I've always enjoyed the strawberry-flavored honey they produce). This year we brought home a jar of their barrel molasses, too. That will be fun to try. They sell vegetables on-site. We brought home mustard greens and tomatoes, too. Included with the cost of the hayride, we each got to pick out a pie pumpkin. I spent last night baking all four down and pureeing, then freezing them-- they say there's a shortage of pumpkins this year, but you wouldn't know it by my freezer now!

So if you happen to be in North Carolina during the month of October, Dean's Farm is a great place for some autumn fun. This was our best visit yet! Without further ado, here are some photos I took yesterday of the cotton maze. For the fiber freak and photographer, this place is as fun as Disneyland!

And now to get ginning...

Narragansett Turkeys (5 Months Old)

2011-09-20T22:19:00.003-04:00

I just thought I'd update with pictures how the turkeys are doing. They are 5 months old now. It won't be long before they are laying eggs. They dwarf the chickens in size now. They're pretty tolerant of the kids mauling them.

They are fond of flying up into the trees. Sometimes it's a challenge to get them back down again! They don't quite have as strong a sense to come back home to roost in the coop at night as the chickens do. They'd probably prefer to stay up in the trees, but there are too many predators here.

Pokeberry Ink

2011-08-11T21:01:00.029-04:00

Click on photos to enlarge.

Pokeberry Ink Sample Using a Platinum Preppy Marker & J. Herbin Glass Pen

Ready-to-Pick Pokeberries

Pokeweed (also called Inkberry) is a common weed in the South and affords the ink-maker with an opportunity to make a pretty magenta ink. Historically, American colonists were known to write letters with this homemade ink, so this can make an interesting hands-on history lesson for both grownups and kids alike. Pokeberries begin to ripen in North Carolina at the end of July and continue to ripen through about October. Keep in mind this ink is highly fugitive. Light causes it to brown and fade. A writing sample put in the sun for even just one day fades it considerably, and within three days the writing is gone all together. Even some writing samples that I've kept in a cool, dark room since last summer have shown significant fading. This is an ink to enjoy for today. Don't use it for anything with archival requirements. It will turn brown within a year or two and perhaps eventually fade all together, depending on how documents written with it are stored.

I've been picking and freezing some ripe pokeberries for a few weeks now, until I had enough to make a batch of ink. I'm testing this year's batch of ink in a Platinum Preppy Marker. The ink is on the acidic side so I wouldn't recommend it in a fountain pen (though it may very well work in a plastic Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen). I've always used a metal dip pen or a glass pen with this ink in the past. We'll see how it holds up in the marker. Preliminary results show the ink to appear less intense with the marker than with the glass pen.

Flowering Pokeweed

Unripe Pokeberries

Pokeweed Stem After the Berries are Picked

Crushing the Berries with a Pestle in a Fine-Mesh Strainer

Pokeberry Ink

2/3 cup ripe pokeberries
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Crush the berries through a fine-mesh strainer. I use a wooden pestle wrapped in 3 layers of Saran Wrap to keep the juice from staining the pestle. I mash the pestle against the berries while in the strainer, collecting the juice in a bowl underneath. Discard the solids. Add the salt and vinegar (I've used both raw apple cider vinegar and distilled white vinegar before). Mix well. The ink will be foamy at first, but will go down within an hour or less. Store in a sealed amber glass jar. Yields about 3 ounces of ink.

CAUTION: Pokeberries are toxic (particularly the seeds inside them) so do not ingest. Be careful around children.

I'm currently testing this out in a Platinum Preppy Marker. This marker can be converted to an eyedropper pen. This allows you to fill the entire inside barrel of the pen with whatever ink you want, including pokeberry ink! To see how to make the conversion, click here. Goulet Pens sells the o-rings and silicone grease to make this conversion, as well as the markers. This conversion works for both the Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen and Marker.

Pokeberry Ink Batch from 2010 (with the recipe written out in pokeberry ink with a glass pen).

The pokeberry ink I made in 2010 has already browned somewhat in the bottle, despite being stored in an amber bottle in a dark, cool room. So my recommendation is to make only enough ink that you can enjoy in one season. Anything more than that will be a waste.

ETA: (Aug. 20, 2011) A few days after filling the Platinum Preppy Marker with this homemade pokeberry ink, the pen began to leak. I also filled a Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen and it, too, leaked (I didn't get a very good flow from it, anyway). I think this ink is too acidic for these pens. So please do not use this ink in a pen. Stick with a J. Herbin Glass Pen. It works beautifully and brings out the best in the color.

First Egg!

2011-07-22T13:54:00.013-04:00

Ameraucana chicken egg (left) and regular store-bought egg (right)

20 weeks and 2 days after hatch, one of our Ameraucana chickens has laid its first egg! We knew the time was getting close, but didn't expect to see any eggs during this heatwave that's currently hitting the south. We're not sure which chicken laid the egg. As you can see, the first egg is smaller than normal. Sometimes they are even deformed the first time. It takes a few cycles for things to normalize and come up to size. We scrambled the egg right away and each had a bite. The kids are so excited-- they proclaimed it "better than the store kind."

Our Narrangansett turkeys are nearly 14 weeks old now. They are so hard to photograph. They are often right in my face and run after me if it looks like I'm going to leave the run. But the moment I bring out the camera, they turn their backs on me! So most of my photos are of the tail-end.

Mono & Chrome

Here you can see the first carbuncles and wattle growing (click on image to enlarge):

It's been so hot that we set up a sprinkler for the poultry yesterday. They didn't really want to get close to it, even though it was set on low at their height. We gently dipped their feet in water to cool them. Their feet felt really hot. Today we have frozen 2-liter pop bottles (filled with water) in their run so they can perch on them and hopefully cool off. I hope everyone is managing to stay cool during this heatwave!

Opossum Rescue

2011-07-01T21:30:00.020-04:00

We have been rehabilitating injured and orphaned wildlife off and on since the mid-1990's. We work with a terrific network of rehabbers called Wildlife Welfare here in North Carolina. Today we got in 4 baby opossums that weigh about 60 grams each (we estimate their age to be around 10 weeks or so). Their mother was hit by a car. It's always a miracle whenever babies manage to survive safe inside their mother's pouch but they often do survive. Rehabbers pull over and check dead opossums they come across on the road, to see if there are any babies still alive inside the pouch. These 4 will be in our care until they weigh at least 1 1/2 pounds, so it will be a couple months before they can be released. At this stage, they will need syringe feeding every 4 hours.

Opossums are marsupials, and North America only has one of those so far as I know: the Virginia opossum. When they are born they are no larger than a raisin. They are pink and naked and crawl to the pouch to find a nipple, just like kangaroos. They have no sucking reflex. When they find the nipple they latch on (it goes quite deeply into their throats, too) and stay latched on continuously for weeks. The mother squirts milk into them to keep them fed.

Below are two 5-week old opossums for comparison. At this age, they have no fur, their eyes are closed, and they are utterly helpless. Someone found these two by their doorstep. They should have still been latched on snug inside their mother's pouch at this stage. Each one weighed only 30 grams. We have to use stomach tubes to feed these little guys.

I wish I could say there was a happy ending for the two 5-week old opossums. They didn't survive their first night. We figure either the mother knew something was wrong with them and left them, or else a cat got a hold of them (most likely the latter, since they were left by a doorstep). One of them did have a little internal bleeding from the phallus. Sometimes all we rehabbers can do is give them a warm place to die, and I'm glad we were able to at least give them that along with a few feedings of warm milk before they passed on. That has to be better than a cold doorstep.

Rehabbers do this work as volunteers. We pay for our supplies and critter housing ourselves. Through the organization Wildlife Welfare, we are able to at least order milk replacers and feeding supplies in bulk at wholesale prices to help keep costs a little lower. If you are interested in donating or even volunteering, please visit Wildlife Welfare's website. There is great need. Your donation will go directly towards helping the critters, and not towards overhead or administrative costs. It's also tax-deductible. The critters thank you!

And if you ever find injured or orphaned wildlife, please find a licensed rehabber or vet to take care of it if you can. If you are not able to find someone, Wildlife Welfare has a phone number you can call that has a recording of what you can do until you can get help. Call (919) 387-1662.

Narragansett Turkeys (11 Weeks Old)

2011-06-27T16:16:00.005-04:00

I would be posting more photos of the turkeys, but they never stand still and I can never get a good shot of them! But here they are at 11 weeks old. After asking others what sex they may be, it seems the consensus is we have 2 females. They haven't gobbled and they don't strut (signs of a male). Their snoods don't appear to be getting any larger. They are starting to get small wattles under their chins. I love their feather patterns: just black, grays and white. Maybe I should call them Mono and Chrome. There's something about turkeys that reminds me of peacocks, or maybe peacocks-gone-wrong! Their feathering is no less magnificent, in its own way.

Yesterday I went out to the run while eating an ice cream cone. One of the turkeys made a bee-line for it! I had to shoo it away. I never would have thought they'd go for an ice cream cone, but then hey, who doesn't like ice cream?

Aleppo Iron Gall Ink Meets Pilot Parallel Pen

2011-06-16T12:47:00.013-04:00

(Click to enlarge: please excuse my sloppy down-sloping writing, lol!)

Just a rushed note and ink sample here today. If you've read my previous homemade ink-related posts, you know I like to try to bring ancient ink technology into modern use if I can, via fountain pens or markers. I've only been successful so far with the Platinum Preppy Marker and the Pilot Parallel Pen, and only with 2 of my homemade inks (the pomegranate iron gall ink and the Dr. Stark aleppo iron gall ink have been successful... the Jane Austen iron gall ink and black walnut inks clogged all pens I tried them with.)

I finally got around to testing my last batch of aleppo iron gall ink in the Pilot Parallel Fountain Pen. It worked! And I'm happy to report that the homemade pomegranate iron gall ink has been working just fine these past few months in the Pilot Parallel Pen, too, without signs of corrosion to the nib. I have had to flush the nib a couple times, but that's completely normal for any commercial fountain pen-safe iron gall ink, too.

I love the idea of using these inks as every day inks. Before the Platinum Preppy Marker and Pilot Parallel Pen, these inks could only be used safely with a quill or glass pen, which takes them out of the realm of convenience for the modern writer. These inks tend to corrode metal dip pens as well. They'll ruin all other fountain pens. So if you've been entertaining the idea of making any of these inks but aren't crazy about having to dip your ink, you do have a couple of more convenient options available now. I'm working on a novel and writing the first draft out by hand using the Pilot Parallel and my iron gall inks.

Happy writing!

eta (Jan. 8th, 2012): I have now successfully used the homemade aleppo iron gall ink and homemade pomegranate ink in the following pens long-term: Pilot Parallel Pen, Parker Vector, Pilot 78G and the Osmiroid India Ink Calligraphy Pen.

Moving Day for Turkeys

2011-06-15T13:27:00.013-04:00

Our Narragansett turkeys are over 9 weeks old now. Starting last week, we put them outside with our Ameraucana chickens permanently. We have an evening ritual of letting the chickens out of their run for some foraging time, about an hour before sunset. As the sun goes down, they naturally start to head back to the coop on their own (though we do give them scratch, i.e. cracked grains, as a treat and additional incentive to wander back). For a few weeks up until that time, we also let the turkeys join them, all the while monitoring for any serious pecking between them. The turkeys are still only about 3/4 the size of the chickens so we weren't sure if this was too soon or not. We gave back our cockerels to Sumner-Byrd Farm last week, and knew the dynamics of the pecking order would be disrupted for the chickens-- we literally took advantage of this upheaval as a prime time to introduce the turkeys into their new flock permanently. It worked! There's been some minor pecking but nothing serious. We weren't sure if the turkeys would sleep in the coop with the chickens or not. They slept on the floor their first night, in the coop; thereafter, they've pretty much been sleeping on the roosts side-by-side with the chickens. It looks like it's going to work out. Things have been a lot calmer in our flock all the way around since we returned the cockerels.

Divine Comedy Writing Box

2011-06-11T12:54:00.012-04:00

Click on images to enlarge:

I've always wanted a writing slope, like the kind Thomas Jefferson designed:

Until the day I can afford one, I made myself a little writing box to hold all my writing supplies in. It came to less than $15 to make. I bought an unfinished hinged box from A. C. Moore, painted it pearl white with acrylic paint, and decoupaged Gustave Dore images from The Divine Comedy onto it. I then finished it with polyurethane seal to make it shiny and to protect the surface. (See my previous post Cotton Travel Kit for another such box I made.) It measures 12" x 8 3/4" x 5", which is tall enough to house a 3-ounce bottle of Noodler's ink (but not a 4.5 ounce eyedropper bottle, unfortunately!) I selected inspiring images from Purgatorio and Paradisio. I would have preferred a snazzier base color, but the black and white images varied so much in tone (some were bluish-black and others were brownish-black) that I had to settle for a neutral base color. You can't really tell in the photos, but the pearl-white paint sparkles in the light (it appears as brighter white uneven splotches in the photos, unfortunately!)

Here are the contents (so far): Ink bottles and sample vials (mainly with my homemade inks), J. Herbin glass pen, bamboo pen, fountain pens, sealing wax, sealing stamp, address book, bone folder, postage stamps, letter opener, matches (for sealing wax), pen holder, ink blotter, glue stick, Microglaze (an ink waterproofer), mini postage scale, mini calender, and Ghirardelli chocolate. :o)

It doesn't have all the neat hidden compartments that a writing slope would, nor does it have the slanting desk so I can write on it, but it holds everything I need for writing letters and stories. Dante is my favorite writer, and this box is the perfect inspiration for my muse. Every time I look at it, I will think of him and be reminded to aspire to higher writing standards.

Of Pea Combs and Oil Glands

2011-06-07T21:00:00.005-04:00

I take great pleasure in sitting outside with our poultry and just observing their funny little antics. Our chickens are just over 3 months old now, and the turkeys are 8 weeks old. We let them run loose for about an hour before sunset, then lure them back to their coop with scratch (cracked grains). We set a picnic table up near the coop so we have a comfortable place to sit and watch them. The chickens and turkeys love the table, too, as you can see in the above photo. I like to sit out at the table and write letters, but I'm very often interrupted by a chicken or turkey plunking itself down on my letter and demanding my attention instead!

One of our observations we've made is that both chickens and turkeys have an oil gland on top of the base of their tails. On the Narragansett turkey, it looks like a black nipple. On the Ameraucana chickens, it looks like a pink pimple. The birds rub their beaks on this gland and then rub their beaks across their feathers. This is how they keep their feathers is good condition. They also like a good dust bath.

You can see the dark oil gland on the turkey in the two pictures below (look for the black thing):

I've been meaning to post pictures of the chickens' pea combs for a couple weeks now. I took mugshots of each of the chickens because the one thing new poultry owners always asks is, "When will I be able to tell the males from the females?" I hope these photos will help give early clues. You never really know with 100% certainty if a chicken is a pullet (young female) or cockerel (young male) until you hear it cock-a-doodle-doo or lay an egg. Of the 11 eggs we hatched back in March, 6 ended up to be males (unfortunate for us, because we want eggs, not broilers). But here are pictures of their pea combs.

Ameraucana pullet pea comb (12 weeks old):

Ameraucana cockerel pea comb (11 weeks old... doesn't his eye look freakishly human?!):

Ameraucana cockerel pea comb (also 11 weeks old... notice how much larger his is compared with the previous photo?):

Ameraucana cockerel pea comb (also 11 weeks old):

Ameraucana pullet pea comb (12 weeks old):

Ameraucana-Turken pullet pea comb (12 weeks old):

Ameraucana-Turken cockerel pea comb (12 weeks old):

My Missing-Link Chickens

2011-05-27T19:21:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd share our most recent photos of our turkens (also called naked necks), a breed that looks like the missing link! You either love these chickens or you hate them. For those who gravitate towards the unusual, turkens fit the bill! (To read how we inadvertently ended up with this particular breed, read the previous entry Amerauacana-Turken Hybrids.) A sweet breed that makes you wonder if there really is something to that dinosaur-bird theory!

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

“A woman’s shoulders are the front lines of her mystique; and her neck, if she’s alive, has all the mystery of a border town.” --Al Pacino (Devil’s Advocate)

"If you've got it, flaunt it!"

“After all, it is not where one washes one’s neck that counts but where one moistens one’s throat.” --Djuna Barnes

The Chicken Run is Done!

2011-05-23T12:47:00.011-04:00

(click on images to enlarge)

At long last our chicken run is done! Phew! Some bad weather slowed us down this spring, but now we can put this project behind us. Carl built the run himself, with a little help from me and the kids. I feel pretty confident it is predator-proof (we used 1/2" hardware cloth, and sunk the sides quite deep into the ground to prevent any critters from tunneling in). The dimensions are 6'x12'. We've put so many other things on hold to get this done. After all is said and done, I think we have a pretty good set-up for our chickens and turkeys. They seem to be quite content with it. My only concern is that we located all this in a mostly shaded area-- a good thing for the summer heat, but I worry the chickens might not get enough sun. They need a certain amount of light each day to trigger egg-laying. We did use a clear plexiglass roof on it to let in as much light as possible. I noticed having light-colored shavings on the ground brightened the inside of the run, too. If all goes well, we should see our first eggs sometime after the 4th of July.

Narragansett Turkeys (5 Weeks Old)

2011-05-16T01:40:00.018-04:00

Dante & Beatrice (tentatively named)

Our Narragansett turkeys are 5 weeks old today. We took them outside on Saturday for a little exploring. Here are some photos from that little adventure.

I like how they're feathering out:

I noticed today the bump that grows on top of their beaks (between their eyes) got larger all of a sudden, at least on the larger of the two turkeys. I'm not sure what the bump is called... is it the beginning of a snood? Is this an early indication of a male, I wonder? Here's the comparison between the two.

Beatrice, the smaller turkey (with an almost flat snood):

Dante, the bigger turkey (with a growing snood):

We're learning as we go. If it turns out that we have one male and one female turkey, I will be naming them Dante and Beatrice, after real-life characters from The Divine Comedy. Beatrice was the love of Dante's life. She died young, before he could marry her. She inspired him to follow a more righteous path. He devoted a book of poetry just to her after her death called Vita Nuova. It's quite a romantic story. I hope the couple doesn't mind me naming my turkeys after them!

Dante Meets Beatrice at Ponte Santa Trinita by Henry Holiday (inspired by Vita Nuova). Beatrice is in white. I suspect the lady in red represents Dante's former path in life, before he met Beatrice-- the latter is shown as the more modest of the two.

Chicken Photo Update (10 Weeks Old)

2011-05-10T01:35:00.018-04:00

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Our chicks are 10 weeks old now. Long-gone is the baby fuzz; they look like miniature adults now. They still peep like babies when we're near, though the roosters have been crowing for a couple of weeks now. Their crowing started out as partial cockle-doodle-doos (croaks, really), but now they do it in full. Of the 11 eggs we hatched, we figure we have 6 females and 5 males. There is one that is hard to tell still. They have their pecking-order battles. The rooster we nicknamed Dom (for dominant) rules the roost:

Dom

It is very comical to watch these stand-offs and mini battles play out. When two chickens meet or confront each other, they will puff their feathers up into a lion's mane to make themselves appear more threatening. They will then try to stare each other down. The one who looks away first is the loser. Occasionally they will fly at one another to let each other know who is boss. The top chicken is possessive of a ladder rung we've kept in the poultry run while we've been building it... if anyone tries to get up on that rung other than Dom, he flies at that contender to knock the other off.

This rooster has a twisted toe. We don't know how it happened. Perhaps during one of the aforementioned battles. He seems to get around fine, despite the toe:

This one looks like a hawk, so we nicknamed her (what else?) Hawk:

Hawk is one of my favorites, along with the gray one my daughter calls Pretty (shown above with my daughter). They have very gentle dispositions. As soon as they see me coming, they sidle up to me and sort of lean into me. This means, "Pick me up." Ameraucanas often have these adorable cheek feathers.

The Ameraucana-Turken hybrid that looked like an emu when he was a baby now looks like a vulture. He's not the most handsome chicken in the flock, but he does have a gentle nature.

We have two nervous nellies in the flock, a pair of female Ameraucana-Turkens that we nicknamed the Blondies (see their baby photo here to see why). They're no longer blonde, but more like a light tan. I kind of like the feathery breeches on this one:

It's been an amazing experience these past 10 weeks. It's been a concentrated, hands-on life experiment. If you can't get enough chicken pics, go to my Flickr album where there are a lot more.

And now I come to the end of this blog entry.

Narragansett Turkeys (3 Weeks Old)

2011-05-01T14:15:00.013-04:00

(Click on photos to see them enlarged)

Our poults turned 3 weeks old today. One of the turkeys remains larger than the other one (shown in the forefront in the photo below). I don't know if this is because one is a male and the other a female, or if the smaller one is a runt (I don't know if it's possible to sex them this early). The smaller one has always seemed a little behind developmentally. The larger poult has more saddle feathers. The larger is also more active and likes to pace back and forth. The smaller is more mellow and mostly likes to hang out.

We took them outdoors for the first time yesterday, to burn some of that energy. I put them on a patch of chickweed and let them have fun nibbling.

They still peep loudly at night. We tried leaving the room light on (as well as the brooder light), but that didn't really work. So we tried playing the radio quietly near their brooder, tuned to the local classical music station. When the rest of the house is quiet and still, this actually works and they quiet down! However, if we have the TV on or if they know we're still up, they'll peep and peep and peep. Only classical music seems to work.

Here are 2 photos of the smaller turkey (the larger one is on the move so much, that it's hard to get a good shot!):

We're making good progress on our poultry run. Their run will be 6'x12'. We have every chicken predator possible on our property, so we're having to use 1/2" hardware cloth rather than chicken wire. The roof will have a plexiglass top to let sunlight through (they're in a heavily shaded area as it is and I fear they won't get enough sun... they need sunshine to make vitamin D, just like us). I'm sure our chickens (which will be 2 months old tomorrow) will be glad to leave their coop during the day, even though their coop is quite roomy. We carry them around the yard in turns to prevent boredom. They really enjoy this. Our roosters are old enough to crow now and I actually like the sound.

Turkeys: 10 Days Old Now

2011-04-20T21:59:00.012-04:00

Click on images to enlarge

Just thought I'd give a brief photo update of the Narragansett turkey poults. I know when I was first starting out with the baby chickens, it was so helpful to me to find photos online of their stages of growth. So I'm trying to do that here a little, too. Their wing feathers (especially the primary flight feathers) are really poking out now-- boy, those grew in fast. The poults are starting to look leggy, too.

I have already noticed major differences in behavior between baby turkeys and chickens. These two turkeys, at least, are fairly fearless compared to our chicks when they were the same age. New experiences and foods don't freak them out. Chickens are more fearful (or is it merely cautious?) when given a new food or when a new item is put into their housing. Chickens spook easily. On the other hand, turkeys don't like night time, at least these little darlings don't much. Even though they have a brooder light (with an incandescent light bulb) that's on 24 hours a day, it seems after the sun goes down, they peep loudly for momma. It's almost like having a newborn that cries all night. I'm usually up until after midnight anyway, so I'll come when they call. But when I'm ready for bed, I do let 'em peep it out! By morning, they're OK again. So my theory is that they don't like it when the windows and rest of the house are dark. I'm going to try leaving the room light on all night tonight and see if that helps.

I chop up swiss chard, chickweed, carrots and scrambled eggs as a supplement for their feed. We give them mealworms, too. They're not afraid to try new things. By comparison, our chickens are 7 weeks old now and are finally starting to warm up to veggies and such. But they still stare at the food dish at a cautious distance for many moments before finally approaching the dish and then sampling it. Luckily, curiosity wins out in the end. I guess they live up to their namesake of "being chicken."

Easter Peeps

2011-04-16T02:08:00.006-04:00

Every spring I say I'm going to knit these Easter peeps for the kids, but until this year I'd always remember too late. We've got poultry on the brain, so I couldn't help commemorate them in some way for the kids to remember them by.

It's a simple pattern that could probably be worked up in a day, though I took about 3 days working on it off and on. The yarn that the pattern calls for is discontinued, but luckily my local A. C. Moore had some fuzzy yarn that could substitute. All in all a fun pattern that I know the kids are going to love! (I'll be knitting a pink one next.) Many thanks to Kat Lewinski who generously designed and shared this pattern with the world!

Update 4/20/11: Finished the second peep. Here it is.

Turkey Update

2011-04-13T13:33:00.005-04:00

Our Narragansett turkeys are doing just fine. They're now three days old and completely bonded to me. One peeps incessantly if I stay away too long. They both excitedly run to the door if I go anywhere near the brooder. They love to eat from my hand... it's the same food as what's in their feeder, but for some reason they think it's better coming from my hand and they gobble it greedily before the other one hogs it all. The egg tooth on their beaks fell off yesterday. They're eating and drinking on their own, which is a relief. I'd read that turkeys can be challenging in this regard.

Narragansett Turkey Hatchlings!

2011-04-11T22:25:00.008-04:00

Our brooder didn't stay empty for long. We brought home a pair of day-old Narragansett turkeys today (gender unknown). They look a lot like baby chicks at this point. One is already getting the hang of pecking at food and water. The other still seems very tuckered out. I hope it will perk up by tomorrow. It was a stressful day for them, what with leaving their mother and taking a car ride.

Napping Narragansett:

Our Ameraucana and Ameraucana-Turkens are adapting well to their new coop. They like to peek out the windows at us. I enjoy sneaking out to the coop and taking a chick, and just carrying it around the yard as I check out how things are growing in the garden. They seem to enjoy this ritual as much as I do. There's something quite wonderful about befriending a critter that would ordinarily fly away from people.

Into the Coop

2011-04-06T21:42:00.019-04:00

Our chicks are 5 weeks old today-- where did the time go? We've kept them in an indoor brooder (rabbit cage) up until today, but now they're in their new and permanent home.

This cute little barn-shaped 8'x5' coop was built by Curtiss Coops & Yard Barns. Matt Curtiss came over and built and painted this coop all in one day. He did a great job with it, and the chicks seem to like their new home.

We'll be building an outdoor run next, which will be attached to the coop. We hope to build one based on this plan on Backyard Chickens (run only). We have every chicken predator right here on our property and need to make sure we have Fort Knox style security for our coop and run.

We had Matt make a larger door on the coop to accommodate turkeys. We hope to get poults next, later this month.

This is where we'll take the eggs from (there are a total of 8 nest boxes):

Inside view of nest boxes (I plan to put privacy curtains in front of them... hens like that when they're laying eggs):

This is the human-size door to the coop:

The 2 white boards that run the length of the coop are the roosts:

Getting settled in...

5-week old Ameraucana chick:

5-week old Ameraucana-Turken chick (the one I've called Emu since day 1... now he looks more like a vulture!):

Square 20 (43 More to Go)

2011-04-05T00:19:00.009-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything fibery. I've been working on the Barbara Walker Learn-to-Knit Afghan for 5 years now, and I'm only up to square 20 (out of 63)! I'm a slow knitter, what can I say. I also got stuck on this square (the first one to give me trouble) and had to frog it several times-- until a nice knitter on Ravelry came to my aid and clarified the instructions for row 6. And now the square is conquered, and I really like this particular pattern.

The yarn is my own homespun. The gray is a 60/40 blend of mohair and shetland wool. The black yarn is homespun Icelandic.

Now that I'm unstuck, perhaps I'll get going on this afghan again.

Homemade Inks in a Platinum Preppy Marker

2011-04-01T13:51:00.013-04:00

I don't have anything against dip pens, but some days you just don't feel like dipping. The convenience of a fountain pen can not be understated. I think Thomas Jefferson probably yearned for this technology... cutting quills (from his own flock of geese) was the bane of his existence, since he was such an avid writer (some 20,000 letters in his lifetime!) When metal dip pens came along, he eagerly embraced the technology, only to find they rusted too quickly (such is the case with acidic inks like iron gall ink).

When you're an ink maker (particularly a maker of black walnut and iron gall inks), you're left having to use dip pens for the most part (I usually use a glass pen to avoid corrosion problems). Such inks will ruin most fountain pens. That hasn't stopped me from experimenting to find alternatives, however (see the previous post about the Pilot Parallel Pen, where I was able to use my pomegranate ink successfully... and a few weeks later, it is still flowing reliably, without missing a beat.)

Well, another pen for the homemade inkmaker has come to light! Thank you again, Japan! I tried my inks in a Platinum Preppy Marker and the iron gall inks did work beautifully! Happy day! These pens sell for $2.25 at Jetpens, so they don't break the bank. I converted mine to an eyedropper pen (with o-ring and silicone grease), just as you'd do for the Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen. This video by Goulet Pens shows you how to make this conversion (and they also sell these pens, along with o-rings and silicone grease, for one-stop shopping... their prices are a little higher than Jetpens, but Jetpens no longer carries o-rings or the silicone grease). The reason for doing this is so that you can fill the entire pen barrel with ink, rather than use an ink converter which only holds a small volume of ink. This means fewer ink refills.

Scanned Sample (click to see enlargement)

I tested a fountain pen ink (Noodler's Lermontov) as well as my pomegranate (iron gall) ink, aleppo iron gall ink, and black walnut ink. The black walnut ink did the poorest... it makes a very pale line. As a marker, I like the feel of this pen very much... it feels like a typical marker. The line width it puts down is probably comparable to a medium nib fountain pen. (Note: the Noodler's Lermontov looks blue in this scan... the photograph below shows its true color better. The other colors look just about right in the above scan compared to the original. I waited 15 minutes to write a second sample of the pomegranate ink, giving it a chance to saturate the tip, and it did put down a darker gray color. The sample was done on Hammermill Ultra Premium Inkjet acid-free paper.)

In a few weeks, I'll post an update at how well the markers hold up. There is a 2-pack package of replacement tips available for these markers for $1.50 in the event the ink clogs the feed or deteriorates it (I don't anticipate this happening since the feeds seem to be made out of plastic, but you never know).

So if you're interested in making inks, but don't like the idea of always having to use a dip pen, there are now 2 alternatives available to you thanks to the Platinum Preppy Marker and the Pilot Parallel Pen. Ancient technology meets new technology! Thanks to this marker, I'll be able to use my ancient ink as an everyday ink.

ETA (June 16, 2011): Here is the promised update. I have found the Pomegranate Ink still flows in this pen, though the ink has become a lighter gray as time has gone on (the ink itself has not become grayer... I think something in the marker tip is acting as a filter somewhat and holding some components back. I don't have this problem when using this ink in the Pilot Parallel Pen). The flow is still dependable, it's just a lighter gray now.

As for the Dr. Stark aleppo iron gall ink, I have since had to replace the marker tip. The first one stopped working (did it clog? I'm not sure). I will try again with another tip and see how long that one holds out.

(January 16, 2012): The same thing happened with the second marker tip. The ink became a paler gray over time. So I conclude these markers are best used in the short-term, if at all. The best results with the pomegranate iron gall ink and the Dr. Stark aleppo iron gall ink have been with the Parker Vector, Pilot 78G, Osmiroid India Ink Calligraphy Pen, and the Pilot Parallel Pen.

Aleppo Iron Gall Ink: The Mother of Iron Gall Inks

2011-03-29T00:00:00.022-04:00

This will probably be my last ink-making entry for a long time. I've spent the past eight months experimenting with pokeberries, black walnuts and three different kinds of oak galls for ink making. I've got enough ink now to last until Kingdom Come! My latest batch was made with the prized aleppo galls, which are known to make the best quality iron gall inks. So you could say I saved the best for last (and I also hunted down what I feel is the best recipe).

I used the recipe of Dr. James Stark's, who was a chemist during the 1800's. For over 20 years, Dr. Stark researched many iron gall ink formulas, creating and testing for the most enduring and stable ones. Below was the recipe he concluded was the most permanent and stable. I omitted the sulphate of indigo from his recipe because it was too cost prohibitive and not a crucial component (if you're curious about its function, it mainly imparts a blue-black color instead of just black, which over time fades to black anyway; and it also has a preservative effect). Even without the sulphate of indigo, this was my most expensive ink... but still only a mere .28 cents per ounce (contrast that to a bottle of Montblanc Blue-Black iron gall ink where a 1.69 ounce bottle costs around $15.00 plus shipping).

Dr. James Stark Iron Gall Ink
3 parts blue aleppo galls
2 parts sulfate of indigo (aka indigotine or indigo carmine)
2 parts copperas (aka iron sulfate or vitriol)
1 to 1 1/2 parts powdered gum arabic
A few whole cloves (for preservative)
30 parts distilled water

What I did:

I crushed 6 ounces of aleppo galls with a hammer. I added them to 64 ounces of distilled water in a glass jar, covered them, and let them ferment in a warm room (not far from a space heater) for 2 months. During this time, the mixture fermented and formed a mold on top. This is a good sign. It means the tannic acid in the galls is being converted to gallic acid, which is what makes a beautiful ink.

Fermenting the Galls

At the end of the 2 months, I strained the liquid through 2 layers of cloth (reserved just for the purpose of ink-making... I like to use those "flour bag" dish towels for this.) I squeezed every last drop of that precious liquid through the cloth that I could, then discarded the solids. I brought the liquid to a boil in an enameled, nonreactive pot (to kill the mold and stop fermentation) and allowed it to boil for about 5 minutes. Some liquid is lost in the steam. I measured the remaining liquid and added additional distilled water to bring the volume back up to 64 ounces.

Then I added 4 ounces of copperas and stirred well with a wooden spoon. Then I slowly and gradually added 3 ounces of gum arabic... this has to be done a little at a time, to keep gluey blobs from forming in the ink. I roll the powder between my gloved fingers, letting a little fall into the ink at a time, while constantly stirring with my other hand. This part can't be rushed and is the most tedious part of the process. Then, I added several whole cloves for a preservative, and bottled the ink in glass, sterile, amber jars. Yield = 68 ounces of permanent and waterproof iron gall ink (more than a half gallon!)

This fermented ink does not have to age a few days before becoming dark. It was dark as soon as I mixed it. But when I write with it, the ink goes down dark gray then quickly turns jet black upon drying (on some papers it stays gray). This is one of the entertaining things I like about iron gall inks... it transforms before your eyes while you write with it. In the future I will test it out to see if it will flow in my Pilot Parallel Pen.

Please note: as a general rule, homemade iron gall inks are not safe for fountain pens, but must be used with dip pens. Dr. James Stark also mentioned that metal nibs will shorten the life of the ink if you dip directly into the bottle, due to a chemical reaction between the acidic ink and metal (this will cause the ink to drop sediment... once it does that, it is no longer fit as a permanent ink, and will most likely thereafter become a corrosive one that, over time, eats the paper). So either use a glass nib, or set aside a little ink into a small container for direct metal nib dipping-- small enough that you will use it up before you prematurely age the ink. Note also that due to the acidic nature of the ink, it will corrode your metal nibs. (There is an article for "freshening up iron gall ink". I haven't tried it yet since my inks are still fresh, so I can't vouch for the stability of an ink after trying this.)

A rushed writing sample of the freshly made ink

I'm currently doing sunshine tests on all of my inks, seeing how lightfast they are on various papers. Permanence was always my quest. It's been a fun adventure and I've learned a lot (and my fingers are forever inky).

ETA (June 16th, 2011): I have successfully used this ink in a Pilot Parallel Fountain Pen. I've also used it in the Platinum Preppy Marker, although I have had to use a replacement tip on the marker since first trying it out, and the ink flows a lighter gray as time goes on in the marker and I haven't worked out why this happens. Normally iron gall inks get darker as they age. So I recommend the Pilot Parallel Pen which remains a consistent dark color, without graying over time.

ETA (September 15, 2011): I have successfully used this ink in the following fountain pens: Pilot Parallel, Pilot 78G, Parker Vector, and the Osmiroid India Ink Calligraphy Fountain Pen. I've kept the pens permanently inked and haven't seen any corrosive damage to the nibs during this time. I periodically flush the nibs, as I would any commercial iron gall ink.

Chicks at 3 1/2 Weeks Old

2011-03-27T14:54:00.009-04:00

(Click on photos to see enlargements)

Our chicks look like miniature full-grown chickens from the neck down. Their heads still have the baby fuzz, though.

Hanging out on the door of the brooder

Getting the "sleepy look" before they take a nap

Turken smooch!

Chick Update (19 Days Old)

2011-03-19T23:24:00.012-04:00

Our Ameraucana & Ameraucana-Turken hybrid chicks are now 19 days old. The chicks are all doing fine. They're reaching the beginning of their scruffy stage right now... the baby fuzz is disappearing, and uneven feathers are poking out here and there. Their heads still look like chicks, but their bodies are looking more adult-like. They preen their feathers... I'm not sure if they're picking off the fuzz or cleaning their feathers or scratching an itch when they do this. A couple of them are showing lumpy bumpy signs of their pea combs coming in (when that happens, we'll be able to tell the ladies from the gents.)

For the past two weeks they've already been establishing their pecking order. The dominant chick stands really tall and throws out his/her chest. They've attacked each other enough that a few got bloody scratches on their beaks, until they sorted things out. They're all tame with me and like to sit in my hand, especially the dominant one who acts so spoiled to have the favored position with the human. About a week ago we bought meal worms from the pet store. They weren't too sure about this New Thing at first, but most of the turkens went after them right away, grabbing and running, with the other chickens following to see what the fuss was all about. Most of them like meal worms now.

We also put a thin apple twig into the cage for a roost. A few of them already try to sleep on it.

We're also noticing more and more the color of the chicks' legs. Green egg layers have greenish legs.

Pilot Parallel Pen & Pomegranate Ink

2011-03-17T15:54:00.018-04:00

I love to make homemade inks, but unfortunately they can't really be used in fountain pens. This is because their high acid content would corrode them, and their large pigment particle size will clog the nib feeds. Gum arabic is glue-like and will also clog nib feeds. I have tested my black walnut and Jane Austen iron gall ink in a cheap Platinum Preppy fountain pen as well as a Platinum Carbon Pen (the latter is designed to handle their pigmented carbon ink), but I couldn't get a thick enough flow from either pen to make it worth while.

Then I heard about the Pilot Parallel Pen. This fountain pen is designed to handle not only fountain pen inks, but a wide variety of more challenging mediums such as acrylic inks, watercolors and gouache, and walnut ink (at least the instant kind made from peat crystals). I knew I had to try it with my homemade inks.

I tested it first with the black walnut and Jane Austen iron gall inks. The flow was a little better than the other pens I tried, but not much better. Then I tried it with the pomegranate (iron gall) ink recipe. Bingo! It worked! Why this particular iron gall ink recipe worked when the Jane Austen one did not is beyond me. Perhaps the particle size of the oak apples was larger than that of the pomegranate peels. Or maybe I just needed to break in the pen. Who knows?

(Click on the photos to see them enlarged)

Paper & Ink Arts sells sizes of this pen not available elsewhere, including the 1.0 mm size, which is the smallest size you can get (and may still be a little too wide for every day use for some people who may prefer a finer nib). They have someone in-house who custom cuts the nibs. This was my first Parallel Pen. The nib didn't appear to be sanded after it was cut and was very rough, catching on the paper. I don't know if this is normal for all Parallel Pens, but I suspect not. I've since sanded it and it's a bit smoother now. You can see the rough cut of the nib, even after sanding:

But the previous roughness aside, the ink feed works marvelously. I am thrilled to have found a fountain pen that works with at least one of my inks! I recommend getting the book Parallel Pen Wizardry by Brenda Broadbent with it, especially if you want to use the pen with more challenging inks. It has more instructions on how to do this than the instructions that came with the pen. I use the pen as an eyedropper, filling the entire barrel (which is plastic) with ink. An o-ring doesn't work with this pen because the screw-top lid interferes with it, but I did put silicone grease on the threads. I haven't had any problems with leakage yet. Also, when I picked up the pen the next day, the ink still flowed well without start-up hassles. The nib feed is really two metal plates on top of each other. The pen comes with a thin piece of plastic film that slides between these two plates for cleaning. You can write on the edge of the nib for a thick line, or even on the side of the nib for hairlines... the ink will be there. It remains to be seen whether my acidic inks will corrode the nib, but so far I see no damage (with Speedball dip pens, I could see some corrosion almost immediately). The pen in the 1.0 mm size costs $14.95 (the other non-custom cut sizes are $10.50).

There is an awesome photo tutorial by carmelscribe on Flickr about how to take this pen apart for cleaning. I highly recommend it. It takes the intimidation factor out of taking the pen apart-- it really isn't difficult at all to care for this pen.

I'm very glad to have this pen. And for the other homemade ink makers out there, this fountain pen may be your best chance at using a pen that doesn't require dipping with your inks.

ETA (June 16th, 2011): This ink is still flowing well in this pen without signs of corrosion to the metal nib feed. I have had to flush the pen once or twice since I originally filled it, but this is normal for any commercial fountain pen-safe iron gall ink. The ink remains dark as well.

ETA (January 8th, 2012): I've successfully used the homemade pomegranate ink in the Pilot Parallel, Pilot 78G and Parker Vector over the long-term.

The Big Scary New Thing

2011-03-10T13:18:00.004-05:00

Our brooder is a long rabbit cage. The cage came with a shelf and ramp, but we removed those when we first placed the chicks in the brooder. We didn't want them to get hurt on it. Now that they're more sure-footed, my husband put the shelf and ramp back in this morning, before I woke up. Chicks are obviously sensitive to new things... they huddled together in the opposite corner as far away from The Big Scary New Thing as possible! That is, until I woke up and went to the cage. I guess I'm "mamma hen" to them. When they saw me not freaking out over the shelf, they relaxed. Now they're busy exploring it eagerly.

Week-Old Chicks

2011-03-09T23:09:00.007-05:00

If there's one truth about chicks, it's that they grow rapidly. Within a few days of hatching, the wing and tail feathers were already beginning to sprout. The chicks are a week old today. We've had so much fun with them.

Ameraucana-Turken Hybrids!

2011-03-05T17:43:00.014-05:00

It turns out the four naked-neck chickens we have are Ameraucana-Turken crosses (the others are full-bred Ameraucanas)! Sumner-Byrd Farm accidentally gave us some hybrid eggs-- turns out what they thought was a Turken hen housed with an Ameraucana hen was in fact a rooster that bred with her. A fun surprise!

Hens determine egg color, so if you breed an Ameraucana hen (which lay blue or green eggs) with a Turken male, you get a naked-neck chicken that can lay blue or green eggs (normally Turkens are brown egg layers). If you go back to our first post when we first got the eggs, you will see only blue and green eggs. No brown ones. The Naked Neck gene is a dominant gene, so that's what was expressed in these hybrids. The breed originally comes from Hungary. You can read more about them here. They may be the world's ugliest chicken, but from what I've read, they have friendly dispositions. With kids, that's an important factor for us, much moreso than appearance. It will be fun to have such a novelty... a turken that can lay blue or green eggs! The turken gets its namesake because it looks like a cross between a turkey and a chicken.

The One That Didn't Make It

2011-03-05T12:40:00.008-05:00

WARNING: graphic photos

Sadly, egg 12 never hatched. We had thought it pipped, but it turned out a piece of shell from one of the other hatched eggs had stuck to it (it's hard to tell through a little incubator window!) These photos aren't pleasant today, but it gave us some clues as to when the chick might have died, and it served as a learning experience for us all. When we candled this egg on day 10, it was alive and moving. This chick still had its yolk attached... on day 19 of incubation, it is supposed to pull into its belly. So we know it died before day 19, probably not much before. The kids were quite sad. When my 4-year old asked why it died, I told her the Lord wanted it for a pet chicken, too, so He called it home again. We buried the little guy and cleaned out the incubator-- boy does the incubator get yucky after a hatch! We're going to let it set out in the sun for a few hours.

The other chicks are all doing well. 4 of them have naked necks... we are wondering if these Ameraucanas have some Turken (Naked Neck) genes in them?

In All Their Fluffy Adorableness

2011-03-04T10:47:00.023-05:00

The chicks are all dry and soooo fluffy and cute! I'll let the photos speak for themselves (click on the photos to enlarge them). They're 2 days old now. Some of them have chipmunk-like markings, some are butterscotch yellow, and still others look like little emus.

I call this little guy Emu, because he looks like a little Emu (even has a bald neck).

This chick is a day behind the others, and had just barely hatched seconds before these pictures were taken. Here's another peek through the incubator window:

Several hours after hatching:

Into the Brooder

2011-03-03T13:41:00.016-05:00

(Click on the images to see a larger version)

When we woke up this morning, the incubator was full of 10 little fluffy chicks! We transferred them over to the brooder. The 11th egg just hatched, even as I was typing this. We're not sure about the last egg. We do see a mark on it, but don't know if it's pipped or if it's goo from the other chicks. The room where I'm typing this (and where we have the brooder) feels like a sauna! We have to keep it warm in here for the chicks.

I tell ya, chicks sure don't make cooperative photo subjects! They're wiggly!

Our Chicks are Hatching!

2011-03-02T20:23:00.010-05:00

Pipped!

As I write this, 4 chicks have hatched, 7 more have pipped. Only 1 doesn't seem to be doing anything yet. These are from the Ameraucana chicken eggs we've been incubating the past 21 days. Without further ado, I'll let the photos tell the story.

Cracking...

Hatched!

Empty!

This has been such an amazing experience. The chickens are more active than I dreamed they'd be after all their exertions. Sometimes they get quite wound up. So I lean over the incubator window and cluck to them. Amazingly, they settle right now, and even hunker down! Perhaps they are anticipating deluxe feather bed accommodations!

Jane Austen Ink

2011-02-21T20:42:00.020-05:00

(Click on the images to see them enlarged!)

The first iron gall ink I ever made last year was the recipe by author Jane Austen. In a letter dated October 14, 1813 to her sister, Cassandra, Jane instructed her sister in how to refill their ink bottle (at a time when she did the majority of her writing). These were her instructions:

Take 4 ozs of blue gauls, 2 ozs of green copperas, 1 1/2 ozs of gum arabic. Break the gauls. The gum and copperas must be beaten in a mortar and put into a pint of strong stale beer; with a pint of small beer. Put in a little refin'd sugar. It must stand in the chimney corner fourteen days and be shaken two or three times a day.

I had to adapt the ink recipe somewhat to what I could obtain in 2010. Beverly of Coarsegold, CA was kind to send me a couple of boxes of oak apples from her area. (Thanks again, Beverly!) Austen used "blue gauls," which are the blue aleppo galls from Turkey, which contain 50-70% gallotannic acid. Other kinds of oak galls, such as oak apples, contain somewhere around 20% gallotannic acid. So I had to make adjustments to the recipe to make sure I had the correct ratio of gallotannic acid to iron sulfate (an imbalance here can create an inferior and impermanent ink). Ideally the ratio would be 3 parts gallotannic acid to 2 parts iron sulfate. If you have access to blue galls, by all means use them and follow her amounts!

Austen no doubt used homemade beer in her ink. "Small beer" had very little alcohol in it, while "strong beer" had a lot. Both were probably considered cleaner than the water of their day. Alcohol does have some preservative effect for ink as well (though too much can cause excessive feathering of the ink). The Molson Golden Beer I used for the "strong beer" had a very strong, almost skunk-like odor, so be forewarned that this isn't the most pleasant smelling ink, at least with this brand of beer.

Without further ado, here is my adapted recipe:

12 ounces of fresh California oak apples (galls)
2 ounces copperas (aka iron sulfate)
1 ounce powdered gum Arabic
1 pint small beer (I used Bud Select 55 Beer, with 2.4% alcohol)
1 pint strong beer (Molson Golden Beer, with 6.04% alcohol)
A little refined sugar

Allow the beer to go flat overnight (otherwise it will be too foamy to mix with the other ingredients). Crush the oak galls to a chunky powder with a hammer, and add them with the beers into a 3-quart size glass jar. Add the iron sulfate, gum Arabic and a little sugar. Screw on the lid and shake well. Keep in a warm place for 14 days (I kept the jar about 3-4 feet away from a space heater). Shake 2-3 times daily. Strain/squeeze through 2-3 layers of cheesecloth. Bottle in sterile glass amber jars. Yields about 12 ounces of ink.

When freshly made, the ink is a pale, watery brown that will darken to black on the page within a couple of days. How fast this happens, and to what extent the blackness of the ink will be, will depend on the pH level of the paper it is written on and the pH level of the nib it is written with. This ink is always surprising me. When I write with it with a glass pen on acid-free paper, the ink remains dark brown. When I use a metal Speedball dip nib on acid-free paper, the ink turns very dark black within a couple seconds as it dries. It's fun to watch the transformation!

The above photo shows the ink when it was freshly made. Today it is a much blacker ink. I did the waterproof test shortly after I wrote with the ink, so there was slight smearing of the ink. After a few hours or overnight, however, this ink is completely waterproof with no smearing.

Please note that this ink is not for fountain pen use! It will corrode the inner workings of a fountain pen due to it's highly acidic nature. The gum Arabic will clog a fountain pen. To extend the life of this ink, do not dip a metal nib directly into the ink bottle (instead, use a paint brush to fill the ink reservoir on the nib). Not only will the acid in the ink corrode a metal nib, but a metal nib will cause a chemical reaction in the ink and shorten its shelf life. If sediment begins to separate out in this ink, it is no longer fit for permanent work. You can slow this from happening by keeping metal out of the ink, and keeping its exposure to oxygen to a minimum. I like to store a small working amount in a 4-dram glass vial, and keep the rest of my supply in a tightly sealed amber bottle. The vial is just large enough for a dip pen to fit into, and since it's a small amount, I don't worry about shortening the life of the ink as I'm apt to use this small quantity up quickly before it drops sediment.

(Note: In the future, I'm also toying with the idea of using collapsible bottles or tanks with a floating lid, like the kind you find for the storage of photography darkroom chemistry. This would eliminate the oxygen in the bottle; however, as these bottles are plastic, I don't know if they could ever be cleaned properly for ink. There is also a .pdf article for how to "freshen up" an iron gall ink, though I admit I have yet to try this as my inks are still quite fresh.)

Comparison of 2 iron gall ink samples-- look how black that Jane Austen ink is!

This was a really fun ink to make and I enjoyed partaking in the historical aspect of it. This ink, once dried on the page, will continue to be sensitive and reactive to chemical changes-- depending on exposure to light and humidity and the pH of the paper. It will most likely stay black or dark brown in your lifetime. Eventually it will fade to a lighter brown, as Jane Austen's manuscripts have. A well-made batch of iron gall ink with the proper ratio of ingredients can last for centuries on the page. A poorly made one will disintegrate the paper it's on over time.

Here's a bottle of the finished ink, temporarily stored in a baby food jar (which proved to be inadequately leak-proof!) The label uses the Jane Austen font that is based on her handwriting.

Ameraucana Chickens

2011-02-10T18:41:00.009-05:00

We've just begun embarking on a new adventure: chickens! We've felt the need to try to become more self-sufficient in these increasingly troubling economic times, and what a fun way to do so. Yesterday we bought a dozen Ameraucana chicken eggs for hatching from Sumner-Byrd Poultry Farm. We chose the Ameraucana chicken breed because of their beautiful blue and green eggs.

I still had a Hova-Bator 1602N Incubator back from when I raised silkworms. It's nice to be able to have another use for the incubator again.

This incubator has no bells and whistles. It's what they call a still-air incubator. There is no automatic egg-turner inside it. This means at least 3 times a day we have to turn the eggs by hand (from one side to the next) so that the chicks don't stick to one side of the egg as they grow. We also have to rearrange the eggs because a still-air incubator can have hot and cool spots, and changing their positions will assure even development. We set a thermometer on top of the eggs and are aiming to keep it at 100 F. We've numbered/lettered the eggs with a pencil so that we can know which side they need to be turned on next. The incubator has a plastic water tray underneath where the eggs sit. This is to provide some humidity for the eggs. The incubator is not entirely air-tight. It has a few small air vents so that there is some gravitational air exchange. Believe it or not, the chicken breathes oxygen through the shell, so it's good that there are vents, however tiny.

We're a little nervous. We're praying for a good hatch, which should occur on March 2nd (after 21 days). There are so many little details to attend to: temperature, humidity, keeping hands clean (because grease or bacteria on your hands can transfer to the eggs and actually invade the egg and kill the growing chick. Grease will block oxygen exchange.) If anything is off, it can affect the hatch. If the incubator gets up to 103 F for even a short period of time, it can kill the chicks. That's not much wiggle room there! So we are constantly checking the thermometer. If the incubator is too humid or not humid enough, it can affect the hatch. So we're nervous mother hens, fussing over our clutch. Nervous like new parents expecting their first. And what a miracle it is!

How Chickens Develop

After 24 hours of incubation: The backbone, head, eyes and digestive system begin to form.

After 44 hours: The heart begins to beat.

Day 3: Beak begins to form, as do the limbs and temporary gills

Day 4: All internal organs have formed. Begins to move.

Day 5: The reproductive system is formed.

Day 7: Digits can be seen (toes and wings).

Day 10: The beak hardens and tracts where feathers will form can be seen.

Day 14: Toenails form.

Day 16: The chick fills most of the space inside the egg. Uses the yolk as a food supply after using up the egg white.

Day 18: Head moves toward the large end of the egg. Begins peeping inside the egg.

Day 19: The yolk draws up into the chick's belly in preparation to hatch.

Day 20: The chick breaks the membrane with its egg tooth and begins to breathe the airspace inside the shell.

Day 21: The chick uses its temporary egg tooth to break the shell and hatching begins.

(source: Raising Chickens For Dummies by Kimberly Willis)

If this goes well, I'm hoping to try a couple of baby turkeys next, too. I'm vegetarian, so it might seem weird that I would keep poultry. I do see them in a non-utilitarian manner, I suppose. They really can be pets, though my husband and kids will enjoy the eggs, too.

Cotton Harvest 2010

2010-12-30T13:29:00.008-05:00

I've been trying to grow cotton since 2006, if memory serves. There have been obstacles, like the weather, squirrels and trees blocking out the sunlight from my beds. It's taken a few years, but I finally got a decent harvest. We had a longer and hotter than normal summer, which helped tremendously. It wasn't too rainy (unlike last year when it rained constantly). We built a new raised bed at the front of our property, and though it still doesn't get full sun, it gets more sun than our other raised beds do. I think the biggest success factor was that I was able to transplant my seedlings a good month earlier than years past because it was so warm already in April (normally we have to wait until June to see above 90 F temps). This meant that most of my bolls matured and popped before first frost, unlike previous years when I did most of my harvesting after the frost and the yields suffered. So the timing was perfect. For my cotton growing adventures over the years, read here and here.

I planted pima, upland, nankeen brown and erlene green in the same bed... close to 70 plants. The nankeen brown did the best, maturing fast and early, and produced some of the fluffiest cotton I've ever seen. Needless to say, growing this many varieties of cotton in the same bed produces some interesting cross-breeds. One boll on one of the nankeen plants produced tri-color fiber (white, brown and green... click on the above photo to see an enlargement of this tri-color wonder). Only one boll did this. All the others on this plant were brown. It will be interesting to plant those seeds in the years to come and see what they produce next.

I'm glad we had a good year. My mom, who grows pima cotton in Phoenix as an ornamental and always gets better results than I do, even with fewer plants, lost her cotton plants this year to a freak hail storm. She doesn't spin or knit and always sends me her fiber, but this year there won't be any. I spun up some of her fiber from last year using tahklis and bead spindles, then knitted it into a wash cloth (pattern can be found in Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle ... check errata on Ravelry for this pattern, as there are mistakes in it!) and also a bookmark (woven on a Weavette loom). It's the first time I've ever actually knitted with our homegrown. I love to spin the stuff, but I admit I loathe plying it, despite trying a few different plying strategies (none of them foolproof beyond 2-ply... I usually end up with a tangled or broken mess when I try to ply with more than 2 strands). I compromised and made two 3-ply skeins (rather than one 6-ply like I wanted, but just couldn't manage it) and then knitted double-stranded to get the bulk (even then, the resultant knitted yarn was still only fingering weight).

I gave them to my mom for her birthday... now she has a permanent memento of the cotton she has grown. Cotton is so amazing. And to think, it all started with a seed...

Lunar Eclipse & Nightcaps

2010-12-21T14:26:00.010-05:00

Our family stayed up late last night to enjoy the lunar eclipse. My husband took these shots, in between breaks in the cloud cover. This lunar eclipse was rather special. NASA reports that the last one to fall on the Winter Solstice was in 1638, and the next one would be in 2094. So we're not likely to be around for the next one.

The Winter Solstice full moon, just before the eclipse:

The Earth begins to cast a shadow on the moon:

Eclipsed:

I knitted nightcaps for my kids this month (even after I said I wasn't going to knit Christmas gifts this year! Oh well, you can't keep a knitter down, can you?) I took the kids to A. C. Moore and asked them to pick out the yarn they wanted, something soft that they liked so I wouldn't hear them complain "It's too itchy to wear!" They picked super bulky soft acrylic yarns. I improvised a pattern (see below).

This one was knitted with Lion Brand Quick & Cozy:

It turned out too big for my daughter. I was unable to gauge this yarn, due to its fuzziness. I figure she can grow into it. It's incredibly soft.

This one was knitted with Lion Brand Hometown USA:

Knitted Nightcap

This pattern was made with super bulky yarn, using a size 10 1/2 circular needle. Feel free to use dpn’s if you prefer, rather than fuss continually with the cable, as I did. It works up quickly.

* CO 60 sts for a 22” diameter hat (for 8-9 year old)
* Join. K1P1 rib for 5 rows
* Knit for 5 more inches
* Place 2 markers: 1 at the beginning of round, and 1 at the halfway point (30th stitch)
* Decrease every 4th row: K2tog before and after each marker.
* Continue decreasing every 4th row until 4 stitches remain. Cut yarn and tie off loops. Weave in yarn ends inside the hat.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Black Walnut Ink

2010-10-08T18:40:00.029-04:00

Whole black walnuts, awaiting their next incarnation

I've been working on a new craft this week: homemade black walnut ink. A kind family posted on Craigslist that they had black walnuts, free for the taking, so our family brought along bags and picked nuts off the ground from under their tree. Crafter that I am, I'm always looking for plants that might have multiple uses. Black walnuts certainly fit the bill! It's quite the miracle, what with everything you can do with this tree and its nuts. As a nut, the taste reminds me a little of coconuts. They are quite different from the walnuts you get from the grocery store.

Black walnuts have a green fruit-like exterior called a husk. This must be cut or torn away to reach the actual hard walnut shell (with its edible nutmeat inside). It's the husk you want for ink, wood stain, fiber dye-baths, or for making medicinal tinctures and ointments-- and not the hard walnut shell. The husk has remarkable staining properties... as soon as it is exposed to air, it turns dark brown quickly. I wore rubber gloves while I de-husked the black walnuts-- some of the husks that were darker in color were easy to tear apart with my hands. The ones that had just dropped off the tree and were still fresh and green were hard enough that I had to use a knife to slice away the husk. Dehusking was hard on the gloves and they kept tearing on me... which is why I still ended up with stained fingers! (Yes, this stuff will stain countertops and everything else it touches, including the pots, strainers and other equipment that you need to process it with, so just be forewarned if you plan to try this. It's best to set aside equipment just for this purpose.)

I'm told my fingers will be stained for 2 weeks! (edited 12/21/10: There's still a faint stain on my nails, 2 1/2 months later!)

While de-husking, I noticed quite a few had white worms in them. I could usually tell if worms had gotten inside the husks because those were already turning dark brown inside (and those were the easiest to tear apart with my fingers since they were already starting to break down). I actually took the time to pick out the worms. I'm vegetarian and couldn't stand the thought of bugs in my ink... it would've been a lot simpler just to boil the husks whole, but I knew a lot of worms would've been inside them and that would've bothered me to kill them. I felt a lot like those Buddhists in that Brad Pitt movie, Seven Years in Tibet, where they wouldn't build on the ground until they'd removed all the worms safely from the soil, for fear of killing any. Also, if I'd left them whole, then the nuts inside would have been ruined for food. (Edited after the fact: I've since learned these white worms are actually Walnut Husk Maggots! It still bothers me to kill them, though!)

After the husks were removed, I simply put them into my large canning pot and covered them with our well water. I homeschool, so I couldn't do anything more with them that day. They soaked for about 24 hours before I could get back to them again. Then I brought them to a boil, lowered the heat, and gently simmered them with the lid on for several hours. I threw in a piece of steel wool for about an hour towards the end. This adds iron and is said to darken the color (though I think I will skip this next time... I prefer a reddish brown, and the steel wool seems to make a blackish brown and dulls the color a bit. Also, our well water has a bit of iron in it anyway.) I turned off the heat, and then let the husks soak overnight because I was too busy to get to the next stage.

Simmering the husks in an enamel canning pot

The next day, I strained all the solids out. I lined a large colander with a "flour sack" dish towel to strain the liquid through. I returned the strained liquid to the rinsed-out canning pot and brought it to a boil on the stove for the last time. Then I lowered the heat to barely a simmer (with no bubbling at all, with just a little steam rising from the top). After a few hours, it reduced down enough to a nice dark brown color. I kept making writing samples every hour or so, to see if the ink was the right color and consistency (not too runny, not too thick). When it was finished, I added 8% alcohol by volume for a preservative (80-proof vodka, to be exact).

When all was said and done, I had created about 16 ounces of homemade ink. I didn't count how many black walnuts I started out with, but I filled a large canning pot about 3/4 full with husks and water, if that gives any indication. I used dozens of black walnut husks. Maybe around 50 or so.

My freshly made ink, all labeled in jars

I'm really happy with the way the ink turned out. It is not runny at all as I was expecting, probably because of my extended soaking and cooking down times (and I used far more husks than online recipes recommended). The ink did not feather or bleed on the Strathmore Calligraphy Paper I tested it on. I am currently conducting sunshine tests on written samples to see how lightfast it is. I've done some water tests on it as well. What I've found is that the ink has fair water resistance... ink that was dried for a day on the paper was quite water resistant, but ink that had only been dried on the paper for 15-20 minutes ran right off the page. So it would appear you need to let the ink really stain and soak into the paper for a awhile. It certainly seems awfully permanent on my fingers! It remains to be seen whether 8% alcohol will be enough to preserve the ink from mold. Only time will tell. By the way, this ink is meant for dip-pen use only, and not for fountain pens. It would likely ruin a fountain pen.

Writing sample with my homemade black walnut ink

And what is to become of the walnuts themselves? They are currently drying. We got back into wildlife rehabilitation the past month. We have a batch of 7-week old orphan squirrels that we are bottle feeding until they are ready to be released. I know they will be happy to eat the nuts once their teeth are strong enough to crack them. I think I've seen too many worms to want to eat them myself, though I doubt the worms are able to penetrate those hard shells (which you need a hammer to break... or a determined squirrel).

Black walnuts, now de-husked but still in their shells, and ready for squirrel/people food

If you'd like to read more on how to make your own ink, here are a couple links worth reading. My method was terribly unscientific, but I still managed to produce a good ink. These links will provide you with more information:

Making Walnut Ink

Making Walnut And Butternut Inks (thread on Fountain Pen Network)

And a YouTube video: Black Walnut Ink

Restoring Honor Rally in Washington D.C. 8/28/10

2010-09-04T21:49:00.009-04:00

"We will be the key to restoring honor in America"

I'm going to break from the crafts this time and share our experience in Washington D.C.

I’m a person who hates crowds and the heat, and both are a bad mix when you have small children in tow. So what compels a person to willingly go into those conditions on purpose, because honestly, I’d rather have a wisdom tooth pulled.

Why, Glenn Beck, of course!

Like so many other Americans, my maternal inner-warning system has been going off like crazy the past couple years regarding the direction this country has been going in, and my heart tells me that Glenn speaks the truth. We felt the time had come for us to do the extraordinary and take a personal stand for our God and our country. Our family was proud to participate with a half million others in Glenn’s Restoring Honor Rally on Saturday, August 28th, and in his Divine Destiny on Friday, August 27th in Washington D.C.

Glenn sometimes referred to the rally as the “anti-Woodstock.” He said it would “mark the end of spiritual darkness,” that it would be a turning point for the country. His themes this year have been Faith, Hope and Charity. He asked us to prepare ourselves during the 40 days and 40 nights leading up to the rally by doing the following things: (1) For Faith, he asked us to humble ourselves and pray on our knees at least once a day (and make sure our children see us doing it). (2) For Hope, he asked us to stop telling lies, even to ourselves; and to find out what it is we really believe in. (3) For Charity, he said charity begins at home, so we were to strengthen our families by doing something kind for each member of our family at least once a week. (4) We were to repeat, “It will not end with me!” or “Not on my watch!” He issued this 40 day/40 night challenge once again after the rally was over.

Glenn’s point is that if we each get straight with God individually, it can’t help but turn the country around. Angelica Tucker sang a song echoing that idea with the words, “Rebuild stone by stone, home by home.” He rallied us with calls to “Be your highest self” and to “Prepare for miracles.” Using Moses as an example of liberating the captives, he told us to “Stand in the burning bush” and to “Pick up your stick!” Other memorable quotes: Negiel Bigpond said, “Look ahead to the great awakening and revival we prayed for... we have to be covenant warriors in Christ.” And John Hagee: “We are not here to curse the darkness, but to turn on the light.” Who couldn’t help but be inspired?

But if such words weren’t inspiring enough, there was the spirit that touched our souls. I wish I could somehow share what it sounds like to hear a half million people say the Pledge of Allegiance together (including the words “under God”). I wish you could hear what it sounds like to hear a half a million people sing the Star-Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace– it was as if both sides of the veil were joining in that throng. Glenn had been trying all year to get a military fly-over at the rally, but the government would not let him. Just before the rally began, a flock of geese flew over the Reflecting Pool in perfect formation. The Lord blessed the day with His own fly-over! There were many miracles and acts of kindness surrounding the day, as many of the attendees can attest to as they called in to regale them on Glenn’s show this week.

Glenn reinstated George Washington’s Badge of Merit at the rally– a badge that later was the basis for the purple heart in the military. Badges of Merit were awarded to civilians who best exemplified Faith, Hope and Charity. The Reverend C. L. Jackson was the recipient of the Faith award. He told us, “God would not let me stop– he fed me crumbs underneath the table.” Albert Pujols was the recipient of the Hope reward for his work off the baseball field in serving those with Down’s syndrome, all in the name of Christ. Jon Huntsman was the recipient of the Charity award– a philanthropist who says his goal is to die broke from charitable giving. Glenn urged us to “Look for merit and honor in others.”

In addition to the Badges of Merit, Glenn raised over $5 million through fund-raising during this event for SOWF (Special Operations Warrior Foundation). SOWF consists of those individuals in the military who have the most dangerous and life-threatening missions. This organization was set up to help those families whose husbands and fathers do not return home. The money goes towards supporting and helping their children go to college. There are over 500 families to provide for in this organization and the need is great. The Restoring Honor and Divine Destiny were free events, so when critics of Glenn Beck say he only did it to make himself rich, they could not be more wrong. Every dime above operating costs went to SOWF.

One of the highlights of the rally was listening to Alveda King (the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.) speak on this 47th anniversary of her uncle’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, in nearly the same location on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. A memorable quote for me was, “The procreative foundation of marriage is being threatened, and the wombs of our mothers have become places where the blood of our children is shed in a womb-war that threatens the fabric of our society.” Strong marriages were a quiet sub-theme during Divine Destiny and the Restoring Honor Rally. We were inspired with examples in Glenn and Tania Beck, and Chuck Norris and Gena O'Kelley Norris, among others.

Another purpose of the Restoring Honor Rally and Divine Destiny was to reinstate the Black Robe Regiment. During pre-revolutionary times, the preachers (who dressed in black robes, hence the name) were the first to preach the idea of breaking from tyrannical forces. Little boys like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson probably grew up hearing these sermons over their pulpits and were influenced by them. The King of England hated the American preachers because they were a threat to his controlling schemes. Glenn gathered 240 clergy, rabbis, Buddhists, Imams, etc. (whose collective congregations reach 180 million souls in this country) to reinstate the Black Robe Regiment in modern times, for the purpose of educating and overthrowing the shackles of oppression. Glenn warned that “The gates of hell will come after these.” We see this even now as the media smears and ridicules the rally, and even attacks Glenn Beck personally. Darkness does not understand the light.

Glenn’s life is an example of one who was once “a dirt-bag” (his own words) but who then converted to Mormonism and turned his life around. He now enjoys enormous success, with an estimated worth of $32 million. “Are we so jaded as a nation,” Glenn asked, “Are we so pessimistic that we no longer believe in the individual and the power of the individual? Do we no longer believe in dreams and the power of one person making a difference? I testify to you here and now, one man can change the world! And I share with you an equal testimony: that man or woman is you. You make the difference. Do not stand and look to someone else. Look to yourself. Pick up your stick and stand!” When criticized for being a fear-monger during an interview with Chris Wallace, Glenn replied, “I do talk of frightening things. But I don’t think the man who saw the iceberg as the Titanic was about to hit it and said ‘It’s an iceberg!’ was a fear-monger; he was warning the people on the ship!”

What will the attendees take home with them after the Divine Destiny and Restoring Honor Rally? For myself, it felt so good to be surrounded with people with the same values who were not ashamed to speak openly of God and country; people who left the rally cleaner than they found it. Not a single arrest occurred that weekend, despite anti-rally protesters in the vicinity. I am personally taking to heart Glenn’s words, “Figure out what you are supposed to do in life and stand where God wants you to stand” and to “Get behind the shield of God.” Above all, I pray my children will remember this time in D.C. and carry it with them. It’s the reason I took the trouble to write a summary of the purpose of the rally, so that in years ahead, my kids could read the truth from someone who was there that historic weekend. Glenn believes this may be America’s last chance to rally behind God. “If you do your job [as parents], if you pledge to yourself that you will restore honor in your own life, we will leave freedom better than how we found it, so our children can find the giant inside of them[selves]. Somewhere in this crowd– I know it– I have been looking for the next George Washington; I can’t find him. I know he is in this crowd. He may be 8 years old, but this is the moment that he dedicates his life, because he sees giants around him.” What Glenn has accomplished during August 27-28, 2010 may have ripples that not only affect this generation, but the next.

We are mindful of Glenn’s caution: “If today is just one day, if you make your way home, this wake-up call will fade if it was just about today, and the critics will be right, that it was meaningless, that you have wasted your time; but if in fact you choose today to change your life and root them in faith, hope and charity, we will change the world... it’s what we do from here that matters.”

Like the words inscribed on top of the Washington Memorial for God to see: “Laus Deo” (Translation: Praise Be To God)

2010 Cotton Growing Season

2010-06-19T20:44:00.005-04:00

I know I'm way behind in updating this blog. The homeschooling year got intense towards the end there. But I did begin my cotton seedlings indoors on March 28th. We had such a warm spring that I felt confident enough to go ahead and transplant the seedlings already on April 17th (usually I wait until May). With the earlier start, I really hope my cotton will finish developing by frost or not long after. I do believe the viability of the seeds is affected for the worse the longer the bolls are subjected to cold temperatures. Always in past years, I was harvesting cotton at the end of December or so, which is too cold/too late in the year to harvest with good results (many of the bolls hadn't even popped open yet, even at that late date). I hope I'll be able to harvest earlier this time. Also new this year, we built a new 16'x4' raised bed at the front of the property, hoping it will be a sunnier location. Our lot is wooded and cotton just isn't happy in the shade or even partial shade. The new location is still partially shaded, but hopefully the plants are getting more sunlight than they would in our other raised beds out back. Only harvest time will tell for sure. I space my cotton one foot apart in all directions, though this year I squeezed cosmos and basil in between the cotton.

In the above photo you can see two different varieties of cotton. At the far left is Ruth's (aka TwistedSpinster's) tree cotton. Ruth passed away in 2008. Phreadde Davis (aka Fibergal) was kind to give me some of her seeds so that we can try to pass on her legacy in cotton. The cotton on the right side of the photo is pima. Planted in-between is cosmos (a wildflower). I'm already seeing the beginnings of bolls beginning to form. Happy day!

Above is another section of the raised bed. You can see three different varieties of cotton growing with basil. On the far left is Dean's Cotton Maze cotton (upland, I believe). In the center is Nankeen Brown hybrids. On the very far right along the edge, growing more slowly than the rest, are a few Erleen Green hybrids. At the bottom center of the photo is basil.

Here's to a good growing season! Cheers!

Olaf Lopi Hat

2010-04-04T13:17:00.006-04:00

I'm finally getting around to posting another project I completed back in February when we were snowed in. I had leftover yarn from my previous Wonderful Wallaby project, so I made an Olaf Lopi Hat (from The Best of Lopi. Instructions are found on p. 104. It is pictured on p. 84. It can also be found in Alafoss Lopi #12 as pattern #32, pictured on p. 20, and pattern on p. 54). It's a very simple pattern... you literally knit a tube, one that is not drawn together on top like for most hats. You leave it open, but then tie it closed with a tie (for the tie, I made a 4-stitch I-cord, rather than a crochet chain).

I used Stephanie Taylor’s Norwegian Star Chart, which was not part of the original Lopi pattern (thanks Stephanie!) Otherwise, I think the pattern would have been too plain.

It's knitted in the round and took about 4 days to knit the whole thing. It hugs the head well and covers the ears, for a nice warm hat. I really love those Lopi patterns!

Snow Knitting

2010-03-01T12:55:00.012-05:00

My condolences to those who have had a hard, snowy winter (and especially to those who are still without power). We, too, had a couple of snow storms during February; a rather rare event for this part of the state. For us, snow is a novelty and the kids very much enjoy it. We were able to spend two very relaxing, cozy, snowed-in weekends during February, and it did me much good. It also inspired me to hurry and finish a sweater for my son, one I had begun clear last October.

Pictured is the completed Wonderful Wallaby hooded sweater by Cottage Creations. This is the pattern as written, without alterations. I used Elann Superwash Worsted Candy Cane Red. I'm hoping the yarn holds up well in the wash. It was a nice, soft merino yarn to knit with. The pattern is easy and I found the pocket is fun to work up. What took me so long with this pattern was that I decided to use the Magic Loop technique to do the sleeves (i.e. knitting both sleeves simultaneously on the same long circular needle), to make sure both sleeves turned out the same size. Mission accomplished there, but the Magic Loop is a slow method for me to execute, personally. This was my second Wonderful Wallaby. You can read about the first one HERE.

While I'm looking forward to spring, I wouldn't mind one more snowed-in weekend to work on my fiber projects. Sometimes it takes bad weather to give us the excuse to work on our creative projects, without guilt and distraction.

Cotton Harvest 2009

2010-02-17T19:13:00.009-05:00

Top left: Pima cross (creamy white with tan fiber throughout)
Top right: Arkansas Green cross (light green with some light brown throughout)
Bottom left: Mississippi Brown cross (brown with green throughout)
Bottom right: Erlene Green cross (dark green with some brown)

Well, 2009 didn't bring me the cotton harvest I dreamed of. Despite planting over 60 plants, what you see in the picture above is all I got fiber-wise. It amounted to just over an ounce of fiber once ginned (the photo above still shows it as unginned seed cotton). We had a dark and wet year during 2009, and cotton needs a bright, sunny hot season to thrive. I was disappointed, to say the least, but that's the gamble every gardener makes as soon as a seed is put into the ground. We never know what the weather will do ahead of time. I will keep trying. I have plans to build another raised bed in a sunnier location.

Thankfully the sting of disappointment is lessened due to the fact that my mother's cotton plants in Phoenix were abundantly productive. She had only 3-4 plants and yet she has been sending me large ziplock bags full of luscious pure Pima cotton. Her harvest went from about August through February. She only now pulled up the plants, in fact! She tells me she will be sending the last of her harvest soon. So I have much to be thankful for. Between the cotton my mother has been sending, and the cotton I got to pick at Dean's Cotton Maze last fall, I still have more fiber than I can spin in a year. That is something to be grateful for! Also, this was my first time planting several varieties in the same bed, and I got some interesting crosses. The brown cotton in particular has some interesting green throughout it. The Pima took on some tan streaks as well. It'll be interesting to see how it spins up.

Weaving Shuttle for Charkha Spindles

2010-01-03T23:19:00.009-05:00

Eileen Hallman of New World Textiles designed a wonderful weaving shuttle just for charkha spindles. This means you can weave directly off a full charkha spindle without having to ply the yarn (if you're going to knit your charkha-spun, you'll most likely have to ply your yarn first). The thread feeds directly off the spindle. I picked a pretty Mayan Rosewood shuttle (click on the photos to see an enlarged image.) Sometimes it is a hassle trying to ply such thin threads (you can read about my previous plying attempts with a homemade charkha lazy kate here). The threads often break or get tangled up on themselves. It's always a challenge. Now I'm looking for an easier way of dealing with the cotton threads I so dearly love to spin. I am not yet a weaver. However, I do have a children's Curiosity Kit Lap Top Weaving Loom. I bought it from Provo Craft in the early '90's. I guess you could say it is about time that I figure out how to use the thing! I have the perfect excuse now to give it a try.

I'm currently spinning up my Mom's pima cotton from Phoenix, with the intention of trying my hand at weaving some of it. Look for that post sometime in the future!

I hope everyone has a great 2010!
Happy New Year!

French Spindle (Fusaïole)

2009-12-22T16:54:00.010-05:00

Santa came early! I have a new spindle to play with. This is a French spindle or fusaïole, patterned after the antique French spindles that have recently emerged in popularity in cyber spinning circles. Lisa Chan of Gripping Yarn is the talented spindlemaker who has given the spinning-obsessed a chance to give these kind of spindles a twirl. Thanks Lisa!! Her work is gorgeous. She made me one in bocote wood... just look at that grain! (Click on the photo to get a close up.) Take a look at her website and drool (she makes Russian lace spindles, too)!

I'm still getting the knack of this new (to me) spindle. I prefer to spin it in the hand, twirling it between my fingers, rather than in a bowl. I find the Russian, Tibetan, tahkli and bead spindles better suited for bowl spinning, and the French for finger-twirling or perhaps even lap spinning. There's not a lot of information out there for how to spin these spindles. This gives the spinning student a great opportunity to just play and really think about the process and, coupled with a little imagination, guess what might be the most efficient manner in which to use such a tool.

There are a few videos on YouTube which may help. This first one is spun finger-twirl style, I think (it's dark and a little hard to tell). It's called Quenouille. The second one is Spinning with a French Antique Support Spindle where the spinner uses a bowl to help support the spindle. It looks a little clunky, which was my experience using a bowl, too. Which leads me to conclude that finger-twirling is the way to go. In the third video, a woman is actually spinning with a phang, but it is very similar to the quenouille: Llamo spins more. She spins in a bowl, too. Like I said, lots of room for experimentation here.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year! And may it include much fibery goodness!

Spinning Homegrown

2009-12-09T22:37:00.009-05:00

A handful of cotton bolls in my garden have popped. This should be the month when my harvest comes in. Things aren't looking so good, however. Between squirrels eating the bolls and cold, wet weather, my cotton is suffering! But the photo above shows brown, green and white cotton bolls I've picked so far. (Click on the photo to see a larger image.)

Thankfully, my mom's pima cotton in Arizona is doing very well, so if my own cotton-growing efforts bomb this year, I've got her fiber to fall back on. I do believe my mom is getting more fiber off her 4 plants than I will even come close to seeing on my 60+... that's how dire the situation is. I've been enjoying ginning and carding her pima into punis. I've begun spinning it on my charkha and tahkli and have plans to try my hand at weaving it eventually. Pima is soft and wonderful to work with.

Tahklis are addicting to work with, too. If you're the obsessive-compulsive type that needs to keep your hands busy, tahklis are fantastic for that (or maybe it makes it worse!) Inspired by Jillan of New York, I'm going to see just how much I can stuff on one of these spindles.

Anyway, hope everyone is keeping sane this Christmas season, and that you are able to squeeze some fiber time in. Happy spinning!

Pima Cotton in Phoenix

2009-11-22T10:11:00.018-05:00

I visited my parents in Phoenix earlier this month, and had the chance to see cotton growing in another climate and make comparisons. I sent my Mom pima cotton seeds from my 2008 garden earlier this year. The hot, sunny desert climate is ideal for growing cotton.

The bolls on her plants were plentiful, though I did notice most were smaller than the bolls on my own plants in North Carolina (there are fewer bolls on my own plants, however). The stems are a striking red color, too. My own plants have a fainter red color on some of the stems, and only on the side that faces the sun. Otherwise they are green. So it would appear growing in full sun and plenty of heat does make a difference (or, perhaps it is the soil there contributing something?)

Though Mom started her cotton a couple months after I did, her bolls were already popping while I was visiting. My property is surrounded by trees, so my cotton does not enjoy full sun. It's clear cotton matures faster when given full sun and plenty of heat. Though my Mom has a thing for cotton, she does not spin or knit. She just enjoys the novelty of growing the plant as an ornamental. She let me keep the fiber (thanks Mom)! In the photo above is 11 days worth of picked fiber from 4 plants, and there's more on the way. I'm in the process of ginning it and hope to spin/knit it into a keepsake for her, so she can remember her cotton by. I like seeing things come full circle, from seed to completed project.

We also visited the Arizona State Fair. I was delighted to see some Arizona-grown cotton there, too. Above is a photo of some empty bolls after the cotton is plucked from them. The empty pods are rather pretty, too.

As for my own cotton here in North Carolina, only a few bolls have popped so far. A few of my plants are still flowering, even! Most of the harvest will be in late December here. It's been a cold and wet autumn, which cotton hates, so I'm hoping my fiber has not been harmed by the weather.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and that you're able to work some sanity-saving fiber time into your holiday!

Cotton Travel Kit

2009-10-24T20:25:00.028-04:00

Phreadde Davis's article on making a Cotton Travel Kit sparked my imagination this summer. I was feeling rather manic this week and decided to try making one of my own. I went to A.C. Moore and bought some of those unpainted wooden boxes, acrylic paint, glossy varnish, and paint brushes; and after perusing as many cotton images on the web as I could find, I was off and running.

The main box is 12" x 8 3/4" x 5". It houses 2 weaving bobbins for plying, assorted bead and akha spindles, a spindle bowl, 2 cat brushes for carding fiber, 6 puni boxes, and a short sanded dowel for rolling punis. I decoupaged Winslow Homer's post-civil war painting, The Cotton Pickers atop it. You can read a little about the painting's history HERE.

For the inside bottom, I decoupaged photos of cotton blossoms from my own garden. Quite a nice way to memorialize them!

A travel kit dedicated to cotton wouldn't be complete without another nod to a key figure in cotton's history: Mahatma Gandhi. I put a photo of him reading beside his charkha on the inside lid. Adorned in 3 places on the box are spinning quotes by him (click on the photos to enlarge enough to read them).

Last but not least, I couldn't forget medieval travel writer John Mandeville who claimed cotton came from a "vegetable lamb." In his own words, "There grew there [in India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie." These don the covers of six puni boxes, which will prevent my freshly carded cotton from getting squashed and keep them in ready-to-spin condition. These small puni boxes are 3" x 3" x 1 3/4".

Total cost for this project came to $17.70 (not including decoupage glue, which I already had on hand). Not bad for something that'll serve a lifetime. So thank you, Phreadde, for your wonderful idea! I'll enjoy this little kit for many years to come.

Like Gandhi once said, "If everyone spun an hour each day, we would have world peace." Think about that! A kit like this makes that really easy to do because it is completely self-contained for spinning short fibers like cotton. It's just the thing for travel spinning, or waiting room spinning, or... well, just think of the possibilities!

Happy spinning!

Pick A Bag of Cotton

2009-10-18T18:51:00.013-04:00

You've probably heard of and maybe even visited a corn maze in the fall before, but how about a cotton maze? Yesterday our family visited just such a maze at Dean's Farm, which is in Wilson, North Carolina-- about an hour from where we live. It was the perfect maze for the fiber nut. Our family went on the hayride, and I couldn't help peppering the owner with questions about their cotton. My first question was whether they sold any of their cotton. They don't. I asked them what they do with the cotton. They said nothing... it gets plowed under at the end of the season. I was told that since they don't defoliate the cotton for the maze, they can't get machinery in there to harvest it-- the cotton would be too full of leaf trash if they tried. However, I know cotton is perfectly clean and fluffy when you pick it by hand. I asked if I could pick some, and he said I could!

I had an absolute ball! I was in the maze 45 minutes, leisurely picking cotton here and there as I went. I managed to fill a bag. I weighed it when I got home, and it was almost one and three quarters pound of seed cotton! It was a glorious experience (you cotton fanatics will understand)... I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven! All around me was fluffy white goodness-- more than I could ever pick-- and some of it literally exploding out of the popped-open bolls in soft, cottony strips. Some of the cotton was a little damp (we've had a wet year), but I simply poured it out onto a towel when I got home, and let it air out under a ceiling fan (cotton can mold). I'm pretty sure the cotton is organically grown... there was no pesticide odor to it at all, and considering they intend for the public to walk through it, I'm guessing that's enough reason for them to avoid using any chemicals! I also saw a variety of bugs here and there, despite the chilly weather: another good sign that it's chemical-free. I'm not sure what variety of cotton it is, but the staple length is about an inch (uppland, maybe?) It seems a shame all that good cotton will go to waste, but I'm sure glad I got some! The owner mentioned they'd tried corn mazes in the past, but it's a windy area and the corn kept falling down. Cotton keeps standing, despite the wind. I'm glad that there's one maze in the area that uses cotton instead of corn. It's rather unique, don't you think?

Apart from the maze, our family enjoyed the hayride. For the price of the hayride you get a access to the maze, a small pie pumpkin, a goodie bag, and a tour around their fields of strawberries, collards, mustard greens, bee hives, etc. There's also a critter barn. There's a small picnic/play area outside the maze, so dad and the kids can play while mom goes on her fiber drunk (eh hem). There's a small store on the premises so you can buy their farm goodies. We bought 2 jars of their honey (which tastes of strawberries), collard greens, and sweet potatoes. It's a pleasure to be able to buy straight from the farm. If you're so inclined, they are open every Saturday during October. Remember to ask the owner's permission first if you intend to pick cotton (and please do support their farm by buying some of their produce!) You can bet I'll be back next year!

As for my own little bed of cotton, my bolls have not yet popped open. My cotton always seems later than everyone else's, even though I start seedlings indoors in March. I can only guess it's because of my yard, which is surrounded by trees, which means my cotton probably doesn't get as much sun as it should. I posted photos of the flowers from my cotton bed in the last post, so this time I'm posting photos of some bolls. I'm looking forward to the harvest, though my little bed is meager by comparison to Dean's big field! Either way, picking cotton is a blast!

August Cotton Blooms

2009-09-05T15:15:00.011-04:00

I've been behind in updating my blog this summer. We began homeschooling the second week in August, so I haven't had a chance. But August brought with it some of the first cotton blooms, so I thought I'd finally share them. The bolls are happily plumping by now, too. My mom, who started her pima cotton two months after mine in hot & sunny Phoenix, already has bolls that have popped open-- which just shows you can speed the process up with heat and sun-- or slow it down with cooler temps and a partially shady growing area like I have. I suspect my first bolls won't begin to pop until next month, or maybe even November.

The one knitting project I completed this summer was Pam Allen's Knitting Needle Knitting Bag (the free pattern can be found HERE). It was a quick and easy pattern to work up. I hand-sewed a liner into it (not fun) and added an i-cord latch. I also added about an inch to the bag's height, to make it roomier. The yarn is berry heather Reynolds Lopi-- one of my favorites.

Happy knitting!

Marble Slab & Iron Rolling Pin "Cotton Gin"

2009-07-05T14:11:00.025-04:00

For my birthday this year, I ordered a Marble Slab & Iron Pin Cotton "Gin" from Alden Amos's Dragonfly Farms (scroll down to the bottom of their webpage). From their website description: Primitive & effective tools for ginning cotton. Iron pin pinches, presses seed cotton against stone slab, & squeezes 'lint' from seed as pin is rolled. Simple to do & surprisingly easy. Method is authentic from circa 1300 BCE to the present. Iron pin is approx. 5/8" dia. x 8" long; the slab is 12" x 6". For all slick-seeded cottons only! Will not work on hairy-seeded types.

I've had a lot of fun playing with this. I do prefer this method over using a pasta machine as a gin (mentioned in a previous post) I found the pasta machine jammed up on me at times, whereas if you have a good solid seed, this easily presses it out. The only time it didn't work was on partially formed seeds that failed to develop, or on older cotton where the seeds had dried out... these cracked under the weight of the rolling pin and had to be removed by hand (can't have everything!) So far I've only tried this gin with Pima cotton. It works quite simply and effectively. You roll the heavy iron rolling pin away from yourself, over a fluff of cotton, and along the top of the ungiving hard marble; then out slides the cotton seed away from its fiber, just ahead of the rolling iron pin.

Could the same thing be achieved with a baker's rolling pin against a table top? Or perhaps PVC pipe? I don't know. It does seem to help that the solid, heaviness of the pin (which weighs a hefty 10 ounces), rolling against a very hard surface like the marble, is what helps to squeeze out the seeds. Something light-weight and less solid may not cut it. If you grow cotton, I consider this an excellent tool to add to your collection of fiber-processing toys (I mean tools!) It's fun to use, besides. And don't you think it's neat to use historically-authentic tools?

As you can see in the photo, the marble slab is not very large, but it is very heavy (almost 10 pounds according to my bathroom scale). If you plan to order one, know that the shipping cost will be pricey. It was over $18 to ship it from CA to NC.

* * *

I finally got around to calculating the germination rates of this year's cotton seeds. I started with 152 seeds total (5 different varieties) and ended up with 68 seedlings to transplant, which makes for a 45% germination rate. Here's the breakdown, by variety and year of seeds:

2008 homegrown Pima = 36%
2008 Arkansas Green Lint cross (from FL) = 100%
2006 Arkansas Green Lint (Southern Exposure) = 67%
2008 Erlene Green cross (from FL) = 100%
2006 Erlene Green (Southern Exposure) = 78%
2008 Nankeen Brown cross (from FL) = 73%
2007 homegrown Nankeen Brown = 4%
2008 Mississippi Brown cross (from FL) = 25%

My own homegrown cotton seeds had the worst germination rates, so perhaps I need to figure out a better way to collect and store my seeds, or else start my cotton even earlier so that the last third of its growing season doesn't fall after the first frost! I didn't gin my homegrown right away, but waited about 3 months. Could this have made a difference? I saved my seeds at room temperature in a ziplock bag... perhaps I should have refrigerated them? The best germination rates came from a home gardener's seeds in Florida (all of them most likely crosses, since she grew more than one variety together). Maybe hers were stronger, for being crosses? If I had to guess what the problem was, it was that my cotton was still finishing its growth cycle into December, when it was cold (and cotton hates the cold). I picked my final harvest on Dec. 29th, '08 in fact, well after a few freezes, waiting for those bolls to finally pop open. It's possible the seeds suffered from the cold while still inside the bolls. Anyway, if anyone has any insights to share, please do! I'm learning as I'm going.

My cotton plants are thriving so far this year. I've been foliar-feeding them seaweed emulsion. I mentioned before that I'm growing them in a bed of red mammoth clover, which acts as a "green manure" (and helps to fertilize the cotton all season long, as a "nitrogen giver"). The clover does not like this emulsion and seems to suffer every time I use it, but the cotton seems to love it (not to mention my tomatoes and peppers!) Wild rabbits like to sit in the bed and nibble the clover, but thankfully not the cotton (though I did find one cotton plant had been partially snapped in two. I'm attempting to tape it back together, figuring I have nothing to lose for trying the experiment! So far it still looks erect and perky.) At least one plant already has the first little formation of a growing flower bud, which is pretty exciting.

Here are pictures of 2-month old cotton plants from my garden (click on them to view them larger). Five different varieties are shown here, for leaf-identification purposes. You'll note there are some differences in leaf shape from variety to variety, the most dramatically different being the Arkansas Green Lint, with its pointy leaves. I've noticed all varieties have one smaller leaf that is waxy and shiny and a slightly different color green.

Mississippi Brown Cotton

Erlene Green Cotton

Arkansas Green Cotton Plant

Nankeen Brown Cotton Plant

Pima Cotton Plant

Oakie

2009-06-24T20:59:00.004-04:00

I'm overdue in introducing the latest addition to our family. This is Heart of Oak (or Oakie for short). She is a chocolate German angora who was given to us by Elaina of Avillion Farm. Elaina retired her as a breeding bun after 6 successful litters in 2 years! She's our wooler pet now, and we're so happy to have her. Thanks so much, Elaina! Oakie has a gentle, easy-going disposition. We've already shaved her once since bringing her home, and I'm looking forward to spinning all that luscious fiber! Isn't she a cutie?

More Doggy Yarn

2009-06-15T21:46:00.008-04:00

This month I have been mostly working on my one long outstanding project, the Barbara Walker Learn-to-Knit Afghan. I am currently up to square 19 of 63. The last two squares were knitted with luscious Samoyed fiber. It was a delight to knit with, so soft and fuzzy. The photo above shows hand-carded Samoyed punis.

Spinning yarn from dog or cat hair is not a new idea. It was practiced anciently. And for the non-spinners who stumble upon this blog, no, the animals are not harmed in the collection of their fiber for yarn-making. The brushings of the soft undercoat are used, while the coarser guard hair is removed by hand. Most people like to blend dog or cat fur with wool because it is too warm and insulating by itself, especially if they plan to knit something wearable with it. But I like a 100% pure yarn, to fully appreciate the characteristics of the fiber as it already is. They call this kind of yarn chiengora (pronounced shane-gora).

The above skein was spun on an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. If I have a favorite fiber to spin, it may very well be Samoyed.

And We're Off: Transplanting Cotton

2009-05-18T23:26:00.012-04:00

We transplanted our cotton seedlings (70 of them) on May 9th. (The photo above shows the seedlings still under grow lights.) I've got 5 different varieties growing this year (23 white Pima, 9 Nankeen Brown, 2 Mississippi Brown, 18 Arkansas Green and 18 Erlene Green. With only 2 Mississippi Brown that sprouted at all, I do hope they survive.) I realize there will no doubt be some cross-pollination here, but I'm OK with that. I just want fiber, and I don't mind a few surprises. The seedlings were transplanted into an 8'x8' raised bed, with plenty of compost. I sowed a pound of inoculated red mammoth cotton seed in the bed on the same day-- this will be a green manure and living mulch for the cotton. I have no idea if the clover will be a good thing or a bad thing, but I always get marvelous results with vegetables when I raise them with clover.

This is a seedling the day after transplant. It's already looking perky, despite the previous day's move.

Here's a bird's eye view of the raised 8'x8' bed, the day after transplant. It's rich with compost and rabbit manure. Most of the plants are spaced one foot apart (since I had more than 64 plants, a few were squeezed in more tightly here and there). I mapped out which varieties went where on some graph paper, so I can better keep track of how the various varieties are doing.

Here's the same raised bed, 6 days after transplanting. The red mammoth clover has sprouted and covers the bed thickly. The cotton is still looking perky, even though our high was in the 60's F today (a bit too cold for cotton to grow well yet).

Wikipedia has a great entry about cotton. There was a time when cotton was a mystery fiber. John Mandelville wrote in 1350, "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie." Gardeners always know the gamble they undertake the moment they add water to a seed. But here's hoping for a productive season, that many "vegetable lambs," in many colors, will be added to my fiber flock.

Weavette Time!

2009-05-10T13:54:00.009-04:00

Do you ever wonder what to do with all those fiber samples that come with your new drop spindles? There's never quite enough of the spun yarn to do much of anything with. However, with a Weavette weaving loom, all you need is anywhere between 2 to 11 yards of yarn to make a little woven square or rectangle, depending on the size of loom you decide on. For a 2"x6" rectangle bookmark loom, all you need is 6 yards of yarn. If you're anything like me, you have a book stash that perhaps equals or surpasses your yarn or fiber stash (or vice versa)! I, for one, can never have too many bookmarks, so the 2"x6" loom was a good choice for me.

If you'd like to spin your own yarn for use in a Weavette loom, the recommendation is 8-12 wpi (i.e. DK to heavy-worsted weight yarn). If you're making a bookmark, I recommend going on the lighter DK side, as the thicker bookmarks can wear down your book bindings with their thickness. However, the heavier weight yarns do allow the textured patterns to stand out much better. The lighter weight yarns leave you with an open gauzier bookmark. Spin your homespun as smoothly as you can if you plan to do more than plain weave... lumpy homespun definitely obscures the textured patterns, as I discovered firsthand! Each bookmark took less than an hour to make. I like to leave a yarn tail since I'm using these for bookmarks, but if you're going to join squares or rectangles for a larger project, obviously you'll need to weave in your yarn tails.

For textured patterns, I recommend the book Modular Textures: Patterns for the Weavette & Weave-It Looms Vol. 1 by Licia Conforti. Also, eLoomaNation offers tons of free vintage .pdf pattern files for these looms. Her website & blog are terrific resources. There are small loom groups on both Ravelry and Yahoo Groups if you'd like to learn more.

Here is a Weavette diagonal bookmark pattern. The yarn is 100% Samoyed homespun

Top: dyed border leicester locks
Middle: dyed corriedale/merino
Bottom: silk

Yarn Farming

2009-04-30T23:51:00.018-04:00

Spring is here, so thoughts are turning to fiber production once again (not that my thoughts are ever far from fiber, no matter what time of year). I sowed cotton seeds in seedling trays earlier this month. This will be the first year I'm using seeds from cotton I produced myself, rather than from a seed catalog. There were plenty of seeds from last year's pima cotton harvest, and some seeds from the 2007 Nankeen brown harvest. Tucked away in my stash were some green cotton seeds I'd ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in '07. I went ahead and sowed those as well, though already I can see the germination rates for those have plummeted. I've definitely learned that it's best to use the latest cotton harvest's seeds, as cotton doesn't stay viable for long. I'll be tracking germination rates this year.

For seedlings, I like to use the soil blockers, available at Johnny Seeds. With a blend of peat, sand, compost and worm castings, I can make a pot-free 2"x2" square for each seedling. This method makes for less stress come transplant time, since you merely transplant the entire soil block into the planting hole. These were started indoors to germinate, since cotton likes it warm. The pima were the first to begin sprouting, after just a couple of days. I've filled up 4 of these trays, in hopes of getting many seedlings this year. I'd love nothing more than to inundate my yard with cotton, especially since the past 2 seasons produced such a meager harvest with only a handful of plants. I'm so excited about the new season, and feeling quite optimistic that this will be an even more productive year for cotton. Our temps have already been up in the 90's F, which will make my cotton very happy indeed.

It was also time to shave my lilac German angora bunny, Nixie. She gifted me with about 9 ounces of fiber last night. Here she is, before shaving.

She gets shaved quarterly. I tend to get between 9-10 ounces of fiber each quarter, which comes to 36-40 ounces of luxurious angora fiber per year. Shaving is a bit of a pain (it takes both my husband and I about 2 hours to do it), but when I think of all that yummy fiber, it makes it all worthwhile. And once a quarter for a shave isn't so very demanding. If you're a spinner who is dying to raise "fiber on the hoof," an angora rabbit can be a nice first step in that direction, if you don't have room/funds for something larger like a sheep. It's quite a joy being able to raise your own fiber, whether it comes from a plant or critter.

(Note: I do not sell any of my homegrown fiber, since my production is small and personal. I don't think I could ever part with the fiber that came from my beloved pets, anyway. If you are interested in raising angoras and live in North Carolina, I bought my German angoras from Avillion Farms. They also sell angora fiber in several colors. I highly recommend them.)

Tabachek Tibetan-style Spindle

2009-04-20T16:19:00.015-04:00

Homespun llama on Tabachek Tibetan-style spindle, originally uploaded by Teri "Fiber Drunk".

I finished up a skein of homespun llama this spring. It was spun with a Tabachek Tibetan-style supported spindle, available at The Bellwether. At the right is a Kokovoko spindle lap bowl, which the spindle spins on top of, like a spinning top. It's available at the Woolery.

I'm used to spinning cotton with supported spindles, so it was fun playing with llama and putting it through its paces with such a spindle. The nice thing about this kind of spinning is you can sit in your favorite easy chair and spin right in your lap while watching TV or whatever. Tabachek's spindles are high quality and you can literally feel how well made they are in your hands. These are called supported spindles because they are not dangled in mid-air from the spun yarn while spinning, as with drop spindles. The spindle sits supported on the bowl, and no weight is ever placed on the freshly spun yarn at any time. It's perfect for short delicate fibers like cotton, but it works for longer fibers like llama as well. Tabachek was inspired by the design from a video on YouTube, where a rural Tibetan woman spins with this type of spindle. I can't say I have this woman's expertise with the spindle yet! But I did enjoy spinning with it just the same. There's nothing quite like spinning with a well-made spindle. It's one of the true delights of my creative life.

Completed skein, ready for knitting

My 2008 Cotton Harvest

2009-04-15T10:34:00.029-04:00

Here is a summary of my 2008 cotton growing season (note: I live in growing region 7B, in North Carolina):

· Sowed pima cotton in seedling trays: 4/18/08
· Source of seeds: Cotton Clouds
· Transplanted 6 plants into 12-inch pots, with compost, some sand, and rabbit manure. The plants limped along during May-- it was too cool yet for cotton to be happy. The plants didn't make progress until temps were up in the 90's F in June.
· Foliar fed fish/kelp liquid 2-3 times a month.
· Side-dressed with rabbit manure as needed
· Blossoms first appeared: first week in August
· Height of plant on 8/8/08: 34.5 inches
· Average number of bolls per plant: 5-6
· Most bolls on a single plant: 13
· Harvest: November 16 thru December 29, 2008
· Fiber yield from 6 potted plants: around 15 bolls, which came out to .41 ounce of actual fiber (which carded up into 21 soft fluffy punis)
· Number of seeds per pima boll: 12-15 seeds

By contrast, my 2007 growing season, of which only 2 Nankeen brown cotton plants survived (direct-sown) in my garden, had a yield of .21 ounce (which carded up into 8 punis). This, too, was an improvement over my 2006 growing season where I tried to grow a green variety of cotton, and the squirrels ate all the bolls.

I hope to, in the near future, spin this all up and calculate the yardage produced from my homegrown cotton, to finish off my stats. It's kind of fun to see the statistics, to get an idea of what exactly goes into producing x-amount of fiber. My property is surrounded by trees, which probably affected yields. Cotton likes it hot and sunny. I'm still hoping for an even better growing season this year. Each year has been better than the last. I'd like to build a bed just for cotton, rather than planting in pots. The advantage would be larger plants and hopefully more bolls per plant. The disadvantage is I wouldn't be able to move them indoors to finish off their growing season if necessary. One final observation is that the germination rates for cotton seeds seems to be somewhat poor. I sowed many more seeds than what actually sprouted and made it to the transplant stage. Keep that in mind if you plan to grow cotton.

The USDA lists the following planting and harvest dates for commercial cotton in this region:

Planting: April 21 thru June 8 (with May 1-20 the most active)
Harvesting: September 27 thru December 15 (with October 7 thru November 15 the most active)

Pasta machine cotton gin!

I used a pasta machine to gin my cotton. A kind soul posted a YouTube video for how to do this, based on a Fall 2002 article in Spin-Off magazine. You can see in the picture that the seeds stay on top, above the rollers, while the fiber sticks to a piece of denim as it goes through the rollers. Since each boll has between 12-15 seeds, you develop a real appreciation for those who had to do this tedious work by hand in pre-gin days. Even with the pasta machine, I experienced jams and it wasn't always smooth sailing. After ginning, I used cotton handcards and a sanded dowel to make punis. Compared to the ginned cotton I have purchased in the past, my homegrown cotton was very clean and wonderfully soft and fluffy to work with (not to mention, chemical-free). Although my yields were small and you might wonder why I bother at all, it was satisfying to be a part of the entire process of growing the fiber from seed to puni. It will be all the sweeter when I spin it up (this, I'll probably do on the charkha). You can see my cotton growing at various stages on Flickr... the flowers alone are worth growing the plants!

(left) 2008 harvest: ginned white pima cotton & seeds;
(right) 2007 harvest: ginned brown Nankeen cotton & seeds

Same cotton, now hand-carded with cotton cards, and formed into punis using a sanded dowel.

Tahkli Love

2009-04-01T19:27:00.008-04:00

My first impression of the tahkli wasn't a very favorable one. A few years back, I obtained a tahkli on eBay, one that had a rather large coin for a whorl. After taking it for a test spin, I put it down. It was pretty, but kind of clunky to use and not very long-spinning.

Then I tried ordering a brass tahkli from eTrade Enterprises. Shortly after, I had a baby. About a year after ordering the tahkli (and much sleep-deprivaton), I realized it had never arrived. I emailed the company, and they quickly informed me that the shipment of tahklis they had received that year were of poor quality so they had delayed shipping any out. But to make up for the long delay, they sent me not one, but two tahklis-- and they each came in their own little wooden case.

These tahklis spin like a dream. You'll need a little ceramic bowl or something similar to spin them on. I found it quite addicting to sit back in my favorite chair, pop in a DVD on the player, and spin cotton on my lap, while watching a movie. They are delightfully long-spinning, like playing with a spinning top. I'm hooked! So I'm pleased with not only the spindles, but eTrade's wonderful customer service. (And no, I'm not affiliated with the company, which is located in India. I'm just a happy customer.)

Happy spinning!

First tahkli-spun cotton skein

Homemade Spindles

2009-03-10T22:00:00.020-04:00

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. Mainly because I have an old-fashioned camera (you remember those: the 35 mm film kind!) so I have to wait to fill up the roll and then get it developed. My turn-around time has been slow lately.

Just before the holidays, I made several homemade spindles for gifts. Making spindles is just as addicting as spinning on them, I found!

A Chorus Line of Baby Spindles

These were made from wood appliques and dowels, available at A. C. Moore. I sanded them, then applied two coats of Red Mahogany Wood Finish by Minwax. Then I applied 2 coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane Clear Satin, for a shiny finish. Both are available at Lowe's. Hubbie drilled the holes for me and inserted the hooks, which were made from eye hooks that were pried open with pliers. We made several of them and gave them as gifts for Christmas. I made them in 2 sizes: large (with a 9" shaft, 3" whorl and a weight of .91 oz) and baby (with a 5" shaft, 2" whorl and a weight of .33 oz). I used 1/4" dowels for the large square spindles, and 3/16" dowels for the baby square spindles. I really love to spin with these spindles because they have unlimited built-in "notches" all the way around the whorl. The baby ones are so cute to haul around. And because they were cheap to make, I don't have to worry about accidentally breaking them. The spindle below spun the yarn which I wove into a bookmark, using a Weavette 2x6" loom.

I also had to try my hand at making a spindle out of a flower applique. It weighs 1 ounce, has a 10" shaft and a 3.5" whorl. I used a 1/4" dowel for this spindle. It's very dependable. One thing I goofed on when making this spindle was that I tried using Gorilla Glue to secure the whorl to the shaft. To my horror, when I checked it awhile later, the glue had expanded and bubbled right out and dried rock hard on the whorl. It took me quite awhile to pick it off and sand it smooth. I've since learned from Miguel at the Spanish Peacock that Tite Bond III makes a much better glue for wooden spindles. You can also find this glue at Lowe's. Learn from my mistake!

All of these homemade spindles are long-spinning, and none of them cost more than $3 or so to make. A small can of stain goes a very long way with these spindles. So if you're looking to make something a little nicer than a homemade CD drop spindle, this may fit the bill. Happy spinning!

Note: A few have asked if I sell these spindles. I don't, since I got the idea from Spinsanity, and I don't think it'd be right for me to turn around and sell her idea. If you're interested in a spindle of this type and don't want the bother of making your own, please see Spinsanity on Etsy. She makes/sells the larger ornate square ones, and sometimes the flower ones. I can vouch for the quality, as I own one of her ornate square jacobean stain spindles. Thanks for the interest, though!

I Got a Moosie!

2008-12-13T18:25:00.016-05:00

I haven't updated in awhile. November was spent noveling (is that a real verb?) with NaNoWriMo. Both my son and I met our goals.

The big news is I got a Moosie spindle from the Bosworth's! Click on the photos to see a larger image.

It has a 1.6" whorl with a 7.25" bloodwood shaft. It weighs .91 oz (26 g). Yes, the whorl really is made from a moose antler (and don't worry, no moose are harmed in the making of these spindles. I'd never have bought one otherwise! These are from naturally shed antlers). No two are alike. You can see the mouse nibbles on the whorl in the picture. Above, the Moosie is spinning Samoyed. Dog meets moose, you could say! It's a well-made spindle and long-spinning. There's a year-long waiting list for these babies, just in case you're interested. Out of all my spindles, this one is my favorite.

I finished the Wonderful Wallaby sweater for my daughter. This was the first project that I planned and completed, from fiber to finished knitted article. I spun the lavendar superwash merino on my Ashford Traditional. The pattern called for worsted weight, but I ended up spinning something closer to heavy worsted. It took about 29 ounces of fiber (about 542 yards) for a size 4. I knitted the pattern 2 sizes big, so my daughter can grow into it. It's warm and soft with a hood, and will have the ease of being machine-washable. The pattern is by Cottage Creations and was easy to knit up. The pattern booklet provides the patterns in sizes from toddler on up to adult super size, making this a really family-friendly pattern. I enjoyed seeing how the "pouch" (i.e. pocket) came together on the front. My son wants one now, so that'll be a future knitting project.

I started picking my first pima cotton bolls last month, so that's been quite exciting for me. When the cold weather set in last month, we dragged the potted plants into the shed and put them under some grow lights until the rest of the bolls pop. I'd love to see them overwinter, but they're looking rather spent by now, so we'll see.

Anyway, if I don't update before the month is through, have a merry Christmas and happy new year!

Gearing Up For NaNoWriMo

2008-11-02T10:23:00.022-05:00

I spent October knitting, mostly. I finished up some glittens for my son early last month. I'm now trying to finish up my first Wonderful Wallaby sweater. The pattern for the glittens came from The Best of Lopi (specifically, the GSM pattern). I had to do some math and recalculate the pattern, however, because I was making them in a children's size and using much finer yarn (specifically, Knit Picks Simple Stripes, a yarn that is now discontinued).

It's been awhile since I posted and November probably won't be much better, but I just wanted to let everyone know that my son and I will be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this month (my son will be doing their Young Writer's Program). This is a writing marathon they do every year during the month of November. Adults try to write a 50,000-word novel in a month's time (for kids, the goal is much lower, and different for each age). With homeschooling demands, my own goal will be a modest 10,000 new words for a novel I started back in August (which should bring me to 22,000 words total by the end of the month). That'll boil down to a doable 500 words per day Monday through Friday for me. My son will be trying for 3000-4500 words for the month, which is the recommendation for the 2nd grade age group. So, wish us luck!

Playing With Cotton Fiber

2008-09-27T10:50:00.009-04:00

Cotton is a wonderful fiber to work with, and it is amazing all the colors it can come in naturally. There's not only natural white cotton varieties, but browns and greens as well. Sally Fox has worked hard for many years to develop color cotton varieties in this country. I drool when I see the pictures on her website! The pictures I'm posting this time really are undyed cotton... this is exactly the color the fiber comes in, right from the boll.

I only wish I could say that I'd grown the above cotton! But I'm working on it. This is my third season at attempting to grow cotton. I did grow a meager handful of brown cotton last year. This year I'm growing white pima. Here's a photo of one of the bolls on my plants, taken a week or two ago:

If the squirrels and deer will keep away, I'll have a much better yield of fiber this season than last. The nights are getting cool. I still had some flowers as late as last week, but mostly my plants are in the boll-plumping stage now. I can't wait to see them pop! But I have a feeling I'll have to bring the plants inside to finish out their cycle.

In the meantime, I do have a stash of ginned cotton to play with. Here's a stack of punis I hand-carded with cotton carders. They're destined for the charkha soon.

Spin deliciously!

Barbara Walker's Learn-To-Knit Afghan

2008-09-10T16:39:00.011-04:00

Square 14: "Chevron" (with gray alpaca and red-brown border leicester homespun)

Since spring 2006, I've been quietly knitting, off and on, the sampler afghan from Barbara Walker's Learn-To-Knit Afghan Book. There are 63 sampler squares, each with a different technique to master. By the time you are finished knitting the afghan, you will have tackled knit-purl combinations, mosaic patterns, slip-stitch patterns, twist-stitch patterns, cables, increase-and-decrease patterns, lace, and various miscellaneous special techniques. It makes for a wonderful knitting course.

When I first started this project, I knew right away I'd want to make this a spinning sampler as well. So I've been endeavoring to include as many different kinds of fibers into this as possible. I'm spinning it as I go, so to simplify things, I decided just to stick with all-natural colors:

Color A: whites/creams
Color B: grays
Color C: browns
Color D: black

When I join the squares, I'll probably use red, the only dyed color.

Square 13: "Greek Cross" (black alpaca & cream llama homespun)

I'm only up to square 15 out of 63, so progress has been slow (I had a baby right after I started the afghan, plus I'm spinning the yarn as I go). But when I started the afghan, this was my first experience knitting with my own homespun. That was a magical moment! My spinning hasn't always been consistent, but I'm still enjoying the peasanty look of the squares just the same. Best recommendations for spinning for this afghan would probably be to use combed top and to spin it worsted, to really make the stitch definition pop. Admittedly, I've mostly been using carded fiber, which may fall flat when I reach the cable section. But hand cards are what I have, so carded it is.

If you want to learn more about this afghan, here are some links.

Square-Along Email Group on Yahoo Groups

Barbara Walker Ravelry Group

And you can track my progress with this afghan here:

My Barbara Walker Sampler Afghan Folder on Flickr

My project's progress/details on Ravelry

Square 11: "Miniature Mosaic" (moorit & black Icelandic homespun)

Solar Cooking

2008-09-07T13:45:00.013-04:00

I'm going to break from fiber crafts this time, and write about something new we tried last week. We made some cheap homemade solar ovens and cooked our first 100% sun-baked dish! It was really fun! This was, in part, for an Earth Science homeschool lesson. What better way to study the sun, than with a hands-on activity like this one? I also see this as a great emergency prep option, for when the power goes out, in our hurricane-prone area.

Our first attempt didn't work out very well. We did the pizza box solar oven on Tuesday, but only got so-so results (that oven only got up to about 175 F for us, though the designers on YouTube said it could get in the 200's F. But we noticed there was an open hole at the bottom back of the lid when the pizza box was closed, so there's one place where we could improve on the design so heat won't escape. We baked pizza for this one (what else?)... first the crust by itself, then later added the toppings (I used the pizza recipe from New Vegetarian Epicure). The crust was still a little doughy by the time the sun started going down, so I finished it off in the conventional oven just to be safe, especially when I saw the temps starting to dip towards 150 F.) The pizza did taste good-- I just wish it could've finished up in the solar oven. I'd like to try cookies in this oven next, after we get the hole on the lid patched up. So I haven't given up on it yet!

While our first attempt sorta bombed, our second attempt went great! We had much better luck with the aluminum roasting pan solar oven (see solarcookingnuts's videos on YouTube... there are 3 videos with tips, just for this design.) I adapted a favorite cornbread stuffing recipe for use in it. The oven got up to 220 F at its highest, though it may have gone up even higher if the roasting bag hadn't come loose at one point when I went to shift the oven back into the direct sunlight... I lost a lot of heat then, but it quickly rebounded back up to 220 F within a half hour, during the peak time of the day. If I remember right, the video said this kind of oven could get to 250+ F. We used a glass 2 qt. round Pyrex baking dish inside the oven, the bottom of which we painted black with Folk Art Enamels Acrylic Paint (non-toxic paint from A. C. Moore). We left the lid unpainted so we could see inside. We looked all over town for suitable black pots, and they were either too expensive or too big for this size oven, so the Pyrex was a good solution (some cook in mason jars, painted black, too). We put black tiles on the bottom of the oven, just like the video said, to help absorb and hold heat, and we used a little baking rack on top of the tiles to elevate the baking dish for even heating (the meat rack I used was the little round one that the Rival Crockpot people sell for their crockpots). From start to finish, the recipe took 6 hours to sun-bake. The stuffing was nicely browned on top, and there were absolutely no scorched areas at the bottom of the baking dish!

If you want to try this, watch those videos first. In fact, there are quite a few solar cooking videos on YouTube. Also, be sure to use an oven thermometer in the solar oven, and make sure food temps stay above the "danger zone" (i.e. between 40 F- 140 F... bacteria proliferate in this range). Another useful temp to remember: water boils at 212 F (remember that from your science days?) A solar cooker can be a pasteurizer, too. Heating water to about 150º F is sufficient to kill coliform bacteria, rotaviruses, enteroviruses and even Giardia. (For best pasteurizing results, heat to 160º F for at least six minutes.) Also, for safety: always wear sunglasses when working around a solar oven. Always approach the oven from the side or back (never from the front!) to reduce the chances of direct reflections scorching your retinas (yes, this is a real danger). And turn the oven out of the direct path of the sun if/when you have to stir the pot or add ingredients (generally speaking, you don't have to stir solar cooked food... treat it much the same as a crockpot, and expect temps to dip big time if you do open the lid). And of course, your pot will be hot, so use gloves or pot holders. Oh, and if you have to paint any part of the oven or cooking pot black, be sure to use one that says "Non-toxic when dry."

Here's the recipe we used:

Cornbread Stuffing by Curtis Aikens (this is my adaptation for solar cooking)

4 c crumbled cornbread (we used the Moosewood Cookbook cornbread recipe... use your favorite)
2 c breadcrumbs (from homemade whole wheat bread)
2 c vegetable stock
3 celery stalks (including leaves), finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large eggs, beaten
½ stick butter
1 t dried sage
Salt & pepper, to taste

Step 1: Place vegetable stock, celery & onion into a covered glass baking dish (bottom painted black). Solar-bake approximately 2 hours between 175-195 F.

Step 2: Add the cornbread, breadcrumbs, eggs, butter, sage & salt & pepper. Solar-bake for 4.5 hours, or until the dressing is set and nicely browned.

This was how the times/temps played out while baking the above:

10:45 AM: below 150 F inside oven-- 73 F outdoor temp -- We didn't preheat the oven first. We just put Step 1 in immediately (most people preheat first for 1/2 hour or so).

11:25 AM: 175 F inside oven--- 76 F outdoor temp

11:45 AM: 180 F inside oven -- 83 F outdoor temp

12:35 PM: 185 F inside oven -- 86 F outdoor temp

1:00 PM: dropped below 150 F because I added Step 2 of the recipe at this point -- 89 F outdoor temp

1:15 PM: 180 F inside oven -- 89 F outdoor temp

2:00 PM 190 F inside oven -- 90 F outdoor temp

2:40 PM: 160 F inside oven due to moving the oven and accidentally causing the plastic cover to come off -- 98 F outdoor temp

3:10 PM: 150 F inside oven due to shade moving over oven -- 103 F outdoor temp

3:45 PM: 220 F inside oven! 88 F outdoor temp (it must have been the peak sun time, because I really had a temp rebound here)

4:25 PM: 205 F, with the sun starting to go down, oven temps also started going down, though the oven was still in full sun. 83 F outdoor temp

4:50 PM: 150 F inside oven. 82 F outdoor temp. Stuffing was nicely browned at this point, and since the sun was going down, I brought it inside and called it done.

Verdict: the stuffing was yummy! The kids liked it, too. I see great potential in these solar ovens as an emergency prep option.

We plan to make either the BYU Funnel Solar Cooker or its improved design, Fun-Panel Cooker next.

Some other useful links:
Solar Cooker on Wikipedia (gives a nice overview of the different types of solar cookers)

Solar Cooking (an email list on Yahoo Groups)

Safe Food Handling by the USDA

Solar Cooking Recipes

Solar Cooking Archive

Growing Pima Cotton

2008-08-26T12:06:00.017-04:00

This is my third season attempt at growing cotton. The first year (2006), the squirrels got all the bolls. Last year, only 2 brown cotton plants survived, and I got only a little handful of cotton for the effort. This year I tried pima cotton from Cotton Clouds, and rather than grow it in raised beds like the last two years, I decided to use pots instead (12" wide, 11" tall), mainly so I could free up the beds for veggies. Last year I harvested the cotton in December, so I have a feeling this year's batch will finish up their growing season inside our shed, under grow lights and with a space heater (cotton likes it hot). I've got a total of six plants in 12" pots, and one in a small 6" pot that I'd intended to bring into the house this winter, to see how it does (size of the pot definitely affects how large the plant can get... that one in the 6" pot isn't even half the height of the others).

I sowed the first batch in seedling trays on 4/18/08. I transplanted the first seedlings to the 12" pots, with a mix of compost, sand and rabbit manure. Germination rates weren't very good, so I sowed a second batch about a month behind the first, directly into their pots. The plants limped along in May-- at the time, it was too cool for cotton to be happy. They didn't really make progress until temps were up in the 90's F, in June. I've been foliar-feeding them fish/kelp liquid 2-3 times a month. I side-dress with rabbit manure, as needed.

For the first batch of seedlings, blossoms first appeared during the first week in August. The height of the plants on August 8th was 34.5". The average number of buds (i.e. future bolls) per plant is 5-6. The most buds on a single plant is 13. I learned about blossom colors from Ruth (aka Twisted Spinster): "First day yellow, second day red, third day dead." So, as you can see, the blossoms don't last long.

It remains to be seen how much cotton I'll get from so few plants. It apparently takes a lot of plants to get a decent amount of fiber. I'm really hoping the squirrels will leave the bolls alone. But at least there are the photos of the flowers to enjoy year round. Cotton blossoms really are lovely.

Russian Lace Spindles

2008-08-20T21:47:00.021-04:00

I've been swamped with homeschooling this month, and so haven't had much time for spinning or knitting lately. So I'm going to post about a project I finished earlier in the summer, one that I never got around to posting about. Some of my favorite spindles are my trio of purpleheart Russian lace spindles that the Spanish Peacock made for me. Purpleheart is probably my most favorite wood, and these turned out gorgeous!

This was my first experience using this kind of spindle, and it took me several months to modestly fill my spindles (okay, I spun on them off and on... it really shouldn't take that long, I promise!) My one-handed long draw charkha skills helped me master this type of spindle spinning easily. Also, the DVD Spindles Around the World was a big help... I couldn't have done without its instruction. I spun (support-style) natural brown cotton sliver onto one 10" spindle, and white hand-carded bamboo onto another. I spun them atop a spindle lap bowl, which I got at the Woolery. Then I wound (not plied) the two individual strands together onto the 12" plying spindle. Then actual plying twist was added, with the two threads plied directly together onto the thread winders-- the purpleheart ones were made by the Spanish Peacock, and the larger natural wooden ones were by Finniwig Studios. The only downside I see to plying straight onto the thread winders is that I have no way of being able to calculate yardage, unless I wind off onto a niddy noddy, measure, and then wind back onto the thread winders (which would sort of defeat the purpose, I suppose, of using the thread winders in the first place, as you're supposed to knit straight from them). It's Russian tradition to spin with cashmere and then ply with a strand of silk on these spindles-- but I settled for the poor man's version of natural brown cotton and bamboo "silk"! I do like the result, just the same, however humble by comparison! I'm thinking of knitting a lace suncatcher with it. One of the nice things about these Russian lace spindles is that you can spin while riding in a car, or in your favorite comfy chair. It's very relaxing, and there's something very satisfying about that little finger twirl as you get the spindle spinning.

Whenever I master a new spindle technique, I always thrill to the connection I feel to my sisters over space and time. It's endlessly fascinating to me all the different ways a person can make yarn... it's so simple, and yet so complex, too.

I'd like to point your attention to the Pipe Dreams & Purling Plans blog, where Melinda is trying to raise money to help fight breast cancer. She's even having a raffle of scrumptious fibery goodies if you donate. So please help out with the cause. At least read Melinda's touching story. Thanks!

I'd also like to offer my condolences to the family of Ruth (aka Twisted Spinster). Ruth passed away suddenly a few weeks ago, much to everyone's shock. I really enjoyed her photos and her cotton growing experiences on her blog. Though I didn't know Ruth in person (I live on the opposite side of the country), her blog touched me, and she will be missed! God bless.

Ply-on-the Fly Spindling

2008-07-12T18:41:00.013-04:00

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and doing a lot of ply-on-the-fly spindling lately, as mentioned on some of the spinning email lists recently (like Spindlers and Spindlitis). This is where you spin a single length of yarn clockwise, but before winding it onto the shaft like you'd normally do, you then Navajo ply counter-clockwise. When you do finally wind the yarn onto the shaft, the end result is a finished 3-ply yarn. The yarn is spun and plied almost simultaneously in one motion. I love the sense of completion I get. When the yarn is on the shaft, it's done. No need to ply in a completely separate step.

I spun this with a Spinsanity Ornate Square Spindle. One of my favorite things about this particular spindle, apart from how neat it looks, is that the whorl has so many "notches" all around it. This means the yarn does not slip and slide around the whorl while spinning, which is what sometimes happens with notchless whorls. I'm starting to lose patience with the spindles I have that have no notches! This particular spindle is fast becoming a personal favorite of mine for that reason.

The fiber in these pictures is a merino and mohair blend. Soft and sublime! It's one of those tactile experiences that makes spinning so satisfying, one that's very hard to explain to non-spinners.

Spin deliciously!

More Charkha Spinning

2008-07-05T18:01:00.014-04:00

I'm really enjoying my charkhas. I love their portability, and how quick they are to fill up a spindle. Even people with short attention spans can get a sense of completion and satisfaction with charkha spinning! Here's the completed yarn from my last entry.

Last time I spun on my Gandhiserve briefcase charkha, so this time I played with my Indian book charkha. This was my first time spinning angora on the charkha. The angora came from my bunny, Delilah. (I wrote about her in an earlier post. For those asking how she's doing since her surgery, she's still hanging in there. But I'm afraid the surgery has left her hobbled for life and she's lost a lot of weight. It's heart-breaking to see. I regret the surgery for it seems to have made things worse.)

I'm afraid I don't store my angora fiber the way they say you should (flat in between layers of tissue, stored in a box). I admit to storing it inside ziplock bags, so it gets somewhat compacted. I can still spin it straight from the bag, although spinning does go more smoothly if I lightly card the angora with cotton handcards, and then roll the carded fluff into punis.

I filled up 2 charkha spindles, using .32 ounces of fiber. I then plied them together on a Cascade Zebrawood Tiger Spindle.

I ended up with a little 45-yard fingering weight skein. When I have enough of this yarn spun up, I hope to make the angora bunny bag that's in Spin It! by Lee Raven.

Spin deliciously!

It's Charkha Time!

2008-06-18T22:40:00.011-04:00

My latest spinning project has been spinning with my Gandhiserve briefcase charkha. I've had this charkha for about two years now. It was shipped all the way from India. When it arrived, it reeked like lacquer and I had to let it air outdoors for a couple weeks before bringing it inside! It's made from what must be recycled wood: stamped on the outside of the wood are the words "Twinkle the Shining Ply"-- whatever that means! But despite it not being as pretty as my Woolery Gandhi book charkha, it spins well and I'm happy with it. (By the way, if you're thinking about getting one of these, please know that the shipping costs will nearly equal the price of the charkha itself. You're probably better off buying one domestically.)

I think I finally found a more durable solution to string or corn husk string
bearings, which never last long for me. I went several months without spinning on my charkha, mainly because I knew it was time to braid some more corn husk. Such a pain! I'd rather be spinning than making string bearings!

Anyway, I've been test-driving Beadalon Dandyline for charkha string bearings. On the package it says, "strong & flexible, near 0% stretch, water-proof, abrasion-resistant." I bought the thickest kind which is .011" or 28 mm. It's flexible enough to both braid and knot without a
problem. I braided several strands together for each string bearing. It seems to be wearing very well. I thought I'd throw this out there, in case you're tired of braiding string bearings, too! (By the way, I bought this on eBay, though you can probably find it wherever beading supplies are sold, like A. C. Moore or Michael's.) It costs about $5-6 and comes in a 82-foot long roll-- enough to last a several lifetimes!

For my latest charkha spinning project, I spun up some orchid cotton sliver from New World Textiles. I can cram on 7.6 grams (.28 oz.) of fiber onto each spindle. I plied 4 of these spindles together and got about a 75-yard skein of sport weight yarn. My husband built a lazy kate that can accommodate up to 9 of my charkha spindles (though it's insane to try to ply that many!) This time, I plied the 4 spindles onto a Greensleeves Loki spindle, using this lazy kate. I'm getting better at the tensioning. The photo below is a back view of the lazy kate, so you can see how I apply the tensioning (click on the photo for a larger view). I use mercerized cotton yarn threaded around the spindle grooves to apply some light tension (too much tension, and the yarn breaks). The mercerized yarn is then attached to the back of lazy kate with a thumb tack to keep it secure (and I hope I can improve on this some, but it did work after some tweaking).

For more info about charkha plying, see my past blog entry.

For more info about charkha spinning, join the Yahoo Groups Charkha email list.

Spin deliciously!

Greensleeves Mjolinor

2008-06-07T10:34:00.012-04:00

I've been doing quite a bit of spindle spinning recently. With small children about, a spindle is often the more practical choice over a spinning wheel since it's easier to spin on the move. I can spin at the park, around the house and yard while watching little ones, and even when I'm frequently interrupted, the spinning does not suffer if the work must be set down.

This past week I spun with a Greensleeves Mjolinor made by Greensleeves Spindles. It has a 4-inch pomelle bubinga whorl, with very pretty grain. I can easily spin a worsted-weight yarn on this spindle, and pack at least 2 ounces of spun fiber onto it, if not more. If I remember right, it is based on a historical Scandinavian design. It is long-spinning and makes a wonderful work-horse spindle. I spun some more offerings from a border leicester sheep named Rocky, who resides at the Beasley Heelside Farms in North Carolina. I'm the lucky possessor of both her 1st year and 2nd year fleeces (it was the 2nd year fleece I spun this time). Her 1st year is a lovely red-brown color, and her 2nd year a gorgeous brown. I like them both, and they spin like a dream.

I finally have a photo of the homespun skein of Samoyed that I spun earlier on the Viking Santa purpleheart spindle. It was blogged here. I thought I'd include it here.

Spin deliciously!

A Political Fable

2008-05-23T11:29:00.008-04:00

I'm putting on my writer's hat momentarily to share a fable I wrote back in February. I realize it has a shelf life, so once November is over, it won't quite pack the same punch.

A tortoise struggled to right itself in the midst of a desert. The sun beat down mercilessly, and the tortoise could find no purchase for its stubby legs with which to flip itself aright. It lay there helpless, when two scientists came along and discovered it.

"You see, this illustrates my point exactly," said Scientist #1. "Here is an example of natural selection at work. The tortoise will find itself in this predicament throughout its life. Only the fittest of the species will be able to overcome. However, take human impact on the species. With global warming, the warmer temperatures will undoubtedly increase the tortoise's mortality; after all, it can only withstand so much time on its back in the heat before it succumbs. If the desert was closer to its normal temperature-- just a few degrees cooler-- I'm betting this would buy much more time for said tortoise until a solution presented itself."

"Sounds like you have a grant proposal in the making," said Scientist #2.

The teeth of Scientist #1 flashed in a smile. "Well, why not? We have a right to make a living, same as the next fellow. A little gravy never hurt anybody, and think of the impact it'll make on this and other species. What affects one species eventually affects us all, right? Besides, the public loves animals... look how well the global warming polar bear campaign went."

"Shall I call CNN and our UN contact?"

"Yes, of course," said Scientist #1 while patting the back of Scientist #2. They started to wander off.

"Wait..." said Scientst #2, pausing a moment. "Shouldn't we help it?"

"What, and interfere with natural selection?" And with that, they wandered away.

CNN soon arrived on the scene. Topping the hour was the story of the helpless tortoise in the southwestern American desert that continued to bravely but futilely right itself under the domineering threat of global warming. Corporate sponsors failed to see the flailing creature for what it was, but instead saw its shell as a potential billboard, as if someone had inscribed the words "This Space For Hire" upon it. Indeed, as follow-up stories continued throughout the day, little corporate logos began to show up on the underside of the tortoise's shell. First the Toyota Prius, then GE, and then even the Golden Arches wriggled its way in-- this last one caused such public outcry within the green movement-- for how could one associate an anti-global warming effort with a fast food industry that had in large part contributed to the greenhouse gas via the millions of cows it slaughtered annually for its burgers? Industry analysts and other talking heads-- bought and paid for by McDonald's-- simply said the company was trying to lead the way in becoming a greener company by changing its straws to the biodegradable kind. In the meantime, the tortoise continued to reach out with its stubby legs, hoping to hook onto something that might help flip it over: a rock, a friendly foot or tripod, anything. But those who had gathered around it in its cause, such as the camera crews and reporters, stayed just beyond its reach. It was clear the tortoise was growing weaker.

Being an election year, politicians couldn't help rally around what had quickly become known as The Tortoise Issue. Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton proposed more government programs to help the tortoise. "If I'm elected, we'll have special government programs come and study the tortoise and make suggestions for how its inherently flawed design might be overcome by American ingenuity in the future. My government programs will seek to improve desert conditions that will make its habitat more conducive to tortoise living." While watching the CNN report from home, Barack Obama frowned gloomily. He made a call on his cellphone to Oprah, asking if she was interested in a little desert rally. He smiled with glee when a reporter asked Hillary how she intended to pay for all these programs. But before Hillary could begin her usual evasion, a breaking unconfirmed news story interrupted: apparently Brittney Spears had allegedly attempted suicide.

With this revelation, all the camera crews quickly packed up and left the desert and headed for Beverly Hills. When the very last reporter was about to leave, his cameraman asked, "Shouldn't we flip the tortoise over now?"

The reporter answered, "No. That wouldn't be objective journalism."

"Right," the camera man agreed. "It just wouldn't be professional." So the tortoise was left alone once more, to struggle under the hot desert sun.

Just before sundown, a Mother and son who had been hiking in the desert came upon the tortoise. By now the tortoise was quite stressed and in dire need of help. Saliva foamed out of its mouth, and it no longer struggled to right itself.

"Oh, poor thing," the boy said, picking up the tortoise. "And look... some idiot put stickers all over it." The pair was oblivious to the media event the tortoise had caused.

"Let's take it home and get it well," his Mother said.

They gave the tortoise a drink, and then later offered it apple slices and clover. The boy removed all the stickers. The tortoise was much improved by morning. "Can we keep it, Mom?"

"No, it will have to go back to the desert. For the desert cannot be a desert without the tortoise, and the tortoise cannot be a tortoise without the desert."

And so it was, the tortoise was aright at last.

Copyright 2008 Teri D. Anderson