Hemp - Spinning and Weaving

I'm working on a Spinning Certificate.  The current fiber I'm learning to work with is hemp.  I'm discovering much about this "forbidden" fiber.  Firstly here's a post about a 200 year old nightgown made from hemp.

Here's the beginning of this interesting post.  Photos and closeups are on the linked page.

"My fiancee deals in antiques & I help him on the side. I went to an estate sale & purchased a bunch of handspun cloth nightgowns from the 1820s/30s era. The woman at the sale was telling me about the process of how the woman made the cloth from hemp & showing me the beautiful tiny details of their work.


There was not a hole in ANY of the fifteen I purchased. They were thick & sturdy. I brought them home & gently washed them with some oxyclean & put a little fabric softner in with them. They came out white & beautiful.

I was awe-struck. I have always known, intectually, that hemp was suppossed to make great clothing & it has a million & one other uses as well. But, it wasn’t until I put my hands on these nearly 200 YEAR OLD pieces of fabric that I realized why industry would want to fight this plant. It lasts, if not forever, then for a couple of life-times or more. How on earth would they be able to generate profit. . . . "  [misspellings are from original post]


Read the entire post at Found Handspun Antique Hemp Nightgowns – I now know why Pot is illegal
Janice

New Women Scrub Hats Being Listed

Halloween and Fall listings are continuing!  Here is the latest batch I am photoing for Etsy.  Contact me if you have questions or would like to reserve a particular hat for yourself or a colleague.

Janice

I just stepped in for a sandwich when . . .

unexpectedly I saw this gentlemen sitting by the fireplace sketching. He looked friendly. He had just a Number 2 pencil sharpened with a blade of some sort and a very fine Sakura black pen.

On his lap was a sketch of a mountain lion lounging on some Arizona rocks. Naturally I ventured over to him and asked about his sketches and why on earth he was sitting in the Wildflower Bread eatery sketching away. It seems he spends about 3 hours every day there sketching. He once taught art but no longer. He has been a resident of Prescott, Arizona for about 35 years. He takes photos and then sketches them or actual drawings in the woods and then continually refines them.

His name is William R. Buttler, (928.308.4651) and specializes in Western Art. What a pleasant surprise!

Planting Future Cotton for Spinning!

Jillan (from Ravelry) sent me four colors of cotton seeds recently. Surprisingly I planted six of each color and have these adorable little plants. Now I need to figure out where to plant them so they will grow! grow!! grow!!!!

A Day at the Alpaca Farm

Friendly, personable and totally cute! My visit to the GTF Alpaca Farm in Pinedale, AZ. was enjoyable and educational, thanks to owners Pat and Cheryl Dempsey. These beautiful alpacas fleece and fiber are for sale, in case you are fiber-frenzied. Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Here DH and I are feeding treats to these lovely animals.

I couldn't resist this! This is a totally black male. He didn't have this frightened look when I took this photo, I believe.

Here are the girls all milling about looking for extra yummies from us.

Here's Pat, the owner. Just look at this lovely alpaca face!

Thanks Pat and Cheryl and all the alpacas for a wonderful day!

Nest Building, Again!

Earlier this Spring we had a pair of Mourning Doves decide to nest on our patio. I *really* didn't think they would finally settle there, but they did, and produced two little "dove-ettes" who thought living with us was grand. After all their nesting site was under the patio roof, protected from the glaring sunlight and out of the way of rain! But, after they officially were able to leave the nest we had one of those high wind days and their former nest was now in my flower bed. Not to worry, I see them hanging around the sprinklers in the front flower beds and they seem to be happy living around our house.

Well, that was okay until last week. We went to Tucson for the week and when we came back the doves had decided to build their new nest atop my patio ceiling fan. (This photo was after my Sweetie brushed most of the twigs off the fan housing. Squeeky-Wings is wondering where it went!) We knew this because the sticks and twigs were covering our patio seating area. I got a couple of photos, but after my husband had pretty much cleaned up the detritus on the ground.

After some discussion with my Sweetie I convinced him to allow me to relocate the twigs to a new, more acceptable area on the patio. He agreed. However, the Doves (who I affectionately call Squeeky-Wings) seemed to understand me initially, and went to investigate their new location, but ultimately didn't like it as well as the fan housing.

I know these Doves are very persistent when they like a nesting location. So, we have had the patio fan running on low ever since last week. Hopefully Squeeky-Wings will get the message.

Happy Birthday, America!!

I love America. There's no denying it. I've travelled to Europe, South America, the Canary Islands, and though these sites are beautiful and different than the U.S.A. they cannot compare somehow. I remember returning from my first trip abroad. I was so glad to get back to American soil I could have kissed the tarmac at JFK. I do appreciate America and all it stands for, good and not so good. We are a nation who wanted to be self-governing and made tracks to do just that. Thank you founding fathers!

Well, our picnic was cancelled, unfortunately for us. I was looking forward to visiting with our friends and enjoying the 4th celebration, but they were called out of town for the birth of their very first grandbaby. Who can compete with that?

In the meantime, my Sweetie and I worked around the house and spent time together. We rearranged my sewing room and moved my loom to the living room (not many choices in my little home) and now I have some more space for sewing.

Here I am at my machine. I've also included a photo of one of the fabrics I used to make patriotic Florence Nightingale scrub hats.

Stop by my Etsy site and check out my other patriotic hats.