Green Sheep of Unknown Providence

Bought this bit of green sheepy loveliness at The Big Thaw craft fair last Saturday before work. I was craving color and springy things (who am I kidding? I still am!) and this caught my eye. I have no idea what kind of fiber it is, though it's almost certainly sheep of some kind. Sorta scratchy, but the color is so vibrant and wonderful, it could be steel wool for all I care. After finishing plying the Merino top this morning, I couldn't resist starting to spin a little ... the sun was shining and I still had some time before sprinting for the bus. So far, so good!

White Merino Top: 2 oz

Finally finished plying the white Merino top I've been spinning for AGES (or so it seems). Almost missed the bus yesterday trying to finish ... turns out I was still 20 minutes away from being finished, so it's a good thing I left off when I did!

My talented sister has promised to help me dye it on Saturday (Shearing Day!), so updates will follow ...

Cats + Yarn = Late-Night Shenanigans

I thought I had hidden this gigantic ball of yellow Red Heart yarn, but Taco found it last night. The trail of yarn guts goes from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room. Looks like he had some fun!

Fused Glass Adventure

It's not fiber, but it WAS cool ... we took a glass fusing or "hot glass" class at Sundancer Stained Glass last night (thanks to a deal through Living Social!). We won't get the finished product until Friday, but this is what our pieces looked like going into the kiln:

Top row: Keara, Jen, me; bottom row: Sheila

Keara and Jen used dichrotic glass pieces and textured glass. I used colored" stringers" on a white background, and Sheila made a mosaic piece with a lot of different kinds of glass in shades of green and blue.

Patrick chose to make his piece with millefiore -- tiny glass rounds with intricate patterns.

Stay tuned until Friday to see how they all turned out after firing!

Hansel & Gretel: A Witch Named Mrs. Hazel

The witch! She came together bit by creepy bit ...

Here she is, naked and blind. You can see her hair pretty well in this picture.

Then came the hat and some strange eyes. She looks almost cheerful here:

Finally, some clothes. Looks like she might have bought this as a "ruffled peasant top" in 1994.
Note the black fingernails -- a late-night detail, added when I should have gone to bed. What you can't see is a little pink crinoline underneath the grey -- which the cat loves to chew on.

Hansel & Gretel: A Skunk Named Rocco

Another denizen of the forest. The children help him turn over a stump to reveal delicious grubs!

Some in-process shots:

Hansel & Gretel: A Frog Named Jacques

I've been working on puppets for a somewhat-improvised kids' show version of Hansel & Gretel. We've re-worked the story somewhat so the children go into the woods of their own accord to look for food and meet a variety of animals along the way, who offer their own particular (unappealing) foods. This is a frog they encounter in a particularly swampy bit of the forest who catches them some flies. The tongue is rigged so it pulls out of his throat, revealing three "flies"

attached with elastic thread.

In process: