Goat Guilt

I feel I've covered this subject before, but here I go again. I've got goat guilt. My poor sweet Bella is picked on by all three of her pen mates--even Faith! She is much like Ferdinand the bull, she doesn't like to fight.
Headbutting is what is required if you don't want to be picked on and Bella is just not into it. Now that winter is upon us and there is less browsing to do and the goats get more aggressive around feed time. This means that every time I go to visit Bella gets picked on. Even if I don't have food, because face it human equals chow.
Don't get me wrong she is scrappy, she burrows in between the bullies to get her share. It's just that they give her a mighty thwack and she scurries away and waits for another opportunity to duck in and the "thwack" it happens again.
I keep a squirt bottle handy so the aggressor--usually Zeus get a zap of water and then he will let her feed, but then Diva sees what is happening and after feed is over she tears after Bella because she didn't earn her place in the feed line. I usually don't advocate violence, but I do wish that Bella would just fight back!
She also gets an inferior place in the barn at night. Right at the edge of the door. The others are holed up in the inner sanctum and Bella is relegated to the outer foyer to keep watch. Sometimes Faith keeps her company, but more often then not she is by herself. (She doesn't to the fence first for vegetable scraps that I bring out after dinner.) I have no idea if this is by choice, but I think not. When I go out at night she tries to duck in the interior with the rest of her herd and she is chased out. I am thinking very seriously about putting a goat cam on her so that I can see what her day is like when I am not around. You think I'm kidding. Stay tuned.

Fixed!

Madelyn is a genius. It was a matter of tie up. After a few tries she helped me weave what I was looking for--to get the short twill points to weave lace.

Weaving is such a humbling craft. As a seasoned weaver, you learn to love the planning and warping phase of cloth-making because until you throw that first pick it is always going to turn out exactly as you imagined. Once you start weaving then all the false assumptions come to light. Such a metaphor for life.

Onward!

Why We Sample

This pattern in no way resembles the one I selected in Strickler for my handspun (see October 25's post). THIS is why we sample even if we resist it every step of the way. If I had put my handspun on directly I would be one unhappy camper.

I've called in the loom doctor (Madelyn) to help me figure out what the heck is going on. As a former editor it is sickening to find errors such as these in a book that you know was painstakingly gone through with the greatest of care. It also makes me feel a bit like a dolt because I didn't see this coming. Weaving is not an instant gratification endeavor, however the pursuit of the perfect interaction of yarn and pattern is worth the trip to oh, shit land.

Samplers

Try as I might I can't seem to make myself sample. I know I'm not alone. The point in the decorative crafts is to make useful things, right? So when I sample it always has to be something. Currently I'm trying to decide on a new color for my living room so I'm trudging off the hardware store and bringing back small test-sized cans of paint. Instead of slapping the color on the wall to see if I like it I'm painting abstract images to test the color. This involves getting out painters tape, sketching, and applying the paint with care.

In the studio I'm going through the same process with putting a dummy warp on the loom to prepare for my precious handspun cashmere. Although the warp is just to sample and to mitigate loom waste I'm still designing a scarf sized piece with colors that are ridiculous. It will probably end up being my favorite scarf ever and the abstract paintings will stay even when I have finally selected the wall colors. We just can't fight our nature and if truth be told we probably shouldn't even try.

Use What You Got

The recent Colorado blizzard brought down a foot of snow along with plethora of leaves and large tree limbs. After dragging limb after limb into the goat's pen, I finally got smart and let them out of their enclosure into the backyard to let them do the work for me. Who needs a rake when you have goats?
Diva took advantage of the open garage door and had a look around. She is feeling spunky after receiving a pedicure the day before. A goat pedicure involves chasing Diva (or one of the others) around the pasture until I can catch her, halter her, and then tie her to the fence. There I can use my body weight to keep her in place while I go to work on her feet. Diva usually proceeds to lay down and tuck her feet underneath her body--her mama (whose name was Liz by the way) didn't raise no dummy. After all that drama is over she prances around the pasture very pleased with her new nail job. She must have gotten word that spiffy nails are the hottest accessory of the season. (Really nails are an accessory, what the heck is wrong with a scarf?) Diva set out to belly up to the bar with her new look or in this case the ski waxing bench.

Cashmere Worthy

As I'm spinning endless yards of cashmere--and not just any cashmere, my own homegrown--I ponder cashsmere-worthy projects. This is when I usually turn to Ann Sutton and Diane Sheehand's book Ideas in Weaving. No matter how many times I thumb through this book I always find new ways to look at cloth.
During my latest thumbing, I found a tripleweave scarf that has the hand and texture that I would look for in a generous shawl-width scarf. I can just feel it snug around my neck--the go-to accessory for my everyday life.
Although my shaft availability won't create this scarf exactly and my handspun won't hold up to the rigor of tripleweave without sizing, I at least had a vision that sent me digging through Carol Strickler's 8-shaft pattern book. There I found a sample woven by one of our best regional cloth designers, Yvonne Stahl. It is perfect. The little lace windows will add lightness to the cloth and the textured twill will show off the yarns handspun qualities. As I spin my next bobbin full of cashmere I can dream of a specific structure and ready my loom for its next task (can you say dummy warp?).

I'm Here To Spend Time With You

My new job requires that I leave the house at 6:30am. This means the goats get feed in the dark. Poor Zeus got poked in the eye one early morning when I was reaching to scratch his ear and missed.
Each weekday after work, I dash out the back door to get a bit of daylight time with the goats. The goats always make a mad dash for the fence when they seem me coming, but their enthusiasm diminishes if I don't have food.
On weekends I go out into the pasture several times a day to sit in a chair and sun myself. Most of the time the goats ignore me. Faith might come by for a scratch or Diva will rub her horns on the back of the chair--it's not a bad back rub actually. Zeus will saunter by and try to make me to get up. Sometimes I do before I realize what he is up to and I sit back down defiantly.
I think that spending time in the pasture at non feeding times is important. I'm not really sure why except that I want to maintain some sort of relationship with them. When I putter in the studio I can see that they do just fine on their own spending their time grazing and resting with the occasional frolic or power play thrown in. Even though they do just fine without my company, my life is much improved by theirs.