What Meg and Jen have been up to





when they're not working in the green house.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Very nice, was the silk bought already spun? Nice green house set up too. Looks like you all have a great start this year! Congrats on all the hard work paying off!

The silk is fresh off the cocoons and is very very fine in thickness.

I know they will appreciate your kind words.
I've got to rebuild the end caps for the new type of covering, yup more work is all.

very nice! Flowers...wow...almost forgot what flowers look like after the winter we had....LOL

Meg said they are Freeces (sp?) or something like that. Some where in all that are herbs, garden veggies and who knows what else and even a type of Scottish Thistle, I think will be used for its fiber....I think....

Btw...what are they warping for? I would love to get more into the silk thing, but still working on that. Have researched the raising and such, but will have to make much more time if that is to happen. Also need to get a good source for mullberry trees and get those established.

I believe those would be Fresias, and yes, very beautiful. Can't wait to get gardens going, but with all the remodeling we want to do inside, it looks like most of mine will be pots this year, then raised beds primed for next year.

Meg,

The silk looks wonderful...can't wait to see what you make from it. I bet it will be beautiful.

Love seeing the flowers too...my garden has yield a few flowers already this spring...but mostly just weeds. I hope to take a day off on sunday and weed and plant a few things for this year...that's more than I did last year, so maybe I really am making progress to have a life and run a business - talk to me in a month or so and we'll see which is winning then...currently and past the business always seems to wi n...that's why I haven't been on since ooo...around christmas wasn't it?

Welcome back Kat!

I gave Meg and Jen some time to think about what they might do with the silk, they still don't know and have no real plan as yet.
I can tell you that there is over 5,000 more cocoons to go!
All home grown and fed and fed and fed and fed! They never stop eating.


You can buy worm food but its kinda expensive.
Meg found several recipies on how to make your own too but thats even more costly.
We have several Mulberry trees on the property and then take the truck, a pair of hand shears and drive down the road ways trimming the trees. It doesn't take long for 300 worms to eat a whole truck load either.

Well, I'm sure they'll have fun deciding what the plan is for the wonderful silk....I bet it will be clever & beautiful.....Silk is one of my favorite fabrics to work with - makes up so wonderfully....even though it can be fragile and leaves shedding everywhere in my house - the vaccumm doesn't appreciate that. But the end result is always beautiful.

My favorite fiber to spin is silk. Most people hate to spin the stuff and I really don't understand why.
For me its the easiest and most forgiving (I'm an amateur spinner) of all other threads.

I agree, silk and also angora are my favorites. The greater the challenge, the better I like it.

Flax with having to keep the fibers moist I totally fail at. Not a chance in spinning that at all!
Meg wets her fingers on a sponge and some spinners wet them on their tongues but I can't seem to get the right moisture or be able to do both at the same time.

Just takes a little practice. I had some Irish linen imported with a friend of mine who went to Ireland for a visit. Absolutely wonderful to work with. Some friends down the road from the new house also have flax growing to see if they can do it ground up. Looking forward to helping more with that project soon too.

The last time we were in your state there was flax growing on the road side everywhere.
We have a good size area sowed with flax seeds in our garden too. Very easy to grow since it likes to be closely seeded.

I was only helping with the silk I do not know what it will be used for. The silk is one long smooth thread on the bobbin. I think Jennifer was practising on the new reeling tech we had learned. We have many, many more cocoons to go and right now the garden and green house it taking all of our time and energy. We had a mild freeze last nite and that took some preparation to keep everything from freezing outside. Since we had every thing that was in the greenhouse outside.
KelticKat if I had the time I would come and help you with the garden. You just have to get me to stay in one place long enough to help.

Yeah, the cold spells have taken a toll on our plants here. At least we will be warming up soon.

There is quite a bit of flax on the road ways, but I hesitate for using much of it simply for the carbon monoxide it carries. It tends to make the plants a bit harder to work with at times, and the color variations are a bit more frequent. Would like to try and grab some up to see how well they would work as baskets though, never have enough of those...

Thanks for the offer Megan...actually yesterday I took the afternoon and worked in the front gardens. Also, got to plant a few annuals - impatients and begonias, nothing really exciting. Mostly I pulled the weeds, dead plants and dead leaves from the garden - here's to hoping we don't get too many more frosts or freezes - my day lilies are beginning to turn yellow from those "surprises" but my lambs ear is still taking over at least half the garden!!!