Hippity to the Hoppity (AKA our angora rabbit podcast episode)

In this week's episode, we talk about something we actually have some experience with!  Angora bunny-heads!  You can listen directly here at Soundcloud, or through iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts!  (Don't forget to totally help us out by rating, reviewing, etc, as that helps more people find us!

(We go hard.)

Some of the things we reference this week...

Our Patreon Page!

Our Email List!

Keeping Up with the Clampetts New Podcast (and previous intro and outro music musician)!

And All the Apparatus, our new intro and outro music!

And this awesome cookbook...see Ric, you can totally find it online...

(My new favorite...it is going to make us fat. Don't care.)

DIY Pom Pom Flower Bouquet - Granny Chic a Week

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you go through them to make a purchase I can earn a commission.  But I only link to products that I recommend based on my experience with them, not because of the commission. :)

Hey there!  Ok, ok...I am totally cutting it close for this week's Granny Chic a Week project.  But this one is a quick and easy one that will add a pop of color and never die!

This has been on my to-do list for YEARS! And now that it is done, I am loving it!

Here is what you need:

Pom poms.  These are ones that I made using the technique I talked about last week.  Check that out here.  This is an AWESOME way to use up those small balls of yarn from other projects!

You will also need some floral stem wire and floral tape.  You can find them at the links provided or at pretty much any craft supply store.

How to make your bouquet:

Once you have the pom poms made, this is super easy!

First, take some floral wire and carefully push it up through your pom pom.  Do this slow and support the pom pom so all your yarn doesn't come apart.

The cat has to sneak into every one of these tutorials....

Next, make an upside down 'V' with the wire.  We will carefully snake this back through the pom pom.

Carefully press the wire back through the pom pom, like below.  Pull slowly until it is just hidden in the fluff of the pom pom.  If you pull too hard, the strings will just pull out and ruin the pom pom.

Now you should have something that looks like this.  

Carefully peel off some floral tape and we will start wrapping...

Kind of pull up the yarn at the bottom to finish wrapping the wire.

Now you should have one completely flower!

Easy, right?  Now just repeat until you have your desired number of flowers for your bouquet, grab a cute vase, and display!  

Check back again next week for our next granny chic project! 

Ash

PS - If there is something you have seen but can't find a tutorial on, maybe I can help!  Let me know what granny chic project we should work on.  Or just share your project!

My very own refurbished spindle spinning wheel!

Squee!!  Guess what I have!

My very own refurbished spindle spinning wheel!

Isn't it cool! It has a few little things that still need a little tweaking, but it's quite nice! 

Here is the before.  My parents found the wheel at a swap meet locally, but it did not have the mother of all, whorl or spindle.  

Loading up the new find from the swap meet.

We looked it up, and it looks like it very well could be a tradition Ashford wheel.  After buying just a few supplies, my dad was awesome and turned a brand new whorl and mother of all.  (The two tall posts that hold the spindle and whorl.)

How pretty did he make those?  I love them!

Newly custom hand turned whorl and mother of all posts...beauties!

We decided to start with a spindle spinning wheel.  It is a great way for us to modify this wheel to get something up and running and I am loving it.

Playing with the new wheel. Excuse the mess....

I am still getting the hang of it a little, but as soon as I jump off this computer, I am carding a bunch of fiber and getting to it!  Can't wait!  Thanks, Dad and Mom!

And I just have to add....this is how we roll.  There are ways to do things outside the box.  I didn't feel I could afford a brand new wheel, but I really wanted to have one.  Initially we were going to make this cute Thrifty Fox spindle wheel from these plans we bought on Etsy, but then happened upon this wheel in need of love.  So here is my little soapbox speech - If you want it bad enough, you make it happen.  It is okay to not have THE in-thing.  What matter is you are trying.  No regrets. Oh yeah, and it also helps to have awesome supportive people in your life. (In this case, the hubby and parents!)  So surround yourself with supportive people as often as you can. (Okay, stepping off the box now...thanks for listening.)

Stay tuned for some yummy yarn from my new toy!

Ash

How is it already November? (AKA - Time to start the holiday crafts!)

Ok, ok, I know November has just begun, but in the crafting world it is totally time to get ready for the holidays!  And I have to admit, I am kind of having fun.

Little Leia also likes the colors I chose for the Autumn Bunting Banners...

I have started on new bunting banners for the holidays, including this one with Thanksgiving or Autumn colors.  Perfect for decorating your front door or your dining room for the holiday festivities.

I have also begun working on stockings.  I love the chunky, big, sort-of-pottery-barn stockings.  So I created my own pattern (which I will release soon) for a fun crochet stocking.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out!  I will be offering folks the option to choose whatever color they like that will match their home.

I have a few other holiday items on the hooks and needles I will show off soon!

Are you getting ready for the holidays at all yet?  Or are you like the hubby and think I am way too early?

Ash

It's Fall! That means apples and yarn!

Guess what? It is Fall now!  Today!  (Even though the temperature it is still in the 100's here...) And to help usher in the new season, this past Sunday we went out to our local 'you-pick' orchard and collected a bunch of apples!  Which means soon I will be making and canning apple sauce, apple butter and apple pie filling.  Although I may have to go get more apples if I want to do all that....

Our local 'you-pick' orchard...we braved the 105 degree
afternoon for our apples.

But oh, Sundays really are quite lovely for a drive in the country!

The hubby enjoyed the drive, too.

Not a bad haul for our quick afternoon out.  

Fall is also the perfect time for lots of cuddly yarn!  We have been trying to spin up a bunch and I just loved this nice plush pile of freshly plied and washed alpaca yarn.

Cozy, comfy yarn!

I am trying to spin a bunch up for a show that we are heading to in mid-October.  You can, of course, find our selection of yarn here at our etsy shop!

And we recently gave these little cuties a trim so I now have some super soft baby angora fiber to blend into our yarn.  Look at this face!

Little Jet is too cute! 

Soon I will share our stacks of yarn and pics of our freshly canned goods with some recipes, too!

Ash

Cute and Crocheted

I have been working on the cute and crocheted aspect of the biz lately.  There are oh so many things that fit this category...way too many.  Actually, I just asked my mom if this weekend we can look through some ideas and get her help on where I should focus my time.  I want to make them all!!

For example, I love bunting.  So one of my very first projects was crocheted bunting.  I think they would make the cutest decorations for an outdoor wedding or kids room or a boho/colorful room!

In the works...

So cute!  And they can be made in any color!

I also think part of what our business is about is a sense of nostalgia and a need to bring back well constructed hand made goods that are nice to look at.  I love the freedom I have with our hand sewn pillowcases and that we can add that touch of fun and elegance with the crocheted lace trim.  It has been so much fun to hear people at the shows I have been at tell me that their grandmother had pillowcases with the crocheted trim.  You see this flash in their eyes of a happy memory.  Nothing is better than that.

Working with a bigger hook here...but also do a lot with a tiny hook.

I also love the search for fun and funky fabrics.  I either use organic fabrics (usually from fabricworm.com or spoonflower.com) or we have fun with the hunt for fabric that needs a new home from thrift stores or antique stores.  

Even goats love them!

This is one of my favs...

While our little crocheted pillows are not our biggest seller (yet...hehe), I am in love with them.  The granny squares and crocheted roses are all about nostalgia for me.  They are the perfect shabby chic addition and so much fun to make!  What do you think?

I think they would be even cuter on a pretty cream comforter or couch....

I have many other things in the works....and of course you can find many of these things over at our etsy shop here.  I plan on sharing some tutorials on a few of the things in the works soon, too!  Let us know if there is something you are chomping at the bit to learn!

Ash

Our exciting yarn release!

This has been a day I have been quite excited about...our yarn release day!  So, without further delay, I would like to introduce you to our new line of completely hand processed and hand spun yarns!

Ok...maybe a little further delay...I feel like I should give a little background.  But skip down if you don't want the backstory and just want to drool over yarn.  I will completely understand!

I have been into yarn for a large part of my life.  My great grandmother taught me how to crochet from a very young age (I think I was 11) and I loved it.  Later I taught myself how to knit so I could make a variety of fabrics with my yarn crafting.  It was always really quite difficult for me to leave any yarn store without at least one skien of yarn.  So when we started talking about starting our own business, I was quick to pitch the fiber farm with hand processed yarn idea.  And that was before I'd even learned how to spin yarn.  I knew that I would love spinning, because the end product was YARN!  How could I not love it?

And after a great shearing season with all the wonderful alpaca folks in the area, and after successfully breeding 4 more angora rabbits, it was time to get down to business and spin us some yarn.  And even though it has been a bit slower than I would have liked, I am excited to release the first of our lovely line of yarns, with many more to come.  It has taught me so much about the animals we get our fiber from, the extensive process it takes to hand make yarn from start to finish, the qualities of each fiber and how they work together.  I must say that I am most excited about our alpaca and angora blends.  So soft, with a lovely halo, and as close to hypoallergenic as you can get when you have natural fiber from animals.

    

    

These are our blends so far of 50/50 angora and alpaca fiber.  I love the colors...the brownish red alpaca or light grey alpaca with the white angora are just too much fun.   These ones are both a worsted weight.  The hubby has been helping with the winding them into lovely center pull balls and packaging them up so they are all ready to go when they find their new home.

    

This brown is straight alpaca and is a neat light brown with red hues.  It is a bulky weight yarn.

   

And this lovely black yarn is 100% llama fiber.  While it has a slightly courser feel, it is still surprisingly soft.  I would compare it more to the feel of a sheep's wool with a little more guard hairs. It would make a very warm scarf or squishy rug or addition to a lovely blanket.  I am currently knitting a shawl out of some single ply and can't wait to try it out.  It is turning out quite nice!

If you are interested in learning more about any of the yarns, we have linked all the pictures to their corresponding listing.  We would love to hear your feedback, too!

What is on the horizon?  Some lovely black and white blend of angora and alpaca, and in a month or so we will be shearing bunnies to get some new angora colors to blend...stay tuned!

Ash

Bringing the family into the business

When I was first wanting to start this business, I thought about the things we'd love to offer.  But many of the things were either outside our wheel house or wishful thinking that we could even try to accomplish it all.  But when we moved to little San Miguel, we also moved closer to my parents, who are very talented artists as well.  They are also very supportive, and when I asked (or maybe sort of begged) them to get involved, they were willing to learn about the fiber world and jump in!

My dad is quite skilled at turning wood.  And needless to say, that comes in quite handy in the fiber arts world.  My mind was thinking about all the possibilities right away.  Drop spindles, knitting needles, yarn bowls... so many pretty wood accessories to making wonderful projects.  And I spewed all my ideas (and still am) at my dad, who also has a full time job.  But low and behold, the first of the drop spindles were made...

This one may be coming off the sales shelf to live with
me full time...I am in love with how it spins!

Oh the colors!

Then other goodies showed up.... stitch markers, knitting needles (which sold at our table right away), and this crazy gorgeous yarn bowl made of locust wood with turquoise inlays....

The golden wood and turquoise are almost enough to
make my yarn crafting brain explode!

  

And that is some of our handspun yarn in there...more on that later!

And I hear I have other goodies waiting to land in my anxiously awaiting hands....

And then I asked mom about helping with a few things.  First, this is the woman that taught me how to sew, therefore of course I was going to ask her to help with some sewn goodies.  I know she also loves upcycling, the thrill of figuring out a new use for neglected or no longer usable items.  So first she made us some wonderful project bags from denim...

Even equipped with spots for needles or hooks!

And I know what you are thinking.  How do I also get my hands on some hand carved crochet hooks like those pictured in the bag?  Well, turns out my mom is also quite talented with her little pocket knife. 

Yup, she just uses that little knife to make these wonderful little Lance wood hooks with tons of character.  They are super smooth, but have that nice quality that wood brings to yarn crafting where it doesn't make the yarn slide too much like metal or plastic. 

And guess what!?  They are on sale this week!  Just enter the coupon code 'crochethookspecial' and you will get 30% off any hook of your choosing! Click to go to our shop!

I am working on getting some of my mom's weavings.  She is coming around I think....

And soon I hope to have other family members joining in the fun, such as my sister and maybe even one of my cousins.  Because how cool is it to not only have a family so very supportive, but one that is excited to join in the fun?

See you soon!

Ash