The full moon, deer, and Runa

Over the weekend, the moon's elliptical orbit brought it the closest to earth that it's been in 18 years.

photo by Steve Ash

My husband and I had tickets on Saturday night, the full moon night, to see the Celtic band, Runa, perform in the cozy venue of a nearby national park lodge. My husband dropped me off and went to take a few pictures of the moon. He finally joined me at intermission, so he was able to enjoy the last half of the concert, which was fabulous.

photo by Steve Ash

We came across a herd of deer grazing at the edge of a forest on our way to the lodge. We snapped a few photos of them, too.

Click on any of the pictures to see them even bigger, and then hit the back arrow to come back to the blog.

Hope your weekend was enjoyable, too. And Happy Spring!

Spring!

It's here! And serious work has begun:

Photo by my daughter, Jessica

Happy Spring!

Here's what's on my wheel right now

Here's what I 'm currently working on. I've already made one two-ply skein and named the yarn 'Candy Shop' because of its bright colors.

What you see in the picture is one of the singles which will be plied with another singles to make the two-ply yarn. This is wool which I've processed from my Christmas Fleece, dyed, and am now spinning.

These yarns will go into the inventory for my vendor booth at the Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show which I'll be participating in on June 11th. I may also be a vendor in the Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Ohio, in August.

More on Bald Eagle sightings

The other day I spotted a bald eagle while walking the dog in the neighborhood park next door. Over the weekend, my husband and I decided to go find some more. There are nesting sites nearby so we went to the eagles this time:

And we spotted some. My husband captured a few photos. This one has a mallard flying rather close to an attentive eagle:

Here is one of my favorites:

And here are a couple of pictures he took of the sunset from our back yard after the recent snowfall:

Sometimes the colors of the sunset linger for a while, subtly changing until dusk takes over. This particular sunset faded very quickly. I was glad my husband was able to capture it before it was gone:

Hopefully the last snowstorm?

Another snowfall last night. Some of us are hoping (against hope?) that it was the last. I took some pictures while walking the dog.

It was a wet, heavy snow, just right for making snowpeople. Alas, my kids are old enough now that snowpeople aren't often on their to-do lists anymore.

The first review of Rose of Par Kluhnd is in!

My book, Rose of Par Kuhnd: A Fairy Tale, has received its first review, and I'm thrilled with it. To read the review please visit Books, Off the Page. That link will take you to the review of my book, for all other reviews, please click this link.

A little humor to brighten your day:

I saw a bald eagle today!

There I was walking the dog when I spotted a bald eagle happily circling part of the park next door (where I was at the time) and the neighborhood.

Bald eagle numbers have been increasing here in northeast Ohio and so these sightings are becoming less rare. There are lots of nesting sites along the upper Cuyahoga River, and in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is just a hop skip and a jump away from where I live.

My son and my daughter have both seen bald eagles over the past few years while doing mundane things like driving home from high school and (again) walking the dog.

But today was my turn, and it was pretty nifty to watch a bald eagle soaring over the soccer fields in the neighborhood park.

Ebook Week at Smashwords - 1/2 off coupon for my ebook!

Smashwords is repeating their annual Ebook Week special promotion starting Sunday, March 6th and ending Saturday, March 12th. I'm participating in the promotion with Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale. For one week only at Smashwords, my book will be 50% off with this ecoupon code, to be used at checkout:

RAE50

Click here for Rose of Par Kluhnd's Smashword page, and use the coupon at checkout to receive this ebook at the discounted price of $1.50, only at Smashwords.com! The promotion begins Sunday, March 6th and ends Saturday, March 12th.

Spring is on the way!

I spotted two robins and two red-winged blackbirds yesterday. Spring is just around the corner - I can feel it coming!

One more "Last Word" on my Superfocus glasses

I recently was asked by someone who left a comment on one of my Trufocals/Superfocus posts (yes, even though the posts are over a year old, I'm notified when a new comment has been posted and is awaiting approval, so if you have questions, feel free to post in any of the Trufocals/Superfocus posts):

Hi ICBQ!


I came upon your blog while doing research on the superfocus glasses. For the first time I am about to get some sort of "real" glasses (as opposed to drug-store readers) and I am intrigued by these.I do not think I will like bifocals or progressives from the sound of them.


You & I have a few things in common, I read a lot, use the computer a lot, and I knit (not as much as I want!).


So, it is now the end of Feb. 2011 and I am wondering how you (and the other posters that have them) are liking the superfocus after these few months? Can you update pretty please?

And here is what I answered:

Hi Alicia!



Okay, here's an update. I've now owned my Trufocals/Superfocus glasses for well over one year. My prescription needs a renewal (I can tell this for close-up). Will I renew with Superfocus eyewear? Probably not, but here are my very personal reasons:


1)The frames hug me too tightly at the temples and leave semi-permanent grooves at the sides of my face.


2)The focus, at least for me, needs changing a lot, and it's difficult to do this when you're doing something that takes both hands, or your hands are mucky with dough, wet yarn, soil, and the list goes infinitely on.


3)I still struggle with the way they look. I've actually been laughed at when I've put them on before in front of some people. And lots of times I felt like they needed introducing before I donned them so that I wouldn't get strange stares or reactions.


I wish I had enough money to buy Superfocus eyewear AND bifocals AND prescription reading glasses, because I definitely like the clear focus of the Superfocus glasses, especially when reading and doing close work, like knitting.


I may regret going back to a bifocal/prescription reading glasses combo, but my prescriptions usually need upping almost every year, so I can always try again!

Book Giveaway!!

I'm doing a book giveaway through Goodreads! I'll be giving away five copies of my book, Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale, which has just become available in paperback.

Go to Goodreads and enter for your chance to win a copy. The contest ends March 31st. Goodreads will randomly select the winners at that time, notify me, and then I'll send the books to the winners!

It's available as an ebook, too, at all major ebook retailers. Click here for ebook details.

Reunion Weekend - 31 years felt like no time at all!

I made a trip to Maryland over the weekend to attend my 31 year high school reunion (my class couldn't get it together in time for the 30 year). A few of us went on a tour of the old high school which has been remodeled and expanded. Here we are gathered around the bulldog in the new entryway of Winston Churchill High School - go Bulldogs! (I'm in the green jacket):

It was a blast seeing people I haven't seen for a few decades. Believe it or not, lots of people looked exactly the same. Well, yes, we've all changed a bit and grown older, obviously, but it was a hoot to see that everyone has the same mannerisms, same voice, same face. I could picture them all with books in their arms plowing through the crowded halls of high school on their way to class.

At first I was ambivalent about going, but then my close friend, Melissa, said that I had to come because she had booked a room in the hotel for us to share. And that was that. Thanks, Melis! I had a great time and I'm so glad I didn't miss it!

Summer's end meets winter's middle

During the summer I'm busy with trying to tame parts of my yard into vegetable and herb gardens. They are always usually partly wild and would turn on me in a twinkling if I left them to their own devices for too long. It was a challenge to find spots in our tree-lined lawn that gather enough sun during the day to support a garden. But I did find a few, and let me tell you, these spots prefer sprawling weeds over neat plots of specifically-intended plants.

Anyhoo, I digress. What I wanted to say, was that I turn the herbs I grow into salves and teas and whatnot. There is one particular weed which I don't mind, and I encourage its growth right next to a little rosebush where it decided to show itself. This weed is plantain. It is the best thing in the whole world for poison ivy. The only problem is, I haven't been able to make a plantain salve that works on poison ivy the same way a freshly picked and smooshed-up leaf rubbed on the rash works. So as summer waned, I decided to try making a tincture with plantain.

Making salve involves heating fresh or dried herbs gently in a carrier oil, thereby infusing the oil with whatever good things the herb possesses. Tincturing, on the other hand, involves a food processor, vodka, and a dark closet. The herb is chopped up into a pulpy glop, vodka is added, and the vodka-glop mix is left in a dark closet for a couple of weeks - shaken now and then - so that the herb can release all of its goodness into the alcohol. When done, the mixture is strained and pressed, the vodka tincture is saved, and the left-over herb mash is composted.

At the end of last summer, I made a tincture with plantain. I've been intending to make a lotion with it to see if the lotion will work to sooth poison ivy. But fall came, and then winter, and I was busy with other things, and all of the poison ivy in the area dropped its leaves and went to sleep.

The tincture has been sitting in my dark closet all this time, unused - until last night. Yesterday, a spot on the back of my thumb became suddenly itchy. The itchiness progressed as the day wore on, and in the evening, when I snuggled down with a book, the itchiness began to drive me nuts. I looked at my thumb and it was red, irritated, a little swollen, and had a little spot which looked suspiciously like maybe it was a spider bite.

I seriously needed something to soothe whatever was happening there, just below the knuckle, and it was just then that I remembered my plantain tincture. I dashed to the closet and undid the lid. The dark-green tincture smelled like summer, somehow. All herby and plant-like. I rubbed some on my thumb and the itchiness faded. The area was still sensitive, but the urge to itch disappeared. I put some more on before I went to bed, and again this morning.

The itch is gone as long as I don't accidentally wash the tincture off. If I do, more goes on again. I don't like spider bites, but I love my plantain tincture. I'm really glad I made it all those months ago and it was ready for me to use now, in the dead of winter with snow deep on all of the places where my wonderful plants are waiting for spring.

Pounding into felt

I spent yesterday morning leaning over my tub and pounding wool fiber into felt.

When you comb wool fiber with wool combs, there is some that gets left behind in the combs during the process. The really bad stuff is usually thrown away, while the better stuff can be saved and carded if you have carding combs or a drum carder.

I decided to keep even the really bad stuff. I've been carding it and saving it. A stray cat lives near my daughter's boyfriend's apartment. Someone converted an old recyling bin into a little house for it so that it has someplace to go out of the weather. It's been really cold here and I thought I would save this fiber and try to make a felted cat bed for this kitty.

I began the process yesterday, deciding to go the pounding route instead of the spinning into yarn, knitting, and then felting in the washing machine route.

My pounding muscles are sore, but I made a nice piece of thick felt. It wasn't really enough for a bed with cozy walls, so I found some scraps of fleece fabric and ended up making a bed with walls stuffed with poly stuffing and the felt as the floor of the bed.

One of my own cats wanted to use it right away when it was finished.

Cakes and Brownies to Die For

I went to my library when local cookbook author, Bev Shaffer, came to talk about her book, Brownies to Die For!. She talked about chocolate and writing the book, and we tasted fair trade chocolates and helped ourselves to treats made from recipes in the book. It was a fabulous evening.

She has a new book out now, Cakes to Die For!.



I used a combination of two recipes from the cake book along with  my own frosting recipe to make my son's birthday cake. It had a lot of chocolate in it.

Two more birthdays are coming up in March. I'll have to keep that cake book handy.

Why don't you prove it?

In the Harry Potter movie, Chamber of Secrets, when Harry accuses Malfoy's father of slipping Riddle's diary into Ginny's possesions, Mr. Malfoy says, "Why don't you prove it?" but he delivers the line exceptionally well.

My daughter and I sometimes use that line in banter:

Me: "You ate the last piece of chocolate!"

Daughter: "Why don't you prove it?"

Well, now I have proof!

This is my proof copy of Rose of Par Kluhnd. I'm going over it now, getting ready for the print version to become available. I laughed when I saw this on the very last page. I showed it to my daughter the first time she said, "Prove it!" after I'd gotten it in the mail.

She said, "Gaaah!" in frustration, claiming it wasn't fair.

Mwah ha ha! Too bad! Now I have proof.

Here's what I made with my first batch of handspun/hand-dyed yarn from my Christmas Fleece

This is what I made with the first batch of yarn I made from my Christmas Fleece:

It's a scarf for my mom:

I used a pattern I found on Ravelry, called Easy Drop Stitch Scarf Pattern. It is easy, and it adds texture and pattern to the scarf:

More fun with weak acid dyes

I've been dyeing some more. This time I dyed around three ounces of wool roving. I've pictured it here as it's drying on a screen in the spare room along with some fleece that I washed yesterday.

The fleece will go through the whole process once it's dry - combed with the wool combs, pulled off through a diz, and dyed. I can hardly wait for the dyed roving to dry so that I can spin it.

I also dyed about 350 yards of yarn that I spun before dyeing. All of this is from the raw fleece that I got for Christmas. I'm looking over knitting patterns and trying to decide what I'll make.

What I really want is a loom so that I can weave.

Seed Catalogues

I've circled so many things I want from my seed catalogues that I may go bankrupt if I order them all : )

I have to prune my choices. Or maybe it's thin. I have to thin my choices. Thinning always hurts.

Operation E-Book Drop, getting free ebooks to the troops overseas



Logo design from the Imagination
and Graphic Artistry of
K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman

 I've just signed up to participate in Operation E-Book Drop, a program in which authors can give coupons to troops overseas for free downloads of their books. As of Jan. 22nd there are 590 authors participating in this program and it's estimated that 2 million coupons for free ebooks have been dropped to our troops overseas since Sept., 2009.

If you're an author and have books in eformat, click the logo to find out how to participate.

Nook color!

I got a Nook Color ereader for Christmas. Actually, I should clarify that. My husband gave me a Kindle for Christmas which I was thrilled about, except for the fact that Kindle isn't library-friendly. So we sent the Kindle back and I got a Nook Color instead.

In making my choice for which library-friendly ereader I would get in exchange for the Kindle, I narrowed it down to a choice between the Sony Touch and the Nook Color. What finally swayed me to the Nook? Pandora Radio. If you can access a wi-fi connection, you can go online with the Nook, which comes with the Pandora app. It's absolutely wonderful!

So I not only use my Nook for reading wonderful library books, but I can plug it into my stereo and listen to ebooks or the utterly fabulous Pandora Radio while spinning.

If you're not familiar with Pandora, it's an app which lets you plug in a favorite title of music or an artist, and it will build a radio station of similar music for you to listen to around that. My favorite station to listen to while spinning is built off of Waltz of the White Lilies by the Irish band, Deanta.

I'm so happy with my Nook Color!

The cover of my new book!

This is the cover for Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale!

It's out now and available through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Smashwords.com. In the next few weeks it will be available through most other ebook retailers, too (Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, etc...)

Click on the cover for more information about the book and where to buy it for just $2.99!

73 acres saved from the commercial world for adventuring

My daughter and my dog and I like to go on adventures. There is a parcel of land just a hop, skip, and a jump away which we use for just this purpose. It has been for sale for the past couple of years, and this made me sad. I've always hated watching wonderful woodland turned into office space and other commercial buildings. I've always dreamed of having unlimited funds with which I could go around buying up these parcels of land so that I could leave them untouched and wild.

Well, something of the sort has actually happened! The local paper has stated that this exact parcel of land - 73 acres of woodland - has been donated anonymously and will be turned into a park. It will eventually have a small, gravel parking lot and hiking trails.

Hooray for dreaming and for dreams coming true! My daughter and doggie and I will continue with adventures like this, this, and this in these 73 acres of woodland without fear of their coming to an end.

Transformations

It's so gratifying to be able to turn this:


Into this:

I've spun the first yarn from my Christmas fleece. 150 yards of luscious, soft, squishy, springy, stretchy two-ply. This is really nice wool.

The process involves washing the raw wool (VERY gently, so as not to felt it); combing the washed locks with wool combs into what's called top, or roving; and then spinning two bobbinfuls of singles yarn, which are then plied together into a two-ply yarn.

And I've literally only scratched the surface of that bag of wool. I have 99% of the fleece still to process. I'm so excited!

Report on Self-Publishing eBooks Experiment

Several months ago (April, 2010) I began an experiment. I self-published two ebooks through Amazon.com to see what would happen. At the time, the self-publishing world was starting to really wake up to ebooks and Amazon has made it (relatively) easy to upload and publish your written works through their Digital Text Platform, and make them available for purchase through their Kindle ebook store.

You can do this in various other places, too. I, for instance, have also published one of my books through Smashwords.com, which makes your ebook available in many formats for just about any ereader. Through their premium catalogue, your book is also included in the iPad ebook store, the Sony ereader store, the Barnes and Noble Nook ebook store, and other ebook catalogues.

So, the big question, how have my books done? Am I a self-published millionaire yet? No.

A thousandaire? No.

A hundredaire? No, but almost.

Let me break it down for you.

My Twelfth Christmas was published in April, 2010. Since then, I've sold 194 copies, the majority during the months of November and December (it's a Christmas story). This short story sells for $0.99. I make a whopping $0.35 on each one sold. So this book, thus far, has brought me a total of $67.90.

The Witch of Starmont was published in July, 2010. Since then, I've sold 12 copies, half of those during the months of November and December (I think they were probably from people who liked the Christmas story and wanted to see what my other book was like). This is a novella and I've priced it at $1.99. I make $0.70 on each one I sell, so this book, thus far, has made me a total of $8.40.

So, together, thus far, I've made $76.30 from my little two-book self-publishing experiment. Oh, and over 200 people have taken a gander at my writing.

Success?

It's exciting when you see you've made a sale. And it was very gratifying to see my little self-published Christmas story ranked in the top 20 bestselling Christmas ebooks at Amazon, and often in the top 10 bestselling children's Christmas ebooks simultaneously during the holidays. That feels like success right there. But number-wise, it's hard to say.

I know of many self-published authors who sell hundreds of books per month, and several who sell over 1000 books per month. And then there are some who sell a book here and a book there over the space of several months. This last is exactly what my sales are like when it's not Christmastime.

For those of you wanting to know, I've done very little advertising and self-promotion for my books. This can make a difference, if you do it smartly, and well. I was thinking of doing some sort of advertising during the holidays for my Christmas book, but when I saw sales start to uptick in October on their own, I sat back and wanted to see what would happen without any advertising. I did make my presence known more than usual on the kindleboards and on a couple of amazon kindle holiday book threads, but that was the extent of my self-promotion (other than the obvious links I have on the blog here - which, by the way, rarely get a click-through).

And so the experiment continues.

Fun with acid dyes

This is my first foray into dyeing with weak acid dyes. I had three skeins of sock yarn that I spun for my sister to experiment with. The yarn is superwash wool/nylon:


I applied the dyes using plastic condiment bottles (for ketchup/mustard) purchased at Walmart. I processed the skeins in the microwave. It was really quick and easy.

The colors are wacky and sort-of tie-dyed-looking. I'll soon have more fiber to experiment with, I've been processing the bag of fleece I got for Christmas and have ~1/4 pound of combed top so far waiting to be played with.

In the meantime, my sister is going to get the makings of one funky pair of socks : )

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Big Bag of Raw Fleece

I got a HUGE bag of raw sheep's fleece for Christmas!:


I'm so excited! I've already begun washing it a little at a time. Can't wait to comb it and dye it and spin it...

And I still have alpaca yet to process. I'll be busy for awhile!

Merry Christmas!

May you find joy today and everyday throughout the coming new year.

Okay, one more little clip... Jingle Bells! With animals!

I don't usually post lots of video clips, but this one also (see previous post) brought a smile to my face, and it's in keeping with the season!

This charming little movie brought a smile to my face:

I love the holidays!

My daughter and her boyfriend made this gingerbread Christmas tree:

The house smelled sooo good when the gingerbread was baking.

Three things that start with C

Cat:


Cake (made by my daughter):

Crappy cotton yarn, spun by me:

That's my first attempt at spinning cotton. I know you can't tell from this skein, but I'm starting to get the knack of it : )

Sometimes I'm a little slow...

I just found out that the Kindleboards forums over at Amazon.com have created profile pages for all of the kindleboards authors' books.

I have to say that the pages look really nice and I'm flabbergasted. They contain information about the book, a large cover photo, a link to the regular Amazon page where you can buy the book, and even an excerpt - all without the clutter that's usually found on the regular Amazon.com page.

Here are the links to the pages for my 2 books available through the Kindle store - downloadable not only to Kindle e-readers, but, with free Kindle apps, to your computer, iPhone, iPad, Droid, Blackberry, etc. :

My Twelfth Christmas

The Witch of Starmont

As the holidays approach, My Twelfth Christmas has begun to receive some notice. It's often ranked in the top 10 bestsellers for children's Christmas books, and it's often in the top 25 bestsellers for holiday/Christmas books in general. The rankings fluctuate a lot, but it's fun to watch. It's exciting to see that people are buying my book.

Dyeing with Natural Dyes

I tried my hand at dyeing with natural dyes the other day. I had a few skeins of handspun on which to try it. What I had on hand were two hanks of corriedale cross yarn, one hank of merino, one small hank and knitted swatch of superwash Bluefaced Leicester, and one knitted swatch of a superwash wool + nylon blend sockyarn that I had spun.

For the dye, I used a mix of dried goldenrod, dried calendula, onion skins, dried yarrow, and fresh marjoram.

I mordanted the yarn with alum and cream of tartar while the dyebath was being prepared. When the yarn was mordanted, I plunked it in the dyebath and let it simmer for about 45 minutes or so.

The lightest-colored yarn below is the merino. It was actually an afterthought and I put it in the dyebath after other yarns had been taken out, and I only left it in for about 20 minutes.


The corriedale cross yarn came out with a nice yellow coloring, although not what I'd call vibrant:

The superwash yarns were the surprise. They came out colored with a glowing, golden-brown which I really like:

I was really pleased. I talked with a lady I know who dyes using natural dyes. She said that the superwash yarns usually do take up the dye really well. Here's the sock yarn:

I'm planning on using superwash BFL to make a sweater for my daughter. I found a really cute pattern in a book. I'll be spinning the yarn before I dye the fiber. I won't be using natural dyes for the sweater, though, I'll be using acid dyes for the colors she wants. I wouldn't mind having a sweater in that luscious golden-brown, though. Or even just socks : )

I can't wait until the next growing season when I can gather more plants with which to dye. Some of the plants I already have in my medicinal herb garden are also dye plants. Yea!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!