in other fiber news

Cloud Harvest 2020 has begun.

Spur of the moment contest:

First person to correctly guess

which goat was the first to be combed

will receive a little (sorry, not cashmere) prize!

Good luck, goat pals!

~~~~~

selling images not goats*

FERN THE BABY

Remember around this time last year, when I made an assortment of blank greeting cards and matching 4x6-inch magnets, showcasing some of the very photogenic Cloud Harvest gang?

FERN THE YEARLING

Well, as 2019 rolls to a close, I'd like to offer the remaining stock at a reduced price.

In case anyone would like one. Or more than one.

LILY AND VIOLET NAPPING

In the past year, I've sold the card-and-magnet packs for $15. 

and the magnets alone for $10.

BABY LILY

Now, for a limited time or until they are all gone:

the card-and-magnet packs are $10 and the magnets alone are $5

postage within the US included.

BABY VIOLET

I will be happy to send them internationally,

but I will ask the buyer to pay any postage over the amount the US domestic mail would cost for the same package. That seems fair to everyone, I hope.

VIOLET AND LILY ON GOAT MOUNTAIN

The magnets are 4x6 inches, the cards (blank inside) are a hair bigger,

so the magnets can be mailed inside the cards as a little gift.

YEARLING LILY

The cards are already packaged with magnets and I don't want to reopen the clear, compostable envelopes, so I don't plan to sell cards separately. Or we could say, a card alone is now $10. and you'll receive a matching magnet at no additional cost :)

RENAISSANCE LILY

If you are interested, just email me at

CloudHarvestCashmere@gmail.com

with your selection and I'll follow up with an email within a day.

BABY TSUGA

Please note: I have more of some images than others, so first come, first served.

CLASSICAL LILY

By the way, the back of each card looks like this:

*About the title of this post:
I have recently declined multiple requests to sell goats, although it certainly would have made economic sense to sell livestock just now as we head into Winter - the most expensive time to keep an animal even under the best circumstances.
It felt like the right decision not to sell the goats, but it did occur to me I might put a teensy bit more effort into helping them support themselves through the sale of cards and the like.
I tend to be a little low-key about things like this. Very low-key. Almost silent and invisible, in fact. So this post is probably as "hey everybody! big sale now!" as will appear on the blog. To be honest, I feel a little awkward about even this, but if it works, well...
at least I'm selling images, not goats.
Thanks :)

MAMA TSUGA AND BABY TANSY

~~~~~

a little announcement

In the upper righthand sidebar, there is a new item.
Under "Pages" there is a link for Cloud Harvest Cashmere.

I thought for a long while about this, and had reservations about making this blog in any way a "commercial" entity. But it also seemed quite silly to not have an option for anyone who might actually want to see whatever little items I might be making in an effort to support my goats' habit of eating.

I finally decided to make a separate page, so readers can choose to visit if they wish. That seems about as low-key as it can possibly be. I hope you'll agree.

And now, in a completely unrelated theme:

how about this sky?

For about three minutes, the view from my Massachusetts window made me feel like I'm living high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

~~~~~

thanks

I want to say thanks for the encouragement on my little Cloud Harvest Cashmere experiment for Rhinebeck. Your comments and emails have been very helpful and energizing! It really means a lot to me.

It's been quite a lot of work so far, and intense due to the short deadline. A deadline can be a great motivator, but in this case, even a few more days would have been very welcome.

Of course most of the work has been on the computer - it's not like I'm building a barn. But every day for the past week I've spent hours looking through photographs, designing, searching for information, ordering specific things from various places, and juggling components of the process.

If this all comes together and my box of goodies makes it safely to Rhinebeck for the set-up on Friday, I will feel somewhat victorious even if not a single card is sold all weekend.

But of course I hope lots will be!

These two acrobats are also working hard and with intensity.

Meet my latest "squirrel-proof" bird feeder.

HA.

Last night I decided to cast on a cashmere project and see if I could get it finished before Rhinebeck. Just for a fun challenge, because I have all this time on my hands. I already had the perfect pattern and yarn combination in mind: a lacy baktus in a light green laceweight cashmere from Maine. Airy yet warm.

After three complete circuits of my little house, I still had not found the yarn. This is odd, because there are only a few places where I store yarn, and my small stash of cashmere hanks and balls was not in any of those places. Apparently when I virtuously gathered up ALL my fiber one day last year, carefully organized it by type, donated some and tucked the remainder safely away in drawers and baskets and boxes, the cashmere went to some Extra Special Place.

Sure wish I knew where that place could be.

Oh well, it's not like I'm short on projects. While searching for the yarn, I found the bag of steel wool I need for a woodworking task, and the box of blank cards I bought for a printmaking extravaganza if I ever get over my irrational fear of lino-cutting, and a complete set of 1960s(?) Pyrex mixing bowls from my parents' old house, which I ought to put on eBay. So although none of these things are Rhinebeck-relevant, my to-do list just got longer.

But not too long for Daily Markmaking!

I hope your weekend has been a joyful one.

Here's to a lovely week ahead.

~~~~~

new logo news

Between ordinary tasks, I've been working to put together a few cashmere-related items to send to Rhinebeck - the annual and massive Duchess County Sheep and Wool Festival in upstate NY - for the Cashmere Goat Association booth. I've never done this before, and only got the word a few days ago about what type of items are acceptable for sale. Such a short deadline! I emailed a friend who is going to Rhinebeck - sadly, I am not - and asked if she would be willing to take my items along with hers. She agreed.

Then I took a deep breath, hit the ground running, and haven't stopped since.

Due to the time limitation, I am having some of my goat photographs mounted, and also made into blank greeting cards. And since I wanted to add a logo to the back of the cards, I took the opportunity make a new one.

Would you like to see it? You'll be the first :)

A graphite portrait of Lily - I think it was from #DrawingAugust 2016 - 

provided the base image.

Here is the new logo, created this morning, so fresh it's barely dry: 

What do you think?

~~~~~

so soon

Early? Well, I think so.

A bit.

Yes.

Acer began shedding on the first of February, which was a full three weeks earlier than last year. And I thought that was early!

He hasn't shed his full undercoat, but enough of it has been falling out that I have been giving him a weekly once-over. The goal is to capture most of the fiber before it ends up decorating fenceposts and stone walls. The bonus for combing early is that there is usually less topcoat/guard hair shedding along with the cashmere undercoat. Nice!

I've been checking the other goats routinely, and have begun lightly combing Vinca, Violet, Azalea and Sambucus, also. Again, they are just beginning to shed, so it is a lot of slow, gentle combing for not a lot of fiber, but my reasoning is two-fold:

1) if I am able to sit and comb a goat on any given day, I had better do it

and

2) every bit of cashmere harvested now means less to be lost or combed out later.

(To be strictly honest, I am not sure the goats are buying either of those points. But they are definitely enjoying the extra oats and peanuts that come with the process!)

Would you like to see some fiber? I just happen to have some right here.

Some people really favor the whitest possible cashmere, over the other natural colors. This picture of Violet's first combing is for those people:

This is exactly how it came off the goat, and believe me when I tell you: raw cashmere does not come any cleaner than this. If you zoom in (or possibly if you left-click the images?) you can see guard hairs and bits of VM. But for raw fiber, this is a delight.

Good job, Violet!

So...the Cloud Harvest of 2016 is officially underway! It will now go on (and on and on, as Comptonia readers know perhaps all too well) for many weeks. It would be a bit shorter if I had more physical endurance.

It might be a lot shorter if I was less stubborn.

(Doesn't seem likely, though, does it?)

And on we go!

~~~~~