braided colors of New Mexico

Encouraged by some kind fiber enthusiastic friends on Instagram I spent the Sunday afternoon handling fluff, taking pictures, indulging in colors, naming color ways and sorting wool. 

Which was a good thing, considering our heat system failed on us and the only current heat source is the fire place in the living room. *sigh*

So my Etsy shop has been updated with lots of colorful fluff, some of the last mystery pencil roving, a blend of all kinds of fiber from alpaca to yak (you never know exactly what you get, cause my New Mexican fiber mill doesn't tell me!) and my personal current favorite, Churro lamb, which is fluffy with a bit of fuzz and squishy and super soft. 

Thank you to all of you sweet folks who already took the chance and shopped! One of the braids named "Ice queen" will even be traveling to Norway!

Now if I could just go and snuggle up in the wool like Ike until the plumber comes…!

Happy Monday, friends!

flash back

Salinas Pueblo, New Mexico.
Have I mentioned yet how much I love New Mexico?



So many beautiful places to visit.

The kids never really want to go, but they always end up having lots of fun.

We had a picknick, too!

A good day.

What a day

This was my day and it was good!

Thank you all for remembering, for calling, singing and emailing!

yum and yuck

Let's start with the yuck, shall we?

One of the first things people will tell you about New Mexico is that we have some weird bugs around here and boy, I'm telling you, that we do!

Check out this thing which we spotted one night in the garden. It was huge, about 4 in (12 cm, my German friends!). Some research in Lewis' library, turned out it was a whipscorpion. While looking extremely gross, it is not poisonous. Good.

Be happy in the yard, but - poisonous or not - please do.not.ever.again.breed around my house!

And do not ever again let your baby sneek around in my kitchen in the morning. Especially not before breakfast! Next time I might just squish it to mush.

This time I had mercy. There you go, little gross guy!

Today I found this cardigan in Lewis' closet. It is very dear to me for several reasons. It was one of the early things that I knitted for him, and it was made from my own handspun yarn. For the very first time I had found prepared roving and this whole world of the wonderful American fiber community with its many resources had just let me peek in for the first time. I believe I even spun this with my first spinning wheel, purchased sometime early 80s, that I had brought with me from Germany after I got married!

While I look at the yarn and the knitted piece and think it looks yummy, there are critters, that feel the same way... They dared to choose this wonderful little cardigan as lunch/dinner/breakfast. Boohoo.

I'm still debating what I should do with it. It is washed. Nuke any leftover bugs in the Antarctica/freezer? Take about a hundred more pictures and toss it? Cut off the buttons as my mom reminded me? Unravel and reuse what's reusable? Not sure yet. For now it is resting on the sofa.

Time for real yum, and don't think about mashed whipscorpions any more, will ya'?!

Inspired by my friend Ulrike I recently made new sourdough and after failing several times (which results in bread with huge airbubbles and just not the right sour flavor) it seems that I finally got it right.

This is every single bit as good as it looks.

It is the reason why Fiona and me can't wait for breakfast these days. She calls it "Mamabread".

Lewis however complains and wants store bought bread. I tell him, that this is as good as it gets: all natural, whole rye, whole wheat, sourdough starter (again rye flour and water and the right kind of bacteria), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, salt and water, that's all.

I tell him, what makes it truly the best is that it is made with love!

I say, eat it!

Yum.

breakfast with Denzel

About six weeks ago my family headed south for a weekend trip, amazing White Sands included.

On our way we visited White Oaks, a former ghost town which is now - like so many other places - rediscovered by artists. Off season and quite deserted in February we got the idea of how it used to be like!

We thought this mansion could easily have been the background for "Psycho".

Close by Carrizozo was quite a bit more charming, because there was Roy's.

Sundaes, milk shakes and a real cool vintage flair, we loved it all.

And Roy also told us what it was about all the weird construction on the main road and the kinda important looking people on bikes, that were a little too casually cool dressed to be construction workers or builders. They were working on the movieset for "Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington, mid March they were expecting the film crew for the actual shooting! You could almost see them hanging out at Roy's already - I'm sure they loved that place - so authentic!

I was not aware of the fact that Denzel Washington was continuing the shooting of the movie after that in New Mexico until this morning. That's when I had my breakfast with Denzel. No, of course I did not meet him, sillies, he was in the paper after donating quite a large amount of money for the Roswell's Boys and Girls Club.

This guy is here for work, certainly quite stressed, that's how I imagine the movie business, he watches a local newsreport about the club's financial problems and whips out his checkbook. Now how cool is that for a famous actor, I'm asking you??

Yeah for Denzel Washington, you rank even higher now on my personal list of great actors - for being a generous, kind and thoughtful person as well.

And "Thank you!" from the little me for supporting that Club, which will now be able to survive!