Carrot Juice

Back in 1993, after 3 years of dealing with 3 family members battling cancer, I purchased a juicer.  Both my dad and my brother went through alternative treatments and my brother especially was very conscious of the food he ate.  I learned to make whole wheat pizza crust (much better than white!) and was turned on to pure juices.  I’m still using the same juicer I purchased in 1993 but have to admit that fresh juices haven’t been a constant through the years.  Recently I’ve been looking at raw food cookbooks and found a “bunny spice” recipe that is super delicious!  Carrots, fresh ginger, banana (I keep a supply in the freezer), almond mild and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  It’s this recipe that got me thinking about carrot juice and the coaster design that evolved out of it.

If you're interested in purchasing these coasters visit my Etsy shop at www.kruser.etsy.com or directly at

http://www.etsy.com/listing/51831177/carrot-juice-wool-coasters 

Angora, Silk and Cormo Wool

This was at times an experiment in terror but I love the end result!  I received some angora fur from a friend some time ago and didn’t get to working with it because it needed quite a bit of work.  It took a lot of combing and in the end I still had lumps but decided to give it a spin anyway.  I blended it with super soft cormo wool, spun and plied it.  I didn’t end up with a lot of yardage but knitted up what I had – my scarf was a little short.  I had about 40 yards of silk from a spinning guild meeting where we had a technique session on spinning silk.  I didn’t want to take the chance of the silk being limp so I spun up some more cormo and plied it with the silk.  Then there came choosing the knitting pattern.  I’m not a fantastic knitter but I find that difficulty is based more on concentration than the pattern.  I sure picked the wrong pattern!  After many start overs I chose a different pattern and this is the finished scarf.  A final go around with a crochet stitch with the silk gave it a nice finish.

 

Charles Van Grooten

Charles Van Grooten is a House Rabbit Society foster bunny who came into my life after I lost a dear Californian rabbit to a heart attack during surgery. I was smitten by the sweet nature of big white bunnies with their contemplative faces and beautiful red eyes. After over a year of Chuck living with us he developed a bump on his side. The bump was an abscess that apparently developed from a BB that was lodged in his side from being shot before I knew him. Poor Chuck! The BB and abscess removal went well but he came out of the surgery with head tilt. He’s recovered remarkably well but he does lose his balance once in a while and if his 4 feet on not on the floor he’s not sure which way is up.

One of Chuck’s activities before head tilt was skyping with my daughter’s friends on her computer. She took an awesome picture of him staring into the computer screen. I couldn’t help but transform it into a fiber art piece. After needle felting a wool layer down with the color scheme I decided to use a mohair blend of yarn for finishing. There is some metallic yarn and flax as well. I still have to work the border but I couldn’t wait to get it on my blog for everyone to see. As me and my daughter would say, ahh, Chuck.