Cochineal and a Collie

        The pink is the faded Cochineal and the tan was my sweet dog.




This weekend I was so busy transplanting geraniums and chives and tending my garden that the weekend got away from me. I worked hard in my garden and it was my humble Heaven! Morris was busy helping he caught a mouse this time. I could have taken a picture of it but I think you’ll be glad I didn’t since apparently Morris has a little Hannibal Lector in him. (that’s from the movie Silence of the Lamb)



So this morning as I was putting my Easter things out I saw an old table runner I had woven years ago when we had our pet collie Gypsy. I thought of how in the 1970’s I had learned how to spin wool and how I wanted desperately to get a loom. I spun the hair from my dog Gypsy and wove the dog hair into my table runner. I also as a new Spinster went out in the California canyons and collected Cochineal which is an insect that is on Prickly Pear Cactus. I used the insects dyeing them a natural pink for my table runner which.I wove on my baby wolf loom..

I am not sure if you have ever squished a insect for dye but that is how exciting it is when you begin to spin. That was such a passion over 30 years ago. Spinning wool started a fiber hobby that gave me years of exploring fibers. So now as I look at this table runner that has gone with me from place to place. I think how this little runner has a history much like me of a young woman who even back then loved the wonderful crafts of a era long ago.