I couldn't love it more and am seriously considering changing my username, it might be time to leave ill-tempered sea bass behind and embrace hen wife.

Do It! We used to keep chickens, I absolutely loved them and hope we can start again. They all had their own little personalities and quirks, there were friend groups and rivalries, so cute.

I'm making the shawl for my wife, she also fell in love with the description of a Hen Wife and identifies so much! The lace portion is really nice too because it's both charted and written, so it's how I learned to read charts as well, lol. Very approachable pattern!

Glass etching is cool! I feel you on those old projects, especially the baby blanket, lol, I too have one of those. 😅 One of my friends had a kid going off to the same college they went to, so I quilted all of their old college shirts into a twin size quilt for their dorm, that was really fun even if it was all kinds of tedious getting everything lined up.

ground-nesting yellow jackets

I didn't know that was even a thing, those are terrifying!! When I was a kid I hit a seed tick nest mowing the lawn and it took me years before I would even go back into the yard. Much solidarity, and congrats on your progress! I hope your birb buddies get lots of yummy snacks and clear out the pest! Our chickens ate everything, it makes sense to me they'd be able to help with those.

blueberries are just unstoppable here

Same, oh my gosh, my side neighbor has a field of wild blueberries and they go wild every year. I let them grow across the fence line over the summer until the berries come in and then prune them back in the fall, lol. Free blueberries!! They're so low effort, highly recommend.

But omg so lovely to meet you, I'm so excited about your spinning and your shawl and hope you post pictures of your work!!

Same! I'm so glad there are fellow gardener/crafters on Hexbear. :cat-trans: I don't know if we have a crafting com but I'll probably throw up a thread in chat or something when I finish my next project. I'd love to see what you're working on!

Almost everything I've learned about animal fiber has come from this phenomenal book, The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook It makes a really good coffee table book, and I like to flip through it for inspiration sometimes.