Erin Goatkeeper
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handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Erin Goatkeeper
@handtotheneedle.bsky.social
840 followers 1K following 1.3K posts
maker of art, yarn, fabric, garments, food, & music. Cherokee 🧶
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handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Everything is terrible but happy Monday from this absolute unit of (I think) a rhino beetle, garden clog for scale
on mixed duff of straw, goat poop pellets, dirt, and rocks, a very large beetle with a rhino horn stands next to a worn pink rubbery garden clog on mixed duff of straw, goat poop, rocks, and dirt, an enormous beetle with a rhino horn stands immobile
October 13, 2025 at 4:59 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Kept working at it, am finally satisfied 💚🇮🇪🐑
A slightly different version of the same line and wash painting/drawing on a small spiral notepad on a wooden table. There is more contrast and a few of the colors have been deepened
September 9, 2025 at 11:10 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
#ireland #sheep #dailywatercolor #lineandwash #keepsmefromscreaming
A small spiral notebook rests on a wooden tabletop with the spiral binding on the left side. On the page is a line and wash drawing/painting of the photograph linked in the main post, several mountainous outcroppings on the edge of the ocean with a twisty walled road making its way up the nearest; many white sheep are strung like beads along it.
September 9, 2025 at 6:36 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
the image I kept thinking of while listening to @gregjenner.bsky.social talking with @ceaubin.bsky.social about Edmund Kean (just insert a tiny angry goofy falcon instead of a bat) 😅
a human fingertip gently pins a tiny bat to a flat surface, the bat's mouth is open and it appears to be protesting; text superimposed on the image reads "No, stop touching me! I AM THE NIGHT!"
September 8, 2025 at 2:22 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Topaz #babygoats #dailywatercolor #lineandwash
A line and wash watercolor on a spiral-bound pad sitting on a wood table top. The picture is of the head of a baby goat with blue eyes and buckskin coloring with an open barn door at an angle in the background.
September 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
#lineandwash #dailywatercolor #stonefruitseason
A spiral notebook rests on a table top with the spiral binding on the left side. On the page is a line and wash watercolor of a colander of plumcots on the same wooden tabletop with a chair behind, a notepad on the left, and in the bottom right, a folded paper towel next to a small milk jug with a strawberry design on it. The image cannot demonstrate that this batch of plumcots was actually pretty mealy and tasteless.
September 5, 2025 at 1:23 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
This wee anole and I are rolling our eyes and nodding sympathetically rn
A tiny green lizard with a curl of shed skin on its face peeks out from between the leaves of a fig tree. The leaves and the lizard are all a very bright green
August 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
This bebeh anole says congratulations!
A tiny lizard clings onto a fig leaf among many fig leaves; all are a bright vibrant green. The lizard has a scrap of shed skin on its face
August 21, 2025 at 2:05 AM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
#dailysketching #pugtastic
small sketchbook is held open by a large brass binder clip on a wood tabletop with a pencil and a small takeout container behind it (Nutella thumbprint cookie inside, baby!); the left page is slightly visible with pencil sketching but the image there is unclear; on the right page, shown in full, is a pencil sketch of a pug dog on a grassy rocky background with "Sparky 08/06/25) written on the bottom right
August 6, 2025 at 1:56 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
I'm not saying my cats are great but boy it's easier to draw/paint cats than goats. In related news, my sketchbooks contain a lot more cats now than goats 🤷‍♀️
A spiral bound sketchbook lies open on a pale blue sheet. On the left page, landscape orientation, is a line and wash painting/sketch of a tortoiseshell cat crouching to eat out of a small bowl on a blue-green painted wood floor with short storage tubs and shelving in the background. The cat's back is mostly towards the viewer
August 4, 2025 at 3:04 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Quote from a social post by Iconawrites: "Every generation should read The Lord of the Rings and learn that men are allowed to show affection, that power corrupts, and that happiness does not come from being a ruler but from baking potatoes and snoozing in an armchair by the fire in your cosy Hobbit hole."
July 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
There was a really cool beetle in the compost the other day #dailywatercolor #lineandwash #texascritters
Spiral-bound notebook on a pale wood tabletop with the binding on the right; on the page is a line and wash sketch/painting of a bright green-blue beetle perched on fruit pits amidst big stalks of sorghum hay, with rnested brown eggshells and a used coffee filter at the bottom The photo original: a bright green-blue beetle perched on fruit pits amidst big stalks of sorghum hay, with rnested brown eggshells and a used coffee filter at the bottom
July 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
This is where I post from.
Cross section drawing in color from The Wind in the Willows of the Badger in his dressing gown, carrying a lit candle in a holder, walking through his lovely cosy front hall toward his door in the Wild Wood, outside which wait the Mole and the Water Rat in the snowy night.
July 19, 2025 at 2:55 AM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
I'll bring the goats!
Four miniature dairy goats are lying on a short platform underneath a shade structure in a scrubby yard. In the background are fences, gates, a shed, and a big tree
July 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Still working on it, but I like this one. Of course, I really like this dog, so I'm biased. 😅💚 I tried to do justice to her floofiness #dailywatercolor #dailysketches #verygooddog
A big white fluffy dog is lying on gravelly ground beside a split wood sided wall, with a green gate to the right and a shovel leaning up against the wall to the left. Spiral notebook on its side on a wooden tabletop, the line and wash drawing/painting is of a large white dog lying in front of a wood-sided wall, with a green gate to the right and a shovel leaning on the wall to the left.
July 12, 2025 at 8:47 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Overachiever #dungbeetle #livingthedream
A small dung beetle pushes a cluster of goat poop pellets stuck together across the ground, the beetle is doing so backwards because that's how they do it. The ground is dirt with pulverized oak leaves and sorghum hay pieces across it. It is not a large dung beetle for the region so is extra impressive
July 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Anole out lookin' for ladies (I just missed getting a good picture of his inflated red throat; hubba hubba ding ding!). #dailysketches #lizardlove
Small sketchbook open on a table, one page on its sideshows a small green lizard on a tube gate with a background of branches Opposite page of the same small sketchbook shows a backed out view of a tiny lizard on a tube gate with metal mesh on it, with shrubs to the right, a road in the background, and behind the road, shrubs in front of a wire fence with trees behind
July 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Goat shapes #dailysketching
Pale-skinned fingertips hold down the left side of a small notebook on its side, on the page is the typical pooched-out shape of an adult female goat who has carried several pregnancies, on a platform with grass around its base. On the facing page (so upside down to viewer) is another goat, eating from a bowl with its head in a headstall. Below the notebook is a part of a movable paper color wheel
July 7, 2025 at 4:25 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Inside you, there are two wolves.
A large white dog and a smaller fawn and black pug dog both bite on a green plastic oblong chew toy while standing calmly on grassy ground strewn with tan oak leaves.
July 7, 2025 at 12:09 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Everything sucks out there but this Polyphemus moth we saw tonight is super cool, check it out
The lower half of a person in briwn trousers kneels on grass and dirt and fallen oak leaves next to half a tractor tire, one pale akinned hand holding a leaf near the very large brown moth hanging on the edge of the cut tire edge. The moth's wings are not extended but the would probably span 4-5". Top view of the large brown moth on the tire edge with dirt and fallen oak leaves below, its antennae are plumose which means they look like brown feathers. The moth's body and legs are reddish and very plush looking, like velvet. Clear view of the moth's wings from the left side as it hangs from the tire, which is below along with leaves and grass in the background. The eye markings that give the Polyphemus moth its name (for the Greek myth of the cyclops) are very clear. The moth's wings is a rich medium brown with slashes of darker brown, whitish eye like spots, and reddish brown legs and body.
July 3, 2025 at 3:01 AM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
I really appreciate the rain we've been having lately so that the garden is a comfort, in the middle of All This. My Mrs Ellen Bosanquet (crinum lily) is blooming deliciously, and the Rock Rose (Pavonia) keeps being my favorite reseeding native that's never too much or too messy
Against a background of many different shapes of green leaves and brown stems and a brown wood picket fence, a cluster of trumpet shaped wine colored lily blooms (Mrs Ellen Bosanquet crinum) has a bright pink small flower that looks like a little hibiscus bloom in the middle of it (Pavonia Rock Rose), with more of those bright pink hibiscus-like flowers dotted around behind them and some fuzzy blue Gregg's Blue Mistflower to the bottom middle and left
July 2, 2025 at 10:07 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
text: you have awoken the mythical cringe weasel; image: progressively closer views of a badly taxidermied weasel whose mouth is all snarly and down at the corners
June 21, 2025 at 4:24 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
From a few days ago, but I really like this one. Bee on blooming cenizo bush #dailywatercolor
Small spiral notebook with a pale skinned human thumb bottom right, on the page is a watercolor painting of gray green leaves, pale purple/pink blooms, and a bee
June 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Post-breakfast art
A small watercolor sketchbook bottom left, above it a dark green paint cup with a brush across it, above that a stainless tumbler with a pattern of flowers on it. On the right, a copy of Miri Rubin's The Hollow Crown and above that half of a very large apple in a plastic tub. The watercolor sketchbook contains an attempt at the illustration of the book cover, the apple (twice), and the tumbler.
June 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM
handtotheneedle.bsky.social
Poppies
A pale skinned hand holds a sketchbook, there is spiral binding at the top of the cream colored page, there is a little bit of an illustrated seed catalogue visible around the edges, and on the page are two black and white pencil sketches of poppies, one of the center of an open bloom, another from the side
June 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM