Trip to A Yarn Shop

I'd never been into a "yarn shop" until today. It was a little bit overwhelming as there was so much to see. The owner, Lisa, was wonderful. I spent a good 3 hours there, mostly just chatting.

I found 2 balls of Wendy happy-bamboo/nylon, a skein of hand dyed sock yarn from Pagewood Farm and a ball of Schoppel Wolle. I'd been eyeballing that yarn on Paradise Fibers site and now I have some. She has alot of yearn to choose from, along with books, undyed yarn and dyes.... The name of the shop is One City Market and it is located in Rogersville, Missouri.

I'm ready to ship out my fleeces, just need to tape up the box. I kept one back to card myself. It's Concetta's fleece, grey, 5" staple. The ends are yellow and a bit funny looking and feeling. I know they could be weather damaged but I didn't think they were at shearing. I am wondering if the detergent can do that sometimes- maybe if too much was used or on certain fibers.

I did a bit of spinning over the weekend, inbetween chaos here and there. Thought I was doing well untill I realized I was plying in the wrong direction. So I got up, and slowly stepped away from the wheel. Haven't been back. l.o.l. I guess I'll have to cut it off. It's a shame though. I don't know what happened there.

Sheared and Picked Wool

Yesterday afternoon I moved the sheep to another paddock and took down the temporary fence. I had planned to just wait to shear because of the cold weather we were having, but it's warmed up and my husband suggested going ahead with it while their fleeces were clean. At 3pm I called the shearer and by 4:30pm he was here. All went well. A few sheep gave us trouble heading into the barn to be penned but all in all it went well. It'll be warm for the next week at least and if it gets cold, we'll just move them into the barn.
Their fleece was extremely clean- even the belly wool was clean.
This afternoon I started in on the fleeces-skirting and picking out what little vm I could find. Tomorrow I can start washing.
Once they are out of grass in their current paddock, my plan was to move them to a pasture and have them help graze down what our replacement heifers won't eat. Shearing now means I will have something vs waiting and having prickly things, possibly burrs and hay embedded in their wool. The staple length was good-nothing under 3 inches and one yearling had a 5 -inch staple length and that is just the growth since shearing this spring.

First Handspun Shetland

Last week I worked on plying the my Shetland/Alpaca blend and this is the finished product. I finally acheived a perfect, even yarn. There is about 240 yards and there is 2.4 ounces. I think it'll make a nice lace scarf or shawl.

Amber Myst Reaches New Heights

It's been a busy week here on the farm. We are running 20-degrees below normal from what I've heard and it's been wet. There were showers last night and will see more tonight. I've been trying to figure out what to do about breeding this fall. What I had planned, I am reconsidering even at this late date. Why? SD and CV values along with the AFD. The SD and CV values on my girls, especially the lambs, are so high that I don't want to waste a breeding season perpetuating more of the same numbers. I enjoy my sheep, but I also want to see them reach their fullest potential. That's not to say that I would get rid of all of my girls, I won't and can't as I only have a few and they are "pets". But, I do want to breed them to the best rams with the best numbers to improve the offspring and move me closer to my goals. I want fine fleeces and conformation. Having a small flock, I am limited on what I can do in some ways. So I need to take advantage of every breeding season and make it count.

On another note, the girls manage to climb up a little higher on our bales. They did jump from there to make their escape from the "paddock" they were in. We just stood in disbelief watching. They were fine though.
I have lots of full bobbins and lots of plying to do. I'm working on the Shetland/Alpaca that I washed, carded and blended.

I'm really happy with how it is looking and it's super soft.

Isn't she a cutie. Gotta be the cutest kitten I've seen.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from home :-) and heading down to War Eagle Mill in Arkansas for the big Craft Festival they have. I believe they have something like 300 + vendors there and on the way I remember circus tent sized tents along the roads in fields with more crafters. If I remember right, Rogers, Bentonville even have craft things going on in town at convention centers. It's a biggie anyhow and will surely be alot of fun. Planning on hitting road at 4:30-5 am!

The girls have a horse show this Saturday. Friday we'll be busy getting ready for that. They'll have their horses over at where we have lessons, practicing, clipping and braiding. They'll have to be up early Saturday and do the last minute things before we head out. A busy weekend for sure!

Knitting Under The Influence

This week has been catch up on grading and work on lesson plans week. So when I had the opportunity to be sitting in our Suburban for a lengthy drive, I was looking forward to working a little more on my sock. I've been struggling with car sickness for just over a week now and get gagging, can't stand the movement, please stop and let me walk home....sick. I hang my head out the window, chew gum, lay down....to no avail. After my 4 year old was watching me struggle to hang onto my stomach contents and eventually close my eyes, she sighed and said,"well, I guess mommy's is dead". My 10 year old said, "no, she's sleeping" and the 4 year old replied, "nope, she's dead". At that point I burst out laughing. I've had to resort to Dramamine. Wow! When they say "marked drowsiness" on the label, they aren't fooling. I tried some last Sunday, to get me to Church and home. I barely made it through without keeling over. Sure enough, I had to take it today and what you see in the above photo is why you shouldn't knit while extremely drowsy. I lost a stitch somewhere. I'm still feeling the effects and it's been 4.5 hour since the symptoms hit. I'll be glad when the allergy season is passed.
We had opened up the fence to let the sheep have shelter from the rain. One of them figured out how to climb up higher and was sunning herself this morning.

Chicks Hatching

It started rain sometime during the night and hasn't stopped. I couldn't even tell how much rain we've gotten, but a neighbor stopped by this morning and had 2 inches. The forecast was for 2-3 inches this morning, another 1-2 this afternoon and who knows how much tonight. We've had some dry years so the rain is much appreciated. The neighbors cattle don't seem to mind the rain either.
We opened the cattle panel so that the girls could get in out of the weather. I see they still chose to spend most of their time out in the rain. Shearing has been postponed until they dry out.

Yesterday afternoon one of our eggs hatched. This morning a few more decided to come out of their shells.

Still have several eggs that could hatch. It's day 21, and that was technically this afternoon- so we'll see in the morning. It's been exciting for everyone to be able to watch the progress. I'm really happy with this incubator ( Genesis 1588) - I didn't have to do a thing to it, no fiddling with the temperature, etc. It has the fan and a thermostat. I'd definitely recommend the clear top.

Micron Results In

The Micron results came back today.

AFD 28.8

SD 8.9

CV 31.1

% greater than 30 34.3

Several of my ewes are older girls and I didn't expect alot. They ran at about 30 AFD. The lambs on the other hand, I expected better. My lowest AFD was 26.4, SD was 7.7, CV 25, % greater than 30 was 22.7. Definitely room for improvement.

New Books,Spinning, Hatching Chicks, 1st Dark Marans Egg

I've found several new books to add to my library. "Start Spinning" has alot of general information and photos. There isn't alot of indepth information like the Alden Amos book- It's a really good starter book and I liked the photos. Found the "Knitting Circles Around Socks" at JoAnns. It shows how to knit 2 socks at one time. The photos are great and very self explanitory. "The Shepherd's Rug" is another fantastic book. I had stumbled onto Pine Lake Karakuls page with their rugs. They are beautiful. The book explains how they make the rugs from felted roving. What a great way to use roving. I'm interested in taking wool that may not be the best in microns, or britch wool..... and making rugs with it. They web address for Pine Lake Karakuls is http://www.plfkarakuls.com Tomorrow will be day 21 in the incubator. Yesterday afternoon we heard chirping coming out of the Bator. One shell had been chipped open and another this morning. Several of the eggs are moving around.

I've finally started Hello Yarn's August fiber "Patchwork".

It is really beautiful. I'm especially taken with the blues/greens, browns and golds.

It's spinning up nicely.

Below is a picture of our first Black Copper Marans egg that is dark. The picture makes it look lighter than it actually is.

Socks 5(or more) : Me 1

Last year I decided I wanted to learn to make socks. Forgot, got sick and just over a week ago started. Allena started me on 2 circular needles. I'll admit, I couldn't at the moment figure the concept out. I ordered a good set of needles and practice joins, knitting in the round on dpn's. Yesterday my Addi needles came and I began casting on for the 5th time (maybe more) on those, got the switching needles figured out and the join, made a few rounds and lost a stitch. So I put that back into my bag and started these. I've never made anything for my son. I've sewn lots of things for the girls and I figured the first pair of socks would be for him. They are a simple sock pattern out of the book "Getting Started Knitting Socks" by Ann Budd. I had forgotten that I had this book sitting on my shelf and glad I found it. It's been a great help.
I've found now that it pays not to cast on too tightly, I knit fairly tight. It makes knitting on the dpn's easier. The more rounds I do, the faster it seems to go. So I think there is hope.

Kettle Dyeing and Spinning

Allena emailed yesterday about coming over to dye. She made it over and gave me a lesson in kettle dyeing. Wow, it's neat. After she had headed out, I put the kids skeins in the pots, on the stove to add a little more color. I let it set until the color absorbed before adding a different shade.

This is a skein for a pair of socks for myself.

These two smaller skeins are for socks for the girls. The bluish skein is a little softer than the picture shows. The purple doesn't stand out quite so.

I haven't started on my Hello Yarn fiber as I have been busy spinning some of my own Shetland fiber instead. It has been amazing to start with a sheep and work through the process to a handspun yarn. This was off of Fletcher Friday. He was a gorgeous ram.

The actual color is somewhere between these two pictures. It is a beautiful oatmeal color. I blended in a little silver and fawn alpaca. It didn't change to coloring, surely added softness though.

First Breeding Group Established

Fletcher Crescendo
Locksfield Kaya Papper, MS Concetta and MS Sara