George

You'll remember George?

Is'nt he cute!

Poor George lost his wool yesterday, to a voratious spinner who can't get enough and allthough she was going to share his wool with other voratious spinners she has decided she cant because its just too beautiful... *breath*

George looks rather funny now, we couldn't get the shears through the wool on his top knot, nor the wool under his chin. I knew he was small but, wow! George is the biggest lamb to ever be born at Rockin' T, and he is the smallest adult sheep we own. He was born last year to a rather small ewe weighing in at a whopping 17#! The poor ewe didn't live through it, but I decided to wether George and keep him for his wool.

Believe it or not, these are all this years lambs; except for the bald one to the upper right. That would be George.

This is George's fleece, about 4.5 lbs of it. Not sure if I am going to try to do this one myself or send it off to Sherri at Morro Fleece Works.

I couldnt resist washing a small sample, and will have to spin it up as soon as its dry, if I can put Babs' fleece to the side for a minute, I am still enamored with it too.

We also sheared a tunis yesterday, but I wont post pics of him, he is a locker lamb. The wool is fabulous though so here is a picture of it :)

If you click to biggify, I think you will know what I mean. Both these fleeces are hoggets (first shearing) and are totally delectable!

So, two down, three to go! Will do the two other rams next weekend, then Gracie, the new romeldale cross, the next weekend.

A Meme for Me??

Mimi, my shetland growing, talented felting friend, sent me this Meme :)

6 things that I appreciate that may, to someone else, seem unimportant, but to me are precious;

1. The early morning smell of sage after a night of rain.
2. Newborn lambs as they stand for the first time.
3. The feel and smell of washed raw wool between my fingers.
4. A new skein of yarn made from #3.
5. My kids at home for hollidays or the summer.
6. Spinning circles.

The Coup de grâce; 6 people to pass it on to;

1. Willows Rest; Julie, you are one of the most eloquent people I have ever had the pleasure of blogging with.
2. Gypsyspinner; Jody, love that alpaca! And your knitting is awesome!
3. An Everyday Fiber Obsesion; June, such a talented knitter! Not to mention your natural instinct for blending !
4. Mapleton Farm; a born farmer, sheep, horses, a mule or two (and one of these days, Im going to talk her out of some maple syrup!)
5. Unicorner Farm; What to say about Debbie... we have met once in person, but have spent many a day chatting over FB. Miniature horses, draft horses, Tunis sheep, and cats!
6. Danes and Things; Havent heard much from you in quite awhile Dori Ann. A woman with the same kind of scars I carry, but strong and determined.
   
   and one cheater:
7. Sheep Thrills Farm; Kathy and her 'hired-hand-with-benefits' :) love reading about your adventures!

Thanks Mim!

A Journey into Babs

I tried to find a pic of Babs before shearing, but didn't have one that was clear.
She looks really funny now, so I wont embarrass her by posting a naked pic either.

I will show you pics of her fleece in processing :)

I noticed this year, that her fleece looked good on. Why I didn't notice last year, or the year before (she is three), I cant imagine. She is one of my 'stupid' sheep; she has always, and will always think I'm going to eat her. So, maybe I tend to ignore her because she just agrivates me.
I even had her up for sale and have renigged on that now that I have handled her fleece. I will coat her and her mother this year
If you click to biggify, you will see (maybe you can see them anyway) the little tiny bits of vm that I contend with. These are bits of alfalfa that are either thrown on the sheep durring feeding (kids say they dont do that... yeah), or bits blown into their wool in the wind; actually, I think its both. Whatever it is, they are easy enough to get out, if not a bit messy. I put my monks cloth on my lap (I toyed with the idea of doing Swedish Weaving for a while, now I have all these nice pieces of monk's cloth), and flick card the locks; the junk just lands on the cloth and I have a nice flicked lock to put in my box...
There is usually still some vm left in the flicked lock, but it comes out readily while spinning.

Carding on the Clemes & Clemes (I LOVE MY CARDER!!)

I dont know how every body else does it, but after I get the batt off the carder, I pull it into strips and then attenuate the strip down to about a quarter to a half inch and wrap it around my left hand.

This is what I spin from.

And....

Viola! Wow! This is some nice wool! I'm not sure why, but wool with the texture that this has is more appealing to me than say merino, or other fine wools. Babs' wool has almost the same texture as the grey CVM cross I love so much so, that I bought the sheep that grows it!

So, now I'm off to flick more, to start the whole process again. Damn! I love my life! :)

One More Post Today... Shearing Part 2

Anyone care to try to explain to me why a papered dorset and her suffolk/dorset cross daughter have wool like a romney? This is gorgeous!

All the fleeces have pretty excessive VM, not big bits, but small sand like VM, some of it shakes out pretty easily, some comes out in the wash but they still will need a bit of work afterwards. Honey, Vanilla and Tweedle are all full blooded tunis, all are of a medium hand; while Honey's is the nicest hand I think, Vanilla is second and Tweedle comes in third. Tweedle also has a lot of what I call California Red hair; stiff red hairs scattered throughout the fleece, but worse around the edges. It does make for an interesting yarn though.

This last one is actually the first one I photographed; it is Crimson. Crimson is CA red and tunis, her wool is very downy but has no 'hair' in it like Tweedles does (go figure).

I am keeping most of Eliza's and Bab's wool; the tunis is $7/lb (normally $10), and Crimson is $5/lb. Please email if your interested.

Shearing Day and Happy Mother's Day!

Last week, Tuesday I think it was, a friend of mine invited me to go down town for a bit, have a beer, loose a couple dollars. Soon after we got to the casino, I got a call from the guy that sets us up with a shearer every year; they would be here on Saturday, he said. Ok, I said, see you then! I walked back to my chair wondering how I was going to pay for this, I had $8 in my pocket.
When I left about 2 hours later, I had $178. Yay!!! The shearing was paid for.


So they came yesterday, but I was really apprehensive about them shearing my sheep. These two have sheared for me three times before and I have never been able to convince them to slow down and take their time when shearing my sheep. I am pretty sure I'm the only spinner they have ever shorn for. I went to the appointed house to meet up with them, and ask them to come by my place last, because I didn't want them rushing to get to the next flock. They only had about 50 sheep to do that day, so I wasn't too worried about it being too late or them being totally exhausted. I waited as they finished up with a couple of my friends ewes to ask the first question, then asked how much they were charging this year; $10/ewe, $20/ram! Holly Shite! Even with my winnings (you know in a family with teenagers, $20 here and $20 there is not unreasonable, I didn't have $170 left), I didn't have enough to pay to get all my sheep sheared, it would have come to $160. I decided to have them do all the ewes (except for Gracie, the new one), and the kids and I would do the rams.

When they did finally get here, I had decided that I wasn't going to take any BS; if I was going to pay them, they were going to shear the way I wanted, slow and easy, or they could just go on home now! After agonizing over it all day (I was a bit emotional yesterday, havent been sleeping well and I think it caught up with me), it turned out all right I guess. They got here and I explained that I wouldn't have them do the rams, too expensive, and that I would like them to remember that I sell the wool from my sheep to other spinners and that it is part of my income from my sheep. "Please, please! Take your time!"
They surprised me by only setting up one motor and shear, and the brother who I've always thought was good at what he does, got in there and got started. He took his time and did a fairly good job on the first ewe and I relaxed. Things went very smoothly, the brothers taking turns every two ewes, and I soon had 6 bags full (I dont keep Misty's (suffolk) or Scarlett's (suffolk/CA red)!

This is Crimson; poor thing got hamburgered last year by the 'other brother', she was not happy to be in this possition at all. She almost made sure this guy was done having kids.
This is Eliza; her's in my best fleece so far. Of course I still have to shear the wether George (corrie/tunis) and Guss (tunis ram), both of which I have been anxious to play in.

These are locks from Eliza (right) and her brockle daughter (half suffolk); amazingly they are very much alike! Babs' is a bit shorter and possibly a bit courser, but not by much; both are pretty soft!

This bit of yarn came from Eliza's lock above.

Eliza's fleece...

Gonna get into this today, wash some, maybe dye some, it is my day after all and I can do what I want to! Well, up until I have to get the kitchen and dining room ready for company; Mom, Sis and kids are coming for dinner!

Happy Mother's Day to you all! Hope your day is filled with the love of family and friends!

I post pics of these dafs every year, I love them so much! They are doubles, dont remember the name of them now (double kings or some such), I planted them years ago. They smell like gardenias! I guess I need to dig them up in the fall and spred them out a bit, I have three clumps of them, but I would like to see them all along the front of the house. The daisys arent blooming yet, that comes later when it gets hotter. One of these days Im going to dig up the entire front bed, save all my bulbs and transplant the daisys, then kill the grass that grows there, and put everything back. The grass is a pain, it is deep rooted and tenatious. This is Gracey. She grew really fast huh? lol
This is the ewe from The Wool Ranch I mentioned a few posts ago. I have purchased her fleece for the last three years, and when Terry told me she was for sale, I bought her. Sometimes I wonder about me. I spent most of the year getting rid of animals, then I bring another in. Sheesh!
She isnt very friendly, in fact, she is what Laura calls a 'pin ball' sheep. But her fleece makes up for her lack of social skills.

Heres the gang! Well, most of them anyway. The one laying in the back ground I think is just plain lazy. Every morning I go out to feed he is laying by himself and I think hes in trouble, as soon as the feeding frenzy dies down a bit hes up and jumping into the pile, finer 'an frog hair.