The Rest of the Story...

I have been saving this until I had more time and now, I do :)

Before I left for Oregon Sam (my very good friend from Moab and fellow Red-Head raiser) and I had made plans to swap some sheep. Honey, a very nice Tunis ewe (one of my first) had twin ewe lambs this year and I wanted Sam to have one of them. I had taken a ram to her last year so she decided to send two ewes to me in exchange. I also sent some lamb meat as she wont eat the ones she raises (sigh! lol) and she sent me a huge amount of Elk (she gets the meat from an Elk farm in Montana from someone she did something for). Sam had two guys lined up to drive her truck with her trailer out to Oregon to pick up a flock of Navajo Churro that were headed to slaughter if someone didn't get them (she does this stuff all the time, don't know how she manages). They left Moab Monday morning coming first to my place to drop off the two ewes.
About the time Mim and I arrived in Winnemucca I got a call from Jari saying the guys were here.
This is what they brought. Here is one of them, the other is actually behind her to the left with her head turned away but you can see her in the next picture...
Both these ewes came from Tammy Serafin's farm in Oregon originally. They are both beautiful girls and I am very glad to have them. (hey! you can see Hairy in the back ground with his little dog coat on :)

Here are all the Tunis girls in with Carmine, so I now have six full blooded Tunis including Gus (he is in another pen) but Gus's lambs cant be registered, he has a three inch scur and I just don't want to pass that on. So from left to right, Honey, new girl, new girl, Carmine and Vanilla. Oh and Babs is in the back with a coat on.

OMGoodness I have a lot to say!

Wow, where to start? I took pictures of the coopworth fleece in processing intending to share them... a month ago (its now gone to Morro). I took pictures of new stuff from Knit-Pics intending to share them.... two weeks ago. I took pictures of my sheep after we separated them into breeding groups... 10 days ago... I am wayyyy behind! Now I have pictures of a Shetland fleece I bought in Oregon last weekend and a short narrative to go with it!
I guess I will start with last weekend...
Mim called me last Wednesday to ask if I would like to take a road trip with her up into eastern Oregon to pick up a ram. I was sick but I told her I wanted to and would as long as I was feeling better by then. I was feeling better so I did; we met in Winnemucca (about 45 mins from my house, 3.5 hrs from Mim's) and drove north. She tells of our stay at her blog along with pictures. The home we went to and stayed at was the home of Lois and Brook, two very friendly and accommodating people, with lots of Shetland sheep, three barns, a home that was built in the 1920's (currently being renovated) and a really big work/wool shop with a loft which is where Mim and I bunked. This was above the wool room; Mim and I both felt that if the loft didn't work out we could sleep in the wool room, which of course was full, wall to wall, with Shetland fleeces. It was all very organized; there were bags of raw wool to be skirted, there were boxes of already skirted wool with sheep names on them, and there was already processed wool. The place smelled Heavenly! (Lois has a blog here, she hasn't had a lot of time to post lately, but you should go see her sheep from previous posts.)
While we were out walking among the sheep on Sunday morning, I spotted this ram (turned out to be a wether) with what I thought must be a very nice fleece. He wasn't feeling friendly that morning so I didn't get a close up look at him, but the look of his fleece kept coming back into my mind as the day wore on. After lunch we were going to go look at some of the fleeces of the relatives to the ram Mim was taking home and then go look at the ewes. So I asked if I could see Polaris' fleece and OMGosh! It was love at first sight.


I am not normally drawn to Shetland fleeces (sorry Mim and Lois... Michelle, Kathy, ...there is one more, but can't think right now who you are... my oh my! I do know a lot of Shetland people!) they just aren't my favorite, but this! It is very soft and crimpy, and lustrous, with no super soft down that brushes away or pills up. I thought about processing it myself but it is very greasy so I sent it to Shari also.
Now my fingers are getting tired and I have to go add some new skeins of yarn to my Etsy Shop so I will leave you with pictures...
Happy Boys!

George... he lost this coat today, hoping I can rig it up so it will stay on...
Coopworth!
My new bag from Knit-Pics! I love it! And tad ah! I bought my very own circular knitting needles! :)

It's Here! It's Here!

A couple weeks ago I pre-ordered 'Drafting: The long and short of it', a DVD of Abby Franquemont going over drafting techniques... oh, yes, I'm on the mend, still have a bit of a cough, but listen to this! I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival and it got here today! I don't know why I'm so excited, maybe I just like getting packages in the mail.
After unobtrusively rushing hubby off to work, I sat down to watch it. I really enjoyed it! She does a good job showing different drafting techniques, although she only uses three different wool preps to draft from, she does mention spinning shorter fibers that sometimes come in clouds (she doesn't mention these but does tell you how shorter fibers can be drafted more easily), and what she does use pretty much covers everything I think.
At any rate, its a good video especially if you have found that you are in a bit of a yarn rut and are always spinning either woolen or worsted and you want to break out a bit.

We separated our sheep today into three groups; Carmine's breeding group, Gus's breeding group and the 'I'm to young to be bred', or 'I'm a wether' (George) group. I'll post some pics later :)

'Tis the ....season

I've been sick. Getting better and will post again soon.

Finally!!!

When the shearers came in May, I had just got Gracie and was afraid to let them touch her. This was after all the first year they actually did what I asked them to do and took their time with my wool. I will let them shear her next year, but that means I wont have much growth on her because I just sheared her today.
This was a few months ago. Today the coat was at its load limit, she had a lot more wool around her face this morning, than either now or then... you literally couldn't see the tag in her ear for the wool. It was past time.
In the fight to get her from the sheep pen to the garage where the sheep stand and shearing tools are, I neglected to take a before picture so this will have to do.
Ok, I gotta make some excuses here, I feel like I have abused her or something (although the resulting really big bag of wool causes me to feel a little giddy) to start with she is a real pain in the ass. Every time you look at her sideways she starts and runs, isn't convinced that just because I haven't jumped on her back and slit her throat yet doesn't mean I wont. Laura calls them 'pin-ball' sheep.
Secondly, Jari is scared of her, and I knew she wouldn't be any help, especially now cause I wont let her. Kevin helped me, he always does when I ask even though he really doesn't appreciate sheep, but he doesn't know how to shear so he can't give me a break when my arm is about to fall off.
Thirdly, it really, really hurts me to shear. My back my arms, my feet...
Really, the only thing that kept me going was the wool that was slowly pealing away from this idiot of a ewe. Which to be honest is the only real reason she is here to start with. Look at that length! Wow!
We had to shear her face before we could put her on the stand, there was no way that chain was going to fit around her head with all that wool!
I was trying to keep at least the blanket in one piece... (omg! My garage is a mess!)
And the after picture. We had just let her go when I realized I hadn't got a picture of her without her wool.
We had a couple of other things to do when we went out to catch her, one was cut the coat off George (the one lying on the ground there). He had had it on for less than two days when he ripped the side out of it. I have new coats coming so what was kept clean will hopefully stay that way until they get here. As we were trying to catch George, miss pin-ball brain here ran close enough up to the fence to snag her coat and rip about an inch worth of canvass off the bottom of one side. It wasn't a bad tear so after we sheared her I went to cut the torn strip off... and cut the leg attachment off. I was tired alright! So now I have to go find someone with a sewing machine to reattach it for me. Hoping it doesn't get too cold in the next few nights for her.
Here is the plunder! It's darker than what it looks here...

I was thinking of putting some of it on Etsy, but oh my! Not sure I want to share now....

Num-Yummy!

This is one of the fleeces I brought home with me from Oregon. Bought it from Anna Harvey of Harvey Farms (AKA, the Batt Lady). They raise Romney, Coopworth, Salish and Rambouillet sheep. This one is Coopworth. I had thought it was a dark grey, after I washed it I realized its actually a dark brown. It is super soft, almost 6 inches in staple length and has nice soft waving crimp.

Ummmmm, can't wait till it dries so I can play in it :) ...no really I can't, I have a piece of it right here beside me on the computer desk cause I couldn't stay out of it! LOL

On the Etsy front, I've actually sold a few skeins! Well, ok so most of them were to people I know in Elko, but thats ok too!
Remember to check back in to my Etsy shop occasionally as I will be posting new yarns every week. I just got this totally delectable bright yellow bamboo in that I started on right away, that should be up in the next couple days.

And! Its done.

It took me a day and a half but I got it done! I took pictures, counted wraps off the niddy, wraps of the inch gauge, took weights, looked up charts, wrote descriptions... whew! lol

So, if anyone would like to take a gander, Sittin' n' Spinnin's Hand Spun Yarns, Etc. is up and running :)

I've been thinking...

I know, dangerous... but it happens.

I've been spinning for about five and a half years now (yes the half counts), people are always asking me what I make. My answer? Yarn. I just love to make yarn. Occasionally one of my yarns grabs me with an idea, says it will look great as this or that and although I've been crocheting off and on most of my life, its not something I spend a great deal of time doing. I'd simply rather be spinning.
I have also been selling my yarns for about two years, never really making any money off them because I just wasn't sure the quality was high enough to ask for that much money. I have to say, so many of you that read my blog have had high praise for my yarns and make me feel so good about what I do... thank you.
So, I've decided to open an Etsy shop. I have talked to several women that sell their yarns online and although I'm still a bit confused as to how they price their yarns (I seldom sit and spin through a full bobbin without breaks, to cook, clean, stretch, etc.) I think I have a good system that will possibly show a profit if my current 'customers' will be willing to stick with me through a price increase.
Not sure yet exactly when this store will open, I need to catalog, measure and take pictures. Then get all of it online. Hoping it sells faster than I can spin lol well, wishful thinking never hurt anyone :)

Here is a sneak peek of some of the yarn that will be posted first...
The bands around the middle skeins and the pair on the right are from the sellers of the top I spun the yarn from; I did that so I could keep track of the price I paid. The first two are 80% merino, 20% silk, the last is 80% dark grey alpaca and 20% silk over dyed with yellow and it is a beautiful hunter green! I did buy some of this undyed. I love the heathered affect the over dying has.

This is that corrie/coop fleece I talked about in the last post... oh it is so luscious! I will also occasionally offer raw fleece, washed, and processed wool for spinning.
I will post again about it as soon as I get closer to my goal. Thanks again for all your support!

Oregon Flock and Fiber: The Take

Saturday September 26, the tenth anniversary of my 36th birthday, was the first day of the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Laura and I were only going to go on Sunday, since Canby is almost two hours from her house, but she ended up having to attend a meeting of a Romeldale registry that evening. I didn't mind :)
A few pictures of booths and sheep....



As far as I was concerned, this guy was the prettiest ram on the property! He was a sweet heart too, although that isn't exactly a redeeming quality in a ram, it was easy to like him. He belongs to Kristy (sp?) can't remember the name of her farm but he is a Romeldale, the next picture is his fleece and he is a lamb! I have dibs! (please send Kristy's contact info to me Laura LOL)

These three colored sheep belong to Brin, the daughter of Corrie, a friend of Laura's... what breed again? I was thinking Cormo, but that doesn't sound right... BFL?
The real fun though was Sunday; a parking lot sale of fleeces! Glorious FLEECES! lol Oh I had so much fun pawing and petting! There was a lot of alpaca! But there were plenty beautiful wool fleeces too! Certain fleeces caught my eye right away, a Corrie Coop cross, which Laura and I ended up splitting, a washed Romney, which someone else ended up buying half of, and a colored coopworth. The Corrie Coop is extraordinary! It is so clean and fluffy, to run it through my carder all I have to do is finger tease the locks open and feed it in! So gorgeous!
I also bought a Gotland fleece, and Laura donated two romeldale fleeces to my stash, a white and a dark moorit or brown (which I just finished washing yesterday and which will be taking a trip to Morro Fleece Works)
On top of all those glorious fleeces, I bought these uniquely beautiful top twists.
My favorite so far is the brown/blue/white merino/silk blend at the top middle. Pictures of it tomorrow probably. The white blob is bamboo, the dark blob at the bottom right is alpaca/silk (which I am going to over dye), the green at the bottom left is also alpaca/silk and is gorgeous and will be a scarf. For me. The purple is superwash merino with 20% silk, the blue is the same, actually came from the same booth as the purple. And last but not least, a new bobbin for my Joy so I can spin three plies without using a generic bobbin! Yay! And yes, I have a 'thing' for silk blends. It could be worse.
And another shot of the delectable Corrie/Coopworth... ummmm, num-yummy!

After many oohs and ahhhs, many 'Damn! I cant afford that!'s and tired and achy feet, the Festival came to a close. But the day wasn't over! I had brought lamb chops with me, and a big bag of herbs that Jo so generously donated to my culinary endeavors. I knew the herbs wouldn't be any good when I got back so I took them with me and oh! am I glad I did! While I started a batch of new potatoes, Laura went to work on the seasoning. She took some olive oil and that bag of seasonings (basil, rosemary, lemon ...Jo was it lemon thyme or basil?...) and blended it all together in a blender, then smothered the lamb chops with it! It was absolutely the perfect encore to a wonderful day! We pigged out! Me mostly, I had 4 chops while my towering son only had 3 lol So nummy!

And so the ride home. What a wonderful weekend!

Oregon, Part 4!

Just one more picture of Kevin goofing...

So last post left us standing on a beach south of Florence (don't think I mentioned that...), thinking of what to do next. We had been standing and watching the water, when I saw two heads in the waves. I thought they might be otter, but then Kevin shouted, said they were a bit further south now and no, they were sea lions. How exciting! We, neither one of us, have ever seen a sea lion in the wild! So what if we just caught a glimpse of their round little heads! We still saw them lol
We left the beach driving north again toward Florence when we saw a sign "The World's Largest Sea Lion Cave, 11 Miles North of Florence on HWY 101". Well, we couldn't say no to that!!!
"The Worlds Largest Sea Cave" is an interim home to two breeds of sea lions; the Steller and the Californian, both can be seen in the following pictures.
This is the view from the deck around the building where you go to pay to see the cave. What a view!
This is looking west off the deck; if you look really close, you can see a sea lion in the water here...
Wow, huh? This sea lion skeleton is still lying exactly where they found it when the started exploring the cave system.
If you click on the link above you will see that the sea lions do spend at least part of their time in the cave, but on this day it was too cool, and the rocks too invitingly sun-warmed for them to be tempted into the cave.
California sea lions are brown while the Stellers are dark brown.
Please click for big on these pictures, I am continually amazed at the detail my camera picks up, and there is so much of it!


I caught the light house winking at me ;-)

I love to catch the 'spooshes' when waves come in... so here we are standing on a deck between two towering rocks looking out through the crevasse. See the rocks where the sea lions are? The sea lions actually ride the waves to get onto the rocks, then haul themselves up. We watched at least two playing this game while we were there. Kevin said he saw one get on the rock, turn around and jump right back off to play some more.
Couldn't resist this shot...
And that was that.
We left the sea lion caves, headed back down to Florence, caught the 126 East back to Laura's and complete and utter, contented exhaustion. So the last 3 posts were all of one day.
Tomorrow???
The Festival :)