A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Happy Thursday!

Actually, today is my Virtual Friday! I’m taking tomorrow off in order to have more time to prepare for DH’s birthday party on Sunday! Lots left to do with getting the house ready for that much company and preping enough food. . . .

In Fiber news:

My first 2 reserved fleeces for the year arrived yesterday!!! 2 Lovely Romney Cross Fleeces from Skylines Farm I got Lucy and Greta this year and they are wonderful. I washed up a handful of each last night to play with . . . I’ve got some Greta on my new bottom whorl drop spindle and its the first time I’m using it. I’ve been just fluffing the almost dry fiber with my fingers a few locks at a time and its just flying onto the spindle. This is going to be really nice stuff to work with!

I think Lucy is going to be the perfect color to blend with my little Jasmine; Angora Romney cross blend, now won’t that be wonderful?! I may even try blending it on the new Viking Combs I got in CT!!! This could be very YUMMY!

I’m most likely going to scour and either comb or card both these fleeces at home. I really love the variations in the color of them, they are very pretty. I don’t want to loose the colors by having it run through the big machines.

Well, off to a meeting, lots to do today if I’m not going to be in tomorrow! I’ll post again as soon as I can, but it could be Monday before I get a chance so if it is, have a great time at the Maryland Sheep and Wool everyone!

Happy Tuesday!

Not a whole lot of fiber stuff to report for now. Actually, I’m unlikely to do much knitting or spinning in the next few days. We are getting ready for DH’s b-day! Its a big one so we are having a party on Sunday at our place. Lots of friends and family are coming and I am soley responsible for getting the house ready for company before the big day. MIL is making some of the food, though I need to do most of it and I haven’t really picked a menu! Guess I’d better get going if I’m going to be ready in time. Yikes!

Off to the races!

Monday again!

Wow this weekend went by in a blur!

Saturday was the CT Sheep and Wool festival in Vernon CT. I picked up M about 8:30 Saturday morning (30 min. late as ususal) and we were off. Driving there was pretty straight forward - Mass Pike to 84 to 30 and there it was! They even had the cutest little sheep signs to direct the traffic.

The entrance fee was just $3 to park and then we were in. We started at the “Gold” building where they had some vendors and food. First coffee and donuts while we formed a plan. We decided, since we are both trying to be good, to take a quick spin around the barns to determine where we really wanted to spend our time and $. We toured the vendors in the Gold building, some interesting stuff including several people with nice spindles and some interesting lace weight. Next barn had several people with rovings from their own sheep, a vendor with new and used wheels, someone else with celtic jewlery, someone with some good used/out of print books, another vendor with plants etc. On the way to the Alpaca barn we went past a local farm with a nice selection of Alpaca. We didn’t buy on the way out, but did on the way back

The Alpaca/Llama barn was neat. Several vendors with fiber, finished goods and a few cute alpaca for sale (do you think DH would notice that in the back yard?) The final barn was the one with the fleece sale happening in it. That was just too much to resist!

Overall it was a relatively small event, though well represented by local farms and with some nice fibers and things. All in all we were on the grounds for perhaps 3 hours (driving time was 2 hours each way) so we agreed it might be something to do next year if the weather is good, but if its raining we probably will skip it.

I did do “some” shopping and here is what came home with me:

1 celtic silver pendant

1 set Medium grade Viking Combs, hand made by someone in Canada of Cherry with a great holder/storage stand.

1 Tiger wood .5 oz spindle

1 beginner bottom whirl spindle

1 new Tulip wood orfice hook

1 painted dolphin spindle for A

8 lbs Oxford/Corriedale cross, dark grey fleece (for $3/lb!!!) Raw

2 lbs reddish brown (think caramel sauce) colored Alpaca (raw). M and I split a 4 lb bag.

1 lb faun alpaca roving

2 lbs really dark grey Icelandic Wool (raw)

1 book on Dye stuff (mostly historical info)

And here is a picture of the new spindle:

not a great picture but it will have to do for now.

And here is what I did with it this weekend:

This is 10 grams of the lighter colored alpaca, this photo doesn’t show the real color well (not enough light). There are approx 60 yds of yarn, 2 ply at 36 wpi. I’m considering knitting a lace scarf or Moebius from it, eventually.

The silk has not yet been plied. I was in a hypnotic trance playing with the new spindle!

Here is the next spindle full of silk to be plied this weekend!!!

Yahoo!!!!!

Its my favorite day again! And as an added bonus, tomorrow is the CT Sheep and Wool Festival!!!!

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my skeins! It was so nice to be able to post a picture! One of these days I’m going to get another digital camera . . . hopefully later this spring.

Gardening update:

Last night I got some pansies and a few herb plants, took a few more from in the house, and the pea plants a friend gave me all outside and started planting! I was going to wait about another 2 weeks, but most of these plants have been hardened off already and I have so much planting to do this year that I’m hoping to get a little bit of a jump on it. I’m just going to have to cross my fingers that we don’t get a frost any time soon!

DH had created a 3 tiered small bed for me (each tier is about 2×3) behind the patio between a stone wall and the fence. I planted the peas along the fence end of each tier so they can use it as a trellis. I planted a row of white Cosmos across the back of the last tier to create a green wall between the garden and the rest of the yard. I may plant some purple cosmos above that tier to add a little bit more texture to my green screen . . . In the bottom tier I planted 2 kinds of thyme, oregano and catnip. Unfortunately, one of the cats has already gotten into the plant and nibbled a chunk off it so I”m going to have to put it in a pot and hide it from them some how. I planted a row of pansies and petunias in front of the herbs. In the middle tier I planted some Arugula seeds then a row of herbs and then flowers and the top tier so far just has the cosmos and peas but I’ll be adding some herbs or something to that as well.

I had hoped to work on more planting tonight but its raining now and may continue which would make gardening less than pleasant. Since tomorrow I’ll be at the sheep and wool festival all day, it looks like it will be Sunday before I do any more gardening!

Fiber news:

Not really much to report, with all the gardening last night there wasn’t much for spinning. I have been carrying the drop spindle of silk around every where with me all week. I plan to ply off what ever I have by Sunday that day and start again.

I did work for just a few minutes at picking out some more of the bind-off stitches in the handspun socks. I’m almost 1/2 way done with undoing them to be redone so it will fit. Trouble is this kind of tedious project, to me, falls into the mending category of life and that is not one of my favorite projects. I have to be in just the right frame of mind to mend thngs and lately I really haven’t been, as evidenced by the size of my current mending pile I’ve been much more in the mood to start things lately! Hence all the WIPS floating around my house.

Speaking of which, over the weekend, I was down in our basement getting cups from the bulk supplies pile when I found a plastic bag containing a hat I had started months ago! Things really are getting out of hand when you find WIPS in your basement!!!!

Today, in preparation for the S&W tomorrow I am collecting together a list of my inventory and an list of the things I really want most (more highspeed bobbins & viking combs for starters) and will have both lists on hand for the festival this weekend so I don’t come home with more white corrie etc . . .

Once again, here is the current fiber inventory:

2.5# Ashland Bay Fibers - Assorted colors/types

3.25# Border Leicester - white

2.75# Border Leicester - grey

2.25# Corriedale - grey

2# Corriedale - white

7.75# Finn/Rambouillet - white

1+# Finn/Ram - pretreated- ready to dye

.5# Finn/Ram - dyed blue/green/purple

.25# Finn/Ram - dyed “Sunset”

1.25# Jacob - multiple greys

3.25# Merino - white

2.75# Merino Cross - oatmeal

.5# Merino - very dark brown

2.5# Rambouillet - dark brown

8# Romney - white

.25# Romney - dyed dark greens/blues

2# Romney - dyed blues/greens/purples * Mom’s shawl

2.75# Shetland Lamb/Appy Llama Blend ? oatmeal

3.5# (raw) Montadale Wool

1# (raw) Polypay Wool

2# Cotswold Wool

In addition to that I have the following coming soon:

4.5# (raw) Romney, dark oatmeal to soft grey.

6.5# (raw) Romney/Montadale/Suffolk, dark grey with silver flecks

10.8# (raw) Merino/Targhee, white

5.25# (raw) Corriedale, Light to Medium Gray Brown Variegated

3.5# (raw) Corriedale Lamb, white

Hmm, guess its going to have to be something pretty special to tempt me at the shows this year! I’m reorganizing this list a couple different ways so I can easily reference where something would fit into this stash . . . .

Off to my organizing! Have a great weekend!!!!