Monthly Archives: February 2010

Maybe I like knitting after all!

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Today I had a great time in a KNITTING class! Nancy Jane Campbell from Cool, CA came here to teach her Caps, Caps, Caps class. It was a fabulous class. Nancy is a great teacher and we were all so inspired with the variety of caps that she brought. She taught us a method of knitting caps that gives complete freedom to use whatever yarn you want, whatever needles are available, and end up with a unique cap that fits.

Look at the pile of hats on the table–all different!

These are mine–the start of two different caps. The purple one will have a light and dark purple design after I get past the increasing. That yarn is a superwash wool that I sell. I need a sample for upcoming shows so this was a good opportunity to knit something with it.  The cap on the right is my handspun Jacob wool.

This was such a fun class and we all left with a sense of real accomplishment. Besides learning how to create these caps, Nancy also gave us all kinds of other knitting hints. She and I will plan another class to offer here later in the year.

Lambs!

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Lambing has started. My husband said that he’ll see me in April.

Four ewes were bred on October 1 and three of them lambed today. Suzanne was first with twins.

This is her 4-horn ram lamb.

This is Spot with her twin ewes.

Rusty is hoping that he can get involved.

I’m heading back to the barn to make the last check and see that the lambs born this evening have nursed.

Color inside and outside

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It sure feels like spring! And here are my annual acacia photos. When you have a huge acacia tree in the front yard how can you help but take photos?

The fragrance of this tree is wonderful and you can hear the bees hard at work.

Take a look at the almond tree.

Here is the color inside–more scarves.

This scarf is chenille warp and bamboo weft with 6 colors in the warp.

These are two scarves on the same warp. I gave my daughter, sister-in-law, niece, etc scarves for Christmas and let them choose colors, style, etc. I’m still working on them. My niece wanted a gray and purple scarf so she will choose one of these. Only 4 more to go for the Christmas presents.

Where are the photos?

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They’re on my website. This is so exciting. I have a new way to add extra photos to the site. It was designed for one photo for each product, but I found that I needed more photos. Prospective buyers are going to want to evaluate a close-up of the wool staple and the amount of color on the sheep. I was adding these photos to the website using html but it looked kind of tacky and messed up the formatting of my newsletters. So now look at what I can do. Here is a link to one of my weaving classes and here is one to a fleece. Hopefully I’ll get time soon to add  photos to more areas.

Is she or isn’t she?

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I’ve been sorting fleeces. Here are samples of Glenna and Millicent, 2009 March lambs that I got just before Christmas.

That is black wool from another sheep in the middle and here is a close-up:

When I got these sheep there was one definite lilac among them. (For those of you non-Jacob sheep people, lilac is a color other than the more common black and white, usually a shade of grayish-brown.) I wondered about the others because they are out of lilac ewes and sired by Kenleigh’s Nitro, who is registered as a lilac. Shannon, Nitro’s breeder says that he was very dark and one of the JSBA inspectors said he was “chocolate” lilac.

Gladys is the obvious lilac, but what about her sister?

This is Millicent,  out of Nitro and  Meridian Millie, a lilac ewe who I sold a few years ago.

Here is Meridian Tess, who was born here, definitely not a lilac, but I thought she would be a good comparison.

So is there a difference between the black and white Tess and Millicent? Telilah is Millicent’s half sister/cousin (sired by Nitro and her dam is M. Tillie, a lilac ewe and the identical twin of Millie, but that’s another story.) Of course it’s hard to know what color you’re seeing on the computer, and I had decided that these sheep were regular black and white. But after opening up their fleeces today I think I’ve changed my mind.

Here is the group of these new sheep playing in the early evening. They stay together most of the time–I think they’er happy to be on the pasture.

While we’re looking at sheep, here are a few that look ready to explode. The first lambs are due in about three weeks.

This is bide a wee Haylee…

and this is Hillside Paula.

Spring yet?

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It was sunny this weekend and it felt like spring. The sheep have been cooped up in the barn and corral area for two months now. I let them into this small field today. There is a lot of grass to eat, but it is still wet and if I keep them there too long they’ll turn it into mud.

The sheep went right to eating, but the goats continued to race back and forth.

The oldest goat, Stephanie, didn’t participate in the silliness of the younger goats.

Too bad for the rams. They have to stay in their own area. This is Kenleigh’s Savor in front and Meridian Tioga in back, both born last winter.

This is Lola, a lilac ewe.  That reminds me (because I sold her fleece) that we had Farm Day on Saturday. Three people were here to help with sheep chores. It was great to have the help. We vaccinated all the sheep, wormed the young ewes, and put in scrapie tags.

We even trimmed a few hooves. Shelby is trimming while Jackie keeps the sheep from moving around too much. I don’t flip my sheep anymore to trim feet. I’d rather tie them to trim feet. It has the added advantage of sort of halter-breaking.

Everyone had a hand at trimming feet, but this is Shelby again while Tina holds the sheep.