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More ram photos

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I am still trying for those ram photos.

This is Granite.


Clint is still on the run.


The ram lambs that were born at the end of March are finally getting old enough to evaluate them with a little more confidence. I think it’s too hard to tell much about them before 3 months old. Now I can see the width of the horns on the two horn rams. This guy seems to have a nice wide horn spread. I’d prefer that he didn’t have white feet.


Here is another with a wide horn spread. If you don’t start with a wide horn spread at this age, very often the horns grow too tight near the jaw as the ram gets to be a year or two.


This lamb is turning out very nice and I may keep him. He is the last lamb born this year, the son of Clint and one of last year’s ewe lambs. He is a four-horn ram with good horn spacing, nice wool and some leg markings.

Spinning on the Farm

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I spent yesterday at Spinning on the Farm, an event hosted by the Sonoma County Fiber Trails. Beautiful location, great weather, fun people. It’s hard to know what to take to an event like this. It’s only one day and it takes a lot of time to take apart my whole shop, box it all up, load it, set up the booth, take it all down, load the trailer again, put it all back in the shop. Is it worth taking it all? I find that there is usually no one big seller and I usually sell a little of everything so that’s what I take.

 

Isn’t that a beautiful backdrop for a booth? I brought dyed Merino roving, silk/merino fiber and scarf kits, latchhook pillow kits, notecards, and books…

…WoolPets felt kits, Thomas Joseph notecards and buttons, and spinning tools…

…wool socks…

…yarn…and much more.

Spinners get their gear  to and from the parking lot by tractor hay-ride.

What group of spinners gets together without thinking of food? As always, the potluck was delicious.

Spinners spend the day spinning, knitting, eating, visiting, and shopping in this beautiful setting above the Russian River.

 

Silk Challenge-Part 2

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When I have new fibers or yarns and am trying to figure out how to use them my first step is to sample. Sometimes this is a full-sized sample. For instance I go ahead and weave a blanket or a scarf, etc and learn as I go how the yarns work together and decide if I like it or if I should change something next time.

The silk challenge poses a different problem for me. I don’t have any idea of how these yarns will work and I don’t really have an end project in mind although a scarf is one idea. By the way, the responses to the last blog were good ideas

  • color and weave effect
  • accent colors on woven sheep as in  some very cool sheep paintings that Dona sent
  • fabric for the “squares jacket” that Diane brought to WWW
So my first step was to wind a narrow warp and experiment with weft. I started with the heavier red silk yarn at 6 epi.  I used the sari silk yarn, silk rags and bamboo yarn in various combinations of fiber and weave structure. Interesting but nothing jumps out at me.
My next sample was to use the sari silk yarn for warp. I was hesitant about this because it is so “hairy” I thought that it might not work well as the warp. At 6 epi it worked fine in this narrow sample and I like the results better than the first warp. I will have to evaluate all these different sections as to drape, durability, etc and decide where to go with this project.
These are the samples. One thing that I don’t necessarily like about using the silk strips is that the colors become blocky–weaving 3-4 inches of each color. If I wove a wider piece that wouldn’t be as much of an issue but it will be in a narrow scarf.
In this sample I alternated colored strips so that one color blends into the next. I also beat more tightly. This wouldn’t be very good for a scarf but would be a great jacket or mat.
I like this part. I alternated the strips with the sari silk in a twill. This is beat more loosely so there is better drape, but it could be considered sleazy if the fabric was to be used for something that needed firmness.

Learning curve

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I have a new computer! Yippee! I’ve been thinking about this for a year. I debated desktop vs. laptop. Laptop won. I debated PC vs Mac. At first I decided that I had to stay with the PC but Mac eventually won out. I’m having a good time with it, but I don’t have any of my “work” on it yet. No Quickbooks. No Office. I have been playing with photos, but still don’t know how to resize them to put them here. If I figure it out before this post is done there will be a photo. If not, I’ll wait until I visit my DIL who is going to help me or I go to the class at the Apple store.

Farm Club Comes Through Again

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I sent an e-mail Friday  to the Farm Club  in which I said I was going to vaccinate lambs today and did anyone want to help? Dona and Tina were already planning on being here for a spinning class in the morning so they said that they would stay. Jacki, Shelby, and Allison came too.  Wow! What great response with only 24 hours’ notice.

I bought a new tool. For years I have been vaccinating with single dose syringes. That means that you have to reload the syringe each time you give an injection.

I just never thought about doing it differently, but I was at Higby’s Country Feed Store (my favorite store) and saw this syringe. There is a bit of a learning curve (remember to tighten needle, make sure you depress the handle part all the way, don’t drop because the barrel is glass–OOPS!), but what a huge difference it will make after I replace the glass part that broke about a third of the way into the job.

I appreciate all the Farm Club members (who are now friends) who show up for projects like this. Shelby manned the camera, as well as caught lambs and played with the loose chicken.

Alison, Jackie, Tina, and Dona all helped catch and mark lambs and…

fill syringes (after the unfortunate incident with the new one).

Shelby took the following portraits.

After vaccinating I let all the sheep out but then needed to catch one more lamb.

So Rusty had a chance to get involved also.

Thanks to all of you for helping. Wait until you hear about the next unscheduled Farm Day. I think it’s coming up soon.

Custom weaving projects

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Here’s a look at what I am doing in the weaving studio.

These are the yarns for a wedding shawl for a friend’s daughter. This will be a random mixed warp in a lacy light weight shawl.

My son’s girlfriend chose these colors for her chenille scarf.

Llama rug that I finally got off the loom awhile ago. I think that most people don’t usually wash rugs, but it still has a llama smell so I plan to wash it. I’ve been waiting for a hot day so it will dry outside.

This is the roll of 3 full-sized blankets woven in double width broken twill. I have cut them off the loom and now need to crochet edges on all of them.

My Spring Vacation–Part 1

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My husband is a teacher so we can plan a vacation during his spring break and before my son goes off to work on the USFS hotshot fire crew.  Chris held down the fort here  (with 12 lambs born) while we were gone.

Meet the Sheep was Saturday and I didn’t have time to prepare for this trip until Sunday.  We packed Sunday morning and headed south. The only plan we had was to get to Hoover Dam for a tour on Monday.

Driving on I-15 east of Tehachapi. We got to Las Vegas at midnight and spent the night there. The next morning we drove to Hoover Dam.

This is a view of the new bridge just below the dam. All the cross-country traffic used to have to follow a winding, tourist-packed road that crossed the dam. That must have been a nightmare for truck-drivers and anyone else that just wanted to get to where they were going.

Here is the dam from the bridge. We took a tour inside the dam. Hopefully some of my videos will come out well, but I haven’t even downloaded them to the computer yet.

After sleeping in the Explorer that night (note to self–get an air mattress. The 20 year old foam pad doesn’t work anymore) we spent the day at the Grand Canyon. My photography  left something to be desired, but it was just not possible for me to capture the Grand part of the Grand Canyon.  We chose the Kaibab trail and hiked about 3.5 miles into the canyon.

Another few miles would have taken us to the bottom but had not planned an overnight trip and didn’t think it would be smart to try it in a day.

If we had the help of mules we could have done it, although even the mules are making overnight stops in the bottom.

See that zig-zaggy trail going up the wall. That’s the last leg of the hike back up.

Leaving the canyon late in the day and looking west toward the setting sun.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Lambs!

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Here are the first lambs (except for the unexpected twins last month from a ewe that was bred when I got her).

Posting these photos makes me think of the contrast in my lambing set-up and that of other sheep farmers. My ewes have it pretty easy. When the weather is wet and cold and windy they are able to be in the barn.  My heart goes out to those farmers and their flocks who have to battle the elements. Yesterday I spent time in the driving rain cleaning out the ditches and diverting water away from the barn, but nothing was really that serious. When we had a dairy I always hated winter weather because it was just not possible to get all of the cows out of the mud and rain.  I’m hoping for  milder spring weather soon!

Lift kit for a computer

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If you’re a teen-age boy or anyone I guess who likes big trucks and car stuff then you’ll know what it means to lift a truck (as opposed to the way Superman does it). After a couple of weeks of tax preparation at my computer my back was bothering me. Having had two back surgeries because of sciatica I am very nervous when I have any issues with my back or hip. It’s the sitting that causes problems. A lot of times I’d rather be standing.  I said something about needing one of those fancy desks that rise when you push a button. Here’s my husband’s solution.

Hey, it works! I’m standing right now and I have a bar stool chair if I do want to sit.

Yesterday I went to a class sponsored by the Small Business Development Center. I am going to another tonight on Web Marketing. They offer a variety of classes and also have counseling services for business issues. I found out that there is even someone who will help me get Quickbooks cleaned up! I am so glad to have found this resource. I only hope that they aren’t wiped out by the state’s financial mess.