A Few of the Week’s Accomplishments in the Shop

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DSC_8093 Baby blankets still on the loom.DSC_8172 Baby blankets off the loom and finished. I put on a 21 yard warp and wove 14 blankets. DSC_8207 I hemmed some this time instead of leaving short fringe. I’ll be interested in seeing what buyers like best. The rest are shown on this page.

I taught several classes this week.DSC_8170 This is WWW (Weekly Weaving Workshop), sometimes known as Wednesday Weavers Workshop, or Warped Women Weaving, or….It could go on. It is a drop-in class and we usually discuss any questions that people bring up about anything weaving and yarn related. (Some people come for a therapy session with friends.) Last week I said that I’d teach how to read weaving drafts. Those are the “recipes” for weaving patterns. This week we’ll look at drafts for “color and weave” effects.DSC_8238On Friday I taught a rigid heddle weaving class. This is Tanda with her beautiful new scarf woven of Jaggerspun Zephyr yarn on her rigid heddle loom.

On Saturday and Sunday I taught a spinning class. I can’t believe I didn’t take photos. That was followed by an interview about Fibershed for a well-known (in the fiber world) magazine. You’ll hear more about that when it’s published.

When I’m working in the shop or at the computer all day, instead of in the barn, I try to make sure I go for a walk or a bike ride with Rusty. That’s good for both of us. I’d probably get more exercise if I didn’t take my camera because I always get distracted by the view…DSC_7522 DSC_7528…whether it’s close-up or…DSC_8250…in the distance.

 

Phyllis Returns Home

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Phyllis is a lilac ewe who was born in 2005. She was sold as a lamb to someone who eventually got rid of her flock. Phyllis came home the first time in 2010 as the owner was on the way to the auction with her sheep. It was a surprise when she lambed in January, 2011 with two black lambs. It seems that she was bred during that last trailer ride.

DSC_0232-phyllis-w Look at the size of those lambs at about 5 months old. This is what made me think about getting a ram to raise crossbred lambs for market. That’s how Faulkner’s story here began.  In 2011 Phyllis went to a nearby farm as a companion to Diamond, an elderly sheep (a Pensioner in Jackie’s story about this event). Due to the owner’s ill health the sheep needed to go, so Jackie and I picked them up yesterday. Diamond is living at Jackie’s and Phyllis came back here. DSC_8119  Phyllis and Diamond in the back of Jackie’s van.DSC_8125 Diamond at Jackie’s place.DSC_8132She’s in the front of the group here and that’s Marley going to greet her. DSC_8143 Here we are back at my place.DSC_8145 Phyllis has a very nice fleece. DSC_8159 She is right in the middle there–the one with more fleece.DSC_8162

 

DSC_8151Welcome home, Phyllis.

Sheep in the Sun

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During the winter the sheep are mostly in the barn and corral area. The pasture doesn’t drain well and I don’t want it to be a trampled mess. I’m also waiting for there to be more growth there. It’s been dry enough the last few weeks that I opened the gate to the small paddocks near the barn. The sheep were thrilled to get out to that grass.

DSC_7922 This is Summer (the sheep, not the season). DSC_7925 This is Spring (also, not the season).DSC_7927 Here is Eliza. They are all looking a little heavy, but that is because they are due to lamb in about a month. DSC_7929 Stephanie, the old goat, is so stiff in the cold weather we’ve been having. I walked her out here to enjoy the grass.  Most of the sheep kept their heads down eating. But Kyra just wanted to play. DSC_7932 DSC_7937 DSC_7939  Happy sheep! DSC_7938I still have the new lens on the camera. It is a 40 mm lens and I wasn’t that close to the action. I’m surprised that I was able to crop the photos to this degree and still have them relatively sharp.DSC_7948

Fleeces Revisited

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I haven’t finished getting the wool ready to send to the mill. Holidays get in the way. Now it’s COLD. Farm Club members have been helping and I think one more afternoon of skirting and sorting will do it. Sending wool off in January means I’m way ahead of my usual schedule.

If you are not excited about wool these photos won’t be very interesting. But to me they are a precursor of beautiful yarn and blankets.DSC_7777Alison’s fleece. The 3 x 5 cards provide scale (as well as remind me of whose wool is whose).DSC_7782 Eliza’s fleece

 

AthenaAthena’s fleece is a little shorter than the others, but very soft.  DSC_7798  Miller is a ram lamb born last March. This fleece is only 9 months growth. I can’t wait for next year’s.DSC_7816Hattie’s fleeceDSC_7793Did I say it was cold while we were working? Mary and Dona helped one day and Linda on another. DSC_7811Here was the best place to stand–a south-facing wall in the sun. We already finished with your fleece, Jazz.

Photography Fun–A Weekly Challenge

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Not that I need a another thing to add to the to-do list…but I saw a blog that has a weekly photo challenge and I thought it might be fun to participate. This might only last a week–we’ll see. This week’s challenge by A Word in Your Ear is Clouds.  Without working very hard I could go back just a couple of weeks to find these photos that I took the day after I got my new lens from Santa.DSC_7396This is the field across the road from my house and the next one was taken just up the road.DSC_7384What is a sunset without clouds?DSC_5394 DSC_5422 DSC_5426 Notice the fog rolling over the hills–fog is just clouds on the ground, right? These sunset photos are taken from my barn looking to the west. The last photo, below, is another that I took from the field across the road.DSC_6828

 

Snowshoeing for the first time

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I love the mountains, but not in the winter. I am not a snow person–I have a hard enough time staying warm without any snow. My son and daughter-in-law live in the mountains and spend a lot of time enjoying the outdoors in all seasons. We joined them for snowshoeing the other day.

It was a beautiful day. I realized that, because I avoid the mountains in the winter, I never see this beauty in real life. All the views looked like calendar photos.DSC_7752DSC_7692This is Union Valley Reservoir in the El Dorado National Forest. No one else had been there since the last snowfall. DSC_7638There were huge expanses of untouched snow. Gorgeous.DSC_7712The snow had a sparkly crystalline surface which even Matt and Kaleena, who spend a lot of time here, said was unusual. blog 1-4 snowblog 1-4 snow copy   We had one experience which, fortunately, turned out OK, but could have been tragic. DSC_7643 Sam, one of M & K’s dogs, bounding ahead of us, fell through the ice into a creek. When he couldn’t get back on the surface he panicked and Matt had to rescue him. (You can see the photos in Rusty’s blog.)DSC_7667  Fortunately, among all of us we had spare socks and pants.  Also, fortunately, Sam wasn’t in the lake, but in a stream (although it was still waist high water).   DSC_7731 This was my first experience with snowshoes and it was Rusty’s first experience walking through the snow. He finally figured out that the snow was fluffy enough that he could sort of plow through and didn’t have to lift his feet all the way out of it. He was also obsessed by the sparkles in the snow. Look back at the other photos of him and you’ll see that he is just staring at the snow. (That’s a Border Collie thing–not staring at the snow, but obsessing over sparkles or shadows.)DSC_7735 DSC_7748 I took a lot of photos with my new lens but there is a lot to learn about photographing snow.  I have a hard time seeing the meter through the lens when I’m wearing sunglasses, and without the glasses I can’t make out what I am sort of seeing. So there was a lot of trial and error. Some were over-exposed, but there are enough decent photos for me to enjoy.DSC_7684