Christmas for my family is filled with many traditions. I love some of these traditions and have carried them over to my family. Some I do still love, but they directly conflict with my husbands family traditions.
Some of my favorite traditions include dinner. My parents always did dinner on Christmas eve. My dad would read the story of Jesus' birth and we would light the Jesus Candle then have dinner. The next morning it was like a challenge to see who could get up the earliest. We weren't allowed to open any presents until everyone was awake, but we could always get in our stockings. Another of my favorite traditions is the movie "White Christmas". I love that movie and still watch it every year. My children aren't quite old enough to enjoy it yet, but I'm hoping some day they will.
I'm hoping this year was the beginning of a new tradition. My family never really went to Christmas Eve service. (at least not that I remember) This year I packed up the kids and took them to Christmas Eve service. It was something I remembered doing as a teenager and loved. I'm hoping to keep this as a tradition and repeat it year after year.
What are some of your favorite traditions? Whether new or old family traditions.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Making Memories
I have a lot of memories of things my family did as a child. Some of my favorites are the dinners on Christmas eve. We have been making lots of memories with my kids. Well at least I hope we have. We bake a cake every year for Jesus' birthday and go to Grandma and Aunt Alicia's house every Christmas eve.
Another of my favorite memories is putting up the Christmas tree with my family and being able to look at all of the ornaments and knowing the story that was attached to each one. My favorite always has been my dad's ornament. It was always the last to go on the tree and my dad was always the one to put it on. I'm hoping to instill something like that in my children.
Now for the fun part. Every year the teachers at school would send home little ornaments with us kids to go on the tree. Mom looked forward to it every year. We homeschool so I am now the teacher in charge of all those cool gifts. I decided to work on salt dough ornaments this year with the kids.The recipe was really easy:
2cups all purpose flour
1cup salt
3/4 cup water ( I ended up using almost a cup)
Mix flour and salt together. Add water slowly. Mix until if makes a dough mixture. Make your ornaments. Bake in oven for 20mins at 200degrees. Really simply and really fun. The kids had a fun time. we did some for our tree and for all of the grandparents trees.
Another of my favorite memories is putting up the Christmas tree with my family and being able to look at all of the ornaments and knowing the story that was attached to each one. My favorite always has been my dad's ornament. It was always the last to go on the tree and my dad was always the one to put it on. I'm hoping to instill something like that in my children.
Now for the fun part. Every year the teachers at school would send home little ornaments with us kids to go on the tree. Mom looked forward to it every year. We homeschool so I am now the teacher in charge of all those cool gifts. I decided to work on salt dough ornaments this year with the kids.The recipe was really easy:
2cups all purpose flour
1cup salt
3/4 cup water ( I ended up using almost a cup)
Mix flour and salt together. Add water slowly. Mix until if makes a dough mixture. Make your ornaments. Bake in oven for 20mins at 200degrees. Really simply and really fun. The kids had a fun time. we did some for our tree and for all of the grandparents trees.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
A Day Off
Many times when I say I have a day off, it simply means I'm not working at walmart that day. I know this is true for most moms. There is always the laundry, dishes, bathroom that needs cleaned. Not to mention the errands that need run. So much to do in our busy lives how many of us actually do take a day off.
Mostly my days off are relaxing to me though. I get to work on stuff that I enjoy and that brings me joy. How many people can say that. I would do this all of the time if it would pay the bills, but alas I shall keep working at walmart to pay the bills and doing this in my spare time.
So what exactly did I do today. Well to start I ran over to a friend's house to grab her picker and some gates that she no longer needed. Then off to the bank and a quick trip to the post office to check on a package. Back to the farm and get started on barn stuff after a quick lunch.
In the barn we started with regular chores. That involved trying to find a lamb's mom. Poor little guy had been running around all day yesterday and we couldn't tell who his momma was. This part actually just involves a lot of sitting and watching. Still can't find momma. Well we'll give it a couple more hours. Keep going with chores.
Now it's time for shearing. We decided to try to get 8 to 10 sheep shorn every week. Not that outrageous of a goal, but it takes time. Started setting up for shearing and getting all the stuff together. We got 12 done today so not that bad of a day. Even marked a couple fleeces to take a look at later for Maryland Sheep and Wool show. While shearing I was still watching the lamb to find momma and she did finally come up and claim her lamb. I got them moved into one of the lambing pens and made sure she had hay, water, and a feeder for corn tomorrow.
After shearing we came inside and I got to play around with the picker. That nifty thing makes quick work of a fleece. I much prefer it to picking by hand. Then after picking up the kids from grandma's house it was back out to the barn. A fire was started to burn trash(had to be watched), and I started pitching manure in the only empty lamb pen. My goal is to get them all cleaned within the next 3 weeks. We'll see how it goes.
Mostly my days off are relaxing to me though. I get to work on stuff that I enjoy and that brings me joy. How many people can say that. I would do this all of the time if it would pay the bills, but alas I shall keep working at walmart to pay the bills and doing this in my spare time.
So what exactly did I do today. Well to start I ran over to a friend's house to grab her picker and some gates that she no longer needed. Then off to the bank and a quick trip to the post office to check on a package. Back to the farm and get started on barn stuff after a quick lunch.
In the barn we started with regular chores. That involved trying to find a lamb's mom. Poor little guy had been running around all day yesterday and we couldn't tell who his momma was. This part actually just involves a lot of sitting and watching. Still can't find momma. Well we'll give it a couple more hours. Keep going with chores.
Now it's time for shearing. We decided to try to get 8 to 10 sheep shorn every week. Not that outrageous of a goal, but it takes time. Started setting up for shearing and getting all the stuff together. We got 12 done today so not that bad of a day. Even marked a couple fleeces to take a look at later for Maryland Sheep and Wool show. While shearing I was still watching the lamb to find momma and she did finally come up and claim her lamb. I got them moved into one of the lambing pens and made sure she had hay, water, and a feeder for corn tomorrow.
After shearing we came inside and I got to play around with the picker. That nifty thing makes quick work of a fleece. I much prefer it to picking by hand. Then after picking up the kids from grandma's house it was back out to the barn. A fire was started to burn trash(had to be watched), and I started pitching manure in the only empty lamb pen. My goal is to get them all cleaned within the next 3 weeks. We'll see how it goes.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Fleece, Fleece Everywhere
As a side effect of being a spinner and a shepherd, I have a lot of fleeces. By a lot, I mean A LOT. I can not begin to describe the number and quality of fleeces I go through each year. Lets face it some of the fleeces I see are nothing but junk. I simply open the bag wrinkle my nose and ship them out. Maybe I am a little to particular, but after 11 years of spinning and fiber handling and putting my hands into literally thousands of fleeces, I think I have every right to be. It takes a special fleece to make me jump up and down.
This was once again brought to my attention today as we were cleaning the barn for the straw to come in. There is a method to the madness in my sorting system. The fleeces that are first up to wash or that are particularly nice go to the house. The next best fleeces ( the ones that I don't want washed RIGHT now or that I haven't skirted yet) go out to the camper. Yes you read that right I use a camping trailer to house fleeces. The last batch are the" these are in my way and I don't know what I want to do with them yet" group. Yes this is a group and it's the largest group by far. I once again encountered this group today while cleaning the barn. This group unfortunately seems to get moved around quite a bit and eventually finds their true home. This is usually when I'm in a hurry and don't have much time to think about it. Once again my procrastinators nature at work.
This was once again brought to my attention today as we were cleaning the barn for the straw to come in. There is a method to the madness in my sorting system. The fleeces that are first up to wash or that are particularly nice go to the house. The next best fleeces ( the ones that I don't want washed RIGHT now or that I haven't skirted yet) go out to the camper. Yes you read that right I use a camping trailer to house fleeces. The last batch are the" these are in my way and I don't know what I want to do with them yet" group. Yes this is a group and it's the largest group by far. I once again encountered this group today while cleaning the barn. This group unfortunately seems to get moved around quite a bit and eventually finds their true home. This is usually when I'm in a hurry and don't have much time to think about it. Once again my procrastinators nature at work.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Wool Shows
Well May was a very busy month. Out of 4 weekends we had wool shows three of them. Well I guess technically two, but we always go to Maryland Sheep and Wool.
I have learned somethings by attending that many shows that quickly. First off some work and some don't. One show that I vended at was my first year and most likely my last year there. It was a very nice show, run by very nice people. The problem comes that I also have to realistically look at the bottom line. I didn't make money at it. Not even a little bit.
Secondly I tend to over clutter some of my space. I like to offer people a variety that is accessible. Basically I don't braid or bag all of our rovings because I want to be able to offer the occasional felter that 1 or 2 oz batch that they need. I think this tactic helps my business and perhaps at times hurts it. I have found the use of signs to be a necessity. People seem to be able to understand a properly worded sign and they like not having to ask.
Third, I do need to bag up smaller quantities for customers. At Great Lakes wool show I had some individual baggies of dyed locks done up and people seemed to love them. I had thought that leaving them loose and giving the customer the option to pick their colors would work, but a lot of them seem to be okay with the random baggies I throw together.
Overall we had fun and can't wait until the next one.
I have learned somethings by attending that many shows that quickly. First off some work and some don't. One show that I vended at was my first year and most likely my last year there. It was a very nice show, run by very nice people. The problem comes that I also have to realistically look at the bottom line. I didn't make money at it. Not even a little bit.
Secondly I tend to over clutter some of my space. I like to offer people a variety that is accessible. Basically I don't braid or bag all of our rovings because I want to be able to offer the occasional felter that 1 or 2 oz batch that they need. I think this tactic helps my business and perhaps at times hurts it. I have found the use of signs to be a necessity. People seem to be able to understand a properly worded sign and they like not having to ask.
Third, I do need to bag up smaller quantities for customers. At Great Lakes wool show I had some individual baggies of dyed locks done up and people seemed to love them. I had thought that leaving them loose and giving the customer the option to pick their colors would work, but a lot of them seem to be okay with the random baggies I throw together.
Overall we had fun and can't wait until the next one.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sacrificial Love
I saw this term on a church board on the way to drop the kiddos off at Grandma's house this morning. The exact message was " Thank You Mothers everywhere for your sacrificial love". This seems like such an odd statement to me. I don't consider being a mother a sacrifice. Yes there are times I miss certain aspects of my life BC(before children). I think of those times and then of my kids. I think my kids bring so much more joy to my life and fill it more than any of those things I might temporarily miss.
After having children I do have a deep respect for other mothers and all that we go through. Seems odd to me that this joy would be considered a sacrifice.
As a late post a big Thank You to all the moms out there, and I hope each of you had a wonderful day yesterday.
Question: Do you consider being a mom a sacrifice?
After having children I do have a deep respect for other mothers and all that we go through. Seems odd to me that this joy would be considered a sacrifice.
As a late post a big Thank You to all the moms out there, and I hope each of you had a wonderful day yesterday.
Question: Do you consider being a mom a sacrifice?
Saturday, May 12, 2012
I admittedly am not the most social person. In fact I'm probably one of the least social people you'll ever meet. I am the perpetual wall flower, the loner, the shy one. I have been this way my entire life. I remember as a child shying away from anything where I had to be in a group of people.
This social shyness in itself is not an odd thing. I have met many people who are shy and slightly introverted. I usually become friends with them easily. What makes this odd is that I am from a large family. I mean a LARGE family. I also scored high on leadership test in high school.
I think my problem is I always feel like the 3rd wheel. I never truly know how to behave in any "normal" social situation. If I'm around animal people or fiber artist, I generally tend to be okay. If you put my in a wedding, church gathering or some other appropriate societal function I become all clammed up and have no idea what to do. I would rather retreat into a corner and watch the happenings.
This social shyness in itself is not an odd thing. I have met many people who are shy and slightly introverted. I usually become friends with them easily. What makes this odd is that I am from a large family. I mean a LARGE family. I also scored high on leadership test in high school.
I think my problem is I always feel like the 3rd wheel. I never truly know how to behave in any "normal" social situation. If I'm around animal people or fiber artist, I generally tend to be okay. If you put my in a wedding, church gathering or some other appropriate societal function I become all clammed up and have no idea what to do. I would rather retreat into a corner and watch the happenings.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Breeding sheep for Fleece Quality
Many years ago my husband and I were talking and he asked me. "If you could raise just one breed of sheep, what would it be?"
What only be able to have one breed of sheep. What a drastically awful idea. I don't think I could bare it. Right now I am working with at least 3 different breeds and crosses of them. You see the problem here is that I am a spinner and I'm not really a spinner who goes looking for a certain type of sheep. I want a certain type of fleece. I love a good long staple with a good bit of crimp and lots of luster. I also want it to be soft.
We started with Lincolns and Border Leicesters. They were both very nice breeds with the beginning fleece qualities that I like. We had tried some Romney, but I didn't really like the fleece quality that came out. The fleeces just weren't talking to me. Those of you who are spinners and dealt with raw wool know what I am talking about. LOL.
The Lincolns and Border Leicesters were doing a good job. Then I read about the Bluefaced Leicester and their fleece qualities. This brought about intrigue. I liked this idea. A longwool that had the possibility to be worn next to the skin. We did get a Bluefaced Leicester ram and have used him the last 3 yrs. I am very impressed with the quality of wool that we are getting and hope to only improve from here. This year we are going to be using the Border Leicester ram again over most of the ewes. I am hoping to use the new Lincoln ram over the Lincoln ewes.
What only be able to have one breed of sheep. What a drastically awful idea. I don't think I could bare it. Right now I am working with at least 3 different breeds and crosses of them. You see the problem here is that I am a spinner and I'm not really a spinner who goes looking for a certain type of sheep. I want a certain type of fleece. I love a good long staple with a good bit of crimp and lots of luster. I also want it to be soft.
We started with Lincolns and Border Leicesters. They were both very nice breeds with the beginning fleece qualities that I like. We had tried some Romney, but I didn't really like the fleece quality that came out. The fleeces just weren't talking to me. Those of you who are spinners and dealt with raw wool know what I am talking about. LOL.
The Lincolns and Border Leicesters were doing a good job. Then I read about the Bluefaced Leicester and their fleece qualities. This brought about intrigue. I liked this idea. A longwool that had the possibility to be worn next to the skin. We did get a Bluefaced Leicester ram and have used him the last 3 yrs. I am very impressed with the quality of wool that we are getting and hope to only improve from here. This year we are going to be using the Border Leicester ram again over most of the ewes. I am hoping to use the new Lincoln ram over the Lincoln ewes.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
What dreams may come
I have almost always been an artsy type. It' started with my mom years ago. She started early to teach me to embroider and also to crochet. My dream job when I was younger revolved around horses and raising them. As a teenager I wanted to be a vet. I guess I just always knew I would be around animals.
Now as an adult I have let the artsy side of me come out. Not only do I crochet, but I've also learned to spin and knit. I do some needle felting and have on occasion used a triangle loom. I will leave color combinations to my husband though as he is much better at putting colors together.
I have found a world I am happy in and would like to enjoy more. We have been running the wool business out of a house for a few years now. In the last few months I have been having the dream of starting a shop as in an actual brick and mortar store front. I would love to do this full time.
My dream involves a co-op of sorts with locally produced goods. Items made and/or produced locally by artisans. This would include everything from raw wool, honey, handspun yarn, hand knit and/or crocheted items. I'm sure the list could be so much larger, but as you could probably guess my mind tends to concentrate on items that I am most interested in.
At this point it is just that a dream, but my hope is one day for this dream to come true.
Now as an adult I have let the artsy side of me come out. Not only do I crochet, but I've also learned to spin and knit. I do some needle felting and have on occasion used a triangle loom. I will leave color combinations to my husband though as he is much better at putting colors together.
I have found a world I am happy in and would like to enjoy more. We have been running the wool business out of a house for a few years now. In the last few months I have been having the dream of starting a shop as in an actual brick and mortar store front. I would love to do this full time.
My dream involves a co-op of sorts with locally produced goods. Items made and/or produced locally by artisans. This would include everything from raw wool, honey, handspun yarn, hand knit and/or crocheted items. I'm sure the list could be so much larger, but as you could probably guess my mind tends to concentrate on items that I am most interested in.
At this point it is just that a dream, but my hope is one day for this dream to come true.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Alliance Women's Fiber Fest
Well this was our first show of the season and it proved to be so in every way. I realized that the truck is more necessary in this venture than I realized. We did get everything there and back, but it two loads there and luckily we got it all to fit in one load back.
My husband has a very artistic eye. This should really come as no surprise to. I have used his eye many times in my crochet and to put rovings together. I had him working on labels and price tags the night before the show.( I will admit I am the perpetual procrastinator. ) He did such an awesome job and even added some extras.
I need more little baskets( and big ones too). This seems to be a never ending problem. I am constantly putting things in baskets and never seem to have enough of them. I find the baskets useful. I put the roving into them loose so that people have a chance to touch and feel them.
The rack is wonderful and very useful. I was in love with the rack the minute I saw it and have fallen in love with it even more over this past weekend. I finally figured out how to get the legs off of it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was one of those things were you had to be smarter than the machine. I set it up and only found one fault with it which wasn't exactly a fault. A friend had some baskets attached to her racks and now I would like some to put on.
It was a rather slow show and we ended up selling more stuff to other vendors than to visitors. Our big sellers came from leftovers of an auction buy. We had some books that had water damage and some cable needles that I just don't need right now. We were selling them at discount prices and if it wasn't for them I would've been really worried about the booth fee. I had 3 bigger sales of the day and luckily these made our day. When I did the final tally for the day I was extremely happy to see that we had actually made more than last year.
a picture of our booth.
My husband has a very artistic eye. This should really come as no surprise to. I have used his eye many times in my crochet and to put rovings together. I had him working on labels and price tags the night before the show.( I will admit I am the perpetual procrastinator. ) He did such an awesome job and even added some extras.
I need more little baskets( and big ones too). This seems to be a never ending problem. I am constantly putting things in baskets and never seem to have enough of them. I find the baskets useful. I put the roving into them loose so that people have a chance to touch and feel them.
The rack is wonderful and very useful. I was in love with the rack the minute I saw it and have fallen in love with it even more over this past weekend. I finally figured out how to get the legs off of it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was one of those things were you had to be smarter than the machine. I set it up and only found one fault with it which wasn't exactly a fault. A friend had some baskets attached to her racks and now I would like some to put on.
It was a rather slow show and we ended up selling more stuff to other vendors than to visitors. Our big sellers came from leftovers of an auction buy. We had some books that had water damage and some cable needles that I just don't need right now. We were selling them at discount prices and if it wasn't for them I would've been really worried about the booth fee. I had 3 bigger sales of the day and luckily these made our day. When I did the final tally for the day I was extremely happy to see that we had actually made more than last year.
a picture of our booth.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Updates
Ok so I've been really bad at this lately. I'll admit it. I get busy and forget to post stuff.
At home: My grandpa passed away this week so that involved a quick trip out to Iowa. Which involved a rental car and 3 days in it with my sister and 2 little girls. It was good to see family that I haven't seen in forever again. I just wish that I wasn't seeing them at a funeral and we could all get together more often. My mother's family is thrown to the end of the earth almost literally. They live all over the country. I used the occasion to get pictures of all of them together and the separate family groups. My mom also used this time to get a group picture of her 6 kids. This is the first time we have all been together in a little over 5 years. I have to get the pictures off my camera yet and see if editing is needed and then create a file and send it out to everyone. May start on that this afternoon.
On the farm: Lambing is coming along at a slower rate than I would like. We had a nice spurt there for a little while and now we are only having 2 or 3 ewes lamb a week. The older lambs are looking good and I'm happy with the fiber coming in on the fiber lambs. We started out with a string of ewe lambs and are now running into a string of ram lambs. Mostly 3/4 BFL.
In the shop: I had ordered some top from an etsy shop. Loved spinning it. It just seemed to glide onto the wheel. I wanted to navajo ply it, because it had a wonderful colorway that I didn't want to muddy up with a 2 ply. I needed to work on my navajo ply techniques. I finally felt comfortable the other night and pulled it out and went to work on it. The ply came out better than I had ever anticipated. Watching the youtube videos really did seem to help.
We have our first show of the season coming up this week. I can't wait for it. Of course right now I'm in a little of a panic mood. Trying to think if I've got everything. Hoping for a good show with a good turnout.
At home: My grandpa passed away this week so that involved a quick trip out to Iowa. Which involved a rental car and 3 days in it with my sister and 2 little girls. It was good to see family that I haven't seen in forever again. I just wish that I wasn't seeing them at a funeral and we could all get together more often. My mother's family is thrown to the end of the earth almost literally. They live all over the country. I used the occasion to get pictures of all of them together and the separate family groups. My mom also used this time to get a group picture of her 6 kids. This is the first time we have all been together in a little over 5 years. I have to get the pictures off my camera yet and see if editing is needed and then create a file and send it out to everyone. May start on that this afternoon.
On the farm: Lambing is coming along at a slower rate than I would like. We had a nice spurt there for a little while and now we are only having 2 or 3 ewes lamb a week. The older lambs are looking good and I'm happy with the fiber coming in on the fiber lambs. We started out with a string of ewe lambs and are now running into a string of ram lambs. Mostly 3/4 BFL.
In the shop: I had ordered some top from an etsy shop. Loved spinning it. It just seemed to glide onto the wheel. I wanted to navajo ply it, because it had a wonderful colorway that I didn't want to muddy up with a 2 ply. I needed to work on my navajo ply techniques. I finally felt comfortable the other night and pulled it out and went to work on it. The ply came out better than I had ever anticipated. Watching the youtube videos really did seem to help.
We have our first show of the season coming up this week. I can't wait for it. Of course right now I'm in a little of a panic mood. Trying to think if I've got everything. Hoping for a good show with a good turnout.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Baby lambs on the ground
We are coming into my favorite time of year. I love lambing/kidding season. It's kind of like all of the work in the fall of putting the rams with the ewes or picking just the right buck for the right doe, all come down to this. The fruits of the labor. We have started having the wool lambs.
For those of you who don't know the sheep flock is in essence split into two different categories. We have the wool ewes who produce the fiber and hopefully new fiber lambs. :-) And then we have the meat ewes who's lambs are simply used for sale for meat purposes. While I like watching the new meat lambs being born. I love when the wool ewes start having lambs. It's like Christmas morning.
We are having a heavy ewe lamb year which makes it a little difficult because we can't keep them all. There are some very promising lambs out there already, but now comes another waiting period to see who turns out and who doesn't.
And now I leave you with lambie pictures:-)
a 3/4 bluefaced ewe lamb
some 1/2 bluefaced leicester/ 1/2 lincoln ewe lambs
For those of you who don't know the sheep flock is in essence split into two different categories. We have the wool ewes who produce the fiber and hopefully new fiber lambs. :-) And then we have the meat ewes who's lambs are simply used for sale for meat purposes. While I like watching the new meat lambs being born. I love when the wool ewes start having lambs. It's like Christmas morning.
We are having a heavy ewe lamb year which makes it a little difficult because we can't keep them all. There are some very promising lambs out there already, but now comes another waiting period to see who turns out and who doesn't.
And now I leave you with lambie pictures:-)
a 3/4 bluefaced ewe lamb
Friday, January 6, 2012
The Shawl and other notes
I got 2 skeins spun up for the triangle shawl I am knitting so decided to go ahead and start it. My hands were getting really itchy. So far the shawl is coming along great. I don't think there are to many if any mistakes in it. It is a really easy shawl pattern though. Here is the pattern. It seems to be angling quicker than what I had expected. I'm not sure if this is correct as this is my first project. I'm hoping it evens out as I keep knitting or after I block.
I still have the icelandic/alpaca blend on the wheel right now, but will be switching back to the BFL after the next skien. I am hoping to get a hat out of this icelandic/alpaca yarn as well. Then I'm going to turn my artistic husband loose with the dyes on some white yarn to get a painted look. If it comes out okay I may just break out my triangle loom and work up a shawl on it. It's only a 3ft loom so will take a couple of passes to get a shawl.
I have a couple of days off of my daytime job coming up and don't you know they are already filled with things to do. Just my luck right now real vacation. Two of those days involve wool stuff though so not to much to complain about. We need to get the ewes and lambs shorn and then we're going to start going through fleeces up in the wool room. This could be a good thing or bad thing. I will hopefully be able to get some raw fleeces up for sale after that. We were talking the other day and realized that we had only sold a handful of raw fleeces and I had not advertised them at all. We still had a really good year all told last year and hope to get to a couple more shows this year.
Here are some picture of the shawl in progress. Please excuse the quality, these were taken with my cell phone.
the shawl in progress
I still have the icelandic/alpaca blend on the wheel right now, but will be switching back to the BFL after the next skien. I am hoping to get a hat out of this icelandic/alpaca yarn as well. Then I'm going to turn my artistic husband loose with the dyes on some white yarn to get a painted look. If it comes out okay I may just break out my triangle loom and work up a shawl on it. It's only a 3ft loom so will take a couple of passes to get a shawl.
I have a couple of days off of my daytime job coming up and don't you know they are already filled with things to do. Just my luck right now real vacation. Two of those days involve wool stuff though so not to much to complain about. We need to get the ewes and lambs shorn and then we're going to start going through fleeces up in the wool room. This could be a good thing or bad thing. I will hopefully be able to get some raw fleeces up for sale after that. We were talking the other day and realized that we had only sold a handful of raw fleeces and I had not advertised them at all. We still had a really good year all told last year and hope to get to a couple more shows this year.
Here are some picture of the shawl in progress. Please excuse the quality, these were taken with my cell phone.
the shawl in progress
the yarn in a single ply on the wheel
the yarn in 2ply on the wheel.
the yarn 2 plied and skeined on the niddy noddy.waiting for a wash.
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