Woolen Mill Anyone?

Heads up everyone, there is a complete Wool Milling set up offered at auction this Saturday, August 4th, west of Cambridge, MN.
Details are here:
http://www.strombergauctioneering.com/index.php?subp=1&sct=1566&pg=ap&pid=28318&ap_sub=fp

I went to check it out with my friend Deb the other day. It's HUGE and heavy.  Requires a 32' x 48' building.

There's the carder, circa 1918...

And the picker...along with a convertor and two big bins.  One for feeding the fiber into the picker and one for feeding the picked fiber into the carder.  Shown with a batt roller, but it comes with a roving attachment too.

Shetland Sheep for sale!

Heddy and her horned ram lamb

I've finally got my 2012 sales list posted on the Stock for Sale page -- complete with up-to-date photos!  I spent yesterday taking photos of the sheep, before separating the ewes from the lambs.
Needless to say, last night was a noisy one around here. :-)

Rita and her twin gulmoget crossbred lambs

In order to reduce work and stress levels around here, I've decided that I should just retain a fiber flock in the future. So almost all my Shetlands are listed on the sales page. I'd like to keep Camille and Hattie, but even they could go to the right home.

I plan to keep all four of the Bluefaced Leicesters and the crossbred gulmoget ewe lamb. I'm very tempted to wether all the crossbred ram lambs and keep them for their fabulous fiber. But if someone wants to use them for breeding, I'd hate to eliminate that possibility.

Please check the sales page and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Camille, Godiva and Mia heading out of the barn with Goldie in the back

The nine orphan chicks are down to six, but they are really growing up fast.  The boys are starting to crow already.

In other news, I got three new bobbins specially made for the antique spinning wheel I purchased in early June.  Special thanks to Russ Johnson for getting them done so quickly.  I've been spinning up some yarn and that wheel spins like a dream!

Nunofelt Top

I got a chance to make a little nunofelt top the other day.

I want to make a dress, but thought it would be best to start off with something smaller (and sleeveless).  You can see the resist I used behind the top -- and Tippee on the right.
I used 5mm habotai silk and my BFL/tencel batting.  I had my BFL fiber blended with tencel and made into 45" x 72" batts weighing 2 lbs each. I split the layers of batting down until they can be split no farther.  The less wool the silkier the fabric will be. (Next time I'm going to try two layers of silk with the wool sandwiched in between.)
To make this, I took a sleeveless top that fit well.  I folded it in half lengthwise and drew around it in pencil on newsprint. I cut that out and then I used the shrinkage rate of my fiber to enlarge the pattern in all directions on foam underlayment.  The shrinkare rate was 50% in this case, you need to make a sample first because different fibers and fabrics will shrink down differently.

I had planned to dip-dye the top, but now I'm thinking of trying some eco dyeing like Terrie did on her lovely felted purse in this blog post.

I've decided to sell all but two of my Shetlands, so I need to get the lambs wormed and vaccinated, take photos, etc. Not to mention I need to spray the thistles in the pasture, clean out the chicken barn, and as the photo above clearly shows, I need to get that 1980s wallpaper out of my kitchen! The weather is tolerable today, but when you get the felting bug, it's hard to quit thinking about it.

Here is a mystery fleece that I raw felted last week. It's coarse and it is going to be a rug.  It's a beautiful color, I would call it mioget if the sheep was a Shetland. The gal who gave it me thought it was from a Jacob sheep, but I'm wondering if it was an Icelandic.

My youngest son, Matt, did a fabulous job on the Kanabec Art Association's 50th anniversary video.  As part of a grant project, I was privileged to interview 17 members of the association while Matt filmed.  We worked together with editing it all down to a 50 minute video, but Matt did all the technical stuff.  The video was a big hit at the retrospective art show on July 13 & 14.  He's put the finishing touches on it now by adding music supplied by my friend Denise and chapter links, etc.   I'm so proud of him, and glad to see that college tuition was actually a good investment!

Raw Felted Fleeces

River Oaks Mystery's lamb fleece is long and silky and VERY soft.  44" x 40"

The heat wave finally let up and I was able to get outside and do a raw felted fleece last night.  This fleece is from River Oaks Mystery, she's out of River Oaks Camille and Sommarang Hansel. I wasn't sure if she was Ag Gulmoget or not.  I sold her to an old friend last summer with the agreement that I would get her fleece. Well, here it is and she definitely wasn't Ag. I would love to have her back in my flock!

This is River Oaks Mia's lamb fleece felted into a lap blanket. It is very soft and shorter than Mystery's. 38" x 36"

Mia before shearing.  Next year COATS are a must!

My Shetland Mule wether Socks before shearing.

Socks' fleece felted into a couch throw. He's got a lot of fleece, this one measures 60" x 29"

 I know many people make these for use as rugs and they felt them down very hard so only a few locks remain. But I keep mine soft to be used as couch throws/lap blankets. I spend all year drooling over the beautiful fleeces in my flock and this way I can enjoy them in the house too.
I've got three more HUGE Border Leicester/Cormo cross fleeces to make into blankets and one coarser fleece to make into a rug. Now is the time to get them done. They are too messy to do indoors.

Quick Catch Up Post

 Sorry I haven't kept up with the blog.  It seems there's always so much to do around here.

Leta and her ram lamb born on June 7th.  Another yearling BFL who is an excellent mom!

Sheep News_ 
Lambing Done- 12 lambs born, 7 ewe lambs, 5 ram lambs.  Two Shetland rams are for sale, see the sales page for photos of them in their younger days.  They are both friendly, with fine, crimpy moorit fleece.  One polled gulmoget.  The other is horned, very solid, good horns.  I want them to go to good homes, will entertain offers.  Also have three crossbred ram lambs if anyone is interested in using one for breeding or fiber.  All the ram lambs are very sweet-natured and friendly like their sire was.

I'm still trying to decide about the ewe lambs, which include a beautiful solid black gulmoget, two emsket gulmogets, an AG grey gulmoget with exceptionally soft fleece, a beautiful musket, and an English Blue/gulmoget crossbred (BFL/Shetland).
I'm so glad lambing is over.  I'm reconsidering if I should breed any ewes next year.  I am not in the market for a ram, but I may consider leasing one or using the UK BFL semen I invested in a couple years ago.  My yearling BFL ewes were excellent moms.  I'm so impressed with them!

Weather News-  very hot and humid here. Supposed to be in the 90's for the next 4 days. Sheep are not happy in hot weather.
Had a big willow tree come down on the corner of my house in a storm last week (while I was at the vet's office with the Ag grey gulmoget ewe lamb).  Lots of work cleaning up. No insurance reimbursement. The insurance guy says my other willow must be cut down too, because it's leaning over with sod ripped up.  If it falls on the pole barn they won't cover the damages.  Dang, those insurance companies!

Poultry News-  A fox got two of my Buff Chantecler hens and something else killed three of the orphaned chicks -- all within just 8 days.  I have six adult chickens and six chicks left.  The last remaining Buff Chantecler hen just went broody again.

I got six nice young ducks at the weekly auction in early June.  Two Saxony ducks, one Blue Swedish duck, and the other three are drakes. I just love ducks!  Hopefully they will get to spend their days down on the pond later this summer.  I'm just too worried about that fox to let them out now.

Memorial Day- 
I decided it was time to spread Stan's ashes and plant the Blue Spruce I received at his funeral.

The boys and I sprinkled ashes over the white pines Stan planted on the east border of our pasture a couple years ago, and some over on our 40 acres in Ogilvie.
The Blue Spruce went to the "ranch", where Stan spent so much time with his best friend Dick.  Dick and his wife Kate had prepared a special spot for it. Now whenever we drive by we will be able to see that tree.

Stan's best friend Dick on the right and his wife Kate on the left with my boys.

We sprinkled Stan's ashes under his favorite deer stand and Dick brought some up in the stand too.  It was my first time seeing Stan's deer stand at the ranch. I was never interested in deer hunting myself. But once there, I could see why Stan loved it so much.  Dick and Kate were/are very special friends.

Spinning Wheel Find and another Felted Vessel

I went out to garage sales and plant sales this weekend with my oldest son, Alex. (The youngest was in South Carolina all last week for a wedding.  He had a great time, got to swim in the ocean and even got to go para-sailing -- glad I didn't know about that ahead of time.)

I came across this little double drive saxony wheel at one of the sales.  It was very reasonably priced, but it didn't have a drive band installed, so I couldn't really test it out much. The single treadle worked well and I could see the bobbin was broken. I made an offer an brought it home, much to the chagrin of Alex  -- some people just don't understand the need for multiple wheels or the excitement of finding a spinning wheel in the wild.  There is nothing but the initials O.T.S. on the bottom.  I wonder how old it is.

When we finally got home and I installed a drive band, I found that the double drive doesn't work with that broken bobbin, so I improvised a scotch tension string and spun up two ounces of BFL yarn on it.  I oiled it, tweaked it, and used the little wooden peg to stabilize the mother-of-all.  It spun really nicely!  I'm not used to single treadle wheels, but this was pretty easy for me.  I spun one bobbin full and then made a center pull ball and plied it. Plying was a little more difficult with my makeshift scotch tension, but I did a reasonable job.

I left the broken bobbin at the Fiber Co-Op, hoping that Winnie's husnband, Russ Johnson can make me two or three new bobbins. Then I will be able to use the double drive. Yeah! :-)

I worked at the fiber co-op yesterday.  It was a hot day and not many customers came in, so I got started on making another vessel.  I hope to make a cover for it today.  This one is made of Gotland fiber (from Louet), BFL fiber (from my flock) and a BFL/Gotland cross fiber from Judy Colvin's flock.  The cool thing is that I make my birdhouses with the same template I make these small vessels.  Felting is so versatile!

Next post, photos of Leta's ram lamb and my new DUCKS!

RIP Mama Hen

My best Buff Chantecler broody hen disappeared without a trace on Friday afternoon.  Her nine 2-week old baby chicks alerted me to the fact that she was gone. There was no sign of attack, except for possibly two little downy feathers, so I'm pretty sure it was a fox.  My neighbor saw a fox that afternoon.  I was gone working my part time job.

She did such a good job with all her babies, she went broody three times last year.  She taught all her chicks how to get up the steps into the barn and to take cover when the big birds flew overhead.  The chicks are getting along pretty well without her, but the first two days they were so lost and chirping for her constantly.

She died doing what she was meant to do, protecting her chicks. She could get pretty ferocious after her chicks hatched out.  A life well lived, but too short.