Friday/sheepday

We had a last blast of winter weather this week, which has a way of throwing the best laid plans out of whack.  Wednesday, we cancelled classes at the shop.  Thursday, school districts around Minnesota had a snow day and the shop was closed.  The snowstorm included snow, sleet, peppered with lightning and thunder.   Friday, the weather was a little warmer and snowy.  Mary and I were able to adventure out as planned to help while the shearer was at her son and daughter-in-law's farm.  They have a small flock of Icelandic sheep.  Molly was the first to lamb, so we got to cuddle the twins.  They are sporting black and white spots, which will be beautiful fleeces as the lambs mature.  The shearer would shear a sheep and our job was to bag the fleece and then sweep the mat for the next sheep.  An autumn shearing is typically better than a spring shearing, so it will be fun to see the lambs in a few months.  The other ewes were about ready to pop.  B and A will be busy with lambing soon.

Last to be sheared, Marshmallow, was the largest in the flock.  

After the shearing was finished we had some last cuddles with the twin lambs before heading home.  

Speaking of fleeces, Mary has a cardigan (for her son) in progress with last year's fleeces from the flock.  After Mary washed the fleeces, Deb Peterson of Ewespun Fiber Mill at Old Man Wool Farm, processed them into clouds.  With her handspinning, Mary mimicked the characteristics of bulky Lopi yarn.  She attached some sample Lopi yarn to an index card and then proceeded to spin samples.  It took a bit of time and in the end she managed to spin light and lofty singles, which she plied together.  The result was just beautiful and she duplicated the same yardage and weight of a skein of Alafoss Lopi (100 g/3.5 oz approximately 100 m/109 yds.  The main color is a rich brown and the stranded colorwork is black and white.

Mary has progressed quite a bit since this photo was taken.  She is now ready to knit the sleeves.   Instead of a zipper, she will add front bands and buttons.

Adventures in Scotland, the wool and whiskey tour, day 2

Day two I was feeling much better and after a nice breakfast and visit with the proprietors of the  B&B, we set off toward Inverness.  It was a beautiful drive into the Highlands and there were sheep and coos along the way.

Small spring flowers were blooming and during the trip we saw lots of daffodils in bloom.

Watching over the garden at Laurel Villa.

Laurel Villa was a nice place to stay.  The breakfast room is on the right.  

Before the sheep encounter, we met some Highland coos.

There is snow in the Highlands ahead!

This was a good place to stop and observe a large flock of sheep.

The sheep posed nicely for the camera.

What can I say?  That's a good-looking sheep.

On the winding roads, this sign was a good heads up.

Sheep crossing!

The fun of driving ourselves is to make unexpected stops along the journey.  One stop was to see the Falls of Bruar, which is part of the Cairngorms National Park in Highland Perthshire.

Between the raindrops the reflections were interesting, reminding me of Gollum, Frodo, and Sam in the Dead Marshes...don't look!

This place had a magical look.

There's something to be said for planting trees!

It was fun to wander around the rocks, bridge and falls.

I liked the tunnel, also.

The water is the same root beer color as the falls we saw on a hike last summer up north.

The last two photos are what I like to use as color inspiration for future projects. Some of the students I've had over the years find choosing colors difficult.  All one has to do is look around for inspiration.

On the way toward Inverness, we took a break and I visited the Hairy Coo Shop.  The sculpture caught my eye and inside were lots of locally made goods.  I purchased sheep and coo brooches.

We happened upon our first distillery that was open. Dalwhinnie distillery is in a lovely setting and it was a good place to stretch our legs, tour, and taste some whiskey with chocolate truffles.

Fiber, knitting, and a little Shepherd's Harvest

May has been a busy month.  A few weeks ago was Shepherd's Harvest Festival.  This year it was cold and a bit rainy, but that just gave me an excuse to bundle up and wear woollies.  On Friday, Linda taught the felted sheep rug class.  I was prepared to stomp around in a baby pool, but the weather was far too cold for that.  We worked by hand instead.  It took time and muscle, but the results were delightfully sheepy.  I was particularly happy the locks I placed around the sheep and at the forehead felted maintaining their curl.

Linda had the prefect heads finished.  We made our eyes and lightly needle felted them on the faces.  To the left is my wool spread out in the ring ready to felt.

I see you!

On Saturday morning I demonstrated top whorl drop spindle spinning.  It is always fun to meet new people and see familiar faces.  There were lots of folks wanting to learn how to spin.  After spinning, I walked around to check out the vendors.  I stopped at the Anoka Fiber Works area and Kathryn told me about some very nice Shetland laceweight yarn from Sandy's Palette.  I bought two light and two dark skeins.  I am going to use one or both colors for a hap from The Book of Haps by Kate Davies.  

My favorite thing to do at Shepherd's Harvest is to visit the sheep barn.  It was early enough to see some of the sheep before shearing.  I picked up my Jacob fleece from Marcia.  She contacted me before the festival for ChiChi's fleece.  This year Marcia brought along a few sheep from her flock.  ChiChi was not there.  She likes to hide under the llama, making her difficult to catch.  The fleece was slightly smaller than last year's at just over two pounds.  

Pictured below are a few of the sheep that were in the barn...baaa, we're ready for our closeup.

The Jacob sheep were freshly sheared. 

When I got home I readied the fleece for scouring by separating the dark and light sections.  Like having a new box of crayons, I always dumped the box of 64 and arranged them chromatically.  ChiChi's fleece is a lovely grayscale.    

I have about equal amounts of black and grays with most of it being white.  Marcia does a good job of skirting, so very little veggie matter or dirty bits.  

Below are the goodies I bought at Shepherd's Harvest.  I just took more time to enjoy looking and visiting than purchasing.  

Oh my, look at the lovely Shetland laceweight!
This was my monochromatic Shepherd's Harvest year.

Linda had sheep pin kits in her booth inside the barn.  She was doing a demo when I was there.  I wanted gray, so she switched out the white.  That will be a much quicker project than the rug!

The night before the demo, I took the time to card a batt with Finn roving as the base and added a bit of gray wool, hemp, sari silk, and white alpaca with color bits.  Naturally, I forgot to add it to the bag.  After winding off the yarn from Stella, I spun a couple of pretty skeins of tweedy goodness.  

A wooly hot day

Saturday, August 15 was hot and steamy, but not so much that we could not celebrate wool.  The Faribault Woolen Mill celebrated their 150th anniversary.  Alexander Faribault, a fur-trader/entrepreneur founded the town in 1852.  The city is situated at the confluence of the Cannon and Straight Rivers and is the county seat of Rice County, Minnesota.  Faribault is approximately 50 miles south of the Twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

We arrived early and walked around before the activities began.

I was really excited to see Jennifer and Tom's design, a sleeping bag,  for the Target competition/silent auction.

The Target designers' work for the competition/silent auction.

These little sheep were so cute!

I really liked the sauna hats!

Jim liked the beer caddy.

Jennifer and the sleeping bag.  It was beautifully designed and sewn.  It was good to see her!

There was even a teepee and camp chair in red and black buffalo plaid--very Minnesotan!

The outdoor shop next to the mill had a great display for the Pak-A-Robes, a 1970s Ford Bronco.

Jim was doing some shopping!

Pak-A-Robe colors 

The woolen blanket sign adorned the bridge over the river toward the park.

There was a running of the sheep event, which was pretty funny.  The sheep stayed in a group and at the end created a sheep-nado.

The sheep were well-organized...I cannot say the same for the humans!

At the end with nowhere to go, the sheep regrouped into an S-twist sheep-nado.

The lively sheepdog whipped the flock into shape.

It looked a bit like a scene from the movie, Babe.

Jennifer and I were particularly fond of the little Jacob sheep.

Doreen, of Goldfish Love and a spinning buddy, was having a fine time spinning up some arty yarns with the kids in the Textile Center's tent.

A blanket made from recycled wool and acrylic.
(To make the blanket washable and strengthen the fibers.)    

Jim surprised me with this scarf in scarlet and gray.

In honor of the anniversary, a past favorite, Pack-A-Robe was brought back.  The woolen mill had the zippered cases made by Duluth Pack.

The American flag in all her woolly glory!

With all the wonderful woven woolly cloth in my mind, I thought I would take the opportunity to try out the variable dent reed I picked up from Mary at Anoka Fiber Works.  Before I warped the loom with handspun yarn, I finished a small piece with the leftover Malabrigo Finito warp using some mohair handspun for the weft, which is some of my really early spinning circa 1997.

A little piece just the right size for a lamp. 

I saw the apron secured to the heddle in the Schacht Cricket video.

I am thankful for the videos on the Schacht website for warping the loom!

Time to use some of the old bits and bobs of handspun yarns--let's warp this baby!

I have been cleaning and organizing my yarn and the fiber in my work room.  It is a time-consuming process, but I can now see everything in the cubbyholes.  Eliminating the dreaded tubs is a plus, as I cannot stand to deal with the room they take up.  We found some collapsible crates that I can use for the unseen fibers I stored in extra pillowcases.  A work in progress...

The Jacob yarn is washed, the twist is set.  I need to calculate the yardage and then finalize the sweater design.