Catching Up

Shame, shame on me for being such a lazy blogger again.

Seems like things were really busy during the summer, with all the outside activities that come with it. Mowing the yard was pretty much a full-time job...there was only a short time where it got dry enough that you could skip a week or two.

So what have I been up to? Late in the summer my husband's folks gave us a big dishpan full of grapes from their vines that I made into jelly. I thought I'd never get all of them picked through so I could make the jelly, but finally I did.
Yum!

And remember in my previous post I talked about my newest addiction obsession hobby, digital scrapbooking? I've become so enamored with it, that quite a bit of my computer time has been spent learning software and doing layouts.

I'm also still working on going through our fleeces from this year's shearing. (See, I'm almost always behind.) I'm thinking this year I may have the wool spun into yarn at the mill instead of just roving. There's quite a bit of combed top still left to spin from last year's shearing.

This past Saturday was National Hug a Sheep Day. I'm embarrassed to say that I forgot it on Saturday (though our sheep get quite a few pets and scratches on a regular basis anyway). But I made up for it yesterday and hugged four or five of the ones that would let me. Maybe I'll try another one or two this evening. :)

Did You Think I Flew the Coop?

I really didn't fly the coop, things have just been really busy, and blogging kind of got pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

With the arrival of spring came yard work and mowing, and we put out a garden again this year. It was kind of late getting planted...several weekends were spend working cattle, and then there were several rains that prevented us from getting the ground worked up. Most things were planted and set out on May 22, and started coming up in about four days. I'll have to try to get some pictures soon.

Also, the sheep were sheared on May 21, so the girls are sporting stylish new do's. It was just in time, too, before the weather turned hot.

And can you believe it? I actually listed a new yarn today! The poor shop had been really neglected, too, having one lone item for sale for what seemed like ages.

Here's the new listing:I called it "Prairie Sunset." This is some of our own wool from our Rambouillet ewes, Belle, Scarlett, Rachel, and our Rambouillet-cross ewe, Lily. I spun it first and then painted it.

There's lots more things to talk about, but I guess that's all for today. Maybe this will get me back into the swing of things. :)

Working in the Wool

Remember some time back when we sent the wool from our sheep off for processing into combed top? It came back in a long, long rope, and the tag didn't say how much wool was in the finished product.I was curious as to how many pounds were in the sack, so I decided to weigh it out into approximately 4 ounce balls and then see what the total was. I used my digital scale and then marked each with the weight. Most are between 3.7 and 4.2 ounces. Added together, there are 5.4 pounds. That doesn't seem like much weight, considering that before processing, the wool weighed 19 pounds! The raw wool contains lots of dirt and lanolin, and many of the shorter fibers are removed in the combing process.
I'm probably going to keep part of it back for a sweater, and maybe some hats, and then probably put some in the shop just as dyed top and some as handspun yarn. The shop has been kind of neglected lately, so hopefully all this softness will inspire me!

The Wool is Here! The Wool is Here!

Yesterday the UPS man rumbled into the driveway and came out with a HUGE box. "My wool!" I squealed. Our processed wool had come back from the mill!Back in September you might have seen the raw wool.Off it went to Zeilinger's in Michigan for washing and combing. This was the first time we had gone to the extra expense to have it combed instead of just carded. We'd had it processed elsewhere a couple of times before (with just carding) and there had always been more VM left in it than I wanted to pick out before or during spinning. But this time it was different.

This fleece:Became this combed top:
Amazing, isn't it? I can't wait to spin some up! That is, if I don't just curl up and cuddle in it. :)

Fiber Update

Just a little update on the fiber I sent to the mill for processing. I received a receipt in the mail from the mill that said the wool I sent weighed 19 pounds. Of course, the processed top will weigh a lot less than that because washing removes a lot of dirt and lanolin, and combing will remove quite a bit of the short fibers. Can't wait to get my hands in it, though!

Yes, Sir, Yes, Sir...

Three bags full!

The weather has finally cooled off enough that I could get up the courage to sort through our fleeces. We had our sheep sheared later than normal this year and it was getting really hot by then. Too hot to want to play outside in the wool. So this afternoon I went through and skirted three fleeces to send off for processing. These are from our Rambouillet sheep. Their wool is really soft with a nice crimp. I'll probably have these processed into combed top. The sheep weren't coated (well, some of them were, but we had trouble keeping the coats on and finally just gave up), and I've been told that combing will remove the vegetable matter. This is the first time we'll have had any of our Rambouillet processed into combed top, so I'm anxious to see how it comes out.

Now to find a big enough shipping box...

The Wool is Here

The wool finally got back from the mill the other day. Here are a couple of pictures:


I'm actually kind of disappointed with how the roving turned out. I didn't have it processed as much as it really needed to be for the amount of vegetable matter it had in it. I thought the charge was going to be around $6.60 per pound for processing, but we received a preliminary bill before they started on it that said to wash it twice (because it's a greasy-type wool) and run it through an extra step to remove more vegetable matter, the price would be over $14.60 per pound. That would have made the total bill over $500!!! Needless to say, that was more than twice as much as I had anticipated, so I had them forego the extra carding on all of it and do a "wash only" on another batch of it. The resulting roving is really nice and soft, but there's still quite a bit of debris in it--more than what I like to pick out when I'm spinning. I tried combing some of the roving, and that helps quite a bit, but it takes a huge amount of time to get any large quantity done. I'll still probably at least try to comb enough to do a sweater from the yearling's first shearing, but who knows how long it will take to comb and spin that amount. Anyway, I thought I might try needle felting some of it, because the "core" in needle felting doesn't have to be as nice as the outside. I can hand card some to be used on the outside layers. I guess it can be chalked up as a "learning experience."

Anyway, I have a skein of worsted weight yarn in the dyepot as we speak, hopefully ready to go in the shop later in the week.

Off to the Mill

Last spring when we had our sheep sheared I talked about skirting the fleeces and getting them ready for processing. Here's a couple of pictures (reruns):


The mill said they wouldn't be ready for them until September. That seemed like a long time away then, but here it is September and time to send them in. Of course, I waited till the last minute to get the rest of them ready. But I finished the skirting and stuffed them into two big boxes. And I mean STUFFED. I think postage is cheaper if you use the smallest possible boxes. Even though these were pretty big, they were the smallest possible boxes. I told the lady at the post office I was hoping they wouldn't explode on the way to the mill. I think they'll be okay as long as the tape holds. There were five fleeces. All together there was about 35 pounds of wool. I read on a Rambouillet site that after washing, you should have about a 35% to 55% yield, so maybe we'll come up with around 15 pounds of roving. I think they told me it would take about five weeks to get them done. This is the first time we've sent off the wool from our Rambouillets, so I'm anxious to see what the roving will be like. Just from looking at the raw fleeces, it looks like it has a really tight crimp, and feels like it will be nice and soft. Just have to wait and see I guess.