Embracing the Woolen

I've been spinning for a number of years now, but up to this point, all I've done is worsted spinning.  Since mostly I spin laceweight, or in the case of Goldie's fleece, yarn for cable-y knitting, worsted has suited my needs just fine.
But Onyx's fleece...
Oh my.  It's fluff.  It's wild and crazy.  It's soft, but has a mind of its own, and its mind wants to head in all directions at once.
No way was I going to be able to tame it into a worsted prep.  Even semi-worsted was a foolish hope.
Time for me to bite the bullet and learn to spin woolen.
Specifically long draw.

 (photo with flash)

(photo without flash)
At first, I tried working from memory - I'd seen spinners doing longdraw, and I'd watched some videos once upon a time..
Nope.  That wasn't it.
So off to YouTube I went, and studied the videos.  And tried again.
And, holy shit, it works!
And it's fast!  I've been doing the inchworm short draw for forever, and the contrast with long draw couldn't be more dramatic.  I filled half a bobbin in practically no time.
As with any new skill, I need a lot more practice.  A lot, oh, my, yes.  But I'm looking forward to it.  What a rush!

The Great LambWatch 2012

ETA:  I was originally going to close the contest on March 3rd, but I'm getting late entries and interest, so I'm reconsidering and keeping it open till March 15th.  Good luck, all!

Way back in October, when we bought Orion, we had a plan.  Ram lambs hit sexual maturity at roughly 6 months of age, give or take.  By buying a young fella and turning him in with the girls in October, we should get lambs sometime in late winter or early spring - definitely preferable to the January/February lambings I grew up with.  Those months are brutal up here, even for us humans. 
So, we bought our little Orion, who was born in early April of 2011.  Perfect.  That put him at exactly 6 months old when we brought him home.
We just did the math the other night - with a gestation period of roughly 5 months, we're looking at March 1st as the earliest possible date for lambies.
And, hey!  We just realized that March 1st is coming right up!
So LambWatch 2012 is beginning.  Since we haven't sheared yet, the girls are too fluffy to tell by looking at them if they're in the family way.  And any efforts to feel around to see if their udders are swelling are met with a sudden jump away and a look of "Hey!  That's really rude, ya know!"  So we truly have no idea where we stand in the scheme of things.
So I decided, why not have some fun?
I'm going to throw a contest - Guess the lambie birthdays and win a fabulous prize.  Well, there'll be two prizes, since we have two potential mommies.
It didn't take me long to come up with prizes, either.  One of the nice things about being a knitter is that people who love you tend to buy you knitting books.  And sometimes more than one person finds you the perfect knitting book.  So I've got a couple of duplicates, and I figured I'd share the wealth.

Prize A:  Selbuvotter  by Terri Shea
Prize B:  Folk Bags  by Vicki Square

I know!  Great prizes, right?

So, here's Da Cluez:

Ram lambs (supposedly) reach sexual maturity at 6 months.  Roughly.  The complicating factor is that Shetlands are very private about their hanky-panky and only do things when no one is looking.  So we have no idea what, if anything, he might have gotten up to.
These pictures of Orion were taken today.  Does he look like a Big Boy to you?

(That's Merlin on the right.  He's definitely not pregnant.  Don't guess for him.)

And here are the girls:

 Onyx, our formerly black ewe.  She's two, about to turn three.  She's never had a lamb before.  We don't know if she would even accept Orion's advances if he made them.  She could very well have slapped his face and said "What the hell do you think you're doing!?!"

 And Goldie.  We have no idea how old she is - probably 7 or 8.  Or 9.  She's had lambs in the past, so she knows the score.

And here's a picture of Onyx's butt, so you can see what I mean about not being able to tell by looking.  Is it fluff?  Is it lamb?  Is it too much hay?

Da Roolz:

Pick a date, any date.  Actually, pick 2 dates - one for Goldie and one for Onyx.  The earliest possible date is roughly March 1st.  If you think Orion got right down to business, guess early.  If you think his maturity is tied to his intelligence (Honestly, he's cute, but dumber than a box of rocks.  Sort of like the Barbie doll of rams.)  you should guess later.  (Dumb.  We might be talking August...)
State your dates in the comments of this post and this post only.   Don't email me with a guess, it won't count.   This post only.   Each person gets one guess for each sheep. 
Check the dates that other people have guessed.  Once a date has been claimed, that person owns that date for that sheep.  (Example:  Someone guesses Onyx March 10.  That date would be closed for Onyx.  You could still guess Goldie for March 10, but only if no one else has already taken Goldie for that date.)  I'll try to stay on top of things and keep a running list at the end of this post, to make it easier to keep track of which dates are already taken.
The winner will be the one who comes closest to the correct date.  The date will be determined by when we get up in the morning and say "Hey!  There's a lamb out there!"
In the event of a tie (ie:  the lamb is born smack dab between two people's guesses), I'll flip a coin or something - the winner will get the book and the other person will get some other fabulous prize that I'm sure I'll think of any minute now.
First winner gets first choice of the books, second winner gets the other book.
I'll close the entries at midnight of March 3rd.  Or when the first lamb is born, whichever comes first.

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments, or feel free to email me.

So, go out and tell all your friends.  If there's enough interest, maybe I'll do this every year...

Good luck, everyone!

March 1 - (closed)    Goldie - Erika               Onyx - Erika
March 2 -                                                      Onyx - Alison
March 5 - (closed)    Goldie - BeckyinVT      Onyx - Angie
March 7 -                  Goldie - Angie             
March 10-                 Goldie - Goldilox
March 11 - (closed)  Goldie - Kitsune           Onyx - Kitsune
March 13-                Goldie - Mary
March 12 - (closed)  Goldie - Laurie             Onyx -  Constance Blizzard
March 15 - (closed)  Goldie - MissouriStar   Onyx - MissouriStar
March 16 - (closed)  Goldie - Judy               Onyx - kmkat
March 17 - (closed)  Goldie -Stacey             Onyx - Laurie
March 18 -               Goldie - Cookie           Onyx - Helen M-H
March 19 -  (closed)  Goldie - kmkat            Onyx - Goldilox
March 21 -  (closed)  Goldie - maia               Onyx - Jen
March 22 -                                                   Onyx - Mary
March 23 - (closed)  Goldie - Andrea           Onyx - BeckyinVT
March 24 - (closed)  Goldie - Sara               Onyx - Sara
March 25 - (closed)  Goldie - Michelle          Onyx - Michelle
March 27 - (closed)  Goldie -Bullwinkle        Onyx - Bullwinkle
March 31 -  (closed)  Goldie - Alison             Onyx - maia
April 1 -    (closed)    Goldie - Helen M-H     Onyx - Judy
April 5 -                   Goldie - Constance Blizzard
April 15 -   (closed)  Goldie - Wind               Onyx - Wind
April 18 -                 Goldie - Jen
April 20 -                                                      Onyx - Andrea
April 25 -                                                      Onyx - Cookie
April 29 -  (closed)  Goldie - Chantelle           Onyx - Chantelle
May 1 -                                                         Onyx - Stacey

Grrrr...

I absolutely cannot get a good photo of Onyx's fleece.  I've been carding some up, and I really want to show it off, but every photo comes out looking like crap.  It's the most beautiful black/gray fluff you'll never see - so light and airy that I'm afraid it'll float away. 

And apparently it's so fluffy that the camera can't focus on it.

All the pics come out looking like this:

Which is not it at all...

Okay, so it's going to be one of *those* kind of years...

It all started innocently enough.  Madman was out of town (we'd been invited to friends' for a New Year's Eve party, but since I had to work, he'd gone by himself - hours away, so he'd stayed overnight.), so I did morning chores.  All quiet on the critter front.
I got ready for work and headed out to the car.  Goldie was blatting up on the hill, but she's always blatting, so I was ignoring her.  ("Hey!  Mama!  Hungry sheep up here!  We haven't had grain in at least half an hour!  Hey!")
But as I was starting the car, it started to sink in that she wasn't blatting "I'm hungry" - it was her "OMG, it's the End of the World!!!!" blatt.
I looked up the hill toward the sheep pen.
There was a sheep outside the pen.
And the gate was flat to the ground.
Orion, our newest sheep, our new little expensive registered ram, was outside the fence.  Standing in the garden.  Our new little difficult-to-catch-because-he's-sweet-but-dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks sheep is standing in the garden, and I need to leave for work right now, and I don't have time to deal with this.

Crap.

Or words to that effect.  I may have been a little more vehement.

I sprinted up the hill, through the snow, in my running shoes, because after all, I was ready to go to work, so naturally I would have my work shoes on.  My worn work shoes with very little tread left on them.  Because I thought I was just going to go get in my car and head for work.

Crap.

Naturally, as I scrambled up the hill through the snow, Orion dimly realized that he might have done something wrong.  He headed off around the pen, just in case he was in trouble.
I slowed down, trying to exude calm.  "Orion...  Come here, sweetie...  Let's go back in the nice pen.  There's a good boy..."

Nope.

I grabbed the Big Blue Bucket that we feed him his grain in, opened the can we keep the grain in, and scooped some in for him.  While I was at it, I scooped some grain into the other sheeps' dish as well, just in case they were getting any crazy ideas about joining Orion in his adventure.  (They were still inside the pen, mostly staring wild-eyed and appalled at Orion.  "We're being good, Mama.  See how good we're being?  Not naughty like him.  Aren't we good, Mama?" )
I shook the bucket to make the grain rattle, trying to entice the little jackass sweetie to come closer.
He wasn't buying it.  I don't know if he sensed a trap, or if he was just too dumb to make the connection between the sound of grain rattling in the bucket and 'hey, I could be eating grain.'
I advanced a few steps, and retreated a few steps, trying to get him to follow the bucket.  He did, but when he was almost within reach, he bolted again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.  Finally, I lured him close enough to grab hold of a horn.

I'm very glad we raise Shetlands, which are very small sheep.  Because a really big sheep would have dragged me even further through the snow than Orion did.

I was desperately trying to keep my feet under me, while he was backing up at a pretty good clip, shaking his head all the way.
He totally ignored me as I tried to explain that I really didn't have time for this.
I finally dug in enough to slow him down, and then inch-by-inch dragged him toward the still-open gate.  One last Herculean effort, using the gatepost for leverage, and I got him back inside.

A couple of minutes that I couldn't spare were consumed in Emergency Gate Repairs, and I was finally off to work - out of breath and my shoes full of snow.

Yep.  Gonna be one of those years...

What The Flock?

I knew y'all wanted a few more sheep pictures, so I headed out with my camera yesterday. But the sheep were way too interested in what I was doing, so I kept getting pictures like this:


And this:

(Well, you did want a closeup of Orion, right?)

Or, I'd get a nice shot lined up, and suddenly there'd be a sheep butt in it...

(Notice how gray Onyx's back and sides are since her shearing. After a bit of research, and talking to some Shetland raisers at Vt S&W, we think this means she's a shaela (here's a link that talks about the shaela color) though she might be an iset. (Which is actually a marking rather than a color. Shetland colors and markings are confusing...)

Anyway, today I got smarter - I pitched some hay into their paddock first, so they'd have something more interesting than me to hold their attention.

Chew, Goldie, chew!



In all those photos, from left to right we have Goldie, Onyx, Orion, and Merlin. (Notice that Onyx never once raised her head out of the hay. Great powers of concentration, our girl, especially when it comes to food...)
You can see how much bigger Orion's horns are than Merlin's. (And someday, Orion's will look like this. He's only 6 months old, so he's got a heap of growing yet to do.) Merlin was wethered at a young age because his horns were turning in, toward his skull, rather than out like they're supposed to.)
This photo shows what I'm talking about:

We had to have the tips of his horns cut off at shearing time because they were almost to the point of touching his skull. Because he's gelded, his horns grow slowly, but they do still grow. We can keep trimming them for awhile, but we can't go too far up, because there are blood vessels involved in the horns (it's actually a cooling mechanism) and cutting into that part would be purely ghastly and horrible. (It's the kind of thing best left to a vet.) In the meantime, we keep a close eye on them. (If only there were orthodontic devices for horns...)

Best Festival Ever

Well, it did rain. And we did slog through mud. And more mud. And even more mud, since it rained all day yesterday, too.

But.

Here's the official clue list:

1. I spent more money than I ever have before at a festival. (As a matter of fact, I think I spent more money than I did if you added together every festival I've ever been to...)

2. The back of my car is full of smelly stuff. (Again.)

3. We had to explain the "Sheep can't call Shotgun" rule. (No, not even rams.)

Figured it out yet?

Meet the newest member of the Mangofeet Menagerie:

This is Orion, a registered Shetland ram.
He's a sweetheart - took the ride home like a trooper (though he blatted less once the windows fogged up and he couldn't see outside. I don't think he'd ever been for a ride in a Subaru before...) and has started to settle in with the other sheep.
Notice how everyone's eyes lit up when they saw each other:

Actually, I had to give up on the picture taking. It was dusk by the time we got home, and pouring down rain, to boot. Most of the pictures were blurry, had glowing eyes, or both.
I did get one good one:
Notice how Orion is already chatting up the lovely Miss Goldie. We have high hopes for lambs this spring...

Woohoo! I have empty bobbins!

I've finally finished spinning up all the Goldie fleece that I had washed up. (There's still more in my sewing room. And that's last year's fleece...)

Fiber: Goldie 2010 fleece -(that's Shetland, for anyone who hasn't been keeping score)
Weight: 3-ply worsted - 11 wpi (or maybe 10. How close is close? How squished is squished?)
Yardage: 1580 yds.

The yardage is before washing and thwacking, but even with some shrinkage I have enough for a sweater, which was the goal. (And if I run out, there's always spare fleece still kicking around...)

I'm calling this done.

Tour de Fleece, goal one - finishing the Goldie Project. Woohoo!
Now to decide on goal two...

Spinning round and round

I manage to squeeze in a little spinning time here and there, but not nearly enough.
Progress is slow, but steady.


I love the yarn I'm getting from Goldie's fleece. It's a glorious heathery cream/gray. I've been recording the yardage on each skein as I take it off the niddy-noddy, but I'm purposely not totalling them up until the project is finished. I'm sure I'll get enough for a good substantial sweater, but I want the final total to be a surprise.



Three-ply makes it seem like it takes forever to get anywhere, but at worsted weight, at least the bobbins fill fast.

Pickin' n' Grinnin'

Finally...
As in, finally I tried out my new picker. (Check out the link for full shots of the spiffy gizmo - I've only got closeups here.)

I grabbed some of Goldie's fleece that had been languishing forever. Well, at least since last month when I washed it expressly for trying out the new toy.

I loaded it up.


Ran the slider back and forth a few times.

And a big ball of fluff comes out the other end. Amazing!


I ran it back for another pass.

The verdict? It opens the fiber really really nicely, and gets out all the smaller bits of VM. Not so good on the big bits, but those are the easy ones to pick out by hand anyway, so I'm pleased. In a matter of minutes, I had a huge pile of fluff ready for the carder that was practically VM-free. (And if you've heard me whine about how full-of-crap my Goldie's fleece was, you'll know what a boon that is.)

View the crap left behind...

My favorite part is the cleaning instructions that came with the picker:
Turn it over and dump it out.

Can it be?

Is there finally spinning going on?


Tour de Fleece started over a week ago. I started today.
Do you think I can catch up? How many hundreds of kilometers can I possibly be behind...


Goldie's fleece is a little fuzzy. I'm aiming for a 3-ply worsted weight, which means I'll probably end up with DK if I'm lucky. (And fingering, if I'm not.) I'm trying really hard to keep the singles bigger than my usual plyed yarn. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
I'd cross my own fingers, but it's so hard to spin that way...

Sourdough, Milestones, and Great Balls of Fiber

The other day, when Madman picked me up from work, he asked me "Do you know someone named Erika who would mail you a lumpy envelope?"
"Why, yes," I replied. "Yes, I do."
Erika and I had been emailing back and forth about bread, and she offered to send me some leftover sourdough starter. Dehydrated sourdough starter makes for a lumpy envelope...
So I've got the Son of Makoto. Or, more properly, the little brother of Makoto.
It's been happily bubbling on my counter for days and days. I fed it up good last night, and used it to make this
today. I meant to take a picture of it before cutting into it, but, well, you know...
(And btw, Erika? I cheated and added a tiny bit of dry yeast to the dough, which is why I got such a good rise. Next time, I won't, I swear.) (Really.) (Patience? What patience?)

Hey, look! Little bunny is now eating rabbit pellets! And hay!
*sniff* They grow up so fast...

This is actually a major milestone. We're both breathing a sigh of relief, because it looks like the little booger is really going to make it. After all our recent losses, I don't think we could bear to lose this little sweetie. We've gotten way too attached.
The word "houserabbit" is now in play.
Though a New Zealand White isn't the best choice for a pet rabbit (there are friendlier breeds), at this point this little one is more acclimated to people than other rabbits. We'll have to wait and see as it gets bigger.
I've done weirder things than keep a rabbit in my house.


And last, but certainly not least, I've been washing up and carding a storm of fleece.

I started with Goldie's fleece. Now, to look at her, she looks like your average sheepy-colored sheep. You know, that basic off-white creamy sort of color. Imagine my surprise when I started working with her fleece - it's laced with dark gray and black fibers. The roving is coming out a light heathery gray, which I'm liking a lot.


I've made that little mountain of roving, plus I have twice as much washed and drying. And I still haven't made much of a dent in the fleece.
Do you think she'll be okay with me wearing a sweater made from her fleece? Or is that going to boggle her little sheepy brain?

Gettin' Nekkid

No, not Madman and me...
(Well, not right now, anyway.)
(TMI?)
Today was the big day for the sheepie crew. A manicure and a haircut for each. (And just in time, too - today got up into the 80's, and there they were in their heavy wool coats!) We found a very nice sheep shearer who arrived bright and early with his gear, ready to give the little fuzzlumps a whole new look.
Goldie drew the short straw. On her best day, she's nervous and flighty - if we had caught and shorn one of the little ones first we never would have caught Goldie at all. As it was, it was an ordeal. She didn't know what was up, but she was pretty sure she wanted no part of it...
Here she is, flat on her rump, getting her nails done, while Madman and the little folk look on.
Let the shearing begin!


Goldie is old enough that she's been down this road before, but the little ones were baffled. They're only yearlings, so they've never seen anything like this in their whole lives..."Goldie! What the hell happened to you?!?"

Merlin was the next to be caught, trusting little soul that he is.

A quick hoof trim, and the haircut began.

"Just a little off the top, please... Hey!!"

Even a pretty new collar didn't mitigate his disgust with the whole undignified procedure. (He's got his upper lip rolled back so far that you can see his gums...)

By this time, even Onyx, who's not the sharpest thumbtack on the bulletin board, had figured out that her number was up.

In typical brat fashion, she led us a merry chase, but was finally bagged. (And as we caught each sheep today, we were extremely happy that we had chosen Shetlands. They're a little nervous, but at least they're small enough that you can pick them up and carry them.)

And here's Onyx with her new summer 'do.


Misery obviously loves company...

And the best part?


Yeah...