The I-64 Spring Fiber Fling

I don't travel much.  It's hard to leave a farm full of animals that count on Things Being Done Like They Always Are.  Having the barn cameras now may help at least my peace of mind if I decide to go somewhere, but taking care of animals, especially lots of older animals can be a challenge.

Some nights Maisie likes to eat her hay on the steps.  Some nights she wants to eat from a bucket.  Some nights she'd like a pile of hay placed in front of her in bed.  Sometimes a young sheep gets mud stuck between their toes that dries into a hard stabby rock and you have to pick it out and at the same time grab the thorny rose branch that they got stuck in their wool...Big Moose!

That being said, I do like when people come to see me.  We don't have the fanciest place and I'm never going to fix you a gourmet farm to table meal, but the farm is peaceful and fun and the sheep, horses, cats, Bea and Pinot are good characters and if you are here around lunchtime, I'd be happy to make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I also have lots of wool in all stages of "production" - raw fleeces, washed fleeces, roving, batts, handspun yarn, small batch mill spun  farm yarns, learn to spin kits, felting supplies, quilt batting, punch needle ideas, ideas in general...so many ideas...

I also have some fiber processing equipment, a couple of spinning wheels, a loaner weaving loom and a whole bag full of knitting and crochet needles.  Want to give something a try?  Come on out.  And while I'm not an expert, I'm happy to teach you what I've learned along the way.  

We've dabbled with participating in more agritourism ventures, but are just far enough off the main road that it would take a little more effort and experience than I really have time for right now.  Did I follow my "schedule" and spin yesterday?  Nope.  I spent my time wrangling with a feral kitten/cat that you can meet on my Instagram feed because I haven't had time to share all that over here because I'm trying to write a blog post about the I-64 Spring Fiber Fling because someone else has done the agritourism prep work for me and I'm pretty excited to be given the opportunity to participate.  (inhale...exhale)

20 and his friends are pretty excited about this "yarn crawl" as well.

I'm going to send you to the I-64 Fiber Fling website for all the details on how to join, who you can visit, what each store or farm is offering, prizes you can win...  I'll also do another post over here next Thursday or Friday telling what I have planned for our stop.  It's going to be fun!

In the meantime, I'm headed out to make a quick barn check and then to the house to make my peanut butter sandwich.  The feral cat escaped from the greenhouse so I don't have that to contend with today...unfortunately.  Maybe I'll get some Iknitarod knitting done this afternoon.  I am working my way down the trail, just not as quickly as I'd hoped.

Whew!

Schedules

Years ago, when I was thinking about starting my small sheep business, a good friend told me that the best part of working for yourself is that you get to pick your own hours.  You can pick whichever 18 hours of everyday you want to work.  She wasn't wrong.  I've also heard that if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life.  That's not wrong either.

One thing I haven't enjoyed along the way is getting to the end of the day...or week...or year...and realizing that I didn't do all the things I wanted to do.  This is a recurring theme and I know it's not just for me so that's all I'm going to say about that.  There are probably thousands of books about that and I should probably just find make the time to read them.

I do think having a schedule helps me.  I enjoy Tuesday nights because I "have" to join the Wool House Crafters zoom meeting.  Some weeks I get more done than others, but I like having that set schedule...and the company is good :-).  We meet for two hours and that's a good amount of time.  It's amazing what you can get done in two hours if you just put your butt in the chair.

I'd love to dedicate every afternoon to "chair work", but I've tried that and I never manage to pull it off.  Two hours isn't much time, but it's like spinning with a drop spindle.  If you spin 5 minutes here, 10 minute there, 5 minutes another time, 20 minutes after dinner...at the end of the week you've probably spun more yarn than I have with my spinning wheel.

I use "probably" in that last sentence like I've actually done any spinning lately.  Well, I did spend a little time at the end of the Kentucky Shepherd's Market last month spinning with some friends and it was really fun.  Spinning IS really fun.

The same thing happened back at the first of the year when I was playing around with the little electric drum carder I am borrowing from a friend.  Pulling those pretty batts off was really fun.  It was nice...and a little weird...to have to be reminded why I started all this in the first place.  Wool is fun.  Take the time to enjoy it.  MAKE the time to enjoy it.

So I know I can't show up from 1:00 to 4:00 every day.  Seems silly, but we both know that if that was going to happen, it would have already happened.  I don't work for myself as well as I work for other people.  

I'm not even sure I can show up every day.  I mean I show up for work every day, but not the butt in chair work.  Obviously the animal care comes first.  And if I have to be available on the farm, it's hard not to let the art side of life fall off.  It's been a crazy start to the year.  Hopefully things are settling down...just in time for spring :-o.

Here's the plan:

Monday - Catch up day.  Set things up to make the rest of the week successful.

Tuesday - Wool House Crafters.  Already on the schedule and anything goes.  

Wednesday - Art Class.  Butt in chair and pencil, pen, brush in hand. 

Thursday - Spinning...or any fun wool work.

Friday - Make up day.  Get the things done you didn't get done on Wednesday and Thursday (being realistic here).

Weekends are wild cards.  Just try to be mindful of what you'd really like to do with your "one wild and precious life".

Okay, this post went way off the rails.  My original plan was to tell you about the new I-64 Spring Fiber Fling yarn crawl we are participating in this month, but I'll have to try for that again tomorrow.  That means I need to find a new picture to share today because anyone who's made it to the end of this epistle deserves a pretty or at least funny picture.  

Hang tight while I search the archives....because I need to add photography into the schedule above.  Okay, I've added the picture of me and Frankie having a meeting about our spring schedule the other morning.  We're probably doomed ;-).

As You Plan To Carry On

I enjoy the New Year's Day challenge of trying to fit in a tiny bit of EVERYTHING that I hope to carry on throughout the new year.  I never get it all done, but it's good to at least think about what I'm hoping to accomplish in the upcoming trip around the sun.

I haven't done any spinning or knitting yet today, but it's only 8:30.  I might even at least dust my loom!  I did process a tiny amount of wool using a fun electric drum carder I have on loan from a friend.  You'll never guess who this is...so I'll tell you.

As I was looking for something else the other day I found this in a tub of odds and ends.  It's a couple of ounces of one of Renny's last fleeces.  Look!  A chicken!  (Instant distraction :-)

I took some pictures with my big camera with the plan to do a blog post (see how I'm fitting everything in?) and also made a couple of videos so you can see how the carder works.  It hums along with just a hint of sound as the wool brushes through.  A little wool processing ASMR.

 

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Time to get spinning :-).  Happy New Year!

A Sweet Little Sweater And A Sad But Sweet Story And Our Solstice Winner

A special friend asked for a tiny memento of Jared so I spun a little yarn and knit a tiny sweater ornament for her.  I enjoyed spending a little time with Big J and wasn't as sad as I thought I might be.  I was happy to be sharing a little of him and enjoyed knowing I wasn't the only one who loved him so much.

Here is the pattern I used.  Tiny sweaters are fun and not really that fiddly and are a great way to use up small amounts of leftover yarn or handspun samples.  This probably works best with a DK or worsted weight yarn.  A heavier or lighter weight yarn would maybe need the stitch counts adjusted.

Tiny Sweater Pattern

Cast on 20 stitches and decide what sort of collar you want.

For a rolled collar, knit all stitches around.  A ribbed collar works best with K1P1 rib and you can make it short for a plain collar or tall for a fold over turtleneck. Knit as many rows as you need. For a fold over collar you should knit one more row than you think.

I knit using Magic Loop so I'm setting my rows up that way. Double points are perfectly fine. You'll just need to adjust your stitches around the needles to make it make sense.

Needle 1. K2 (sleeve), PM (place marker), K6 (front), PM, K2 (10 stitches)

Needle 2. K2, PM (place marker), K6 (back), PM, K2 (10 stitches)

Knit to one stitch before each marker, KFB (knit one front and back), slip marker, KFB, knit to end. Repeat increases until you have 6 sleeve stitches (left), 14 front or back stitches (body), and 6 more sleeve stitches on each needle (26 stitches each side). 

Knit one round plain.

Knit 6 sleeve stitches and 14 body stitches and then cast on 3 stitches (I use the backward loop method). Put next 12 stitches on waste yarn. Knit the next 14 body stitches and cast on 3 more stitches. Put next 12 sleeve stitches on waste yarn. You now have 17 body stitches on each needle and two sleeves on waste yarn.

Knit a few rows for the body and decide how you want to finish the hem. K1P1 ribbing works well, but you could also just continue in stockinette stitch for a rolled bottom. You might want to add an extra row to account for the roll up. Bind off in pattern.

Pick up the 12 sleeve stitches and then pick up and knit the three cast on stitches (15 stitches total). Knit 3 rounds and then do a K2TOG (knit two together) on the bottom side of the sleeve. Knit 2-3 rounds and K2TOG and knit 2-3 more rounds and decrease one more time. Finish sleeve to suit. Repeat for second sleeve.

Weave in your ends and use that yarn to tighten up any holes under the sleeves.

Add a strand of yarn or ribbon at the back of the collar for a hanger loop.

Give it a little steam to "finish" it, especially if you chose a rolled bottom.

* * * * *

Jared didn't just join me on my needles, but also found me in the driveway one last time.  I wanted to post a reminder on IG about the Christmas Eve flock walk and thought I'd re-use the picture we took of Short Round with the holiday lights last year as my photo.

I was speed scrolling down through my phone archives with the photos flying by.  When I picked my finger up the pictures stopped spinning...at the driveway picture I'd been searching for since Jared died.  

When you miss someone as much as I miss him you can't help but think that was a message and I'm just going to tuck that into my heart and leave it at that.

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* * * * *

Random.org selected Far Side of Fifty for the blog drawing.   

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Bullwinkle

"She took forty-leven pictures of dumb ole Mini Moose and only two of me and in the other one I had my eyes closed."

This isn't a terrible picture of Bullwinkle, but I do feel bad that I didn't have more to choose from.  Who knew that the only sheep I didn't get a couple of good pictures of yesterday would be the one I'd draw this morning.  

Bullwinkle's had a busy fall.  His wool got picked to blend with some dog hair and my friend who spun it did a fantastic job and it turned out really pretty.  The yarn is 60% Bullwinkle and 40% dog hair.  You need to blend wool into your dog hair yarn to cool it down.  Dog hair yarn is apparently so warm that you can barely wear it.

We picked Bullwinkle because he is a Rambouillet cross and has the finest crimped fleece in our flock and we thought it would be the best blending fleece for her project.  Fine wool sheep are never my first choice, but his mom died when he was a few days old and he needed a new mom so I brought him home.

Bullwinkle is eight years old now, but he's still one of my babies.  In fact, his nickname is Bebby Bebby.  He was a bratty little lamb and he's still a bit of a brat.  He's no longer able to jump on me...thankfully...but he didn't quit that until he got too old and fat.  Now he just sidles up to me and paws at me and I tell him to knock it off.  Boys...

Bullwinkle loves all treats and isn't afraid to bust his way through to the front of the pack to get what he wants.  I guess it's good to be a big fat brat ;-).

The Renny Sweater

The Kentucky Shepherd's Market on Saturday went really well.  We had great vendors and a good crowd, excellent food, perfect weather and tons of fun.  Auntie Reg was there to keep things rolling in the booth so I was able to teach drop spindle lessons throughout the day and that made my day.

Well, maybe what really made my day was wearing my Renny sweater for the first time.  Yeah, I'd never even put it on after it was finished.  This is not the first time I've done that.  Remember the Rebecca Boone capelet story?  I've yet to wear the Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb poncho.

Why is that?  

The Rebecca Boone capelet knit up without a hitch if I remember correctly, but the Renny sweater took years to get the colors right and pattern settled.  I loved both items when they were finished, but I think I was worried the capelet would be too short or I'd look silly wearing it and that the Renny sweater wouldn't fit right or be comfortable to wear or something and then I would no longer love them as much.  

You'd think after learning my lesson about the capelet that I wouldn't be so funny about wearing the other two items.  I wonder if part of the poncho is because of the trauma of losing Abby and Early.  I miss those two lambs especially, but I've also backed way off enjoying all the lambs like in the old Lamb Camp days.  The poncho was made for lambing time.

I got lots of compliments on my sweater Saturday and when I told the story of not wearing it before, everyone understood and one knitter even finished my sentence for me "...you were afraid you'd no longer love it."  

That might be the beauty of gathering together for events like these.  I ended the day feeling inspired and encouraged and...a little less crazy.  And, like the Rebecca Boone capelet, I now love the Renny sweater even more.

To Early, With Love From Ellie

Once upon a time there was a dear sweet little lamb named Early who was the delight of every single person who ever met him...except maybe that one time with Maisie.  I had planned to write a "letter" to him from his sister Ellie telling him about this small shawl...but I just can't.

I spun the yarn for this during the 2024 Tour de Fleece.  It is Ellie's lamb fleece.  It's soft and cozy and the shawl is not too big and with just enough whimsy that it feels fitting for a little gift to Early.

I'd originally planned to photograph it with Ellie, but everyone is as hot and tired of this awful long summer as I am and the barn was hot and the sun was glaring and there was nothing fun about any of it and I just walked back out.

What about under the tree...

Yes, this little tree.  No longer a spindly sapling.  

 

And I noticed that the flowers I thought I'd been knitting might actually have been little oak trees.

The pattern for this is Pumila by Ayano Tanaka.  I had to go with a modified edge because I kept messing up her design and that wasn't very fun.  I really needed this to be fun and a success.  Karen to the rescue and I ended up enjoying this project very much.

Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

Last week I walked out of the Wool House and around my car to find my beloved bike crashed and all the accessories strewn about...and a sassy little tail sashaying away.  Hit and run.  A bit like my Tour de Fleece this year.  If you look closely, Jared is standing up the hill peeking around the back of the truck.  Jared does not like drama.  He lives with Maisie...

I ended up spinning four bobbins of Ellie's lamb fleece.  I had some issues with back fatigue because I was using a not ideal chair in the air conditioned wash room so I could hang out with Pinot while I spun.  I didn't make any effort to change my chair until almost the end.  I'd have probably spun more if I'd done that earlier.  My typical can't get out of my own way strategy.

Removing the chair aspect, Ellie was a fun spin.  The yarn is super soft and just a bit fuzzy and a beautiful creamy white.  I loved it even, or more so, as a single, which is not very common for me.

I did my weights and measures thing and paired up the appropriate skeins for plying and then swapped out to the double arms for my skein winder.

This is my favorite way to ply.  Everything stays nice and tidy and evenly tensioned and by using skeins rather than balls or bobbins, you have a better idea of what each skein looks like throughout and I find I have better luck matching up my singles that way as I'm not a very consistent spinner, especially over a long time frame.

I was able to get most of the plying done during the day with just a little bit left for after evening chores.  The porch was cool and comfortable, even in the heat of the afternoon.

As I was plying I noticed a pretty big spider crawling on a ball of wool off to my left.  Just as I was thinking I needed to remember to watch for that in the morning it took off towards the ceiling and I realized she was building a big web.  That really struck me, the two of us spinning on the porch.  Two Wool House Crafters :-).

I ended up with a little over 700 yards of smushy, cozy, sportweight/dk yarn.

It lost a bit of it's fuzziness being plyed, but Ellie's dad was a Cotswold cross from Nistock Farms so I know if I want it back all I'll need to do is run a soft brush over my finished item.  The pattern I've picked will look pretty either way.  The skein winder is from Nistock's as well - good sheep, good tools :-).

I started knitting a few practice rows with the small skein yesterday.  I'd have more to show if I hadn't had trouble counting to nine, but I've practiced doing the stitches required for the patterning and I'm hoping to get started for real this afternoon or tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to go back to In Person Crafters here on the farm.  We'll still be on Zoom as well as we are every Tuesday, but if you are local and would like to come out from 7:00 to 9:00 on the second Tuesday of each month until it gets too cold, the porch is really nice now - spider approved :-).  We'll have to over flow onto the grass so maybe wear long pants if you are a bug magnet.

So Where Are We

I'm sitting on the Wool House porch drinking coffee and watching Pinot mess about being a happy rabbit.  It's been cool this morning and last and he loves that.  I'll be so glad when summer is over.  This has already felt like a long one and it's just the beginning of July.

I've mentioned the Tour de Fleece, Pinot, the woven rug.  The month end compilations have at least included pictures of the gardens, sunrises, sunsets, sheep, horses, cats.  I made a little knitted Maisie, but while I've wanted to start my walnut dyed sweater, I haven't let myself cast on.

It's a good thing Maisie's so cute ;-).

I get beat down by the "can't do something fun until you get your chores done" mentality.  First, I live on a farm.  The chores are never done.  Not only are the chores never done, but I keep adding to the chores by planting too many flowers, getting a rabbit friend, wanting to teach Frankie something new...  I love my flowers and Pinot and I'm proud of what Frankie and I are getting done this summer.  Some rain would be helpful.

Second, if you want to maintain a fiber business to help support your sheep, maybe actually doing something with the fiber needs to be a "chore" if that's how your kooky brain works.  Just because a chore is fun doesn't mean it's not important.  I'm assuming ten years from now I won't remember the blood, sweat, tears and bruises, but I will enjoy looking back at the blog pictures and stories while wearing warm sweaters made from my best friends fleeces.  

I'm going to be 56 this summer.  If I haven't figured life out by now, maybe it's not going to happen.  Or maybe I'm just now getting old enough to start figuring it out.  Maybe I'm just a slow learner...

So, some things to look forward to:

The next post will be about all the building we've done lately.  Mostly for Pinot and some flowers.  Oh, I also put a board back up in Frankie's stall, so I guess I covered all my "distractions" ;-).  Don't let me forget to share the out house as well.  

I've started skirting my spring fleeces...finally...and promptly ran into a nest of very aggressive bees living in guess who's fleece. 

I covered them back up and was trying to find a place to safely stash them (even mean bees are important pollinators and they were just trying to protect their family), but our resident barn skunk cleaned them out last night.  I should have seen that coming.  Slow learner...

Yep, it was Maisie.  You can't make this stuff up...

The Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl is coming up and I'm going to participate this year.  I'll do a separate post with my open dates and information about what we are going to offer along with some new farm and fiber products.

I finished my first bobbin of Ellie last night and I'm going to carry on spinning her for the Tour de Fleece.  She's a sweet spin and I'm really excited about her yarn.

How's your summer going?

The 2024 Tour De Fleece

The 2024 Tour de Fleece started last Saturday.  I got off to a slow start...but at least I've finally started.  I can't explain why I haven't been doing all sorts of fun fiber work lately.  I love my sheep and I love their wool and I love to do all the fun stuff you can do with wool.  This used to be What I Did.  

I couldn't come up with an exciting Tour plan ahead of time and finally, in a Do. Something. move, grabbed a bag of Ellie.  That was a perfect choice.  She is a perfect reminder of why I do all this work.  She's soft and slightly silky and a wonderful creamy white color and her wool practically spins itself and she's one of my favorite sheep.  Her yarn is going to be beautiful and I'm already thinking about what I'll do with it.

I used to think of Ellie mostly as Early's sister, but now I think of her almost more as Short Round's daughter.  I still don't let myself think about Early very much. When I decided to bring his mom over here when it was time for her to retire, I figured it was the least I could do for him and I thought of her as Early's mom.  Now she's also Ellie's mom and just Short Round herself and has become one of my very favorite sheep too.  

This is why I do all this work.  

Don't forget to enjoy your work.

Maybe don't put in so much garden stuff next year.

Bea and I have been riding our bike a lot this summer.  I took this picture on the evening of the summer solstice.  It was almost 9:00.  I wish I could get the camera to capture the blur of the ditch as we zoom past.  I think that would be a neat picture.  This is nice too, but Bea's shadow in front of the blur of grass would be extra fun :-).  

She does a great job riding in the back basket and I really enjoy riding with her.  She stands with her front feet up on the basket edge and I love feeling her leaning around me to see what's coming up.  I have no interest in riding like the Tour de France, but once again our Ravelry group is enjoying brilliant written commentary about the actual race from one of our long time members. I look forward to that every year.

It's not too late to join in.  You can find us here if you want some team fun and support or just spin on your own.  It's fun!  

It's what we do :-).

Weekend Wrap Up

Things mostly started settling down this past week and we could all take a deep breath.  We still had some cold and windy weather, but there were some nice days mixed in and that was appreciated by everyone.

I suspected this would be the case if Murphy messed around at the barn too much in the morning.  He figured out that Liddy and Tabitha were getting to sneak into Easy Breezy for breakfast and he spent a couple of mornings thinking maybe he could do so as well.  Krista ain't waiting for no stupid man to tell her it's okay to go out for breakfast ;-).

Our new friend Dug had a big week.  Or I should say a getting bigger week :-).

Big J met me in the driveway one morning.  What a relief!

Maisie reminded us that she is our little ray of sunshine :-).  This is an odd occurrence, the sun shining in the front of the barn.  What actually happened was the sun hit the front of the horse trailer parked over next to the Wool House at just the right angle to reflect back into the front of the barn, spotlighting Maisie.  It will probably never happen again.

On the cold days the cats took turns tucked in next to the heater in the Wool House.

Possum pulled the night shift.

Dug went to Dug(gy) Daycare in the toasty warm greenhouse.

The cats fought over the wool box on the porch.

And Archie eventually won.

Dug got a warm wool poncho...as one does on a wool farm :-D.

Another frosty morning.  The last one...I hope.

And today two of my oldest (long time, not old ;-) and one of my newest friends came to visit and Andrea (of TdF fame) gave spinning a try and I tuned up an old wheel.  Thanks for the photo, Ericka (of Foro/4-0 fame).  It was a great way to end the week.

 

Fun With Friends

"Hi!  My name is Marshmallow!  I just spent a week here at Equinox Farm and while I was here the sheep lady knit me a sweater before I headed for my new home up north."

"It's a really nice sweater and it's super warm.  It was made from a sheep named Renny.  She said you'd all know who that was."

"Once she got my sweater finished I got to go out to the barn and meet all the sheep.  I didn't get to meet Renny though.  She said she lived here a long time ago.  I'm sad I didn't get to meet her.  She sounded like a great sheep.  Pinto was really nice though and he even let me kiss him on his nose!"

"Then we had a big cookie party.  That was pretty crazy.  I'm glad we took lots of pictures. If you ever get to come to the farm, you definitely want to do a cookie party!"

"Then I went in and wrote a story about all the fun things I got to do while I was at the farm.  It has lots of pictures. You can read it here if you'd like.  There's a funny picture of what the sheep lady said was "Maisie, being Maisie."  That sheep is a little scary if you don't have a lot of cookies!"

"I had a really good time, but I'm glad I made is safely to my new home with my new mom.  The sheep lady says she's known her for a long time and that I'm going to have a lot of fun here, too."

February

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February was a busy one!