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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A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

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

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Biscuit

I took at least a dozen pictures of Biscuit on a sunny day (which it is definitely not today!) last week and turns out in all but three weird looking shots, he had his mouth open.  I thought, briefly, about trying for another shot this afternoon (in the definitely not pleasant weather)...and talked myself into this picture.  

It definitely shows his signature curls.  And his messy foretop.  And the constant piece of something stuck in there (he's a mess).  And him watching his buddies head on out for a late afternoon graze while he then sidles over to me for some back scratchies.

He does this every morning too as I open the gate to let everyone out.  He'll stand there as long as I'll stay and scratch his back and then finally I get tired and stop scratching, give him a gentle pop on the butt and tell him to "Go get 'em, tiger."  And off he goes to catch up.

Biscuit mostly stays in the background.  He can fight his way in for cookies, but he doesn't fight too hard.  There are some tough nuts in the front and who needs all that conflict.  Muffin is still his best friend and they are frequently side by side, especially when they are eating.  I just love that.

I let Mrs. Pepperpot take over as his mom when he moved from the house to the barn and his transition was seamless.  She was a kind old ewe and took him under her wing.  She probably knew Muffin was going to need a good friend by her side.  She was right.

Biscuit is truly grateful for any treats you can sneak in to him, but he's also pretty happy with a good back scratchy.

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Mini Moose

Mini Moose is a sheep as nice as he looks.  And he's about as un-Mini as he can get, but he's also a lot of floof.  You can stick your hand down into his wool and there's not much hand left sticking out.  That floof is one of my all time favorite fleeces.

I have a wool post in the works that I just haven't had time to put together, but I'll tease you with a couple of pictures of Mini Moose's wool.  There's a whole lot more to the story though, so don't let me forget to come back to it.

I know you'll want to hear more about this.

That little hint of gray mixed in.

Mini Moose is one of the sweetest sheep we've had and I'm sure that's partly due to who his dad is, one of the Nistock rams.  He's a Rocky grandson.  He came over here from Final Frontier Farm with Cheeto and Big Moose back in 2019.  

Mini Moose got his name just after he was born.  We didn't get many gray lambs and after Big Moose arrived and he was So Big that I immediately called him Big Moose, the next gray lamb born was much smaller...hence Mini Moose.  Both boys were lambing shed favorites and I couldn't resist bringing them over here after they were weaned.  

Jacobs aren't large sheep, but standing next to Tessa really illustrates how un-Mini he ended up.  I would guess him at almost 300 pounds.  He definitely was when he was a year or two younger.  His fleece weighs in around 10 pounds each year.  I think you could pretty easily knit three sweaters from him every year and I have one in my queue.

Mini Moose's favorite treat is handfuls of the "good alfalfa" :-).

My Local Yarn Shop

Setting up for the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl has been a good exercise in Getting Stuff Done, but also a bit of a morale boost.  Things are so different now without setting up at the big fiber festivals.  Those events created a business structure that I apparently really needed.

Lately I sometimes catch myself wondering if maybe it's all over and it's time to retire...but I have a flock of sheep that will stay here until the ends of their lives.  They can keep paying into their pensions...if their shepherdess would just do her part.  

I don't know what the sheep really understand about their lives here.  In my anthropomorphic brain I want to think they know that their wool products and pictures and inspiration keep the hay stack tall and grain bins full.  That that is their job.  I'm betting some of the retirees like Krista and Short Round understand things are different here.

Not doing my part to use that wool and their inspiration to help support them feels almost disrespectful.  Like not standing up for a friend or family member.  

In the 'olden days', when I'd get home from a show each night I'd always report in.  I'd tell them which fleeces sold or who's roving was popular that day and who got asked about or came walking into the booth made into a sweater or shawl.  It was nice to be able to do that last Saturday after our first Fiber Crawl day.  We'd all had fun and done a good job.  No one wore a sweater ;-D

Surely I can pull this back together.  I still have some good ideas...and obviously lots of wool.  Let's wash some wool and pull out the hand cards and combs or roving and spin some pretty yarn and knit hats and mittens and scarves and sweaters from our favorite sheep.  

Let's make felted sheep and wreaths.  Get out the drawing pad and create some new rug patterns and learn how to dye bright colors and make rugs and pillows and wall hangings and tote bags.  And send each other some handwritten note cards.  

This will also be known as quit messing about cleaning the house and mowing grass and working in the gardens and show up more for your more fun job that somehow always gets pushed to the bottom of the list. 

If you'd like to come out to the farm this afternoon/evening, we will be open from 4:00 to 8:00 today*.  Bring your wheel or current project and a box of vanilla wafers for the sheep if you'd like.  We can sit and spin or play with wool or just relax and watch the sheep.  If you'd like to mow grass or clean the house, that's always an option too ;-D.  We'll have wine and cheese starting around 5:00.

It was pretty toasty yesterday and the porch was very pleasant.  It's also covered in case we get rain.  The barn is also a fun dry spot and there's nothing like listening to rain on a barn roof, especially after it's been so dry.  We have plenty of chairs and room to spread out.

We also have plenty of good company on the porch.

Pottery from Flat Creek Wool and Pottery.

Morgandell Reds brought over some beautiful California Red batts.

Beautiful yarn from Tring Farm.

Lamb Camp Legacy yarn, I (heart) Kentucky Wool bags, note cards from here.

Washed wool.

Plenty of roving - in the Wool House and also set up in the barn.

The new Lamb Camp Old Friends yarn.

Look at these fancy wool balls made from Pinto's fleece!  You don't have to have a fancy fleece to pay into your pension.  All wool can have a job and if you are using these balls for dryer balls, I'm pretty sure Pinto will add some extra bounce :-D.

Folk art farm cards

I've pulled out six more skeins of Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn.

Two walls full of fleeces.  

If you are looking for your first start to finish fleece, a specific breed for Shave 'Em to Save 'Em, or a favorite sheep you've followed for years, let me help you pick one out.  You can even meet the sheep who raised the fleece.

Do you have questions about how to wash or process your fleece or what to make?  Just ask.  I love to talk wool :-).  

Honestly, I love to talk sheep and wool and farming and spinning and knitting and weaving and I'm happy to share what I've learned along the way and I love to learn what you have as well.  Come out this evening and grab and glass of wine and some cheese and pull up a chair.  

We are also open for the Crawl this Saturday from 11:00 to 4:00.  Really, we can be open anytime.  Just email me to make an appointment.  Maybe in the future I'll start having an actual open schedule.  Let's get busy!

Who What Where When And Why

We are joining the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl this year!  The Crawl starts this Friday and runs through next weekend.  Each business sets their own hours and there's an interactive map that shows everyone participating, where they are located and their open hours...so you can plan your routes.  

Punkin's Patch is not opening until Saturday because I'm pretty sure Friday is going to be spent doing some "flight of the bumblebee house cleaning" because I have special guests coming in town for the first weekend :-D.  

Robin Nistock will be here from Nistock Farms, famous for beautiful wool, handcrafted spinning and rug hooking and punch needle tools and being the breeder of some of our most favorite sheep of all time.

She'll be bringing some tools and equipment with her (more about that later) and if you'd like to order something special, get in touch with her so she can bring it with her for you to pick up during the Crawl or I can hold on to it for you.  She'll also be on hand Saturday to teach punch needle and rug hooking and talk sheep and shepherding and it will be great fun!

But wait, there's more!  Andrea Edwards from Morgandell Farm will be setting up over here on both Saturdays.  She's bringing her beautiful California Red batts and some other fun stuff.  She's also happy to talk sheep and shepherding and spinning and horses and is big fun too :-).

As an extra special treat, Tonya Fedders from Flat Creek Wool and Pottery is setting up a fun trunk show here during the Crawl as well.  I just love her beautiful sheep pottery.  I wonder if she'll be bringing any of her gorgeous Icelandic fleeces?  Stay tuned!

Annemarie Holland from Tring Farm brought over some of her flock's lovely farm yarn this past weekend.  I just love farm yarns.  So much character and quality and knowing how the sheep are loved and cared for adds an extra level of special.  

As for Punkin's Patch, I have a bunch of raw wool, some washed wool, a bunch of roving, lots of Lamb Camp Yarn (more about that to come, too!), the usual gift items, needle felting kits, Christmas in July greeting cards and lots of funny sheep to visit.  Cookies not required...but recommended if you'd like to keep your kneecaps.  Just kidding, Maisie...sort of...

I am also going to offer two weaving looms for sale, a bunch of sheep and fiber books and a pretty extensive collection of Interweave magazines (Spin Off and Handwoven).

Farm and Farm Shop Hours: 

Saturday July 27th from 11:00 to 4:00

Tuesday the 30th from 7:00 to 9:00 for In Person Wool House Crafters - bring your wheel or current project

Wednesday the 31st from 4:00 to 8:00

Saturday August 3rd from 11:00 to 4:00

On the Saturdays you are welcome to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy hanging out on the farm with us...or sit off with the sheep and relax on your own.  If you don't feel like packing a lunch, you're going to get a "shepherds lunch" of peanut butter and jelly (you know, living the dream ;-), but the company, people and sheep, will be good :-).

Bring a snack and beverage of choice on Tuesday.  I barely get myself fed that night :-o.

Wednesday - Wine and Cheese :-D  Bring your wheel for that as well!

I think this is going to be a lot of fun.  If you have any questions or need directions, please send me an email.  If there is something specific you'd like to learn, let me know!  I'm happy to teach anything I can - spinning, wool processing, knitting, sheep care...

Did I cover everything?  Who, what, where, when and why...  Why is to support our sheep of course :-). Purchases are never required or expected when you come out to the farm, but a small donation to the hay fund is always appreciated.  

Come see us!

The Bottom Of The Pile

I had planned to share a Tour de Fleece post today with some more TdF spinning, but I started skirting my spring fleeces the other day...finally...and ended up pushing through to the end this afternoon and what a huge relief it is to have that job finished.

As I worked through big fleeces, small fleeces, beautiful fleeces, messy fleeces, surprising fleeces, favorite fleeces and finally reached the bottom of the stack...and there was Blossom.  

Oh!

Inhale...exhale...

Dear sweet Baba.  One of my very favorite sheep ever.  I still can't believe she's gone.

I've made and sold over 400 drop spindles over the years.  I would guess that Baba's roving was in at least 350 of them.  Her wool was so easy to spin that she was a perfect choice to help set up new spinners for success.  I'd love to know how many of them are still spinning.

I guess I'll use this last fleece for one last batch of spindles. Or maybe I'll keep it for myself.  I've always wanted to spin and knit a pair of boots socks.  She'd be perfect.

This doesn't look as impressive in the photo as it does in real life :-/.  There are 24 fleeces in there. Maisie's was already skirted and washed.  I took a few pictures as I worked and I'll get organized and post a fleece list in time for the start of the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl that kicks off this coming weekend.  More on that to come.  

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 :-).

Meanwhile, Back At The Wool House

While it sure appears that all I've done lately is yard work and gardening, I actually made something.  Out of wool even!

A couple of months ago I spilled a cup of tea on the carpet at the Wool House.  Yes, the white carpet.  It didn't blend.  A friend came over and we got the carpet cleaned and while we were working on it and the place where I always sit and my dirty pant cuffs have grundged up the floor I thought, hmmm, why don't I have a rug here?

So I made a rug.

The light and dark gray warp (the threads that go longways) is Lamb Camp Legacy yarn.  I used a strand of each color together in every dent (space).  I knew Rocky and Jared's kids could hold everything together with ease.  The white weft (the threads that go back and forth) is the old Punkin yarn from the beginning of everything wool here.  This was the yarn my now friend spun before I knew I even liked yarn.  

I'd asked her to spin it bulky without either of us knowing the bulky yarn for a sweater should be very lightly spun and lofty.  While it did make a sweater and Punkin and I had our pictures taken together dressed alike, it was not a warm sweater (needs loft to trap warm air) nor was it super comfortable to wear.  I ripped it all back out (my sweater frogging started early ;-) and I tried to reknit it on a larger needle, but it just wasn't to be.

Rebecca was over here last week and I told her what I was doing.  I was worried she might be sad that I was using her yarn for a rug, but we both looked at the yarn and she said something about how differently she spins now and I said "Yes, but look at what all this yarn started!" 

It made a perfect rug. Something I'll be able to use and enjoy for the rest of journey.

Gratuitous picture of Pinot, napping in his favorite spot on the porch.  He naps for a bit, does a little grooming, eats some snacks over in his portable cage or litter box, hops around exploring, does a little jig and some zoomies and then goes back to his spot, takes a nap...  :-) 

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.