The farm house

The farm house

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fall Has Arrived!

Yes indeed, Fall has arrived. It's 9 degrees Celsius here not factoring a windchill and yes, it's windy. We received a huge amount of rain last night. Monday, I will be figuring out how many bundles of shingles to buy for a certain section of roof.... I swear, it;s one catastrophe after another here.

However, the good things are the fleeces have been sent off to be spun !! Expensive parcels to send but I did not have a car to bring them in. (second item on Monday's list)
 This is some of the weird and wonderful stuff you can find in a fleece!! If you zoom in, you will see some cat kibble! This fleece  fallout belongs to Andy, a wether from Booth Boys Barn! I also found hay cubes in this fleece, which after questioning Vanessa, must have found their way into the fleece while being stored in the feed room. Let's just say, I know why spinners like to purchase roving. Hours and hours of skirting... dirty sheep.

Seraphina has found herself a comfy spot!

The leaves are turning some vibrant colors here. A few days ago and this morning, I heard and then saw the Canada geese flying overhead. I love early Fall and all the colors and wonderful smells it provides... wet leaves and smoke from nearby backyard fires, a faint sniff of wet wool and a sniff of very fresh cool air. Soon Tessa will be back home as the museum prepares to close down for the winter and I prepare my barn for the oncoming breeding season and then winter. It is important to get things organized before they happen as weather often interferes with progress. Picture mucking out sheep pens with a snowstorm and you must wheel it all out to a pile, and the snow gets deeper. Not, I choose to be the ant, not the grasshopper.

Now, off I go to finish designing a sock pattern. It's a wonderful day to knit!

Friday, September 13, 2013

Neglect...

Well, where does the time go? It's September 13th, a Friday at that! Almost half way through the month and....I have Christmas knitting on the brain.- don't hate me, learn from the experience here.

However, put all the knitting on hold because guess what I've been doing??

I've been skirting and washing fleece; so much of it I smell like sheep. I can assure you that each and every one has their own distinct"aroma". So, I can truly believe that is how they identify one another. A friend dropped her 3 fleeces off here sot hat I can send them with mine to be commercially turned into hanks and roving. I have polled some spinning friends and they prefer roving as, let's face it, with roving, the work has been done. I can assure you that skirting is very labor intensive. The lesson here is don't wait so long to do them all. But, in my defense, I had some done and then it was too hot to even consider touching so much wool!

I'm looking forward to trying some of my own wool to knit something... Recently, before the skirting and washing fleeces took hold of my life, I have discovered some really interesting and lovely shawl patterns designed by Judy Marples. I found her patterns on Ravelry and you can also find them  at www.purlbump.wordpress.com They are simple to follow and very stylish. I've certaily put a dent in my fingering weight stash to knit up a few. Yes, they are that straightforward and I am happy with my results. i started with Amberwell and I had to read the book by D. E. Stevenson after that; what a prolific author!

I apologize for the font changes..it would seem that the blog pages don't see eye to eye with my computer...

So, a couple of fleeces to go and I'm no longer neglecting the "Christmas" list of knits. Happy knitting!