Easter Weekend

It seemed the Easter Bunny delivered early this year, for on arriving at the parents' Friday night, Mom and I found an egg carton on the table. Dad had found it in the entry when he got home, but had no idea where it came from. No note, no phone message to explain, but inside the carton were a dozen of lovely little quail eggs. Mom made a nest for them of grasses and feathers, and that was our Easter table decoration.

The only person we knew of who had quail nearby raises them for meat, so was unlikely to have many eggs around, and had no reason for delivering them to us if he had eggs. So it remained a mystery until Sunday, when Johanne, who has the alpacas down the road, called up and revealed she had gotten them from someone in her tapestry-weaving class. Mom is planning to let them dry out, so we should have them to grace the table and her collection of birds' nests for years to come.

The weather was nice enough to work outside much of the weekend, so Saturday I began picking and dehairing a rather hay-infested llama fleece, given to me by a friend of Mom's. Some of it will have to be discarded, but it is a nice, soft, dark taupe fleece, and there will certainly be enough usable to make her something as a thank-you, and still have enough for something for me. Sunday I tackled the dye garden, cleaned and trimmed and weeded (and being careless about gloves, managed to scrape a few knuckles and snag skin to a point where the fleece I spun that night was catching on my hands). Several extra greenweed plants got removed, so I threw them in pots, as I remember a few people wanted them. And noting that the madder and bedstraw were trying to escape their boundaries again, I dug around the edges and harvested the strays. That netted me enough of each for a batch of dye, which was rather surprising considering that I did the same thing last year in late summer or fall. Obviously they're happy - and I am too.

I finished spinning my final sample skein from the Rare Breeds fleeces last night, and promptly washed them, so I can knit swatches as soon as possible. The Romney was already washed, and I did that swatch this morning, can't wait to try the others. Back, l-r, pale gray Shetland lamb, cream Border Leicester, and off-white Clun Forest, and in front, darker grey Cotswold.

They are all lovely fleeces and yarns, but the Cotswold, I do admit, has me going a bit Gollum ('Precious, we wants it, we does.')

A Demo and a Windfall

Somehow I feel like maybe I lost a day this week. Not sure how else it got to be Saturday night again, already.

Thursday was entirely taken up with the first demo of the season, at the Ottawa Farm Show. It was actually the third and last day of the show, and the OVWSG had people there all three days, but today was the only day I went.

Historically, I gather, the show has been at Lansdowne Park. This year, they had a new venue, the brand-new and modern-looking CE Center out near the airport. Trekked out on the bus in the a.m. with my wheel. No question of whether I was in the right place - the parking lot was half pick-up trucks, and there were several pieces of farm machinery parked along the front of the buildings. Inside, a huge floor space with booths for everything from livestock breed associations to wood furnaces to equipment dealers with wagons and things parked on the floor like a car dealership. A couple of the smaller conference rooms were appropriated to antiques and associated crafts and 4-H, and that was where we were parked for the day.

Dang, that was a fun day. Watch all the farmers in their plaid shirts and ball caps and boots wandering through the tile-and-glass entryway. Chat with people, and be amused by the security guard asking if I was old enough to be allowed to spin, and the guy who wanted to know (in jest) whether we could use steel wool to spin and knit a bumper for his truck. Show the kids how to use the drum carder. Wander about for a bit after lunch and see the booths.

Rare Breeds Canada had one of the booths, and in the afternoon the lady who was there came by to visit us and ask if we could spin some samples of fleeces she had for an upcoming talk at the Ottawa Knitting Guild. So we said, sure, lovely, no problem. And 5 feedbags of raw fleece turned up for us shortly thereafter. On discussion of whether she was giving us all this, when really you'd only need a fraction for the samples, she did take part of two fleeces back, but left us with three bags full, or almost. Some for samples, some to play...
Showing the others at Fleece Spa yesterday what we had gotten, we decided since everyone was excited about the fleeces, that samples of each fleece could be prepped and spun by each person, and have a variety of styles of yarn to show for the talk. My front entry smells like sheep right now, since I was lucky enough to get the bulk of each sample - the perks of having no job right now, I have the time to do more with the wool. So excited! There's a chunk of Border Leicester, one of Romney, and a Clun Forest (new to me, but seems med-fine and crimpy and soft) in white, a pale-grey Shetland lamb, and a lovely Cotswold in silver and pewter shades, with a sheen and swirl like mohair locks. I can't wait to get started.