Eye Candy From The Country

Wild and wooly, warm and wet. That pretty much describes my Saturday this week. I'm out at the parents' for the weekend, and it's been a hot, sunny, breezy day - to me, that makes it a good day for fibre, since things will dry well. So laundry and dyeing and fleece washing have been most of the day.

 I started the day with a quick blocking of the hat I finished last night. Ribbed, in a cushy handspun Jacob wool I had a few partial balls of to use up. A post on the little porch proved a great place to put the hat to dry, and incidentally, provided a nice background for the photo.

In between loads of laundry, staying with the Jacob breed, I washed about a fleece and a half that I had gotten a while back and not done anything with yet. This is where the wet and wooly part comes in, since I wash stuff outside, which means hauling hot water in buckets from indoors to fill my tubs. A few old sheets went in a sunny spot for drying, and Mom said it looked like I was working with skunk pelts. Definitely smells nicer than skunk, though!

Cooled wash water from tubs was re-bucketed out and onto a bunch of plants that needed a water and fertilizer shot. More buckets of water came outside in the meantime for the next project, which is a batch of mordanting and dyeing. At this point the clothesline was full of laundry, so I hauled out a big wooden clothes-dryer, because something like 30 skeins got mordanted today.

In the little gaps between waiting for a mordant batch or a fleece batch to be ready for the next step, I got to shell peas. Result, a true green thumb (or at least thumbnail) and a lovely bowl of fresh peas.

Only had time to start one batch of dye after that - greenweed yellow, which will sit overnight - but there will be more dyeing tomorrow, and hopefully pretty pictures of the results. Although I'm planning mostly solid colours, a few of the skeins to be dyed will be multi-coloured, using different techniques, so I can show them as samples for a class I will be teaching at L'Ourse Qui Danse in a couple months. Ran over to the OQD ranch this afternoon to borrow some thiox for tomorrow's indigo dyeing and talk to Johanne about the date for the class - tentatively Sept 19 or 20 at this point. The road going to Johanne's is lovely; gravel road with maple bush along part of it, opening to fields of corn and soy, dark-green and silvery against the late-summer olive of the trees, with the Adirondack mountains misty-blue to the south.

Barbecued local sausages and homemade strawberry shortcake for dinner, and now the last thing before bed will be to go outside to turn off the burner under my dye-pot for the night, watch the fireflies winking for a few minutes, and smell the scent of the lilies in the air. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Reputation

One of the things I rather love about having connections in the country is how easy it is to acquire fleeces for spinning. For someone with a few pet sheep or camelids, or cross-breed sheep raised for meat, they still have to shear, but it's not usually worth the time and gas for them to bring the fleece somewhere to sell. People get to hear through the grapevine that I spin, and fleece falls into my lap.

Like this weekend. My cousins are starting up a flock of meat sheep, bought parts of two flocks from different people, and two guard llamas from someone else. And the sheep were sheared recently, so they wanted to know whether I could use some of the fleece, and whether I might want the llamas' fleeces also, since the co-op they're sending the fleece to doesn't take llama. There you are. I got to spend an hour or two Saturday picking over the fleece. Some are really more like coarse hair, but some were fine and crimpy and lovely (if a bit dirty, as you can see in the picture), but I came away with a garbage bag of stuff that washed out white and soft. Still don't know what the breeds involved were, but it's nice!

The llamas are not shorn yet, but when they are, I get that too. Price? One handspun item from the fleece. Can do.

Plus, it's lambing season, so I got to visit with the lambs. My aunt was on midwife duty - one had dropped triplets that morning, and another had twins while we were picking over the fleece. I got to hold one of the morning's lambs - still with a bit of umbilical cord dangling, and tiny fleece curls like embroidered french knots. The count at that point was 85 lambs, and to keep them organized they were all numbered and color-coded. Sheep from one flock had pink numbers, and the other had purple, painted on the back, and the lambs had the same numbers as the mother. Talk about counting sheep!

While batches of that fleece soaked, I picked and dehaired llama. This one came from someone my mother knows. She came up to me at the local Fair a few years ago, said she had heard from my mother I spin, and she had a llama. They had shorn him when the weather got warm, so he would be more comfortable, but now there was a garbage bag of fleece in her garage, and could I use it? And in due time, a bag of fleece arrived. It's quite a nice grey-brown, soft, and not dirty - but oh, so full of hay. Either he's very fond of rolling in it, or he believes in keeping emergency snacks stashed on him at all times.

raw llama

clean llama













I'm going to lose a lot, either to felting due to my taking a couple years to get to it, or to short and excessively hay-filled bits. But I've got a couple hundred grams cleaned already, so enough to do something as a thank you, and some over, for sure. And I will be certain to clean the next llama fleeces promptly.


 

Epic Book

I had a bit of birthday money, so I took a trip down to the bookstore, and came home with this.

I've been eyeing it for a few months, and this was the perfect excuse to get it. And I am happy to report that it is worth every penny (or every nickel, since apparently we're phasing out pennies. Soon they'll only exist in phrases like the above.)

One of the notes mentions the authors spent 4 years on the book, and I'm only surprised it wasn't longer. Sourcebook is an accurate way of describing it, but I think I will be referring to it as the Fiber Bible. They researched and found pictures and wool samples, and prepped and spun fleece, and had micron counts analyzed, and generally put together an amazingly thorough look at the fiber characteristics from pretty much every sheep breed known, including a lot I'd never even heard of. Lonk, Ouessant, Steigar, Zwartbles...the list goes on and on. Heck, I didn't even know there were so many sub-types of Merinos.
And then they have samples and info for just about every fiber animal that isn't a sheep, as well. Right down to possums, cats and wolves.
They have maps of where different fiber animals originate. Definitions of terms used. Charts showing what breeds to look for if you want certain characteristics and end use suitabilities. Bits of history and lore about particular breeds and areas. A lovely bibliography and list of donors and supporters which includes sources for a lot of fleeces shown.

Highly, highly recommended for anyone interested in fiber. I'm reading it cover to cover, and I know I'm going to be looking out for unusual breed fleeces from now on, there are so many types in here that look interesting.

In Love

I've been working away at the fleeces from Rare Breeds, getting my share of the samples done.
The first one I tackled was the Romney, and that was a nice fleece. Fairly clean, bouncy, white, wasn't felting...The Leicester came next, and that one was pretty good too. Stiffer than the Romney, more a wave than a crimp, and yellower, except for a couple batts' worth of some soft, fine, crimpy stuff that looked like a completely different animal. The Clun Forest is dense and crimpy, and has a lot more hay and stuff in it, so I only picked and carded enough to spin a skein, and will tackle the rest when all the samples are done.
Last night I picked Shetland, and there's enough stuff in it that I'm doing the same as the Clun. Got a nice pile picked, enough to spin the sample, but I'm losing a lot of it to brittle/matted ends. What's left is soft and crimpy, so it will be a nice yarn, I'm sure.
I kind of saved the Cotswold for last, as a treat, because I liked it so much on first sight. But after I started picking it this morning, I know I'm past liking - I'm in love. It's gorgeous. I want to take it out with me and show it to people like old ladies do pictures of their grandkids. I vaguely considered skipping going out tonight to stay home and pick Cotswold - and if that's not a sad statement, I don't know what is.
Really, though, what's not to love? It's silky, and shiny, and not felting, and has locks as long as my hand.

It's in shades of grey ranging from the ivory-gray of a snowy sky to almost charcoal in a few places, but most of it is silvery-pewtery colors.

I've sorted it a bit, light to dark, and I can see doing something shaded with it. Lace, probably. It wants to drape, and be something luxurious. (The pile in the top right is Shetland, but the rest is Cotswold. Two heaps begun of picked, and two bigger heaps unpicked.)

The coolest thing about the color, though, is the strands aren't grey. It's all from different ratios of black and white fibers. I think it gives it more depth.

Oh, I can't wait to spin it. And I've decided I want a Cotswold sheep (or several) of my own someday.  

The Ants, the Eggs, and the Fleece

Not the subjects of a Salvador Dali painting, but the things which have been occupying me in the last few days.

I got the notification that my knit Pysanky pattern was accepted by KnitPicks IDP program, and they wanted the samples for pictures. So those are shipped off, the pattern finalized and sent, and I also got the pattern posted on Ravelry. One thing down.

It took until Tuesday to get all the fleece dry. The Romney fleece has been picked and carded, and a skein spun and plied. The rest of the carded Romney will wait - today I'm concentrating on the Border Leicester. After all, the point is to have a sample of each spun for the deadline. And tomorrow is Fleece Spa, so I know there will be spinning time, but I would like to confine the mess of picking to my place. A great mindless task to do while watching a movie or two.

And the ants. Same ones as last year. Must be Spring. Found them yesterday. I know now that it's the cat food they really seem to go for, so hopefully this bout will be minimal. I vacuumed the areas, squashed all the ants I could find, washed the floors, boraxed the cracks under the molding where they seem to come in, and put Julia's food dish inside a larger, wider dish. She always manages to scatter food outside of her dish, so if this keeps it off the floor, that should discourage the ants. I will just have to keep patrolling the areas for a while, and make sure I keep up with the cleaning (horrible thought).

Introducing Toby

Having had a week of gorgeous summery weather, I was expecting Saturday to be decent for the Great Washing of the Fleeces (all those lovely samples from Rare Breeds Canada). So far from it, that it was overcast and windy and rainy all day, and the rain even turned to something like ice pellets. But the fleece had to get washed, so outside I went with my tubs. Began before breakfast, and all day it seems I was up and down stairs and in and out of water, as I was doing the laundry as well. Thankfully none of my clothes were anywhere near as dirty as fleece often is.

I borrowed the door to the old chicken coop to drain the fleeces on. It would have worked much better on a sunny day, but with the rain...well, everything came in before supper, and draped the upstairs bannisters, and clothes-drying racks beside the stove. I'm sure the door will come in handy another time. The chickens won't need it. Dad is converting the old barn/coop to a garage for his car, and there will be a new coop built a little ways off.

Right now, however, they are still in the barn at night, and getting let out during the day to pick around in the yard. Saturday they also had a little excitement. Since we lost Leroy to the dogs that came around, Mom's been inquiring around for another rooster. Turns out one of my cousins had a rooster to spare, and he was looking for a door for some project. Mom had three old doors in storage in the shed loft. And voila, the good old-fashioned barter system strikes again. Saturday morning saw my cousin and the family and the rooster driving up the lane. Rooster duly introduced to hens, a door selected in exchange, and everyone was happy. Especially the rooster - he was crowing very happily, and when Mom went to check a bit later how he was getting on, she found him on the roost snuggled up with four or five hens. I tried to get a picture of him later, but he's a bit camera-shy.

Still, if you can't tell from the photo, he's a lovely rooster. White and cinnamon and black, glossy and plump. It took very little time for him to be christened Toby, after the singer, Toby Keith. He's got the right figure, and a black mark under his chin that looks like a beard - and exactly the same swagger around the chicks as his namesake in his music videos.

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.  

Wild and Wooly

Last time I did a library run, I found something I thought I really ought to read in the mystery section.

According to the synopsis on the jacket, it involves sheep who track down their shepherd's killer. And the sheep have names like Miss Maple (the flock leader) and Othello (a black ram). Somehow, it seems like something that ought to be animated a la Wallace and Gromit, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

And what's the book sitting on? A bag of wool that arrived on my doorstep this week. When a friend who knew I was a spinner mentioned she had a bag of fleece and would I like it, I said, sure, I could find a home for it, and she showed up unexpectedly the other morning. It's a bit on the coarse side, and it has some dark hairs mixed in, but it's washed and carded into roving, and I will find a use for it. It's really amazing how once people know you use/like whatever, a lot of it falls into your lap. I've got several random sheep fleeces and a llama one at the parents' waiting to be washed, and I didn't go looking for any of them. It was all, 'Oh, so-and-so mentioned that you spin. Do you want...' Maybe I should be surprised the stash isn't taking up more space than it does!