Crossing it off the list .....

Good afternoon, all.  I'm able to cross a major event off the to-do list now.  The Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival was last weekend and it went off without a hitch.  The workshops were well attended, sales looked to be very good (I did my part in helping boost sales, after all, it was the least I could do, right?).  I bought some (okay, maybe a little more than some) of Anne Hanson's Bare Naked Wool and have already cast on for the Tidal Sands Infinity cowl, using BNW Breakfast Blend DK in Cocoa. Anne's patterns are perfection and the various natural shades of the Bare Naked Wool line are especially beautiful when seen displayed altogether. I could not resist!  Be sure to check out Anne's write up of her time here in Kentucky.

After the festival I had the pleasure of hosting Mary Jane Mucklestone and Dagmar and Chet Klos at the farm for overnight visits.  It was wonderful to spend time with each of them and get to know them a little better.  Regular readers might remember than Dagmar did a fabulous natural dye workshop here at the farm last May and we're doing a little thinking and planning in hopes of putting together another one in the future.

Midgie and Phaedra went to the festival with me on Saturday because they are still getting several bottles a day and there was no one at home on the farm to do that.  I set up their pen under a shade tree outside the workshop building and they got lots of visits from friendly people, had their pictures taken a bunch and even got to take several walk-abouts.  (Phaedra got lots of compliments on her beautiful fleece coloring.)  My grandson, Coleman, and I used the opportunity to train the girls to walk on a lead and they spent some time visiting at the Locust Trace plant sale booth.  Halter training them is a gift that will keep on giving because from this time forward, I'll be able to take them almost anywhere and be confident that they won't have a nervous breakdown (nor will I).  By the way, those teeny little halters are actually extra small alpaca halters and they work great on lambs.

Meanwhile, here on the farm, the grass seems to have grown about 2 feet while I was otherwise occupied.  I'm seeing a fair amount of time on the ZTR mower and the tractor in my future.  It's hard to complain about having lush grass when I know there are parts of the country that haven't had rain in ages.  Once again, it's important to be grateful for where I am.

Starting tomorrow I have the pleasure of taking part in a two day workshop Nicola Brown is teaching in Lexington.  As part of my continuing quest to learn more about natural dyes, I'm excited to have a chance to do some eco-dyeing.  We'll be printing on fabric with leaves, onion skins, flowers and who knows what else.  Workshops with Nicola are always fun so I have a lot to look forward to.

This week it's been back to my real life.  There are fleeces waiting to be skirted and fleeces waiting to be washed and shipped off to their new owners. There is grass that needs immediate attention and a garden that will soon disappear under the weeds.  I am much more interested in catching up on "Call the Midwife" and "Mr. Selfridge", reading Heather Ross's new book and knitting on my cowl.  It's not at all like me, but I may even be a little bit interested in taking a nap or two.

THE GIRLS ....

"The Girls" - Midgie and Phaedra

How does it happen that I can go two whole weeks without a post?  Well, when my life mainly revolves around appointments with various specialist doctors, having enough blood drawn to supply another person (or at least it seems that way), having x-rays, ultra-sounds, EKG's and in between fixing bottles four times a day for hungry lambs, there hasn't been much energy left over to get out and take pictures and write something readable.  I don't want to go on and on about my health issues in every post, but will tell you that I was finally diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis last week and have begun treatment, in hopes of bringing about remission.  It was not a diagnosis I was expecting, so it's taken me some time to mentally process and accept it.  I've learned a lot about auto-immune diseases lately.  I've also heard lots of encouraging stories of people who have gotten RA under control and have been able to get on with their lives, which is certainly my goal.  So, onward .....

Phaedra

Now, about those all those bottles.  I only bred 13 ewes this year and five of them had triplets.  Some of the first lambs were born when I was at my lowest and Mike became the strength and energy I didn't have.  The fact that he jumped in to help turned out to be good for both of us.  Usually, I'm the one doing all the care and feeding during lambing and Mike is not so involved.  This year, he's been in the thick of it and consequently, he knows the ewes and lambs personalities and is much more emotionally invested in them.  We have been supplementing some of those triplet lambs because 3 babies are a lot for most ewes to raise, although some of mine are doing it successfully.  I have two full time bottle lambs - meaning they think I'm their mom.  They've been kept in a separate pen and are just now spending some time each day in with the main flock.  Midgie (she's the all black one) is one of Teeny's triplets.  Phaedra (any Outlander fans know where I got that name?) is the mottled black and silver lamb.  She was born many hours after her two brothers and her mother decided she had arrived too late to the party and wanted nothing to do with her.  Their personalities couldn't be more different.  Midgie has a lot of get-up-and-go.  As soon as she catches sight of me, she starts to yell that she's starving and needs a bottle right now!  She's the most aggressive bottle nurser I've ever raised.  If you don't hold onto the bottle extra tight, she'll pull it right out of your hands.  Phaedra is much more gentle and just a little shy.  She takes her bottle gladly, but is calm about it.  The great thing is that they have really bonded together and are inseparable now. When Mike and I talk about the two of them, we refer to them as "The Girls".  I much prefer to raise two lambs together, rather than have one all by itself.  They always have a buddy, so they're not lonely whenever I'm not able to be with them.   As much as I love them, I'm NOT sleeping in the barn.  I'm much too old for that sort of thing.  When the time comes, it's much easier for them to be accepted and acclimated into the flock if they have a pal at their side.

Midgie - too busy to have her picture taken

The Girls may very well be coming to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival with me because they will still be on the bottle and cannot be left at home and unfed all day.  I'm not going to be a vendor this year, but will be spending my time making sure the workshops are happening as they should.  If I can find a shady spot for their pen, you will be able to come by and visit with The Girls while you're enjoying the festival.

While I'm on the subject - please check out the workshop line-up for the Festival.  We have some really big names in the fiber community coming to Kentucky for the very first time.  Mary Jane Mucklestone, Anne Hanson, Nicola Brown and Dagmar Klos teach all over the United States and some are teaching internationally.  It's a rare opportunity to take classes here at home that would cost you more than a thousand dollars in travel expenses and workshop fees to learn from them in another location.  There's lots of different kinds of classes being offered - literally something for everyone.  Be sure to check it out.

Back soon - I promise!

Springtime on the farm

You know it's spring around here when the resident peacock has attained his full compliment of feathers.  Jim Dandy is really strutting his stuff these days - he's loud and proud!  I should think it would be hard work to drag all of that around, especially on windy days, but he doesn't seem to mind.  This time of year, he spends lots of time on top of the big gates outside the barn where he can display his beauty with a little less work than spreading it.

At long last, it truly feels like spring on the farm, but the weirdness of this past winter is still following me around.  I've spent most of this week with my leg propped up or else in a doctor's office.  Monday night we spent the whole evening in the emergency room because my right leg, from the knee down was so swollen, I could hardly walk.  The doctor diagnosed a blood clot, and I am just now understanding how scary that diagnosis was.  I was given a shot of blood thinner and sent home with instructions to report first thing the next morning for an ultra-sound.  Knowing what I know now, I'm so grateful that the ER doctor was wrong.  Ultra-sound showed one large blood filled cyst behind my knee and another down my calf.  These were likely caused by being knocked down by a ewe who had just lambed, that I was moving to a lambing jug.  (In her hormonal state, I'm sure she thought she was protecting her baby.)  I'm being told that is the best of the bad things it could have been. (How's that for putting things in perspective?)  After much consultation,  it's been decided that surgery is too risky and so we are waiting to see if it will go down on it's own.  This morning the swelling is significantly diminished, so I'm keeping fingers crossed that I'm nearly through this.  Poor Mike has been doing all his veterinary work, then coming home to take care of me and the sheep!  All night after our emergency room visit, I kept waking up, thinking about how I just couldn't possibly die right now because I needed to clean out the pantry and some closets.  I didn't want anyone to see what a mess they were - even after I'm gone!  How's that for logic?

Anyway, today is gorgeous outside and we're supposed to hit the 70's, so all in all, life is good.  We've been lucky to have no lambs born during all the drama with me.  I'm hoping they all wait until the weekend, when Mike will be here all day and I will be upright for longer periods of time.  There are five ewes who look as though they could deliver at any moment and they surely will go in the next few days.

Sunday afternoon, Sara and Saint Tim came over for a visit and Sara took some really sweet pictures of the lambs.  You can look at all of them here.  Sara is having Lamb Camp days on her blog right now, featuring pictures of lambs from lots of farms around central Kentucky.  Sara's a terrific photographer and has a fun blog showcasing the personalities of all her animals.  She will be teaching a workshop at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival - Intro to Blogging with a Side of Photography that will be a great class to take for any of you interested in blogging and/or photography.  Since I've mentioned the festival, please go check out all the workshops.  We have wonderful choices this year and it's a beautiful time to visit the Bluegrass.

Rhinebeck

(glorious New England color)

This week, well actually this whole month, has been a bit of a blur and a slowdown is not yet on the horizon.  It seems we've either had some big activity going on here at the farm or we've been on the road, away from the farm, for most of October.  I'm thinking some quiet time settling into the coming winter will be a very good thing during the month of November.

Last weekend was the glory that is Rhinebeck.  Friday we drove 13+ hours to Rhinebeck, New York for a nearly perfect weekend of beautiful foliage, good food, wonderful weather, meeting new and old friends (it was so great to be reunited with my Squam cabin mates!) and the ultimate in fiber festivals.  It's surely a combination of all of the above that makes me love Rhinebeck so much.  I have gone to a lot of festivals over the years and this is the one that continues to top my list of events that I'm willing to travel long distances to attend.

(my 36 colors)

Saturday was my day to check out all the vendors and because we arrived at the fairgrounds well before the gates opened and were close to the front of the line, that was mostly accomplished before it became too crowded.  Sunday was devoted to the "36 Color Wheel Workshop", taught by Gail Callahan (The Kangaroo Dyer).  It was an eye-opening class for me and I think I finally understand the process of combining a few primary colors to achieve just the shade I'm looking for.  Gail explained and demonstrated the process in a clear and easily understandable way and then turned us loose to try it for ourselves.  It was fun and educational - the best possible outcome for any learning experience.  Gail has inspired me to be more creative in my color choices for this year's palette.  As soon as I can stay home for more than a day or so, I intend to pull out the dye pots and start working on the mountain of my "fresh from the farm yarn" that arrived back from the mill a few weeks ago.  (More on that in a later post.)

(buttons & detail of front)

My Olive "Antler" was indeed finished in time to become my 2013 Rhinebeck sweater .... just barely!  She made the drive on Friday, stretched out on top of the luggage in the back of the car,  feeling still slightly damp.  One of the best parts of the weekend were comments and questions from other knitters.  I love that walking around Rhinebeck in a handknit starts so many conversations with people you don't even know, who immediately become your friends.  For someone as introverted as I am, it's the best possible way to talk to strangers.  Even more fun, was spotting other "Antlers".  Because Olive was handspun and a little larger gauge than the pattern called for, she was somewhat different from other versions.  It's a great pattern to knit, easily adaptable and I can highly recommend it.

(the back view of Olive)

Tomorrow,  my friend Teresa and I are heading to Asheville, North Carolina for the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair.  Asheville is such a great town and SAFF is a fun place to catch up with fiber friends in this part of the country.  It's an easy drive through beautiful mountains and I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend of (more)food, (more)fiber and (more)friends!

(my beloved peonies are blooming-avert your eyes from the weeds!)

 So, it's back to real life.  The Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival is behind us and it was pretty terrific - the best yet!  I saw so many of you and met lots of new folks and answered the question, "What kind of sheep are those?" at least a hundred times.  Everyone who got a look at my girls in their pen wondered where they got those gorgeous curly locks.  For the record, they are half Wensleydale and they've got luster and curls galore.  My grand-daughter, Jordan, was a fantastic help the whole weekend and grandson, Coleman, pitched in on Saturday and Saturday evening for the Farm-to-Table dinner.  It was great fun having them around.

(Carson enjoying the view of growing, growing grass)

So what's happening around the farm this week?  Mostly regrouping, reorganizing and gearing up for the next event on the calendar.  What's not happening?  Mowing .... mowing that desperately needs doing.  Mike reminded me last night that I'm always in this agitated frame of mind in May and early June because the grass it growing and it's raining and getting the timing right for mowing is so difficult.  We've even hired a little help this year and are still struggling to hit a day when he's available to come mow and it's not too wet.  Our farm is one of those "picturesque", hilly places that makes mowing a bit of an adventure, even when it's dry.  You do not attempt it when the ground is wet.  Mike also reminded me that this phase will pass and soon enough the grass-growing frenzy will slow down.

Tomorrow I'm off for a felting class.  The fabulous Nicola Brown is here from Ireland again and I'm taking one of her workshops.  Honestly, Nicola is so much fun to be around, I'd take the workshop even if I didn't already know I was going to learn so much!  Nicola comes to the states for teaching gigs at least once a year and we're so lucky to be on her itinerary.

So, here's a question.  If you knew you were going to have only two days to spend in New York City, what would you want to see and do?  That's going to be part of my next adventure and I'm having trouble making a plan.  I need help!

Crazy time, lazy time

(under stormy skies last week)

It's that time of year.  The one when I feel I'm totally crazy for living this life I live.  So, so much to do and it all needs doing right now!  I'm sure I can hear the grass (and weeds) growing and it has rained so much that the ground is saturated and everything is too wet.  By the time it dries out enough to get on the mower and the tractor, another rainy spell is forecast.  Plus, the fiber festival is THIS WEEKEND!  (and, I am so not ready)  I'm giving myself a pep talk.  I'm trying to relax about it and just go with the flow.  I'm probably not going to get any more new yarn dyed or any more fibers spun up or any more felted bowls ready, but I have some fabulous natural colored roving and some freshly shorn fleeces that are lovely and I'm going to have a good time!  New to my booth this year are some really great yarn tools (and you know how we fiber people like to add new tools to our arsenal!)  Wes and Elissha Waltrip have designed some great "yarn buddies" and a very clever and affordable swift/skein winder that I'm sure many of you need to add to your collection. My wonderful grand-daughter, Jordan, is coming to help me again and we'll have time to sit and spin together or knit or just chat, so what more could I ask for?  Well, maybe some lovely weather so all you folks will want to be there at the festival with us.

I am excited about this year's festival.  It promises to be bigger and better than ever.  All the vendor spots are full and there will be even more vendors set up outside.  I'll be in the livestock area, which this year has been moved so that it's adjacent to the big vendor areas.  I'm going to have a few half Wensleydale yearling ewes with me that will be for sale.  Their fleeces are so bright and beautiful, they practically sparkle!  I'm even thinking about bringing Miss Luna along (she's a big girl now).  Come on by for a visit while you're at the festival.

As far as lazy time, that would be what all the animals who live here are enjoying.  Without lambs to raise this year, the ewes are doing nothing but eating and sleeping, eating and sleeping and then, maybe more eating.

(Pippi - all her spots revealed!)

 

The workshop in pictures

This week has gotten totally away from me.  I intended to get another post-workshop post up right away and here I am on Friday scrambling to do it.  Warning:  This is going to be a picture heavy post that's light on words.  These were all taken by Sara when she came over to document the happenings for me.  I hope I've managed to include everyone.  I was trying to find pictures with everyone included and these are in no particular order ...... just random scenes of the fun we had last week.

(There was a lot of this particular activity - nosy alpacas having their picture taken.)

(Prince and Robyn - up close and personal)

(Sue, Dagmar, Reg, Miho, Diane-with-one-N, Mary)

(Chris, Robyn, Dagmar, Anne and Reg in the background, Diane-with-one-N.  This picture could be called "Cochineal Behaving Badly"  They were able to make it behave and become red.)

(Diane-with-one-N-checking her iPhone timer.  This was a lesson for me - I had no idea I could use my phone as a timer.  See the valuable stuff I learned last week?)

(Carson chose Lisa to be his personal servant for the workshop)

(K. and Dagmar - I tried the whole time to figure out a way to confiscate Dagmar's apron - I love it!)

(There were lots of teaching moments)

(Barb and Lisa dubbed themselves the Remedial Team, but they did great!!)

(Beautiful steaming madder)

(One of Dagmar's gorgeous hand-dyed, handwoven scarves)

(The girls were not the least disrupted from their routine. It didn't faze them at all to see all those cars parked in front of the studio.  Can you see Pippi inside the little shed?)

So, this week has been a mostly rainy blur and now it's on to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, which will be next weekend, May 18 and 19.  We've got so much good stuff to offer this year.  There will be new fiber vendors, skein, picture and fleece competitions (don't forget that some of those fleeces will be for sale when the judging is finished), new food vendors (we're having gelato this year-that makes me so happy!), some great Bluegrass and Celtic music and we've added a Farm-to-Table dinner on Saturday evening.  Check out the website for all the happenings and then come out and enjoy the weekend with us!

Edited to add:  Check out Lisa's post on the workshop.  She did a fantastic job of explaining the whole process!  Lisa Binkley's Fiber Art Blog.

Going green

Finally, it's going green here in central Kentucky.  We had a little spell of rain and warm weather last week and the grass and trees and bushes are waking up.  Seeing the sheep grazing happily on tender grass and the tiny leaves emerging on the pecan trees in the yard was a bright spot in an otherwise frustrating week.  Looking back through posts from years past, we usually have poppies, peonies, viburnum and lilacs blooming by now, but this year we are way behind.  I'm hoping this means that we'll have a long, lovely spring that lasts well into June before the summer heat and humidity come to stay.

(My big bottle baby, Buddy)

It's an awfully quiet spring here at Tanglewood with no lambs to enjoy.  With the exception of a year or two when I chose not the breed the ewes, I've never had a spring without lambs in my shepherding life.  Mr. Bates was either too young for the job or else he was sterile.  In any case, we will never know because we castrated him last weekend, so he's now a wether.  Why would we do that?  Mr. Bates has a gorgeous fleece (he's half Wensleydale and has so much luster, I swear he sparkles!) and I wanted to keep him, but he was developing a bit of an "attitude".  I can't keep any animal around here if they are not trust-worthy and he was starting to make me feel uneasy.  All that testosterone was making him a bit of a punk less than agreeable to have around.  So, now that he's a wether, he should mellow out and start being a nicer boy.  He and Buddy are together right now, so he has the perfect roll model for becoming a true gentleman.  In another four or five weeks he and Buddy can join the girls out in the big pasture and they'll hopefully be one big happy family for the rest of the summer.

(The former punk - Mr. Bates)

Have you checked out the workshops for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival?  There are some terrific offerings - so much to learn, so little time.  I wish I could take a few classes, but I'll be there as a vendor and that will keep me plenty busy.  (I do hope to sneak in just a tiny bit of shopping.)  We've got lots of new features this year.  We're hosting a Farm-To-Table dinner on Saturday evening, more food vendors (gelato this year...yay!!), and a great selection of fiber and equipment vendors.  I promise, you'll be glad you came.

Way to go girls!

 Well, hello there.  Yes, we really are still here, even though it has been mighty quiet on the blog front.  The weeks leading up to the 2012 Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival were packed with preparations that left me unable to focus on much else.  I'm not the most organized person in the world, but I tried really hard to not procrastinate this year.  I think I may have improved on my past record, but still have a long way to go.  A couple of big accomplishments this year - the trailer was loaded and ready to roll before noon on set-up day - the bottle babies (Matthew and Marilla**) had been bathed the day before and were sparkling white and clean - Luna and Birdie got a quick spray off with the hose the day before to spiff them up just a little and best of all, I did not put my iPhone through the wash cycle in the washing machine.  Yes, that actually did happen two years ago.

Saturday at the festival was action packed.  There were good crowds of happy yarn and fiber buyers all day.  Luckily for me, my sweet grand-daughter, Jordan, came for the weekend to help me because it would not have been pretty if I'd tried to hold it together on my own.  Sunday was much, much slower, but it gave me more time to chat with people coming through.  I love the fact that so many said they read the blog and have been enjoying the lamb-cam.  (Sometimes I wonder if anyone is out there, so it's good to know.)

Wondering why the title to this post?  Because my girls did me proud in the fleece competition.  I only entered four natural colored fleeces, PeeGee, Teeny, Olive and 901.  The girls brought home two blue ribbons, two red ribbons and my special little Olive won the championship ribbon.  It was especially nice that the judge came to me afterwards to ask about Olive's breeding and tell me what a beautiful fleece she had produced.  To make it even sweeter, with the exception of 901, they are all bottle babies.  (My grand-daughter has made me feel guilty that 901 doesn't have a name, so if you've got ideas please send them this way!)

( Would it kill ya to give me a name?)

 This week it's back to real life on the farm. There's much to do to make up for slacking off on farm chores while preparing for the festival.  I only have two more fleeces to go before all the sheep and alpaca fleeces for 2012 will be washed and the garden needs attention a.s.a.p.  So, onward ......

** I know I said this was to be a "Downton Abbey" year for names, but DA didn't have any brother and sister names for me to use, so these two got "Anne of Green Gables" names.  I don't think they mind.

Mornings

Being just above the Kentucky river, we often have mornings that look like this.  The fog rolls up from the river, sweeps over us and dissipates quickly.  I often think of the Carl Sandburg poem, "The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on".  The cat image is such a perfect metaphor for the way fog moves across our farm.  I love looking out and seeing everything softened and blurred by the mist. 

I'm not much of an early riser.  Unless I've awakened before daylight and can't get back to sleep, I rarely see the sun coming up.  I sometimes think I'd like to be a morning person.  People I know who get up early do seem to accomplish a lot more than I do.  The problem is, I'm a night person.  If I'm reading a book or knitting (or surfing the black hole known as Pinterest), I can lose several hours before I know it and then it's 1:00 am or later.  I don't know if it's even possible to change my internal clock at my age.  Even as a child, I would read under the covers with a flashlight, so that my parents wouldn't know I was still awake.  I can't take naps either,  unless I'm sick and then I can sleep all night and all day, sometimes even a whole weekend.  How I envy people who can "power nap".  My husband is one of those and my friend Teresa can do the same.  Fifteen minutes and they're good as new!  It seems impossible to me.

 My favorite flowers have been blooming in abundance this year, or at least they were before the thunderstorms we experienced early Saturday morning.  I'm glad I got this picture earlier in the week, because the rain and wind wreaked havoc on the peony beds and they're beaten down now.  I think I've mentioned before that these peonies have been transplanted so many times, it's a wonder they grow so well.  They came from Mike's grandmother's farm, so they are especially meaningful.  

This week, I may not be rising before sunrise, but I'll be up and working pretty early because there are on-going preparations for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival,  preparing eight bottles a day for the bottle babies, trying to get more of the garden planted, and mowing, mowing and more mowing. What's going on at your place?

Some gratuitous lamb shots

The lambs are growing so quickly now.  Their play-times get more rambunctious and personalities begin to show.  No surprise, Gabby's two boys are very self-confident and seem to be the ring leaders for all kinds of trouble activity.  They're the first to jump on the hay bales and to try getting into the ewes feed bunks.  The famous Graham Lamb is their uncle (he and Grabby are twins), so I'm thinking there is something "special" in their genes. 

This pretty girl is one of only two single lambs we had born this spring.  We had four sets of triplets, two singles and the rest were all twins.  Out of twelve ewes, that makes for an over 200% lambing average.  That's a pretty good average since I'm not raising Finn sheep or some other breed that routinely have small litters.  One of my favorite things to do is go into the pen at night and just sit down and wait for the lambs to decide whether I'm a friend or foe.  I'm not sure how many more years I'll want (or be physically able) to keep having lambs.  It makes me sad to think of a spring-time with no bouncing lambs to watch.  The really hard part comes in a few months when I have to start deciding which lambs stay and which lambs go.

(another set of twins - boy with the tag in the left ear and girl with the tag in the right ear)

Holly always has a favorite ewe that she likes to hang out with.  I've never figured out how she chooses which one it will be, though it nearly always is one of the black sheep. One really good thing that I've observed this spring is that Aslan, who came to live here last fall, has been terrific with the lambs.  Though he's five years old, he'd never been on a farm where there were lambs being born and I wondered how he might react.  He's learned to slow down and hang back a little a feeding time, so that all the lambs come into the barn before him. 

The sheep are sleeping away most of the daylight hours because it is so dang hot!  Who ever heard of mid to upper 80's at the beginning of May?  Makes me worried about what kind of temperatures we will be having in July.  The sheep are already asking for the fans to be set up.  Those of you watching the lamb-cam might have noticed that I'm not shutting everyone in the barn at night.  I've been leaving the gate open to the outside, so they can go out where it is cooler.  They are in a very secure field and Aslan is in with them, so I'm not worried about predators.

Our last planning committee meeting for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival is this afternoon.  It seems nearly impossible that it's just a little over two weeks away now.  I've been in the dye pots for several weeks now and have finally finished dyeing all of the yarn from our sheep/alpaca blend yarn.  If you come (and I hope you do), please stop by my booth in the Livestock Pavilion and say hello.  We have a wonderful line-up of workshops and vendors, so there will be plenty of pretty things to buy and lots of interesting things to do.  I hope to meet many of you there.

Yearly rewards

Several weeks back, the shearers were here and all of those lovely fleeces the girls and I have spent the last year working on were harvested.  Those fleeces are one of my rewards for all the work I put into shepherding. Well, okay, the girls did most of the work, but, I did put some effort into helping them stay as clean as possible ..... you know, given that they live in a barn and all that.  Overall, I was very pleased with how healthy they looked, but the best part was seeing what my just now yearling girls produced.  Oh, my!  I love their fleeces!  You may remember that last year the famous Henry (half Wensleydale/half Cotswold ram) was the father of all but one of the ewe lambs I kept to put back into the brood ewe flock.  Henry did a fabulous job of putting beautiful fleeces on the girls.  I can hardly wait to spin them.  I need to select some competition fleeces and then start washing others in preparation for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, so I'm not allowing myself to do more than wash a few samples right now.  The locks pictured below are from Birdie and I can hardly keep from carrying it around with me all the time, just so I can admire it.  It is so lustrous and so soft, it reminds me a lot of kid mohair.  I know it's going to take dye beautifully and spin into some pretty, pretty yarn.  My hope is that 'The Mister' (our rent-a-ram), who was Wensleydale, has given me fleeces similar to this on the lambs born this year.

One of the reasons I still love raising sheep (after lo these many years) is the fun of breeding for improvement.  Way back, when I was raising purebreds and showing in competitions, there was a different kind of thought process because that was not necessarily breeding for what I liked best, but more what a show judge would be looking for.  Believe me, as in most competitive endeavors,  show standards can be totally different from 'living in the real world' standards.  Now that I'm breeding strictly for healthy animals and beautiful fleeces, every year brings surprises.  Last year when I selected Birdie to become a bottle baby and be a companion to Luna, I had no idea she would turn out to be such a sweetie and produce a gorgeous fleece.  If I'm completely honest, she was a little difficult in the beginning and I wasn't sure I was even going to like her personality.  She's turned out to be a charmer and, even now,  would follow me around all day if she could.  And, as much as I love Luna, she does have a strong sense of entitlement (and I can't imagine how she came by it) that allows her to think she can do certain things that are un-sheep-like on occasion.  (Such as helping herself to Aslan's dog food!)

Well, it's on into the weekend.  The grass is growing, growing, growing and there are plants in the greenhouse that need to be put in the ground right now.  It's that time of year when I feel perpetually behind on every aspect of my life.  I hope all of you find a little bit of time to enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you back here next week, with lots of gratuitous lamb pictures!

No joke ....

You thought I must be joking when I said I had more finished projects, right?  It's for real.  I'm on a roll and hope I can summon the focus to keep going.   I would be completely mortified if anyone knew how many projects I have abandoned so I could cast on for something new.  I'm going to conquer my secret project stash this year ..... or else I'm going to frog a bunch of stuff and quit feeling guilty !

This little hat is knit with Malabrigo Twist and the pattern is one that came free with the yarn at ReBelle in Lexington.  The yarn is so soft and squishy to knit with and I love how the subtle movement of color appears.  It was pure pleasure to knit this.  I think this is another one that will go into the Christmas box.

This one is strictly for me, though I may not get to wear it in this year of no winter.  It's the  'Annabel' sweater designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge.   Lots of people have knit this sweater and you can look at many versions on Ravelry.  I am so loving this sweater.  I want to cast on for another right now,  but I promised myself I would finish up some already on the needles projects before starting another.  This is an easy-peasy pattern.  I spun the yarn from some of my own wool/alpaca blend roving that was prepared by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers,  from last years shearing.  It happens that this sweater is more like a jacket.  It might be a little too heavy to wear indoors for any length of time.  That's a good reason to cast on for another one, in a lighter weight yarn ... right?  I added length to the sleeves,  rather than the 3/4 sleeves the pattern calls for and worked a single crochet edging all around to firm up the edges.  The fact that I am anxious to cast on for another shows how much I like this design.  I highly recommend it.

Wednesday was an unbelievably stormy day here.  Starting around 2:30 am,   we had thunder,  lightning and heavy rain rolling through,  almost hourly.  Luckily,  we were not hit by any tornadoes.  Thursday was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky,  but we've already been warned that today will likely be a repeat of Wednesday.

Happenings in the barn have taken a turn for the better.  Luna seems to be on the mend and we've had no more chicken casualties.  The chicken killer is still out there and ignoring my trap,  so I don't feel confident in saying it's completely over.  

If you're in the Lexington area and looking for something interesting to do this weekend,  Kentucky Crafted:  The Market 2012 is being held downtown in the Civic Center on Saturday and Sunday.  There will be a group of us doing demonstrations and promoting the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival to be held in May.  Take a minute to come by,  introduce yourself and say hi.

A flurry

 Not of snow,  that's for sure.  The temperature yesterday reached 69 degrees !   Today it's in the mid-forties and falling to mid-twenties tonight.  Such a weird winter we've had this year,  but I know from reading some of my favorite blogs,  that even in New England there's been very little to resemble the winters they normally have.

It's a flurry of finished objects that's been happening around here.  One of my goals for this year is to finish at least some of my many,  many,  many ( and many more ) projects that are currently taking up space on my collection of knitting needles.  In fact,  the reason I have so many knitting needles is that it's just easier to buy another needle sometimes,  rather than put all those projects on stitch holders ( or,  I suppose,  actually finishing something before starting yet another .... but,  what fun would that be ? )

( Think those tulips have given it their all ? )

First,  it's a Bandana Cowl from the Purl Bee.  I used a skein of handspun that needed to be made into something fairly small and useful.  Don't you love the Purl Bee ?  Their projects are nearly always something I want to cast on right away ( could be part of the reason for knitting needle shortage around here ).  This skein of yarn came from my own hand-dyed wool/alpaca blend roving.  It's really soft and comfy around my neck and I think it will become a favorite.  Right now,  I'm kinda over wearing scarves.  There's always the wrapping and draping and looping thing to figure out with a scarf.  Cowls are simple.  You just slip it on and you're good to go !

Next is a sweet little bolero/vest that will probably go into the Christmas 2012 stash.  ( I can hardly believe that !  What's the world coming to,  if I have already knit something for Christmas ? )  I think this needs to go on a smaller body than mine and there are several candidates in my family.  The pattern is from Plymouth Yarn.  The yarn I used came from my collection of Briar Rose yarn.   I.  Love.  Briar.  Rose.  I want to be able to dye yarn like Chris Roosien when I grow up !  I've never seen a Briar Rose yarn I didn't want to bring home with me.  And,  here's some really good news .... Briar Rose will be at the Kentucky Sheep and Wool Festival,  May 19 and 20,  at Masterson Station Park,  in Lexington,  Kentucky.  A lot of folks around here have not had the pleasure of seeing Briar Rose in person and I predict there will be a small riot at Chris' booth !

Last one for today ..... a very simple,  garter stitch vest from the book ' Seamless ( or Nearly Seamless ) Knits ' .  Once again,  I used my own handspun,  natural colored wool/alpaca blend yarn.  This was an easy,  easy knit and the kind of thing I'm going to like wearing a lot.  I'm a plain and simple person when it comes to clothing,  so this is perfect for me. 

Believe it or not,  I have two more finished items that I'll share in a few days.  I know ..... it's shocking !