Tuli Gets a Hair Cut!!!

My dear little sheep, Tuli, had to endure the indignity of being sheared on Sunday.

I actually recorded it with my flip camera and got it saved on my computer and as of now, cannot get it to upload. So, I will need to spend some more time on figuring that out.

Luckily, I was able to snatch out a few pics from the video --


In the beginning, Emily, the shearer, props Tuli up in her butt. For whatever reason, the sheep (including rams) are incredibly docile.









Now, we are almost halfway done. I saw "we", but I'm sure Tuli felt very alone at this moment!











It's all over and you can see what a beautiful fleece I will be getting soon!











From here, Tuli received a shot and got a dose of worm medicine orally and then was cast back into the pen. The funny part is that after the shearing, the other sheep don't recognize their former pen-mate and treat the "newcomer" to a lot of aggressive behavior. But, they all end up getting their turn to that treatment as the shearing progresses.

Finished Object Alert: Namaste Farms Poncho!!!

Ah, the thrill of a finished object! Finally, finally, finally, the Namaste Farms Poncho is finished and hanging in my closet.



The fiber is all from angora goats -- the shepardess does everything to produce the fiber: raises the animal, shears it, then washes, dyes and spins the mohair into a very lightweight and strong yarn.

It was a little tricky to work with at first, but after starting and ripping it out several times, I got into the groove.

I'm so excited that I have it ready to wear for spring!

Now, we need spring.

My New Baby: Belladonna Yarns

So...the yarn line is out! And, I've sold some yarn already which was a great feeling.

And, now I have to get back to the wheel!!!




Here's something I did from last weekend that hasn't been tagged for sale yet:







It's very busy at work right now so I've been coming home very tired at night and have not had it in my to make more yarn. But, over the next few days, I should be able to get something done as we approach the weekend.

Today it's going to rain all day and it would be a perfect day to spin and watch old movies on TCM, BUT, I have a J-O-B to do.

In the meantime, I have a lot of wool that is going out to be cleaned and in about a month, I will be a dyeing fool. I did the math and it really pays for me to dye the wool myself. In the meantime, I'm at the mercy of others.

Ethel Cotton Needs No Introduction

Do you want to have more wit, poise and charm in your communications???? You do, don't you? Well, here's your answer:


Behold! The Ethel Cotton Conversation Course! published in 1950 (Purchased at a yard sale last weekend for 50 cents).












You probably can't tell from the picture, but according to the marketing materials, "Ethel Cotton needs no introduction!"










According to Ethel, "Never say, even to yourself, that you have a poor memory!" -- I'm taking that advice right now!!






Lesson 8 -- Colorful Description: "Hampstead Heath! What a romantic name! It made me think of privet hedges, climbing roses, and thatched cottages." I can't wait to work that into a conversation.






Alas, my twelve lesson set is missing two lessons: 4. Too Tired to Talk and 7. Discussing Books and Plays. I shall avoid those two scenarios!

I predict my career shall skyrocket as a result of these materials.

Lambing Time

The farm where I adopted the sheep has several expectant mothers right now and a few new borns so we went out to see them on Sunday.

This is a "bottle" baby that does not have a momma to feed him:




Many times farmers do not want bottle babies because of the cost to feed them, but this little guy will have a good fleece, so an exception is being made.









It's hard to get sheep to sit still while you take pictures, but this is Maggie with her new twins -- one is toward the back, nursing:













And, at last, my sheep, Tuli -- she is the one in the middle enjoying the afternoon sun:


Tuli will not have a baby this year. She is too young. But, she will be sheared in two weeks and the fleece will be coming my way.






Yay! More fleece...I have about 25 pounds right now and just arranged to have a processor come pick it up and wash it for me. I had every intention of doing it myself but now, I have too much really to contend with. If all I have to wash is Tuli's, I can handle that.

I Want to Be Under the Sea

At last!!! A finished knitting object...



These are the Octopus' Garden Socks. The yarn color so named because of a picture of a coral reef.

These seemed to take forever. Maybe they took two months. Sheesh. I can't get my sock yarn stash under control at this rate. I have been very busy MAKING yarn instead of using it. And, that is not helping stash control either. So, I'm getting ready to sell some of the homemade yarns. Wish me luck!

Memory Lane

You know how TV shows sometimes don't know what to write so they do some kind of trip down memory lane? Well, dear blog readers, I hope I am not "jumping the shark" here but I was really stuck for a second post this week because my dear SO has been out of town and between taking care of things like car emissions inspections, doctors appointments and tax season, have not been having much fun this week to share.

But, still I'm pretty wedded to my publishing schedule, so I'm offering up a little retrospective of some early knitting projects.

(Note: if you see any typos in this post, I'm blaming the cat who is obsessed with walking over the keyboard this morning)


Here are the socks that launched 1,000 socks:
These are the now-famous socks that travelled back and forth to Buffalo several times so that my knitting mentor could turn the heel and then later graft the toes. Both socks made the trip twice. These socks took forever! But, the turned out nicely and spurred me on to learn how to do it myself. Now, it's second nature but then, it was hard!




Here is "the Italian job". I fell in love with this yarn which is Trendsetter and from Italy. Not cheap at all. In fact, it might have been the first sort of expensive project I took on. $75 for a scarf seemed like pure insanity to me at the time. I even had to track down another ball of it off of eBay because my local yarn store was all out...and I kntted and knitted...and then when it was done, I found out that stockinette stitch is so completely curly that I should have bordered it with garter stitch or something else to make the thing lay flat.

Yet, of course, no amount of blocking would cure the evil stockinette curse. I wore it with my camel colored coat all that first winter...and it pilled.









And, then, finally, the first step to sock freedom:



My first independently made socks made in a class. These were made from the toe up. I would use this pattern a number of times before I decided I then needed to learn how to make socks top down and really contend with the heel and the toe. I actually had to rip them out and knit them several times as I recall (I think that was over an April Florida vacation one year).

Sadly, I hardly ever wear these. I am out of love with the color and the cuff is shorter than I like.

These projects all hail from about four years ago...not that long ago but it's gratifying to see how far I've come!