3 Scarf, 3 different yarns, 3 different sheep

I thought it would be good to share the 3 projects I have been working on for Christmas presents for 3 friends I have had a few difficulties getting them posted as I used my cell phone to take the pics and it has given me a few headaches on how to get them posted with a little explanation with each pic. I have managed it apart from one and Lambie's little write up did not appear.

Paris

Paris, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This is Paris she is a Rambouiilet, they have very soft wool and is good for knitting items that are going to be close to the skin. Paris will be nearly 3 yrs old and has had twins twice and we are hoping that she will give birth again in the next couple of months.

Scaf3

Scaf3, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

His will be a cowl scarf as you can see I am still working on it. This is knitted out of Rambouillet wool, again I save up enough wool to send to the local mill and they spin it in to yarn for me. I then skein it and dye it, the is hand painted the color is called Regal.

Twinie

Twinie, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

The ewe in the front of the picture is Twinie, with Boobie just behind her they are both Romneys. The wool from these white Romney's is sent to the mill to make yarn.
The Romney wool is a very hard wearing wool and makes excellent outer wear like hats, gloves, bags etc, example of it knitted is the blue scarf below.

Scarf1

Scarf1, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This scarf is knitted from Romney wool, I wash all my white Romney sheep's wool and then I send it to the local Woolen Mill, there they spin it in to yarn and ship it back to me on cones. I then skein it in to 200 yds and dye it, the colors I have use here are Royal blue, Copenhagen blue and Baby blue.

Lambie

Lambie, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Zcaf2

Zcaf2, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This is the shawl scarf, hand spun and knitted from the Tunis ewe Lambie

Lambie

Lambie, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Scaf3

Scaf3, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Quite week

We have had a quite week, last Sunday we took Silver and Boras away from the ewes and ewe lambs and fastened them in the barn with Harry, Bro,Yorkie and little Ben (this years lamb which we are going to keep for breeding stock). When the Rams have been away from each other they have to spend a little bit of time getting to know each other and reestablishing  hierarchy. They are now behaving and are ready to be let out in to the ram paddock for the winter.

This also means that I have an official date for the end of lambing which will be the 3rd May 20012 and the nice spring weather will be here.

I also have had a very sad dog (sam) he had to go to the vets to have his teeth cleaned, he had to have one back mouler removed and he is now taking antibiotics, but he is bouncing back and is arguing with gizmo about chew's.

Dave has also got the paypal working on the website and we have had our first order which is great,I am so pleased that it all  working.

what did the wet felt make

 Remember the fluffy pile of wool that I was about to start wet felting, the above pic is that same pile of wool now felted. I made two pieces that day the other piece was slightly smaller and after a few ours in my work room it has turned in to 4 snowmen (I only have two finished).

 

They are make from a mason jar bottom wrapped with the wet felt, a needle felted head and either a needle felted hat or a knitted one, none of it is glued, it is all felted. 

This idea was give to me by my mother who made them for us and filled the jar with little treats that she found throughout the year and they where put on the Christmas table instead of Christmas crackers.

Busy weekend

We had a very busy weekend getting some of the fall trees cut up and taken away and David wanted to get last years manure pile spread on the field that has all the corns stalks on it, to help fertilize it for our next years grass crop. This is the first time David has used the manure spreader since we bought it so I got quite a laugh as he engaged the spreader mechanism and it started to spread the manure which went in all directions including David's and not having a cab on our tractor everything got a dose of fertilizer, thank goodness for automatic washing machines.

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As you can see the tractor got more that Dave, but I think he got his fair share too, he asked if I would like to try it out I declined rather quickly and made a run for it back to the house and started doing some wet felting.

 The picture shows Romney wool, which I have layered in different directions and is now ready for the wetting process,  then it will be rolled to felt it and finally washed and left to dry.

Sad boys

Sunday was the day to remove the 3 yearling rams from there breeding groups and put all the ewes together, we left Silver my oldest Ram in with them, hopefully he will find anyone who has not been bred by the other rams. The 3 boys are now living in the barn, as we need to keep them in a smallish pen till they decide to become friends, which can take anything from 3 or 4 days to a couple of weeks. The photo left to right is Yorkie who we bought in July, Harry and Bro.

We left Borace with has ewe lambs, he looks to be doing a good job.

We are able to tell if a ram has bred with a ewe as we put harnesses on the rams that hold a colored block, this block sits between his front legs(which you can see in the photo of Borace) and when he mount the ewe to breed the color block leaves a mark. This method has been very successful in the past and the marker washes out of the fleece. There are other methods of marking, but they can be very messy and we have heard the some of the marker's don't wash out very well, that is ok if the fleece is going to the wool co op, but our fleeces are precious and we need them in good conditions to make our yarn.
 Silver and all the ewes, should be eating breakfast, but instead they are being nosy watching what I am doing, which is tiring to take a good pic of them.

gone technical

We I am now the proud owner of a smart phone, confused and feeling a little hopeless with it at the moment but I will master it like everything else. The reason for getting up to date with my phone is that we will now be able to take visa cards at the farmers markets etc, well as soon as the card reader bit arrives.

I have also been taking some photos of the  18 acre field, we have been renting it our to a local farmer but we have now decided to farm it our selves, more yummy grass for the girls. Like always we find our selves facing a up hill struggle to get it in to shape for sewing with grass seed, it's last crop was corn and we have all the stalks etc from the crop being harvested, we tried bailing it and broke the poor old bailer we have temporary fence part of it with electric fencing and put Silver and his girls in during the day to eat and trample some of it and we have given some of the girls staggers ( too many corn ears left on the ground) so they are not going back in there now , next option get the farmer down the road to come and till it for us.

catch up with all thats going on here

Hey! it worked, the first blog I mean, so now I will try to catch you up with what has been going on here.

Starting in July we went for a road trip to New York State and bought a new pure white Ram from Anchorage Farm and we also went to a sheep sale and bought a new ewe lamb ( both Romneys) for Little Hooves Farm, we had the longest drive home, we tried to do it without stopping but we both gave up around 3 and stopped for an hours nap, we got home safe and after there 3wk quarantine they have entered the flock and are a friendly pair.


August 2nd we put our Rambouillet and one of our Tunis ewes with our colored Romney Ram (Silver)

September 24th we split all ewes into their breeding groups, 6 groups in total which is quite a task as the rams can see each other and keeping them to their own group was difficult and twice Harry decided he wanted to be with Yorkie's girls.

October 2nd we went to the UW Badger Sale and bought 2 Rambouillet ewe lambs, we put them in to quarantine but it only lasted a day and they jumped through a fence then an electric fence and joined Yorkie and his girls, they are still in that group they have calmed down a lot but they are like a pair of siemise twins they are never apart.

October 7th we bought a Tunis ram lamb and he is enjoying himself with our ewe lambs and Rusty who is a Tunis ewe.

October 10th we had 30 day old chicks delivered, they are red Star hens, we have some hens but they are now getting old and the few we have raised with the hens are not enough. We also are going to put these girls to work, we found that our Rams had less internal parasites this year and the only difference is that the hens have been able to get into there paddock. So we are going to make a chicken coup on wheels so we can pull it behind the ATV and the hens will follow the sheep around the paddocks, hopefully it will help reduce there internal parasite too.

First ever blog from Yorkshire Rose Farm

I tried this the other day and something went wrong, so hopefully today I will achieve my first ever blog.
Unfortunately it is a bit of a sad one as we have just take our oldest Ram (Ray) to the sale barn. It is sad but I have to remember that he has had a good life here with us and we now have alot of his off spring running around.
This is where I close to see if this blog will work for me.