Have we any wool? Indeed! Several cones full!

 These three top cones are what has come in today and the middle one is all Monkey's fiber, once this is gone it's gone - we lost him this past spring. I kept telling him that I couldn't wait to wear him and I'm pretty excited about now being able to!

So what do you think? This a huge step for the farm and I've just giving you a heads up - I've got a couple announcements to make when all the details have been worked out! woohoo!

Warm Winter Woolies!

So here it is folks! Just back from the mill and ready for some creativity, all that's needed is YOU! This is our llama/wool blend.

 

100% Maine grown alpaca! Exclusive From the Country Farm blend we call Johnsey! Makes me think of a sinfully rich mug of hot cocoa. Silky. Soft. Warm. What more could you ask for?

 

 

 Miss Audrey's favorite "Deorgepaca!" Again 100% Maine grown alpaca! Similar to Johnsey only a white chocolate version!

All our fiber is processed and spun into this wonderful yarn within 10 miles of our farm, when I say I like supporting local businesses I mean local! :-) When the rest of the yarn is finished and back I'll post some pictures of that as well, it'll be after the start of the new year, I think I'll have all this yarn in hanks by then! Have I mentioned I'm just giddy about this?!

ready to head to the spinning mill!

I've finally got all the fleeces weighed and ready to head to the spinning mill on Monday and will have yarn for sale mid November! Really looking forward to this, finally!

my first hand spun and hand knit hat!!!

I just finished this hat tonight and I couldn't be more excited about it! It's been a while in the process, because I spun all the yarn from roving I purchased this summer and started knitting it last night. It's a 50/50 combo of mohair and lambs wool and as soft as can be, and it's for sale!

a fun process!

I need a few of these!

The other day somewhere between washing the pigs, hopping into the pen to poop scoop and greasing them up before the show (of course I'm serious! Just when I thought I'd seen it all after what some might call 'pimping the cows' I find out what extent it can be done to the pigs! Oi!) I spotted a market lamb in a pen that caught my eye. I have a soft spot for lambs as it was a little white lamb with a blue halter in a pen at a fair that was the reason I joined 4-H as a child. I still don't have one, yet. Anyway, the reason this particular lamb caught my eye was because he was slickshorn and he looked like a pearl. I kid you not his fleece other than being white as snow was as lustrous as a pearl and I made it a point to keep an eye on that pen to pounce (I mean politely ask "WHAT IS THAT LAMB??????") on the owner and inquire about the breed. Finally I was able to get some answers from a super polite and very knowledgeable 4-Her. She told me that he was a Cotswold. (According to the ALBC it's a threatened breed, which just intrigued me more.)

We chatted for a bit, I asked her about the breed and the fiber, she took me over to the pens where the rest of her sheep were and I was smitten, one of her ram's fleece was unlike anything I'd ever seen and it too was as white as snow and pearl like. In a word, exquisite. We chatted some more, [read I probed her with questions and she answered politely] and I learned quite a bit about this wonderful breed. She offered me a sample of fiber to try spinning to see if I liked it, and I cannot wait to try it. Once I'm done with the truckload of tomatoes, pears and apples I'll try for sure! I hope to someday in the near future be introducing you to a new cast member or two, because if the fiber spins as beautifully as it look on the sheep...... I'll NEED to have some!

I made YARN!!

These are two skeins of yarn that I spun myself on a drop spindle! It's a mohair/lamb blend and I think its to die for! I'm pretty pleased with how it came out having never taken a class or anything and being my first time. My sister showed me how to use a drop spindle a few years ago and I've puttered with it periodically. The wool I have from my animals is currently raw fleece, I do not have a carder so I can make it into roving, fortunately I live near a small spinning mill and they will do that fairly reasonably. I purchased this wool to blend in with my fiber, it was not what I needed and wouldn't work, so I opted to give it a whirl. Literally!

Once I had enough on my spindle I did a bit of internet poking around, found out what the next step was, spun another spindle full, plied the two together, soaked it, stretched it, dried it and voila' this is the result!

Hmmm, now what to do with it....

ba ba black sheep have you any wool?

yes sir yes sir three bags full! And this is some of it! Actually I've got over a dozen bags of wool, most of it llama. There is a small spinning mill I'm going to take it to in the next town over as there is WAY too much for me to do myself. Besides, I've got the pygora to spin as well. I think I may try to combine some pygora and llama and see how it turns out. That will be neat to have yarn from my boys!

I'll give it a whirl!

Often I've had people say to me "Oh, you're so talented, I could never do that." (Before you think I'm tooting my horn, let me say, I'm not and please keep reading.) Personally I don't think I'm any more or less talented than anybody else. I'm just willing to try something and fail at it or succeed in some cases. Lots of people are not that willing. Best I can figure I'm only getting one go round in this life and I don't want to end up at the end of it saying, "Damn! I wish I'd tried this or that..." I've tried lots of things in my life and I'm interested in trying more, (Sorry Ron!) that's how I live, learn, grow, laugh and love, I try it. (I just reread that last sentence and sound like a play-school commercial!) I don't know if I'm capable of walking on the moon or not, I've not done that yet and it's sad to think I'd miss out on the opportunity to do it just because I thought I couldn't. I don't know if I'm capable of changing a tire on my truck as I've not done it, yet. I do know that I am capable of pressure canning tomatoes fresh from my garden, I've tried it and will add they are mighty delicious! Truthfully it saddens me when people say they couldn't do what I do when they have not even tried, I totally understand that people would not want to do some of what I do, but that is not my point. For trying most things my attitude is 'ok, I'll give it a whirl!'

My latest project, (because it is a sitting down project which doesn't require much lung or sinus activity which is a good thing considering Im still tring to fight off this ridiculous head cold) is having a go at spinning the pygora fiber I harvested from Blackberry, (our pygora wether) this past spring. I'd like to try spinning it on a wheel, but am happy to be able to start off on a drop spindle. It's only about a pound of fiber, thankfully, otherwise it might seem too daunting a task to bite off; for sure I'm not attempting the nearly seven or so pounds of llama fiber I have to do next, I'll send it to the local spinning mill! Actually it's really quite fun and I'm looking forward to having a finished project; that down the road a bit, I still need to finish spinning, then ply it and then knit something.... His fiber is so silky soft to spin and is a nice charcoal gray, my husband keeps telling me that he needs a scarf to go with his black jacket, so we'll see, one step at a time. Baby steps even. So my hope for you is that when something comes up that your first reaction is to think you cannot do that, try this instead, 'ok, I'll give it a whirl!"