Ewe lambs 7 mos update

Our baby girls are growing up!  Over the next few days I'll be posting photos of our ewe lambs from  when they were babies, and then now at 7 mos, plus a shot of their parted fleeces.  One thing about their 7 mos photos, their fleeces look kind of squished, its because they were in tiny coats and we took them off in order to take photos, as well as to upgrade them to bigger coats.

Here we have Nina, out of Whispering Pines English Garden x Whispering Pines Mr. Darcy.  She is a fawn katmoget.

Try to guess what our naming convention is for 2018!  

Rhinebeck Weekend

Beautiful cool weather for those of you at Rhinebeck, happy the weather is nice for wearing your homemade wool finery!

We kept busy on the farm this weekend.  Finished putting the coats on the ewes, we are now 100% ready for hay once we get a hard frost.

I'm still working on Marianne, spinning the lighter portion and will probably make the balance into batts for spinners.

Washed up Eddard's fleece, will get some nice moorit and creamy white from his lamb fleece from 2 years ago.

The thrum mittens are taking awhile.  I have to say they are just as fiddly as I thought they would be.

I hope to get to start spinning Meera Reed's wool into a gradient yarn, need to get the locks sorted and organized by shade before I can start, which requires a clear table, which for some reason this weekend they are in short supply.

Autumn tasks

Spent this morning putting coats on some of the ewes and clipping their feet.  I think we got about half way through.  Also was able to take a few photos of them pre coating.

I am carding and spinning Marianne's 2018 fleece.  I always am pleasantly surprised by her wool's lustre, just stunning.

I finished Ivy's gradient yarn, I love how it came out and there is a lot of it.   I now need to final wash and dry, measure, mark it and get it on the etsy shop.

I had a customer send me some photos of her Santa's that she makes with my curly bits.  So cool!

What I am working on

Been looking forward to this weekend of nothing to do.  So I have a pile of activities and stuff I want to do.  (And yes I do realize these two sentences contradict each other)

Here is one of the bottle ram lambs growing up.

Paid a quick visit to the two new girls, gave them some of the loose hay from the wagon, here they are munching away.

Washed Fanny's fleece, I love her color gradation, and she is so pretty and soft!

Still spinning up O'Brien, I expect I will get three skeins from her.

Knitting a pair of mittens with Caramel Mocha's yarn and thrum from Blue Diamond..  Never did thrum before, these are going to be warm and comfy mittens!

Helped a little with the hay - here is the view from the top of the hay wagon.  All I see is all there is to do.  But the clouds look really cool.

WNY Fiber Festival

Saturday's WNY Fiber festival marked the end of our three weekend marathon of fiber festivals I attend every year, and I am very happy to say it was a terrific day.  Beautiful weather, steady traffic and great conversations made it a wonderful event for us.

I am spending today unloading the van and reorganizing my studio.

During my breaks I am spinning up O'Brien's fleece from 2018.  I was demo-ing spinning it yesterday and hope to complete in the next week or so.  My inventory has been severely depleted so I have a lot of work to do to catch up on my backlog and prep for Knitters Circle event in February.

I'm also washing Aries's fleece (young man on the left in this photo), rather stinky but I think I'm making progress.  I am reflecting on how nice it is we coat the ewes as I am on my 5th soapy soak on Aries's fleece vs. my usual 2 soaks with my lovely girls.  And there is still a little dirt left in the sink after soak # 5.  Should probably get some of that scour solution that one of my mentors keeps telling me about.  Will add to my list...

So much to do!  Looking forward to next weekend which I 100% dedicate to puttering in the studio and trying out some new ideas from these last few very inspiring weeks!

Fingerlakes Fiber Festival Sunday

Expecting a quieter day today, and preparing for the heat with lighter clothes and a fan.  It was really hot yesterday, but still managed to peddle some wool.  Here are some photos from yesterday. 

Hat made by Marina using Whispering Pines Soft Shetland Wool

Fingerlakes Fiber Festival

It is the nice quiet morning of the festival, Rich and I set up the booth yesterday so we can leave here at around 8 and arrive in time for the vendor parking.

The two new arrivals are doing well in their quarantine pen.  I tried to get some nice full shots but turns out they are both so friendly it was nearly impossible.  So here are some closeups of our pretty new girls:

Looking forward to seeing everyone today, looks like its going to be a nice day for a festival!