Published!

Ever since we arrived in Woodbine, MD, the Shetlands, Merinos and Mounds have hung out at the top of the pasture. I have to go way up to check on them. I managed to capture them with the bank barn in the background. They sure do love the grass.

Now that our chicks have arrrived, we are back to our "normal" from Tucson. These are Speckled Sussex and we chose them because they are supposed to lay 4 eggs a week and be good brooders. I would like to hatch our own chicks nex year, so I got a straight run. There are definitely a few roosters in the bunch.

My Green Crochet Shawl pattern was chosen to go in the 2013 Crochet calendar. It is featured for April 12th and was renamed Lacy Shawl. Kind of exciting, even if I did know about it months ago!

I am going to weave two white/natural colored shawls for a presentation that I am giving for the Greater Baltimore Guild on October 2nd, 2012. Title - Fiber Connections: Art and Science. The yarn is spun, so I am working on tying on my loom.

I was able to catch a photo as my first sunflower started opening this afternoon. I took an even cooler picture of one about to open, but I don't want to bore you!

There is always a lot to do here. I turned my compost, dealt with some animals that have health issues, and sheared a buk who looked too hot. This is his fleece. It is 5 or mre inches long - but it weighed only 23 ounces - even though it is a full 6 month fleece. His fllece feels like it has already been washed. No vm in it and no grease. Guess the rain does a good job. I have been delousing them routinely, so there is no back scratching and no felting. His fleece is superfine. I am thinking that eating grass and clover gives a finer fleece.

And here he is - no nicks or cuts. He is registered and for sale ($350) - out of a great line. If he does not sell, I will use him with the older does.

Spinning Yarns and Gardening

I am bouncing all around in my color and fiber selections right now. The coiled one is going on my eshop, while the rest will go in the physical shop here in Woodbine, Maryland. I am alternating between listing on my own shop: http://www.uniquedesignsbykathyshop.com and my etsy shop: http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.etsy.com.

I am not sure whether you can tell what is growing in Watusi's pasture, but it is ragweed. The goats, sheep and alpacas had all been eating around it. My neighbor finally informed me the other day that it is ragweed. Sure enough, I did an Internet search, so I could be sure, and then I was out there mowing it down. It really needs to be tilled under, but then I would not have the grass and other "weeds" that Watusi has been eating. It pulls up fairly easy, so I am weeding a little each time I go out.

This is my real garden. The sunflowers are over 5 feet tall. They tower above me now. My beans, cucumbers and tomatoes are growing in their shade and twining around their stalks -instant trellis. Where the wooden pegs are in the rear of the picture is the last bed that Marc helped me dig. I have peppers, stevia, catnip and corn with a few more sunflowers in that bed.

This is my first cucumber. I have not harvested it yet, since it is so small!

I have some really great neighbors, who started their gardens while I was moving in and doing kid and lamb deliveries. They have been keeping me supplied with different types of squash, peppers, zucchini. Ruth gave me basil and tomato plants. I cut 2.6 pounds of basil off and stripped the leaves this weekend. I dried a quart and used the rest to make and freeze pesto sauce. In two weeks, I will be cutting a bunch more. Gardening is occupying almost as much time as gardening. I am almost ready for chickens. Marc mentioned them when he got back from Tucson last week. Guess he misses them also. We need to figure out where we want to put them, since we don't want to lose them to the dogs.

Shear Perfection

Shearing is now done until October 27, when all of the angora goats and some ram lambs will be shorn.

Thanksgiving is getting her hair cut by Nathan Good of Shear Perfection. He did a superb job. No stress for the animals or for me (most important!) While shearing Maryland, the cria born May 5th, he mention that "he" had a lovely fleece. Based on how he squatted to pee and no obvious testicles, I thought I had a girl. I do not breed with the intentions of papering my alpacas, so I will keep him, if I don't find a buyer. His fleece is as lovely as Thanksgiving's so with plenty of pasture, I am not under pressure.

Nathan was also willing to grind down teeth, so Jennifer went to the dentist without leaving home!

Marc held Winter, Maryland's mom, so she would know where her baby was. I think of the alpacas as large animals, but they are not once shorn and especially being held by Marc!

I am still doing lots of freeform - between spinning, washing fleeces and gardening. I am also checking out the various knitting and spinning groups in the area. So far, the spinning group associated with the Baltimore Weaver's guild has my vote. I plan to check out the Columbia Sip and Knit group that meets next Tuesday at the King's mall.

I have signed up to be a vendor at Spin Quest on August 25th. You can find more information by going to Spin Artiste's website and Ravelry pages.

Shearing in Maryland

I would have thought that there were lots of sheep and goat shearers in Maryland due to all of the farms. I was in for a surprise. There are only 3 listed on the Maryland shearing site and I managed to use all three.

David Todd, the first shearer only does sheep. He is more used to production shearing, where lots of sheep are run through in a hurry. We were expected to already have the next sheep ready, so we had to scramble to get the hooves and CD&T shots done as he sheared. Above, Columbian is being sheared. She did not have a very heavy fleece.

Anne, the second shearer, uses the pole-and-stretch out method of shearing, similar to how alpacas are usually shorn. Ruth, my friend on the left, helped Anne by holding down Ruby (the goat). This method is slower than the other methods, but the cuts are reduced. However, the biggest disadvantage for me was that I had to stay holding heads all day long while sitting on the ground.

Emily Chamberlain was the last shearer. She did a lovely efficient job of shearing the remaining goats. I am scheduling her again and she has me on her calendar for three days in October 26-28. I am doing an fiber festival on October 27 and you are all welcome to come watch her in action. I have already scheduled my spring shearing for the last weekend in March. It is Easter. What better time to do it? Right now she will not shear alpacas. I am trying to talk her into going to the alpacas shearing school and told her that I will give her a scholarship, if she decides to go. She has shorn alacas before. I hope she will again!

Marc is trimming the hooves on Hummer, our seven year old buck. Check out the awesome horns!

Harvesting Hay

John finally showed up on Sunday afternoon to cut our hay. It is a lengthy process and the weather plays a big part. Once cut, it has to be fluffed until it dries. If there is no sun or it rains, it all takes longer.

The grass is so high that you can barely seen the haybine (mower.) It is cutting the width of the red mower and shooting the hay to the middle.

Above is a better shot of the haybine. It is attached to the tractor by a long arm which swings around and cuts the grass.

Once cut, the hay has to be raked which is basically fluffing and turning the hay, so it will dry evenly. John had to fluff it three times. Fortunately it dd not rain, but we did not have a lot of sun either. On the fourth day, the hay was sucked into the baler on the front side.

And a bale - packed nice and tight and already bound with twine - popped out the back end.

Once the hay is baled, the farmer drives around with a wagon. This is not an ordinary wagon. On the front right side it has a scooper that grabs the bale and lifts it onto a platform. Once the platform is filled, the platform is raised and the bales are raised into the back of the wagon.

When the wagon is full (this one holds 160 bales), it is driven to the barn - or wherever the hay is going to be stored. The wagon is then tilted 90 degrees, so the bales are resting on the ground. The idea is that the wagon is pulled forward and the hay is left in a neat stack. This obviously did not happen here, but it did not really matter, since the hay needed to be stacked in the hayloft, or in this case the garage. Sorry, Marc, but you were not here to do the lifting, so the hayloft is clean, but empty.

My neighbors, Harry and Ruth, came down and graciously volunteered to help me get the hay stacked. I am really grateful, because 20 minutes after we finished, we had a thunderstorm run through. Nothing like a little monsoon in Maryland!

We harvested 283 bales. It will feed my animals approximately 70 days. I plan to hoard it in case we do not get a second cutting. The farmer's machinery was too big to cut all of the areas, so a tractor with a sickle mower is looking like a necessity. For now, we are going to put up electric fencing and let the goats clear the other areas. They have all been shorn, so I do not have to worry about weeds and seeds getting stuck in their fiber.

Above is my new washing area. It was finished yesterday. I went down this morning and started washing and dyeing. I now feel at home, since I can get back into the routine of starting my week washing, dyeing and drying . It helps that the cellar of the red barn is a little less creepy now that the lights are on and part of it has been swept out. We found a baby snake in the area and lots of snake skins. Fortunately these are black snakes and I have been assured that they are not poisonous!

Tomorrow I am going on a field trip to The Mannings, a shop in Pennsylvania, that is pretty famous in this area. They are doing a spinning day and I plan to surprise my friend, Joan Ruane, from Bisbee, Arizona, who is teaching a class there.

In Production Mode





I am listing the above and below yarns on etsy this afternoon. It takes a while, which is why I will never be able to feature all of my yarns. I have signed up for four shows, so I am busy spinning again.



 

 This is the view of my freeform hat upside down. The freeform part turned out rather heavy based on the yarns I chose, so I knitted the ribbing with elastic yarn and used only 56 stitches instead of my usual 66. It would make a cute bowl or bag, but I plan to keep it as a hat. The extra layers around the ears will help block the wind in winter.

I am trying to figure out the new design for the blogger. Can't seem to get the pictures and then the text to line up, so bear with me.

 The text is trying to do its own thing independently. If anyone knows how to get it to text wrap, I would love to know!

Our hay! Finally found a farmer willing to cut it for us. Now we just need to get the weather to cooperate. Since it will be the first time for us, I plan to photograph all of the steps. It is currently waist high.

This is a close up view of some of the grass/hay. I thought it was pretty with the sun shining on it. I am so used to seeing the grass cut and never flowering. 

 I am getting lots of queries about Flower and Orphan. Orphan has a very sweet disposition. Both of them will follow just like a puppy with the occasional stop to nibble on a tall piece of grass.

 Orphan is very pushy when I go out to feed. He has actually drunk three bottles at one time. I thought he was going to bust. When they got like this in Tucson, I started feeding through the fence. I won't be able to do that here. Pixie, our part Maine Coon cat has no fear. She got right up to Orphan, but the camera was too slow to capture the picture.

 The alpacas have figured out that it is okay to go in the barn. They are rather stupid, since we had a gully washer last night - thunderstorm and pouring rain, so Marc and I could pretend that we were in Tucson during a monsoon. We sat on the front porch to eat dinner and watch the river run down our driveway. He sure cannot complain the he has not had his fair share of rain!

I am also creating nuno felting kits and will be listing them online. The pink silk and the roving on the left have already sold. I will feature another one with a different colored silk. I am also listing rovings. Based on the number of hits on the one listed already, there is not a lot of interest in kid mohair rovings.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

This was the weekend for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I have to admit that I found the birth of Winter's cria, "Maryland," to be a lot more interesting. I looked out over the pasture before 8 a.m. and all was quiet. I went out at 8:30 a.m. to feed grain and throw out some hay and looked halfway up the pasture to see a small spot of color sitting next to Winter. Maryland was cold, so I toweled her off and went to get ready to leave for the festival. By the time I came back out, Maryland was running all over the place. And today, she is running among the sheep and goats.

I always check to be sure that babies are drinking before I head out. Thanksgiving is watching in the background. She has been displaced as the baby and I am not sure that she is happy about it.

Flowers and Orphan are doing very well. Orphan is guzzling 2 bottles for every one that Flowers inhales. I go out with 6 bottles and a group of other kids take turns coming to drink. Their mothers have enough milk now, but they have gotten a taste for the bottle and how quickly the milk comes out. Smart kids!

I am busy looking for a shearer. The one I had planned on did not put me on her book, so I will probably end up using three shearers to get it all done. One won't do alpacas, one won't do goats, etc.

Anyhow, with the help of a neighbor, I have shorn two goats so far. This is Barbara's Daughter and she was way too hot.

And so, on to the festival. I have to admit that I was disappointed. I was expecting to see lots of handspun yarn and unique designs. Well, the main hall was filled with all of the vendors that I saw when I went to the Stitches. There was an awful lot of millspun fiber and hand dyed fiber - that obviously came from Ashland Bay or a similar source. Not very exciting for me as an artist. Don't breeders process any of it themselves any more? I saw a few skeins of handspun and they were seriously over twisted or spun out of coarse wool. Gives wool a bad name. I plan to apply to the show next year. Maybe I will start an art revolution!

My hat is most of the way done. I am knitting the ribbing with my elastic yarn. It is actually going to fit. I do plan to wear it. Looks a little like scrambled brains!

I have been asked to show my "new digs." The carpet is eventually going to go since it is going to soak up lots of the vegetable matter. I did have a sheet down, but it aggravated me too much, so I threw it in the wash and gave up on it. On the right side of the room you can see a door that leads out to a large porch. Great place to sit when the wind is not blowing.

This photo was taken standing at the door mentioned in the photo above. I have not finished unpacking books, so the miscellaneous stuff is going to have to find a room. The closets are already filled with fiber to be carded and spun.

The electricity is being run to the big red barn now, so I will be able to use my carder this week. We are running water lines to the barn and I will put a water heater, mud room sink and my washing machine in the basement. I plan to teach nuno felting there. I had originally planned on putting all of my raw fleeces in the basement on the shelves until I saw the room empty. If I take out the shelves, I will have a lovely large room that will be perfect for classes. We bought lights for the shop today, but they need electricity. It won't be long! I am starting to feel settled in.