Albuquerque, More Lambs, and Fleeces

I just got back from the Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta. Foot traffic was slow, so I got a pound of yarn spun. I just wound it into skeins to be washed.

I go to the shows with the intentions of making money to feed the animals and gleaning inspiration for new projects. I met lots of doll makers and was seriously impressed by the workmanship. My sister and I did buy Topaz, from Arley Berryhill. A search on his name will give you his website. Gorgeous!

I saw a different type of doll that is within my skill level, so I bought the pattern to make it. I have already decided that I do not want to make the face, so I am going to use material that I bought from sewbatik to make the body. The abstract fabric will lend itself to the design. I also will be able to show another use of kid mohair and of the felted fabric that I intend to start making.
Lynnae of Chamomile Connections was in the booth next to me. When it got too slow in the afternoon, we got our wheels into the corridor, so we could chat with each other and other vendors. I am spinning from one of the huge batts, while Lynnae is spinning some of her space dyed Merino Seacell.

The silver buck is my favorite. Unfortunately, I cannot use him for breeding since he is related to all of the blacks. He is gorgeous and he is for sale. So are a lot of other goats and sheep. The feed jumped from $10.15 to $14.50 a bag, so I am going to have to downsize now and not in the fall as I usually do. The sales will not be at firesale/auction prices. They are all registered. Some will be going to Del Mar with my friend, Tor, for the CAGBA and Angora goat shows there next month.

This is the buck's fleece close up. It is just now starting to curl. We have very low humidity. The first rain will curl all of the mohair fleeces.

Went out to feed the Shetlands this evening and discovered two ewe lambs One blends right into the dirt. The mom is a first timer, so she will stay in the barn for a few days. Her babies are tiny, but they have both been on mom.

This ewe lamb is almost a week old. She was born last Monday and I had to bottle feed her. Her mother is behind her and enormous in comparison. The mother's milk is now in and baby is doing well, so Marc let them out of the barn yesterday,while I was gone.

Marc discovered the mom and ram lamb when he went out to feed last night. The mom has Jacob and Border Leicester, as well as Shetland in her back ground. The lamb has more Shetland. I will be selling both of them. They are a long hair breed. The lamb might fade to gray or white by fall.

I will be home for most of June and July. I plan to go to Del Mar and see my son, Kyle, at the same time. I also have a show at the end of July in Pasadena. I hope to get a lot of these fleeces washed and carded. Dealing with my Dad's estate has really slowed me down, but most of that is now taken care of, so I will have more fiber time!

If you would like a workshop, let me know and I will try to schedule it. I won't be teaching in August or September.

I am also reducing my prices on batts for the next month. Crazy batts off the Louet carder are $4, the batts off the Elsa carder (huge carder) are $5, and the batts off the Supercard are $6. Do come and check out the selection.

Yarn extremes

Somehow the post that I created at my Dad's did not make it to my blog. I made it back home after 10 days in Colorado Springs dealing with his estate. His house has sold, so I went to sort his belongings, do a yard sale, and donate the rest. Wish I could say that I am back to doing my usual things, but there is still a lot of paperwork to sort and time shares to sell.

It is hard to settle on any one task, so I started carding batts in hopes of tidying up the studio. It is not quite happening, but the batts are lovely and will work as very interesting yarns or parts of landscapes.
The above are all Shetland. The front and the back are not the same, so they are reversible.

It took me three days to card the batts for the kid mohair above. Thought I would show how much trash is still left in after three cardings. I plan to coil this kid mohair, so I will have yarn available for the Medieval collar pattern. This is lace weight yarn.

I have started another knitted landscape using the size 35 needles. I just ordered a batch of them, so I can sell them. They are an addiction.

I am using 12 strands of yarn that I have spun. I carded the batts with the intention of having variegated yarns. I have knitted 18 inches and with 51 stitches on the needle, it is approximately 46 inches wide. It is using up lots of the non wearable yarn. It is a perfect use for the older mohair and scratchier wools. I am currently shifting to a darker pine green to create the illusion of a forest. I plan to embellish on top with coiled and super coiled yarns. I was considering changing colors in a middle section for the sky, but the numbers of threads was outrageous, so I will let surface design break the horizons. The needles and all of the yarn are quite heavy, so I am only doing a few rows at a time. You would not believe how much yarn it is eating!

Goats are all Delivered

Barbara's daughter had twin bucks on Wednesday and Barbara herself had twin does late this afternoon. She is my oldest doe and I was a little worried since she gave me Chinless last year, but she did all of the work herself and the babies appear to be healthy.

No red kids this year, but I have plenty of fleeces in that color from previous years, so it is OK. The silver buck gave me mostly bucks, one silver buck and the rest are all going to be shades of black and charcoal. Some have very cute faces and their moms are easy to pick out.

A friend has encouraged me to enter some pieces in a competition, so I rephotographed the blanket above, since I have so many pictures that I could not find the one that I took years ago. They are looking for more entries. They have to be made from any natural fiber. Their website is www.llamas-alpacas.com/showcase, if you are interested in entering something. A sampling of yarns spun over the last week. The green is going into the knitted landscape that I am making on the size 35 needles. It is turning out well. It will be wider than the last one and could be used as a rug.

Mother of the Year Award: Sweet

Danny sheared the rest of the sheep and goats last Monday. I have decided to name the Merino ewe "Meri." Still trying to decide on the ram. This is Meri getting her first haircut. Her fleece is pictured below. It is the best fleece of all, with the ram coming in a close second.

In terms of statistics, 78 animals were shorn. The heaviest fleeces were: the Merino ram - 17.5 pounds, the Merino ewe and Mound, the Rambouillet, came in at 15.5 pounds each. The Merino will produce more yarn, since the Rambouillet is gorgeous, but coarser.

The kids are starting to assert their independence and developing personalities. All of the colored kids are black so far and the buck gave me lots of bucks. I have two more goats to deliver and expect that their babies will also be black.

Sweet has won the "Mother of the Year" award. She gave me triplets and had all of them up and drinking by the time I came back out last Thursday afternoon to check on her. Two does and a buck. I am excited, because she has always had the kids with the best fleeces. This is her first set of triplets and all are thriving.

The goat moms are very patient. The kid jumping on this mom is not her baby.

Pearl gave me triplet ewes yesterday afternoon. I considered her as a possible mother of the year, till I went out and found the smallest lamb too weak to get up. They have all been drinking or at least under her on her teats. I tried milking her and could not get any out, so they are sucking her dry. Since the largest one is really heavy, I figure the rest are not getting enough. I brought colostrum that I had saved from last year out and the smaller two inhaled it. I am glad they suck without having to be coaxed. I gave Pearl lots of grain and water, so I hope she fills up. Otherwise, I have two really cute bottle babies!

Someone asked for lamb photos. You would not believe how hard it is to get front facing photos of the babies. Their moms head the other way when they see me coming. I don't think backside pictures would be cute.

Cheryl came last week and claimed the rug. Hopefully, she will get lots of use out of it. She came with the TUSD school group that took the first tour.

Tucson Spring Shearing Winner

The raffle earned $81 for the Casa Maria Kitchen in Tucson, despite the poor turnout. Rain in Arizona in April is rare, but we got it. The turnout for the first tour was pretty good and Danny was able to shear the sheep in the barn. He will finish shearing tomorrow morning, so anyone who wants may come out about 9:30 to watch. The shop will be open. The winner of the rug is Cheryl Walling. She has till next Saturday to contact me and say that she is coming to collect it. If I do not hear from her, another name will be pulled. Hopefully, she or a friend checks my blog, since that is how I posted that I will announce the winner. In other news, I lost Spindle, the baby alpaca that was born late January. She was bit by a rattlesnake and too young and small to survive. We have seen lots of rattlesnakes this year and some unseen killed my Black Sheep Cup last month and now this baby. Do be careful when you go outside. We have had them in the backyard twice and under the orange tree outside the shop recently. It has really depressed me.

Time to move on

I have been doing the 4th Avenue Street Fair for several years and I think this is my ninth or 11th time. Either my standards and expectations have really increased, or the street fair has really dropped theirs, but I find it to be more of a carnival that an art festival. I have decided that this will be my last show there. It is really hot, which explains why all of my friends have stayed away, but it does not help to watch people walk the street in a daze - heat or alcohol related and know that there are babies being born at home and so much else I could be doing. I am trying to look at it as advertising for my wool festival next weekend, but it is rather an expensive thought, since I have not even made my booth fee, which has never happened before. Neither have any of the booths either side of me. Only the food, drink, hat, and trinket vendors are doing much. It is sad, but I think the 4th Avenue no longer fits my needs, so I am moving on!

4th Avenue Street Fair

The 4th Avenue Street Fair starts tomorrow. My friend, Donna, went down and helped me set up my booth. It needs a little fine tuning, but otherwise looks really good. If anyone is not busy tomorrow afternoon and would like to come to the street fair to help cover the booth and pass out flyers, please call my cell 401-6117. A week ago Tuesday, Columbian had triplets. In keeping with my fiber theme , they were named: Laceweight, Sport Weight and Worsted Weight. Laceweight was curled up on top of her mother this morning, but those pictures are still on my phone. Since Columbian is pretty calm, the lambs are easier to catch - especially Laceweight. I was really worried about her at first because she was so tiny.

My Grandmother's Irises have bloomed again. They are very hardy. I have been hauling them around for 16 years now and they have survived everywhere.

I took a photo of my stepmother while we were sorting some of my Dad's paperwork. Last week I worked from 7:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on clearing out papers. He kept it all - papers from 1930 to now, every receipt, all of his taxes, and pretty much every card that he received over the years, as well as printed copies of emails. I have kept what looks like history and trashed the rest. It was unbelievable and totally overwhelming. If you are hoarding paperwork, do your heirs a favor and get rid of the non essentials. You have to pay extra to get it hauled off, so why not keep it moving out? Do you really want them to be reading every single piece of correspondence that you leave behind? There was so much of it, that you can rest assured that I only looked to see who wrote it - kept it for my sisters and brothers, if it had writing and was not just a card with a signature - and threw out all of the rest. Having priced the hauler fees, this is some pretty pricey trash!

The spring shearing festival is next Saturday. Fortunately, I did all of the advertising before flying to my Dad's, because I am now too beat to do it. The Arizona Daily Star called today to confirm their information, but I don't expect an article this year. Hopefully, all of you are passing the word along.

Marc wants me to remind everyone to watch out for rattlesnakes. This morning there was one was under my orange tree outside the shop - Charcoal was sitting within striking distance checking it out. Then this evening, the dogs started barking and would not stop. Another, larger rattlesnake was in their area in the back yard. They had obviously made it mad because it was rattling. I did not see any bite marks, so I won't know, if they got bit till something swells up. Two snakes in one day is a bit much!