Meanwhile Back At The Wool House

20 has taken over shipping out orders because he says I'm disorganized and make too many mistakes.  Fine by me! The house is pretty disorganized as well...just sayin', 20 ;-).

20 has a stack of packages for me to take to the post office this afternoon and we are hoping to be completely caught up by tomorrow except for a couple of special orders.  Hay feeding season started two nights ago and it's amazingly comforting to know that the farm calendar sales will cover that bill and at least part of the straw bill.  

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Thank you all so much!!! 

Hug A Sheep Day - 2020 Style

 

The only complaint I've ever received about our Hug A Sheep Day farm parties is that out of town folks can't join in.  This year?  Everyone gets to come to the party! :-D

National Hug a Sheep Day is this Saturday...which is also Halloween...wink, wink.  While we mostly aren't up to hugging Maisie, you know we are probably going to make her dress up ;-).  As far as hugging goes, we are going to try to do several fun live online events throughout the day.  There will not be an on farm party this year :-/.

The tentative schedule involves a couple of flock walks, a cookie party, a spinning demonstration, a fleece show/sale, a surprise in the Wool House...and Maisie's Halloween costume, which might be our most epic yet.  "There may be no survivors."  That book quote is not just a prediction, but also a clue.  Any guesses?

The live events will be hosted on Instagram.  I should be able to record them and post links over to Facebook and hopefully on the blog as well.  I'm not super tech savvy though, so the safest (and most likely funniest) thing would probably be to watch them live. 

I'll post the firmed up schedule on Thursday.  We'll be doing some live audiovisual tests on Friday, so there may some opportunities to give it a try ahead of time if you need/want to.  My best recommendation is find a kid somewhere that can help you get set up.

Stay tuned!  

By the way, 20 wanted me to assure everyone that he had absolutely nothing to do with 2020 and he hopes no one is holding it against him.

One Good Thing About The Pandemic

20's happy he doesn't have to worry about kids sticking their fingers up his nose anymore! Auntie Reg made him his own mask.  The store bought masks were just a little bit too small ;-)

2019 Hug A Sheep Day

We ended up having a great farm party to celebrate (Inter)National Hug a Sheep Day this year.  Quite a few people braved the weather and while 20, warm and dry in the Wool House, got the most actual hugs, there were enough cookies flowing out in the barn so no sheep felt left out on their special day.

Amy (Auset Images) battled the dark barn and got so many great pictures that I couldn't narrow it down to just a few to share here, so what follows is picture heavy.  She's posted all of them to a gallery where you can not only view them, but if you'd like to purchase copies for yourself, it's quick and easy to do.  

The Fiber Pusher (aka Kaala's mom ;-) also took a bunch of pictures and some video and has shared those on her site as well.  The first part of her video is some footage of the sheep and sheep silliness and the second half of her video is a time lapse of the barn aisle and it's a hoot!

Woody kept everyone entertained with his obnoxious amazing gate climbing skills.

Look!  It's the lil' darlin' (Maisie ;-) politely begging for cookies.  Will wonders never cease...

Jared was once again the biggest fan of Feed A Sheep A Cookie Day.

He mugged worked the crowd the entire day and by the end was so jacked up on cookies and crackers that I wasn't sure he would ever leave the barn again to go out and eat healthy grass.  He was still wound up the next day!

Big Moose couldn't believe we would host a party just for him two weeks in a row.  I'm not sure what he's going to think this Saturday when no one comes to see him.

Oh look, it's Jared, back for more "hugs" ;-D.

Auntie Reg stayed warm and dry in the Wool House

"Hey, mister?  Could you tell all the kids with cookies to come back, please?"

I periodically took cookies out to the shy sheep so no one got left out.  

Follow this link for even more pictures :-).

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Now here's where things get super awesome.  If you follow the hashtag #hugasheepday on IG or #hugasheepday on Twitter you are going to be AMAZED at how many folks around the world were hugging sheep with us!  And these were just the ones who used the hashtag.

Remember when we had our first Hug A Sheep Day here at our little farm nine years ago?  Seriously, go click those two links (you don't need an account).  You are going to be blown away!  

All from one little sheep.

Happy Hug A Sheep Day...everyday :-).

If You Want To Get All Technical About It

With enough cute corgi pictures to keep it interesting ;-).  And some stats at the end that will probably surprise you.

Even 20 looks overwhelmed with trying to decide how to decide which singles to ply to which to get the most evenly matched skeins in the end. 

Here is what we did:

Re-weigh each finished ball.  The reason?  A big fluffy pile of wool doesn't necessarily weigh the same as a compressed ball of wool.  I used my "science" scale to get really fussy technical.

I then put the ball in a water pitcher (so it wouldn't bounce all around the room) and pulling from the outside of the ball carefully wound it into a two yard skein.

Note yardage.  I love, love, love having a counter on my skein winder*.  It's life changing...well spinning life at least...but spinning is life...no wait, sheeps are life... ;-)

I tied a piece of yarn to the loose end of the single.  I did that so I'd easily know which end I was supposed to start with for plying.

I also tied a couple of tight bow knots to secure the rest of the skein.  I used the bows to be easy to untie but also to help keep track of the outsides of each skein.  

Do the Jethro cipherin'.  Skein #11 actually weighted 2.024 ounces.  It is 220 yards long.  Solve for x to get the yards per ounce, in this case 108.7.

You can do the next part by hand...or use a spreadsheet.  I like math, but love spreadsheets ;-).

I sorted the skeins by yards per ounce and then paired of skein #6 with skein #17, #4 with #9, #3 with #7...

Making sure you have the two loose ends facing the same direction...

 ...and the bows are all facing up (if facing down then the skein is twisted)...

...and your skein winder securely anchored with a corgi butt...

...ply as usual.  My skein winder has a tensioning feature and I cranked it down pretty tight so I didn't go free wheeling off into space.  

The final results?  

First I re-weighed all the plied skeins.  The yardage of each skein could only be as long as the shortest single so there were leftovers on several of the skeins.  The leftover singles were all on the thinner side (longer yardage per ounce) so when they were plied together, the resulting two ply is significantly thinner, hence they are separated out at the bottom.

Ply shrinkage - when you ply the two singles, the plied yard will end up shorter than the original singles because as you twist the two yarns together, the yarns are no longer straight.  The more you twist them, the shorter the yarn will become.  

That skein with the shrinkage of 14 was either plied with more twist or I wrote something down wrong.  Just looking at the finished skein I can't see a significant difference from the others so regardless it will knit up just fine.  Likewise with the shrinkage of 4 yards.  

Overall, I am much happier with my finished yarn this time.  The difference between skeins now is much less than any yarns I've spun previously.  Plus I found it interesting to track all the stats.  

While I was thinking along the lines of statistics, I decided to track my time spinning and plying.  It took me 27 hours to spin the singles and 6 hours to ply them.  I didn't figure in my time cipherin'.  That would have been an embarrassing number ;-).

Want to take this a little further?  If I paid myself $10 an hour, that's $330 just for the spinning work.  It costs $10 per sheep for shearing and about an hour for skirting, so another $10 there.  $24 to wash and $27.50 for processing into roving, not counting gas and time going up to the mill and back.  

Just counting BASIC yearly costs for hay, grain, bedding, vet work...it costs us $100 to produce a fleece.  That doesn't include mortgage, insurance, utilities, fuel, buying the sheep, farm equipment... Also, spinning wheels aren't cheap.  Neither are the workshops I've traveled to take...

The moral of this story?  I might just print this out and hand it to the next person who can't believe I can't sell them a handspun and hand knit sweater.  That's $501.50 Just. For. The. Yarn.  Figure in the weeks I spent knitting the Muffin sweater?  Even if it wasn't Muffin...it would be priceless.

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*My skein winder is from Nistock Farms.  Even if they weren't good friends of ours, I would say this is the very best skein winder I've ever used.  It's solid and stable, easy to use winding on or off and being able to easily track yardage is...life changing ;-).

Welfare Check

When a musher gets stopped out on the trail and the GPS tracker doesn't move or moves in circles...they try to find someone in the area who can get out to them and do what's called a welfare check to make sure everyone is okay.  

One of the musher I am following this year is Blair Braverman.  She appeared to be having trouble at a creek, or was maybe trying to get back to a cabin, or...her gazillion Twitter fans were all panicked.  I felt bad as well because I too feared the worst.  Turns out her GPS unit was malfunctioning and she was still on the trail.  

No such luck here.  I left "Unalakleet" in good spirits, knitting on strong.  I did my short rows, divided for the sleeves, added 8 or 9 inches to the body...started second guessing how it was going, hesitantly knit another inch or two...and stalled out.  

I needed a break anyway.  I'd knit to where my hands were sore.  Bill was in town so I was helping with shearing at Final Frontier Farm on Monday and then we sheared here Wednesday.  The Wool House Crafters met on Tuesday and I asked a couple folks for their opinion on the fabric I was getting and I think we all agreed that it was okay, but could be better.  

I ripped it all back to Unalakleet.  I figured if I was going to get stuck out on the trail making some necessary sled repairs, there'd be no better place than to hang out with fellow Iknitaroder knitski and eat sourdough pancakes ;-).  20 caught up with us there.

20:  Glad you've made it back here to Unalakleet and everything is okay.  Sounds like you've had some trouble this year.  What can you tell us about that?

TCSL: Well, the theme this year so far seems to be gauge.  Gauge too tight, gauge too loose, gauge not making sense, gauge inconsistencies due to sloppy or inattentive knitting on my part...  

20:  Why is gauge so important?

TCSL: Gauge affects how the fabric feels and how a garment fits.  If you knit it too loose it's "sleazy".  If you knit it too tight, it's feels stiff and harsh.  If your gauge doesn't work with the pattern size you've chosen, your sweater won't fit.  There are frequently gauge issues with stranded knitting versus straight stockinette as well.

20:  I thought you did some gauge samples before the race though.  Shouldn't that have helped?

TCSL:  Yes, absolutely.  My mistake was only swatching the plain knitting, not the colorful patterning as well.  I lost two days right off the bat because I didn't do that and had to restart 2-3 times.  After I finally felt like I was on the right track and finished the top section, I started down the body and all was okay for awhile and then I started knitting tighter for some reason and the fabric started feeling "off".

20:  So what are you going to do about that?

TCSL:  I did what Stella always says "Take it back out and do it right."  I unraveled it all the way back to the bottom of the yoke last night and I am going to go up a needle size which will make the stitches bigger and the fabric softer and smushy-er and I'm going to pay more attention this time.

20:  That sounds like a good plan.  So other than the sled runner issues, how have you enjoyed the trail so far?

TCSL:  Honestly, the trail this year has been one of the prettier ones.  We got all sorts of beautiful snow early on and Pip and I really enjoyed that.  I took a bunch of pictures of that and all the sheep and even did some videos that I just haven't had time to edit together.  

20:  I've noticed you've been knitting in the Wool House more this race.  What changed to encourage that?

TCSL:  I loved that cute little tan couch, but it wasn't the most comfortable sled ;-).

20:  It's been fun catching up on all the Iditarod race videos and interviews up there with you as well.  

TCSL: Yes!  I've really liked being able to run my iPad up there this year.  It's been fun to keep up with the race a little better while I'm knitting.  I've listened to some good books and podcasts as well and I like that better than trying to knit watching tv.

20:  What's been your favorite? 

TCSL:  Ooh, hard to pick.  I really enjoyed Winterdance: the fine madness of running the Iditarod and Dogsong both by Gary Paulson.  I listened to Call of the Wild by Jack London as well.  I liked it...I mean it's a classic, but some was hard to listen to.  I'm going to look for another sled dog or Iditarod story to keep us company as we get back out on the trail.  I also have a few episodes of the Iditapod to listen to.  That's a really fun podcast.  And you know, the race isn't over so there will still be more race updates from Iditarod.com :-).

20:  Do you think there is any chance you could still get finished before the Red Lantern?

TCSL:  Not really.  I'd have to think we are mathematically out at this point, but I'm basically okay with that.  It's disappointing for sure, but I'd rather be disappointed by not finishing quickly than disappointed in the finished sweater.   My sheep team worked hard to get here and I want them all to be happy and proud.  Sometimes what you learn out on the trail is more important than the race itself.  I'll come off this race a much more skilled knitter...and that will help me for next year!

At The Ceremonial Start

This is my seventh Iknitarod!  I always have to like to go back and count - Marcel/Woolliam, Keebler, Maisie, Baaxter, Liddy/Buddy, Baaxter and now Muffin/Biscuit/Mrs. Pepperpot.  

Each race has been different, but they've all been fun.  I've learned a lot about knitting each year.  I've learned a lot about mushing.  I've made some great new friends and we've enjoyed challenging ourselves and cheering each other on. 

I treat the Iknitarod very seriously.  Well, not like life and death seriously, but definitely seriously as in embracing the spirit of the Iditarod race itself.  I enjoy thinking about it throughout the year, planning my race.  I push myself to do something hard.  I choose my team carefully.  I get as prepared as possible.  

And on race day eve, I pack my sled.

My race map this year is the Dreyma sweater by knit.love.wool.  I took a bunch of pictures of the yarn and the color gradients (yes, there are colors if you look closely) and thought I'd already downloaded them to post here...but I haven't.  I'll include those in a future post.  

Before each Iditarod race, for a fundraiser they auction off the sleds for each musher and the winners  (IditaRiders) gets to ride in their musher's sled for the 11 mile Ceremonial Start. For the last several years I've carried a mascot in my sled throughout the race. My IknitaRider this year is that sweet little sheep I picked up off the road last summer.  

I didn't think sending a sheep to Nome wearing acrylic was a good idea, so I knit her a little wool poncho featuring some pattern colors and thereby getting to practice the increase stitch I was going to need to use for the sweater pattern.  I think she'll be toasty warm :-).

Muffin and Pepperpot came to watch the sled packing, but they won't be riding along.  The trail can be messy and dangerous (Oh, Graham, how we miss you!) and I would hate for something to go wrong.

Packed and ready...and without further ado...

This might be my favorite ravatar to date.  Like a Dreyma (dream), Biscuit and Muffin and I are at the Iknitarod, watching the Northern Lights and staring up at a bright shining star (Mrs. Pepperpot).  I have my hand on their backs to let Mrs. P. know I'm taking good care of her babies.

My project is too big, my hands are too sore.  Still, the pattern with it's bright shining star yoke is perfect and the ravatar is so sweet I just want to stand there forever...and so we once again hit the trail.  

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The Ceremonial Start begins at 2:00 p.m. EST today.  I believe you can watch live for free on Iditarod.com .  If you enjoy that coverage and want to watch video updates throughout the race (these are so fun!), I encourage you to sign up for one of the Insider packages.

Assembling The Team

I made this needle felted Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot before Mrs. P was gone.  I knew I would not be able to afterwards...and I still think that's probably right.  I'm crying now as I try to type this.  

I don't think I was really that attached to Mrs. P herself.  I think I was attached to her relationship with Muffin.  Her relationship with me as she watched as we cared for her tiny lamb, continuing as her lamb grew up.  As I cared for her as she grew so feeble in the end, while she continued to care for her little girl to the very end.

In the beginning I had big plans to knit a fancy cabled cardigan from her upcoming spring shearing.  Something very Mrs. P.  We talked about it all that first summer and into fall.  I feel she would have "got it" when it was finished and we had our picture taken "dressed alike". I truly believe some sheep know there's a connection.

In the end, I sheared her myself after Dr. Bridge left and I salvaged what I could. I carefully washed it, then combed out all the mess and fiber break and then carded it all into batts which I then piled up and set on the coffee table and just enjoyed like that all summer. 

It was a less than stellar summer all around and seeing a few of Muffin's tiny black face hairs still mixed in (click to biggify), still laying across her back, was comforting.  I knew our special project was now going to be a blend of both sheep.  Muffin could help her mom still make a special sweater.

I really didn't want to take on a huge Iknitarod project this year.  I miss out on a lot of the fun Iditarod coverage when I'm in a big race as well, so I planned to find an easier project to for this year.  

However, once stupid spring and summer comes I have very limited time to knit.  Fall is usually a scramble as well.  If I wanted to knit this sweater yet this year...it was going to have to be during the Iknitarod, my last bit of free not quite as busy time.  

I was still hedging on taking on such a big challenge...and then my ravatar popped into my head.  I enjoy creating those badges (scroll down the right side of the blog to see the past years) as much as the final project.  Once I saw it, it couldn't be unseen...and Muffin, Mrs. Pepperpot and I are off to the Iknitarod.  

I have 17 days to spin a sweater's amount of yarn.  The pattern I picked has four colors, so there will be some fiber blending as well before the last 6 ounces of white and gray are spun.  I'm starting with Muffin.  Pictured here are ten two ounce bundles.  I'm going to try to spin two of those per day, although typing this blog post has probably eaten up one of the bundles for today.  

That's okay.  I'm not panicking...yet.

It never hurts to have 20 on the team as well!

By the way, the leaves in the basket of Mrs. Pepperpot are bay leaves, which I scatter around open wool baskets to help protect from insects..and they smell nice :-).

If Anyone Can Help, It's 20

Back in the summer my neighbor bought a Serta mattress pad and sent me a picture of the box because the sheep pictured was 20!  It's hard to be just a farmer.  Most of us have second and third jobs or pick up extra work whenever we can.  20 is no different.

"Oh, wow!  Can I have the box?"

"Oops, I already got rid of it." 

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.

.

.

I really didn't need a mattress topper...  But it had 20's picture on the box...  I guess I could put it on the spare bed...  And it IS on sale...  I got a mattress topper ;-).

I'd planned to do a post sharing the cute box, but I never did.  And while it would be fun if there was now a baby lamb or some kittens in there...it's not.  It's my camera.  Yeah...  The deluge rain I was complaining about yesterday?  My camera and favorite lens was sitting out in it.  I am beyond sick.

20's helped clean up several messes I've gotten myself into.  Okay, I was going to link a couple posts here, but there are so many fun 20 posts that I'm just going to suggest following this link to read/reread all of them :-).  

In the meantime I've got my camera and lens inside this perfect big, vented box with a space heater running.  Everyone cross your fingers.  

Bring Out Your Wool

"Hey, 20, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to decide which sweater I'm going to wear to the Hug a Sheep Day farm party on Saturday."

"I wish this awesome fall weather would last all year, but it's supposed to be cloudy and kind of cold on Saturday.  We are all going to need to wear wool, especially me since I just got sheared at the Kentucky Wool Festival*.  I found my Ford sweater, B. Willard's sweater and Jester's, but I couldn't find Baaxter's Carbeth."

"It's at the house.  I took it to New York last week.  Um, could I wear your Ford sweater this year?"

"If I can wear your Carbeth!"

"Deal!"

Don't forget this Saturday, October 27th, is National Hug a Sheep Day!  We are once again having our Open Farm Day from 1:00 to 4:00 that afternoon.  Dress warm because as of right now it's looking a bit chilly, but you never know with the weather.  If I could order up a day like the last few we've had...well, I'd be pretty popular, eh?  ;-D

As always, there will be sheep to hug, sheep to feed cookies and crackers to (but not too many cookies, please!), some dogs to feed (VERY few cookies to :-o), hot cider and snacks, a bonfire, some spinners and knitters (bring your current projects!) and I'm sure another very heated game of Lego Sheep Shearing.  We are also happy to talk sheep, sheep care, answer questions if we can...

If you need more information or directions, please shoot me an email.  Hope to see you on Saturday!

*If you missed the video of Bill shearing 20 at the Kentucky Wool Festival, you will want to go watch it.  Just follow the link above.

Sneak Peek

I've been busy getting the 2018 fleeces ready for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival this weekend.  I took some pictures as I skirted along and shared quite a few of them and even did a series of educational Chocula fleece pictures and at the end my phone made a sweet video "memory" for me.  

I started a post to share it earlier and then felt the need to go on and on explain about the work and photo stories and the sweet little wren in some of the pictures and nine paragraphs later I realized that when it's 91 stupid degrees and I'm miserable I really don't have anything to write that anyone wants to read so let's just grab a glass of lemonade and watch a sweet video and shut up. 

We are bringing quite a few really nice and fun Equinox Farm fleeces this weekend.  I will also have some pretty fleeces from Tring Farm in our booth.  Kathy will have her Final Frontier Farm fleeces for sale in the Fleece Sale area.

There will also be the usual Punkin's Patch swag (bags, mugs, cards, t-shirts), spindle kits and some yarn and a limited amount of roving.  20 will of course be there and I know everyone wants to know what other sheep are coming...

How About A Farm Pond And A Chicken?

When Kate Davies released her Carbeth sweater pattern a couple months ago, she posted it to her blog with pictures taken posed alongside a snowy loch...complete with a swan gliding past.  When Mason-Dixon Knitting posted the Bang Out A Carbeth Knitalong, they specifically commented on the swan as well.  It really was a stunning picture!

As Carbeth sweaters were banged out around the world and pictures started appearing on Instagram they soon became known as the Carbeth Swan Dance.  Well, I don't have a frozen loch...or a swan...but I do have a cool sheep (who also happened to provide the yarn for my Carbeth), a farm pond...and an Adventure Chicken.  Let's do it!

Baaxter walked out there pretty darn willingly considering it had been at least two years, maybe three, since he'd had a collar and leash on.  This is the Frog Pond, not the Ice Skating Pond.  It's the small pond/group of trees/native plants you see in front of the bigger pond at the back of the farm.

Tim took a bunch of pictures in various locations and positions and...

...like most pictures of me, the less of me showing, the better ;-).

These are my favorites, even though they don't really show much of the sweater.

"You're doing a good job, Baaxter.  And your sweater is very nice.  Cozy and comfy."

While the sweater was designed to be a stylish crop top, since mostly where I wear my sweaters is to work out in the barn in the winter, I decided to add a few extra inches to the body length.  

Can you believe this is that cute little brat who terrorized 20 and Auntie Reg (yikes!) four years ago?

I'm not sure if B. Willard is noticing the new hand knit sweater (being a Sheep of Impeccable Character, this would not be...out of character) or is just amazed that I was wearing something relatively clean for a change ;-).

"Yep, that's not a swan."

Nope, that's the Sheep Chicken.  She was ready to go to bed so she was easy to catch ;-).

I give the Carbeth two thumbs up.  I think it's going to be perfect warm winter barn sweater.  The Bang Out A Carbeth knitalong was great fun and the Iknitarod (the re-knit) continues to be my all time favorite winter event.  As always, I was in great company and that makes it all worth it.