It's Okay To Be A Fossil

I spent part of yesterday learning (a little about) using Zoom.  Luckily the friend I was talking to video chatting with is one of my very favorite people to talk to and while I've never seen her be anything but smiley and cheerful, I know she understood when I got sad and gloomy and it was okay.  Yeesh, what a weird year...

Still, it was pretty nice talking face to face.  And even though it would have been better if we'd been sitting together in one of our messy kitchens or out in our sheep barns, I can see how this technology stuff can (sometimes) be helpful and fun.  I'm hoping I can learn to use it to "open" the Wool House to "visitors".

Meanwhile back at the "calendar store", I am going to hold fast to my old fashioned way of ordering something from the farm shop.  Yeah, there are several other ways I could sell online and look more professional and probably even get my shipping labels printed for me and everything put on a spreadsheet...or whatever...but if all you have to do is click a "buy it now" button then I wouldn't get to hear how you, too, found some joy looking back or who your favorite sheep is or how much you too still miss Hank or what your favorite story was or how much you enjoy the puzzles...

So...

Here's a new puzzle :-).

"Keep the cards and letters coming."  I'll be returning emails today.  I was mired yesterday and wasn't that fun to talk to.

There are several emails I'm going to run through a spam check because I've gotten so many orders for Maisie Orneries that I'm suspicious she's been up to something ;-D

Tim is working to get the calendars put together so they can hopefully start being mailed on Monday...if I can once I figure out the shipping stuff!

I have some fun pictures to post this morning that I took while sitting in the wash room typing this out because it was too chilly to sit out on the porch and work...but the door was open the whole time so it's really not any warmer in here and I missed the sunrise.  One of these days I'll get it all together...maybe.

Good morning!  

The sunset last night.

[Sheep] Business Saturday

Because shopping with Maisie is way more

...um...interesting than going to the mall!

We are developing an exciting new program here in the commonwealth (Kentucky is a commonwealth, not a state), The Kentucky Fiber Trail.  Kentucky is already well known for it's Bluegrass Trail (horse farms) and Bourbon Trail.  Now you can discover fiber farms throughout the state as well.  

Okay, let's give this a try!  Our farm shop (and barnyard) will be open this Saturday from 1:00-4:30 for Small Business Saturday.  We'll call it Sheep Business Saturday :-D.  

We'll have calendars, fleeces, roving, spindle kits, Christmas cards and ornaments, wool sheep pins, a few wool wreaths, maybe some felted sheep and for fun, let's make Maisie Orneries!  I'll have a basket of "Ornery"  supplies set out and teach you how to make your own wool roving wrapped ornament.  

So, come hide out on the farm with us this Saturday and take care of all your sheep and fiber-y gift giving needs.  We promise you won't be mobbed by fellow shoppers...unless you have cookies ;-).

If you need directions, please drop me an email.

I Really DID Live Through The Wool Festival

So it looks like I broke the internet.  I finally put together a blog post yesterday and right as I was close to publishing it a major Verizon tower went down and the entire area was without intertubes until early this morning.  Oops... :-o

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Friday?!?  I really not sure where the week went. Heck, I'm not even sure where the summer went! The Kentucky Wool Festival went really well.  We could not have had better weather, the crowd was the second largest in 34 years (somewhere around 50,000 over the three days :-o), saw lots of old friends, made some new ones, sales were good, nothing got pinched and I think everyone had a great time :-).

As always, I had tons of good help.  Miss B and Miss L helped get the booth components ready ahead of time.  Auntie Reg and Stella worked in the "sweat shop" getting everything packaged and labeled. Saint Tim did his usual herculean job getting all my printing ready and the four legged family, for the most part, stayed out of trouble.

Tim covered farm duties, a Unit driving neighbor came over to doctor on T-Bone's leg (horrible dew poison this year :-o), Miss B and Always Amazing Aaron answered questions throughout the day and helped get new spinners started with their drop spindles and Auntie Reg did a great job basically tripping people coming into the tent and sending them in to buy stuff ;-).  

I am Not. Good. at "selling myself".  Oh, if you come in the booth and ask me a question, I talk until your eyes glaze over.  Having to go up to you and say "Hey, look at all this cool stuff I (and our sheep) made to try and support my bad sheep habit!"... I don't know why I can't do that.  And it's important.  This is what pays for the hay, straw, grain, shearing, vet bills...  Luckily I have a great team.  I appreciate everyone way more than they can even imagine!

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I figured too many days had passed to do a booth tour, but I've had several requests from friends who couldn't be there, so here goes.  I missed a few things taking pictures.  I had so many bags of roving that we pretty much had to tie the booth together to keep it from exploding, but you'd never know by these pictures.  The funny thing is two of us were taking pictures and we both missed that and a couple other things.  

I loved having the raw wool out front.  It was pretty, attention getting, folks were looking for wool at the "wool festival" (it's primarily a huge craft fair with tons of great food and live music) and didn't smell up the booth.  I personally love the smell of raw wool, but as the temps climbed on Friday, it would have been a bit much for non sheep people perhaps ;-).

The usual card display.  What am I going to do with a 13th card next year?  

Volumes 1 and 2 of the Mug Shot Mugs.  

I actually made some felted sheep!

And wool wreaths, which Miss B did a fabulous job embellishing with all sorts of flowers she gathered their garden and fields again this year :-).

I made quite a few medium size wreaths, too, and even figured out an ornament size wreath...that neither B or I took a single picture of...and there were 24 of them in the booth!  How on earth we missed them and all the roving...

Punkin's Patch swag.  I think this design is really cute, but non blog readers didn't "get" it.  That's okay.  I'd rather they were "ours" alone anyway.  If you don't know who Punkin or Miss Ewenice or B. Willard is...

You know what I just realized?  There are no pictures of the Equinox Farm and Lamb Camp calendars!  Now I'm wondering if I'm missing files on my camera card.  This just makes no sense...

Edited to add:  And while I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the internet to come back yesterday I realized that there were also 24 Maisie Orneries and 24 Ornerie kits that neither Miss B or I took any pictures of.  That's a lot of stuff in a small area to miss getting in a picture somehow!

Anyway, back to the tour...

I had a super cute vintage Ashford Traveller for sale, but it was too crowded to set it out where someone could really try it.  It belongs to a friend's mother who is down-sizing and she has a regular and jumbo flyer, extra bobbins, a copy of Paula Simmons Spinning and Weaving With Wool and it is tuned up and ready to go back to work in case anyone is interested.  

We sold 20 spindle kits!  As I ordered another 100 wooden wheels last month to make them, I realized that I've made over 200 spindles over the last 10 years.  That's kind of crazy in a sort of exciting way.  If even 10% of those folks stayed with it (like Miss B did :-) that's 20 new spinners! Definitely not a dying craft.

These are the prettiest wool balls I've ever made.  I almost hated to sell them, but what on earth would I do with 150 wool balls?!?  Inside joke - that's my most common question "What do you do with a wool ball?"  I just consider them neat decorations, but most were buying them for dryer balls. Anyway, they were made from the tiny throw away fleeces from Levi's cousins who got shorn this fall.  Perfect! 

Once again, my favorite part of the booth was the digital picture frame.  One thing I forgot to do was update the photo file, so we re-watched the same 2000 (!) pictures I used last year.  No matter.  I was happy to see the oldies.  If you don't already have a digital frame, go get one.  Just priceless to be able to watch and watch and watch.

Punkin's Patch.  All from one little lamb.  You know, sometimes the whole thing just seems unreal.  As the sun set and the night lights came on and the really good bands started playing while the dinner crowd grew and I was finally able to stand still and catch my breath and look around, I couldn't help but wonder a bit.  How did all this happen?

If you'd have asked me 25 (or so ;-) years ago what I'd be doing with my life, raising sheep and being a fiber artist teaching people how to spin yarn would never have crossed my mind.  Never.  I don't really know what I'd have said, but I can promise you it would not have been that.  What a privilege.  

I appreciate everything way more than anyone can even imagine!

Winter Siesta

Well, it's turned into "almost winter", finally.  I think it was down in the 20's last night.  Felt like it at least.  Some spitting snow this morning, but the sun has tried to come out a bit this afternoon.

I'd spent a good bit of the morning at the dentist and my mouth was so sore that I wanted to just go curl up on the couch and do something warm and non-violent like knit.  I couldn't resist Liddy's cute smile though so I grabbed my camera and sat down next to her on the barn lot couch.

Here's where Liddy and I were sitting.

Here's where Hank and Baba were sleeping.  More on that tomorrow ;-).

Here's where Andy was sleeping.  See him tucked into the background?

Baaxter will never outgrow being Baby B.

Here's where Kate was sleeping - at the ready!

Jester gave me a big scare last week, but he's a tough old bird and keeps on keeping on.

If I posted this green grass picture in June, you'd never suspect a thing...except for all that wool.

Liddy stood up and snuggled with me for awhile and then turned around and laid back down with her butt tucked up next to my lap, just like when she was a baby.  Such a good lambie :-).

Here's where Emily was sleeping.  Wool pillows are better than gate pillows :-).

Maisie looks like such a cute, tubby little angel...

"One of my orneries was supposed to go straight south from Kentucky to Tennessee, but I sent it the scenic route through California."

Seriously, we watched the tracking.  Sigh...  Did everyone else get everything okay and in a timely manner?  Anything damaged in shipping?  

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Thank you so very much for all your holiday orders!  I'd set a goal this past year to not just pay all the sheep's feed and bedding expenses, but to try to cover everything sheep related - minerals, vaccinations, deworming, shearing, miscellaneous vet bills, supplies like water tanks, buckets, new gates, Hank's food and medical expenses, Kate's food and medical expenses, one bobcat rental (we rent a bobcat twice a year to clean out the barn) and one farm payment.  

It ended up being a pretty crazy and not super productive (I didn't think) year, but we all managed to cover everything I'd hoped except for making the mortgage payment and I'm actually pretty close to getting that done, too, if I throw in the petty cash jar (now that I think about it!).  Andy pushed me backwards a little, but he was worth it ;-).  I'm putting it in the win column!   

I didn't figure in everything* like barn electric/gas/water bills, insurance premiums, fuel for car/truck/tractor, a couple loads of gravel...and goodness knows what else I'm not thinking about right now (luckily Saint Tim doesn't keep score).  I think I'm going to try and make a good run at some of that for 2016 along with some fiber and artistic goals and I'd sure like to try to write a book.

Here's to 2016!

*I also didn't figure in cookie expenses because thanks to two festivals, Hug a Sheep Day, various farm visits and extra $5 bills tucked into envelopes here and there, the cookie coffer has stayed in the black for a couple years now...and that's all the sheep really care about ;-D.  

Thank you!!!

Good Point

While everyone was in agreement that the Orneries were pretty darn cute, it was quickly (and frequently ;-) noted that Maisie would surely not be happy about wearing that [stupid] red bow.  True dat.  I think this tag (which could actually be it's own ornament) would help meet her approval.

While I am very happy to make Maisie Orneries for you, I think having a kit option adds some extra fun.  

Each kit contains a cut out sheep shape, enough Maisie wool to wrap it extra fluffy, a piece of Maisie's yarn leftover from the sweater for her tail, a piece of red Lamb Camp yarn for the [stupid] bow, a tiny brass bell (because you know she'd love that haha), a piece of fishing line I pinched from Saint Tim for a hanger and a Maisie Christmas! tag.

I didn't print out a set of instructions for each kit because I think the tutorial from the other day works pretty well.  It's noted on the back of the tag and I've posted a "blog button" for an easy link.  I also didn't include a felting needle because you really don't need it and leaving it out makes this a fun project for children of all ages ;-).

The kits are $5 each.  A completed Ornery (also with matching tag) is $7.50.

Here's where it starts to get a little weird.  Shipping...  I tried really hard to stick a Maisie Ornery in a small padded flat mailer, but I couldn't go through with it.  Yes, I realize it's not a real sheep, but the thought of Maisies running through the rollers at the post office, possibly several times...even though that Does Indeed sound like something that would happen to Maisie....  

Shipping in a Small Flat Rate Box is going to be $5.95.  I hate that, but it keeps Maisie safe (and thecrazysheeplady a little saner - shut up! ;-) and if you wanted, you could stick a bunch of Orneries or some Christmas note cards or something else small in there for no additional shipping cost.  

P.S. I've really stressed over this (shipping cost), but finally realized that the folks who aren't going to understand this...are probably not reading this blog in the first place ;-).

Maisie's Christmas "Orneries"

Back in the early fall when we were making plans for the house remodel, I naively thought I'd be getting SO much extra work done at the Wool House because I'd be hiding out up there while the guys worked (go ahead - insert insane laughter ;-).  I made a list of fun projects I wanted to get done - Christmas cards, felted sheep, wool wreaths and Maisie ornies (slang for ornaments).  As I wrote "ornie" I couldn't help but change it to ornery :-D.

I finally got the Christmas card painted and off to the printer (aka Saint Tim) Saturday...and again Monday (a long story that of course sort of involves Maisie) and decided that maybe it wasn't too late to think about a Maisie Ornery.  

The first thing I did was dye a skein of Lamb Camp yarn a rich Christmas red.  Well, at first I dyed it a too purple-y red because I added too much black, but Sheepmom suggested over-dyeing it with some yellow and that fixed it.  Well, the really first thing I did was have some white mat board cut into sheep shapes, so the next first thing I did was find where I'd stashed them.  

Want to make a Maisie Ornery?  

You'll need a small piece of cardboard, some wool roving, yarn or ribbon for the bow, yarn for a tail and a small brass bell.  A tapestry needle would be handy.  A felting needle is helpful, but not necessary.  A hot glue gun...everyone should have a hot glue gun!  Needle nose pliers will help, too. Oh, and some thread or fishing line for a hanger.

Mat board is good and solid, but poster board would work just fine and will be easier to cut by hand. Sheep are a pretty simple shape.  You just need some legs and a head and a hole about halfway back for a hanger.

The next step is to draft out/thin down (if your roving is fat) some of your favorite wool roving.  I'm using actual Maisie wool so it's very fat ;-D.

Start wrapping around the cut out.  I go around the body horizontally and then around the neck and then around the body vertically.  If you don't like how it looks, unwrap it and start over.  

Sheep are a pretty simple shape - round and fluffy ;-).

If you have a felting needle handy, use it to tuck in any loose ends or straggly fibers.  Felting needles are a special type of needle that have barbs (click to biggify) along the pointy end that catch individual wool fibers as you push them it and tangle them with other fibers as you pull it out - over and over.  

Safety disclaimer - yes, you can push them into your fingers and no, you really don't want to do that. But you will, so they say you should make sure you have a current tetanus shot...which you should anyway.  But still, try to not stick yourself...but you will.  You've been warned ;-).

Here's something interesting you might not know.  Or maybe you do know and I was the only one who didn't...but if I was the only one who didn't know, they wouldn't have posted this really interesting TED talk about tying your shoes (and other bows).  It's very short.  Go watch it.  It will change your life.  I promise.  You'll never tie another crooked/sideways bow again!

For my Maisie Ornery I added a tail.  Most sheep don't have tails so you may not care to add this extra step.  I used some leftover Maisie sweater yarn and threaded it along the top of the ornery, just out a bit by the head, removed the tapestry needle and pulled back on the tail until the front of the yarn was hidden by wool.

I used my felting needle to tack it a few times (poke, poke, poke), just to be safe, but as long as your cat doesn't get ahold of it, it should stay pretty secure without the needle.

Run a piece of thread or fishing line through the hole in the middle.

Use needle nosed pliers (just trust me on this) to hold the tiny bell and put a small dab of glue on the bell and stick it to the bottom of the bow.

A Maisie Ornery or another favorite sheep ornie :-)

It's starting to look a little like Christmas around here, but it sure doesn't feel like Christmas.  Yes, I was making these outside on the porch watching the sheep graze on the still pretty darn green grass. It was something crazy like 60 some degrees this afternoon.  Gorgeous. 

I realize it's getting a little late in the game, but I do have a small basket of Maisie Orneries ready to go.  As I was typing out the directions, I thought I could probably put together a kit to make your own as well.  Any interest?