Hug A Sheep Day - The Fleeces

Here are the fleeces from this afternoon, in no particular order. If there is something you'd like to purchase, send me an email at thecrazysheeplady AT gmail DOT com.  I will try to check in to see if anyone has any questions, but I've got my normal farm work to do, so it might be hit or miss for an hour or so.   

 

By the way, HSS stands for Hand Spinner Select, which was how we sorted fleeces on shearing day at Tring Farm.  The fleeces from our farm are all HSS, too, just not marked that way.  I took all these pictures last night without thinking that the breed crosses and some names were missing.  They were added to the tags before the video, so hopefully I showed the tag long enough...

If you are local and would like to come out and pick up your fleece(s), we are offering Barn Side Pickup ;-).  I'm happy to ship them as well, but obviously there will be an additional charge for postage.

Here is a nice fleece and farm video from Tring Farm.  Enjoy :-).

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A fleece and farm tour at Tring Farm 🥰. Fleeces getting ready to go live on the website. Link in profile.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 31, 2020 at 2:59pm PDT

Happy sheep :-).  Happy shopping :-).  

Betty 8 lbs  $80

Daisy  8 lbs  $80.00

Pocket's Daughter  9.25 lbs   $92.50

Tansy  9 lbs  $90

S34   7.75 lbs   $77.50

Clara  6.25 lbs  $62.50 Sold

Moe  8.5 lbs  $75.00

S39  8.5 lbs  $85.00  Sold

Penny   5.5 lbs  $50

Maybelline  7 lbs  $70 Sold

Bowtie  5.25 lbs  $52.50

Crazy Eyes  Beautiful fleece, but not for handspinning.  Make an offer.

Elizabeth  7.25 lbs  $72.50  Sold

S44  5.25 lbs  $52.50  Sold

Petunia  5.25 lbs  $65.00  Sold

Mini Moose  7.5 lbs  $95.00  Sold

Andy  6 lbs  $65.00  Sold

Levi  8 lbs  $96.00  Sold

Spud  8 lbs  $96.00  Sold

Tara  4.5 lbs  $60.00

Burrnie  5.25 lbs  $55

Tessa  3.75 lbs  $50

Tabitha  4.5 lbs  $60  Sold

Happy Halloween!

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What a star! Once again Maisie rose above her reputation as a hooligan and not only let us fix a “pointy bonnet” to her head, but also strap a broomstick between her legs and she wore her witches cape with...well, probably not pride 😆. I can’t wait to go back and watch this later and see all the stuff I missed 😀. #hugasheepday #sheeptrickortreat #crazymaisie #equinoxfarm

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 31, 2020 at 12:33pm PDT

More pictures later!

The Fleece Show And Sell

This is fairly long, but hopefully fun to watch. It's a classic Sara event complete with naughty chickens, a coughing fit and droning on and on about sheep and wool ;-).

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I am going to list all of these fleeces on my website live at 6:00 EST tonight. If you are interested in purchasing a fleece (or three 😀) there will be directions to send me an email and they will be first come first serve. #hugasheepday #hugafleeceday #wool #callingallhandspinners

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 31, 2020 at 10:34am PDT

Cookies and hugs at 2:00 and the Maisie show at 3:00!

The First Cookie Party

I assumed the sheep would all be in the barn at 11:00, but they were back out grazing, enjoying the gorgeous weather.  A cookie party loose out in the field is usually a potential death sentence, but I got up my nerve...and they took one look at me and "an intruder" and thought "no good can come from this!" and most of the beat tracks for the barn ;-D.

Fleece show at 1:00 and a BARN cookie party at 2:00 and then the Maisie show at 3:00 :-D.

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I thought the sheep would all be in the barn and they were actually out in the field so we did a field cookie party. What perfect weather! 😍

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 31, 2020 at 8:14am PDT

It's Hug A Sheep Day!

We could not have had a more beautiful start to the day.  I was concerned about my timing of 8:30 for the flock walk because I was afraid everyone would be done grazing and ready to head back to the barn and it wouldn't be much of a walk ;-).  With the hard freeze last night everyone was slow getting started and the timing couldn't have been better. 

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Today is Hug a Sheep Day! 😍 Enjoy an early morning flock walk on a beautiful day. More to come throughout the day 😀. #hugasheepday #nationalhugasheepday #equinoxfarm #sheep #wool #kentuckyfarm #goodmorning

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 31, 2020 at 5:49am PDT

It's A Party!

Our Hug a Sheep Day farm party will be a virtual party this year.  As long as I can get the tech stuff figured out, I think it's actually going to be pretty fun :-).  The sheep's schedule is grazing and socializing in the early morning, napping for the rest of the morning, a cookie party at 11:00, more napping, another cookie party at 2:00 and then hiding while Maisie has to gets to dress up in a Halloween costume at 3:00.

For the rest of us, there will also be a fleece "show and sell" at 1:00.  We still have several Punkin's Patch fleeces needing a good home before winter and I picked up the Rocky and Jared bred fleeces from Tring Farm the other day and there are some really pretty ones that would like to be adopted as well.  I thought it might be fun to set them all out on the porch and take a little peek :-).

Against even my own best judgement, we are going to dress Maisie in her costume live at 3:00.  We aren't going to do a test run ahead of time...mostly because I haven't even made it yet.  There is no telling what will happen, but I'm sure it will be hilarious, no matter which Maisie shows up this year.  We are probably tempting fate on this one.  I hope I don't need to add a trip to the ER to the schedule :-o.

Everything will be happening live on Instagram.  I think I'll be able to share a link to Facebook after each "event" is over, but if you want to watch it live, you'll have to use Instagram.  I'm hoping I can post them all over here as well, but I've got to get that all figured out.  

I'm estimating each event will last 10-30 minutes. Feel free to join in at any time and come and go as you please :-).

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.

What The What?!?

I'm still working on the 2021 calendar, but there will be a calendar.  It's been tough going back through all the pictures.  I'm still skimming through the Early pictures and I have not watched any of his videos, but someday I will.  Hank and Comby have been hard as well, but I'll admit it's nice to see some pictures from before their last months.  Both so Velveteen Rabbit-ish.

Along with the struggle to pick out the pictures, there is also the deciding who gets in and who doesn't.  There are only 12 months. Do I put Hank in, but leave Salt out?  Lancelot, but no Frankie?  Eli was used to playing second fiddle to Comby each year and Betsy's on our last nerves right now for her terrorizing Possum, so it's not too hard to leave her out ;-).

I was searching for a good picture of Hank and Salt together when I stumbled on this gem.  "Oh, this one is cute.  Hank is still looking pretty good.  Wish the barn lights weren't doing whatever it's called with they do what they are doing with the green dots.  Too bad it's from the old cell phone and not very sharp.  Hey...wait a minute...they left Maisie in charge???" 

Priceless :-D

Sweet Babies

Hickory's mom, Paige, just had a sweet little baby and I wanted to knit her something special from the farm.  I have no clue what size to knit a baby sweater and I figured it would be outgrown in just a few weeks anyway, so I made a sweater for a sweet little stuffed lamb :-).

Since Paige was one of Liddy's aunties, I thought a Liddy sweater would be the most appropriate, so I spun a small skein of worsted weight yarn and pulled out a trusty Elizabeth Zimmermann book.  Most of it was knit on a couple of beautiful fall afternoons.

Of course it wouldn't be a sweater project if I didn't have to rip it all back at least once ;-).

The lamb waited and waited...

And finally it was finished :-).

Before he left for New York, he took his sweater up to show Clay's Kentucky Great Aunt, Stella. He loved hearing stories about the trip he was going to take and what fun he was going to have with his new family.  He arrived safe and sound earlier this week...and I bet he's glad he has a warm wool sweater :-).  

Save For A Rainy Day

 

This sweet sun bathing lambie picture doesn't really work for the 2021 Lamb Camp calendar, but she might be just what we need on this dreary, drizzly afternoon :-).

Spring 2020

Final Frontier Farm, Paris, Kentucky

A Blast From The Past

I was looking for an old photo the other day and stumbled on this Lamb Camp picture I took back in 2014.  I thought to myself that that momma's face looked mighty familiar. Wouldn't it be sweet if it was Cheeto?  I zoomed in...and sure enough...#186 :-).  I've apparently been in love with Cheeto for a long time :-).

A Word From Possum

"Did you hear about the cat who swallowed a ball of wool?"

"She had mittens!"

A Couple Of Calendar Questions

 I'm (finally) working on the 2021 farm calendar. In past years I've chosen 12 of my favorite pictures from the previous 12 months.  This year has been a tough scroll back.  Lots of the top billed calendar stars are not heading into the new year with us.  I can't imagine making a calendar without Comby or Hank or the Titans...but it's hard to make one with them.

Do you want to see them one last year?  Would that be too sad and you'd rather not?

If I use photos I took for Instagram posts, there are many more scenes to choose from.  To use those pictures though would make the calendars a little taller because the pictures were taken to fit a square format rather than rectangle.  

Is that going to make anyone twitchy?   

Speaking of getting twitchy...the new blogger format.... Argh...

Show And Tell

The prompt for today's Kentucky Wool Week photo challenge is Show and Tell, so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to show something I did over the summer and tell how I did it.  If I keep this up, I might eventually get the blog caught back up :-).

Instagram followers might remember taking a video tour of some fleeces getting ready to be shipped off to Stonehedge Fiber Mill and then seeing the following picture a few weeks later.  The project in the works is a new Lamb Camp yarn that for now I'm calling The Bottle Lamb Edition.  It will be a blend of every single bottle lamb I've ever raised.

I should say the video tour showed at least a tiny bit of wool left from every lamb...except Punkin.  I really, really wanted to include Punkin, the lamb who started it all.  While I didn't have any wool left, I did have some leftover yarn from way back when I paid someone to spin for me before I learned that I liked doing such things.  I wondered if it would be possible to un-spin some of that yarn.

In 25 words or less...yarn is really nothing more than fiber held together by twist.  You spin two singles and then you spin those two singles together to get a two ply yarn.  Without getting really complicated, that's all you really need to know to follow what I decided to try.

The first step was to un-twist the two plies.  I tried to do this as a whole skein, but it got way too messy and was headed for disaster, so I started cutting off a yard or so at a time.

I then tied it to the hook on a drop spindle and started twirling it backwards to untwist the plies.

Then I pulled the two plies away from each other.

So far, so good.

Next I tied one of the singles to the drop spindle and twirled it backwards to take out the spinning twist. 

After the twist was removed, I pulled the now unspun yarn apart into 4" pieces and lashed them all onto my hand cards and then brushed the pieces to make sure everything was loose and flowing.  The yarn had been sitting for 18 years so it was a bit compressed and felted.  

This was a Huge Job.

Crossing that last and most special name off the board?  Worth every hour.