Big Moose - The Cliff Notes

 

This was his lamb shear.  Look at those curls!  The locks were all carefully separated and then hand washed by a dear friend.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to take them for a spin, but I've gotten almost as much fun out of just admiring them as they are :-). 

If you remember from the Blaze combing post, I lash some locks to my stationary comb and use the loose comb to transfer the combed locks from one back to the other and them pull off the combed "top".  It's slow going, but you can't beat that prep.

I was undecided about how to handle the different colors of gray in his fleece.  I love all the variations, but sometimes once it's spun, the charm of it gets a bit lost and just looks messy...disorganized...I'm not sure how to describe it.  Not being a "color" person makes life complicated sometimes.

I ran the combed fiber through the drum carder - one pass.  You can still see some variations, but maybe a bit more subtle.  I really like how the yarn turned out.  I will probably do another sample where I don't blend it on the carder and maybe one more where I run it through twice to further blend it.  

Wool is so fun :-).

2023 Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

I didn't spin quite as much yarn as last year, but I'm not too far off.  I did spin at least 15 minutes every day, taking the Tour's two rest days when I needed them, and ended up with well over five hours of spinning in total.  I wish I could commit to 15 a day all year.  Or not "commit" to it, but just enjoy doing it without needing the structure.  

I ended up with a whole basket of yarn I really like. 

The red is the yarn from Blaze, my friend's sheep.  The dark gray is Tessa.  The creamy white is Ellie.

I love when the yarn looks just like the sheep.  Ellie is definitely round, soft and cuddly.

Murphy is quite a "sheep with too much character" most of the time, but he grows some beautiful wool.  This light gray skein is especially soft and I would bet most people would pick it as their favorite.

The beautiful medium gray is Mini Moose.  I spun a sample from him last year and it was one of my favorite yarns I've ever spun.  This skein did not let me down.

Another sheep who never lets me down is Muffin.  She's finally starting to get some gray hairs, but I actually like that better than her solid black lamb fleece.  I think it gives her yarn some depth. Can you believe she and Biscuit are six (!).  

I was going to link to the finished black and white sweater, but as I scrolled through the March posts looking for the best post, I decided 20 catching up with us on the trail might be my favorite.  Lots of reminders of what was going on and now that's over and I love my finished sweater, I have to admit it was all pretty fun :-).

I didn't get a great shot of Big Moose (the little dark gray skein), but it's too hot to go back out and try for a new one.  I took some "in process" shots while I was combing it, so he'll (hopefully) get some more attention in a day or so.

We are continuing on spinning this week in support of the women's race.  I decided I'd only spin ewes so I've spun a little bit of Emily and Annebelly for old times sake and am now working on a bobbin of Cheeto so Big Moose could bring his mom along for the ride :-).

No Mow May

The men's race Tour de France/Fleece is over, but now we are spinning for the women's race.  I'm using that as my "justification" for not having taken pictures of my yarn for a blog post yet.  I will do it.  In the meantime, one last gift from the camera card archives!

I'm not big on over mowing (even though it looks like it) and used the "No Mow May" campaign as my leverage to push Tim to not mow the back field this spring.  I thought it would mostly be used and enjoyed by all the animals, but I enjoyed it at least as much as they did. 

I loved walking back there, especially in the evenings.  Everything looked soft and magical and it didn't even feel like the same farm.  We got a bunch of rain early in the spring and everything was green and lush and the trees surrounding the Frog Pond almost felt like a little woods (the one thing I really wish we had here).

I wish I'd done a better job taking more pictures, but I'm glad I got these if for no other reason than it tricked me into putting them into a blog post so I'll be able to jog my memory for the rest of my life.

I love tulip poplar flowers and I'm glad our trees are finally old enough to really send them out.

I know most people consider wild blackberries a weed, but I think they are pretty and I know the birds love all the berries.  One year Paige picked a bunch and made a cobbler.  It was fabulous, but I'm not that dedicated and I just let them go.  I enjoy the blossoms as much as anything.  You could smell them from 15 feet away.

No Mow May was a huge success (in my books ;-) and I have added it to the maybe three things I like about spring.  If you have the opportunity, give it a try.

If you'd like to hang out in the meadow for a bit longer, here's a new puzzle.

Old Friends And New Friends

Meanwhile, back in May...or more from the camera card archives. 

20 has an international pen pal, a stuffed cow named Foro. Foro lives mostly in Switzerland, but gets to travel all over going mountain climbing, visiting friends and sometimes even for work.  His travel companion is my best friend from grade school.

When she was over here this spring visiting family, she and her sister (of TdF Blaze fame :-) came to our farm for a visit.  We thought it would be fun to take some pictures of Foro and 20, I thought just because they were our stuffed friends, but she said "And because of their names!"

Foro got his name by accident, if I remember correctly.  I think it was supposed to be Foto, but that got lost in translation or something and became Foro.  

"Um, okay, but what about their names?"

"Foro.  Get it?"  I didn't.

"4 0 and 2 0"  Oh, right :-D.

Luckily it was still cool enough that Foro and 20 were still able to wear their matching sweaters.  I made Foro a sweater a couple of years ago, but it apparently never made the blog :-/.  

Jared supervised the photoshoot.

And was his super sweet self.

Pinto never misses being part of the action.

Baaxter joined in, too.

And Foro told him some stories about seeing sheep up in the mountains near where he lives.

    

Foro's superpower is listening, but he looks pretty good at watching, too.  I'd love to know what these two were thinking.

Until next time, Foro :-)

Gold

No, this account has not been hacked.  It's really me, posting three days in a row :-o.  

I saw a beautiful goldfinch working the sunflowers this morning and did a quick grab with my camera.  I didn't have enough time to think about my camera settings.  It's not terrible and I'm glad to have it, but hopefully I'll get another chance.  

In the meantime, here's a fun new puzzle.