BYFC - Random Tip #4

I hope everyone is enjoying the 2026 Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl.  There are several locations open throughout this week and almost all are open again for the upcoming weekend.  Check the map for locations nearby!  We are open Wednesday from 4:00 to 8:00 and Saturday from 11:00 to 4:00.

Today's tip involves sheep care.  One of the most important things to put into place as soon, or before, you get any animals is making sure you have a safe and easy way (for you and your animals) to gather everyone into a small area so you can safely and easily catch even the wildest of the flock.

It's very important to do regular health checks and hoof maintenance, especially through the hot and sometimes wet summer months.  It's super important to be able to easily and calmly get your hands on a sheep who's having a problem.  It's much less stressful on everyone if this isn't a rodeo every time.

A sheep who's been injured does not need to be further injured by trying to grab them on the run in a large pen or out in the field.  

A sheep who appears to be sick does not need the extra stress of running...  

You and your help don't need the risk of injury trying to grab someone as they run past or being run over by a panicked group of sheep.

Create a small place where you can crowd enough sheep together so they can't go too far and there are enough "blockers" (big fat quiet sheep, usually of the Nistock variety :-) in the group to help corner the one you are trying to catch. 

We have a series of gates that close to bring the sheep in tighter and tighter until they are in a "working pen".  I start by closing all the outside barn gates, then move all the sheep into the outside shed and close that gate.  Then I push them all into the working pen and close that gate.  

It helps a lot that our outside shed is long and narrow and basically becomes a chute as I walk that last gate closed.  Play around with your set up and figure out what works best.  Gates are your friends :-).

Here I have 18 sheep crowded into a 12' x 12' area.

This is a good amount for my particular flock.  If yours are wilder, you may need to go tighter.  If they are really wild, you may need taller gates...   

You may need a second person or a good herding dog to help you push them all into the small pen in the beginning.  

Use common sense and don't wait until you need to catch them.  Practice penning them for fun things like cookie parties so that when you DO need to catch them, they aren't panicked trying to figure out what's going on.

Here I'm doing a routine FAMACHA check.  I think it's funny how the same sheep are always near the last to be caught.  This is Muffin, who even though she's been doing this very easy, painless check for over nine years, still tries to hide until the very end.  

Guess who's ALWAYS the biggest baby and very last to get checked. :-D

BYFC - Random Tip #3

Tip #1 talked about using contrasting colors in your roving to help see your angle of twist.  Today's tip is about creating contrast under your yarns to make it easier to see what's going on with not only twist, but also your drafting zone (the triangle between my fingers) and how thick or thin you want to spin...

You could make a special spinner's contrast cloth or apron with a light and dark side...

...or you could use a dark and light pillow case or t-shirts or even just wear dark or light clothes.

BYFC - Random Tip #2

Would you really like to knit a sweater, but are too intimidated to try?  Make a teddy bear sweater first!  You are probably going to make a mistake or two, but if you have to rip it out and try something again and maybe even a third (or fourth) time, you are only ripping out a small amount of knitting, not a crying amount whole month  of knitting.

There are quite a few patterns on Ravelry and other places online.  You can try raglan sleeves, drop sleeves, top down or bottom up, sweaters in the round or in flat pieces...

I wanted to try a cable sweater and picked this fun one for Chocula Chip.

Tiny sweaters are also a great way to test your handspun yarn for suitability in a bigger project...but that's a tip for another day ;-).

Bluegrass Yarn And Fiber Crawl - Random Tip #1

Today starts the 2026 Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl.  Of the ten days of the tour, our farm stop is scheduled to be open on both Saturdays from 11:00 to 4:00 and also Wednesday afternoon/evening from 4:00 - 8:00.  I am happy to schedule other times as well, but please email first as this is a working farm, so who knows what's going on each day.

My focus for this year's crawl is education.  There are shopping opportunities here for sure, but I enjoy teaching and encouraging more than selling, so if Auntie Reg (the boss) isn't here, let's go out to the barn or sit on the Wool House porch and have a good time talking sheep and wool and fiber arts and teach each other some fun new things.

I know most readers of this blog are not local or not in a position to travel out here so I thought it might be fun to post some random tips each day that anyone might find helpful...or at least interesting even if you aren't a fiber or sheep person.  The tips will mostly be geared towards folks just starting out, but you never know everything :-).

Today's random tip is about angle of twist.  If you are having trouble with either over spinning or under spinning your yarn, use a color of wool that isn't a solid color.  Let's zoom in.

This is Kaala and her gray is a mix of light and dark and those dark strands show up as you spin, making it easy to see what you are doing.  As you add more and more twist, the angle (shown here in the dark diagonal line) changes.  

In general a 45 degree angle is a good starting point, but you may want to spun looser or tighter depending on what you want your finished yarn to do.  You might want to add in more twist for a stronger yarn for a pair of socks or less twist for a softer feeling yarn for a scarf.  

Bonus tip today!  Don't set your roving down on top of a dried up marigold flower.  Free seeds included with each purchase ;-D.

We've Almost Got The Band Back Together

When they demolished Stella's little shed behind her bee yard I asked that they save the quilt square I painted for her birthday back in 2011.  I hope it's safe somewhere...but it never made it down the hill :-/.    

So I painted a new one.

Again with purple coneflowers blooming nearby.

Hanging next to a hive of happy bees flying in and out, working hard.

Now all we're missing is Stella...

...but I hope she's hanging out in the B Garden sometimes.