BYFC - Random Tip #8

"This yarn sucks."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's all over the place, thick and thin, lumpy and bumpy, underspun in spots..."

"Just knit a swatch with it."

"Why would I even want to waste my time?!?"

"Hmmm, where are all those bad spots now?"

* * * * *

Don't hate on your early spinning.  Go ahead and knit a swatch with it.  You might be very surprised.  

That being said, if you've spun something that looks pretty, but when you knit a swatch you aren't super happy with your fabric, figure out why and fix it.  One common issue with new spinners is putting too much twist in your singles or plies.  When you knit with yarn like that, you may not be happy with the softness, or lack of softness...but you won't know that until you KNIT A SWATCH ;-).

You'll learn more about spinning by actually using your yarn (even for just a swatch) rather than just spinning and spinning and spinning.  

BYFC - Random Tip #6

 Speaking of roving...

If you are spinning right along and everything is going well and then you pick up a new length of roving to join on (or from the start) and all of the sudden things go off the rails and the fiber is not drafting smoothly and you are getting a bunch of jagged thick and thin spots and what on earth is going on here...?!?

Turn the roving around and spin from the other end. 

Most of the time you can run your hand loosely down the roving and feel that it's catching or grabbing a little if you are working from the wrong end. Sometimes you can't.  Regardless, at least try spinning from the other direction.  

If that doesn't work and you really can't see anything physically wrong with the roving, stop and take a break.  You'd be surprised by how much a cup of tea helps your spinning (or anything else) sometimes :-).

BYFC - Random Tip #5

When you are first learning to spin, don't be tempted by those beautifully colored braids of combed top.  Well, you can definitely be tempted and it's perfectly fine to add them to your future stash because...beautiful.  I just don't recommend trying to learn to spin with one of those.  

I'm not saying you can't learn to spin with them, but if you are trying and you are getting frustrated and not having fun, switch to roving.

What is the difference between combed top and roving?  Combed top has been...combed...and roving has been carded, which is more like brushed.  

Top is all the same length with all the super smooth fibers lined up side by side all matchy matchy.  At home I make that with actual metal tined wool combs.  I'm not sure how the commercial mills process it...now that I think about it.

Roving is all mixed together and can be different lengths and the fibers are all swirled around in less organized fluffy...fluffy-ness. This brushing can be done by a commercial mill with huge multi-drum machines or at home with a hand cranked drum carder or even using hand cards.

The picture above is roving.  See how it's fuzzy and airy and even a little messy looking?  This is Mini Moose and not only has it been processed as roving, but his wool is what I think of as a perfect medium wool.  Medium length, medium amount of crimp, medium fiber strand thickness, medium softness...  

A perfect learn to spin wool :-).

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.

The 2026 Bluegrass Yarn And Fiber Crawl

This summer feels like it's crawling, but in reality...or altered reality...it's time once again for the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl.

There are over 20 farms and yarn shops participating in the crawl this year so there is something for everyone!  Our farm will have some retail offerings with yarn, roving and raw fleeces, but what I'm hoping to make the feature of our stop this year is education.  

Would you like to learn how to spin - spindle or wheel?  Maybe you bought a raw fleece in the spring and need to learn what to do next?  Interested in how yarn is "grown"?  Thinking about starting a fiber flock?  Just want to come out and meet some sheep...and get mugged for cookies?  

Our crawl hours are July 25 11:00 to 4:00....July 29 4:00 to 8:00...and August 1 11:00 to 4:00, but our farm can always be open at other times if you make an appointment. 

Come see us!  And the sheep would love if you brought some cookies ;-).

How's Your Tour Going?

I got off to a slow really slow start, but I haven't given up and neither should you...in case you are thinking about it.

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that spinning is fun, especially with your friends :-).

The Sweater Story

I've had a pretty crazy life so far!  After being lost along the highway and being so scared and sad, I now live on a quiet sheep farm with a cat who says I'm the only good rabbit on the farm!  I've met the other rabbit and he seems fine to me, but apparently there are some issues with cats...or at least this particular cat.  

When we got home to the farm it felt good to get a nice warm bath and have my scraped up nose doctored on.  It was still pretty cold so the lady wrapped me up in a big dry towel.

And now I have my very own sweater!  Pinot, that's the other rabbit, says he's glad he doesn't have to wear a stupid old sweater, but I like it.  It's very warm and soft and fuzzy and I don't think I'll ever be cold again.

It started with brushing out some really pretty wool.  The lady said it didn't come from one of the sheep here, but that it had been left behind on a table at a big sheep show so she thought it would be perfect for my sweater.  She said just because something gets left behind doesn't mean it's not worth anything.  Sometimes things just get lost.

Then the big orange cat helped her spin it into yarn.

She said the wool was from a Romney sheep and that she really enjoyed spinning this yarn.  She said she thought it would be fuzzier, but that she still liked it.

I had to try the sweater on a million times because she wanted it to fit me just right.

When she washed it, the yarn got much softer and fuzzy and then she was really, really happy with it.  She said it was "a Sara fleece for sure!"  

I'm not sure what the means, but I was really, really happy with it too.

She found a pretty heart that she pinned to the front.  She said I could tuck all my memories in there and they'd never be lost again.  I still can't remember what my name was, but she's calling me Annie and I like that.  I'll tuck into in my heart.

So I Did A Thing

I decided I wanted to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year.  It only took me over 20 years to get over the extreme heat from the first time I went when I swore I'd never go back ;-).  Anyway, I thought if I was going all that way, I should challenge myself to enter something in the Skein and Garment competition.

My favorite class is the Spinners Yarn Basket and from there it was an easy jump to figure out some way to include Jared.  If you are going to put that much effort into making something, it needs to be with a good friend.

In 25 words or less, you spin at least one pound of yarn, tell how you processed and spun the yarn, include the pattern you are going to use the yarn for and a swatch to show how it will work.  My favorite description for everything after that is "flower arranging for yarn".  

I am extremely honored that Big J and I brought home the blue ribbon.

I always wished I had a picture of the two of us so I decided to paint one.

And I wrote him a letter and put together a little booklet with some more information and "flower arranging".

And some of my favorite pictures that helped illustrate how much he meant to me and everyone who met him.

I made a big "basket" to hold his big yarn from the apple crate I used to sit on in the barn with him.  I lined it with a drawstring project bag that I made from one of Bill's old shearing bags and a sheet that we use to wrap the freshly shorn fleeces.  The tags are my required entry information.

This is the front and back (outside) of the booklet.  The inside spread was an excerpt from his obituary from the blog.

And this was what I would have said to him if we were standing in the driveway.  The Xs were to make sure there was no identifying information anywhere.

Meteorological note - this year was one of the coldest on record.  Of course it was.  

Maisie note - I included the picture of Maisie sashaying away from my wrecked bike with Jared looking on in horror because if you are going to do something bold, you might want to do it with Maisie...or not ;-).

A Deep Dive

Does anyone remember Henrietta?  She came here with Heidi back in 2006, before the blog even started.  She was a grand old sheep.  A friendly Jacob who enjoyed a good back scratch and didn't need to be bribed with cookies.  She was a farm favorite.

I'd saved a bag of her roving from 2013 and in that bag was a big ball of yarn.  I'm not sure why I stopped spinning it, but I'd saved it for years thinking I really should finish it and a couple of weeks ago, when I was looking for my next Thursday spinning project, I pulled it down out of the loft.

I reviewed the thickness and twist from back in the day and did my best to try to match it.  I was shocked at how much VM (vegetable matter) was in it, but decided maybe I didn't know any better back then?  I thought I did, but there it was.  I didn't care.  It was Henri and I could pick it out.

I weighed the spun ball (a little over 6 ounces) and weighed out the same amount of roving.  I didn't get it spot on, matching yardage between old and new, but the yarn is nice and I now have almost 700 yards of one of my favorite sheep of all time.  

Now what to do with it... :-)

Here's something fun and interesting about wool and handspun yarn.  The ball of old yarn had been sitting for years.  The twist in that yarn was "dead".  The twist in the newly spun yarn was fresh.  When you ply the two together you get ramen noodles as the dead twist is taken for a ride by the fresh twist.

Not to worry.  When you wash (or steam) the yarn to "set the twist", the hot water wakes the dead twist up so it matches the fresh twist and you end up with a balanced skein of yarn.  That's the same skein, before and after. 

As I started working on this post I looked back to see if there were any good Henrietta posts to include and found this one.  Turns out she was just a mess in general and all that VM...was just Henrietta.  Apparently I'd tossed the previous fleece because it was just. too. messy.  I remembered that about Boudreaux, but had forgotten about Henri.  

That's okay.  Now that I remember the story, those bits make me kind of happy.  It's easily identified as her and that beats a "Walmart" fleece any day :-).

* * * * *

Updated to add this cute picture of Bullseye while I was spinning this yarn last week.  I'd saved the picture...and then forgot about it.  Sigh...

Olympic Medal

I ended up really happy with my Winter Olympic spinning.  I didn't get yards and yards of yarn spun, but I did spin all but two days (the Superbowl and an Illinois basketball game ;-), I challenged myself to spin different types of yarn and I liked them all.

I spun two different weights of Murphy, a worsted and a DK.  I spun each a little differently, but that's a post for another day.

The creamy white is Peter, a special sheep from Tring Farm.  The prep on this was a bit rustic, but she wanted a bulky yarn so I tried to embrace the rustic and I got better at spinning bulky and I think it turned out pretty nice.

I spun the Jacob (Tabitha) on the right a soft bulky weight as well and was happy with how that turned out, too.  It could have used another pass or two through the carder to smooth out the fiber, but that would have smoothed out the colors.  I loved the streaks and speckles of gray mixed with white.  I think I'll do some more of that one. 

The light gray skein is Mini Moose and it's just a soft and squishy as he is.  The dark gray is Jared, always a lovely spin.  The white in the front is the Romney I posted a week or so ago.  I will spin some more of that as well.

I really enjoyed making pretty yarn during the games and I've left my wheel up at the house and have continued on.  I'm spinning some Muffin right now.  It's nice to get back to doing the things that remind me why I got started on this whole sheep journey in the first place.

The Spinning Olympics

There used to be a fun knitting challenge during the Winter Olympics, but I haven't heard anything about it lately, so maybe it's become obsolete...like so many things I like.  That's okay, I am pretty good at playing quietly by myself.

I am really trying to get focused back to more fiber art work so I decided my Olympic challenge this time would be spinning every night.  Actually, I'm trying to be more mindful of several things I love to do, but let get buried by daily home and farm chores...and too much phone time...so I created a weekly schedule that I'm trying to follow.

Mondays are for prep work (for what I want to play with during the week, not hoarding toilet paper ;-), Tuesdays are for knitting, Wednesdays are for painting, Thursdays are for spinning and Fridays are for learning.  I am trying to spend one hour each day doing something I love. 

I did reasonably well last week and I'm excited to continue on this week.  The picture at the top is from the last two Thursdays.  The little dark skein is actually from a few weeks ago, but I threw it in the mix too because it's Muuuuffin :-).  The medium dark is some vintage Jared from 2016, just before he moved to Kentucky and the light gray is Mini Moose.  Three of my all time favorite sheep :-).

Are you watching the Olympics?  Are you doing any knitting...or spinning?

Pedaling and Treadling Along

My Tour has not been amazing this year, but some spinning is better than no spinning so I'm pedaling on and enjoying what I'm doing.  If you are discouraged by your progress, keep going.  The back of the pack is not the worst place to be ;-). 

I wanted something fun and easy to work on yesterday so I headed up to the fleece loft and pulled down an old favorite, Hershey.  As I looked back through the archives this morning to find my favorite picture of him, I see that he's a frequent choice for a fun spin during the Tour.  It's good to have friends who are comfortable to hang out with.

I posted a cell phone picture on the Ravelry group last night and had a comment about how white he'd gotten so I pulled out the big camera to capture the tiniest bit of gray still shining through.  I think the yarn, with the fibers twisted to compress the colors, will look at least a little gray...

...but nothing like his original lamb fleece...which was definitely a Hershey chocolate :-).  What a grand old sheep.

I mostly love scrolling back through decades of old blog posts, but in doing so I always know I'll shed some tears so some days I just can't.  Today was no exception, but I also came across this picture, which is one of my favorites.

This was the day Hershey and friends arrived from New York back in 2013 and that's my friend Julie waving from the road.  So glad to have these old pictures.

On The Coldest Days I Wear Willard

Dressing for the cold is a strange balance of warmth and comfort.  For example, the green jacket I usually wear is not my warmest coat, but it's my most comfortable.  It's warm enough if I put a wool sweater underneath and it's lightweight and slick on the inside and I can move and work in it without it weighing me down and feeling stiff.

None of my sweaters are heavy and uncomfortable and most are quite warm, but for some reason my Willard sweater is the one I always grab on the coldest mornings.  It's also the one I picked on the morning after the chicken disaster.  The temperature wasn't that cold, but I was mentally freezing.  I always called B. Willard "The Sheep of Impeccable Character" and he truly was.  Willard took good care.

His sweater is cozy by design (a simple Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage sweater pattern) made with thick yarn and a tall neck, but also because the yarn was spun so that even though the yarn is thick, it is light and airy.  Both the yarn and the sweater trap and hold warm air like a warm Willard hug.

I actually started this post a couple of weeks ago, but knew it was going to be hard to look back through all the old blog posts to find the picture below of us "dressed alike", but as Bea and I sat in the truck the other day, trying to get our nerve up to get out, I snapped this picture and knew it was more important to say "On the coldest days I wear Willard" than to leave it forever in the drafts.

Wear your irreplaceable handspun hand knits.  There's magic in them...and good company.  I've been wearing this sweater every winter since...

...2011 (!).  The sweater is holding up better than I am.  :-o

Here's a new freezing cold puzzle for you.  Hope you have a Willard sweater or a wool blanket or maybe a warm cat on your lap :-).

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Kaala

With the way the draws have come, with so many matching their real personalities and traits, I expected to not see Kaala until Sunday or Monday.  

Kaala got here in 2018 and her first shearing here was 2019.  She was the very last sheep to be shorn that day.  In 2020 she was again the last sheep to be shorn.  In 2021 she was the last.  In 2022 she was second to the last.  I don't remember where she fell in 2023, but it was definitely in the last two.  She was at the end of the line again this year.

Some sheep figure out to just go on through.  Most fall in the 'wherever they land' category and some sheep put it off to the last minute rather than just get it over with.  This frequently happens with lambing too.  You know who the early lambers are going to be and the same couple of ewes will always be at the tail end.

Kaala has spent this year teaching people how to spin yarn.  Her fleece is perfect for this because it's not too long, but not too short and has just enough gray running through it that you can easily see your angle of twist.  She's in all the drop spindle kits these days.

Kaala likes treats, but what she really likes is to wait while everyone else goes out to graze in the morning because she's figured out Liddy, who also waits, get a special breakfast and she's figured out how to capitalize on that.  

Fun With Friends

"Hi!  My name is Marshmallow!  I just spent a week here at Equinox Farm and while I was here the sheep lady knit me a sweater before I headed for my new home up north."

"It's a really nice sweater and it's super warm.  It was made from a sheep named Renny.  She said you'd all know who that was."

"Once she got my sweater finished I got to go out to the barn and meet all the sheep.  I didn't get to meet Renny though.  She said she lived here a long time ago.  I'm sad I didn't get to meet her.  She sounded like a great sheep.  Pinto was really nice though and he even let me kiss him on his nose!"

"Then we had a big cookie party.  That was pretty crazy.  I'm glad we took lots of pictures. If you ever get to come to the farm, you definitely want to do a cookie party!"

"Then I went in and wrote a story about all the fun things I got to do while I was at the farm.  It has lots of pictures. You can read it here if you'd like.  There's a funny picture of what the sheep lady said was "Maisie, being Maisie."  That sheep is a little scary if you don't have a lot of cookies!"

"I had a really good time, but I'm glad I made is safely to my new home with my new mom.  The sheep lady says she's known her for a long time and that I'm going to have a lot of fun here, too."