The 2019 Tour de Fleece

Mini Maisie and Big Maisie did a great job cheerleading and occasionally threatening the My Favorite Sheep team this year.  I loved seeing posts from people reporting in to that affect :-D.  A little power in the wrong hands - I made the mistake of letting her come out into the aisleway for a private Cheerio party one night...and have been fighting that battle every night since :-o.

I got my whole 2 1/2 pounds finished.  The last six ounces were a bit of a slog mentally, but it's summer and most everything is a slog mentally right now.  All in all it was a challenging but fun spin.

I liked my 18 two ounce bundles plan.  That was a pretty do-able daily amount of spinning and a couple days I was able to spin two and catch up from days I didn't get as much done as I planned.  The other benefit was I knew when I plied two balls together they would still easily fit on my bobbins.

This has become my basic plan any time I spin a large amount of yarn.  I spin each bundle, trying hard to match the thickness and twist of each to the next to the next...  That never happens.  Even with a measuring card and sampling, I never keep consistent throughout :-/.

In the past I've wound off each ply into a ball and marked the order number.  Theoretically the practice is ply the first with the last, the second to the second from the last...  I can't even get that consistent so I've tried to eyeball it and match it accordingly.  

That plan doesn't work super well for me either because after it's in a ball I can only see the outer wraps of yarn.  What's inside could be totally different.  Yeah...  I got popped by that on a couple of the Muffin skeins and ended up with several skeins that were thicker than the others.  

I over thought that came up with a plan to counteract that...and it worked!  This is my most consistent spinning to date.  

Washed and drying - my favorite part of spinning.

1,850 yard of worsted weight yarn, skeined up and ready to become a sweater.

Exactly what I wanted :-D. 

Golden Oldies

My original paragraph started by stating "Renny is the youngest sheep in the Golden Oldies group...", but I wanted to make sure about Rebecca Boone and then started checking everyone and, yikes, time has flown.  

PPPP is 14, Ewen is 12, Billy Belly is 14, Rebecca Boone is 11, Woolliam is 11.  At 10, Renny is not the youngest sheep.  That would be B. Willard, who is just 9.

(!)

Ewen McTeagle.  It seems like just yesterday you were terrorizing the cat food on the back porch.

There's a new puzzle :-).

On The Subject Of Names

Several years ago (!) when Baaxter was a baby, it took forever to come up with his name.  A name that suited him and suited us and he could wear (or we could wear out ;-) for years to come.  In the interim I called him Lamby Lamby, which is what I call all lambs.  

Now, years later (!), if I'm trying to get his attention and he's not responding to Baaxter or Baby B, I quietly say Lamby Lamby and he immediately turns his head.  This has also been confusing for him with subsequent bottle lambs who I inevitably call Lamby Lamby in front of him.  Poor Baby B...

I should never be put in charge of names (Saint Tim comes up with all the good ones ;-).  While Big Moose is a name he can wear (and we can wear out...and already are :-o), Mini Moose...poor Mini Moose...  I think he's already learned Mini Moose and I'm not sure we could change it even if we came up with something perfect.  Poor Mini Moose...

He does seem to recognize the name Cute Lamby...but that might be confusing with subsequent lambs... ;-)

Two new puzzles :-).

Enjoy!

Sunny, Smiley...Cheeto...?

I wish I'd never called this pretty ewe "Cheeto".  It was cute nickname at the time...but surely we can come up with something better?  Help!

*      *      *      *      *

I first met "Cheeto" back in 2014 apparently.  I recently stumbled across an old photo of her in my sheep files.  She was snuggled up with a cute white ewe lamb and I'm wondering if she was one of the early Lamb Camp Calendar models?  I'm not sure why it was in a random folder with no similar pictures around her though.  I honestly think it was destiny.

The first time I actually remember meeting her was early last spring.  That morning she was just another ewe I was watching in the lambing field.  She was resting out in the field, legs crossed in front of her, and I thought she was cute...so I took her picture.  

Later that day and into the evening, every time I turned around I'd see her looking at me.  Sometimes standing right beside me.  "Hello there! Would you like to take my picture again?" This went on for a couple of weeks until she lambed...and I took pictures of her and her pretty lambs.

This spring she picked up right where she left off last year.  I'd be crouched down helping a lamb or taking a picture and I'd turn around and she'd be standing right next to me.  "Hi there!" It never failed to make me smile :-).  

She had two beautiful lambs this year, Big Moose and a sister who is staying at Final Frontier Farm as a replacement ewe.  She probably could have lambed one more year, but she has an arthritic knee and I wanted to retire her here...so I could see her smiley face every day. 

I don't know why we pick the friends we do or why they pick us.  I'm just glad we're friends.

"Hi there!"

"Would you like to take my picture?"

One of these is a new puzzle :-).

Enjoy!

Sneaking Up On Frogs

I am loving my little frog pond.  Do you see three frogs?  You have to sneak up on them.  They're a bit jumpy hahahaha ;-D.