Roo, roo, roo your sheep....

Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. (yep, I've finally gone completely wacko)

Thank you Tylor for your graphic expertise....

The kids loved it when we handed them some fleece to touch and take with them.

We had to blade shear this guy a bit to finish.

Another large crowd for the demo

Most of this one was roo'd easily, but the neck wool wasn't quite ready and she was finished off with hand  shears

Garrett showing the fleece to the crowd, this fleece was sold right off the sheep and Kim donated the proceeds to FFSSA....Thank you Kim!!! 

Display Booth.....next to the demo booth

Shepherd's Harvest was a great experience and loads of fun for myself, Kim and Garrett this past weekend.  We had planned on doing 4 demos, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday, but the response to the the rooing demo's were so positive and well attended, we just kept going and managed to do 10 sheep!!!!  The weather was perfect and I understand from the event organizer that there were over 8,000 people in attendance at this year's festival.  Sunday morning Sandy (part of the festival organization crew) commented to Garrett that our display and demos were getting a lot of buzz and some very positive comments about how interesting there were to watch.  The response exceeded our expectations, and despite it being a lot of work, we had a blast.  We were given permission to sell the raw fleeces we roo'd as long as the proceeds were going to our organization and we sold 2 fleeces right off the sheep.  We have been invited back for next year's event, and maybe we can use a few of the things we saw and heard at this year's festival to make changes for next year.

Some of the comments that were made were.... "I had no idea that Shetland sheep did that". The best part was that so many people said "This is Shetland? I didn't know Shetland was this nice". And that's why we are working so hard to educate and give the fiber community the chance to see how wonderful Shetland fleece can be.  We also had a range of finished garments that illustrated how to utilize the fleece from various areas of the sheep, as well as a handout that indicated how each fleece type could be used in a finished item.   And once again, Eek, the felted mouse sculpture created by Sabrina was a big hit.

A huge Thank you to Kim Nikolai for letting me stay with her this weekend, plus a giant Thank you to Bob for grilling those perfect steaks on the grill Friday night.  I can't forget to thank Garrett and Tylor for all their help too.  None of of could have done this alone, so I'm grateful for the time and money spent to make this whole thing a reality.

Something new

My good friend, Kristi, from the Argyle Fiber Mill was kind enough to lend me her triangular loom to see if it would be something I enjoyed before I took the plunge and bought one.  I watched the video that came with the loom, rounded up my supplies and got started.  The first day I worked on the shawl for 5 hours........and I was hooked.  I used a  light musket  and gray yarn that I hand spun, the black and moorit yarn is mill spun.  I can't wait to get started on another one, but the since I had to return the loom, I needed to either cough up the funds for a loom or make one.  Luckily, there's yahoo group that is for Tri-loom junkies and they have some great instructions for make a tri-loom in the files section.  

My first weaving attempt..100% OK Acres Shetland wool

Saturday I loaded up my 1" x 3" x 8' boards and headed to my mom and dad's house where a fully equipped wood shop resides in my parents garage.  My dad and I spent the better part of that day building the tri-loom that you see in the picture below.  The only change I made was to add nails every 1/4" so that I could weave with DK weight yarn as well as the bulky yarn.  

Triangular loom that my dad and I made this past weekend

A very simple felted mouse and my first felting experience.  LOVED IT!!!
Body is made from 50/50 blend of Shetland and Alpaca

This little fella was created while I was is in Waukesha at the WI Spin In.  My mouse in nowhere near as spectacular as Sabrina's that she lent to FFSSA for the display booth.  Mine is kind of like what a 1st grader would create and Sabrina's is what a college aged art major would make.  :)

Rooing and new puppy progress

Last week I found another victim candidate that needed rooing. Since I started rooing sheep this year, I just can't seem to keep my hands off the sheep when they are losing fleece all over my pastures.  The spinner, knitter (and now...weaver~sort of) in me gets all twitchy when I see perfectly good neck wool laying in the dirt!!!  It doesn't matter that I have bags of wool in my garage, roving and yarn in my stash room, there's just something about the waste of fine fleece that makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle.  

Bee Sting was innocently rushing to some grain we had put out for the pregnant ewes, and since she's not friendly, I had to nab her when she wasn't expecting it.  I knew I wouldn't get another try, but I didn't need it, I grabbed her and got started with rooing.  

Color me surprised when I realized that her entire fleece was going to come off in a sheet!!!  In 10 minutes flat, she was bare naked, and free, only to have the entire flock hound her relentlessly because they no longer recognized her.  I don't think she will forgive me anytime soon.  :)  

Bee Sting after her plucking.  Give her a set of antlers and she'd look just like a deer.  

 Bianca continues to worm her way into the hearts of our sheep and our older Maremma, John.  She pesters him constantly when she's out, and despite his grumbling and vicious sounding growls, he's never done anything that would hurt her.  I even found the old guy (10 yrs.) playing with her the other day.....I just stood and smiled.  

Bianca and John 

 Bianca will now patrol the pasture fences by herself and her favorite sheep in the whole pasture is Disco, a ewe lamb I purchased from Juliann at Lil' Country Acres last summer.  Disco follows Bianca around like they are BFF's.  Nothing Bianca does deters Disco from being near, and she simply wags her tail happily. 
I'm looking forward to the day when I can leave her in with the sheep and not have to put her back into her own pen when we aren't around.  But, the time that she is out with John and the sheep is getting longer and longer.  I'm very pleased with this little gal.  

Bianca during a rare calm moment

Everyday is a gift from God.