We have lambs!!!

 Billy woke me up bright and early this am. He came running in saying you have to get we have lambs out there. I flew out of bed threw on a pair of jeans, sweatshirt and my boots. All I can remember is Billy's face he looked so worried and at a loss of what to do it was kind of funny. I went out and brought them up to mama, she was a little confused, but by the end of a very long day we finally are doing OK and seem to be settling in.

 I had a really hard time taking pictures because they kept following me, but here they are :)

Twin ram lambs. We have not named them yet because we need to decide after our other ewe delivers  who we are keeping and who is going. However, Beth already has at least one name picked out ;)

Here is a shot of one of them that was temporarily sitting still. One is more black and the other I think will be a gray.

Dye Studio

The other day when I was dyeing I decided that it would be fun to share where I do all my dyeing. I have converted our enclosed porch into my little dye studio. I is nothing fancy, but i works for me.  I love all the light I get in there and I also love the fact that the kids can be outside playing and I can keep an eye on them while I'm getting something done at the same time.

It looks like a mess, but it is a organized mess :) Both tables are preped and ready to go.

 This is roving that is all spun out and ready to be dyed, I'm doing this one some semi-solids.

 

Here you can see that I use old milk jugs and make my most common colors by the gallon. The less common colors I use small soda bottles.

Here is some of the of the fiber that I dyed drying on the clothes line.

Finally, maybe you saw this big pile in the first picture. This is my done pile. Well its kind of done.... its done in the sense that its all dyed and pin drafted, now it just needs to be weighted skeined and tagged,lol. This is one job that I can't wait to give the girls when they are a little older ;)

Shearing

Yesterday was shearing day. I was so excited to see what I got. I knew Charlie and Beauty's fleece would be nice, but I wasn't Sure about Lulu's.  As a lamb we had her shorn to soon and then it was to short the following year as well so this was the first real fleece from her. Plus we would be able to tell if the ewe's were bred.

Of course we picked the coldest day ever this spring to shear. It was probably in the 30's. Poor Beth wanted to watch so bad, but she was freezing. I felt really bad for Colin though because he couldn't really wear a jacket or gloves while shearing, brrrrrrr.......

 I was glad to see that her fleece was a good length. She has such a nice dark chocolate brown fleece.

Normally I am patient enough to wait till I get to the mill to skirt fleeces, but I really wanted to check them out and they are awesome!!!!

Here is a close up of charlies locks, they are so soft and fine, yum........

Here is what I got from Lulu. I was glad to there was a lot more prime and seconds than there was trash. I think after I wash it and card it, it is going to make some really nice yarn. It is so fine and springy. I'm thinking of blending this with some white and then over dyeing it so the brown will show through and the white will be dyed. It would make a really nice tweed.

The best part of the day was that we found out if they were bred....

Yay!!!! Both ewe's are preggo and will be due mid-late April. Hopefully it will have warmed up by then.

Charlie Yarn is all done !!!!

So Charlie is my whether, he is 3/4 BFL 1/4 BL and his fleece is to dye for (haha I couldn't resist).

 I decided that I finally wanted to do something for me so I dyed it a variegated red. It seriously seems like I have been spinning this FOREVER!!!! I'm not sure exactly when I started spinning it , but it was sometime over the summer. I just seemed like there were always so many other things going on......well you know how it is. Anyway, it spun up like butter :).

Here it is all done:

I can't wait to start knitting it up. I'm going to knit it into this I just need to finish my daughters sweater first ;)

Welcome to Our New Setup

You may be wondering why I changed up the website. First, I have always had a hard time getting the website to do what I wanted and second, I wanted to try and make it more "Finished" looking. I decided that because website was not letting me do what I wanted I would move it over here where I can have everything together and have it look the way I want it to without pulling my hair out. I think having everything easier to access will help my problem with updating the wait list as well posting more blog post of the things going on at the mill as well as other things that are going on here. If you have any questions please drop me an email or feel free to give me a call.

Also the wait list is just starting to build up for the spring season so if you are planning on adding your name please let me know and I can add it asap.