Lilly

When I opened my eyes this morning I saw yet another grey sky, heavy with rain. The wind was bending the branches on the trees and the air looked damp and cold. We have had a particularly long winter this year, even for us. The spring has been cold, wet and windy. It looked like gardening was out yet again. I made a pot of coffee and took it up to my spinning room. I have been spinning up a roving from one of my sheep. The wooI I am working with is very white with about a five inch staple and a nice crimp. It spins beautifully with an attenuated long draw. I have been spinning singles (28 wpi) that I will ply into a finished yarn. I haven't decided how I want to finish the yarn at this point. I don't know whether or not to dye any of it, or whether I will keep it or sell it. For now, I am just enjoying the act of spinning. This particular type of spinning is very relaxing. I don't have to focus too hard on what I am doing and it leaves my mind free to wander. I found myself thinking about the sheep that bore this coat. Lilly was born on the farm. She was a twin. She was a daughter of Holly and Buddy, my first breeding pair. This makes the wool a mix including Lincoln, Romney, Jacob, Finn and Border Leicester.  I found myself thinking about the day I brought Holly, Chris and Buddy home. These were the first sheep I bought for wool. I found an ad in the Farmers section of the local paper, made a call, picked up my friend Susie, who actually knew something about sheep and wool and off we went. When we got to the seller's farm we found that her sheep were direct descendants of a flock that was bred specifically for hand spinning by a friend of Susie's. All three of the sheep we were shown were yearlings. Both ewes had been bred to a Lincoln ram. Holly was a beautiful ewe the color of nickel. She had a soft black face and legs. Chris was a white ewe and Buddy, the ram, was a rich dark brown. There was no way I could leave the farm without them. We visited with the seller a bit, got the breeding records, loaded the sheep into the back of a small pickup with a topper and headed back home. We managed to unload the sheep and get them into the barn. We introduced them to Dolly and Sally, my other sheep and the only milk goat we had left. Then came cleaning the back of the truck. I never dreamed three sheep could make that big a mess in that short a time! The next step was telling my husband about the sheep. I decided to put that off for a while. We had sold our flock of milk goats and he had become accustomed to the quiet. After three days I had to tell him because I had to go out of town for a few days for work. He would have take care of them while I was away. We walked together to the barn the night before I left. I made a point of how mentioning how quiet it was out. That was all it took. He stopped walking and asked, "what is in the barn". Does he know me or what! Luckily, when we got to the barn the sheep all came over to introduced themselves, nuzzled our hands and ate some corn we offered. I still miss having sheep around. They are such wonderful, gentle souls. We sold all our animals a couple years ago when I was gone a lot for work. Since then, our barn burned and it is doubtful we will rebuild. I thought I would include a picture of the finished yarn. (DK weight three ply).

The shawl.....

I was blissfully wandering through one of my favorite yarn shops on a chilly afternoon last fall, mesmerized by all the different fibers. I was drinking in the colors, fondling all the different yarns, when suddenly a skein of sock yarn screamed at me. It was a variegated wool with shades of ecru, turquoise, brown and a bit of grey. All the colors that a friend of mine loves were in that one skein of yarn! I decided I had to buy it and make something for her for Christmas. I got home with the yarn and started going through books, magazines and websites looking for the perfect pattern to make with the yarn. I decided that a lacy scarf would be something she would like and wear. I found a pattern that I thought would be lovely with that particular yarn, got my needles out and started knitting. I was making good progress when I saw a mistake a few rows back. Of course I had not thought to use life lines, the pattern wasn't that difficult and it didn't occur to me that I could make a mistake... I frogged back to the row with the mistake and tried to pick up all the stitches correctly. Lace patterns are made by knitting two stitches together, wrapping the yarn over, slipping stitches and all sorts of things that make picking up stitches really confusing. I ended up frogging all the way back to the beginning. End of the first attempt. I decided to try a different lace pattern the second time around. I got about six inches knit up and decided I didn't like the way the yarn was working up in that pattern so I tore that out as well. End of the second attempt. Back to the books, magazines and websites. I found yet another pattern that I thought would be nice so I started again. By this time there was no hope of finishing the scarf in time for Christmas. I still had several other gifts and some orders for things that I needed to knit up and get in the mail. I figured it would be okay if the scarf wasn't done in time for Christmas because my friend's birthday is at the end of January. After the holidays I pulled the scarf back out. When I looked at it I decided that I didn't like it so, again, I frogged. Attempt number four was crocheted. Adding texture wasn't the answer. I couldn't face casting on enough stitches to knit lengthwise, so back to looking at patterns. I finally found a beautiful shawl pattern that I really liked. (Lala's Simple Shawl by Laura Linnehan found on Ravelry.com). It was knit from the top down. I could see fairly quickly that the pattern was going to work with the yarn. It is now well into February. I told my friend about the project  and explained why she didn't get the 'scarf' for Christmas or her birthday. She thought it was hilarious. I was getting so tired of looking at that yarn that I just wanted to finish something and move on! Well, it got to be Mother's Day. (She qualified, even if she wasn't my mama). I finally got the shawl done. She thinks it is wonderful, and I got the yarn out of the house. I liked it so well I am now making one for myself ...with a different yarn!

LaLa's Simple Shawl pattern, 

How it all began...

I live on a small acreage on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. I live with my husband, three dogs and two cats. I have been working with fiber for about fifteen years. It all started innocently enough. A friend of mine had two young children. They decided to raise lambs for a 4H project. At the end of the summer, my friend asked if I would like to have the lambs, a white female and brown male, both mostly Suffolk. Of course I said yes. At the time we already had several Saanen milk goats, a flock of geese, a few ducks, a dozen or so chickens and a couple of pigs. Why not sheep! Well, one thing led to another (more on that later...). I ended up several years later with a flock of very nice mixed breed  sheep, angora goats and two llamas. I no longer had the other livestock. I was learning to focus. I did have a lot of fleece to play with. I decided that I needed to figure out how to use all this wool so I bought a used spinning wheel and learned how to spin. I soon had a lot of very nice yarn to use up so I taught myself how to knit. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a little girl and I picked that up again as well. Due to changes in circumstance, I no longer have the animals. I do have three spinning wheels, a collection of spindles, two floor looms for weaving, every conceivable size of knitting needle in straight, circular and double point, and enough yarn and fleece to fill a large spare bedroom, closet and armoire. This year as a Christmas gift, my wonderful husband surprised me by making arrangements to take the last of my fleece, all 41 pounds, to a local fiber mill to be processed into roving for spinning! Now I have enough fiber ready to spin to keep me busy for quite some time. I have started to toy with dying as well. I hope you will join me on this ongoing adventure!