how to blade shear a sheep

A couple months ago I bought Burgon and Ball sheep shears at the local feed store for a hefty price, and ordered a blade sharpener off of ebay. I had it in my head after reading our sheep book and looking at the drawings of how to hold a sheep for shearing, that my 128 lb. self was actually going to be able to hold a 100 lb. sheep in those positions. HaHa!

Well I got my shears, piece of plywood to shear on, a broom, plastic bags, and a cart to set the wool in. My Mom joined me in this venture to assist me, and we both quickly found out I am NOT strong enough to hold a 100 lb. sheep in any sort of position, but laying it on its side.

My Mom helped hold the sheep down, while I sheared. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get her done, but I didn't cut her once, and I had very little second cuts (undesirable short cuts of fiber from shearing over the same spot twice). Her fleece is beautiful. We had thought that these two ewes we have were some sort of Suffolk cross, but we got to looking through our fleece book and the breed that they resemble the closest is the Dorset Down, both in body and fleece. Which is really funny that they are identical because they came from two separate breeders.

 What happened to you?
We also noticed after shearing these girls, that they were not pregnant. So I guess we won't be getting any lambs from them till next year, but as to why they didn't conceive? I don't know. Maybe they were to young. I didn't ever notice them to come into heat, but I did see the ram breed them. So thought we would be getting lambs. Oh well. There is always next year. 

 

Isn't that some gorgeous crimp?

I washed some of the fiber, dyed it with food coloring, and set it out to dry on a rack on the lawn.

Then I spun some of it into a thick and thin crazy colored yarn.

Kimberly

Rooing Puddin

One of the great things about Shetland Sheep is that they were bred to release their wool naturally by shedding. A lot of breeders have bred out this trait, since it is faster to shear a sheep than to roo it (pluck the wool). I was so happy when I discovered that Puddin was shedding her hair.

I started out with her on this plywood, but there was a breeze wanting to blow the wool into the dirt, and a bit hard on my legs trying to get down to her level. So I moved her to the stanchion. I never locked her head in the stanchion (she's to short), instead I tied her lead to the headpiece. She stood still, and seemed to really enjoy the process. I think it must have felt good.

There are 3 types of Shetland fleece. Her type is called Kindly. It means she has a fine, single coat with no guard hairs.

Although she looks like she has bald spots in the picture, she doesn't, it's just the way the sun shone through her wool in the picture.

She was left with a short fuzzy coat, but not as short as if she had been sheared.

My hands got a very heavy bath in lanolin. Sheep shears must have really soft hands.

The result was 2 cartloads of her beautiful fleece for me to play with (I think it weighed about 2 1/2 pounds), and a much more comfortable Puddin.

To find out more about Shetland Sheep go to the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders Association website.

Kimberly

From Goat To Yarn

This is Bogart. He will be 12 in March. He's basically ancient, sterile, and I'm really surprised he's still around. He was the first buck I ever owned, and I was quite scared of him when I bought him. He was 2 1/2 years old, smaller, and his horns were half the length they are now The lady I bought him from assured me that he was not aggressive, and that Angora bucks are not aggressive in general, but I just couldn't get all those stories about nasty bucks out of my head. So I was very careful, and he was extremely skittish, so he actually wouldn't let me get near him. Then one morning I found him with his leg caught in a old piece of electric fencing. It had formed a slip knot on the end, and I thought how in the world am I going to free him without getting rammed or him getting hurt trying to get away. So a slowly approached him and squatted down by him prepared to bolt if he swung his horns at me. He looked at me with this sad look in his eyes "Please help me, my leg has gone numb."  He just stood there watching me as I loosened the wire, and slipped it off his leg. He had no injuries, just a numb lower leg. When he was free he started to limpingly trot away towards his does. He got about 15 feet away, and then he stopped, turned around, and looked back at me like he was saying "thank you". Then he turned back and joined up with the does. That was when I lost my fear of him.  

Over the years he has mellowed out and is no longer skittish. Anyone can walk right up and pet him. We have never had to worry about children playing in the pasture with him. And boy is he a sucker for fig leaves and oranges, but you have to cut the oranges up for him now. He can no longer bit into them

because he only has 1 whole and 2 half teeth left in the front. Goats and all ruminant animals only have teeth on the bottom in the front of their mouth. They have plenty in the back for chewing their cud, but they only have the set in the front for biting off grass, and scraping bark off tree's. That's why I think its funny how people are always worried they are going to get bit. They can't do any damage if they bite against their gums. 

In all the years I have had Bogart I never used his fiber. He was usually the last animal to get sheared, so he had either gotten matted, or in the Fall he was stinky. Normally I put my goat in a stanchion to shear, but because of his large horns he needs to be laid on the ground to shear with my Mom helping me hold him. This results in his hair being filled with lots of junk, because of where we had to shear him at (wherever we can find shade). One thing you do not want to do is take a goat down in the field with all their pasture mates, because they will all want to take a swing at the down animal while you are working on them. That's just animal behavior. So I usually just tossed his fiber, because I had lots from my does. This last year when we sheared him I was surprised at just how soft his fiber still was, and saved all I could from his sides (the prime), that wasn't full of junk. I finally got around to spinning it, and am extremely happy with how it turned out.

It has soooooo much sheen. I love it. 

I have been reading about dying fiber naturally. This was always something that interested me, but I didn't have the mordants required. Recently I found a new book I love called Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes by Rebecca Burgess. Some of the fiber was dyed without a mordant. I got to wondering what color our redwood trees would produce, so decided to give it a try. I clipped a bunch of branches with there redwood cones attached and cooked them in a pot of water for 24 hours on the wood stove. Strained it, then added some white alpaca, and white wool. Simmered for several hours and drained, cooled to warm, and washed. It's sort of looked a purplish brown, but when I spun the alpaca it looked more brown. I will save the wool for needle felting.

This is the dyes gone wild Romney fiber I found in my stash all spun up. I am really happy with how it turned out.

I knitted this alpaca scarf as a thank you for our neighbor that lets us keep our goats, and Snooki the cow on their property. Its the first real knitted item I have made. I crocheted a wool hat for the Husband.

It took me a week to make. It had some mistakes, but it was a learning experience.

AND this is a slouchy hat that I made for my Niece Jolie. I spun it from half of the grab bag I had stashed away.

Its made of wool, silk, cotton, tinsel, and some other fibers that I'm not sure of like Cashmere or Pygora or something.

Kimberly

November 2014

Last month we bought a stack of Sudan hay before it started raining. We soon found out the problem with buying hay right before it rains is that you have a hard time getting a hay retriever to deliver, because all the farmers need their hay moved into their barns, and their's not enough retrievers to go around. Finally the guy we always use called us back in the morning, and said he could move our hay. Once he dropped our hay, the un-stacking began. An 80 bale stack of hay is way too tall  for me to get bales down off the top, and also too tall to tarp.

 My parents, "The hay moving team".

 All re-stacked on pallets, and ready for my Mom and I to tarp.

We started using this trailer for keeping some of the hay on, as it keeps the hay exceptionally dry being raised so far from the ground.

I got this multi-colored Romney wool at a fiber show recently. I dusted off the spinning wheel and got to work. It has been so long, since I have spun, that I thought I would be a spinning disaster, but I guess its just like riding a bike.

 It carded up beautifully, and was easy to spin.

I then Navajo 3-plied it, so that I could keep the colors separate, and changing throughout the yarn. I love randomness.

 I got 4 and 1/3 skeins of yarn out of the 11 oz. of wool.

I then began spinning some white alpaca.

Here is some after I plied it.

My Mom brought in a butterfly that was dying from the change in weather. I gave it a little sugar water, and used it for a photo shoot of the new cowl I crocheted out of some the the alpaca. Unfortunately there is no saving butterflies, but it sure made a pretty prop.

I already crochet, but have decided to torture myself and learn how to knit. I tried in the past but didn't give it my all, and never got past knit and purl. Well now I think its because it turns out knitting Continental suits me better, but man is knitting complicated. I guess it exercises the brain ; )

So I put a wanted ad on Freecycle for a set of knitting needles, since I will need different sizes for different yarns and patterns. Within 24 hours I had a response to come and pick up a bunch of knitting needles. BTW if you have never heard of Freecycle, I would suggest you check Yahoo Groups for one in your area. You never know what you might find, and it's great for getting rid of things you don't want anymore.

Aren't they beautiful in my Grandmothers vase!

I pulled out a tin of yarn my Mom had spun probably over 20 years ago. It had gotten moths on it at some point, but I wrapped it all into skeins and washed it, salvaging what I could.

My room looks like it has been yarn bombed.

This is wool that I spun. But seriously, yarn bombed!

I went on a search through our storage shed looking for our tote of fiber, and was extra surprised when I found it.

 There is a lot of fiber in it that I forgot were I placed it.

 Like this Romney.

 And this grab bag.

 And all mohair from my goats that I dyed with Kool-Aid and food coloring. Plus there was a lot more than I remember dying. 

 And some had already been carded.

 And some had already been spun!

Now that is a crazy color. I don't know what I should make with it, but I do know this. I have enough fiber to keep me spinning for a looooong time.

For anyone that is wanting to get started spinning, this is a really good book that explains all the different techniques.

An update on the berry bushes.

It really is amazing what the goats have done to that monstrosity.

They have eaten and stomped probably 15-20 feet of the perimeter of the bush.

 See that hole up at the top. The goats are climbing all the way up there now.

I think this goat is saying "Berry bush, shmerry bush!"  As she just walked down from the top right hand corner in the picture. 

I'm wondering what it will look like in the Spring.

I think that's all for now.

Kimberly