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Three is the Magic Number

denisemor 2 October 23, 2015

Meet Sigrid!

I spotted her on craigslist last week, and she came home with me on Tuesday.

What a beauty, eh?

I don’t have a really good idea of her origins, but her styling appears to be scandinavian.

She is complete (except for maybe a distaff- there is a hole in the table for one), with an intact flyer and one bobbin that is in pretty good shape. Really solid and not terribly dried out or anything. Even has both her finials!

And check out the neat little caps that secure the wheel in place!

She did have rust and residue on her flyer hooks,

so I took a small wire brush to them and got them cleaned up some.

Might have to do a little more smoothing on a couple of hooks that have quite a bit of wear, but she’s spinning very nicely already.

I also fashioned her an orifice hook out of a paperclip, since the hooks I use with my other wheels wouldn’t fit (she’s got a kind of petite flyer assembly).

I just love her style. The turnings, the tone and grain of the wood – pretty, but not too fancy.
And she’s a sweet spinner. Big 25 inch wheel.

So I’m back to three wheels now.
Three is the magic number. 🙂

Ps. Will post a video of her in action soon!

Denise 1, Crows 0

denisemor 0 October 18, 2015

Egg production is up!

Or, should I say, egg thievery is down.
And the crows are no longer hanging around in the tall trees bordering the pasture.

I’m calling it a victory.
We’ll see if it lasts. But for now I’m pretty pleased with the results of the netting.

And, we moved the SheepCam today- so the view of the boys is no longer obscured by the crowproofing. 🙂

In wool news, I washed the last of my Spring 2015 Chone wool last weekend,

And have been slowly getting it picked and fluffed. It’s really neat how his wool has been getting softer and crimpier over the last few years. His lamb fleece wasn’t much fun to work with, but he’s come a long way! One more reason to love the crazy little dude

I haven’t been spinning much recently, but hat production continues apace-

Next up-

Adventure Chicken on Walkabout

denisemor 0 October 11, 2015

A while back we noticed that one of the new girls was getting out of the pasture during the day.
She would be out in the yard, and, assuming that she wasn’t able to get back in herself, we would go out and open the gate to let her back in with her friends.

But over the last week or so it has become clear that she is a chicken apart, who has her own ideas about where she wants to hang out, and can come and go from the pasture as she pleases.

I spent some time observing our adventure chicken, and it turns out that she is returning to her chick-hood pen over on the other side of the yard to lay her eggs.

I figure as long as I know where to find her eggs, I guess we’re good. No point in trying to keep her in. She’s a free spirit.

But I have taken steps to try and keep the crows from their egg thievery!

Net. Lots of net.

Crows are way too smart- I’m sure that if they really want to they can find a workaround.
But I’m hoping that it is just annoying enough to make them go somewhere else to get their goodies!

And, of course, there are more hats-

Only a month or so until the holiday market I think I can maybe get another 6 done by then.

And after that, I think I might be ready for a sweater project. It’s been a while since I’ve cast on for something big, and I’m starting to get the itch!

New Digs for Chigs

denisemor 0 October 5, 2015

This weekend the chickens (chigs for short) moved in with the sheeps!

We put the wheels back on the coop and parked it next to the sheep shed, since that’s where the chigs hang out must of the time anyway.

Having some technical website difficulties right at the moment, but will have photos of the new set-up soon.

Go Hawks!