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The day started out dark and cold.

We were planning on being out of bed by 6:30 in order to be out the door by 7:30, but the dogs decided I had slept enough by 5:15.

It was an icky winter day, even by PNW standards. Cold, rainy, windy. But regardless, I awoke a happy girl, knowing that today we would be going to Stanwood to learn farm stuff.

And learn we did! About organic soil improvement, pasture weeds, fencing, sheep shearing on a stand, fruit tree pruning, and producing/processing/marketing quality fleece.

And I have pictures!

Here is our lucky contestant for the “sheep shearing on a stand” demo by Eileen Hordyk of Sand Hill Sheep and Wool:

He was a very cooperative fellow, especially for this being his first time through the shearing experience. Isn’t he handsome critter? Here he is about half-way through the process:

What is really neat about the concept of shearing on a stand is that you can get all the prime fleece off and out of the way first, and then go back and clean up the legs, belly and anything else you’d otherwise have to skirt out later. And it also keeps you from having to flip a sheep on it’s butt and roll it around while you’re clipping- another big plus in my book.

Here is the young gentleman with his entire lamb fleece removed:

And here is the half of his fleece that I gleefully bought from Eileen:

Between that and the cool books the man got me (including Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann), this just might qualify as the best birthday yet.

So, I was at a Spindrifers (local spinning guild) meeting on Saturday, talking sheep with Yvonne, who recently adopted some CVM (California Variegated Mutant) sheep. She mentioned something about a WSU extension event going on in Stanwood next weekend. Farming seminars and such. Just my speed!
So I came home and checked it out on the web- Country Living Expo 2008, Stanwood High School, Saturday, Jan 19.

I am so excited. The man and I are both signed up (he gave in pretty easy because it’s my birthday- I lucked out there!) and I think it’s going to be great. Lots of good topics for the seminars, everything from maintaining a pasture to shearing sheep on a stand- and a prime rib lunch to boot.

Now that’s my idea of a good time.

I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Success in the product is largely about the prep work.

(Maybe I’ll develop that metaphor more completely later on.)

These little rolags are carded seconds of a couple different wools.  Bits left over from my first time around flick carding the locks. Handcarding the rolags is more work than the flicking process, but it lets me make good use of the shorter fibers that get screened out in the first go-round. And it’s kind of a relaxing way to spend an evening.

I spin up the rolags using a long-(ish) draw  method, and it results in a really nice soft, lofty kind of yarn.  I do love the long draw and spin this style whenever I can. Of course, it works best when the fiber is well prepped and drafts easily and evenly.

But that can be said of most things  in spinning, and life, eh?

The new little fleece is all dry and ready to be played with:

It cleaned up beautifully, and is just dying to be spun up. So, we’ll go through a little bit of how I get it ready for spinning.

With something like this, I usually just grab a few locks at a time and use a flick carder (or dog brush) to open up the ends and remove any short or weak bits (any remaining veg falls out too) . In photos:

Holding the locks by the butt end, I comb down through the tips of the fibers, opening them up.

Then I turn it aronfand do the same to the butt ends.

And then you have a nice little cloud of loosened up fibers, all still going in the same direction. I usually spin right from this stage. I just make up a mountain of little fiber bundles and then get spinning.

But if you want to, you can easily make your own roving. Just tug out a small bunch of fibers fo the end of the bundle, and keep drafting them in a steady stream until you run out:

Then you can gently wrap them into a tidy little bun for spinning later.

Here is a short video demonstration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ANSEIcNWw&rel=1]