Raw fleece can be pretty dirty. Some of what is in the fleece comes from the sheep themselves, like lanolin and suint (sheep sweat). There can be a fair amount of dirt and sometimes some hay/straw that gets tossed around at mealtime. I wash fleece in small batches (about one pound) with a mild detergent and dry them in the sun (when it’s available).
Feb 2 came and went.
Punxsutawney Phil prognosticated that we’re going to have 6 more weeks of winter.
But in my experience, the weather guessers (people and rodents) are fairly unreliable, so I’m keeping a good thought for a nice mild remainder of the winter and a timely transition to spring.
Can’t hardly believe it’s February already.
Before you know it we’ll be pruning the fruit trees, and shearing the sheep again!
It was a beautiful weekend here, and I was glad to get some “hangin’ with the sheeps” time in
The boys were just chillin’ in the pasture
and I thought I’d maybe get a little fleece preview, but noone would let me get a good fleece picture.
But in summary-
Edgar and Griff look fabulous, a little lighter than last year, beautiful golden brown/taupe, both fleeces seem to be in really good shape, Griff is very crimpy, Edgar more wavy and silky.
Chone, a little shorter than I expected by now, but probably about 3 to 3.5 inches overall. some white fibers throughout. Starting to get a little matted in places where he scratches himself against the fence.
Frank and Felix- the fleeces are lookin pretty rough right now. Frank has managed to get a whole section of his back covered in some sort of green mossy stuff, and they both look very matted and bedraggled.
Would like to get in there and clean them up a little, but they aren’t guys who volunteer for a trip to the beauty shop, so I’ll just wait until next month hope it looks more promising under the surface.
Griff says, “It’s all about the fleece, baby”.
In sweater news, I was very excited about getting the sleeves and body joined up this weekend and getting to work on the yoke.
But then in handling the pieces I detected a slight inconsistency in weight between the two sleeves. Turns out the yarn I used in the second half of sleeve #1 is a little bit heavier than the rest.
The measurements are still pretty much right on. But it was bugging me, so I ripped it out.
So I’ve gotta go back and do another half of a sleeve. Not a big deal, but a little bit of a setback. I’ll reuse the slightly thicker yarn in the yoke where it won’t cause an imbalance.
Still think I can get it done by the end of the month. 😉
Shadow is shaping up nicely!
Sleeve #1 is blocked
and Sleeve #2 is underway-
Really enjoying this knit. Nice cable pattern that is easy to memorize.
Little nervous about the sewing up part, but I guess I’ll figure that our when I get there.
I’m also doing some planning for the next project- a Chone and Spike Cobblestone
I’ve liked this pattern for a long time, and just had someone express interest in having me make one, so here we go!
Chone
plus Spike
Equals
I just love doing swatches.
I think that Chone has forgiven me.
The silly bugger was really good for most of the haircut, but then out of nowhere he just kind of flipped out on me and he refused to let me finish. So now he’s got a really silly lookin’ fluffy butt.
Here’s his album cover shot. He likes this one because you can’t see how silly his rear end looks.
Thought this was a cool shot of Edgar’s one-month grown out fleece. Starting to get a little curl back on the tips.
Looks so cute and sporty.
Yeah, I got all short and sporty this week, too. Probably not showing off to best effect here, but you get the idea.
Sadie got all brave and ventured into the pasture with us this morning. Here are she and Edgar negotiating her visitor privileges.
Thought this was a nice shot of the rivals playing nice and getting pets.
On the other side of the fence:
“Wow, did I just lay that?”
and “Hey, are you going to be done anytime soon?”
“Can’t wait any longer. Sorry!”
