Tag: shearing

Scenes from the Barbershop

Saturday was nice and sunny, and I was able to convince Chone that he needed to be relieved of his heavy winter coat (or at least part of it)

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He’s usually a good sport for at least the first half of the job.

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And we had a nice bit of quality time, with lots of rubs and snuggles

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He’s such a sweet little dude 🙂
So he’s about half-shorn now, much like Dottie and Esther.
Still haven’t had a go at Felix and Frank yet, and Frank look like he’s already shedding his fleece a bit.
It’s just as well- I think that he’s pretty felted. But I hope to have a chance to get him tidied up soon.

In other fiber-y news, I received a sample of angora from a friend the other day, so I spent some time today playing with it and working up a little sample.

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I’d never spun angora before, so it took a little bit of practicing before I got a feel for how it drafted. It’s so soft and fine- but with a decent staple length, so I decided to spin it on it’s own, with no wool blended in.

My regular old hand carders did a decent job prepping it- not perfect, but got most of the clumps opened up

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Thought I had a picture of it on the bobbin, but oh, well-
Here is the resulting swatch

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Serious halo- and I haven’t even washed it yet!
It could probably have used a bit more twist in the singles, so I’ll probably try that next time so the yarn is a little stronger and more stable. But I’m pretty pleased with how the first try went.

Makes me really want to make one of these
or perhaps one of these

The little ones look like they’d work up pretty fast….

Off the Needles!

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and blocking, pinned to a towel

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It is indeed SuperGreen

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and I love it so .

Here’s hoping that it dries quickly so I can wear it while there is still a bit of chill in the air 🙂

In other news, I got a start shearing Esther today. Just the head neck and chest so far.
It went really well I thought. Kind of a trust-building exercise.
She seemed to enjoy me giving her rubs and chatting her up while working on her new ‘do.
Pictures later-

Just a Little Off the Top, Please

The most unlikely of walk-in customers approached me this evening about getting a little trim

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Yep, that’s Dottie.
Last year she was a bit of a handful at shearing time. Bucking bronco/jumping bean type of thing.
But this year she was all about getting rid of that heavy coat so I could give her some good scritches 🙂

I wasn’t really prepared for the shearing, and so didn’t have anything on hand to put the wool in as it was coming off- so I just stuffed it in my jacket as I went. Here is me afterwards-

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And here is Dot with her partial haircut

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Lookin’ pretty sporty, girl!

Fleece, Wiring & Banana Bread

The makings of a good weekend!

Managed to get Edgar’s haircut finished up, and made a start on Dottie and Chone.

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Ooh- Ahhh- those do look like nice fleeces.

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As you might expect, Felix and Frank kept their distance.

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But Edgar was all about getting rubs after I got his neck and shoulders cleared off.

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Meanwhile, The Man is making great progress on the espinner project. Worked on wiring up all the components Saturday

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This was a dry run of how the elements will fit in the box once it is assembled.

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And then today we got the rest of the shaping done on the box.

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I think it’s all coming together quite nicely. Can’t wait to take it for a test spin!

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It might be bit yet, because of the box assembly and finishing and such, but for now there is banana bread.

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