Bad Dog! Bad Cat!

We were gone this afternoon, flew in for a DH pick up, then out the door for the evening. Apparently, that was a bit much for the mischievous Annebelly (idio-, idio-, idiosyncrasy?) and Sophie! When we arrived back home later, I suddenly heard Holly cry out with sadness....this is that beautiful first skein of yarn (see prior blog entry) she spun last week! Badddddd Doggggg! Wait.....or badddddd kittyyyyy? Who dun it? Hummm...

I think we just need to rewind the skein by hand and it will be ok. It was laying in a basket on the sofa table. It must have looked like an appealing dog toy, or something! Such are the perils of pets and yarn! I had nobody to scold, for the timing was off. So while I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to fix this skein, someone decides now would be a good time to chase her tail! Maybe she thought the skein of yarn was her tail with pretty pink and green and blue ribbons in it?


So would a Border Collie ever get into this kind of trouble? Yes! One day I was visiting an old shepherd in my neighborhood. His Border Collie got bored with us people talking, and investigated her surroundings for something fun to do. In no time at all, she found a white plastic tree wrap loose at the base of a cute little fruit tree near us. Before we realized what she was up to, she had ripped the wrap off the tree and was having a delightful time flinging it up into the air and pouncing on it as it hit the ground, then repeating the fling. Agggghhhhh! She was so cute, I've never forgotten it.

Back to sheep........

I'll end with this:

Is the wheel a marguerite, a daisy chain, the band?
Surely this tiny thing so sweet comes from Titania's Land.
Fairy workers must have shorn the cloudy fleeces white,
Or dandelions dainty puff when drift in lazy dreams,
Or spikey thistles downy fluff tumbling in sunny beams
Before the rosy glow of dawn put whimsy to flight.
They say a fairy has no heart, but sorrow now they feel
For mortal souls who grieve apart and so they've lent a wheel.
Spin little wheel a thread that is stout
Spin for our seamen true,
Spin the pain of parting out
From hearts which sorrow and rue.
Spin the warmth of wool little wheel
Forget your fairy days-
Spin for the men so brave and leal
Who guard the ocean ways.

The Fairy Wheel
Anonymous Poem from England
The Complete Spinning Book by Candace Crockett, p. 40

Luxurious knitted doll stole

Sigh...if only the modern woman could dress so fine! This luxurious doll stole was handspun on the shown drop spindle by a child. My child! It is sooooo fun to watch her excitement and delight at creating yarn and designing with it! Since the yarn is bulky, and hard to manipulate through a stitch for little fingers, I knitted this stole for her. DH and I made the drop spindle, then let her paint it. The bowl is filled with miniballs of roving she had a blast collecting at the WI Sheep and Wool Festival, then spun on this spindle. Her roving is stashed in a plastic grocery bag, which she excitedly carries out to the vehicle when we run errands and such. As I drive, she's spinning away in the back seat! Fun! The roving between the bowl and doll is the alpaca fiber she received from one of our favorite fiber shops, Bahr Creek (Thank you!) and is what the stole is made from. The skein in the picture is her very first full skein produced on a wheel, our Kiwi. It's certain now, I'll not see that wheel much in the future........................:)

Watch for our booth at local markets and craft fairs for more of these popular, unique handspun/handknitted doll stoles. Prices vary based on fiber. Fiber choices include angora bunny (see blog entry for Helping Hands Craft Fair), sheep's wool (some with glitz), and alpaca. They come in all colors and are excellent christmas gifts and stocking stuffers!

Honey, spinning, and Shimmer

Sweet Honey! She is a lovely lamb, and is so sweet, she'll steal your heart in no time. She was really wild when we bought her, as all our sheep seem to be when we get them. She came from a loving flock that was closely bonded, and I felt terribly guilty for taking her away from that. She baa-ed louder than any other sheep I've transported on the way home, and was so restless, I worried for her safety. In this picture, you can see a gap of wool missing around her neck. "Rats!", I thought when I went to look at her! She is a lovely ewe, but will require being fenced in a way that prevents her from sticking her head through to graze the other side, causing her wool to be rubbed out. In this little pasture on our farm, she is still fenced by squares large enough for her to stick her head through. Fortunately, I now rarely see her do that, and her wool is actually starting to grow back. Why she does it less here than she did on her home farm, is a mystery to me. Since she is an "09 lamb, she won't be bred, and is living with Wilbur and Lil' Rainbow.
Her wool is fine and soft, and will change color after her first shearing, to a fawn. Actually, her wool was coarser feeling when she came here, and now seems finer. I don't know if that is my imagination, or if there is truth to that. She is a honey color now, as a lamb. She was actually born dark brown! She has a white "collar" around her neck and a dark brown face with white fibers on her forehead. She has a wooly poll and cheeks, nice bone density, great conformation, a very sweet, bright expression, and a tail that falls correctly to the standard in terms of length and taper with a hairier tip, but somehow, I don't like her tail as much, and almost didn't buy her because of it! It falls in the standard, but somehow, isn't what I like to see...maybe too wide.
Someone else around here is liking spinning, too! In fact, I'm not sure I'll get my wheel back! I did buy the Kiwi for lessons, and for kids. This little wheel is so simple, smooth, steady, and short that kids easily learn on it; adults, too! Check out how fine that yarn is she's making!!! Makes a Mom proud!

After posting last time about Annabellie the silly puppy (who's now actually just over a year old), I realized I don't have any pictures on the computer of my first dog. She passed away several years ago, before the age of digital cameras and ease of picture manipulation. It will take me awhile to get a picture scanned in and figure out how to do that. She was a Border Collie/Heeler mix, out of champion stock on both sides. The male she was out of was a mulitple champion herding dog out of a northwest Colorado sheep ranch (I was working on ranches in Colorado at the time). One day, as an older dog, he was working sheep on the family's extensive private ranch, when he put his foot in a trap at a full run!!!! That was nearly his death. They released him as rapidly as they could, angry that a trapper would place traps on private land without permission, took him to Fort Collins to the vet school there, and made the decision to amputate his leg rather than put him down. A junior vet student there that day offered to AI him to a bitch he had, a champion working cattle dog who was a Queensland Heeler. The agreement was made to have crossed pups, as the Border Collie's prognosis was not good. Infection had set in and they thought they were going to lose him. There wasn't much time to mess around.

I got one of those pups, lucky me!! After doing much research, I kept coming back to the Border Collie as the ideal match for me. I was very active, living in the Colorado Rockies, and working on ranches. I took out pack trips on horseback, taking tourists above treeline, and on overnight pack trips. I also provided drop camps for elk hunters, although, fortunately, I never had to tie an elk head onto a horse!!! If you want interesting stories, ask any drop camp wrangler about getting elk racks out of the mountains on horseback (read, trees, blood, and bears)!!!! Not fun. I know I hated those days, but the rest was great fun.

Anyways, I rode horses all over the mountains, did lots of hiking, and skied all winter. It was a free and wild time in my life. And my little Shimmer was with me for it all. She put countless miles on, following me like an extension of my right arm. One day, she helped me retrieve a runaway pack mule. Another time, she alerted me to a bear near the trail. She became legendary in my area for never taking off after a deer, elk, or anything else. She made me, a first time dog owner (my own first, even though I grew up with a German Shepherd), look really good! I was so humbled by that. One whistle, and she was alert, on whatever you needed. She was fast, totally attentive (had that intense Border Collie stare), and a cinch to train. You asked something of her...BANG...she gave it to you!

Of course, as with all stories about dogs, there is much more to tell, but that is enough for now. In the end, the male she was out of made it through his surgeries, and lived on as a three-legged dog. I surely would love to have another pup out of him today. So why is Annabelle such adaptation? Ask something of Annabelle, and she'll think about your suggestion for awhile, or do the opposite!!. Ask something of a Border Collie (a good worker, anyway) and you'll get a response (the right one) on the spot.

What a shock!

That's what I've been saying for over a year now! This little pup is Annabelle, a poodle mix. What a shock! She is soooooo different from anything I've ever had. After 22 years straight of herding dogs, this dog requires serious adaptation! She is cute as can be, and a very well behaved little dog, with a cheerful tail that never stops. She has an eye for things outside, so at chore time, she's stuck in her favorite "wait" spot, the back porch window. She has a little padded bench there, and a windowsill that can take paws. If she went through the screen, it'd be less distance to the ground than the backside of the couch, which she clears with ease (MUCH to my dismay, makes me close my eyes and pray every time!!)

She's also the poshest pillow pup you'll ever find! Give her any stack of poofy pillows, and she'll be snoozin' precariously on top. Would you believe she is the fastest dog I've ever had? She can run so fast, her ears become a cartoon blur...all the way down to the chicken coop! You should see her chasing her tail! Just a white blur. She is kept on careful training, so each night, for her dash to Coopville, she runs out her "Coop Loop". That's her trip around the coop, sniffing. Of course, the chickens are long since tucked in and the ducks are splashing around in their stall in the barn when this happens (read more adaptation).

We bought this little pup for Holly. It's a perfect fit...ease of care and feeding for her, and an easy dog to train. Cheap to feed, too!! I must say, though, that her training was, well, water over the bridge until she was a year or so old. That's when things really started clicking and she understood. Patient waiting worked! We've trained her well, so that she can be a "loaner dog" for relatives who love dogs, but don't want to take on the responsibility of ownership at this stage of their lives. She loves warming laps and casually looking out windows as the world goes by...great for therapy.

Meanwhile, I'm still adjusting. It's nice she is so content to be docile during the day when I have other responsibilities. Nothing lands on my knee or at my feet for play, like has been the case for over two decades, and she's very quiet. But still....

Stay tuned for future blog posts, where I'll share about my other dogs, all gone now. Hopefully, my heart can handle going back to those painful places, as I miss them all so much........

"Not much use for a...."

"....crossbred ram!" The timing of this couldn't have been more appropriate! We've been reading Charlotte's Web here on Wheely Wooly Farm. The endearing story of a little girl named Fern and her little pig, Wilbur brought many fun story-telling moments. Of course, the gander, with his idio-idio-idiosyncrasies was the favorite....or was it Charlotte? Not sure! Anyways, we needed a buddy for Wooly Bear. We had been looking all summer, but Shetland wethers were hard to come by this year. We ended up finding this wether from Psalm 23 Farm. Laura, the shepherdess, made the comment "Not much use for a crossbred ram" when I asked why he was wethered. Holly thought that sounded so much like the keeping of the little pig in Charlotte's Web, that this sheep had the name "Wilbur" (or ..."Woolbur", not sure yet :) before we arrived to pick him up!


He is a Shetland/BFL cross. Laura told us he had been chilled as a lamb so he had to come in the house for a bit. She sure did a great job in warming him up, but not letting him forget he is a sheep! This skill in shepherding created a personable, friendly, people-loving sheep, who understands which side of the fence he's supposed to remain on. He is easy to catch (ppppffffff! I mean, move him out of the way of the gate!), loves to be petted, and is gentle around everyone. Goofball Goldie thinks he is nice, too. Yet you can walk away and Wilbur/Woolbur (is there an idiosyncracy here?) is content to go back to sheepy business. Since we have lots of visitors who love to see the sheep, he is the perfect fit for our farm, and his gentle temperment matches Wooly Bear's nicely as well.
His fleece is light, with greys and browns underneath. I know absolutley nothing about the BFL breed, and their fleeces are not my favorite, but I think his fleece is lovely enough to spin nicely and be soft wearing. Laura, by the way, was written up in a statewide newspaper called The Country Today last week! It was a long article with pictures and was very informative. Congratulations Laura on the publicity for your farm! Did you get the copy I mailed?
Maybe some of you out there can leave comments about his fleece and tell me what you think. Adio-adio-adios!

Farm Market Day

Our thanks goes out to those who visited our booth this morning! It is always fun to meet new fiber friends and talk yarn/spinning wheels/sheep and knitting! What a great opportunity we had today with all the room for spinning where passersby could watch me demonstrate. Wish I had a picture of it, but I didn't think of it again! Oh well. Seems we brought forward fond memories of childhood play and times with Moms now gone to some people strolling by. Thank you to those of you who expressed interest in learning to spin or knit, too!
Holly had a better day today. The Baa-tique drew lots of interest again. Many people took cards, too! Holly was so grown up, it's amazing to see the poise she had and how well she answered questions the customers had. The little kids were running from booth to booth to get Halloween candy, but Holly wasn't wanting to do that because that would take her away from helping customers at her Baa-tique! She really helped in all the work from setting up to taking down, to keeping things neat during the market. She did it all on her own, with much enthusiasm! We are really proud of her and are thrilled to see her blossoming in her own little business!
Yesterday, we had the rare chance to drive out to a country store that sells lots of grocery-type goodies. It's one of our favorite local destinations. The rain finally stopped and the sun came out, lighting up all the brilliant yellow trees. The wind continued to gust, though, and we got caught up in some entertaining swirls of leaves. Later when we were home again, time to get hands gooey in carving those pumpkins! Even though our dozens of pumpkins were harvented weeks ago, it was still tough to decide which one was it when the time came. :)

I got this cute little handbag at that grocery, with bright chickens on the front and back. Fun! I've been looking for one like this for awhile. The bottom picture is the back side. Problem is, Holly and I both love chickens, so we might have to take turns using it!
Well, have to get bundled up for trick or treating, as the warm, gusty winds of yesterday brought cooler temps today! Happy Halloween!

Students, Yarn, and gulp

This is one of my students. She learned how to spin from me by using the drop spindle DH and I made. Fun! We had made the drop spindle, then she painted it. She designed the coolest pattern on it so that when it's spinning, it looks colorful, like a top! Then she spun this yarn from a commercial ewe. After all that, she came back and we dyed it together with Kool aid! It was sooo fun to do all this with her! The yarn is on a little hanger because we had just finished dyeing it and it was wet and still dripping. She rode home on her bike with it dangling on the handlebars. :) What a great experience! Another student I had was an 11 year old boy who first attended one of my Fiber Fun on the Farm Days. He immediately wanted to learn how to spin! We sold him a drop spindle, and off he went! The next day, his family happened to pull into our driveway. He was in the back seat, with his spindle hanging from the hanger above the window...loaded with yarn! Fun! I couldn't believe it! He went on to learn knitting. His Grandmother had started him but he needed guidance. So between his Grandma and I, we got him, and then his little sister going! Fun! He carried on by getting some cotton yarn in green and gold...Green Bay Packers colors and knitted a dishcloth from a pattern I'd found! How cool is that!! He learned the knit stitch, yarn over and knit two together. It was a great experience! It all happened so fast, I don't have pictures. :(

This is a picture of the very first yarn I spun in the class I took. Sure looks goofy! The twist is all over the place, the drafting is...well...I don't think you could hardly call it drafting! The wheel I borrowed for this needed oiling, but no one caught that until the afternoon. So it kept giving me back ups and such, so I have little tails sticking out, too! It's fun to go back and look at this. By afternoon, the wheel got oiled, and I figured out how to draft, sort of!

The fleece I buy/raise for spinning and knitting are just that. We are not in it to sell lots of lambs, but to build our flock for fiber. My business is handspinning, and I sell beautiful handspun yarns. I've spun spotted fleeces (and they are lovely!..the ones I've spun anyway...Redwood in earlier blogs is spotted). But I spent extra time sorting colors and trying to blend the light and dark fibers into consistent yarn and skeins. (One spotted sheep I spun that was not Shetland, I didn't try so hard, I just spun whatever drafted for a lovely yarn! It was fun and sold well but most of that fiber was donated to 4-H kids.) I keep detailed records of all the fiber I buy, wash, and spin, sell. Selling dark yarn with a ewe's name on it, and selling light yarn with the same ewe's name on it confused my customers (we love visiting with them and sharing our experiences of the sheep with them). Between the time it took me to blend/sort the colors, and properly label the yarn for customers, I decided to stick with mainly solid colors (if you could say a fleece is all really solid colored!) A few weeks ago, I was spinning a gulmoget (that is the grey yarn Sophie my kitty is sleeping in on the rocker in my blog post back in August (?), and the grey socks in an Oct. blog), then a solid fawn. I sure hope people don't think I'm making an opinion or statement about that in my earlier blog post about spotted sheep!