Back from BSG; summary and acquisitions

Here is the short version: We had a great weekend, my little lambs and I! The trip down and back was uneventful, the weather was perfect (on the cool side, just the way I like it), and my lambs were admirable ambassadors for the breed. I didn't win any ribbons or find homes for Beau and Boo, but I enjoyed being with other sheep people, met two more blogpals for the first time, handed out a lot of business cards, sold most of the roving I picked up from Aunt Janet AND the two fleeces I was going to send with her for processing, and made some beautiful acquisitions.

Shall we start with the acquisitions and their stories?

Before BSG, I had admired the felt totes and bags on Shannon's blog. (Shannon is a Jacob breeder and talented fiber artist that I met through Tammy last year.) When she told me she could do a custom design for me AND was willing to trade for Shetland roving, how could I resist? When I got to BSG, I was more than delighted with what she had come up with:When I picked up my roving, she chose 6 oz. of Brava's lamb fleece and 6 oz. of Browning's lamb fleece in payment.

When walking through the trade show to pick up my roving from Aunt Janet, my eyes fell on some gorgeous dyed roving of various blends. The vendor, Island Fibers, was kind enough to give me a sample of the two colorways I liked best. After spinning up both the merino/mohair and the merino/silk, I chose 8 oz. of the later:Luscious, luscious stuff!

Later, when I was walking back by with my bags of roving, the same ladies asked to see what was in the bags. After ooohing and aaahing over each of the three lamb fleece rovings I had picked up, one of them looked up and asked fervently, "Do you want to trade?" Again, how could I resist? Although they had sold the rest of the colorway I had purchased, I found the same merino/silk blend in another colorway, so I traded a pound of Braveheart's lamb fleece for a pound of this:
After that transaction, I continued through the trade show towards the sheep barns. Another vendor who was spinning commented about someone making a large purchase, so I told her I had had my fleeces processed and had just picked them up. I asked her if she'd like to see them; she did and promptly asked if she could buy a pound of Browning's roving!

On Sunday I finally had a chance to shop for a yarn (WPI) yarn gauge which I have been wanting for some time, and chose this silky-smooth number from Herndon Creek Farms.While we chatted I mentioned I have Shetlands, and the wife said, "Oh, I LOVE Shetland!" So of course I told her I had fresh roving and asked if she'd like to see it. She ended up buying 8 oz each of Braveheart's, Browning's, and Brava's lamb rovings. Her husband likes to carry local products and asked if I would be interested in selling wholesale, but at the rate my roving was disappearing, I figured I would do better to sell it on my own!

My other acquisition was this sock yarn (no trades involved :-):
Thanks to interested visitors to my area in the sheep barn, I sold Brava's skirted '09 fleece to one lady, and Dinah's skirted '09 fleece and the last 25 oz. of Brava's lamb fleece roving to another. All I have left from what Aunt Janet just did for me is a little dab of Browning's and Braveheart's lamb fleece rovings, and Braveheart's 09 fleece roving (which I picked up later). (I also have over 7 lbs. of luster longwool roving from a ram in my shearer's flock; let me know if you're interested in some of that.) I was thrilled with the reception my fleeces and rovings got, but the best part of all was the high compliment Aunt Janet paid me. She said (twice!), "Yours is the nicest Shetland I have ever processed." Who needs blue ribbons when you get that kind of affirmation on what your sheep produce?

That's it for the first BSG installment from . . .

Making peace with Bronwen, preparing for BSG

My little "sheepskin rug" has needed some extra training time. Things were getting worse instead of better there for a bit, but I'm hopeful Bronwen will be able to walk into and around the ring so the judge can see just how stunning she is (rat tail and all!).

In other preparations for the show, there were Brava's and Dinah's fleeces to skirt and Butter's rooing to pick through (from after she got sick last winter). I plan to leave these with Aunt Janet when I pick up the roving she has ready for me, saving shipping one way on both batches. I also had to remove a partially-filled bobbin from my Louet S17 and locate two empty ones so I could spin some of that roving in my free time at BSG - gotta promote those sheep, you know! Of course, I'm taking knitting, too; the goal is to finish these socks in time wear them (PLEASE let them be wearable!) to the Sock Summit:
Last night we got the camper on the pick-up so I've been loading it and the horse trailer today. The horse trailer seems like such overkill for hauling my little sheep, but it is what I have and I'm thankful to have it! As soon as Rick gets home this evening I'm loading lambs, bringing adult sheep in, and heading to Eugene. Talk to you after the show!

That's it for now from . . .

Honest Scrap award

Jenny Holden across the pond nominated me for the Honest Scrap Award some time ago; thanks, Jenny! (It took her awhile to acknowledge getting it herself, so I don't feel as bad for taking this long!)

The rules state: "When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

Finding the tone of the rules rather irreverent, I don't feel bad about modifying them a bit to suit my fancy. Since it IS called the Honest Scrap Award, I thought it more fitting to nominate bloggers who come across as honest rather than brilliant (not that these blogs aren't also brilliant, or that the blogs I don't nominate aren't honest!). The following bloggers tell it all, the good and the bad, yet don't leave you feeling down and depressed with their "realness:"
Nancy K. of A Shepherd's Voice
Deborah at Antiquity Oaks
Sabrina at Boston Lake Farm
Tammy with Musings from Fairlight Farm
Sharon, who's In Stitches
Adrienne of Knit and Run
Molly Bee in Molly Bee's Attic
Allison of A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Now for ten honest things about myself, even though I could probably come up with more interesting lies:
1. I prefer being cold to being hot.
2. I prefer sweet over sour or salty.
3. I prefer the association of old folks to that of kids.
4. I prefer quiet to noise.
5. I prefer reading a book to watching a movie.
6. My artistic style is realistic, but I wish I was more of an impressionist.
7. I NEED animals in my life.
8. I've never broken a bone or had general anesthesia.
9. I've been to the dentist more than enough to make up for #8.
10. I look forward to heaven more than I can describe.

I'll end with some comic relief.Now she's halter-trained . . .

Now she's not! I don't think I've had a lamb assume this exact position before. I call it "sheepskin rug." :-)

That's it for now from . . .

Wee

My thyme is blooming now; such wee flowers and leaves - but so aromatic!

There seemed to be a bit of confusion about who was pictured in my post yesterday. Since I name all my photos, you can usually get identification by clicking on a photo to biggify it; you'll see the name of the photo at the end of the string in your internet address window. Anyway, yesterday I showed each of the five lambs in birth order from oldest to youngest, with my little musket gulmoget at the end of the line-up. His facial markings have never been as bright as those of the other gulmogets; here he is the day he was born - a tiny surprise that arrived at least five hours after his twin brother!
The agouti gene has made his facial markings fade even more:There also seemed to be some question on pattern genetics, so for those who are interested I'll do a summary below. (For a more detailed explanation of these terms and much more, go to the Shetland Sheep Info site.)

There are only two colors in Shetland sheep (and all other Northern European Short Tail breeds), black (dominant, written BB) and brown (recessive to black, written bb). If a sheep inherits one gene of each color, genetically it will be Bb, but look black. White is a pattern, not a color - and the dominant pattern at that. In other words, if a sheep has a white (Awt) gene at the pattern allele, it will hide everything else, both color and pattern. (If it has two Awt genes, ALL its offspring will be white, since that's all it can pass on.) The next most dominant patterns are Agouti (Ag, or the greying gene), katmoget (Ab, also known as badgerface), and gulmoget (At, also known as reverse badgerface). These are recessive to white, and co-dominant with each other, meaning if a sheep inherits any two of these three pattern genes, both will be exhibited in that sheep (as in Boo, who is Ag/At). The most recessive pattern is Aa, which is "solid" or non-agouti. If a sheep has two Aa genes, it will be black or brown (it can also have white spots and unique shades of color like fawn, mioget, shaela and emsket; those variables are controlled by genes at other alleles).

That's it for now at . . .