A winter walk

Up in the trees grow lichen and moss; I love their colors and textures.

In my island bed, tasty rosemary has grown up nicely around the electric box I wanted to hide, and daffodil shoots promise bright blossoms in a few months.

A mystery. Why do my gully girls paw around the water buckets (they do it in the fold, too)? Are they trying to dig their own well?

That's it for now from . . .

It's all good

I vehemently disagree with this saying (just as I do its twin sister, "anything goes") when generally applied. But it's useful in narrow scope, such as spinning. In other words, use what you love, and remember, there are no spinning police! Case in point:

I've almost filled another bobbin with my marled two-ply, but ran out of spun Shetland. So I whipped out my Jenkins standard Turkish spindle to spin up the last of Braveheart's roving to ply with the remaining Jacob. I love the juxtaposition of new and old technology, both executed in beautiful woods, and both doing their jobs so well. Here's a close-up of the myrtlewood spindle's whorls; so, so pretty:

The first skein of marled yarn came out noticeably bulkier than this second bobbinful, so I don't think I'll be able to use them for the same project. Disappointing; I obviously need to get better at spinning a consistent single.

That's it for now from . . .

Boulderneigh boys

Or more specifically, Boulderneigh boys with a Boulderneigh prefix. There are two - Boulderneigh Blackberry and Boulderneigh Blake. (My third ram is Whistlestop Bunker.) I am looking forward to having all three rams' fleeces tested this spring and getting a good look at what's under all that wool. Until then, I won't know who - if any - I will be using on my ewes next fall. (Of course I'm already thinking about next breeding season even though this year's lambs are still in utero - I'm a shepherd!) If none of my rams look like they can contribute to the improvements I'm working toward and Barish's lambs are dynamite, I might just have to lease him again. Of course, I have high hopes that the rams I own will be worth using - especially my smooth-poll, Blake:
I have liked this boy since the day he was born (he's the square brown lamb in my header photo), and the fact that he may be a fully polled ram is exciting. His uniquely colored fleece looks and feels heavenly, and he's not related to any of my ewes. So far, he has been a perfect gentleman, but he's just a coming yearling.

Blackberry, a year older than Blake, is not as square but has wonderful fleece and a typier tail. He is a proven sire, but is related to my two youngest ewes. Just this winter Blackberry has started to think about challenging me; his days will be numbered if he doesn't gain some respect as well as yield an impressive micron report.



That's it for now from . . .

Of sheep and wool

Beautiful Katie. It's hard to get nice photos of super-friendly sheep; Katie is friendly on her terms but doesn't come running when I stop along the fence.

Which is my best side? My left?

No, no; I think it's my right.

Super-friendly sheep are not only harder to photograph - they make it harder to photograph others. I managed to get the photos of Katie in spite of this:
(See the light blur that is Katie in the distance?)
I had already spent a goodly amount of time scratching my sweet lumps of brown sugar (fawn gulmogets Bramble and Bronwen) through the fence, but Bramble was still looking for love.

Last night I filled a bobbin with two-ply yarn (Jacob/Shetland), and this morning I skeined it off and continued plying. The first skein is approximately 443 yards; we'll see if I end up with enough for the Oregon vest.

Off to ride while the sun shines at . . .