Knit/Weaving with wool

I learned something new in 2018.  I've had a knitting machine for a few years. But now I have learned how to blend acrylic and wool together i. A woven design.

It was challenging to get and keep the correct tension on the working threads as well as the project.  If the project isn't weighted down, it will get caught in the needles.

I carefully and methodically removed the stitches in the last row. The first and last rows take the longest. 

Periodically, the woven threads catch on the posts between the needles. No worries! I just weave them back into the work.

I also made a 20 stitch wide, 2 pattern tall swatch. I washed and dried the swatch. There was no shrinkage and the wool felted beautifully.  I will give the swatch to the mother so that she will know what to expect when she washes the baby's blanket. 

Ta da! I'm done.  All I need to do is catch up with the little cutie and give him his new blankie!

All that wool!

My shearing team showed up tonight.

Justin got the pleasure of shearing Gizem.  Oh my goodness! He thought the wool would never end!

Wait a minute!  There is something inside of all this wool!

Oh my goodness! There really is a sheep in here!

It went really fast with 2 men working at one time.

The huge pile of fleece (the right half) is ALL from Gizem.  This one tarp full of  wool is from three sheep.  That is only half of my sheep.  I ran after a second tarp.

Look below at how happy the sheep are after that heavy wool was taken off from them.

All DONE!  Hey, I guess my sheep aren't that enormous after all. But you know what that means... ?

I have a huge amount of wool to process.  I will be adding  Llama and Alpaca to this.  We are processing it straight into yarn this year.

Oh, be still my heart <3 isn't Gizem absolutely adorable?!? (Below) His name means mysterious because the coloring on his face is grey and black and it looks like he is wearing a mask.

You can only see four of the sheep in the picture below and that is because the other girl is scratching her back against the piece of farm equipment in the right corner.  I scratched her back for her and a few minutes later two other sheep were standing in line.  

Shearing time

I am so excited! The sheep are scheduled to be sheared next Thursday. This year Jeannie and I have decided to go to a relatively new mill that will process all the way to yarn.

Cinnamon didn't like me coming in to take his picture and walked away from me. 

Gizem on the other hand got up and came towards me. 

The four girls just continued to rest.  They enjoy shade from the silo. Their wool is very thick and heavy right now 

Gizem likes to get really close. Sometimes I get a little scared because he sees me and comes running full speed. 

This past week he has been smiling at me.  He comes up to me and when I pet his chin his lips roll back to a Cheshire cat smile.  I tried to get a photo but it didn't work. Isn't he so beautiful!

Spinning

I was recently spinning on a trip.  I have 2 colors of roving which I alternate.  

But as I spun, I realized this was spinning differently.  It was pure wool from Gizem instead of the Lama-wool blend that I had been using.  Oh well!  It will look nice in the project.

Walk of shame ....

Buddy wast he first sheep to go through the process of sheering. The steers and the donkeys had their noses up to the slots in the pen watching the process.  

Norman and Ethan check out Buddy's new look

As soon as buddy was released, they all had to check him out.  He acted as if he was doing the "walk of shame"! Poor boy.

Donny also comes to check out Buddy

Gizem fought getting caught (tooth and nail) but once he was in position and the sheering started, he was a little more behaved. This weekend if we hit the 70 degrees predicted, he will be happy that all the wool was gone.

Gizem "Mystery" looks so tiny without his wool

We stacked the fleeces in the corner until we were ready to carry them off.  After Cocoa was finished and before Creamer was started, the ewes stood in the corner sniffing the wool fleeces.  It was almost as if they were looking for the boys.

Creamer and Cocoa check out the wool fleeces

With the wool off, lambing will be easier.  It will also be easier for the baby lambs to feed.  Look at those round bellies.  I hope that it all goes well!  Time will tell.  Our sheerer grew up on a farm with sheep.  He expects them to lamb sometime just after Easter.

Two pregnant ewes ready for lambing

It is time for a trip to the mill with 2 years worth of fleece.  I tried washing, picking and combing last year but the process was enormously labor intensive without the professional machines.

Fleeces laid out on a 4 X 8 foot panel

On a cold winters evening ...

... there shoud be time for spinning. 

About a year ago, Jeannie and I picked up fiber from the mill.  Reasonably one would think that with a year of spinning that I would have a good amount of yarn spun.

Drop Spindle with Llama/wool blend

I only have 5 ounces of yarn spun. At this rate it will take me 10 years to get my winter coat made.

5 ounces hand spun yarn

Wool and Cotton; beginning to end

Really Trisha?  Wool and Cotton beginning to end?  Yes! And todays post is marking the beginnings.  I ordered some seed online: Cotton Erlene's Green Cotton D72202 (Green) 20 Organic Heirloom Seeds by David's Garden Seeds. 

 Non-GMO, organic, easy to grow and hand packed by David's Garden Seeds

Family heirloom from Erlene Melancon in east Texas

The fibers are light olive green and can be spun off the seed

Germination Rate: 70%

(Funny note: my Grandmother's name was Erlene and the last thing she would do was grow cotton.  My other grandmother, Stella, was a master gardener.) They arrived on March 30th and I planted them on April 11th.  

Cotton Seeds ready to plant

The instructions said that it was more important to keep the soil warm than to have a light source on them during the germination process.  So I put them under an end table next to the heat register. When I checked them Saturday evening, April 18th I realized that they had germinated and I moved them immediately under the grow light. 

Cotton plants

I have realized in the past that there are certain thoughts/feelings that I need to act on when I get them.  At a business meeting last week with my friend Jeannie, I had the feeling that maybe she and I needed to purchase a lamb together.  She has a hobby farm. After the meeting, I whispered to her "I have a deal for you. I'll buy a lamb if you will take care of it and we'll share the fleece." 


Gizem (pronounced give him with a Z instead of a V)

That evening Jeanne texted to me that there was a wether (castrated male) lamb that was being bottle fed because his mother had rejected him after a difficult birth.  He was at Ewespin Fiber Mill at Old Man Wool Farm outside of Stanchfield, MN.  24 hours later, we were at the farm picking up the lambs.


Jeanne and Trisha with their new little lambs

Are you saying "Wait a minute! You said one lamb."  Yes, but as Jeanne pointed out that sheep are herd animals and do not do well alone.  Deborah from the farm said that she did have two other lambs about the same age that she would be willing to sell.  So we chose a white ewe for our second lamb. Even though Irvy is two days older, she is smaller than Gizem because she was born a twin.



Irvy Tower (pronounced ivory tower)

Dale teased us that we should buy Irvy's black twin too so that we can have a variegated color like this ball.  I guess that is a long way away.  The lambs will grow over the summer and will be ready for their first shearing next spring.  After that we will need to wash the fleece, put it through a picking process and a carding process before it is in a ball like this and ready for spinning.  I will label future posts with Wool or Cotton so that you can watch the progress.  

Wool Ready for spinning from Ewespun Fiber Mill

My long term goal is to be able to knit myself a woolen shawl.  (I am thinking 3 to 5 years.)  It brings a new meaning to Jesus saying "Feed my sheep". The meaning that was understood by the people to whom Jesus was talking to about it.