There has been so much going on in my life and many changes.  I haven't worked on this in a long time.  I think Facebook kind of took it's place, but I still loved having a blog.

This is my friend Tammy with her very sweet Ewe, Beth.  She brought her to my house to be sheared when the Shearer came last month.  We had a fun day and all the girls got a haircut.  It is so exciting to us"wool" people to see all those lovely fleeces.  We can't wait to get our hand on them to spin and knit and dream them into wonderful things.

These are my girls waiting their turn to be sheared.  We get them penned up in close quarters so we can catch them one by one.
They are scared at first, but soon realize we are not going to kill them!  So upsetting at first.  Sheep are a prey animal, so fear is their strongest instinct.

This is Zane, our shearer at work.  He is very strong and knows just how to handle the sheep so he can get the job done.  I think this is Gabby (Gabriella), named by my grandson Peyton on her ride home to my house.  She had plenty to say all the way home so he named her Gabby.  The name stuck and I gave her a pretty name to go with it, and Gabby is her nickname.  She still is the first to speak up when we go out to their pen and always has something to say.  I have to admit, she is one of my favorite for many reasons.  No matter how long I go between visits, she always comes up to see me and lets me scratch her head.  Her wool is fantastic and borders on being like superwash.  Meaning it hardley won't felt.  I have a pair of socks I made two years ago and still wash and dry them.  The wool fulls, but hasn't felted.  Plus it is just plain fun to work with. 

 This is a yummy, wonderful fleece right off the sheep!  I love this!

This is a happy naked sheep.  That has to feel good.  This is Murphy, Tammy's other sheep.  Her fleece is wonderful.


That was shearing day and it was fun and tiring.  I couldn't do much to help, but I was a good supervisor.  I was still recovering from knee surgery so pretty much was useless.  It sure was hard not to get in there and help.  Ron, was the one catching the sheep and getting them ready for the shearer.  My friend Kelly was also there to help.  Ron is actually the Shepard so the sheep love him and pretty much trust him the most.
I love this time of year, because you can see the oats in the back round and is the only time it is green around here.  Makes for a pretty picture. 

Ron and Kelly with the next sheep ready

Wow, it's been so long since I have posted here. So much has happened and I keep myself very busy creating new things. I guess I will have to try to get focused and do better about taking pictures and all that goes with getting back on track here.

This is a picture of my friend Debra and I spinning at her shop Funky Spun in Santa Isabel. She has closed the shop as of today, and I will miss it so much. I loved to go there and spin and chat with other spinners. I am spinning with a drop spindle in this picture because I had hurt my knee and was giving it a rest. It is all better now so I am back at the Wheel.

I have a new lap top computer too and am having trouble finding my pictures. I'll keep trying and am sure I will somehow figure it out.

Been working at the Del Mar race track all summer and now I am home again. It's only been a week, and already I am back in full swing of classes and knitting and spinning and making myself crazy.

Staying Busy

Before

Wow, I have been so busy. What with finishing my new "Studio" and knitting and spinning, I just can't find time for much else. I did get my sheep sheared finally. Had a pro come to our place and do it. He sheared 11 Sheep in 1 hour. That is 5.45 min per sheep. I couldn't believe it. I will have him do them every year. It took me 2 hours for one sheep at my fastest. It is such a bargain I hope I don't have to shear them myself again. Besides the bad "haircut" most of them had from my efforts. Now they all look like goats.

After

I have been working on socks and lots of hand warmers. Now that I have my room, I am working on some of my own fleeces. I have been dying some, then picking and carding. What fun. I love the whole process. Then I get to spin the wool and knit it too. Wow, I feel like a real artist sometimes. But still don't seem to be very good at picking colors.

My cousin was here from Oklahoma this last week. What a thrill to reconnect with her. She had lots of info about my Dad's family (her dad and mine were brothers) and I loved hearing the stories. I have longed for this conection for a long time. Wow, I found out my yarn addiction is heredity. My Dad's( youngest of 17 children) oldest sister Theresa was an avid knitter. Always knitting and surrounded by yarn. That just tickled me, because I always wondered about it. None of my Mom's family does anything like that. One of my maternal grandmother's sisters crocheted, but just once in a while. I have always been attracted to yarn in some way or another, even before I could crochet or anything.

I started out just having yarn and braiding it and making things out of it. Pretty bazar things really. Then I learned to crochet at age 25 and went crazy from there. At 40 I tried to teach myself to knit and was pretty frustrated. Someone told me about machine knitting and the rest is history. After 12 years of that I was introduced to spinning and I just got in deeper. Now I do nothing else and just hate the way life gets in the way of all things YARN. I am always happiest if I am surrounded by yarn and all fiber arts. And now I have a room for exactly that. I am a very happy camper indeed!!! More pictures to follow.

Spin on..................

A Homemade Zucchini Spindle - Spin-Off

A Homemade Zucchini Spindle - Spin-Off
This is the best. I love my Turkish spindle, but this is so
cool. Makes me look at vetables in a whole new way.

I can't stop laughing.

AN OTHER SURPRIZE JACKET!!

Elizabeth Zimmerman must be proud. Her lovely jacket is everywhere.

Amy made another surprise Jacket
She is dangerous. I have created amonster. Great Job!

These are two rugs that I finished. The Red blue one is

a Twined rug made of cotton fabric. Or a Rag Rug.


The other one is a woven roving

rug made of unspun wool. Both

are being used in my house.

This is Tess in her Surprise Jacket. It is orange her favorite color

but I'm sure it won't be her favorite jacket. I really had a good time

making it.

I am working on some yarn right now to make some hand warmers.

It is white morino and silk and very nice. I am also working on learning a new

way to knit two at a time. I need to take a picture of that too.

That's all for now.

The pictures of Cousin Donna with her Mom "Aunt Millie"

I tried to upload these to Facebook but it wouldn't do it.

Hope you like them. My Mom has the originals for you Donna.