Yarn Along - Make Yarn Use Yarn - Week Two

So far, so good...even if the Yarn Along post (that I am GOING to do every week this year!) is a day late.  I even doubled up posts for Tuesday so there wouldn't be a conflict for Wednesday. Sigh...

I've now spun two bobbins of Liddy and a small skein of Emily/Annabelly on the CPW.  At the house I clocked 310 yards of Hershey on the Joy.  I also found (another) hat pattern I just can't live without, so Miss B and I dyed some stashed Jester yarn for that.  We also dyed some roving for her and half of a 2013 Elizabeth fleece that I found when I cleaned up the barn last year.

We started with a skein of medium gray and a skein of dark gray.  I also had a skein of dark green and medium green Jester already dyed from a project from several years ago...unfinished, like so many others, languishing in my stash.  

I was happy with the dark green, so left that as-is/as-was.  The light green (far right) got over dyed to make the dark navy and dark brown.  The dark blue was done with one of the three blues I have that I didn't think to make a note of.  I'm pretty sure we added some black to darken it as well, but again, no note.  Make Yarn. Use Yarn. LABEL Yarn :-o.

The brown was done in stages.  First we used red over the green and then over-dyed that with yellow. We still weren't happy, so over-dyed that with brown.  Jacob is a great yarn for beginning dyers because it takes a ton of abuse.

The white is a small skein of Annabelly I had left from what I'd had to spin to finish off the collar of the Jester sweater several years ago.  I love that she is going to be part of this Jester project as well :-).  She was the first of the Belly lambs he adopted all those years ago.

I should have been ready to cast on, but I decided to take down of the Christmas decorations yesterday...which then gave me too much time to stew on everything...and this morning I decided I wasn't absolutely happy with the dark green, so we over-dyed it a couple more times again.

The small squiggle of yarn next to the light green is where we started.  The brownish green next to it is the original dark green over-dyed with orange and the skein next to that was the same original dark green over-dyed with brown.  I think I'm leaning towards the orange green at this point.  Now I just need to "git knittin".

Here is the hat.  It's Gone To The Mountains by fellow Yarn Along-er Andee Fagan.  Here is the story behind the pattern.  Not only is it really pretty, but the pattern is for a good cause as well ;-).

Here is the Hershey skein.  New followers are probably wondering what I used to dye this chocolate color. Actually, you are probably wondering why a grey sheep is named Hershey in the first place, now that I think about it ;-).  Here is why.  Isn't he cute?  And wow, look how young everyone looks! And the "big white lamb"?  That ended up being Rocket - Andy and Levi's dad :-).

I have a couple neat books to share and I'd include one here, but it's getting late and I need to go haul all my house plants back in the house.  Yes, after several days in the single digits, it's been raining and mid to upper 60s. Everyone got out for a good shower and drink and needs to come back in in the off chance it hits freezing tonight.  Plus, I'd like to actually Cast On and Use Yarn! :-D 

Joining in with Ginny...

The Baby Daddies

Two posts in one day :-o.  Hey, I DO have a picture of the rams!  This was taken just after Christmas. I'll take some better pictures the next nice day.  This was just a quick snap.  I thought it was "cute" how they were all sleeping next to each other.  Once breeding season's over, they all go back to being friends :-).

Jared (left back), H. Mulligan (white North Country Cheviot) and Rocky (right).

Jared and Rocky came in from Nistock Farms last summer.  I'm not sure we have any Jared sheep on our farm, but if you look at Rocky, you can guess who at least one favorite son is :-).  We also have a couple Rocky grandsons, Andy and Levi.  Rocky's son Rocket was "the wool ram" at Final Frontier Farm the past two years.  Kentucky is turning into Nistock South!

Here's a (sort of) better shot of Jared, earlier in December, right after the fall breeding season ended. There will be a some more "wool" babies coming this spring and some North Country lambs as well. While the curly coloreds are "fancier", I thoroughly enjoy spinning Cheviot fleeces, too.  In fact, PPPP's medium length, medium crimp "down type" Border Cheviot fleece is one of my favorite fleeces to spin and also what I like to sell to beginning spinners.  

  

The out of season (summer) test breeding produced 11 lambs - three white, one gray and seven blacks.  We are not sure what we'll do with that first lamb shear next fall.  It's sure to be quite nice so we may offer raw fleeces...or we may do a yarn run.  Spinners and knitters stay tuned!  Which would you prefer?

And, here.  This should keep you off the streets and out of trouble ;-).  See, it pays to leave comments :-D.

Enjoy!

Best. Cat. Ever.

I know that many of you would vote for Betsy, but other than baby sitting baby lambs...she's really a pretty naughty cat.  Comby, on the other hand, clocks in hours and hours of solid citizen service.  I saw him sleeping curled up with the sheep planter this evening and tried to take a quick pic.  He saw me and immediately jumped up.  

"I'm awake!  What are we doing?  Oh, you're walking all the way out back to check the rams?  Okay, I'm coming."

And away we marched, me, Iris, Weaslie and my trusty cat, Comby, off into the sunset :-).

Sunday Stills - Crowd Work

They say two's company and three's a crowd.  Let's go a bit further this week. The challenge… pics with more than 5 people or animals or even birds. Have fun…..

We haven't seen much out of Burrnie lately, so I made a special effort to try and include him.  It always makes me smile to see him up to his eyeballs in grass, surrounded by buddies.

And usually not far from his best gal, Maisie ;-).

The boys out back.

That's Baaxter's dad in the center.

A crowd of flowers.  Probably the best kind of crowd :-).

I was excited to find this five leaf clover to include...until I went to copy the challenge directions over here and realized I hadn't read them carefully.  More than five.  Sigh...

For more crowded Sunday Stills...

Some Sunday Sheep Shots

Mia Mia - Queen of the Tour de Fleece, which finished in fine fashion yesterday.  Pictures tomorrow.

Boudreaux

 Burrnie, Maisie, Casper Belly and Emily

Chocula

Keebs in the foreground and Daniel and B. Willard behind.

The boys.  Look at that thunderhead!  I love to watch them boil up.

Oops, no sheeps ;-).

Count Chocula again.  I love how this turned out with the aperture wide open.

Petunia and Ewen McTeagle - two of my all-time favorite sheeps :-).

Show's over!  Miss Maisie's propeller flying away :-).

Ram Camp

The new mowing crew - Final Frontier Farm's 11 breeding rams.  We feel mighty official with that many  rams out back.  Baaxter's dad is back there and I'm wondering if maybe Blossom or Lila's dad might still be in this group as well.  I'll find out!

Hard at work.

I'm really enjoying seeing sheep all over the farm and will be sad when the seasonal crew heads back home.

Monkey In The Middle

Bet you'd like to know who those sheep in the back field are...

Bet you'd like to know why I didn't think to stand so the porch swing chain didn't clutter up this otherwise nicely composed picture...

I'd like to tell you, but boy oh boy, things have been a little crazy here and I've only got a Very Few Minutes before someone wakes back up.  Someone who's been a little clingy since we got home.  Or maybe just worried because the refrigerator died Sunday night and he was just sure some babas might get compromised.  All better now and I finally temporarily have a cleaner refrigerator than Stella! ;-)

I'll get caught up one of these days...