t's been busy around here...

I can't believe how busy it's been around here. I've had 25 calls from my ad in the Country Register for fiber, yarn or items for Christmas; then 5 people have stopped by this week. It amazes me how people are involved in the fiber community in some way or another.

I also have wool and alpaca fiber for paper makers as well as people who want to use the fibers for doll hair, wall hangings, weaving, paper mache, and other crafts. I have a lot of fun trying to find out what people want and I do love chatting with people about their crafts.

I've got tons of craft groups in my groups section and have all the crocheting, knitting, spinning, doll making, and other crafty ones that I can find having to do with fiber or yarn. It's amazing how many are there.

My ewes are getting pregnant, though it is hard to tell in the beginning, but I should start lambing near the end of February through April. I hope you can come visit me and see all of the animals, alpacas, sheep and lambs, not to mention the chickens and my dwarf Great Pyrenees, Bud, and Norphan, my cat (both he and she are neutered/spayed).

One of the things that really bothers me about living in the country is that people let their animals run wild and destroy other people's property and animals. Last year, we had someone who lost most of a angora goat herd including pregnant does and some of the kids, but the people couldn't figure out whose dogs killed them, so they took a BIG loss. My alpacas and my dog help a lot with keeping predators away from my sheep and I've not lost one to predators, though I have to the cold, the heat and/or being butted the wrong way by one of their flock mates.

When I first got my sheep, I lost the registered ram because he butted someone the wrong way and got a skull fracture and went into convulsions. We had to put him down, so he's buried in the back pasture. This summer, we lost Java, my favorite alpaca due to the heat and he's buried in the other back pasture we have. I hate losing animals even if it is expected, like with Java...the Vet told me he had some genetic problems and he wouldn't last the year and that was 2 years before he died, so though I expected it, I still cried.

And we've lost lambs every year for one reason or another. A friend of ours told me that lambs are born to die as they have one of the highest attrition rates of all the animals, but that's one of the reasons why I have mainly Icelandic sheep--they're used to tough conditions originating from Iceland, but there are still losses from getting trampled or butted too hard or other reasons (when they are still born or die because of birth defects). The first year I lost 7 lambs, the next year only 4, this last spring, I lost 3, so it seems to be going down, but we'll see how they do this spring.

Also, from time to time we get bummer lambs--bummers being orphaned lambs where the ewes won't let them nurse for some reason. Bottle fed lambs are the most friendly of all the animals. I had 4 the first year with one dying on me, the second year I had 1 and this last year I had 3. I hope to not have any because bottle feed lambs is a busy job because they get fed 3 times a day for a month, then 2 times a day for a month, then once a day for a month or two, then they're on grass.

Most of our sheep get grass until fall, then start eating alfalfa hay, which they eat throughout the winter and the spring while the grass grows again. I cut the grass in the yard and feed it to them and they love it because it's different. Even with the hay, if they leave a lot, all we have to do is to move it to another place and they'll eat it as if they never saw it before, but there was a lot of waste. Now, we have bale boxes for bales of hay and there's a grid (we made the grid from cutting up cattle panels) and they can't pull tons of hay on the ground, so the waste and cost of feeding them has dropped by 2/3's or more. Bale boxes work for both the alpacas and the sheep so all in all, we're now happier with our feeding arrangement. We roofedd the last bale box two days ago and with the roofing on it, it got real heavy, so we both had to lift it into the cart, which was attached to the riding mower and moved it out to the front pasture where we have fertile males that we haven't sold or are going to butcher. Our registered Icelandic ram, Rocky (named after Rocky of Rocky and Bullwinkle--and right now we do have a Bullwinkle, but he's sold--he's one of the bottle fed lambs) is in the back pasture with all the ewes so we don't have to worry come the day we have to register the lambs.

I've been working on a crocheted shawl right now made with a cone of gimp yarn (cotton and rayon with slubs) in a wine/reddish brown/pink/silver color combination. It's for a young or teenage girl and has a madarin neck and lots of lacey holes so it's very frilling and feminine. I'll post a picture later.

For those of you who've viewed my pics, the magenta yarn was dyed by me with Jacquard protein dyes in a red violet shade. I loved the way it came out, but I prefer to buy my dyed fiber or yarn and sell my natural colored fiber and yarns so that others may dye them. I have a lot of dyes for when I want colored projects for myself or my family, or when I do a dye workshop with a few others. It's fun to do, but I'm so busy spinning yarn or knitting or crocheting something, that dyeing is something I only do occassionally.

I'm finishing up a knitted, silver-gray, naturally striped Icelandic sweater for my husband, and I'm working on a pair of knitted socks for my SIL down in Southern California (aka SoCal). She's so excited and wants to learn to knit as well, so next time I see her (and if she hasn't already taken classes in SoCal), then I'll give her some lessons.

Speaking of classes, I'll be teaching a spinning class at Knitochet in Walla Walla on November 11 and 12. And then I'll be teaching another knitting class for kids in December. I'm so excited. I love teaching as much as I love fiber arts, so when I get a chance to teach classes, I learn as much as the students do. It also forces me to look at my techniques and such in a new light so I can create even better product.

I'm also planning some workshops at my home, as well as selling yarn and Xmas items, so people can call for an appointment and see what I've got now.

Anyway, you can see why I'm so busy, so I'll have to break off for now and write again later.

Hugs,

Jet