Madeleine

Some of this year's wool from Madeleine, one of my Cotswold sheep. Her fleece is absolutely gorgeous. It was her first shearing, though, and she was not cooperative. I had the bruises to show for it.

Woolhandling

A short video about sheep shearing and handling the sheared fleece. Very cool.

 https://www.facebook.com/ChantelRenaePhotography/videos/1358616410822874/

Washing Wool

A friend and I washed most of three Cotswold fleeces yesterday. We ran out of soap before we were quite finished, so we had to stop. A single Cotswold fleece often weighs about 15 pounds; that's a lot of wool.

Below are pictures of some of the drying wool.

And here are pictures of the sheep whose fleece we washed (plus the other sheep just because).

Sierra

Sierra

Thaddius

All the sheep but one.

Petra and a couple lambs

Thaddius

Weather, Sheep, Dog, Etc.

The wind has finally settled down. Not that it's still, but at least large, heavy objects aren't flying around anymore. The very strong winds we had through much of May and June were exhausting, both physically and mentally. Almost continuous wind gets on a person's nerves after awhile.

Now it's just hot and dry. We haven't had any precipitation since April, and even then it was a below-average amount. There's a slight chance of rain this weekend.

I didn't plant a garden this spring. Too many things have been going on. I think I'll put in some squash, though; pumpkins would be fun.

I've sheared all but two of the adult sheep, Minerva and Gimli. I'm going to try to shear those two this weekend. I know they're hot, but they were the last ones sheared in the fall, so their wool isn't quite as long. I had delayed shearing because of the heavy winds, so now I'm catching up.

On December 28, I lost my amazing, beloved dog, Dierdre, to degenerative myelopathy. It was an incredibly difficult time. About four months ago, I adopted Logan. He's two and still very much a puppy. He's doing well with the sheep, though, and even behaved pretty decently during shearing.

I'm taking advantage of the hot weather and decreased winds to wash wool. It dries fast in the sun, but I have to be careful that it doesn't blow away (even with less wind). I also have to keep Logan from taking it to play with, which is an even bigger challenge. He'll learn, though.

Handspun Cotswold Wool Yarn

A new acquaintance of mine helped shear Solomon a couple weeks ago. She left with some of his wool and a bit of Sierra's, as well. Below are pictures of two skeins of yarn she spun from their fleeces.

Sierra

Solomon

Wool Washing & Tomato Plants

I had quite an audience today while washing wool. With the wind, I thought it was on the chilly side, but my spectators (heavily furred and wooled as they are) hung out in the shade.

Dierdre watched attentively from her lookout under the deck. About a dozen sheep lounged under the cedar tree, most surveying me with interest, including Herbie, whose fleece I was washing.

While the wool soaked, I repaired part of the garden fence that came down over the winter. I wish Dierdre could have helped; I could have used an extra pair of hands, and Mark wasn't home. I'm sure she would have tried, but pulling on woven wire fence with her teeth seemed a bad idea to me.

I finally bought a couple tomato plants at the farmers' market yesterday: Silver Fir Tree, a Russian heirloom variety, and yellow pear. I haven't planted them yet, but I sure hope the weather continues to warm. It got down in the 30's for a night or two last week.

The wool I just washed is still drying, but the pictures below are from the same fleece.

Felted Slippers

I took a great workshop last month on making felted slippers. We began the day drafting patterns of our feet and ended it wearing our slippers.

We used dyed Merino wool roving. I added a little gray curl of Cotswold wool from my own sheep on each of my slippers; you can just see it near the cuff in the first picture.

This footwear is seamless. We applied and felted wool on both sides of the pattern, creating both slippers simultaneously. When the felt was firm enough, we cut apart the two slippers and pulled the pattern out of each.

Then, one shoe at a time, we worked the felt inside and out, shrinking and hardening the fabric. When they were almost to size, we put on our slippers, and a helper finished felting them on our feet. They are really comfortable.

How to Dye Wool with Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid is a permanent dye on wool. Kool-Aid will dye any animal fiber, but it is not suitable for dyeing cellulose fibers, such as cotton, or synthetics. Below are instructions for using the “sun tea” method of dyeing.

Equipment:
Large glass jar with a tight-fitting lid (such as an old sun tea jar, pickle jar, or applesauce jar)
Long-handled spoon that you don’t mind turning the color of your dye
Plastic gloves
Kool-Aid (unsweetened)
Water
Wool fiber or yarn

Remember: All dyeing equipment should be used only for dyeing. Do not return any of these items to kitchen use.

The amount of Kool-Aid dye to use per ounce of fiber/yarn depends on how dark you want your color to be. The more dye you use, the darker the color. In general, estimate 1 package of Kool-Aid per 1 ounce of fiber/yarn.

Pour the Kool-Aid powder into the jar. Fill almost to the top with water. Stir. Gently push the fiber/yarn into the jar with the long-handled spoon, making sure all of it is submerged.

Note: If you want even color, make sure the fiber/yarn can move freely in the jar; don’t pack it in. If you want an uneven, tonal color, pack in as much fiber/yarn as you can. The dye bath will color the fiber/yarn irregularly (which often gives lovely results).

Put the lid on the jar, and close it tightly. Set the jar in the sun for several hours. When the water is clear, all the dye is absorbed.

Note: If you used a large quantity of Kool-Aid per ounce, the fiber/yarn may not be able to absorb all the dye, so the water may not turn clear.

When the water is clear or you feel it is done (as per note above), drain the water from the jar.

To rinse, place the fiber/yarn on some paper towels (so it won’t stain your work surface) while you fill the jar with clean water of the same temperature as the water you just emptied from it. Return the fiber/yarn to the jar, and gently push it down with the long-handled spoon. Let it soak in this rinse water for 5 minutes, then drain the water.

Place the dyed fiber/yarn on a flat surface, or drape it on a clothes hanger to dry.

Wool and Craft Fairs

Shearing has begun! I sheared Hermes (black ram) last week and Snowden (white ram) on Monday. Hermes was much better behaved than Snowden; the process would have take 1/3 less time if Snowden hadn't fidgeted so much and tried to escape once.

Now I'm washing wool. I'm working on two mail orders and have a craft fair this weekend at which I'm selling, so I'm pretty busy.

Preparing for shows is always time consuming. It's amazing how long it takes to attach price and information tags to everything. Some items, like scarves, I need to measure; wool I have to weigh and package. Writing the fiber content and care instructions on each tag takes time, as well. And that's after I've sheared, spun, woven, or knit the items!

I enjoy it; I just tend to underestimate (every time) how long it takes to get ready for craft fairs. This one is the Mountain Artists Guild 24th Annual Spring Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts, Courthouse Plaza, Prescott, AZ, Saturday, May 8, 2010 & Sunday, May 9, 2010, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. I will be at the Mountain Spinners and Weavers Guild booth, near Gurley St.

Just Completed a Handwoven Scarf

I finished weaving a great scarf yesterday. I used a weaving pattern I've never tried before, Eight-Fold Basket Weave, and used the "ribbed weave" treadling. I alternated a wool yarn and a rayon yarn in the warp, forming narrow wool stripes and wider rayon stripes. Then, I used a wool/nylon mini boucle yarn for the weft.

It worked great! There are stipes of textured boucle between columns of wool tabby on one side and columns of rayon tabby on the other. The twisted fringe turned out terrific, as well, with one fringe being wineberry rayon, the next rhododendron wool, and then back to wineberry rayon.

The scarf has a luxurios feel to it; I'm really pleased.

Sheep and Wool Visit

A group of handspinners from Sun City (near Phoenix) visited High Castle Ranch last month to meet the sheep and to buy some wool. These are a few pictures taken by one of my visitors.

Below, Sierra is nursing her lamb. When he gets a little bigger, he'll have to kneel to reach the milk!

Bernhardt is certainly the image of the classic Cotswold. Just look at that wool.

Cleaning Cotswold Fleece

I clean my Cotswold fleece by first shaking the fleece nice and hard for several minutes to remove as much vegetable matter (VM) as possible. It's amazing how much VM comes out just from shaking. Those beautiful curls unfortunately can hold (and hide) all sorts of bits of hay and stuff.

I wash it pretty much as wool from any other breed of sheep -- using hot water and mild soap. I start by soaking the fleece in plain cold water two or three times. A lot of excess dirt and sweat come out that way. Then I put the wool in the soap and hot water, letting it soak for about 10 minutes. (Don't let the wash water get cold; the dirt and grease will reattach to the wool.) Next, I remove the fleece from the wash water and put it in clean water to rinse it. I usually perform the rinse process at least twice, sometimes three times, until the rinse water is clear.

In general, I think you have to worry less about felting with Cotswold wool than with some finer wools. It can felt but not nearly as easily as Merino, for example.

Lay the wool in a sunny, clean place to dry. Placing it on a screen or a chain-link gate on the ground allows air to circulate and dries the fleece faster.

After it dries, you may have to remove more VM (those curls, again). Opening up the locks a bit and shaking again can help with that.

Remember: when washing any wool, do not agitate or wring the fiber. Don't temperature-shock it (i.e., don't put it in hot water and then immediately in cold water or vice versa). Don't let water run directly on the wool; fill the wash basin with water (and soap) before you put the fiber in.

Good luck!