Finished Yarns

This is a quick follow up to my previous post.  Here you can see all the yarns I've been working on the past couple of months.  These will all be listed on the sale page, both here and on our Facebook page.  PLEASE find and like us at Stay Fluffed Farm on Facebook

Some of these yarns are going to pair GREAT together if somebody wants to get companion skeins!

Catching up

Playing catch up after way to long of ignoring my blog.  Upside, I've been busy here.  I'll explain below.

This is a lovely gathering basket that was just handed down to me by my stepfather.  It used to belong to his great-aunt.  It's great for holding my yarns and I'm going to use it for display purposes when I go to shows.

This is some alpaca that I kind of forgot I had dyed up at least a couple years ago.  I do remember that I dyed it at the Blue Party at Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbia, MO.  it was put into a cochineal red for a short time and then into a black walnut yellow to get this orangy color. 

This is where I started in on my Cotswold X, dyed at the 2016 Blue party.  I dyed it with saxon blue and then put it into a blk walnut yellow exhaust. An exhaust bath is one where MOST of the color has already been taken out into a previous batch of fiber.  This worked great for what I wanted, which was a touch of added color.

These 2 pictures are another bit of alpaca that I had forgotten about.  it was dipped, probably at the same forgotten blue party, into a quick saxon blue.  so it's got a much lighter color than normal. 

Here's some regular saxon blue dyed Cotswold X, done in 2016.  I have a total of 3 skeins worth of this.  1 for myself and 2 for sale.

This is a hat that I made with some icing dyed red Shetland.  The wool is from our current ram, Niles.  This bit of yarn was leftover from a custom made hat and scarf project.  It ended up being a Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher.

Dying to crochet!

This yarn that is!  This is about 550 yards of Niles' fleece that has taken way longer than I thought it would.  Mainly due to life interruptions, but isn't that how it always goes?  That's one of my best reasons to spin, it relaxes me and I can enjoy spinning while I'm watching a good movie or show.  For those of you who don't know me as well, I LOVE movies!  But I digress.

I finally finished this up and am now ready to dye it.  The plan for this is to end up a red hat & scarf set as a special order for somebody.

 Here's a dry photo of the yarn pile.

 Getting into a soak helps the dye to take up evenly while I get the dye pot to simmering level,

  Here we are with some color.  as you can see from the water there is dye left.  When all the dye has been taken up by the yarn, the water will be left clear.  At this point, it was still tooooo pink for me, so more red went into the water.

 Here's a shot of the yarn as it's draining & cooling in the sink.  I wasn't quite sure at this point that I was going to be happy with the coloring.  But I decided to let it dry and see where we were.

  So after drying overnight the color wasn't bad, but there were some discolored spots.  So, back into the dye pot she went!  I let it soak a bit and then decided to add a bit of burgundy dye to even out & deepen the color a bit.  Here's hoping it works, as it's dripping in my sink at the moment.  Then back in front of the wood stove blower for the night.

As an aside, I love to dye & wash in the winter when the stove is going.  The nice hot blower gets yarn or fiber good & dry just overnight.  Plus keeps us nice & cozy!  Stay tuned as I get it dried & then worked up.

Lots to catch up with!

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post! It's been busy around the farm.  I'll try to catch you up. 

First off, our breeding program has hit a bit of a snag. Upon closer inspection, more of the yearlings & weanlings than the 1 I thought have bad tails.  For a shetland this is very important! I've tried to include a couple pictures to show what I'm talking about.  In the picture below are some of the weanlings. The white ram lamb on the right is the 1 I knew had a bad tail.  First off, you can actually see it.  LOL. It's long and bushy or wooly! Notice how on the black & morrit (brown) lambs you can't really see their tails. This is good! 

 This picture is a close up of the morrit lamb.  Notice how his tail is pretty short, shaped like a club, and doesn't have wool on the end like the rest of his body.  This is how it should look.  I'm not saying this is a perfect tail, but correct.

Not all is lost! The bad tails will still make good fiber animals or the ewes will make fit a crossbred program. We're going to get through 4h shows over the next 2 months and then make solid decisions for their future! I've thought about starting a crossbred fiber flock. 

If you followed us on Instagram, you'll have seen our baby bunnies. Which the doe ate the next day.  :(  Now, she could have easily stayed on as a fiber animal.  However we have 2 other angoras the same color.  I had a friend who recently had a litter of French angora babies. She wanted one of my color & i wanted one of hers.  So we traded.  Win-win situation! Below is Josephine, which is a mouthful for such a little bunny.  Her nickname is Jo-Jo. Her name comes from the Empress Josephine & the character in Little Women. She's only 9 weeks old! 

We went to a natural dying party last Saturday at a local favorite! It was a girls day & an annual event for 2 friends & myself. It's called the Blue Party, featuring indigo, woad, & Saxon blue. They also have cochineal red & yellow made from the inner bark of the black walnut.

 Here's a bag of my fleece drying a bit, done in saxon blue. 

 Here are the shorts that i dyed using indigo for Fluffy Girl! They used to be white & that just wasn't going to work! LOL. 

All of the natural dying processes could fill numerous posts, but I'm not good enough with it to tell you.  LOL. If you are local and  interested, please check out Hillcreek Fiber Studeo! She is amazing! 

On to the fiber results! 

Saxon blue 

Cochineal red, which came out salmon pink! This is a great example of how different fibers take color differently. 

This is saxon blue followed by a yellow soak! This picture doesn't do this justice! It has such a variety of color in it from the deep saxon blue to almost a seagreen at the tips and the mix in between! It looks like a Caribbean explosion!

This is cochineal red followed by a dip into saxon blue.  It's a nice mix of mauve to purple to blue & i think it'll spin up nicely! 

Below is a picture of them drying. These will all be for sale as spun yarns.

Productive Weekend

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday. There were the usual plentiful household chores that needed done so I decided to work outside.  LOL. I did actually get some laundry done.  Including the comforters & hung them on the line to fresh dry! My favorite! I also finished up some yarn that was spun & let it dry outside as well.  The left is the polwarth that i bought as a dyed roving. The right is some very special shetland for a personal project. The fleece is the only shearing I was able to get from a ewe named Beauty. I bought her as a bred ewe & she didn't stick.  Before i could breed her back last summer she fell sick from a bad infection. I nursed her for 3 days before she passed. She was my friendliest ewe with a great personality.  So with no lambs & only 1 fleece.  There's a part of it.

Then i did a little scissor shearing on Lynn who decided to act like a terror who had never been touched.  LOL. 

 Before, well barely started anyway. 

 after with a Dolly photo bomb. 

All three of these girls also needed a hoof trim.

 these are my trimmers. Thanks Mom for the great present!

 Here's Dolly sitting for her pedicure.

 Here's a good picture of Dolly's foot with 1 side trimmed & the other not. Sheep & goats need their feet trimmed on s regular basis similar to horses & people. Done properly this doesn't hurt them at all.  Generally speaking trimmings are done around 4 months. However many people keep a rock pile for their sheep or goats to walk on keeping their hooves worn down naturally.  As I don't have the fencing finished, I trim. 

 This is my thanks from Loretta for keeping her feet healthy.  She kicked just as I went to cut. I stabbed my own thumb. It bled way more than I thought it should & I ended up having to pause my trimming to clean & bandage it. 

Sunday brought another beautiful day.  I helped a friend with dog trimming they needed done. I came home and worked on Dolly's fleece shearing. 

 Here's a partial done picture. 

 I also worked on as cotswold cross fleece that was sheared in 2014. I've done a bit with this fleece & it gives a nice spin with some of the signature shine that cotswold has.  I've got it all skirted & seperated into locks. Now I will work on getting it all washed. I plan on offering some dyed & spun for sale. But I'm going to do 1 skein for myself to take to the Blue Party at Hillcreek Fiber Studeo in June & dye with a natural Saxon blue.  

Maker's market

I did my first show today at a local church.  It was outside & we had a beautiful day for it.

Here's a picture of my table.  I took a small selection that went sheep to shawl. I had the mindset that I may not sell anything, but at least I could spend the day spinning & informing people of my craft/art. I like to use the word craft in the old style of a trade craft, something that people learned & worked on their whole life.   I realize that my craft is very select in the people interested.  To my complete enjoyment i actually sold a few things.  Exactly what i thought I would, dryer balls & yarn.

I made some great contacts and met some great people. Several people took my card & I hope that they will read this or a future post!  If you took a card today please comment & let me know!  I would love some feedback on what you liked or what you would like to see.  I'm hoping to get my sale page up & running by tomorrow night. 

Yarn in Progress

This post is kind of a compilation of a few steps in the yarn making process. This particular wool is from a cotswold cross that we had a couple years ago.  Wool when properly stored can be good that long. 

Cotswold are known for their long shiny fleece.  This cross still lives up to it being very close to the only other purebred cotswold that I've handled.  It's not known to be the softest but can be great for outerwear!

 Here i have my supplies assembled to dye.  I actually did 2, 4 ounce batches on this. Wool in lingerie bags from our local Dollar Tree.  I love these! Stainless steel stock pot, this isn't as very big one but it's what i grabbed.  Citric Acid, i get this from a local Amish store as they're the cheapest place to get in bulk. This is what makes the dye fix into the fiber.  It's food grade & safe for most uses. Citric acid is an ingredient in Kool Aid & is commenly used in canning. 

 The first step is to wet your wool.  This just makes your life easier.  Trust me. LOL. At that point i add citric acid to the dye pot & turn the burner on.  Then i put my wool in the dye pot so that it's on the water as it heats. You want to get the water to simmering, but not boiling. As it gets to the right temperature, you'll want to add your dye.  I prefer to use icing dyes, as they are food safe so i don't have to keep separate pots for dying & cooking. I mix in the food coloring or icing dye in water in a glass cup & then add to my dye pot.  Simply simmer your yarn in the dye until it is exhausted. This means until the water in the dye pot is clear or mostly clear. I'll have to get you a picture of that next time.  I was so busy dying that i forgot to take a picture. 

 So here's my 2 finished dye lots.  After dying you need to drain & rinse your fiber until the water runs clear. This can be tricky on any red coloring as it seems to take forever! I usually get it most of the way & then let it dry to set the color.  You run the risk of having colorful fingers while spinning, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.  

 Here's where I'm at tonight.  I've separated the locks and am now using my hand carders to card it into mini batts. I love my hand carders because they seem to give me several fiber prepping options. We'll cover that more another time. I decided to leave them as mini batts to get a more open prep to spin from.