fiber love

We got out the wool carder last time I was home and started to blend an assortment of dyed CVM Romeldale wool with some dyed mohair. Ashley made some lovely batts of fiber that she promised to spin up soon. (Hope that's true!) I'd forgotten how much fun it is to blend different fiber types. You kinda get stuck in a rut with one means and methods and just go with that - you know what I mean?

It's nice when something new presents itself.

I have to blend some batts for myself soon. I'll be making another quick trip up to the farm this weekend for yet another wedding. My brother is visiting from Philadelphia, so we will be pulling out all the stops. By that I mean, we will have multiple fish fries (if the river provides) and sit long through the morning hours chatting with cups of coffee.

I'm looking forward to it all.

That's my dad on his tractor in one of the images above. He was cleaning out the sheep barn last time I was home and spreading the manure on the cornfield. I'm happy that I caught his black angus beef cows in the shot, as well. Those girls are skittish! Details about his small herd can be found here. I don't want to upset anyone, but my parent's farm is a working farm and we do love our grilling - especially when it's an ethically raised, downright wholesome product.

Happy Friday, everyone - hope you get your grills fired up!

shepherd's harvest

We've been busy preparing for Shepherd's Harvest this weekend. We'll be selling our beautiful fleeces from our covered CVM Romeldale sheep, as well as our combed top, the spring collection of our hand-dyed yarn and hand-dyed combed top and finally our line of Hetty Yarns in several weights and natural colors.

Please ask us about our 2013 breeding stock. 

We hope to see you there!

the weekend

Ahh, the weekend - time for catching up on sleep, catching up on all of the inspiring things my fellow bloggers have been up to over the course of the week, and time for working on some projects of my own.

But how will I fit all of this in when I've got my nose stuck in a book?

My sister got me a gift certificate to a bookstore for our birthday and I finally used it last week to purchase two novels. I'm reading the first one: Winter Witch by Paula Brackson now. I haven't had so much fun reading a book in a while. This story is a mix of historical fiction, magic and travel writing - it's set in the Welsh countryside in the 1850's. I'm about halfway through and the story which is about a community of drovers (cattlemen who drove their herds to London every season to sell them) reminds me of Rob Roy/The Man From Snowy River/ Practical Magic and a Tim Burton film all rolled into one. Some of you may find this appealing - others a bit bizarre - but I am enjoying myself.

We've been dying more yarn you can find it here.

Oh, and for any of you spinners out there of Irish descent (or just a fondness for St. Patrick's Day) we have something special for you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

september hobbies

Labor Day usually signifies an end to summer for most. We start to pack away our summer skirts and pull out our wool socks and mitts. A crisp breeze means more time indoors, perhaps knitting and spinning, or just snuggled on the sofa with a hot cup of tea and a good book.

For all of those spinners and fiber enthusiasts out there Crosby Hill Farm has their 2012 fleeces for sale. Come and see our beautiful natural fleeces from our CVM Romeldale sheep. I'm always amazed by the subtle hues and plush softness of this fiber.

Supplies are limited, don't miss out!

julia & julie

Things were so hectic after Shepherd's Harvest Festival this past spring, that I didn't get a chance to write a post about my mother's success in the fleece competition. 

This year we entered the fleece of a ewe named Julia. The story of my mother (Julie) and this particular ewe (Julia) has been unfolding over the course of the history of this blog. Julia, the sheep, was bottle fed as a lamb, making her one friendly critter to visit in the barn. 

You can't walk ten steps across the pasture without sensing her trotting presence behind you, or crouch to mess with anything in the barn without turning to find her fuzzy nose pressed into your ear. 

Julia has a soft, stone gray fiber that spins up beautifully and knits up well in cables and patterns. Remember the cabled Bella Mittens I made this spring? 

That was Julia. 

At Shepherd's Harvest, Julia's fleece won a first place ribbon in the pure bred class category and took second place all-around. We knew Julia's fleece was beautiful, but that's more than we expected. 

Congratulations Julia and Julie!

That's Julia grazing up above with the other sheep in the pasture. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get her to stop pestering me and to pose prettily for that shot. Above is the basket of prize winning fiber, which was shipped off last week to a fellow fiber enthusiast. 

I'm currently spinning a batch of chocolate-brown fiber for a still-as-undecided project. Despite the fact that I'm a bit fuzzy about what I'm going to do with it, I will be posting photos of the resulting yarn soon. 

Shearing Day

CVM Romeldale fiber--Just look at the natural colors!

Just looking at this fiber makes my feet tap in tune with the imagined rhythm of my spinning wheel and my fingers itch to get started on knitting projects that have been waiting for this beautiful fiber. Shearing day on our farm is the culmination of my mother's hard work. Twelve months of making sure the sheep are properly coated and cared for. Twelve months of chasing them through pastures and luring them closer with sweet alfalfa hay for "photo shoots" and chin scratches.

We call this Butterball Alley--they won't be butterballs for long!

The morning of shearing day we remove the ewe's coats and herd them into a side alley of the barn. From there they will be escorted one at a time onto a clean bed sheet (to catch their valuable fleece), sheared, and then released to dash through a layer of fresh straw spread out in an adjacent paddock. None of the ewes dash too much, however, they are all expecting lambs in a little over a month.

Julia & Penny

For the first time we can see their pregnant bellies, which have been hidden under fiber and canvas all fall and winter, and admire the unique color of their fleeces. Very pretty mamas.