The Great North American Afghan

I am now on block 13 of The Great North American Afghan. However, I skipped block #12 since the needles in my hands at the end of block 11 were the same size needed for block 13, I bypassed #12 until a later time. A precursor to each block is thoroughly reading the instructions and typing them up to fit my knitting style. I usually type up several blocks at a time so that I don't have to stop between blocks and type some more.

Knitting this afghan is a journey for me. Each block on average is taking 6-8 hours of my time. But the beauty that grows with each row is so exciting that I can barely wait to get to the next block. With all the other activities that go on this time of year, I don't expect to get this afghan completed before Christmas. The blocks that are done will have to go into a box and and I.O.U. on the top. The recipient will just have to settle for an unfinished afghan with the expectation of getting it before summer arrives.

Meanwhile on the farm, we didn't expose our ewes to the rams until Dec. 1. While having early babies was fun this past year, we bred late in hopes that we lose fewer lambs since the weather should be more agreeable to lambing in April and May. The ewes are so fat and sassy right now.

In spite of space between the Shetland/Finns and the Border/Bluefaced Leicesters, Galahad, the B/B L ram has been standing at the fence jealously eyeing Bob the Babydoll/Finn's flock. Bob is a cutie. He is friendly and easy with the girls as well as easy to handle when time comes to remove from the flock. Galahad is also easy to remove from the flock with a call to come. So like a big dog, he lumbers to the space given to rams that no longer need to be with the ewes.

Now to get back to knitting Christmas. I do not see anyway possible to get everything knitted or stitched before Christmas, but I will do what I can to get as much as possible completed before the big day. In the meantime, onward and forward!

Photo Updates of My Babies

My digital camera and I spent some time together the other day to snap some photos of curious sheep. I thought it would be hard to get pictures, but not the way it was. I found it hard to get good photos because everyone was curious what the "Great Food Meister" was doing among them. My one little ram (babydoll/Finn/Shetland) wanted to nose the lens and since he is a ram in training, it wasn't real safe to squat down. I have been gently butted, but only because I wasn't doling out the candy corn fast enough. So I went back into the house and when I came back out, I rounded the corner of the house carefully and got this side view photo of him before he saw me and came running to me looking for a handout. I am planning on using this little guy on my 50/50 Shetland/Finn ewes this fall. That should improve the crimp and productivity in preparation of using a higher percentage Babydoll ram next fall. So what do you think of my little guy? He is stocky, small, short crimpy fiber, easy to handle, and a big baby.

So Much To Be Done

Here it is a day away from October and I'm not ready for winter. I have 3 shelters to build for the sheep and goats and a hen house to winterize. I also have about 8 extra ewes and 2 rams to find homes for. I really hate to part with those ewes as I am really pleased with the fiber I'm getting. I have a 2-fold breeding program.

The first program I'm breeding a 50/50 blend of Border Leicester and Bluefaced Leicester for a silky long lock for durable yarns. The next program is more complicated. I love Babydoll sheep but only have 3 but they are mixed with a percentage of Finn. They still have the babydoll type fleece. The only problem is that the fleece is short. Now I'm not complaining about the crimp, mind you, only the lack of length. So I introduced a 50/50 Shetland/Finn to my Babydolls last fall. I didn't get the typey fleece from my older ewe who is 50/50 Babydoll/Finn. However, her 2007 twin daughters who are 75/25 Babydoll/Finn presented me with very crimpey/longer-fleeced youngsters. The feel is luscious. The little ram even has close to a babydoll face and the size is just a fraction more than the original babydoll breed. I will get some pictures to post this week. I want longer fleece with the babydoll crimp and softness. I am continuing my breeding program this fall to improve on what I have. I want fibers that yearn to be next to the skin. Let's see how well I do. Until next time......kate of WindSong Fibers Farm

Fiber Festival Preparation

I don't know if I've mentioned it or not in my prior posts, but I am a board member this year for the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival 2008. This will be its 4th annual gathering at Johnson County Fairgrounds in Franklin, Indiana on June 6th and 7th.

Now I've never been a board member for anything before, but I can tell you this much it is a lot of hard work planning a festival. My baby is getting the booklet and handouts completed as well as floor layouts printed up so that everyone has something to hold onto so as not to forget us for next year.

On top of all that, I have my own brood of sheep, alpacas, Angora goats, dogs, and spouse to care fore as well. My lambs think I'm the mom finder and do their best to bleat as loud as they can so that when they need a drink and can't find mom, I will come rushing out of the house to their aid in their "mom" search. After 8 weeks of this, I'm getting pretty calloused to it though. I try not to hear them in spite of their high-pitched calls for help. Only if one persists for an extended period of time do I go check to see if there is something really wrong other than they don't want to move from a particular spot and want their mom to come to them.

I am proud to say that this year, I have some really nice lambs I will be selling at Hoosier Hills...or should I say that my darling hubby will manning the pen. I will have all the information he needs along with paperwork so that he can tell interested buyers what mix the lamb is or so he can call me on the cell and have me come out and talk to potential buyers. I have 50/50 Shetland/Finns, 50/25/25 Finn/Babydoll/Shetlands, & 37.5/37.5/25 Finn/Babydoll/Shetland blends. I have posted a photo of one of the 50/50 ewes I will be selling. Her 1/2 sister from last year blessed me with a beautiful black ewe this year. All their fibers are awesome and I can't wait for the couple of lambs I'm keeping to have fleece long enough to shear. By festival time I may also have some Border/Bluefaced Leicester lambs, but they haven't arrived yet. I will have an Angora kid buck for sale and maybe a doe. I haven't made up my mind. But the doe and the buck are twins from this year and they are soooo cute!!!!

I missed church this morning because yesterday we sheared 10 alpacas. There was a crew of 5 of us and we started about 10:30 and went until near 7 p.m. I am sooo sore that I couldn't get out of bed this morning until almost 10. It took me an hour to get loosened up so that I could move. I still ache and hope I feel better tomorrow. I don't like being stiff and sore! lol!!! If you read this blog and would like to see the lambs before the festival, feel free to drop me a line. kate of WindSong

Lambs & kids

Is it April already??!!?? It doesn't seem like I posted so long ago. However, as with all farms, the seasons change rapidly and there is always something new going on. This spring I am blessed with an abundance of lambs and so far a set of twin Angora kids. Like last year, it seems that my lambing and kidding comes in 2 waves. The first wave, now over for over 3 weeks, has left me with cute, noisy little voices that already recognize me as the "Food Meister" or "she who brings the grub."

I am also the one who finds momma when all hope is lost that she is anywhere in the pasture. The lambs are confident that I know where she is and who momma really is. I'm glad they have that much faith in me, but if I don't get some eartags in them soon, I won't know who came from where as they are beginning to all look alike.

While I don't have any pictures of my chickens yet, I now have chickens. My last encounter with chickens was growing up on a farm. I didn't realize they had personalities. Now I'm finding that my own chickens don't mind using my hand as a place to sit and visit. They are only about 8 weeks old, but I have already named the gorgeous golden one, a Buff Orpington, Beauty. She is so silky and gorgeous. The 4 Rhode Island Reds are noisy and energetic always trying to fly out when I open the door. I haven't the slightest what to name them at this time. Then there are the 3 Plymouth Barred Rocks. They are inquisitive and collected. None of these guys are afraid of jumping on my arm to sit. I did have to teach them what their roost was for and now they think I'm an extension of the roost. Geez!

I have included photos of my twin Angora kids for you to ooh and aaah about. They are adorable and are so mischievous. I am constantly laughing at them. They will be registered with CAGBA (Colored Angora Goat Breeders Association) and the little boy will be fore sale. He is a fine specimen of his father.

It's a Boy!!!

One of our long awaited babies has arrived this morning! Alina proudly presented us with a bouncing baby boy. Mother and baby are doing well. I haven't named him yet because I was expecting a girl instead of a little boy. See what happens when you count your chickens before they're hatched. Here is a couple of photos of the little fellow. Isn't he precious?

Keep your fingers crossed that Jeanne has a girl. I can't wait for it to be born! Tomorrow, I will post some pics of our Finn/Shetland, Finn/Babydoll girls. 'Til then..

My how time flies!

I have been quite remiss in keeping up with my blogging. Give me 20 lashes with a wet spaghetti noodle!! LOL!! It has been very hot here until about 5 days ago. We have had several days of rain back to back and a hard frost as of last night. We are still trying to get the goats sheared. It is very cool and I hesitate shearing them so they can shiver their way into pneumonia.

A weekend ago, we moved all the sheep into their pastures. Galahad is now with his 3 ladies - Ruth, Naomi, and Jasmina. Meanwhile, Henry` is with 8 of his girls. We should be getting babies about about the 3rd week of March. How exciting that we will be starting another season of lambs and fibers!

I've got to get a pictures of Charlie to post. I will be listing him for sale very soon. He is a sweetheart and gets very excited at chow time. I hope to get a picture of him with all 4 feet in the air. He is so funny.

Just wanted all to know I'm doing fine, but have been very busy with ebay trying to raise hay money since about August 10. At first things were slow, but then they became very hectic. I hope I have stabilized now. I will have to keep looking for things to post on their as well as keep everyone here up to-date. I hope everyone is keeping warm. I will do my best to post at least once a week. After Christmas, I should be able to post more frequently. Hang in there and keep spinning, knitting or whatever you past-time delight is just keep doing it! kate of WindSong

Still Hot

This morning when I started to the barn, I found Katrina, my almost 2 year old alpaca laying in the path dead. It has been so hot and I have tried very hard to keep them cool, but with temps in the 95-102 range repeatedly and no rain since early August (oh, every now and then we get our allocation of 50 drops), it has been very hot and dry. In spite of no rain, the humidity has been absolutely unbearable. In the posted picture, Katrina is the one on the right. The lighter colored one is her mother, Alina. She will be sorely missed as she was a real sweetie.

I don't know if it is normal or not but many of the cornfields are already harvested. Leaves are falling from the trees too. Isn't it a bit early for all this? Just wondering as it doesn't seem like fall yet and I thought all this happened later in the fall. Well, I just wanted to share about Katrina. It will help me deal with her loss. Thanks for letting get this off my chest.

kate of WindSong

Hotter than.....

Wow! The weather man kept saying it was going to be hot today, but I seldom put much stock in their forecasts. However, this afternoon we jumped in the Prius to drive up to Hope to mail some e-bay packages and the temperature outside remained at the 100 degrees mark the entire time we were out. The hottest day of our summer so far and it is in August!

I don't know much about other people, but I know how much I value my friends and the friendship that I have with them. Tonight, I had a rude awakening. I went to a friend's house to pick up some things of mine that I've been trying to collect for the past 5 months, but could never get anyone home or commit to being home. I was met at the back door of this so-called friend's house and given the third degree by this person's husband. He went so far as to call me a bitch because his daughter lied and told him that I was rude to her in a phone call that I had made to their house to try to find them home.

I have been trying to make contact with this person to gather all my items so that they won't be in her way and her husband claims he threw them in the landfill. He threw over $500 of rubber stamps in the landfill!!!! I'm not sure what I have done, if I have done anything for them to treat me this way. But I guess I have one less friend than I thought I had. A real friend would not avoid another friend when they are trying to collect their possessions. I'm sorely disappointed in this woman and I wish her well in spite of her avoiding me for whatever reason it might be.

Well, I need to move on. We haven't had supper yet and I need to fix something even if it isn't good for me.

Rain Finally Came!

We have gone a long time with out rain this summer. To give you an idea of how long, we have mowed grass only 1 time. We have almost used half of this winter's hay because the pastures are dry and getting sparse. Then this afternoon it happened.

Rain began falling! I mean a lot of rain, not hard that runs off, but a good steady rain for over an hour. Now as if the voice of the earth is calling, it is raining once again with another steady rain that will soak in and nourish the roots enabling the sheep to eat grass again. We are almost 8 inches behind in rainfall this year. We don't live far from a waterfall and for the past 6 weeks the creek bed has been so dry that there isn't any water to make a fall.

The rain is like manna from heaven right now at a critical time for all the farmers and gardeners. I am so thankful that God hears prayer.

Fair Results

Remember the coral colored yarn I have in my last blog? Well, it got a blue ribbon at the county fair. I was the only entrant in that class though so blue is as good as it gets. Unfortunately, my shawl didn't do as well. It got a red. I wore it to church a couple of times back in the spring and must have worked some ends loose. I didn't bother to check it before taking it to the fair. My fault.

I still have "Brownie" for sale. He is a nice ram with beautiful fleece and someone is going to dearly love him and his fleece as it is delightful! I also have 2 white twin Shetland/Finn rams that have absolutely gorgeous fleece! If you don't want a ram and only need a fiber sheep, we can provide you with a wonderful wether with gorgeous fleece also. I love my boys, but we don't have enough pasture for them all.

Last Friday, some knitting friends of mine came out and we did Kool-Aid dyeing. I haven't got pictures of mine, but will have later today to post them. I think you will be delighted in what you can do with Kool-Aid. It isn't dangerous either, but if you are going to do a lot of yarn, it is costly. Makes for a good experiment.

Socks & Yarns

Isn't technology wonderful?! After discovering that my blog with my socks didn't post, I dug up the photos and I'm ready to post them. The white and orange socks were done with some old Kool-Aid that had hardened like a rock. So I soaked the yarn in vinegar water overnight then crushed the Kool-Aid between my fingers while sprinkling it over the socks, microwaved the yarn for 5 minutes, rinsed it and presto! speckled yarn! I wish the picture was clearer but since I'm an amateur photographer, that is the best I could do on this pair.


This pair of socks was made from hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn and then hand-knit using a 2x2 ribbing. I love knitting with hand-spun yarns. For some reason they are more scrumptious than boughten yarn. These are of a lovely red, orange, yellow roving that when spun blended the colors quite well. I really like them and I'm going to have to make some more roving so I can have a pair of socks just like them....well, almost like them as this type of yarn is hard to duplicate.

Now I want to show off my 2 large hanks of hand-spun yarn that I just finished. I forgot to include the smaller hank of 196 yards, but overall, I've had a good spinning week. The coral hank is 348 yards of a wool/silk blend. The other hank is from Shetland and is 398 yards. I hope the photo does them justice as I am very anal about my yarns looking almost like mill plied yarn. Let me know what you think. I just like uniformity. However, I have a friend whose yarn looks like the expensive yarns with twirls and curls and all. I just can't seem to reproduce her yarn.

Carpe Diem

I know that I posted a blog with pictures of the socks I mailed off. However, it isn't here anywhere so I must have not saved it. That's what happens when I get in a hurry. I'll have to dig out the pics and try posting them at another time as they aren't saved on this computer.

As of this evening, I have completed 942 yards of yarn this week. I first completed a wool hank of 196 yards that was from hand dyed red, purple, and yellow roving. I spun the singles on a drop spindle then plied it on my wheel. That was the last of the 1 pound of that roving that I had. Then I managed to get 398 yards of Shetland spun and plied. It is hanging on a hanger drying at this time along with the 3rd hank of yarn that was a beautiful coral color of wool and silk and it made up into 348 yards. Altogether this week, I have managed to ply 942 yards of yarn. That is a first for me. I did get another bobbin of Shetland on the ball winder so that it is ready to ply also. It will be almost as much as the hank of Shetland above.

I've got to take the 2nd 2 hanks above to the county fair tomorrow. I just love doing things the last minute. In fact I perform better at the last minute pushed on by the stress of missing the proverbial boat. Before I leave with the hanks tomorrow, I will get a picture of all 3 hanks so that you can see my accomplishment. I'm glad that I made getting this stuff plied a priority.
Just wait until you see it in tomorrow's post.

Too many rams

Wow! It has been almost a month since my last post. I truly didn't aim not to keep you entertained with farm happenings.
We recently spent some time sorting our spring crop. Boys in one area, girls in another. I was a bit surprised as all the bleating afterwards only lasted about 24 hours. I guess we must have done it at the right time.
If anyone reading this post is in the market for a ram lamb, or a lamb for the freezer, here are some choices. I tried to capture the essence of their fleeces so that if you are looking for something to shear, you will know beforehand what you are getting. I especially would like to find a home for the brown ram lamb as he is a beauty and hate to butcher a colored lamb just because he is related to one and all. As you can see, he is starting to fade, but the color genetics are there to pass on to his progeny. His sire is also the sire to the other 3 ram lambs I have available.

Two of the ram lambs are twin brothers and have pink noses and pink skin under the fleece. Their fleece is very crimpy and at only 3 months old, already has almost 3 inch locks. If you look below, you can see how their fleece falls and how curly the crimp is.
These are two very nice rams. I'm located in South Central Indiana if you are interested in these lambs. Tomorrow I will post pics of the two Angora bucks that will be for sale November 1st.

I've got to get pictures of the socks I'm about to mail off. They are beauties!! They are for a lady in California that likes orange and I really hope she likes them when she gets them. You be the judge. Until tomorrow....
kate