Spinning and Romney wool.

 This is that Romney fleece before washing it. Pretty clean really. It's beautiful and soft!

                                    This is after washing it. Can't wait to start spinning this now. Amazing!

                I just finished plying the blue and white together. Now I can get busy spinning more.

It is freezing outside. And the wind is blowing. I actually walked over here with my "regular" shoes on. The mud is frozen solid. But I cannot spin with shoes on. I have to be either bare foot or with socks. And I think I need to put my wheel on a little rug. It likes to go for a wlk when I'm spinning. Very bad wheel.

It's snowing!

 Last night, the sheep wanted to go back to the North side and the shelters. They knew it was going to snow. But there's no hay over there right now. It's in the south pasture, out in the field. They don't mind snow and light rain. But the wind they don't like. The alpacas head to the barn when it starts raining though. They're so funny, those guys.

                                                Can you spot Sugar in this group of sheep?

                                                         Misha looks so cute with snow on him.

My very favorite ewe, Campbelle. She's the sweetest girl. She likes to eat out of the container, so I have to save some for her. She's the smallest ewe, so she has the hardest time getting to all the feed in the trough. So she's special and gets a little extra love.

                                    This is the goats, running out to say hello to me this morning.

Then they quickly realized it was snowing and cold, so they turned right around and went back inside their little goat barn!

Here is a beautiful Romney fleece I bought last year from Windswept Acres. It mush have been coated, because there was hardly any VM at all. Isn't this beautiful? I really want to look for a Romney ram soon to breed my Finn ewes. I just think that would be some amazing fleece.

Well, now the sun is out and the birds are singing! Snow is all gone. But it's SO COLD! And windy. Great day to stay inside and play with wool, right?

Making rolags

 I think that's what these little balls of roving are called. Whatever they are, I love them.

But I do not love these evil combs. If I'm not careful and get to going to fast, I get stabbed. And it hurts bad! But I do love how it makes this messy wool into something so beautiful and soft, so fast. With not too much waste. I think I'm going to make pillows with the thrift store wool sweaters and use all the waste from combing for stuffing. Just gotta get started. I also have a few fleeces that aren't very good to spin with, that I could use for stuffing pillows with.

Isn't this amazing? I wish you could feel how soft it is. And I really love spinning this too. There are no bumping places and it also gets out all the little bits of stuff that I can never seem to get all out of the wool.

This little thing I am using for a diz is a glass piece  that was a key chain a friend brought me from one of her trips to another country a few years back. It makes a perfect diz for making the roving. And I use the smallest little crochet hook to pull the wool though the hole to get it going.

I have already spun the basket full of rolags I made last week from Buttercup's wool. Need to make more now.

I went to town today to shop and pay bills because the next few days are going to be COLD and we might get some snow. So I am staying at home! I do not like getting out among the crazy people who do go out in weather like that. So I shall stay home and work here in my studio til it's done. It's only supposed to be in the 30's and 40's all week here. My last electric bill for my studio was twice as much as our house. We heat with wood over there and the bill was just $80. Here in my studio, I have wall heaters (old ones) and a new radiator type heater. I just ran 1 wall heater and the radiator heater to keep it warm over here. This past bill was $161. UGH! The man that built this house used a little pot belly stove, so there was a little hole in the roof for the pipe. But when we had the new roof put on, they went over it. I'd love to have a little wood heater over here.


I hope y'all have a great week, where ever you are. Stay warm!