Well, nearly anyway :) I've been up to my eyeballs in wool over the last few days, skirting not just the nice fleeces from this year, but those stored from a couple years previously, too. We had problems with cotted wool for several years, and it got so annoying to pick through a fleece to find the few locks that weren't full of VM (dh loves to feed hay over the sheep's backs, sigh) or matted. But I got a call from someone who could use the bad wool, so I was motivated to get going on it!
In the process I relocated two Suffolk fleeces that Zack was given for shearing the sheep originally decorated with the wool. BIG fleeces, compared to Shetland :) And I have a picture saved from a catalog about 15 years ago, of lovely blankets with deep, rich colors. I looked up Suffolk in In Sheeps Clothing, and sure enough, blankets are one appropriate use for the wool. So, today I dye! <g> Greens for our blanket, warp and weft; green warp and blues weft for a blanket for my daughter if it looks like there's enough wool. I always wanted to do a blanket for our bed, inspired by that 70s book, The Handspun Project Book. I wish there was a new version of that book out, spinning knowlege has progressed so much since then. Spring is definitely sproinging here, with daffodils getting started, and another warm, very dry April (no rain at all, like previous years, darn it). Peas, lettuce, chard, spinach, onions, carrots, radishes, turnips, and beets all planted, with the greens just coming up. Cold frames in full production of lettuce and spinach. Lambs all born but one ewe, who will almost certainly twin--lots of little black lambs, as we used a solid black ram last year, but there's one gray, a moorit, a couple of dark browns, and 4 white lambs so far. A pair of girl kids from our doe, and milking has begun, here I come home-made mozarella! Spring is normally not my favorite season, but this year it's something special :) Holly To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
