Life happens

The last several weeks have been spent weaving, spinning, dyeing, broom and fringe tying. I've been getting up between three and four and weaving for a couple hours before I head into work. Then I weave or spin in the evenings. I wove some awesome shawls and rugs in the last few weeks. 

I do take the occasional "sheep break"!

Shawn and Lena have dyed some beautiful color of broom corn. 

Spinning incredible fine kid mohair. 

This year I managed to weave up every rug fleece that our sheep grew into wonderful Fleecyful wool rugs. 

This shawl is even more beautiful in person. I really wouldn't mind keeping this one. 

I tied so many fringes last week that my fingers are still stiff. 

Shawn and Lena had more beautiful brooms than ever. And Shawn built a stunning show booth that should last for decades, showcase both our products wonderfully and win a good many best booth in show awards. 

We both hit our goals for the amount of product we needed to take to Christmas Showcase, the Little Rock show that provides half our winter income. Everything loaded as planned. Booth, stock and suitcases took less than five hours, a record!

We left on time, running ahead of the predicted winter storm. Two hours into our drive, as we were turning onto highway 67 to Little Rock we got a call that the show was cancelled. Stunned is still the best word to describe how I feel. 

The van is still packed, though we brought the food and suitcases in. Several of us tried to put together shows for next weekend. Leigh Abernathy of Twinning Vine Designs managed to pull together a show for Saturday, December 14 in Heber Springs. I'll post the address on Facebook. 

I'll spend the rest of my time off from work posting the new rugs, shawls and yarns in the etsy store and trying some new promotions. And now that we have this new booth, we will be looking for some more good indoor shows. 

Just goes to show you, no matter how prepared you are, life happens. 

Herkimer's Rug

Herki wants to know why I have
Fantasia's fleece on my head.

I've been raising colored angora goats since the mid-90's. I love the steel grays, soft oatmeal cream, and gentle brown colors. My goal was to breed a true, rich animal red doe. I have not achieved this goal, yet. 

About six years ago I had people start requesting white mohair rugs at shows. My response was that I don't breed white goats, so I can't make white rugs. Then I got my Tillie goat in a group of beautiful gray and black goats. Tillie is white. I so enjoyed dyeing and playing with the white mohair, and I am very, very fond of Tillie. She's the pretty goat on my business cards and posters. 

So, the next time I went looking for a buck, I bought a white one. Herkimer is a sweet boy. We named him after the Herkimer diamond because of his shiny white fleece. His offspring are all white, of course, and he is producing kids with a delightful variety of fleece textures. And, twice a year, he gets his hair cut and I can weave one white rug from his fleece. 

We shear all our fiber critters on a stand, using hand shears. Herki is a good boy for shearing, though he does like to tug on your clothes when he can reach them. We put each fleece in a pillow case as we shear and mark it with the animal's name, the date and the label "rug" or "spin" for the eventual process that the fleece will go through. Then we store all the fleeces on a big shelf in my shop.

Herki's fleece has beautiful locks that maintain their integrity through the weaving and felting process that each rug goes through. His is always labeled "rug" because it makes such beautiful ones.

The rug weaving process starts with considering the colors of fleeces I have and dyeing or finding the right 100% wool warp yarn for the fleeces. For this rug, I ordered several different "white" wool yarns to find the color I liked the best with his fleece. Then I measured out the warp yarns and tied them on the loom. Herki's rugs are pretty large and the weaving takes a while. 

Once I have woven the entire fleece into the warp, along with yarns to keep it stable, I take it off the loom and tie the fringes on each end. Then I start the felting process. Each rug gets its first bath in the tub, to get out the worst of the grime and begin the felting in the direction I want it to go. After rinsing well and drying for a bit on the porch rail, the rug then begins the machine washing and felting rounds. 

Locky and lovely, Herkimer's diamond rug.

I have a front load washer and each rug goes through about 7 cycles on the gentle wash with cold water. I am currently using Whisk detergent. It gets the rugs clean with our water. Most of the time, I dry the rugs on our porch railing, but when the weather does not permit, I dry them in the dryer on air dry.

This process gets each rug clean, and felts it slightly into a firm and durable rug. 

This fall's Herkimer rug is a unique treasure. It is definitely the most beautiful rug I've woven thus far. It was ordered during Studio Tour and its fond owner was going to pick it up at Christmas Showcase. Because of the storm, Showcase was cancelled, so I am making arrangements to mail this wonderful rug. 

You are welcome to visit Herki at the farm this year and see his kids. As we have a small flock, we usually only keep a buck or a ram for 3 years before finding him a new home and bringing in a new male with fresh genetics. Herki's rugs are so, so beautiful, I am tempted to keep him longer, but he is so good at his other job (making baby goats) that it will  be hard to keep him separate from his offspring. All that to say, Herki will probably only be here one more year. If you are interested in angora wether fiber goats, I have two Herki sons that will be looking for a new home next spring after shearing. And if you need a nice buck for your flock next October, let me know. I have a diamond of an angora goat buck who would love to find some new girls.

Creativity in Black and White

I was sorting yarns in the freezer (a moth proof way to store yarn) and I came across this nice package of wool yarns that I had set aside for a shawl. My little loom needed a new warp, and I didn't want to dip into the Cast Iron colorway that I am dyeing up to warp the Newcomb for the new fleece rugs.

I'm mostly enjoying weaving shawls out of handspun right now, so I didn't feel like I needed to save that wool yarn any longer for a shawl. I warped up the little loom in this pattern with the black, gray, light gray and white wool.

Black to White warp with Tillie's white mohair

 Then I thought of the mohair I have left in the bag. Tillie's mohair - a nice, shiny white. Gizmo's mohair, a soft, glossy black. Should I mix them in one long rug?

Black to White warp with Gizmo's black mohair.

Maybe I should have, but I decided not to. I wove up the Gizmo rug on Saturday, and yesterday I started the white Tillie rug. They probably won't sell as a pair, but I'm having fun making them that way.

And I have this song stuck in my head now, "The ink is black, the page is white..."

Where can you find my Fleecyful Rugs?

A Sultan Mohair Rug woven on a green warp
currently for sale at the
Arkansas Craft Guild Gallery

Cowslip Fleecyful Wool Rug at home.

I've been posting the new rugs I'm finishing on facebook and I've been getting questions about where people can find my rugs.

Currently, as of July 2012, most of my Fleecyful Rugs are for sale at the Arkansas Craft Guild Gallery at 104 Main Street in Mountain View, Arkansas.

I do have some finished rugs at home, you can call, email or leave me a message here and we can arrange to get together.

I will be at the World Sheep and Fiber Festival in Bethel, Missouri on September 1 & 2, 2012.

We will be welcoming visitors to the farm and studios during Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour on September 14 thru 16, 2012. I'll have many rugs, shawls, felt dryer balls and hopefully quite a few of my new handbags ready for Studio Tour.

We'll have our same booth at the Christmas Showcase in Little Rock on December 6-9, 2012.

If I have any rugs left after Showcase, I'll put them up in our Common Threads Etsy Store in December and January.

If you have any rug questions, just give me a holler.

Weekend highlights

 This weekend was a sunny warm end to January. I had Arkansas Craft Guild board meeting most of yesterday. We planned events for this 50th anniversary year and worked out details for the March 10th annual meeting.

Emma, half sheared

In the morning before the meeting, Lena and I sheared Emma-sheep. She had a huge girl lamb on Thursday and the lamb was having trouble nursing due to her mum's fleece. We named the lamb Hippo. I don't think I've ever seen a newborn jacob that big.

Lisa says the new mohair throw is divine.

Last night I finished a mohair throw out of Fantasia's fleece. Lisa has graded it "divine" and she is certain that it is hers. We'll see.

The new mohair fleeces are coming along well. The wethers Glitch and Gizmo are still steely gray. I had planned to sell them after this spring's shearing, but we'll wait and see how the fleeces look.

This morning we sheared Frannie and Amyrillis. I think in that flock Elizabeth will lamb first. She's already sheared and then the other two, but it was just better to get the shearing done while the weather is good. I think Nilly will be the next ewe to lamb, and Geo-goat is not too far out, maybe another month. Spring is certainly on the way, but we haven't had winter yet. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Shawn's out in the shop making me a pretty pecan size P crochet hook so that I can finish my next 52-things-to-do-with-an-old-shirt project. I'm shopping online for a used front load washer to finish felting my rugs. So many projects to finish and things to do. Life is good here.

Glitch does his pelican pose. 

Comings and goings

Yesterday we traveled almost to St. Louis, Mo. to get the new buck for our angora goat flock. I think we'll name him Cappucino.

And yes, his fleece is as divine as it looks. It was hard to keep from petting him all the way home!

He came from Herbal Maid Fiber Farm and has generations of solid, beautifully fleeced, colored angora genetics behind him. I am already telling the girls that they all better have beautiful chocolate twins next spring. Of course, they think he's a little kid and beneath their notice right now, but once it cools down, I think they'll be happy to look at him as a boy.

Because it has been so hot, I thought he needed the benefit of air conditioning for the 7 hour trip home. Kathy, his breeder, showed me a trick that worked great. We just duct-taped a disposable diaper around his belly and over the leaky bits. The goat rode comfortably and the truck stayed clean (well, as clean as usual) and dry.

I've always believed, or at least since the early 1980's when I studied this stuff, that the buck/ram/stud is half of your herd. You can breed up a mediocre flock by bringing in top genetics through the male. You can make a good flock better by using a sire that strengthens the weak points.

So to follow through with this concept, we bring in one new sire each year. We raise three types of animals, jacob sheep, colored angora goats and lamancha diary goats. This year, we added Cappucino, next year, we'll be looking for a good, 4-horned jacob ram and the year after that, a new lamancha buck.

Part of being a breeder, especially with a rare breed like the jacob sheep, is helping other people get started in the animals you cherish. I'd like to congratulate Mona Sloop on her purchase of a good starter flock of our jacob ewes and lambs this week. I wish her daughter, Lake, best of luck showing LHF Alice in the breeding sheep show at the county fair. I'm sure she'll do great. Alice loves to show off and I think she still remembers her Reserve Grand Champion win at the 2006 National Western Stock Show in Denver. I'll let you know how they do.