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I had a lovely time in Taos, didn't come back with more wool than I took so that is good. I did find a pair of patterns for knitted dragons and bought 2 types of roving to make a knitted dragon like our logo and sign. My test sample looks pretty good so I'll continue to spin it and hopefully manage to get the dragon knitted this winter.
Several people, Patricia, Suzanne and Erika, all helped me figure out the double knitting for the Monmouth cap and I finished rev 2 while I was there. It came out much better and much closer to the original. As soon as I finish weaving in the ends and fulling it a bit I'll post pictures. I'm still not happy with the increases at the top after finding some more pictures of the original and also the increases to set up for double knitting but I am getting there.
Erika showed me the first couple of stitches for naalbinding. I can see it as being a really great way to make very flexible but warm mittens and hats for winter. It may also work for socks, the ones she had were very nice but they looked rather difficult. Now I have to spin some appropriate singles yarn for that technique.
When I got back I had to start sewing on sheep coats again. I have about a dozen more to finish and we can pull the rest of the ladies in off pasture. I should finish those this week and then I can clean up the sheep coat mess from the living room.
I need to get the ram lambs sorted and evaluated but it's not likely to happen this week. They are looking good so it will be difficult to pick out the top dozen or so to keep as potential breeding animals.
Skirting of fleeces continues. I have about 7 more to get up on our web site under the wool for sale section. I still have quite a few to skirt. Hope to finish that project this month as well.
09 October 2007
05 October 2007
Off to Wool Festival & Bears
Heading out today to attend part of the Taos Wool Festival. I'm taking my second revision of a Monmouth cap and the start of a scarf from a chart that I am having problems reading in hopes I can get some help from some of my knitting friends who will be there.
The Monmouth cap is interesting. My first one followed the many on-line patterns fairly well but when it was done, although a very nice knit cap, it doesn't look at all like the one in the Nelson Museum. So I started another of my own design but am stuck on the double knitting part for the brim. I think I have a plan to finish it but want to run it by someone else first.
About a week ago we had bears visit us very close to the house. I keep meaning to put up the pictures of the tracks but just didn't get around to it until today. There were at least 2 bears one larger and one a bit smaller. The first track was a small distance from the house as you can see. It was fresh, we back tracked and found fresh scat too.
Bears can be very serious predators of sheep. They will go into a killing frenzy and just keep killing sheep without eating any of them. So far our guard dogs have managed to keep them away but I am anxious to get the bears off the mesa and hiberbating. The next morning we found more tracks very close to the house. Right by the porch as a matter of fact.
There is a huge overpopulation of bears. When Colorado got rid of the spring bear hunt we started having many more problem bears that come in where people are and learn about domestic stock as food animals. We are allowed to protect our stock but the increased density of houses in rural areas make it harder to find clear sight lines to shoot the offending bears. Predator protection costs add a lot to the cost of our wool and our meat. Each guard dog puppy has nearly $2000 invested before he or she is deemed a reliable guard animal.
Sometimes I wish the urban folks who think predators are cute would come see the devestation they can cause. But no one wants to see the bears shredding sheep and guard dogs, or the coyotes dragging still living lambs off while their mothers try to save them, or worst of all, wolves first attacking and killing all the guard dogs of a flock before decimating the poor sheep.
So far we have been very lucky, we have not lost any sheep to predators once we had enough guard dogs, 4 for our small 20 acres of land. We have lost geese and many chickens and had sheep injured who survived. I hope we can keep enough dogs on hand to protect our precious animals.
The Monmouth cap is interesting. My first one followed the many on-line patterns fairly well but when it was done, although a very nice knit cap, it doesn't look at all like the one in the Nelson Museum. So I started another of my own design but am stuck on the double knitting part for the brim. I think I have a plan to finish it but want to run it by someone else first.
About a week ago we had bears visit us very close to the house. I keep meaning to put up the pictures of the tracks but just didn't get around to it until today. There were at least 2 bears one larger and one a bit smaller. The first track was a small distance from the house as you can see. It was fresh, we back tracked and found fresh scat too.
Bears can be very serious predators of sheep. They will go into a killing frenzy and just keep killing sheep without eating any of them. So far our guard dogs have managed to keep them away but I am anxious to get the bears off the mesa and hiberbating. The next morning we found more tracks very close to the house. Right by the porch as a matter of fact. 
There is a huge overpopulation of bears. When Colorado got rid of the spring bear hunt we started having many more problem bears that come in where people are and learn about domestic stock as food animals. We are allowed to protect our stock but the increased density of houses in rural areas make it harder to find clear sight lines to shoot the offending bears. Predator protection costs add a lot to the cost of our wool and our meat. Each guard dog puppy has nearly $2000 invested before he or she is deemed a reliable guard animal.
Sometimes I wish the urban folks who think predators are cute would come see the devestation they can cause. But no one wants to see the bears shredding sheep and guard dogs, or the coyotes dragging still living lambs off while their mothers try to save them, or worst of all, wolves first attacking and killing all the guard dogs of a flock before decimating the poor sheep.
So far we have been very lucky, we have not lost any sheep to predators once we had enough guard dogs, 4 for our small 20 acres of land. We have lost geese and many chickens and had sheep injured who survived. I hope we can keep enough dogs on hand to protect our precious animals.
04 October 2007
More on Sorting Sheep
Yesterday we gave all the ewe lambs their second shots and all got evaluated. I managed to get coats on most of them but still need to make 11 more coats as I ran out of some sizes. The uncoated sheep got to go back into the orchard on pasture while the rest are here in the barns on hay now.
Most of the lambs ended up very close when evaluated. To rank them I first did my normal evaluations on all their characteristics, then broke ties by going with fleece quality and then fleece length, thus focusing on wool for the ewe lamb selection this year. We didn't get everyone weighed for their 30-day weights so I don't have average daily gains on all lambs so I can't really use meat production for selection this year. I still have to evaluate all the ram lambs.
We also sorted out some of the for sale yearling ewes. These 4 lovely ladies are sold but we have more like them ready to go. Ewe yearlings are $175 each if purchased and picked up by the end of October. Ewe lambs are $100 each. Ram lambs are $100 each and adult breeding rams are $200 each. All sheep are registered in both the US and UK and are sold with the transfers completed. Any required disease testing, veterinary inspections and paperwork are extra but this is a great chance to get some lovely black sheep for your flock.
I'm heading off to Taos Wool Festival this weekend. I'm looking frward to a major fiber fix. I've never managed to get to any fiber festivals because most of them happen when we are too busy with farm work but things are slowing down so I can sneak away. Black Welsh Mountain yarn will be at the Fire Ant Ranch booth on Saturday so stop by and take a look.
Most of the lambs ended up very close when evaluated. To rank them I first did my normal evaluations on all their characteristics, then broke ties by going with fleece quality and then fleece length, thus focusing on wool for the ewe lamb selection this year. We didn't get everyone weighed for their 30-day weights so I don't have average daily gains on all lambs so I can't really use meat production for selection this year. I still have to evaluate all the ram lambs.
We also sorted out some of the for sale yearling ewes. These 4 lovely ladies are sold but we have more like them ready to go. Ewe yearlings are $175 each if purchased and picked up by the end of October. Ewe lambs are $100 each. Ram lambs are $100 each and adult breeding rams are $200 each. All sheep are registered in both the US and UK and are sold with the transfers completed. Any required disease testing, veterinary inspections and paperwork are extra but this is a great chance to get some lovely black sheep for your flock. I'm heading off to Taos Wool Festival this weekend. I'm looking frward to a major fiber fix. I've never managed to get to any fiber festivals because most of them happen when we are too busy with farm work but things are slowing down so I can sneak away. Black Welsh Mountain yarn will be at the Fire Ant Ranch booth on Saturday so stop by and take a look.
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