Saturday was our January spinning guild meeting so I had a chance to spin a bobbin-full. It's always helpful to prospective customers to see just how a roving will look when spun. Some color variation does show in the yarn, so it will turn out to be a pretty, heathered green as I had first intended. I have yet to ply it and make a proper skein of it - maybe tonight after supper.
The meeting itself was a fun gathering. When I last checked the sign-in sheet we had hit 80 members in attendance and it's possible a few forgot to sign in. It was also our annual Chinese Auction in which everyone de-stashes their extras, plops them on long tables and everyone buys tickets to try for items that interest them. You never know what will crop up. Sometimes a member will see a giant bag of yarn at at yard sale for $1 and buy the whole thing to get that one skein that caught their attention and the rest winds up in the Auction. Books, equipment, half finished (or never started) kit projects, dye stuffs, raw and prepared spinning fiber, tons of yarn, and some miscellany (not too much of that - we do have standards, you know) - in all there had to have been a couple of hundred lots of items which the guild officers smartly worked through in just over an hour. Almost everyone wins something, and one or two people always become the lucky ones of the day with their names being called again and again. It's weird, and doesn't seem to correlate directly to the number of tickets bought, and it's not the same people from year to year, but every year does see "the lucky ones". We rub them and then go buy lottery tickets. (Just kidding).
One of many tables of goodies
"Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff!"
I'm glad the weather cooperated so I could attend. It was in the low teens last night, so this morning was a frosty, sparkly postcard.
Click to biggify - all those tiny white dots are glittery diamond points of sparkle
The sheep were not at all impressed with how pretty it was. They were all comfortably settled in and waiting for us to come and do the morning chores.
Hazel and Glinda. "Honestly, stop with the pictures. Those mangers aren't going to fill themselves."
Chore time starts with us going from manger to manger scooping out any leftover hay stems that weren't eaten (not a lot, given the good design of the feeders and the fact that Cotswolds will eat about anything not nailed down) and find THIS in one.
Hmmmmm.....
Spikes......yikes!
This deer antler had to have lain in the field since late 2010 when it was shed, survived being mown over by the haybine (although the point on the left is cut cleanly so we know it saw the cutter bar up close), then got baled up by our doughty baler in summer 2011 and now comes to light in 2012. We had a similar antler incident a few years ago, but it cost us a rear tractor tire and a good chunk of change when the tire succumbed to the antler points!
Makes us wonder if the mate to this one is still out there in the field.......lurking.....waiting.......
Who knew hay could be so exciting?
It was about this time last year when I found a shed antler in the side yard. I was thinking about going walkabout in the wilds (brushy field next door) to see if I could find any this year.
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