In other news, I got a box of roving from Zeilinger's today. They are so nice to work with. I sent this with the hope that it would be done in time for them to bring it with them on the truck to the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. They called to say they could do it, or even send it earlier. I said I was torn - save some shipping money by having them bring it, or spend the UPS fee and have it earlier so I could spin samples of the new colors. They offered to ship a pound of each as soon as it was done so I could spin it. Minimum shipping cost but I have what I need - I can have my roving and spin it too!
Sssppiiiiinnnn ...... Uusssssssss........
The white and gray are both Cotswold. The dark brown is crossbred lambs' wool. I've put dyed silk with each in contrasting colors. It's *supposed* to spin up and show blips of color. I've started on the white and while I wish I'd added a little more color it's spinning like a dream. And the gray feels soooo smooth and soft. Whee! I can spin some every night and I should get all three sample skeins plied and washed in time.
Homework that I really WANT to do!
Hello! Thanks for your visit to my blog and your kind words about Marshmallow. She was such a dear sheep to me. I loved the pictures of your rovings - Zeilingers is the mill I used from Iowa, but now I don't know if I will because I'll have to pay duty on the processing.
ReplyDeleteYour question about the spaying is a good one. My Iowa farm was a small hobby farm - just 8.5 acres with about 20 sheep. I only had it for just over 3 years, and started out with 3 sheep, so I had no real need for the scrapie certification program, especially since I was not in the business of selling sheep/lamb - only fibre products. Importing male animals to Canada is much easier, but females, because of their breeding ability, either have to come from a farm that has been certified scrapie-free for 2 years, and be going to a Canadian premises that has been enrolled in the Canadian scrapie program for 2 years, or be spayed. Spayed females are treated as males. Goats require brucellosis and tuberculosis testing; sheep do not require any tests. So, since my Iowa farm wasn't in a scrapie program and my new farm wasn't either, I had no choice on any ruminant females - they had to be spayed or they couldn't come. Well, another option would have been to find a farm in the US that was certfied that woudl take them for 2 years and then I would get my new property enrolled for 2 years, etc, but that would have been a pain in the butt! So, that's why I did the spaying, and as you read, it didn't work out for the sheep. :( My goat came through fine though, and the border vet said it was his first ever spayed goat inspection. I guess it's not very often people bring through a "pet" ruminant. Most imports are of large numbers of animals or for breeding purposes.
Hmmmmm - preeetttttyyyyy
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