Catching Up

Blogging has gone out the window the last few weeks.  Events have swept along pretty rapidly, some great and some pretty lousy (kinda the way life usually goes, but compressed into about 20 days).

The first good thing was that Julie and I trekked to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I carried down five fleeces for the show and sale, fleeces for someone who had reserved some and could pick them up there, and fiber to be made into roving and quilt batting.  It was less fiber for processing than I had hoped to take, but at least there was some.

".... Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin'..."

The weather was perfect - sunny and warm - and we made a couple of stops along the way, most notably at a Mennonite bakery along the Susquehanna River where we indulged in their annual Moonpie Madness weekend (twenty different flavors, but so large I could only eat one at a sitting and that's saying something.) 

The festival was heavily attended, as always, but honestly I didn't see the quantity of goods being carried out that I normally do.  I heard later that sales were uncharacteristically light. 

Just a hint of the throng

One of the first stops we make is the Skein and Garment Show.  The sheer mass of lovely, intricately made things to look at is staggering.  Considering the amount of talent and time represented by the items in the show makes the ribbons earned there really mean something.  And so it was thrilling to find a skein made from my Frog Pond roving had earned top honors (Best Novice Spinner) for fellow guild member Carole "CC" Clark.

Way to go, CC !

Other fantastic creations included this realistic sheepy footstool....

Baaaa 

and felted landscapes....

Created from felted wool...amazing.

Without doubt, however, the best part of Maryland was a surprise appearance by my brother, who drove 6 hours one way in hopes of finding me on the grounds.  We got lucky and walked into each other within 15 minutes of them hitting the front gates.  (He admitted to being pretty nervous when he arrived and saw an ocean of cars worthy of a Super Bowl lot.  He had no idea how many people actually attend MD S&W).  He and DW Shirley could only stay a few hours and then turn and go 6 hours back.  Thanks, Steve.

Me and "Brother"





 The sheep shows are always fascinating to me and I could spend all day watching the classes, but there is so much else to do our attendance in the bleachers was spotty.  Of course, though, I had to watch the Cotswold show and was even pressed into service helping the Crossman's of Ewetopia farm in the flock class (a yearling ram, 2 yearling ewes and 2 ewe lambs from the same farm).

The winning flock of Cotswolds at Maryland









Now for the crummy stuff.  Just as I was preparing to leave we started seeing scours in the lambs.  We've seen this in previous years, and it's always been a few lambs who have an upset for a day to two and then it clears up.  This time we had a tidal wave.  A group fecal showed coccidia, so we began treating the lambs that developed the runs with an oral medication - a weight-based dose of liquid once per day.  By the time I left we had 25 lambs on a chart that had to be found by ear tag and treated daily. 

Hi.  I'm not on the chart, so of course I'm going to stay right here, under foot.

While I was gone the number doubled and we lost a lamb, and then another Monday when I returned.  To make a long story tolerable, we were having a coccidia overload brought on chiefly by the extra-large lamb crop and the two freezing wet weeks in late April that delayed us getting the flock out of the barn and on pasture.  It's normal for coccidia to exist in sheep without causing problems, but too much of it in young lambs DOES cause problems and being housed so closely (even though our barn is clean and well-bedded) put more coccidia into the lambs than they could tolerate.  Additionally, I took the lamb that died on Monday to Cornell for a full necropsy (along with fecal samples taken from some other sick lambs) and those findings included the presence of Clostridium which is a very unwelcome discovery since we have a strong vaccination program to prevent that.  Either the coccidia debilitated that lamb to the point that the passive immunity from mom failed to protect it, OR there is a strain other that the C and D types that our vaccine includes.  The lab at Cornell is typing the Clostridium now so we'll soon know if we have to begin vaccinating for additional strains.  This unhappy situation caught us flat-footed since we haven't seen it before.  We now have a protocol of treatment for next year that will begin with the ewes even before they lamb and continue with the lambs themselves.  We've started it with this year's lambs too, but the damage is done to several and they are going to be unthrifty, poor-doers assuming they live. 

I hate lessons that come at the cost of dead animals.

Things appear to be under control now and we've not had any new cases since the second week of May.  Now that we've got the flock on pasture the pressure *should* be off.... but we're still wary, believe me.

The flock worked through the Baby Pasture in just a few days, but it gave them time to acclimate to fresh grass.

OK, we're done here.... next pasture, please.

They didn't go far when turned out to the big pasture.

Yeah, baby!  This is what we're talking about!

Perfect. Pasture. Picture.

This looks yummy.

I don't know about this grass stuff, but the sun is sure nice.



While the situation with the lambs was very time consuming, other things have been going on, including Shepherd's Market (which I have no pictures of - drat - but which you can see over at Caroline's blog), and....drumroll......

LaLa is done!  Yes, the guild KAL which I cast on for in October on the bus to Rhinebeck is finished and blocked.  Well, blocked sounds pretty aggressive - all I did was give it a soapy soak and rinse and laid it out in the sun to dry.  I did take a ruler to it to make sure it was symmetrical in all directions but I didn't need to crucify it with pins - it laid there very obediently and dried as I wanted. 

Awkward angle, but I had to step sideways to accomodate the wide wingspan.

The Molly fur in it raised a nice halo like angora.

It's soft and fuzzy and warm and the shawl pin (Stone Edge Fibers) that Julie gave me looks smashing with it.



Thanks, Julie.

I would never wish away the warm weather, but I'm going to love wearing this when it gets cold again.  This and all the LaLa Shawls will be on display at the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival in September. 

Phooey.  Can your shawl be THIS cute??



That a girl, Holly.  Keepin' in real.





Warm Winter Woolens

We've had quite the rude reminder - with temps in the mid 30s and wind and rain - that summer is over, fall is really here and hard behind that will be winter.  Ick.  I hate winter.  Oh, I like the pretty snow at Christmas and a sunny day with snow on the ground and frosted trees can be beautiful, but I've never been able to withstand cold well so I dread the long, dark cold season.  From December to late March my usual outside attire is thermal undershirt, wool sweater or heavy sweatshirt, thermal sweat pants, insulated ski pants over the sweats, fleece vest, quilted jacket, heavy insulated winter coat with hood, knit hat (sometimes with a thermal snood under it), 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of socks and thermal Muck brand boots.  And I still get cold unless I'm moving the whole time.  Andy even carries a second pair of gloves for me inside his shirt where they stay warm and halfway through chores when my hands go numb we swap so I can finish.  I even get cold in the house when it's a very reasonable 68 degrees.  At 70 I feel pretty good and that's where Andy starts to sweat, so we have a magic 2 degree window where we're both comfy.  Some days, when the temps are low enough and the wind is blowing hard enough it's just not possible to get parts of the house warm enough for me.  Then I wear a shrug and fingerless mitts.  I have some very humble ones that I made myself, but I've been recently blessed by good friends with (as Snapple puts it) Better Stuff!

Amy gifted me with this LaLa Shawl at the Fiber Fest in September.  It's some of my dyed Cotswold lamb and silk called Forget Me Not which I'm currently out of but hope to make more of soon.

Back view

I like to roll the collar area for extra warmth over the back of my neck and it stays on my shoulders well that way, too.

Front, with shawl pin, also from Stone Edge Fibers

Along with the sample baby garments she knit to showcase my Cotswold yarn, Caroline also made a pair of mittens which I neglected to blog about.  Bad Robin.

Worsted weight singles yarn

And before that, our spinning guild held a "hand covering exchange" in which all participants put unspun fiber in a bag, the bags were shuffled, and each person took a bag with the direction to make a pair of mittens/gloves/mitts/muffs/whatever and at the end of the designated time they would be returned to the original owner magically made into something nice.  Wouldn't you know, out of 40-some participants Caroline got my fiber.  We got a sneak peek at our items at a guild meeting, then they were all whisked away to be held until the fiber fest when they would become an awesome guild display.  But when that was over, they became mine, mine, mine!

Backs

Palms

Beautiful things, made by friends.  My heart is already warm.