Up to my ears in wool!

Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed your weekend and had some fun- or rest- whichever was best suited to a long weekend! This is one of Dennis' rug hookings that I love- we have so many sunflowers here, but we don't let the sheep eat them! The birds & chickens get to eat those!

We will be updating the site and etsy shop late tomorrow- I have been working non-stop in the 'fiber palace' downstairs all weekend and I am chooched. Sleepy eyed shepherdess' make big mistakes so getting at the wool/website update early in the morning. You KNOW now that those sheep can eat grass, instead of hay, they are permanently 'out to lunch'. ;0) They will be back to work with me tomorrow too- even if they fuss. They know what a pushover I am for a pouty sheep face!

We have lots of new wool here and I will be featuring each this week- lots of blogging coming your way. We will also be picking up coated Coopworth Saturday- we adore the young man that owns this flock- and he adores his sheep. If all works out, we will be offering the Coopworth wool year round- giddyup!! (his prices are very reasonable too, despite my encouragement to charge more.... ).

Hope all is well, and please stop back again, lots more fun on the way!! Cheerio (and Fruit Loops from the sheep) tee hee!

What a wild week!

What a beautiful day spent with friends yesterday-friends that we actually call family- Graham & Margaret! I absolutely adore them! They have a very happy flock that gallops acres and acres of pasture-living the good life! We have a shearing party there each year to help them out, and we had so many people to help this year, it really WAS a party- except for our David the wonder shearer! Poor fellow- but don't be fooled, we take very good care of him! ;0)

This is a picture of the loot- gorgeous Scottish Black Face, Scotch Mule, North Country Cheviot and British Suffolk fleeces! They will be showing up on the website this weekend so keep an eye out! You can see more from our day of shearing on our Flickr account so be sure to browse about, and stop back in for our update this weekend.... Today is llama/alpaca shearing day here so if we don't get to your email promptly, appreciate your patience!! Toodles!

Monday Update!

We are sort of out of words around here- no really--the sheep just finished the update of our website and Etsy!

Wildcard Lash yarn (first picture) and Ivory Crazy Quilt batts are listed on Etsy...

Sunflower Garden Lashes (our Treasure) is listed on our website....

And so is this gorgeous little Romney lamb's wool from our friend Kendra's happy sheep. Her flock started with McNair Romney sheep so there are just not enough words to describe how wonderful these fleeces are! Don't miss out-this wool is listed on our site too.

We will be updating the site again on the weekend-with new Cold Valley Jacob wool, Graham & Margaret's British Suffolk; Scottish Black Face; Blue Face Leicester x & North Country Cheviot- and of course, fleeces from our very own special sheeps! Have a great week, more soon!!

Wool Flurries? Er Storms??? ;0)

Holy fleeces Bat Man!! We are catching up with our friend's little flocks and boy will we have wool for you!!!!

Today we got to visit with our friends Kendra & Paul (and their cutie pie kidlets)- while they dropped off their Romney fleeces! Kendra's flock is from the famous McNair Romney flock- the fleeces from Kendra's sheep are georgeous! Next to the skin soft, long locks, and beautiful range of colors! I have not had a chance to sort through any yet (picture above is a fleece from last year) so keep your eyes peeled- hope to have a few ready for this week's update- late Monday.

AND, we also have the Cold Valley Jacob fleeces coming in tomorrow! Giddyup! Most of you are probably already familiar with these gorgeous fleeces- many even the rare lilac color! Soft, VERY free of debris and well, just gorgeous! Look for them to show up on our update next weekend.....

This week will be absolutely off the map for us so please bear with us! We will be helping Graham & Margaret on their shearing day on Tuesday- another wonderful visit with some of our favorite people- AND David the wonder shearer!

We also shear our own llamas and alpacas on Thursday. Whew, we are gonna be tired but what fun- fiber fleeces everywhere!!!

We are also picking up a new flock this year- a very happy group of Coopworth sheep from Northern WI. They are owned by a dedicated young man who loves his sheep- and oh shucks, needed somewhere to market his wool???? ;0) Twist my arm! The wool has been jacketed/coated and his price is truly reasonable- you won't be disappointed! More on that as we have more info- I think we will have the wool in my clutches by the end of May. And that is not too far away- eek! Happy Sunday night everyone, hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you as you have time!

Turkeys in the compound!

Right before bedtime last night, a sweet mama turkey came strolling through the yard, and hopped through the goat fence. I thought sure Chaquita would chase her out and was on my way out the door to be sure mama turkey got away safely. Chaquita llama is VERY protective of her g0at babies! She allows no funny business! She even decides when it is bedtime for her family (5 goats, 1 sheep) by chasing them into the little house, then sleeping right in the doorway so nobody can get past her and be naughty. She runs a tight ship! However, must have been because Ross was feeding hay, she totally did not even SEE that turkey! Silly old girl!

We adopted Chaquita from a friend a few years ago- she was not being so nice to her llama friend OR people friends. Spitting was her favorite way to show her displeasure in life! And her aim was pretty good too. She needed a job so we gave her our little goat family to watch over. The only time she spits (aka drools) now is when she is done being sheared. Enough is enough you know?! We adore her!

Here are two new yarns heading for the Etsy shop later on- the Romney and Romney x sheep all got together and had Argyle Fiber Mill spin their fiber into a 2ply, soft soft yarn! All animal friendly, just a new addition to our yarn selections. I dyed this up when it came back home- stuck on green I think I am!

Hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you- update planned for Sunday, Cold Valley Jacob fleeces come in Monday, Kendra's Romney soon, shearing at Graham & Margaret's Tuesday and shearing our llamas/alpacas Thursday.... talk about a whirlwind week-whew!

Fun updates today!

Hello all! Hope your weather is treating you nicely-finally! It is warming up here for the most part, just have one more Angora Goatie (Odey) to get sheared tonight, then comb the Pygoras and wa-la, shearing done til llama shearing day on the 21st.... yay!!

The sheep added new batts to the CrazyQuiltHomestead shop, will be adding some snazzy yarn tomorrow too.
We are intruducing our new 'Elfin Batts' this week on the website! They are sections of large batts the Callaways had carded from their happy sheep's wool. I seperated some sections and had some fun with the dyepots! Too fun! I love my neighbors! Their oldest son is graduating from high school? Where DOES the time go???

And this is one of my favorite fibers in the world! It is Scottish Black Face wool. This is a very traditional, popular European sheep, our friends Graham & Margaret raise them- this is wool from their happy sheep. (we also have our Devlyn sheep who we purchased from their flock-yey!) Anyhoo, the wool is a medium feel, and we take it to Argyle Fiber Mill to have the wool we wash here run through their de-hairing machine to remove most guard hair. This leaves it in the poofy fun to spin/felt clouds. When this batch got home, the sheep dyed it some pretty colors- if you have not tried this wool, you really should. The yarn (or blends) spun from this fiber is durable, strong, felts easily and in my opinion, works into a project just like Linen yarn. Use a little pinch for texture in your batts? Card with a softer fiber? Just let your creative fiberista out of the box and have some fun!!!!

Our next update will be this weekend so keep an eye out- probably on Sunday. Hope you all have a great week and please email us if you have questions or need ANYthing!! Toodles!

A new sheepy adventure!

WHAT??? Another new adventure? You heard correctly! Culley the Border Leicester is here to introduce you to the sheep's new shop- CrazyQuiltHomestead at Etsy!!
We have always admired and enjoyed the creative atmosphere at Etsy and the sheep finally got me moving to get them there. It has been fun to set up the shop, we will be offering our handspun yarn and Crazy Quilt batts. We will also keep yarn and batts on our website as usual- just expanding our horizons a little! Pictured above is Culley's single ply 'energized singles', one of the first yarns featured at CrazyQuiltHomestead....

Golly Green Crazy Quilt batt- new addition to CrazyQuiltHomestead this evening....

AND, we picked up the famous McNair Romney fleeces last weekend! Hip hip hooray! It is difficult to capture the fleeces on camera -but here is a reasonble sampling of colors. The McNair Romney sheep are beyond happy, wonderful and as you may have noticed, we have oink snorted many into our own flock over the years- they have great personalities AND fleece that is just out of this world! The fleeces are spanking clean and free of debris, locks of 5 inches +, pretty, shiny crimp, and next to the skin soft. Yeeeeum! The flock is a little smaller this year so fewer fleeces- and they never last very long. If you are interested in this fiber, just email the sheep!

Hope Spring has arrived with some nice weather for everyone. And please keep good thoughts for all the people, wildlife and pets affected by the fires in California. Our hearts are with them, wishing we could do something-anything.

Where have those sheep BEEN??

Well let's see, the naughties have made a few get aways into the hayfield full of new grass- shame shame! They do NOT want to eat hay-even though they have plenty! Keep telling them, little bit longer and they can go out on the pasture. I will be SO glad- they are just tyrants right now!

Welcome our new addition to the family- Marney (we think she is a Jacob/E.Fresian cross) who came from Jenny's happy flock of llamas/alpacas. Jen saved her last fall from a sad fate- got her healthy and this spring Marney had a lamb- but it did not make it. Marney was so sad that Jen wanted to have her here so she was with other sheep-and our bottle lamb Wyatt.
And this is the ever elusive Lucy, our only Targhee girl. She is one of our shy sheep, and she lives in Keebler's little group of special needs sheep. She has a lopsided tummy, she was bred way too young (before she was 1) and when she lambed, her tummy ligaments snapped. She is a happy girl, and you really would not notice her tummy- and really, who cares!
Lucy has taken quite a liking to Marney, it is so sweet to see them take a new sheep, scared and frightened of a new place, under their wing to get them used to the routine- and not being so scared. It is a big deal to a sheep to be out of a routine-maybe that is why I like them so much? Although, I really do not have a lot of 'routine', at least none that I stick to. Just never know what a day brings here!

The sheep are working on an update- hoping for tomorrow but most likely Friday. Our surprise (and not in a good way) barn construction project is done, so now we are spending evenings and this weekend getting the alpaca/llama pens set up. Will be nice for them and allow us to keep fans going for them in the summer months. Yey!

Hope you are all enjoying your week and will chat more soon! Look forward to hearing from you when you have time!!