Fleece Auction

Now one of the main reasons, O who am I kidding the main reason I go to the farm show is for the fleece auction. This immediately follows the shawl auction. This year I was able to save up a little money to purchase may be four fleeces depending on the price. This is instead of my normal one or two which I usually get. Well just say I went a little crazy and got seven fleeces, O’ boy that’s a lot of fleece. I always wanted to work with a black fleece and gray fleece. This year I was able to get a black fleece but no gray, on the other hand I did get a cow fleece (a sheep’s fleece that is spotted like a cow). So if nothing else I have a lot of work to do. I have provided picture of the fleeces below for your drooling enjoyment.

Cow fleece.

The purple ribbon fleece is the Grand Champion of the colored fleeces and it's also the black fleece.

Washing Fleece

I have decided to show how I wash my fleece, since a couple of previous tries the wool felted. So this is my way of helping someone who may need help with cleaning there fleece. I will start off that my way does take a while and everyone does do it differently. There is no right or wrong way to do it just the way that best fits you and keeps the wool from felting.

The first think you need to do is skirt the fleece, which means to remove any vegetable matter and dung tags. If there are any second cuts or breakage you want to remove them as well. If you have a dryer you can use that for this step with no heat and on air fluff. If not then you have to do it by hand, I also give the fleece a little shake which helps and you may want to do this out side since it is a dirty job.

This is the first step that I do in washing fleece. I let it soak in cold water with nothing added. Some people say that there is a lot of sweat and silt that only will come out this way. Others say it will come out in the detergent wash. I doo it this way because I feel it gets cleaner and you don't use that much soap since your onlly removeing the lanolin and not the dirt as well. If you feel you don't need to do this step then don't or maybe you have never done this step and should give it a try. While the fleece is in the water cold or hot I never agitate it in any way, all I do is let it soak. This is how I keep it from felting.

Here the fleece is draing from the clear water bath.

Here I have the fleece soaking in hot soapy water. I use hot tap water that is 140 degrees to that I add a tablespoon of Borax and Laundry detergent. I decrease the amount of Borax and detergent each time I change the water. I never agitate the fleece I remove it from the water and let the water drain out, the fleece stays in the water for twenty minutes. This batch of fleece took four baths to get all the lanolin out of it. You keep changing the water till you have soap bubbles left. Then I rinse the fleece in the same manner in clear water and I decrease the temperature of the water to cool the fleece down and the water come out clear. This took about four water changes as well.

This is the nice clean fleece before I placed it in the trays I gently squeezed out the excess water. The goal is to have the fleece to look them same as when you started but clean.

This is the fleece drying to the left is the heat vent not shown. I got these crates a while back from a plant auction you typically see them at Easter time with Tulips and Lily's in them.

This is how I was my fleece if there is any thing that can help you out use it. If you see any improvements let me know. But all in all just have fun with it.

Cheese

We made are first hard cheeses, a wheel of Monterey Jack and Gouda. The process from milk to pressing curd takes about three hours. Once its pressed in the mold it really becomes sold the Monterey Jack has three pounds of weight four fifteen minute on the first round. That was just enough of weight to make it a sold mass that didn’t crumble when handled for the next weight. Both cheeses take about three months to age so we won’t be eating and until Easter. The next ones we are going to try are a couple of Cheddars, cheese making is so fun.

New Year 2010

A very Happy New Year to everyone. One year ago today I started this blog, I wasn’t able to blog as much as I would have liked to this past year. So this year I will have to work on that.
I really never talked about the garden last year because it was a flop. It was so cold last summer that nothing really grew. So I just left it alone for the year and I’m starting to plan out this years garden. The way the winter has been thus far I am hopeful that this summer will be normal for this area.

I never got all my weaving done that I wanted to last year so I will be working on that this year as well. I do know that when I have the veggie stand open in the summer it will be much harder. Maybe I will have something figured out so that I can weave while I’m working the stand. We shall see how that works out.

I am also hopeful on getting out a little more on small adventures and blogging about them as well. I don’t have any thing planned but then the spontaneity is usually the best method. I really don’t have any idea of what the adventures maybe so we’ll wait and see.

One last thing we are working on getting some chickens. These will be for egg production and not meat. There hasn’t been any decision on what type of chicken or the total number as of yet. We are working on that as well as getting a chicken coop put together. So as that gets going you’ll here about that.

So again a Happy New Year to everyone, and may this year be fun filled, healthy and prosperous for every one.

Basket of Fiber

A couple of weeks ago a friend had contacted me to stop by her place to pick up something she had gotten me at an auction. Since schedules where not working out she had dropped what she had for me at my in-laws and I picked it up there. What it turned out to be was a large basket of fiber. She was telling me about it and wasn’t sure what all was there. Her thinking was wool, linen and maybe some cotton singles. Since she doesn’t spin she didn’t really know the difference or how to figure it all out or at least try to.

When I got the basket home and was able to go through it I found what I hoped to be some really cool treasures. The first think that kind of sucked though was nothing was marked. So I have to do some testing and research to figure out what I had. More testing though which I will explain.

I found a lot of wool some very soft and other not good for wearable’s. All of it but one small amount was cleaned and some was even dyed. What it was dyed with I’ll never know at a guess I would say a synthetic dye. Yet it could have been natural who knows. The natural colors were white, charcoal grey and dark brown. The last one I thought may have been Bison since we do have a farm in the valley but examining it closer I believe it to be wool. The last time I had some Bison in my had, there wasn’t any crimp to it and this does, so will go with wool.

Then I found a bag of mixed bags with small amounts of fiber in them. With in that bag I found what I thought to be silk, angora (bunny), and cotton I found some curly locks that I really don’t know what it is and some more wool. The more testing came at this point I wanted to test some of the fiber to make sure they where natural. So to do that I did the burn test, you take a small amount of fiber and burn it. If it smells like burning hair then there is a good chance it is natural. I say good chance because it could be mixed with a synthetic, so a second test it to place it in a strong alkaline. The reason you do this is all the protein fibers will be dissolved by the alkaline in this case bleach. If there is any synthetic fibers in the mix they would not be touch by the bleach. So after letting the fibers set in the bleach I determined that they where real.

So what I believe to have is a lot of wool of different types, some silk since it is a gold color I will guess and say tussah silk, a small amount of cotton. Some angora and I’m stumped on the curly locks, there not very soft so I really not sure where they came from. The final think that was in the basket was a hand made Lazy Kate. Which also had four home made spools, a cone of rug wool and some hand spun yarn. So all in all it was a really cool gift.

Ribbons

Finally we got a computer. So now I’m able to blog again, so here is a new entry.
Last Labor day weekend I had entered a handwoven doily in the Great Allentown Fair. My thought was I will give it a try and see if I get a ribbon. I also noticed that there were no woven items to speak of in any of the categories. So we have two opportunities one to show that people do still hand weave and the second was to try and get a ribbon.

Last year my intent was to enter about five pieces, that of course never happened so I only entered the doily and it won a blue ribbon. Pretty cool for the first time out he he…
So after that boost of confidence I decided to enter some new pieces this year. I was only able to get three items done. The first was the loom fitted vest that you all saw (it was one of my first blog entries). The second was a table runner or scarf and the final one is a wall hanging.

The vest only got a third place ribbon. Something I really didn’t think about in the category was the sewing part. So my detective mind is saying I got that ribbon because there was very little sewing. Well that and the judge wrote a note saying the piece was very interesting but very little sewing. The table runner got a second place ribbon this year, there wasn’t a not from the judge so I have no clue why I only got second. But I will say it beats anything under that, so I’ll keep the second place ribbon on that one. The final piece was the wall hanging this one I got a fifth place. While I was at the fair checking to see if I received any ribbons. When I got to this section I noticed that all the other entries where quilt’s except for a couple of embroidery pieces and of course my piece. So I think I really screwed that one up. In my defense there was no explanation or definition of what a wall hanging was. So all in all I had three entries and three ribbons, it’s all a learning experience and I now have a first, second, third and fifth place ribbon. So next year I will try again.

Still witho

I'm still without a computer so I snitched a friends laptop will there at work to check thinks out.

While I'm on line I will quickly tell you all that we haven't had a real summer this year. My garden at the farm was horrible, to much rain and to cold. So I got very little from it this year. Yet here at the house the garden did very well. If you are wondering why the one did good and the other not so good. The farm is up on the mountain and there is a temperature drop up there that keeps it cool. Under normal circumstances there would have been no problems with the garden the weather just did everyone up there in this year.

On another note I entered three items to be judged in the Great Allentown Fair. One was a table scarf that got second place, second was a loom fitted vest that got third place and the final was a wall hanging that got fifth place. Which is a little disappointing since last year I entered a doily and got first place, yet it is better to get some kind of ribbon then none at all which was the case for some people.

The produce stand is slow right know hopefully it will pickup with the pumpkin season. Hopefully soon I will have my own computer so I'm able to show you all pics of the stuff that I'm doing and be able to blog more. So Hope to blog again soon.