Wool

Here are a few projects that I have been working on.
This is a (natural gray Shetland) hat that I made for a friend of the family's son who is in Afghanistan mountains in the marines. He has one year left and had signed up for 4 years at 18 and he and his siblings are/were home schooled. Please pray for Zach's safety as well as all of our soldiers!
This is some Romney with 20% mohair that I'm spinning now. It is fun to spin! I am going to sell the bulky yarn at the State Fair.
Here is some more yarn that I spun to sell. Some is Romney/mohair, some Shetland, and some Shetland/mohair.

Wool

My load of wool er hay came. (The sheep and goats will turn it into wool by spring !) The unfortunate thing is the hay guy was supposed to come in November and I had even called him in October to try to get a date set, but he kept canceling or changing the dates. So now that it is winter our driveway is too slippery for a semi to get up. The bales had to be unloaded on the road and taken up with the skid steer that I rented. The bad thing is three bales fell into the ditch-a very steep, muddy ditch where cattails grow in the summer. Anyway my Dad and I managed to drag up one of the bales piece by piece on sleds up the driveway. Then my brother, Iain, thought he could get the other two bales after all with the skid steer. Well....the skid steer slipped all the way to the bottom of the ditch and after an hour and a half the skid steer was still stuck in mud that is like pudding. We had even tried putting down some hay (about half a bales worth) to try to drive on, but that did not work! The good thing is the skid steer company said not to worry and they'd just bring a tractor on a semi tailor and tow it out.

The other good thing is now I have hay! I was feeding small squares of marsh hay and about 1/2# of grain to my ewes a day (there is not a whole lot of nutrition in marsh hay and they waste a lot), now they will just get alfalfa hay.


Here's what I've been spinning- picked mohair locks with...
black Corriedale lamb. The yarn is very soft!

Combed top

I sent Zeilingers 16.5# of VMy, but very fine and soft Shetland neck and VMy kid mohair. They had to rewash it and the grease loss was 2.74 #. The waste (noils and VM) loss was 1.52#. I sent all different colors of neck wool-most was white, light grey, moiget or musket, but about 1/4 charcoal/black or fawn/moorit. The combing removed all the VM and noils and also removed dandruff. (Some of the mohair had dander and I was so happy it was combed out as I knew I was taking a chance.) I am very happy with this top!It's for sale http://psalm23fibers.blogspot.com Now maybe in the winter I'll make a shawl from some....

Fleeces!!!

I have finally finished shearing and skirting my fleeces! They are for sale on my wool for sale blog . Yes I used blade shears on the whole flock including the goats. (I tried the electric clippers on one ewe but made a lot of second cuts.) Only the best fleeces are for sale the rest are for roving.

Finished shawl

First the roving,

Then the yarn (singles),

Finished shawl. There are 11 natural colors most are Shetland, but the dk. charcoal and the med. grey is Shetland x BFL with 20% mohair, and the dk. brown-almost black is Coopworth. The shawl is very soft!

Rug and sunset

I finally got my wool rug done!!! I've been working on it for 3 years-so I'm glad it's done. It is crocheted out of bulky yarn spun from britch wool. It's mostly Shetland, but the lt. moorit/fawn is Castlemilk Moorit and the cream is Kerry Hill. The Dk. moorit is Shetland from the UK and the red musket is Shetland mixed with llama.




The sunset tonight was really pretty.

Yarn

This med. weight yarn is space dyed 80% Shetland 20% mohair. It is $4 an oz. the skeins are 2-3 oz.
This med. weight yarn is space dyed 80% Shetland 20% mohair. It is $4 an oz. the skeins are 2-3 oz.
This super bulky yarn is 100% Shetland. It is $3 an oz and the skeins are 3-5 oz.

This super bulky yarn is 100% Shetland. It is $3 an oz and the skeins are 3-5 oz.


For more info e-mail me at http://ps23farm@yahoo.com

Lock yarn

This lock yarn has a Shetland lamb yarn warped in mohair and then plied with cotton thread.

This lock yarn has a Shetland lamb yarn warped in mohair and then plied with cotton thread.

This lock yarn is 100% mohair. It is very soft and very shiny! It has a cotton binding thread.

This lock yarn is 100% natural colored mohair it is soft and shiny. It has a cotton binding tread.


These skeins are 2-3 oz. and are $14-21 ea. (depending on weight.)

e-mail me with an questions ps23farm@yahoo.com .

Fleece pictures

This fleece is Eco the grey katmoget mule's fleece

These 2 pics are Eve the white mule's fleece. I LOVE her fleece!!!
This is PS23 Elsie-(PS23 Craigrothie X PS23 Dancer) she is a fine single coated white. She is actually an accident that turned out nice! She is Craigrothie's daughter and grand daughter. Her dam was 10 months old when she gave birth. (I had even given her dam Lutalyse.)She was too small to be bred this year.
This is Everest- who is the teaser ram. (He was sterilized by my vet) so hopefully all my ewes were synchronized by him and lamb in a smaller period of time.(1 month instead of 1 1/2 or 2 months)

More handspun yarn

"White" 2-ply 50%Shetland 50% kid mohair
"Forest green" 1-ply 80% Shetland 20% mohair
"Egyptian red" 50%Shetland 30%mohair 20% alpaca
" Dusty rose" 50%Shetland 30%mohair 20% alpaca
"Blue blueberry" 100% Shetland
"Royal blue" 100% Shetland
"Burnt orange" 80% Shetland 20% mohair
"Natural brown" 70% llama 30%Polypay

All yarn is $3 an oz except the white which is $4 an oz. All yarn is super bulky.

Merino top

I have one Merino ewe and got her wool combed at Zeilingers (they use spinning oil). This top is very soft, and lofty. It is available for $3 an oz.

Handspun-handpainted yarn

This yarn is the only one that is not handpainted. It is Shetland, mohair and silk. It is available for $4 an oz.



All of these are handpainted 80% Shetland 20% mohair. These are also available for $4 an oz.