I think the biggest news from the past month is YARN! Yes, I have yarn again. And I’ve been dying and knitting and loving it! Look at the beautiful colors I have done so far:

The wool has been spun into a sport weight yarn, a little bit lighter than last year’s crop. The 3oz skeins are $14 each, dyed or undyed, and contain approximately 150yds of yarn. I am working on knitting an aran sweater for my husband’s birthday in December out of undyed yarn:

Let’s see, what else… gardening has been a complete hit or miss this year. Raspberries, basil - hit! Lots! Red cabbage, tomatoes - miss. All eaten/destroyed with not a one harvested. Parsley, cucumbers - in the middle I suppose. The parsley was doing great and I’ve been using it fresh from the garden quite a lot, until a few weeks ago when I found nothing but a patch of stems, with all the leaves eaten away! They’re sprouting new leaves though so I may get more out of them. The cucumbers also did well for a little while and I was able to harvest a few, before the plants were killed by beetles. Win some, lose some. I also really wanted to plant a pumpkin patch this year, but it was not to be. One thing after another trying to get the bed prepared, with huge tiller problems that when finally resolved culminated in tilling up an underground nest of hornets or yellowjackets or something with horribly painful stingers! That was the final straw on trying to get the pumpkin patch prepared. I did rescue four of the pumpkin seedlings and planted them in the garden in front of the house - so far they’re growing well, I hope they survive!

I held back my two favorite yearling fleeces from the crop sent with Zeilingers for processing: Buttercup, the reddest of my reds; and Valerie, the whitest of them. I wanted to keep these out for spinning myself, and so that I could have some roving to sell to handspinners interested in trying out California Reds. These two fleeces were given to Singleton Fiber Processing in Walkersville, MD to be washed, picked and carded into roving. They did a wonderful job hand washing and picking the fleeces (kept separate throughout the process) and carding them on their mini-mill into roving - and they turned them around for me in a week! I will certainly be calling on them again next year, and I’m happy to recommend them. You can contact them at orders@singletonfiber.com.

The photos below show an example of Buttercup’s fleece: the processed roving, a handspun skein of yarn (forgive my novice spinning skills, I need a lot more practice!), and a sample stockinette stitch swatch knit from the handspun. Look at all those gorgeous russet highlights against the naturally tawny wool color! I just adore the subtle natural variations of color in the fibers of my Reds. Please contact me if you’re interested in buying some of the roving for handspinning.

The sheep themselves are doing great, the little ones are now about two months old and boy do they grow fast. They’ll be weaning from their moms next month. Everyone’s doing great, though they are HOT and spending a lot of time in the shade during the daytime. The gardens are growing, though I did not get to plant as much as I’d have liked to. The first batch of pesto has been bottled, the blackberries picked and made into sorbet (YUM!) and the first of the raspberries are ripening now. I forsee jam in the near future. I’m hoping for a large pickle crop this year too, if I can keep the critters away from the cucumber plants! Oh how I love the sweet summertime - going back outside! Life is good.

I also entered one of my braided wool rugs into competition at this year’s festival, and I won a 4th place ribbon! Not too bad I think, for the first time I’ve ever entered something. I call it “Caribbean Sunset Sailing” and made it for the lovely Christy Van Aken of California, who I met while cruising the Caribbean.

The weather for the festival weekend was extremely hot, and it was difficult to think about buying wool while browsing the vendors. Probably a good thing for my bank account! I did of course purchase a few things… I certainly couldn’t stroll through such a huge array of fabulous products and not go home with something. Maryland Sheep and Wool is always a great festival, and this year was no different.  Thoroughly enjoyed it.