Drowning in Wool

About five years ago my flock of sheep was small in numbers consisting of two natural colored Romneys. Of course I ended up expanding I earned the Oregon Romney Breeds Association's Starter flock and was given a small flock of Dorsets. Since then the flock has continued to grow and with the growing numbers fleece production has also gone up.

The original plan was to shear in November,that never happened. Yesterday finally all thirty-three sheep that needed to be shorn got shorn. Shearing went a bit faster because we had two shearers. Wool was coming off so fast I hardly had a chance to take pictures or bag up one fleece before another needed bagging.

The only picture of shearing I got.

Our house is now filled with fleeces, and I mean wall to wall fleeces. One unfortunate fact about shearing in November in the Willamette Valley is the rain. The day before we have to bring all the sheep being shorn into the barn so that they might dry off a little. But really how much can a wet sheep dry after being outside in the rain for days upon days. Dry fleeces are easier for the shearing to shear and it also is easier for us to store. Most of our fleeces are not dry we are madly trying to dry and skirt fleeces.

Merry Christmas?

There are fleeces spread on sheets throughout the house in attempts for them to start drying as they wait in line to be skirted. Fleeces that are already dry because the sheep was in the barn for a longer time get put at the end of this line. Having fleeces lying on the floor can be fun and a big inconvenience. For instance walking across and dry fleece in bare feet is soft and squishy that is until you step on a wet spot or a piece of poky vegetable matter. But then you can't always walk where you need to go and did I mention the lanolin makes the dining room floor slippery. My mom says we need a wool house and a lot of skirting tables.

Sorting wool by color.

I am very excited for all of you to see some of the gorgeous fleeces we have this year.I want to play with some so bad!

 Also this coming year we are having a bunch of Dorset products made that include: roving both white and natural colored, white and natural colored yarn, and felt. To get a chance to play with our Moorit (brown) Dorset roving join our 2013 Dorset Roving CSA.

All CSAs for this coming year are now available.

A Day at the Mill

Have you ever wondered how woolen mills make the wonderful products we sell in our shop?  A few weeks ago I got the first hand experience.

The ladies at Creekside Fiber Mill in Lebanon, OR ,where we take our wool to be processed, kindly invited me to come to the mill and work all the machinery myself and get to see how the process is done.

It was requested that we wash the fleece and dry it ourselves so we would be able to get through the process. Of course the mill usually does this step for us. We picked Emma's fleece from this year and washed it in our washing machine. Once it was dry we were all ready for the mill.

The first step was to run the wool through the picker. This step loosened the fiber from its lock form. This way when the wool went through the carder it was more even.

You can't tell but the picker actually goes very fast.



Spreading wool on the conveyor belt

 







The picker really made the wool fluffy



It was really hard to make it all fit in this one tub



In the next step I evenly spread the wool on the conveyor belt of the carder. Everything went through the carder once. Then I weighed out 5 oz balls of carded wool. On the conveyor belt there were evenly spaced lines. Between each line I place 4 of these five oz balls. This made sure that the roving would end up even with less of a chance of having thin or super thick spots.

Weighing out 5oz



Going through a second time

 

Now as the wool went through a second time I had to feed it into another contraption that made it start to look like roving. As each tub filled I had to take a sample piece measuring a yards length and weigh it.

Through this hole..

..Then this one

Using the hook to pull it through

At first I had to help it a little

All set up !!

Measuring

 The next step and machine was the pin drafter. The pin drafter is the machine that made the final roving, so for all of you who buy our roving this is the last step that fiber goes through. This had to be my least favorite step.
First we took the wool that had just been carded that was now in about five and took each strand and ran it over rollers in the back. Then all five pieces had to be run through the center of the machine till it came out the other side. Then I had to run it through the bottom where it came out and filled yet another tub. Once it was all set up we let the machine start. I had to use a little hook to clean off the roller because sometimes the fibers would stick to the roller and sit in behind the roller. I also poured baby powder on the roller, this also helped to prevent the fibers from sticking.
The wool kept breaking a lot but thankfully Larene, one of the ladies who runs the mill, was there to fix it for me.

The tubs at the back

 

Sending the wool through the back of the pin drafter

And now through the front

I used a LOT of baby powder

Using the little hook to clean off the roller

 The next step was the actual spinning. We set the tubs of the finished roving behind the machine and ran the roving over a bar to the front of the machine. The roving had to be run under several rollers. Like with spinning on a wheel or a spindle there was a lead piece of yarn already tide to the bobbin. After hooking this lead piece of yarn and turning the machine on I had to catch the fibers onto the lead piece of yarn.

Running the roving under the first roller

 

Catching the yarn to the roving

Finally all spinning!!

Once all the spindles were spinning we were able just to leave it be. It took several hours for this whole process so while we were waiting we went and had lunch. When we got back almost all the roving was spun and I was able to start plying.


Spinning Away

Plying was very simple and very much like spinning. I ran the each strand of yarn through a metal loop. Then both strands of yarn were ran under a roller through another loop and finally I wrapped the two strands of yarn around the bobbin. After doing that it was ready to ply.

Setting it all up

Wrapping the yarn around the bobbin

All set up and in the process of plying

The very last step was to wind the yarn into skiens. The skien winder was set to how many yards we wanted in a skien. When it reached that amount of yards it stopped. Then I would cut the yarn, wrap the ends around the skien and take take the skien off.



Tying the yarn to the skien winder

Round and round it goes

 The final result was 16 full 200yd skiens 2 really small skiens and 1 barber pole skien. The barber pole skien was some unknown black yarn the was left on a bobbin and the remaining yarn on my bobbin. This whole process took about 7-8 hours

The Final Product

 I want to thank the ladies at Creekside Fiber Mill for letting me have this amazing opportunity. Also thanks to my mom who was my photographer for the whole day.

Who's Your Daddy?

Breeding season has come and is in fact will be coming to a close for us in a few weeks. I thought you might like to meet the Daddys of next years lambs.

I will start out with our two Dorset Rams both who were born and raised on our farm.

Smokey is our main Dorset ram. If you saw us at the Black Sheep Gathering or at the Oregon State Fair you might have seen him there. Smokey is not yet a year but seems to be doing a very good job doing his duty as a ram. He is with all but one of our Dorset ewes that we are breeding for spring lambs.

Smokey @ Black Sheep Gathering

Smokey With His Girls

 

Tux is our secondary Dorset ram he is only breeding one ewe. Tux is younger and smaller than Smokey but is a good boy and we are confindent he will be able to handle one ewe just fine. The only reason he is being used for breeding at this time is because we didn't want to breed smokey back to his mother. So since Tux is a more distant relative he got the job. You might have also seen Tux at the Oregon State Fair.

Tux

We are using two Romney rams, one white and one colored, niether are our personal rams.

Hulk is the natural colored ram we are are using. The ram we used last year threw some lambs that were not growing well as well as other issues. We are hoping Hulk ,who has a little difference in family background than our ewes, will be a nice cross.

Hulk

Hulk Checking The Girls Out

The white ram who we all call the "Thompson Ram" has a gorgous fleece. Fo those of you who have seen a fleece from Calla this is what his fleece is like. We are hoping even though he is small he will improve our fleeces in our white ewes. I don't have a picture of him because he is not at our place, though he will be in a few weeks.

Yarn Sale Notice!!!

Use the Coupon Code: FALLYARN in our etsy store and recieve a 10% discount on all yarn. This coupon code is good through midnight of Oct. 31st.

To-Do List

Fall is creeping up on me and with it so many things that need to be done. The sheep on the other hand have no priorities with the coming of fall, at least not on their minds. For me though I have a list going.

Firewood Ready to be Stacked

#1. Finish getting ready for The Oregon State Fair

           What can I say I'm a procrastinator. Maybe that's why I have such a long list. We leave Wednesday to drop sheep off at the fairgrounds. Since the American Romney Breeders Assoc. is celebrating 100 years I'm bring a lot of sheep. Lets just say I may or may not be behind on fitting them.

Sleepy Stardust

#2. School

          There is school shopping and registration. I am sooo not ready to go back to school.

#3. Prepare for the holidays

        That means Christmas gifts for others, but also things to sell in our shop. I need to make more of our very popular sheep Christmas ornaments. Plus I'm going to try to make other things too. (I need to have a start before OFFF)

These Cute Ornaments Are Very Popular

#4. CSA
           Finishing up this years CSA is one thing. Yes, I know I got behind of the newsletter I'm planning on sending the next one out on time. Just a side note for any of our CSA members I will be shipping you shares out tomorrow.
           I also need to start planning for next years CSA. I would love to hear from my current CSA member about suggestions on how I could make the program better or even things they would enjoy being added.

Yes, We Recycle Boxes

#5. Keeping This Blog Updated
         Even if I made a new year resolution I don't know how much better I would get at keeping this blog up to date. But I try even though you might have noticed I mostly write about sheep shows and lambing season and we both know there is way more to being a sheep farmer than that.

#6. Raverly
        Another place I need to keep updated. I really need your support, you remember that member drive it looks like we will be going through September.I need you to remind me to write things post your own threads and get a conversation started.
Keep on inviting people!!! Make sure if they join to have them tell me who suggested our group. Remember whoever gets the most people to join our group will get a 15% coupon off in our Etsy store.


#7. Breeding Season
       It's almost here, as soon as State Fair is over we will be introducing our rams. That sounds like a good blog, I need to remember that.

Add caption

So as you can see I have lots to do and I just might be running out of time seeing as I am a procrastinator with way to many things to do, of course Mom helps a lot but we still fall behind.

Looks Like It's Time To Pick Blackberries

Ravelry Member Drive

So how many of you know that we have a Ravelry group page? For that matter how many of you know Ravelry exist?

For you that don't know what Ravelry is, it is a online community. It can be a organizational tool, a great source for patterns, and a place to share your projects with others like yourself.  It's not just for knitters and crocheters, either. Handspinners can display their yarn and if you dye yarn, you can display yours too. Those of you who design patterns will love it also! You  can  even find fiber events, such as classes or even fiber festivals.

I love going on to Ravelry to look for patterns. It's really fun to find a pattern and see how other people have changed it to make it their own. You can often get help, or finds tips about a pattern from other people who have also done the pattern.

So I have done a little advertising for the site, now I'll talk a little about our group.

For those of you who are already members, you will know I do a horrible job keeping up on posting. I also lack in posting projects, though I get around to that more often. Becoming a member of our group you can encourage me to post more often. I'm kidding, though having more members will encourage me to post things more often! It's a great place to share projects that you have made from our fiber, but honestly, you could share projects you make in general just to show everyone what wonderful projects your making. I try to look at other farm groups to see what they post, so I'll try to post when we have new products plus try to get group discussions going. I also have just gotten our yarn on the Ravelry database. You can now search Covered Bridge Farm in the yarn search box and find our yarn, HOW COOL IS THAT!!! I'll also try to do what I'm doing right now, create something fun with a little prize to go along with it.

OK, so lets to get to this fun prize deal I just mentioned. I'm doing a member drive. I want at least ten new member to join our group, but if we get ten I don't want to stop there. For the whole month of August I want you to join our group and invite people once you join. When you join post on the thread named member drive who recommended that you join. For instance if you heard from this blog you would post something like "Hi my name is Nicole and I heard about your group from your blog".
At the end of August two things can happen. If we didn't get ten people we will keep going through September, but if we do get ten or more new people I will go through the thread and count up how many people were directed by each person. The person who got the most people to join our group will receive a coupon code for 15% off a purchase in our etsy store.

Are you ready? Get set. GO!!!

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/covered-bridge-fiber

Summer Days

Tomorrow I will have had a full week of recuperation after Linn County Fair. I had a wonderful time at the Fair and did very well. I'll give you a summary.

Sleepy Summer Days

In the 4-H/ FFA breed show I am always competing against myself. Most kids just have market lambs and if they do have a breeding flock its often just ewes to produce market lambs. On rare occasions I do meet another Romney. So as always I was showing against myself, this also means I get a lot of champions and reserves because there is no one else in the Romneys. After all the breed classes there is a big class where all the champion ewes come together and compete for supreme ewe.

Well I didn't have high hopes because it is very hard to win over meat sheep with a wool sheep. The judge was giving her reason about the ewe she chose, who turned out to be a very nice Hampshire. Then the judge often pulls all the reserve champion placing ewes and picks her reserve supreme. But this time sheep didn't she picked another ewe from the champions. You will never guess who she picked....OK I'm sure you guessed...yes she picked one of my wool ewes. She picked Zora my fall ewe lamb who was one of the triplets if you remember from back in November. I was very excited, how could I not be she beat meat sheep and also sheep that were older than her.

Zora, Reserve Supreme Champion Ewe!!!!

That same evening we had showmanship. Showmanship is a competition almost completely judged on the person showing the animal. You do your best to present yourself and your animal in the show ring. As always I brought in one of my wool ewes for showmanship. It makes me stand out among all the meat sheep, but the real reason is that we have more practice showing together so she understand what I'm asking of her and usually is much easier to show off. Ruth got the honor of being my showmanship sheep this year. She was very cooperative and did very well. Together we got Reserve Champion Showman for FFA Advanced sheep.

Reserve Champion FFA Advance Sheep Showman

It also turned out I was going into master showmanship because the boy who got champion was doing the master showmanship with a pig because he also got champion pig showman. Master showmanship is where all the top showman come together and have to show all species of animals. I didn't place with any high award in master showmanship but it was a good experience. Everyone said I did really well,seeing as I have never showed half the animals out there before.

Items I had entered in the static area included 3 fleeces, Calla's Fleece got champion, Ruth's Fleece got reserve, and Annabeth's fleece got a blue, all will be available this fall in our Etsy store. I also entered some photographs, one of which got reserve champion. My socks got champion and my shawl got reserve. Overall it was a very good fair.

Now we have a break before our next big show,the Oregon State Fair.

Jessie Enjoying Her Breakfast

We are having lots of warm summer days and the grass is starting to burn off. Before the fair we brought home the ewes from the neighbors and before we know it it will be breeding season again. We hope you are all having a wonderful summer and are looking forward to seeing some of you at the state fair and later in September at OFFF.

Big Foot Keeping Hydrated