No, I'm not referring to the Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs song, I'm talking about my wooly little sheep Bullseye, whose nickname (well, one of his nicknames anyway, he's got about 4) is Bully. And yes, at this point he is very, very wooly. As such it's sheep shearing day, not one Ziah's (did I mention he has several nicknames?) favorite days, unless of course it's warm out and he's lying down. On days like that, he seems to enjoy it. Today was one of those days, and I've got him about 3 quarters sheared.
I have to do it when he's in a good mood because I don't do the whole wrestle-the-sheep-down-to-shear-it thing. I do it the old-fashioned way, I hand shear him with a regular set of shears, no electric razors here. That way I never have to worry about cutting him.
Between the wool I got last year, and the wool I'll have this year, there shoud be plenty make some nice balls of yarn. I've got my dyes all planned out, no synthetics here! They're going to be all veggie-dyes. I just need to find some carding combs and learn how to hand-spin it. That way, whatever I make with it, when I say handmade, I'll really mean 100% handmade. Hand-sheared, Hand-dyed, Hand-spun, Hand-knitted; just like being on an 1800's homestead.
If I'm really ambitious, I'll teach myself how to do some needle-felting. It looks pretty cool, but I can never find a felting needle anywhere. Guess I'll have to keep looking, and just stick with the knitting for now. (Unfortunately, when it comes to knitting I only know one stitch and can only knitt sqaures. If I have time, I'll teach myself to do mittens this winter; they always come in handy).
No comments:
Post a Comment