Pygora Kids Update

Lots of information about the kids and their parents has been added to the Pygora Goats for Sale Page.  There's still more to add: I want to say more about my herd in general, and to add helpful information about Pygora fiber and what the individual micron counts mean.

I always miss the best photo opportunities, but here's a keeper from this morning:

Kids and Tina 04-10-13

Pygora Babies

The babies started arriving 22 March.  Tina had a set of twins on that day, and Tulip delivered 23 March.  I had planned for kids to arrive late April/early May but my buck had different plans and his persistence paid off!  So far, it's all boys!  They have been disbudded already; neutering will be postponed.

Tina's Kids

It's likely that any kids that Lily produces will arrive on my schedule: late April/early May.  More details will appear on the Pygora Goats for Sale Page.

Tulip and Kids

A Pause...

During the last few months I've been reflecting on things and re-examining priorities.  Available time has been channeled into addressing the fact that a slow economy is turning my studio into a warehouse.  This can be ok up to a point.  When it gets hard to find things, there's no place to work on projects, and only narrow paths wind through equipment and wool, the situation is out of hand. 

I hadn't sold raw fleeces in years.  But since I have far too much clean, carded wool waiting to be dyed or sold as is,  I decided to sell the results of the last shearing at a very reasonable price in the Fleece Market forum on Ravelry.   Fleeces have been making their way to California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Canada.  I've also started listing roving in the same forum.  These listings will continue until I can move around a little in my studio!  I've added a page, listed on the sidebar of this blog, for photos of fiber that is for sale.  If you're interested and don't see the link it may be because you're reading this in Google Reader and haven't actually clicked through to this blog.  Click away!

It's not just a wool problem: I have more fiber equipment than I need.  So I'm looking with a critical eye at the equipment situation.  The Wolf Pup went to the home of a new weaver this week and The Big Wave will hopefully go to its new owner this weekend.  I'm trying to get to the point where my equipment better reflects the type of fiber work that I enjoy doing.  Not an easy goal for me!

I don't enjoy blogs that skimp on photos so it's time for one:

Japanese Indigo

I decided early this spring to dip try some dyeing with plant materials.  This is a small patch of Japanese Indigo, started from seed in my sunroom.  This month I'll be taking a three day workshop on the subject of natural dyeing at New England Weavers Seminar; indigo dyeing will one of the subjects covered in the workshop.

Finally, here's a farm shot of a few girls in my small kitchen flock.

Kitchen flock

And if you've stuck it out this far, you might enjoy a little video of my backyard chickens, produced a couple of weeks ago with my iPad:  Free-range chickens

Sojourner Design roving at WEBS

A couple of weeks ago I replenished the stock of Sojourner Design roving at WEBS.  It's always fun to stop by the store with a basket load of brand new colors... and even more fun to walk back out with an empty basket!  (If your plans involve a trip to WEBS, please look for my roving.)  But the MOST fun was visiting the WEBS Yarn Store Blog yesterday and seeing a photo of my roving along with a ball of yarn spun from it!

Chicken House on Wheels

Yesterday I captured an annual farm activity here:  my chickens' change of address from their winter  quarters to their summer house on wheels.  From now until sometime in October, they will lbe backyard nomads.  Every few days the house will be moved and the portable fencing will re-installed, providing them with fresh hunting grounds.  The house was built on an old trailer from wood framing and metal roofing, and can be hitched to my ATV.
After moving the chickens out, it was time to clean out a winter's worth of dust and debris.  It all got shoveled into the bucket of my husband's tractor and was deposited in our compost pit where it will mix with grass clippings, kitchen waste, etc.  This is very dusty work.

The photo is overexposed because the sun was streaming into the house... but it's clear that there was a need for cleaning!

And here's why: the fleeces from the last shearing in late February had been temporarily stored in the barn basement.  It was time to get them into a more suitable storage space.  I choose to store my raw fleeces in plastic bags.  The bags are left open for ventilation and are placed on temporary shelves constructed from cattle panels (metal fence sections) to facilitate good air circulation.  They will now be steps from my basement door, enabling me to pull out a fleece and get it sorted and ready for processing whenever I have the time to do so.  By midsummer they will all be sorted, skirted, and ready to deliver to the fellows at Twist of Fate Spinnery for washing and carding.

This whole process of moving chickens out and fleeces in has developed a rhythm and is a spring ritual!

The Fiber Fest of New England is coming!

Border Leicester Cross Roving

And I need to apply myself diligently in preparing for it.  Please consider coming; more information about the event can be found here.  My booth is #255-W.  Here's how to locate it easily: after entering the Mallory building through the front door and proceeding straight to the larger space in that building, you will be walking along the widest, central aisle.  The Food Court will be immediately to your right.  My booth is along the third aisle to your right after going by the Food Court; it is a corner booth, the fifth one in from the center aisle.

This is will be my largest venue so far and I'm giving lots of thought to what I'll bring and how I'll display it.  Although there's plenty to do between now and 6 November, I can't wait!

The photo above is a new roving that I'll have at The Fiber Fest of New England.  I had actually dyed the colorway way back in May but hadn't gotten around to combining my colors.  It's another example of my Mary Alice series: four coordinating strands in each bundle.  The spinner may choose to blend them all together during the spinning process, or they may be spun separately or combined in any way the spinner chooses.  I like choices.

This roving will be sold in four ounce bundles with a total of two pounds available.  If you like it and are coming to the event, plan to stop by early if you want enough for a sweater.  I do have quite a bit of the muted brass hue left over and I'll have that available too.


Time for more photos of my Pygora goats!

Here are my three little girls: Tina, Tulip, and Lilly from left to right, anxiously awaiting their daily treat of cracked corn.  I am so fond of these goats, so glad I took a chance and added a new species here.

Tulip and Lilly diving into the corn.  Tina, the smallest, is a little shy and usually positions herself behind the other two.  Please note the yardstick behind Tulip; this gives you some idea of their size.

Here's Tina!

New Fiber... On The Hoof!

My new herd sire... hard to believe this cute little guy will soon be a stinky billy goat!

 They’re here!

A truck and livestock trailer that had travelled a long long way rolled into my driveway today and we scooped up four little fiber babies. They are Pygora goats, six months in age, from Hawks Mountain Farm in Oregon. Pygora goats are a breed that combines the fiber length of Angora goats with the downy undercoat, stature, and temperment of Pygmy goats.

The doelings.  Don't you love those ears?

Pygora goats can have fiber ranging from soft kid-like mohair ringlets to cashmere; each goat ideally produces one type of fiber along this continuum. The fiber from Pygora goats remains soft as the goat ages. More information about the breed and fiber can be found here and here.

I have started my little Pygora herd with three doelings and one buckling. My intention is to have an easy-keeping herd of yard care experts traveling between our house and that of our neighbor (thus, the portable goat house), and to breed these goats when they are old enough.

Conferring about the new digs

Why did I purchase THESE Pygora goats and incur the cost of shipping them all the way across the U.S.?  Especially when it's so important to support local agriculture?  The easy answer is that there are few Pygora goats locally so I knew I would need to go some distance to buy.


But there's more to it...Hawks Mountain Ranch is another farm that has certified status in the USDA Voluntary Scrapie program. As long as I maintain my own certified status, any future kids sold here will be certified free of Scrapie as they leave the farm.   I've known about Lisa from Hawks Mountain Ranch for years and have been aware of her dedication the breed.  I wanted to support that dedication and have the best genetics possible for this little herd.

Oh what a fleece.

More to follow!  Please feel free to comment by clicking on the  comment link below.

Getting Ready...

We needed a portable shelter for the mystery critters.  Here is my husband Bill creating the shelter from a primitive sketch I had given him:

Starting on the frame

Starting on the uprights

Looks like a roof

Time to add siding

Looking great

Today I pulled it to its first location with my ATV; now all we need are the mystery animals!

The View from My Door

Farm Photos

I've been doing some fiber work this weekend, but as of yet there is nothing photo-ready.  So a few farm shots will have to suffice.  Here's a little garter snake with blue eyes that lives in the planter where the horseradish grows.  When I approached to take this photo there was another one with him; that one seems to be camera-shy.  The snakes can be found in this same spot each morning once the sun's rays arrive.  I think they're there to melt away the night's chill.

These sunflowers, blooming far earlier than I would have expected, are volunteers that have sprung up from last summer's seeds.  I love sunflowers; they're so goofy, and happy.  They attract lots of hungry birds and are charming to look at during the winter when snow piles up on the spent flowers.

I like this peachy-bronze one.  I also like the fact that with sunflower photos it's so easy to lose perspective.  This could be the alien sunflower that was peering through my window, ready to take over my studio.

The hens are enjoying their summer, sheltered by the travelling vacation home that my husband created for them.

And this was once a pop-up camper, converted to a utility trailer by someone.  We purchased it locally from a very nice man this morning.  Why?  In preparation for the arrival of...
I'm not telling right now.

Gathering In

The grazing season has ended. I had hoped to bring the sheep home for the winter in four days or so; but with seven inches of snow, turning to rain and then cold temperatures moving in, Bill and I decided it was time. The electrified, portable net fencing that protects the sheep all summer is very fragile in cold weather. I didn't want it to freeze into the snow and ice. In addition, snowmobiles traverse the area frequently and I didn't want to stand the chance that they might run into the fencing. So Bud and I went out into the sleet to do what we had to do.

Bud has been a bit of a yahoo with the sheep lately. Taking off like a streak of lightning after the sheep, and not responding when I called "Down!" the command that basically means "cool your jets."

Today he accomplished his task with finesse. When I said "down" he lay down. When I said "walk up" he approached the sheep slowly so that he didn't create panic. By edging into the zone of discomfort for the sheep he directed them where they needed to go. When one sheep separated herself from the flock and I said "look back," he realized that he needed to return and bring that sheep back into the group. I was proud, and Bud was praised profusely. Once in awhile things go smoothly.



Having moved the sheep into the pasture adjacent to the barn, Bud was told "That will do," and he settled down to monitor his flock while I climbed all over the hill, retrieving fence. I think I'll keep him.

Going Baaaaaa-less

Well, not really. What I mean is that I haven't been weaving with wool lately. That's just a temporary situation while I get some wool rug warp dyed up and ready for rugs.











In this case, not even natural fiber!!!!!
I wanted a small rug to put in front of the sink in the upstairs bath. (That would be the bath that casual guests don't see so I went a little over the edge when I painted it. Note the outlet plate too.)

Anyway, I wanted something that would wash and dry quickly so I decided on a rag rug woven with strips of acrylic and polyester. My sources were thrift store finds and a couple of chenille throws that were deeply- discounted last spring.

The colors are a bit much... just right for that room!
I think I'm so used to dyeing multiple shades of several hues and then combining them so these clear tones in the rug are a little jarring to me.

My design was also limited by the colors that I had in the fabrics I needed. As it is I made a quick trip to two shops in town looking for acrylic sweatshirts in the right colors.

I needed to replace my ratty, faded crocheted dishcloths and wanted cloths that I could enjoy using. I put a 7 inch or so wide warp of mixed cottons on my workshop loom and wove up half a dozen cloths. The finished size is small but so are my hands and I find them more manageable than the store-bought ones.

Except for the sheep photo, the rest of these photos should take you to a larger image if you click on them. Should I provide links to larger images of the critters too in the future?

Hope everyone has a restful... and grateful... Thanksgiving.

Lawn Ornaments