This year I am planning to make my wool lock scarves lighter and shorter. I was wearing a collar style, wool lock scarf to fairs. I was wearing that one because I had messed up on one of my longer scarves and I made that one work. But customers were always complimenting the scarf I was wearing and asking if I had more of them. So this season I’m giving the people what they want. Look for them at coming fairs and email me if you are interested. Each one is unique and so very special!
Pinterest is a fun format to find all sorts of visual goodies. One fun topic I have found with plenty of boards to check out is DIY or do-it-yourself.
I have started my own diy board. I have collected a number of wooly, farming and bath product tutorials. It’s so much fun to hunt around searching through all the clever projects people come up with. Check out my diy board here. And then start your own to put away ideas for things to do on the many cozy winter days ahead!
I have had such great reports from happy customers about my cat caves I have been busy making many more in hopes of them finding homes with contented cats.
Here are a few reviews from satisfied customers:
This felt cat cave is attractive and well made and better yet my cats are crazy about it.
Gail
I’ve been searching high and low for the perfect bed for my rescue kitty, “Loki”. As a veterinary technician employed at a shelter in Detroit, it was important to me to purchase a item that was created with ethically harvested wool as well. Loki is a challenging little fella, and every bed/tent/house I made, or purchased previously, he would turn his nose up. He would much rather hostilely takeover one of his sister’s beds. I was so happy to find Plum Blossom Farm on Etsy:) As soon as I unboxed this beautiful cat cave, Loki claimed it as his own. I highly recommend this shop. They enclosed a picture of Iris, the much loved sheep and family member who furnished the wool for this cat cave. Very sweet, and very cool. I as well attached a photo….Loki relaxing peacefully in his new throne:)
Diane
Please thank Joy for her contribution to my cats happy home.
Judith
Luckily for me and for my listing photos, my cat Clifford loves these caves as well! This makes things much easier since the photos are so much more interesting when he’s featured in them.
Clifford Cat now seems to seek out the cat caves whenever he sees me setting up for a photo shoot! Makes me feel good to know that critters are finding joy and comfort in the wool that is grown and felted with lots of love embedded it.
Today I went to pick up half of my fleeces from Yolo Wool Mill. They washed, picked and carded my fleeces together.
When I arrived they had both the carder and the yarn machines going. Pretty cool to see! Below is the big, old carder they use.
Here you can see the roving being pulled up by the machine to be spun. It works so fast and produces beautiful results!
Here you can see the wool being spun. They are at the same time pulling wool from already spun spools to create double ply yarn.
Follow the link below to see a quick video watching this machine in action. It’s so fun to be there when the machines are humming along and working with so many different, gorgeous fibers!
This is the first time I’ve ever had two shearings in a year. All the time I’ve had the sheep I’ve just had them shorn once in the early summer or spring.
My shearer believes that sheep stay healthier without all that wool on them throughout the year and it does seem like they get a spring in their step the day after. Studies have shown that sheep will grow more wool per year if they are shorn twice.
Plus most wool mills can only handle a 6″ staple length. Some of my sheep get near that at the six month mark so it becomes a problem for the mill equipment after that.
We’ll see if the locks still sell okay at the shorter length. But either way it started to become a matter of necessity to have shorter, cleaner fleeces.
I recently purchased a Simplicity 12 needle felting machine. I was concerned that it wouldn’t work well with batting and roving, being thicker than yarn. But my back was begging me to get some help with the nuno felted scarves. I had progressed from rolling them out on the floor to a high table which did help a lot. Unfortunately, the continuous rolling and pressure was still taking a toll on my body since I had so many scarves to make.
The machine works beautifully and really speeds up production. I am not able to make the lock scarves (learned this the hard way by breaking 3 needles) with it but it handles the processed wool and cotton scrim fine. I do still finish the scarves by wet felting, rolling them. But I probably spend half the time at that stage as I would without the felting machine.
I am so pleased with this investment. It is great for embellishing as well. For flat felting or production work it saves your body from the punishment that wet felting can deal out.
I usually have all the sheep sheared in June and have done so since I got them 6+ years ago. This year, under the advisement of my wonderful shearer John Sanchez, I had them sheared in April. This has given me a 10 month growth coat instead of the regular 12 month growth. I have lost a considerable amount of length in my locks because of this. In some cases up to 3″ less.
I am concerned that hand spinners won’t be as drawn to these locks now because they are shorter staple. Even though I have to say they are the cleanest fleeces I have ever gotten from my flock. I will be selling the washed and picked locks as I have before online at my Etsy store. I am interested to see how these shorter locks do compared to the long ones of last year.
If they are as well received I might like to move even to two shearings a year to get cleaner wool and more of it from my fiber sheep. But I also definitely want to keep my hand-spinning and fiber enthusiast customers happy. I will post the responses I get. Fingers crossed.
Always a stressful and exciting and stressful day for both me and the sheep comes every spring on shearing day. The sheep must be kept off food till they are done and packed tightly into stalls to await their turn. When I first got my Wensleydale’s I imagined that I would eventually shear them all myself. But since the first time I witnessed the hard work and finesse of a professional shearer I have since changed my tune. A good shearer is worth his weight in gold and I tip mine heavily to be sure he wants to come back next year!
All the fleeces must have to be skirted before they are bagged to remove all the dirty bits and vegetation that has found it’s way into the fleece. This is a delightful time to see what has been growing all year and the results of months of energy. I had never seen the Karakuls shorn before and so it was fun to see what they looked like under that lofty coat! The photo of the gorgeous fleece shown above is from a shy sheep named Ferdinand. His fleece is large and absolutely unique. He is a Karakul, Romeny, Wensleydale cross and the attributes of each show up in his beautiful fiber!
Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated when my fair season is over 6 months away. But I really believe in this product and that’s what keeps me on task. Here are a few of the beneficial traits of my 100% wool dryer balls:
Plum Blossom Farm