Elvira's and Calico's Girls (with Yeti, too)

Molly is a nice-looking girl...

...but she has bad manners at the hay feeder. 

Peanut enjoys nice scratch.

(The big white thing in the picture is Snowball.)

Yeti is looking for some Nutri-Drench.

Cashew ...

...and Opal are both looking more and more like mommy Calico.

How To Make Yarn, Part 1: Scouring

A lot of people ask about how I start with a sheep's fleece and end up with yarn.

Pecan, just this morning

 One option to go from fleece to yarn is to send fleeces to a mill.  In a few months (or a lot longer, depending on the mill), the mill will send back roving or yarn.  I do send some fleeces to the mill (I have too many sheep to do them all myself).  But there's nothing quite like spinning a hand-prepped  fleece.

I usually end up processing the ones with too many second cuts or too much vegetable matter (VM) to sell or mill.  Here's why I'm working on Pecan's most recent fleece (fall 2015, from Fulton Fall Folk Festival):

VM

If you do it yourself, the first step in transforming a fleece into yarn is to wash --or scour-- it.  Scouring sounds harsh, but you have to be gentle or you'll have a big glob of felt (and although felt does have its uses, you can't spin it!).  The primary reason for scouring is remove lanolin from the fleece.

Like most other parts of the process, there are a lot of options. Here's a brief explanation of what I usually do:

I started by thinking about how to address the problem with this fleece: VM. VM does not wash out, but nevertheless, the VM in this fleece is not a big deal for me.  It's all in one place--where Pecan overflows his coat...

Pecan overflowing his coat on 2015 spring shearing day.

 ...-- so I put the fleece on the floor and picked out a small section to wash, avoiding the part with the VM. (I often wash entire fleeces all at once.)

I put my selected fleece into a large delicates bag.

Next I run as-hot-as-possible water into a tub.  I put a squirt of Power Scour into it, and then carefully smoosh the fleece down until it's completely submerged.

 Here's the water after one wash:

I usually only do one wash--I like a little lanolin to remain in my wool--but I think Pecan brought half of the dirt in Tennessee with him when we moved.  I did a second wash this time. 

After the washes, I do a rinse or two. The fleece gets submerged in clean, hot water.  Running water directly on the fleece is a bad thing--it results in felted fleece.  (I won't include pictures of this step because they are just pictures of my tub with some water in it.)

Now Pecan's fleece is drying.  I'll have a few days to wait until I can do the next step.

Buddies

Now that her mamma is in another field, Acacia is buddies with Elsie.  Elsie is not impressed.  She knows she has a lamb in the pasture with her, and it's not Acacia.

Myrtle and Mimosa have each other...

..and some adult ewes to look up to. (Hazel)

Here's a little bit of Hazel (and Filly) I've just finished spinning:

Meanwhile, things are going well in the breeding pasture.

Tiffany

Marble & Theresa

Timmy's Big Day

Our ram, Timmy, is now in with the ewes!  We do have two rams, but Cypress is taking the year off (putting up one dividing fence was enough work for this year!). 

Timmy patiently waiting.

 The actual sorting wasn't as bad as last year.  Although this year, the ewes--especially first timers Molly, Opal, Beryl, and Marble--were a little freaked out. 

The black ewes: Tricot, Beryl, & Molly (with Czadas and Marble)

 Snowball is living with Timmy and his ladies.  Barack O'Llama is with the rest of the ewes--the vacationers and the ewe lambs.  So far, they seem happy with their situations. I think they were getting sick of each other.

The whole gang.

There are quite a few vacationers this year.  Henrietta, of course, is not happy about it.  Several of the ewe lambs miss their mothers so much that they are more annoying than Henrietta. 

"You forgot me!" Henrietta.