Great Lakes Fiber Festival

Had a great time today at the GREAT LAKES FIBER FESTIVAL at Wayne County Fairgrounds in Wooster, Ohio.  Eighty plus vendors and lots to look at and great weather.  You couldn't ask for more.  Going back tomorrow, I have several fleeces I am offering for sale in a friends booth and I've entered a fleece in the fleece competition.
Had a great time today.

Gwendolyn's Fleece

Is that a Blue Ribbon is see in this picture??????

Why yes it is !

I am sooo excited!  This is my first time entering a fleece in a competition and

Gwendolyn's fleece took first place in the Double coated division!

Fleece Competition !

This was a pic of some of the fleeces entered in the fleece competition.

This was my first time entering a fleece.  I entered Gwendolyn's fleece in the

double coated division.  Next year I will surely enter a couple of fleeces.

This was quite a learning experience.  I stayed while the judge, judged the fleeces

and it was interesting to hear her comments of the fleeces and what others did wrong.

You can learn alot by just observing what the judge was looking for several

that were close in the placing came down to who had skirted the fleece better.

You would be surprised the number of people who really didn't take the

time to skirt the fleece very well.

Fiber, Fiber everywhere

This pic is all Alpaca fleeces.  We have an abundance of

Alpacas here in Ohio and lately the owners have been trying 

to move there products.  They had some awesome prices,

I will be looking again tomorrow and will surely buy some.

I love to blend it with the Shetland wool. 

......the other fiber animal....

kinda like ..."the other white meat" saying.

I love my Shetlands and will not stray, but these

little guys produce some lovely fiber that I

like to blend with my Shetland Fleece.

Recruiting New Spinners!

Always excited to see new spinners.

This was one of the free demos during the festival.

Always several great classes to take or participate in

some of the free demos that go on throughout both days.

Gorgeous Day!

It was a gorgeous day for the event.

The outside vendors have another year of good weather, thank goodness.

Great Lakes Fiber Show - TODAY !

Today was the first day of the Great Lakes Fiber Show, it was great !  Some Awesome Vendors !  Lots of good deals, going back tomorrow.  You know.....you have to make one or two trips around to look at everything, then go back and make your picks.

Lambs

I will be taking pictures soon of the lambs, my have they grown.  They will all be turning 7 weeks old this week.  It is almost time to wean them. 
Claire's little girl is changing color to!  She looks to be a varigated gray, still too early to tell.
But she is definately changing color.  Will post pics. soon

Gwendolyn's Fleece

Gwendolyn fleece is 2# 10oz.

She always has such a lovely fleece and color,

when spun by the lock this fleece looks fawn in color.

I am entering this one in the fleece competition at

Great Lakes Fiber Show.

sample of lock & 2 ply yarn

Lock of fleece & sample of 2 ply yarn

spun in the grease.

Lovely fleece, spins up solid black.

Lamb fleece

Solid black crimpy fleece, just over 2#

this fleece will also be available at the

Great Lakes Fiber Show at

Wayne Co. Fairgrounds.

more fleeces.....

I have 3 more lovely black fleeces to show off, I just ran out of daylight this evening.
I will post as soon as I can.  All these fleeces will be available at the GREAT LAKES FIBER SHOW
May 29th & 30 at the Wayne County, Ohio Fairgrounds.

close up of lock from black lamb fleece

I had to take a close up of this fleece

so you could see the fleece crimp.

sooooo nice.

Black Lamb -2ply yarn & lock

Sample of 2ply yarn and lock of fleece.

This yarn was spun in the grease, by the lock and

the sunburnt tips really do not show up in the yarn.

This is a BEAUTIFUL FLEECE.

and spins like a dream.

Black Lamb's Fleece

This is gorgeous black fleece that I am offering for sale

at the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio

The weight on this fleece is 2#5oz.

You can see the sunburnt tips, yet when I spun it up for my sample

they really didn't show.

Claire - 2ply yarn & lock

Sample of 2ply yarn spun in the grease from Claire's fleece

and a lock.  This fleece is a pleasure to spin.

Even in the grease.

Claire's Fleece

Claire is a varigated grey shetland, I love her fleece.   The weight on this

top is 2#5oz.  I've skirted the neck wool and britch.

I love this fleece because of the varying color, she is more grey in the neck and shoulder area

and lighter through the middle and back.

This fleece is lovely if blended together for one color or carded

by shades leaving you with multiple shades of gray.

Flora - 2ply yarn & lock

I've spun a sample from Flora's fleece.  I just opened the lock

and spun from the lock, in the grease.  As you can see the 2 ply

yarn is dark brown, yet will show the sunburnt tips nicely if

spun from the lock.

Flora's Fleece

Flora is a Dark Moorit Shetland, this is her 3rd clip. 

More white is coming into the fleece, but the spun yarn still holds a nice dark brown color.

I have skirted off the neck wool and the britch,

leaving a nice top of 2#11oz.

This fleece will be for sale at the Great Lakes Fiber Show

in Wooster, Ohio

at Wayne Co. Fairgrounds

another upside.....

We are going Monday, May 17 to look at more sheep !!  Since we are getting rid of the rams we will be adding more ewes.  A local Shetland Shepherdess needs to reduce her flock size and I am willing to help her.  I will have an update after we go see them.  I want to add some other colors that can be found in the shetland breed.  Shetland Sheep have 11 Main colors and many different patterns.
I hope to add 2 or 3 ewes and some lambs to our flock.

The up side......

These boys gave me some BEAUTIFUL fleeces and I did get some ewes that will carry on the beautiful solid black color.  I will post some pictures soon of the fleeces.  I will also be taking some of these fleeces and offer them for sale at THE GREAT LAKES FIBER SHOW, May 29 & 30th

last pic of yearlings

This is one of the boys that carries the polled gene (that means no horns)

He is a half polled, I kept him hoping his horns would

develop correctly for future use within the flock

But, here again his horns are very close to his eyes and I

don't want to take a chance with potential problems.

another yearling to go...

yes, another one to go......as you can see from this angle

his horns are point to his neck.

These are problems we don't need or want to pass on.

And yes, that is a basketball to his left.  They actually do

push it around and Mortimer will rest his head ontop of it when

he lays down.

Yearlings

This is one that we kept from the 2009 lamb season, in hopes that his horns would be ok.

But as you can see  the horns develped great over the top and around

his ears, but as they came around, they are heading in the direction of his jaw.

So......off to market!

OFF TO MARKET !!

This is a sad day coming soon, when we will be taking yearling rams & our 2 yr. old ram "off to market". 
When we bought Mortimer our primary ram he was approx. 7months old, his horns were not developed enough to know if they were going to be good.  This past year as his horns continued to grow it was obvious that they would eventually cause him problems.  The horns are too close to his cheeks.  This is not the type of horn struction that we want to pass along to future lambs that we raise.

These are the pictures I was able to get this morning.  I will post more as soon as I can.
If interested, in any of the ram lambs I have please email me and I will respond.
Thanks for looking
Diane

Homemade creep feeder

I have a revised post of a "homemade creep feed gate" that I posted on 4/26/2017.

 

This is our homemade creep feeder, it has worked out well for our first attempt at making one.

If I were to make another one, I would just make it bigger, more room for the lambs when they are in it

also if the ewes attempt to put their head through, with it larger in diameter they wouldn't be able to reach the feed pan.  The slots in this one are large enough that some of the ewes can get their heads in, but I want the slots big enough to accommodate the lambs as they grow.

Therefore, a completely larger creep feeder would keep the ewe's out completely.

  

Black ram lamb

This is one of the tripletts, he is quite the camera hog

you can see the small white patch on the top of his head in this photo

He is for sale or trade.

Dark Brown Ram Lamb

This is one of Gwen's tripletts

4 weeks old, dark brown and

 horns appear to be shaped

correctly.

This little guy is for sale or trade.

Gwen with 2 of 3.....

Breakfast for two. 

Both of these ram lambs are for sale or trade.

At this time they are 4 weeks old, they both are Dark Brown,

one has a small white spot on top of his head.

I believe that one of these lambs carries the polled gene

as his horn buds have not grown yet compared to the other rams.  

Lacy with sibling

This is Lacy our yearling, the only female we had born here last year.

This year we were a little luckier, we have two ewe lambs.

Lacy is being annoyed by one of her siblings of this years lamb crop.

This little guy is one of Gwens tripletts.

Oh, and was I impressed with Lacy's fleece when she was sheared this year.

Her Dam, Gwen has a lovely light moort double coated fleece, which I need to post pics. of, 

but Lacy had a very long fleece also and oh.....so soft. 

Close up of Flora's twins

The ram lamb is on the right, you can see his horns beginning to grow out.

Dam, Flora is dark Morrit and Sire, Mortimer is solid black

This ram lamb is for sale or trade. 

Flora & twins

This is Flora and her twins, a ram and ewe, both are solid black.  I didn't get out with my camera when she had them 3 weeks ago to get earlier pictures.

This ram lamb will also be for sale or trade.

Claire with twins

Claire with her twins, this year Claire gave us a ewe, which we will keep.  But the ram lamb will be for sale or trade, he also is solid black with a small white spot on the top of his head.

Gwen & tripletts

Gwen, in the back with her triplett rams, all three in a row. Two of them are Dark Brown, one Solid brown the other has a small spot of white on the top of his head.  The other in the front of picture is Black with a small spot of white at the top of his head.  These three ram lambs are for sale or trade.

Flock

Everyone was out for a little grass this morning, my 3 adult ewes, 7 lambs and

 1 yearling ewe, she is to the right in this picture.

The eldest of the lambs are now 4 weeks old, with the youngest being 3 weeks.

I am keeping the ewes I have, as I am trying to grow my flock, but

the ram lambs are for sale or trade, 3 ram lambs are black, 2 are dark brown.

New pics...

I've been out early this morning trying to take some pictures of everyone. Between trying to get the pictures and my Llama Octavius in my ear and leaning on me, along with the little ones wanting a chin rub this was difficult.