Algonquin Mill Festival

The Algonquin Mill Fall Festival was held October 12th, 13th and 14th, we were blessed with another year of great weather.  The above picture shows our 'spinners cabin', were we sell our wares made by the members of the Algonquin Mill Spinners and Weavers Guild.
We welcome visitors or those interested in learning the craft.  We meet monthly at the school house on the Mill property, the third Saturday of every month.
Come and join us sometime.

This picture was taken off the balcony of the log two story house that the Spinners and Weavers man during the festival, demonstrating our many talents. 
This picture shows how the sorghum is made from the plant, quite interesting and very tasty. yum....

Yankee Peddler Festival

The ALGONQUIN SPINNING & WEAVING GUILD, of which I am a member, demonstrates at YANKEE PEDDLER FESTIVAL in Canal Fulton, Ohio.  I was one of the demonstrators on Saturday.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  The picture above shows our complete display of our craft.

Brenda spinning on her Saxony style wheel, among many skeins of handspun yarns and hats.

Amy, Cathy & Sue, socializing while they work.

Julie, working the Great Wheel while her husband admires her work.

Some of our wares.
One more weekend we will be at the YANKEE PEDDLER FESTIVAL, Sept. 22nd & 23rd.   Stop by and visit with us if you can make it to the festival.

Wool Roving:)

To my delight, when I arrived home Friday afternoon I had five boxes of wool roving....YEA!!
My intentions are to use this fiber to make woven rugs.....now I just have to make arrangements to pick up the loom and get started.
Upon opening the boxes to take a peek at what was inside, I think this fiber would also be great for spinning, yet I do have fiber that I've sent out and have received back that is wonderful for hand spinning.
I have yet to post it here for sale.  I need to get that done too.!

Barg's Jr.

There is no doubt who his Daddy is!  He looks like a mini Bargs, as Barg's is the only ram we have that has the gulmoget pattern.  Which is the lighter color that runs from under chin, down his neck, his belly and up to his tail. 
This little guy has an awesome fleece too.
Sandra of Oberlin has first dibs on this gorgeous guy. 

Plan to wean him the middle of September.  Will be ready to go at that time.

Who's your Daddy???

Really??  We this was an unexpected delivery.  The black ewe is Angie, a 2yr old that I currently have for sale.  Sunday morning she appeared with this little guy by her side.  He is moorit (brown) with some possible gulmoget markings.  They both will be available for sale after weaning, approx. 6 weeks.
I am still scratching my brain trying to figure out when???  I have nine yearlings that I kept in a separate pen away from the barn, we didn't move them into the barn until we were ready to shear, the very beginning of March.  BINGO!! (#1,March, #2April, #3May, #4June & #5July).
.....yet.....everyone was in there own pens.....hmmm......
Now we wait to see if we will have anymore surprises.
......who said shetlands are seasonal breeders?

Shetland Sheep for Sale

After much thought I have decided to offer some Shetlands for sale, several adult ewes, yearlings, a couple rams and two ewe lambs.  I have posted pictures on my for sale tab.  I am located in NE Ohio and welcome those who would like to look.  Please email any questions.
We are in drought conditions here and these will not be staying.

Final thoughts of the Quilt & Fiber Art Show

This is the finished product!  I almost forgot to take a picture, as you can see we started to take it off the loom while finishing the crocheted slip stitch across the top.
I wish I had taken more pictures of my great friends that helped me to show off their talents of the Fiber Arts. 
Nancy offered her expertise at spinning, Judy showed expertise at an almost lost talent of tatting & her latest knitting project.  Lynn has many talents, she shared her lockerhooking demonstration & finished project and her current Inkle loom work in progress.  Dave shared many of his talents for all those coming to the show, Great Wheel spinning, drop spindel, his rug punch work with wool & fabric and his diverse knowledge of many, many Fiber Arts and the history. 
Dave's most recent adventure is quilting with historical fibers and themes, I've added some pics. of his work below.

Mother Bickerdyke Quilt

Below:  Civil War photo Quilt & Artifacts.

notice the artifact at the bottom of each picture.....neat.

above pic. is one of the woman who fought in the civil war.

above pic. shows another woman who fought in the civil war.

~works of talent~

Osnaburg Quilt & Fiber Art Show

Thought I would put in a quick blurb about the Show.  It has been very nice weather, thank goodness no humidity in the air, as we are demonstrating in a building with no air conditioning, just some good ole fans.

To my surprise, my woven scarf has taken the Judge's Choice Award. :)

My sister's quilted wall hanging received the Judge's choice.

This is day two of working on the triangle loom.  We haven't been working on it continuously and it will be finished on day three, the final day of the show.

Working some kitchen towels on the loom.  I dressed it for four towels, I've made two so far.  Don't expect to finish them at the show.  Makes a nice addition to the show of what you can do and for those looking for their new hobby...

This quilt won Best in Show.  I like the contrast.

One of the quilts that I liked, it didn't win any special awards, I just like the Americana style.

...another quilt that I liked.  I admire the work, I just don't have a desire to make one.  I would rather get my hands in some wool.
Will post more pics. after today, the final day of the show.
....thats all for today.

Dye Day :)

Saturday was dye day at our Guild Meeting, The Algonquin Spinning & Weaving Guild.  Once a year we have a dye day and create some beautiful  colors and just have a good time.

This was part of a dark fleece that was overdyed with "tomato", a color of dye made by country classic, this came out beautiful and will really show off  if spun in the lock.

more beautiful colors. Notice the roving on the left, this multi color can be accomplished as shown in the picture below.

setting the dye on the roving was accomplished using an electric skillet.....how awesome!
I didn't take pics. the whole day, but believe me more beautiful colors were created in this skillet.

This was created by sprinkling some additional color around the fleece while in a dye pot.

Pink too!!  Can't wait to see when Alli gets this spun up. 

This is where the fun is.  Creating all these fabulous colors, can't wait to see the final products.  The weather was very hot Saturday, but it wasn't that bad in the building we were in.  Mike the grounds Manager had a door on either end of the building open which created a draft through the building which was much appreciated for our dye day.

Millie, one of the Mill cats couldn't resist helping us with the wool.  We have several resident cats at the Algonquin Mill.

Quilt & Fiber Art Show.......

Another deadline to meet, lately I have been putting myself to the test of time and deadlines.  Saturday I  warped my loom to make a scarf that I finished today.  This will be entered in a local quilt and fiber arts show in one week.....yikes!  Nothing like pushing the envelope.  Oh, and I still have a denim rug to finish!  Three more rows to crochet and run through a few wash cycles to get it to fray.  I will post pics. when I get that one done, for now some pics. of my scarf.

The finished product a 7' long scarf!

Close up of the pattern.  I used up what I had left over from making another scarf a few months back, I just changed up the pattern to use more of the light colors.  Really enjoy making scarfs on the loom.
 

Great Lakes Fiber Show Results

It has been a week since the Great Lakes Fiber Show.  We had some really warm weather, but it wasn't bad in the buildings with the breeze.  This year I had entered two fleeces and two skeins of yarn.  My good friend Dave Lewis beat me out in the fine fleece division, I have a Whistle Stop ram with a beautiful black fleece, but I do not have coats for my sheep so every little piece of VM shows up in the beautiful black fleece.  Although it will all come out between the washing and carding.
My dairy rams fleece is a medium fleece, 36 micron, although it is 6.2 SD, 16.8 CV, 10.8 CEM.  This fleece received 4th place in this class.  Will be washing this fleece soon, want to dye it at the next guild meeting (June meeting is dye day).

I entered two skeins, I took 2nd place....again in the fine two ply class.  I chose my Whistle Stop ewe's fleece for this skein, her Comfort Factor is 90.2.  I didn't get to watch the judging as I was helping with the fleece competition, but was told the judge kept commenting on the elasticity in the skein, wish I had taken a picture, my skein was at least 5 inches shorter than the other skeins, but when held in your thumbs, it would stretch out.......I think it was that wonderful fine crimpy fleece that I have kept out for myself to spin!

The other skein I entered took 4th place, I spun a fine 3ply yarn, prior to the show this skein had already been labeled as the "skein from hell", of course I was last minute spinning to enter both of these skeins, but while spinning this one it broke and I couldn't find the end to reattach the yarn and continue spinning, I ended up cutting the yarn, putting it on two ball winders as it ended up being cut in half, respinning it to put it back on a spool, then splicing the yarn to reattached where I had cut it.  I needed all the yarn I had spun, since I had pre-weighed the wool and needed every little bit I had to meet the weight requirements for the competition. 

I did get to meet Garrett Ramsey at the show and of course we spoke shetland. 
http://www.ramsayfarms.blogspot.com/
It is nice to get to meet other shetland breeders :)

I came sooo close to coming home with another sheep!  How close??  We went over to the sheep barn at 2:30 on the final day to say we would take him and they had left at 2:00 to head back to Oregon:(
It was a nice blue faced leiceister (sp?) ram.

These pictures were favorites at the show, everyone wanted to know how I got them to line up :)

That's all for now.

Great Lakes Fiber Show

Thought I would put out a reminder to everyone, the Great Lakes Fiber Show is coming up May 26th & 27th.  It is worth taking the time.  Check out the web site:  http://www.greatlakesfibershow.com/  many vendors to visit and many sheep.  I have volunteered to assist with the fleece competition this year, so stop by and say "hello". 
I sent out 23lbs of wool to be made into roving and it will be delivered at this festival, can't wait to see it and spin some of it.  I will also have some for sale.

Hope to see you there!

Lazy Days; sleep, eat & grow

This is one of their favorite things to do, sleep.  A little milk, run around a little then sleep.
These lambs are a Shetland crossed with a Rideau Arcott Dairy Ram.  The one on the left and middle are twin ewes, both will be staying.  Ram lamb on the right, he will be going to market.

The white ones are the Crossbred lambs, in the middle, two shetland ewe lambs, one brown, one black, out of Ram; Bargs.

...more of the dairy cross lambs, notice the one lying at the far left.  That is Button!
He has grown so well and is vigorous.  I don't think he will grow to his full potential, but he is very healthy and gets right in there to eat.  He has a forever home waiting for him when he is weaned, one of my yearlings will go with him when he leaves.......well, you can't have just one, their a flock animal :)

 Two more shetland lambs, on the left a ewe that will be staying, ram on the right that will be going.
These are out of Ram, WS1107

Meet Button

This is Button, he was born early Tuesday morning.  He was the last one born from a set of tripletts.  Thank goodness I checked on his Mom, Lialac every hour on the hour Monday evening.  She looked like she was miserable all day.  When I checked on everyone Monday morning at 5am she was the only one standing and she stood motionless, like she had found a comfortable position and didn't want to move. 11pm Monday evening she had started into labor, from then on I stayed in the barn to make sure she delivered ok.  Lialac was a trooper, she delivered all her lambs unassisted.  When Button came out I was amazed how small he was.  From the beginning he was quite vigirous, but I knew he couldn't compete with his siblings, they were double his size. 
I had bought colostrum and milk replacer "just in case".  I made up some colostrum milk and he took to it right away.  Since then we have been supplementing him, till Lialac's milk comes in to support all three lambs.

Red, our English Shepherd loves the babies, although the Mama's don't necessarily like him.  This picture shows Button's size a little better, compared to his big sister.

Not the best picture, but you can see all three of them together.
I finally weighed Button Wednesday evening, now mind you that he was born early Tuesday morning, about 1am and he has been drinking very well.  He weighs 2pounds 14oz. at approximately 40 hours old.
I don't think I've every seen a sheep this small.

first of the lambs

Sunday was a productive day, We had the first two ewes lambing at the same time.  The above pictures are of Cori, a first time mother with her twins.  The white one is a ram and the fawn katmoget is a ewe.
Cori was bred with Duroy our white ram.

Galaxy decided to deliver at the same time which made it great for us, she delivered two nice size rams.  The sire is are dairy ram, Mr.Mr. a Rideau Arcott.

Not long after these Sparkling decided to join in and have her lambs too.  Not until much later did I realize that I didn't take any pictures of her, but she delivered to us a set of twins, one ram and one ewe.....at least, so far we will have one ewe to start our dairy flock.