A note on bunnies

Once upon a time I had a bunny. Here she is!

Her name was Calliope (after a Grey's anatomy character, whoops),and she was a french-german angora rabbit. She was very fluffy and odd and twitched and did binkys (yes, that is an actual word... supposedly its when they do those side hop things.) She was a fiber rabbit which means I plucked every week (some people brush, some people shear) for her hair which I spun into a 50% blend with wool. It is very soft. Turns out I am also very allergic to it too but I ignored that factor... Here is me plucking her: 



It was quite odd to have an animal so docile that they sit in your lap and let you rip its hair out (though it comes out easily and without pain, contrary to how it sounds...) 
I had many dreams of starting a rabbitry and tried breeding her but she died shortly of something called wool block. Its similar to when cats have fur balls except that rabbits don't cough them up so some of her insane hair (seriously this thing was 75% fluff and 25% skeleton) got stuck in her intestines. I guess its another example, like the cornish cross broiler chicken, of an animal people have bred to produce though it might inhibit a healthy lifestyle. Though they dooooo produce some really lovely fiber- great to spin and great to wear. If you have any questions regarding angora bunnies shoot em my way!

Rewind to springtime

So now its November and I am sheep-less working on a friends farm down in eastern MA (check it out! Here!http://www.theneighborhoodfarm.com/ ). The kale is hearty and the carrots are frost-bitten sweet but alas, the turnips don't baaa back. I miss the spring shearing and lambing season and rotating the ewes with their rambunctious lambs along the pasture. Here are some pics of the flock from last season, my third year out working on an island farm in down east Maine. We had somewhere around 14 ewes who had very high percentage rates so no matter how much we culled we always ended up with a large herd...

Me bringing up the rear with very confused lambs...

Amy leading the mothers out a week or so after all lambs born.

Safely in fenced in pasture under a hay trailer for sun protection, with growing lambs.

Tools!

As a farmer I am already addicted to my tools and the fact that my carharts have that nifty little hook on the side for my hammer (though I rarely use, it its like a delicious safety net I know is always there). I enjoy the fact that each of my knifes has 10 different thingy mabobers that come out including a beer opener, awl, tweezers, and a mini serrated knife in case I am stuck in the jungle and decide to use my swiss army knife to saw my way out. So I suppose it only makes sense that I get ridiculously excited about fiber tools, though they are more like an artists materials. They are spiffy in the way that they do something so specific which they were designed for. I am constantly surprised that someone thought up the whole cradle, bobbin, wheel, treadle set up (though with great refinement over time- check it out here with good old wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel)

Here is what I am carding and spinning the wool shorn this season with (both thanks to my parents as a kick ass college graduation present). Both are Louet products which I am told will outlive me. It is what I learned to spin on and am so far very happy with these.

The carder:

And the wheel (with some turmeric dyed wool)!

The carder is the standard size and the wheel is the S17 model. I got them from woolery.com which I can't say I would recommend due to them both taking 3 months time to arrive (which happened to be ok cuz it was during the busy summer season and I was also occupied with washing and dying all my wool!) 

Though I learned on a borrowed Louet I started spinning more on a free ashford model. It was broken when I found it so I kinda sorta fixed it back to working order with some drift wood and fishing line for tension and a paper clip for the orifice hook. I am very glad to be back to the Louet as the orifice (that black opening with the yarn coming out in the front of the pic) is bigger, allowing for smoother, faster, less frustrating spinning.

Anywho! Those are some notes about spinning tools! I would be curious to know what others have and how those are working out for you. 

Names names names

Where does the name "lost sheep" come from? It isn't from my serious ability to loose site of the sheep in down east sunshine (fog). Explanation...

Over planting garlic one day a new friend remarked how perfect it was that I wanted to be a sheep farmer and my name is Bo (as in, Little Bo Peep). Oh God. Why hadn't I thought of it before. The thought of having such a feminized interpretation of my name, complete with pink southern bell dress in the famous Toy Story, horrified me. Anywho I decided I must come to terms with this perfect coincidence and redefine it with the modern day version... complete with buzzed head...
"Little Bo Peep lost their sheep
And didn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them."

And thus begins the land of blogging...