As usual, there is lots of news from Wetland Wool.
On Saturday the 11th, the local spinner’s group met for our quarterly spin-in at the house of Kim, one of our members. She and her husband raise Jacob Sheep south of McMinnville. I really enjoyed spinning some lovely dark brown wool that Kim contributed to one of our fiber exchanges so I was excited to see her sheep. They are spotty, and they have horns!
Nine spinners enjoyed lovely day at Kim’s. Her husband provided a tasty kettle of soup and fresh hot homemade bread, and we supplemented with delicious potluck treats.
In other developments, John is about to remove both his projects from their respective looms: his second project woven at home and his first project out at the Damascus fiber arts school. It is amazing how much is learned with each project. He’s busy planning his next endeavor, the Eagle pattern.
We have been running low on gray/brown wool from Roberta and Ruth. Upon studying the fleece inventory the reason became evident: most of Roberta’s 2010 fleece was upstairs, never having been washed. Mar tried a new technique, using the bathtub instead of buckets to rinse, wash, and rinse the large quantity of wool. The key is having a very good little thing in the drain to keep wool out of it. Used Orvus paste for the washing, and also tried adding a little conditioner in one of the rinses to see if it will add softness and slip when spinning. It is now drying atop the fridge where there is plenty of warm air movement.
Photos of John’s projects and Roberta’s wool will be added when available.
We had a call from Ringo’s breeder, wanting to know how it’s going. So we told Sue that our sheep didn’t seem pregnant. Turns out she put her Romney ram in with her ewes for three cycles last fall [17 days each cycle] with no result! Usually when a Ram is unsuccessful you blame the weather, but none of us recall any major heat or other troublesome weather last fall. Now we know Ringo is not alone, his brothers or cousins are also unproductive. But in our case, he is still running with the ewes and there is always hope for late lambs.