Colours by Accident

This fibre is two different dye lots.   All came about by accident.  I dyed the dark colour first,  I am not sure if I miss weighed something but at the end the dye bath had not cleared and so I took a chance and added a second lot of fibre and got the pale foamy effect.   Really nice on the felted soap as they are lovely bathroom type colours.   I find that it is often difficult to get a pale colour by using less dye as often it is taken up very unevenly or just looks rather wishy- washy,  but this is a lovely colour

Fleece to Yarn Workshop May 18th and 19th 2013

I am running another workshop in May.    Again starting with raw fleece,  covering washing, drying and preparing for spinning.   Spinning using a drop spindle and an introduction to the  spinning wheel.
Dyeing using natural and synthetic dyes and food colouring as in the photos above.  The first one taken as the locks came out of the microwave and the second the same locks dried.     Food colouring is more user friendly in the average kitchen and so I am including using it in this workshop as they can be used without any special equipment
For more information about the workshop see www.markreecastle.ie  

Felted Soap

My latest project is Felted Soap.  It is soap that is covered with wool that has been felted and you end up with a wash cloth covering the soap which conserves the soap.  The wool will shrink as you use the soap.
I have used wool from sheep that are kept here at Markree,    I prepared the fleece and hand dyed the wool before carding it        With all that care the odd hay seed or bit of moss still seems to have crept in

For this I got some lovely organic May chang hand made Irish soap from Deirdre Marie O'Sullivan,  which she sells on Etsy   https://www.etsy.com/shop/DeirdreMPhotography  

Too Many Lambs

Lambs appearing at a great rate but some ewes have have more than they are able to feed and need a little help.   Mother checking I am doing the job correctly and reminding me they are her lambs.   I find it much easier if the lambs stay with their Mums and I just top them up.  They will go out with the rest of the flock and I will call them at feed times and gradually they take less and less milk until they need no more feeding.

  All fed and happy about to settle down with friends for a little after dinner nap in the sun.
Busy times with sheep,  day and night,  and very little time left to spin

The First Lambs

The first of the lambs enjoying their first taste of sunshine .  Sun bathing seems to be second nature unlike all the really important things in life like coming into the world with your legs in the right place.   The pedigree lambs are all tagged so that I know who their Mummy and Daddy is later in life when I register them.     Some of us are not so grand and so have no tag.

All the lambs are numbered so I can see who belongs to which Mum and this year we have marked the twins red and the singles blue so I know I should have two of all  the red numbers in the field

Getting Ready for Lambing

That time of the year again.  My ewes all in their shed waiting the arrival of their lambs.  Hopefully we will have a few by this time next week.  I will be glad when we get started and even happier when it is all over.   The girls seem content in their house.  I took this first thing in the morning so they are all waiting for their breakfast.   I may say feeding them is quite a performance as they sweep me off my feet.   As they lamb they get moved out of the shed into a 'lamb pod' so that there is no miss mothering and when the lambs are strong enough I let them out in the paddock close to the yard where I can keep an eye on them

Marigold Hand Dyed Wensleydale Locks

The latest of my hand dyed Wensleydale Locks.  These have been washed in Eco friendly wash up liquid and then dye with Landscape non acid dyes.  I have called the colour way Marigold ( not after the gloves but after the flower )  They are up to 10 inches long and separated from the fleece so there should be very little waste.
I have them listed on Etsy  https://www.etsy.com/listing/125402971/marigold-hand-dyed-wensleydale-locks-80