Spinning Along

Four more weeks.  I can't wait to see what all the sheep look like after they are sheared, hopefully April 26th.  Rosa, looks like she is wearing a winter coat 3 sizes too big.
Michelle took this picture a couple of weeks ago.

I think this shearing is going to be the biggest wool weight yet.  Unfortunately, there is so much debris in the fleece, but I think I have a solution.  A wool tumbler I saw on the web.  Basically, it is a cage that you put fleeces in which spins around throwing out dirt and debris.  One I saw, used a small cement mixer stand and motor.  I am thinking I will drive it by a spinning wheel which is connected to another wheel that the cage is mounted on.

I picked up a donor bike, yesterday, for the bicycle driven wool carder we are building.  It is almost disassembled.  The bike is another example of looking for something and getting all I asked for and more.  It is the right size, a 10 speed girl's bike (easy to get on and off of) and it is not rusty, easy to take apart and a nice color.  We have most of the materials we will need so I am beginning to get very excited.

Some friends came over last weekend to hold sheep while I trimmed hoofs.  Then they came up to the fiber shed and J. told me what gear ratios I needed and where I could get some gears.  Now, I have to figure out what carding cloth I want to order for the new carder (what do you think, Elizabeth?).

This week looks like it is going to be the week to finish a few out standing projects, and then I can take on some new ones.  There are so many things to do but with my new attitude of "it will only take a few hours to complete each" I am O.K. with the load and besides I remember that last year at this time I was thinking the same thing and then I accomplished a great deal.  My mantra is Spinning Along Under Control, Under Control, Under Control.