bluefaced leicester

All posts tagged bluefaced leicester

Almost there…

Posted by kenleighacres on June 20, 2012
Posted in: Crafting, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

I am enjoying a quiet morning before the craziness that is Black Sheep Gathering starts tomorrow.  I need to pack my shop into my car for my vendor booth, clean the trailer for the sheep to be loaded into, brush Kate so she looks her best for the herding demos, print pictures and information for my farm display booth, and a lot of other little things….but right now I am taking a deep breath 🙂

While I was taking my deep breath, I realized that I had not shared my Black Sheep Gathering Fiber Arts entry on my blog.

I used the BSG logo as my inspiration, but wanted to incorporate all of the wonderful breeds that can be seen at the show.

I used wool from each breed and most of it came from farms here in the NW.  The only exception is the Wensleydale and that wool came from Jackie Post at Wooly Adventures.

She lives in California and the wool came from Marley, a sheep with a LOT of character.

The Romney…

and the Border Leicester wool came from Coleen Smith at Blessed Creations.

The Icelandic…

and the Gotland wool came from Wendy Hanson at Shaggy Bear Farms.

The Corriedale yarn came from Katie Orr at Critter Hollar Ranch.

The Coopworth locks came from Lora Withnell at Rocking Dog Ranch.

The Navajo-Churro wool and yarn came from Karen Lobb at bide a wee farm.

The Shetland wool came from my stash of roving from the Shetland sheep we had for a short period.

The CVM wool came from Correy McAtee at Custom Colored Critters.

The Jacob wool of course came from our flock.

The Bluefaced wool came from Robina Koenig at Tumble Creek Farm.

A lot of these farms are good friends and are going to be at Black Sheep Gathering – I can’t wait to see them!

 Yesterday, we worked on my son’s Fiber Arts entry and I made one of my own…

My son made his own felt Rose.  We used a new kit to make our own pups.  The kit has molds and it was a safe way for a child to make a 3D felt object, less chance of poking fingers with the felting needle!

Her little tag reads – Live, Love, Leap – pretty accurate for the Rosie pup 🙂

Ok, break is over…back to work!

Make sure and say ‘Hi!’ if you are at the Black Sheep Gathering.

Lamb Field Trips

Posted by kenleighacres on May 7, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 2 Comments

I went on a couple of field trips last week to see lambs at some friend’s houses.

Her lambs aren’t very small anymore, but I always love my visits at Tammy’s farm.  She has a combination of Border Leicester and Bluefaced Leicesters with an emphasis on the Bluefaced.

How can you not love those ears???

The fleeces are awfully nice too!

She wanted an opinion on what ram lamb she should keep and we always have a great time discussing certain qualities and fleece types.

In the end, she decided on keeping this guy…again, how can you not love those ears???  It took a lot of self-control to not come home with a wether 😉

My son was disappointed that she didn’t have her goats anymore, but was happy to see the local castle again.  How fun would it be to live in a castle!

 

The other visit was to Bethany’s, to see her new jacob lambs.  She bought a couple of ewes from us last year and bred them to our rams.

This pretty girl is Poppy.

This adorable girl with the pretty blue eyes is Daisy.

With our pasture full of BIG lambs, it was fun to see cute little babies again.

Look at the barn that was next door!  Put that with my castle and I would be a very happy girl 🙂

Black Sheep Gathering – we survived!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 28, 2011
Posted in: Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , . 6 Comments

Whew…what a weekend!  We arrived on Thursday for set-up and spent every waking hour there until Sunday night.  This is such a fun weekend for us and this year didn’t disappoint.  As usual, I will break the weekend down into several blog posts…so much to share!

I love the colors in this rug and it represents all the colors that can be found in the vendor buildings – everything from the lovely natural shades to the vibrant jewel tones.

This booth was very interesting – all of these scarves have been dyed with mushrooms!  The lady was informative and I was surprised to find out that it is difficult to use mushrooms because the colors can be quite different and hard to duplicate.

My Spinner’s Lead entry didn’t pan our this year.  I didn’t allow for enough time, so I was determined to find inspiration for next year’s event before I left this year’s event.  I really like this item and am going to try to make it in felt.  I WILL allow enough time this year 🙂

Here are a few of the bags I made for this event at the front of our vendor booth.  In addition to having the vendor booth and showing sheep, I agreed to giving two herding demos on Saturday.  This seemed a little much for one person to take on, so I rounded up some help.  My sister was a huge help on Friday and my sister-in-law was fun to have in the booth on Saturday and Sunday.

Julia, my sister-in-law.  It was so nice to know our booth was in good hands.  While I was there, I was delighted to meet several blog readers and fans of the farm – very fun!

The Fiber Arts division had a some amazing pieces this year, but there were two that really grabbed me…

I have always said that felting is like painting with wool, but this takes that to a whole new level – STUNNING!

I don’t even know where to start on this piece…absolutely amazing work.

The details are what really grabbed me.  My son immediately asked if I could make him one – gotta love him!

I love all of the breeds at this event.  This guy reminds me of the classic, wooly sheep.  He is a Perendale and had a LOT of wool!

This big boy created a lot of double takes.

and the other breed I would love to have if we had more land.  The beautiful Bluefaced Leicester.

Not a sheep, but a fiber producer with super cool horns!

The next post will be all about the Jacobs.  This handsome boy is owned by bide a wee farm.