Tending and Spinning and Knitting

Hand spun worsted weight Texel wool yarn 

And at last I have been spinning. Winter is halfway over and I really need to have some new yarns to sell this year at the shop. I don't think I produced a single new yarn this past year, what with one thing and another. Not good! This is a lovely, lofty yarn spun from Texel wool. Texel is a heritage breed from the Netherlands. I helped at the sheep shearing day and bought the fleece, then had it processed into roving. I dyed this a couple of years ago and decided it was time to spin it late last fall. I started spinning but got distracted and finally got back to it the last couple of days. One skein already sold and one is left at my Greenberry House web site.

Now I'm spinning some Jacob wool that I dyed in pink and yellow. The wool was some I got online cheap because the farmer had let the sheep lay in pine shavings on shearing day. That wasn't much of a problem, but the wool isn't a very good quality, either. So I'm spinning it myself rather than try to sell it to someone. With work it's spinning into a nice yarn. My cousin carded it for me over the summer and she did a good job with it.

Paula Reversible Poncho

And I have been knitting. I have been knitting when I should have been spinning, but I fell in love with this pattern and found that I had some gray wool yarn and a laceweight cone that I could knit along with the gray for some sparks of color. I really like how it turned out. This is the Paula Reversible Poncho by Lene Holme Samsøe and can be found in the book Essentially Feminine Knits. I made it a little longer than the pattern calls for. If I make it again I would do the increases a bit different. Doing them as the pattern says along the purl stitches of the rib shows and makes a bit of a break in the smoothness of the rib.

It has been an unusually cold January and that has made it easier to stay in and get work done along with the spinning and knitting. I'm still walking the dogs up as often as I can to tend to the chickens but the colder days aren't as much fun. Today it's snowing and very cold but it's lovely to see out the window. The chickens are doing well with the weather so far with some management from the co-op. I go up three times a day most days and the others check in during the day to replace frozen water and check for the eggs. This makes it much easier, of course! I'm looking forward to the summer when I can be with the chickens more and let them out into the yard to roam and find fresh nibbles for themselves.