A grand Rambouillet Ram. Not only was this fellow huge but he was friendly.
The weather was much better this year than last year but we were still very grateful for our cozy little red camper, a T@B.
Ed’s #2 Great Wheel got lots of attention and playtime. This man made the long-draw look so easy and effortless, as did a couple of other people. It was fun to watch these people skillfully spin with the wheel; truly it is a type of dance. We were told by several Great Wheel spinners that production spinners of old walked up to 20 miles each day just pacing back and forth as they spun the fiber. Watching this man it’s understandable why some spinners used a stick when turning the wheel to get even a couple more steps further back and thus a longer yarn before needing to wind it on.
I will miss having this beautiful wheel gracing our living room, and spinning with the very efficient Miner’s Head rather than the direct drive that’s on Ed’s first wheel. He tells me that he’ll make a Miner’s Head for it.
Number 2 Great Wheel was sold on Saturday! The sale surprised us, even though Ed had built it to sell and we hoped it would find a home. These two are going to love spinning the wool from their flock on the wheel!
This was about the only glimpse I had of the moon during the weekend (clouds moved in overnight). I had started to head for the restrooms when I saw the last of the sunlight blazing off the tips of the tents and dashed inside the camper to grab my camera. In the few seconds it took only the very tops had view of the sun.
Returning home in a driving rain we saw that the Montmerency cherries (pie) on our tree needing picking as soon as possible. The warm sunny May accelerated their ripening by over a week. With the abundance of rain this month (including the past couple of days – it’s pouring even now) the cherries were about to burst their skins so yesterday afternoon I climbed the ladder while Ed picked the lower ones from the ground. We pitted about 10 pounds for drying and another 10 pounds that were canned last evening.
We almost sold out of the spindles at Black Sheep! Inventory and pictures need to be done and Ed needs time to recover and reorganize his shop before beginning the next round of spindles. (We don’t like to put only a few spindles up on the website with so many people trying to get one at the same time.) He will intersperse making spindles for the website with the spindles that were ordered early in June. Until he catches up with that spindle wish list we won’t be taking any more orders. (Judging by the length it’ll be sometime in August before he gets them all made.)
I’ve set up a Facebook page: YarnTools Please check it out and Like it.
It’s been a long debate whether or not to use FB for quick updates. We check FB almost everyday to keep up with family & friends, whereas there can be weeks between logging into Ravelry.