I finally stopped talking the talk and started walking the walk and have “ordered” 4 ewes from Wilanjie Coloured Sheep & Wool.  Marion was a wonderful source of information and recommended obtaining a ram from someone else which I have attempted to do and am yet to secure.

Photo from Wilanjie coloured Sheep & Wool Website

I have been tormenting myself over what type of sheep to get and finally made the decision by deciding what type of fleece I would get the most pleasure from.  Corriedales are a dual purpose sheep providing fleece that can be used for a wide range of applications and they provide good quality meat.  Coloured sheep appeal to me and I feel excited about our new inhabitants coming to stay.  I am going to pick them up on the 11th.

I feel like I am slowly but surely progressing towards my goal of becoming largely self sufficient – in the lightest sense of the word – and feel such a surge of motivation with each new step.  It really is self propelling!

I’m off to spin up some fibre for another hexagon and dream away of little lambs frolicking and brown sheep wandering around the yard.

Swatches. Yuck.  But, it seems that they do have a purpose that can make such a different to the outcome of many hours of work.  Oh well, it seems they are here to stay, especially using handspun yarns.

Here are just a few I have been doing for my Certificate of Spinning Course.

Swatches for Homework

I find it best to steam press them lightly to lie flat before gluing them onto my project specification pages.

Swatches for Homework

Just had to put in another photo to show they are really there!  My hand spinning is really coming along but I find I tend towards spinning a constant 12WPI for my medium weight yarns.  It’s good for the major project but something I’d like to work on to add more depth to the yarns I can make.

How could this happen to me?

Twisted

I checked again…

Twisted Still

but it was still twisted.  So I have frogged it to begin again.  Half way through this one with 25 still to knit for the spinning project… but the fun is in the creating right?  Off to begin again.  Nothing like a bit of pressure !

Winter can be a time for hibernation.  A time to sit and reflect, to stay warm by the fire, rest, eat comforting foods and be with family.  It can be.  It should be.  Winter for us has been a very very busy time!  There has been sitting and resting – largely due to illness – and there has been lovely times with family – we always LOVE visits and especially overnight stays!  There has been comfort food.  And, there has been crafting!

Several weeks ago, when The Fregie Sack business was demanding a great deal of internet time, I realised that I was spending so much time looking and reading about what everyone else was doing that I had lost the time when I would have been “doing”.  As a result I have curtailed by internet time and dedicated more time to actually “doing”.

There is lots to post – and it seems so little time to post! – but I will start with this:

Handspun - Woollen

It makes me happy – hand spun woollen from gifted fleece that is to become a second fingerless mitt for my sister and a beanie for the man who gave the fleece to me.  Woollen Handspun sitting in the sun smacks of Spring and light and fun and the warmth of the Sun.

I’m off to start planning out the position of my new fruit trees from Yalca Fruit Trees.  Hope the sun is smiling on you today too!

As part of the course we need to do a major project that demonstrates the knowledge we have learned over the 12 month course.  I thought about this a lot in the first 2 months and decided that I would try to knit a Sampler Blanket/Wall hanging that show cased ALL of the different sheep breeds in Australia.  I made a list of breeds I could find:

1. Border Leicester
2. English Leicester
3. Romney
4. Polworth
5. Corriedale
6. Dorset Down
7. Dorset Horn
8. Poll Dorset
9. East Fresian
10. Lincoln
11. Texel – ? being sent soon
12. Dorper
13. Suffolk
14. South Suffolk – ? being sent soon
15. Hampshire Down
16. Cheviot
17. Drysdale
18. Shropshire
19. Dohne
20. Tukidale
21. Finnsheep
22. Ryeland – ? sample being sent in November
23. Wiltipol
24. Wiltshire Horn
25. Coopworth
26. Afrino Merino
27. South African Meat Merino
28. Merino – Superfine
29. Southdown – ? being sent soon
30. Perendale

If you have anymore to add please let me know.  The ones crossed off are the ones I have acquired – mostly through very generous donations – through contacting different growers.  Each person has sent me a 150g raw sample of their fleece which I am fully scouring and then preparing in what I feel is the most appropriate way.  It’s time consuming but fun!  So far I have only acquired just under 50% of the samples (but I do have a few that may be coming soon) I need but I have until February next year to get it completed.

My intention is to place the samples from carpet wool through to superfine merino.  Here’s hoping it works and not another case of biting off more than I can chew!  If you know where I could acquire my missing samples please let me know!

I have started a new blog over here - a blog about our journey with the property where I can record things like rainfall and we can keep a journal of what we do here, when and why.  I hope that this will enable us to develop patterns of when to plant, what to plant, where we have planted or done maintenance, what weeds are prevalent and when and how we address them.

I am also hoping to use that blog to document our journey with the house building and new garden developments.  Go and have a look if you are interested and if you aren’t feel free not to!

The blog is still under construction…

Before I had children I read so many books – all the time – but when I became pregnant with Sophie – the subsequent nausea for 35 weeks probably a large factor – I found concentrating on a book very difficult.  Sophie was born a I was tired and busy and then pregnant again with Sam so soon.  Reading became largely confined to blogs, snippets of newspapers and the odd book.  I dont’ seem to be much of a magazine reader but I do loving Knitting & Spinning stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I have read a few books and thoroughly enjoyed them but nothing has caught me like my current book.  I have some sort of chest infection/cold so sitting upright on the couch with a book is lovely – the kids are watching too many cartoons though.  I am popping so much Vitamin C and B it’s crazy.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – it has me mesmerised!

Also, I have decided to get some Suffolks for our farm so I am on the hunt for 6 girls if you have any tips for finding them?  I figure that I like their wool, they are nice meat and they are good breeders.  I’d like to cross them with Finn as I LOVE their wool so I’m off to do a bit more research.

Also, 4 Isa Brown pullets have come to live with us to provide us with joy, food scrap recycling and eggs.  They are funny things – wont sleep in the house but cower in the yard – last night I went out in the rain and moved each one onto the perches inside the house, just in time to beat the wild storm and hail.

The Isa Browns are soon to be joined by 3 Indian Game bantams and an Indian Game Rooster – these guys are a meat breed and I was shocked to see how different they are to the Isa Browns.  Acquiring them will be the next step in my self sufficiency journey.  I am not sure if I am up for this task but I am determined to try it.

Another win for me was the wonderful visit of one of the older brothers with his wonderful wife and 3 children.  They came for the weekend and it was lots of fun.  Sam is still asking for Sara and looking for her in the bedrooms.  Matt dug over my vegie patch – a task I had started but not accomplished much – so I was able to plant out a heap of different seeds.  It has rained ever since so I hope they germinate not rot.  Thanks guys!

Now I just need to get in touch with Yalca Fruit Trees and order some fruit trees and berries.  If you want lovely trees, a great variety and great service get in touch with Campbell & Tan!

We’ve had a bit of rainfall here over the past 24 hours and I have noticed that what falls here differs to that of the amounts noted online so I am going to document it here to keep track – please feel free to skip it as it’s pretty boring!

To 0900 this morning we had 2mls.

I am hoping that this will help me with my garden designs and planting times…

A while ago I made a Kiva loan of $25 to a woman, Iysha Crosbie in Sierra Leone, to help fund her medical clinic – today I reloaned that money to Agadadash Talıshov in Agsu, Azerbaijan – he raises cattle to support his family and has a baby coming soon.  He still needs $50 to fund his business expansion so if, in these tough economic times, you have a spare $25 why not make a Kiva loan?

I was reading Kylie’s blog over a cup of lemon juice in hot water this morning and saw this giveaway on Little Munchkins.  Go and have a look – it’s a lovely blog anyway!

I am up to sewing the zip on Sophie’s Jacket but not 100% sure how to do it – do you hand stitch it with wool, do you machine stitch it with thread or do you hand stitch it thread?  I’m all for machine sewing it on but it’s probably not the right thing to do?  Any suggestions?