Knitters's Frolic Time Again

We are again excited to be vendors at Toronto's Knitters' Frolic, this April 25th. The sheep are being shorn March 21st and I should have some lovely Shetland x blue faced Leicester fleeces available as well as some beautiful handspun yarns, rovings and crazy batts. Gil will be bringing some hand cranked socks and perhaps a circular sock knitting machine. Hope to see everyone at the Japanese Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Ct, Toronto for the Frolic.

Goodbye Friend

Sadly, my faithful guard dog, Nick, passed on the other evening. He just went to sleep a few minutes after supper. I had seen him not five minutes before, going for a drink of water, and then just went to sleep. Nick and I had a rough start together. He came from a friend's farm, with another guard dog, Kayla, and let me know from the start that he wasn't sure if he would be listening to me. Finally after one evening of standing with my arm in the air pointing for 20 minutes, after giving him a command to leave, he did leave and then promptly turned to see if I was still there. I was, and he followed the command and every one I gave after. He had an injury last summer defending his flock and combined with this winter, it took a lot out of him. I was glad I was home to give him his morning hug and tail scratch before he left us. He was old, 10, and I will miss him. Kayla raised him from a pup and is having trouble adjusting to life without him, but I think will do well. Have a good rest Nick, you deserve it.

Winter Scenes

This has been a very long and very cold winter and I am not going to be sad to see it go. To be honest, I have enjoyed the snow. Anything is better than tramping through mud and I know there will be lots of spring moisture to grow grass for my animals: it's just that I had become a bit spoiled by all the warm winters that we have been having. This was a winter of my childhood. A lot of bugs

will be reduced come summer because of all the snow and cold and my animals have stayed healthy and dry. I did lose a couple of rams this winter. One to an infection and one to old age, but the rest have done amazingly well. Shearing time is just around the corner and is my harvest time. No lambs this year. I knew my husband would be out of commission for a while and one of my pastures was completely destroyed when we installed a geothermal furnace, so I took a break. It is sunny and warm outside today so I have posted some winter shots. It will take a while for the 4 feet of snow to melt and by then spring will be upon us. Enjoy the pics.

Knitters' Frolic

The Fibre season is beginning again and my first show is Knitters' Frolic in Toronto. I have lots of handspun yarns, rovings and fleeces for sale from my flock of shetland and shetland/blue faced leicester cross sheep. My husband has been busy knitting lots of toasty warm socks on his antique sock knitting machines. Hope to see lots of folks and the venue is once again at the Japanese Cultural Centre in Don Mills this April 26th and 27h.

Merry Christmas

Luckily our Christmas Holidays worked out better than the weather. We lucked out and didn't lose our hydro during the ice storm, but we did lose most of the mature trees on our property. There will be lots of chain sawing to be done come spring. We had our one pasture dug up as well, so I decided not to lamb this year.

The existing pasture isn't enough to support any more sheep. We had a white Christmas anyway and enjoyed our children and grandchildren. Enjoy the pics.

Sheep For Sale

I have several yearling and two year old shetland cross blue faced leicester ewes for sale. Contact me at sminty@look.ca if interested.

New Carder for Me

We just returned home from visiting our son in Calgary. We thought it was wet and rainy here, but it was a week of rain of biblical proportions out there. We were fortunate to be staying in the northwest end of town, where there was no flooding. One's heart goes out to those caught in the flooding: it was awful. Yet everyone remained calm and the friendlines of the city remained. We did ge

t to Carstairs, to Custom Woolen Mills and met the owners Fen and Gary. My husband is interested in circular sock knitting machines, and Fen was gracious enough to take us into her home to show us the machines that she knits with. We then were introduced to Gary, who is the millwright at the mill and he and my husband had a lovely chat about the mechanized machines that knit the socks for the mill. From there we went north, to Olds and to the Fibre Week Conference. I was finally able to get a used Patrick Green carder there. I couldn't believe my luck. I have a mini louet carder, so with this new carder, I will be able to make larger batts and it works great! We were very happy to return home and see family and our animal family. Enjoy the pics.