Most people who spin dream of spinning the fine wools. Fine wools are so soft and cuddly but can be expensive. That is because most fine wools are made into top roving for the best results. For the raiser of fine wools the cost of putting the wool into top is really high and so you have to sell it at a high price. When we bought our CVM/Romeldales they were so pretty and we loved the top roving that we had bought but to make it we need three years of fleece from one animal to make it worth while. We had decided to sell them but researching in a new book I came across a new process for Romeldales. They said to wash the fleece and spin it without any other prep (no carding, no roving, and not combing into top).  So I tried it and fell in love with them again. The wool spins like a dream basically right off of the sheep. CVM/Romeldale is easy to spin and perfect for learning how to spin fine wool.

The CVM/Romeldale was bred many years ago by crossing Romney and Rambouillet sheep. They are a critically rare breed made in the USA. Their fleeces get softer as they age. Most breeds of sheep that have colored wool fade as they age the CVM/Romeldale doesn't. There fleeces actually get darker as they age, it is so cool.

So if you want to spin some CVM/Romeldale we have some of our fleeces still and will have more in the spring. The staple on our fleeces are a nice length for spinning in the lock or what some people call worsted spinning and our fleeces have low amounts of veggie matter.

If you are interested in a lamb in the spring, we are hoping to start the lambing in March.

We are breeding Dairy Angora hybrids for a multipurpose goat. One that is good for fleece and milk. We are calling these hybrids Dangora (Dang-gora) goats. We will have more in the spring. All these kids are very cute and we will see what other cute kids come this next year. Any Dairy Angora cross goat can be called a Dangora.

Mischief is our experiment goat. We bred our Alpine doe DD to our Angora buck Slade. She is really cute and friendly. We are trying to breed a goat that will give us fiber and milk at good quantities. Her mom and Grandma gives more the a gallon of milk a day each. So we are hoping to breed her and get more fiber on her future kids. She is getting fuzzy. She will produce a downy coat like cashmere. We love that she has the alpine markings and the color is coming out in her fiber.

Dude is related to Mischief he is out of Mischief's Grandma and Slade. He is a brother to Jack. He is another Dangora. He has a different color pattern than Mischief. He also started having fluff. We had to re-home Dude because he is a whether.

Jack is related to Mischief he is out of Mischief's Grandma and Slade. He is a brother to Dude. He is another Dangora. He has a different color pattern than Mischief. He also started having fluff. We had to re-home Jack because he is a whether.

Our Friend Kate bred two of her Lamancha does to Slade. This was one group of kids. They both have some fuzz on there backs and have the typical lamancha ears. They have been re-homed.

Our Friend Kate bred two of her Lamancha does to Slade. This was the second group of kids. They both had curly hair when born and had fuzz on there backs and have long angora ears instead of lamancha ears. They have been re-homed.

Last week was the 4-H state awards program. Allison and Samantha both competed in state awards this year. Allison went in for entrepreneurship and Samantha went in for Vetrinary Science. Allison won the state award this year. We are all very happy for the state awards delegates. Awards delegates have to make a portfolio send that in to regionals. Then they have to fix whatever they made mistakes on and send it in to state. Then they go in for interviews. Then the next day they get to get all dressed up and find out on stage who won there award areas. 

We have new baby g oats. One doe left to kid.

The first ones are from our blue eyed pygora doe. She had one brown buck with a white stripe and blue eyes. The second is a brown doe with blue eyes.

Our next  one born is Mischief she is out of DeeDee and is an Alpine Angora mix. She is friendly and is a single. She is also really cute.

Dolly had twins. They turned out a lot different than mischief. Dolly had twin bucks. They are growing really fast.

The last of the babies born are triplet Nubians. We got two doe kids and one buck kid. They are all very cute and doing well.

This silk hankie is made from silk cocoons being stretched over a wooden frame and then dyed different colors.  For the hand-spinner it is a lovely sight.  I recently purchased this hankie weighing 1 oz to try it out and see if I liked spinning with silk.  I love it!

First step was to pull the layers apart.  Each cocoon is one layer.  then you draft from either the middle or the corner (I tried both and didn't have any different affects either way).  It draws out in strands and is very strong.

Once I spun all of it, I chose to ply it with my chocolate brown and super soft alpaca.  The result was stunning.  Our next step is to order silk worm eggs and raise our own.  Watch here in the coming months for updates on our new project.

The first of our new discoveries is Lucky ewe sheep minerals. We free choice minerals with baking soda. Please give your goats and sheep minerals we didn't till recently and have seen a big difference in the animals.
http://www.lucky-ewe.com/index.html

Our second big discovery is giving our goats copper boluses. Because we have the animals that can't have copper we searched around for a copper additive to give them. These have been working well for now and we will be using them again for certain.

http://www.scbt.com/datasheet-363568-ultracruz-goat-copper-bolus.html