Fantastic Haberdashery and Gorgeous Dyed Yarns!

(Some of my wool at Halfpenny Home)

Well I have had a great week exploring new avenues for anything woolly - in fact anything vaguely crafty actually!

With things being flat out at the ranch currently, I have been investigating the possibility of getting some wool dyed off farm, as there are just not enough hours in the day here. Well, I have found a lovely lady Debbie who has done a trial run for me and I think you will agree the colours are just gorgeous ........

I am hoping to have some seasonal colours - starting with these for the autumn and then moving on to some icy blues and greys & greens for the winter - watch this space ....... Do let me know what you think about these though!

So armed with these lovely skeins, I made it my mission this week to get to Halfpenny Home in Needham Market, the fab haberdashery shop run by my new friend and blogger Nic.

Have you ever been into a shop where you shake with the thrill of gorgeous things? I didn't know where to look first - and now I think I missed something I can see in one of my photos! Nic has been a great supporter of my wool and I am very grateful to her for that. She has a real aladdin's cave of everything you could possibly want and runs some great workshops too - you must put her on your ' places I must visit ' list! She sells anything from wool to vintage buttons to fabric to feathers! I bought some lovely buttons, some beautiful cotton yarn and some cape fastenings - not sure what for yet but couldn't resist them!

Feast your eyes!

Nic has a great blog - do check it out at http://halfpennyhome.blogspot.com/

I'm at the Orford Country Market as usual on Saturday, so why not catch up with me there if you can. T x

Haymaking and Showing

Well, we attended the Tendring Show on Saturday as planned - wow it was hot! The sheep really didn't want to be there - the rams huffed and puffed across the field in the morning, snorting at us and swinging their heads in a bid to be let off the leads. Noah spent most of the day when not in the ring flat out on his side sound asleep - oh to be a sheep.... Anyway the long and short of it was I don't think they all performed at their best but we achieved a 2nd place for Jacine (shearling ewe) - judge said that the top 3 ewes were cracking and it was a very close thing - a 3rd for Noah (shearling ram) - judge said he had a phenomenal top line but preferred the fleece on others - 2 4th places for lambs and a 5th for my aged ewe Mable. Not a bad result - must try harder for next year!

So, now we have finished showing for the year we can get down to some real work! All the show sheep plus a couple of spares, 8 in total, need to be hand sheared, so we set about that task yesterday and completed 2 of the rams between us, which took about 3 1/2 hours per ram! Don't think we will make much money at shearing do you? Still good job done and just before the rain which was much needed - will have to wait for the others to dry out now.

We also managed to get the hay in before the downpour too - whew! Only two thirds cut as the mower hit a concrete block and broke a something or other (not that good at mechanics!) but all that was cut has been turned and baled - fantastic hay and smells of summer breeze! The girls will love it! Got 80 bales into the barn but couldn't face the other 80 - they are still sat on the trailer, under cover, waiting for me to get up the strength to move them - perhaps later this week!

So down to serious work - more wool sorting, honey harvesting and hopefully a bit of felting! Watch this space ...............

Back from the Norfolk Show!

Well, here we are, hot-foot from the Norfolk Show! I don't usually do very well at this show but this year has been my best result there to date. I got a first placing in the Female Wool on Hoof class with my ewe Jacine which I am thrilled with - Ali got first place for her boy Joe in the Male Wool on Hoof - so success all round! I also achieved 3 2nd placings and 3 3rd placings so not a bad result on the whole!

It was a good show but very hot! They had moved the sheep and goats in to the same area on another part of the showground which actually worked very well - lots of sheep there - they were 100 pens oversubscribed this year! Still the weather was better for camping - talk about opposite ends of the temperature scale - and only 10 days apart - that's what we love about British weather - still it would be good to have some rain - no grass now and feeding hay already!

One more show to go now on the 10th July - just a one day one but a great little show all the same - the Tendring Hundred Show near Manningtree - do join us if you get the chance!