Updates from the Yard and the Field

Sheep

Moving the Sheep onto new Grass

As part of our annual switch over we have now moved our sheep over to their winter fields.

After the long dry summer it is good to move the sheep over onto the fields which now have a good covering of grass for them.

This rotation is good for the fields as it means that the sheep help with weed control and also provide that natural level of fertiliser that all help with the grass management of the small holding.

Dyes

Getting the dyes right

One of the challenges that I have is that getting the range of colours and also to get the shade of a colour right for the crafts that I'm making.

For example at the moment I'm trying to get the right shade of Red for a particular craft project that I'm working on and it has been a real challenge, trying to get the balance of amount of dye to use, the base shade of the wool or fleece and also to try and compare what the dye makers call their colour. for example a Scarlet red added to a wet felted wool can often come out closer to a pink than a stronger red.

There is a lot of trial and error and where possible note keeping and keeping a small sample.

It is also important for me to see how it looks when used on felt and when used on unfelted wool as the differences are often quite significant.

Boris the Ryeland

While the flock of sheep is mainly the rare breeds of Welsh Mountain sheep of Badger face and Balwens, we do have 3 Ryeland sheep. These big lads add an element of calm to the flock, to them life is just a steady flock and as such they help to make the more flighty members of the flock just settle down.

All three of them are characters but of particular note is that of Boris. He's a big friendly lad and is often seen hanging around with the Alpacas.

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