Shetland Yarn and Fiber for sale

Shetland Fiber and Yarn for sale

 

If you are unfamiliar with hand spun yarn here is some helpful information.

 

We lovingly shear our sheep in the spring, usually if possible before the ewes are going lamb.

 

 The fleeces are then processed by hand. Either by myself or by Abi of  high prairie fiber. The fleeces are washed in hot water and dawn dish washing soap to remove oil, grease and dirt. NO HARSH chemicals or dyes are ever used. They are left in the sun or dry place to air dry. Then they are carded and hand spun by myself or on Abi's machine. Because there is minimal processing involved you may or may not  find a SMALL amout of vegetable matter (hay for example) in your fiber or yarn.

This will usually work itself out as you complete your project.

 

The yarn created is as wonderful and unique as the sheep it came from.  

 

Shetland sheep have a wide color of fleeces, so there is no need to dye. However, dyeing can be a lot of fun, so you will find some hand-dyed and hand-painted yarns for sale along with the natural colors.

 

I am not a professinal photographer but do my best to capture the true color and nature of the yarn. If you would like additonal photos before purchasing, please email me bksmith@nbson.net

Please hand wash yarn or finished work in cool water and lay flat to dry for best results

This is "Smith farms Sunshine" and her lamb Trouble. Sunshine's fleece spun up into this wonderfully soft, dk weight yarn.

 

200 yards $20

 

This is Brie Holms and her twin ram lambs from this year. This is Brie shortly after shearing. She has wonderful silky soft, creamy colored yarn.

 

$20 for 200 yards

Smith farm's shillelagh holds a very special place in our heart. She was the first lamb born on our farm several years ago. She was born solid black but her coat has changed to a lovely oatmeal color with flecked of black through out. I love to dye her fleece because of the black, it creates beautiful and unique shading.

 

180 yards, hand-dyed and hand spun  - SOLD

 

 

This is Gunnar, one of the rams on our farm. He has gorgeous, soft grey fleece. Pictured with Gunnar is his 2013 roving and yarn. It has lightened considerably since last year. I have a couple skeins available of 2012's left as well.

 

$15.00 for roving

$20 for 200 yards yarn.

 

 

Gunnar's 2012 skein of yarn- only a couple left. dk weight, darker grey then this years..plus last year his fleece created this little nubs through out the yarn when spun that he did not duplicate this year.

200 yards dk weight - $20.00

 

 

 

Meet Alexandria, trixie and hermionie too- but this is Alexandria's gorgeous yarn!! (she is the brown girl in the back)

incredibly soft, I love how luxurious it feels.

 

$15 for roving and $20 for 200 yards - dk weight

 

 

 

This is "Hawk's" roving/yarn. Hawk is Gunnar and Brie's boy. I dont' have any recent pictures of Hawk.  I can't decide if his fleece tends to be grey or brown. its pretty either way.

 

200 yards of dk weight $20

roving $15.00

 

 Meet Neptune and Trouble, 2 more boys on our farm. Trouble is pictured with his mama Sunshine as a lamb and is seen here waiting to have his coat removed. Neptune is in the back, with his fresh hair cut.

 

I'd like to call this combination Neapolitan. Neptune was spun into a lace weight single. Trouble's fleece was dyed and spun from a cloud into a bulkier weight and then I put them together to create one super soft, one of a kind skein of yarn.

 

I will be spinning more of this but for now I offer this 280 yard skein of hand dyed, hand spun yarn 

SOLD

 



Critters...

Summer has gone by too fast. Much to fast. I realize I have been neglectful when it comes to my blog. I like to tell myself that not much as been happening to write about, but that's not entirely true.

 

This post is dedicated to sharing all the new critters that have come to live at our house over the summer months.

 

 

First was Gus.

 

What little girl doesn't dream of having a horse? I certainly did. I am forty-two years old and I finally got myself a horse. I have so much to learn about horses and so much to learn from him. Thankfully, Gus is patient with me. He is a pasture buddy to Anna's pony Maximus and my two rams, Neptune and Gunnar. They all get along very well.

 

 

Next came Hermione

 

and Alexandria

 

Then came this little guy...

Who, by the way, is growing fast and not so little anymore. We call him "Jack" because Anna loves Little House On The Prairie and that was one of Laura's dog's name. Jack is a mutt - but we are guessing he maybe he has a little bit of border collie in him from his coloring and markings.  He cried constantly the first 5 days we had him, but gradually he stopped crying. He seems eager to please, but has a lot to learn. Jack has quickly captured my heart. I pray he has enough sense to stay away from tires and moving vehicles.

 

 

And my last purchase, could possibly be the one that causes me to lose all my hair!

Trixie

 

I brought Trixie home last Friday. I built a small pen for her in the barn right next to the other sheep. Trixie, apparently did not like her pen and jumped over the fence, not once, not twice, but three times. I finally gave up and put her in with the other sheep. Who, by the way, were not as happy as I was to have another ewe in the barn. They chased her away and head butted her when-ever they got the chance.

Sunday morning,  I was outside bright and early, thinking I was going to go to church at 8, so I wanted to get my chores done. I like walking out in the pasture among my sheep and scratching their chins. Even though I wasn't anywhere near her, Trixie freaked out. She ran into the barn, cleared the fence to the pen with no problem and jumped out the  walk-in door. I spent the next hour trying to "catch" her. She just wanted to circle the house. Finally, the farmer came out and together we managed to corral her into one of the sheds. I was able catch her with no problem after that. Honestly, I was ready to put her into a trailer and haul her to the sale barn. But, I didn't. I took her into the barn and sheared her ( she had managed to get her fleece full of burrs). She was well behaved during her shearing, probably cause she wore herself out. Then, I put her back in with the rest of the flock. I'm happy to say, she has since calmed down quite a bit and doesn't run every time I go out there, however, we have a long way to go before she is eating out of my hands.

 

 

It's been a hot, dry summer and I welcome the coming of Fall.

 

 

~Blessings

Kathy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Picture day on Smith Farms

I was thrilled to have my friend and professional photographer http://www.phoenix-photography.biz come out one afternoon and take pictures of the kids and animals. She is

passionate about what she does, and when someone is that passionate you know your going to get wonderful results. Here is just a sneak peak of some of what she has done.

Soon will be a high school graduate

Remember the tire swing was suppose to get her mind off a pony - That lasted about 5 months when Dad had a weak moment on Christmas Eve. The princess loves them both.

 Our Rhode Island Red Rooster - who is missing a toe on each foot due to being hen pecked (and I do mean that literally) and his entourage of Shirleys (any sex link hen is known as "Shirley" on our farm)

Sunshine and her gorgeous ram lamb named Trouble and rightly so

Our handsome 10 year old and Simon

Life is good and we are truly blessed. Hope to share some more photos from this shoot soon!

Its Lambing time at Smith Farms

Brei Holmes started off this lambing season by having two stunning ram lambs on Tuesday.

These two are quite lovely and I am excited to see if they will have the same stunning, crimpy fleece their father has.

Today I was surprised when I found Shillelagh with a little lamb by her side. I thought for sure she was a week or two off yet as she wasn't very big at all.

This was Shillelagh when she was born 3/17/2011

This is Shillelagh today -with her lamb

She has always been the kids favorite and you can see why- she is extremely laid back and friendly..she loves the kids.

Somewhere through the course of the year she lost all her lovely black!!

Shillelagh's Ram lamb - I would love for him to stay black- he is gorgeous!

So the count today is 3 lambs - 3 boys! Only 2 girls to go.

 

RAMa-LAMBa-ding-dong!!

If you remember last year I leased a ram from some other shetland breeders.

He was awesome and produced some lovely lambs

Leasing has its benefits for sure but there are also some perks to having your own ram.

I would have loved to have my own ram but really don't have a set up for keeping a seperate pen for the boys.

But- then it happened. A fellow shepherdess by the name of Corinne of CrossWinds Farm  posted all these gorgeous pictures of her lambs. They  truely are lovely sheep and anyone who loves fiber will drool. One lamb in particular jumped out at me. A gorgeous grey ram lamb. Could I possibly make keeping a ram around work? Well, he was spoken for so it didn't matter.

But the more I thought about, the more I wanted to have my own ram. So, I messaged Corinne again and asked her what she still had available. She was going to send me pictures but my friend and enabler Tamara of Zen Goaties and I wanted to visit her neighbor Miss Effies You pick flower farm  and decided to make the trek over to her place and check out her rams as well.

We had a great time at Miss Effies. Anna and I picked flowers and played in the gardens.

  looked at all the wonderful creations in her summer kitchen

Tamara talked Miss Effie's ears off - or the other way around, not sure. But we eventually made it to Crosswinds farm. She had many lovely rams available. But then, little grey lamb or Gunnar as I would soon learn was his name came into view. Hmm..is he still available? Well, Corinne didn't know for sure. She would find out. In the mean time, Corinne did the unthinkable and parted his lovely locks for Tamara and I too see. If I wasn't hooked before, I was hooked now. One word - GORGEOUS!

Well, I decided to wait and see if Gunnar would become available but a day or so later I heard from Corinne that he was indeed still spoken for. Oh well, I made the trip back to her place and picked up a wonderful Moorit Ram lamb to be my flock sire.

Meet Neptune

He is lovely too.

Neptune has adopted Priscilla as his mother and follows her every where.

 I'm not sure what she thinks about this arrangement but she tolerates him well.

Priscilla, Shillelagh and Neptune

I did however let Corinne know that if this other shephardess changed her mind about Gunnar because of his horns not coming in right, please to let me know. I would take him too. Too? TWO? Did I really just say that?

Well, I ran into Corinne again at Miss Effie's Ice Cream social and asked about Gunnar horns. She said he was still at her place as of right now. Well, let me know!!

A day later she told me Gunnar was going to be picked up the following day. And then it happened. I got a message from her that that the other shepherdess didn't want him. Didn't want to take a chance on his horns.

Gunnar 

She told me yesterday, hmmm..about 2pm- we brought him home last night! LOL

So, that is how I went from zero-two boys on the farm in a matter of a couple weeks.

Yeah, I'm making all kinds of plans now!!

Farm Friday

Happy Farm Friday

New Khaki Campbells

Delilah & her lamb Stratus

 

Busy Beavers

 camera shy?

 Rhode Island Reds looking for lunch

Knock Out Rose Bush

 Garden Angel