Gave the sheep away, KEEPING the HUSBAND !

After many months of my DH telling me I need to "do something with those sheep and all that wool or give them away," I did it.  I gave them away.
Not too long ago, my DD#2 mentioned that a boy at school had parents "just like You and Daddy". 
Always a scarry thing for your offspring to say.
What she meant was, they live on a smallish farm, but aren't "real" farmers.
They have more than the average number of kids.
They have animals that are not typical:  specifically Jacob Sheep, Alpaca, Goats, and some other interesting things, but she had my attention there.
So, it took me several weeks to work up the courage, but I did finally pick up a phone book, and they were in there.  Of course they were! It's a small town!
Dial the phone and talk to the Mom.  It's like she's me in a parallel universe.  Given a few changed decisions or circumstances, and I could have been her.  You know what I mean!  Don't give me that look....
Sure, she knows DD#2 goes to school with her DS#1.  Yes, they do indeed have Jacob Sheep.  About 40 of them not incuding the lambs, more being born every day.  And, yes they do shear them, or at least as many as she has time to, but there's a guy that comes to finish what she can't get to.
But they shear in the Fall, not the Spring, and she even knows Why it's a good idea to do that.  She gets lots of brownie points for knowing more about it than I do.  But she's not so fussy that she puts coats on the sheep or anything like that.  Cool:  smart, but not snooty.
Yes, she does spin, on her mother's antique wheel, but not as much as she would like because she doesn't have time.  She's even got a fancy-schmancy drum carder.  (Man, she's got good toys too!)  And, she just lives a little ways away....
Would she TAKE the sheep off our hands?  For Free?  The only way this could be better would be if one of them was a Ram, but no, they aren't.
Well, we could bring the sheep over anytime.  But her DH is going to have to drive clear over to another county to go get Hay on Saturday, Wait, what?  We have Hay!  I can give you Hay!
So, her DH picks up the sheep and the two big round bales of hay and takes them home.  Our kids and her kids get to help load them up.  The DHs get to know each other.  The DHs work out that I'll get two bales $ worth of wool.  Yeah!
One less sore spot between the DH and I.  Except that I didn't really know what hay is worth, and probably should have negotiated for cash.  But, I'll take it as a sign of his love for me that he traded for wool....
Whoo!
(Sorry about the stick-tights and cockle-burrs)

Not Looking forward to Shearing Season

I know that as an addicted knitter and committed spinner, I should be really looking forward to the time of sheep shearing.  Even if we do only have two (yes, just 2) sheep.
But, last year, honestly, it was almost a marriage counseling disaster.  DH does not see sheep as his responsibility at all.  He didn't want them, but he gets stuck with way too much of their upkeep.
And, in reality, I haven't actually spun yarn from them in the three years and 2 shearings that we've had them.

Yep, I admit it, I own sheep, and I can't even successfully spin wool into yarn.

Our (MY) sheep aren't tame little pets that hold still and appreciate shearing the way the sheep in the books do.  Have you ever noticed that the sheep in books don't move?  It's those photographs, not nearly as much information in them as in a good video.
Our (MY) sheep aren't clean, pampered little princesses.  They must really work at it all year to collect all the dirt, sticktights and cockleburrs that they can find.
Our (MY) sheep must have seen the G-Force movie where the Mice? yell:  Poop in his hand!  They seem to have good timing as well as good aim.

So, last year's shearing in the back yard of two sheep took 4 people and two evenings after work to accomplish.  Feet were stomped on, sometimes by the sheep.  One, maybe two, sons got dragged around the orchard and ruined jeans.  It was dirty, messy, and hot.  The borrowed shears kept overheating.  There's more short or second cuts in those bags than usable lengths.  Right after the shearing, my determination to get it all spun up was strong.  But the spinning wheel was not cooperating.
So, the "fleeces" still sit in black plastic trash bags in the garage...........

If it comes down to it, "Yes, I do want to stay married more than I want to have sheep".

Unspinning Yarn: or Separating into Plies

There's been a discussion going at the Spin Tech group on Ravelry that I would like to expand on.  It started with the premise that a Raveler's friend had mentioned unplying commercial yarn to end up with lace weight.  The questions this brings up include How? and Why?  Most of the first-responders seemed to believe that there was no earthly reason that could induce a person to want to unspin or deply yarn, especially not commercial yarn.  Extenuating circumstances might allow for running out of yarn before running out of project directions, a very precious fiber content that doesn't come in the right weight, a particular color way or variegation that must be matched exactly.....  Other wise, life is too short to sweat it over yarn that isn't the right weight.  Just find another yarn, already! 

But, then there started a slow rash of postings about Spinners' unhappy with their results with a fiber and "respinning" it into something more fitting or useful.

I finally found the person I could relate to that just wasn't willing to give up on a slightly imperfect yarn; be it stubbornness or thriftiness.  I can understand both of those qualities. 
First:  this fiber will not defeat me, I will bend it to my will!
Second:  My DH calls it a "German" quality, I call it "Scotts".

The How to do it can be found scattered among several classic sources:  Elizabeth Zimmerman describes "splitting wool" in Knitting Without Tears.
Alden Amos in Big Book of Handspinning describes disassembling yarn on pages 206-207.  And several Ravlers mention an artile on unspinning in Spin Off Summer 1994.

Which brings us to my "unspinning" experiences.  I’ve done it several times over the last 30+ years. The first time, I didn’t know any better and only had access to 1970’s commercial acrylic RedHeart (I didn’t know any spinners then). The afghan I wanted to crochet needed two colors that I just could not find in worsted. So, one of the colors was avalable in a three ply “Rug Yarn” and the other in sport weight. Two of the three plies of the rug yarn came out right and the sport weight doubled worked pretty well. As a college student, I had a lot more creativity and time than money or sense. One of my extra-curricular/volunteer activities involved a lot of bus travel. And, there was a very attentive young man that was more than willing to sit by me on the bus for hours holding the ball of that third ply while I crocheted. He thought it was very charming that I did all kinds of crafty stuff.


We got married in 1982. Last night, I just kept smilling to myself as he sat by me on the couch helping me separate out the plies of the first yarn that I spun a couple of years ago. It was his idea! As one of those projects that languishes at the bottom of the closet, he innocently asked why I was keeping it if I didn't intend to use it.

Because it is my first spuin yarn.  The first class that I took was great, and the fiber fantastic colors and feel, but my first yarn was pretty pitiful and I never found a use for it. So, we sat on the couch with him balling up one of the plies (that was overspun and thin) while I used the spinnin wheel to backwards spin the other ply onto a bobbin. He kept saying “never again” but had completely forgotten how many times we’ve done this before.

Thirty years of being married, and the pleasure of my company is still enough …..