Bags of Wool and Boxes of Bumps

 

Red in my "office"
Red in my “office” yesterday

Bags of wool and boxes of bumps.  That’s what I’ve been dealing with since yesterday.  I sat down at the desk in my office, aka guest room,  at 9am and with only a few breaks to feed myself and the animals and run to the post office, I was still there at 9pm.  And what fun it’s been.

I put the  Bedlam Farm yarn and roving up for sale on my blog Sunday night.    It was a double batch, a spring and fall shearing and I had about 95 skeins of wool and about 20 bumps for sale.  I still have 5 bumps from Deb, Pumpkin and Socks but the rest of it is sold.  I’m in a bit of shock that it all went so quickly.

And I’ve got a pretty good system for sorting it out and getting it in the mail. It’s amazing what you can do with a computer, a printer, a  dymo label maker and some padded envelopes and boxes.   Good thing I have all that room on the guest bed to spread things out.  And I had Red to keep me company.  A rare thing for sure.  Jon was away all day at Joshua’s hearing so Red stayed home with me.  He laid on his bed for hours never complaining.  As a treat at feeding time, I opened the back gate and let him herd the sheep into the back pasture.  I think we both had a good day.

Skirting the wool last fall was so difficult because of all the burdock and seeds caught in it, I was thinking it might not be worth having the wool made into yarn.  But now I can see there is such a demand for it.  It make me appreciate the sheep and my life with them all the more.

I was surprised by the changes in the wool.  Suzy’s was such a beautiful gray and Socks was a deep rich brown.  The difference in the colors since the last shearing was remarkable.  For some reason I hadn’t expected them to change from year to year.  But Deb from the Vermont Fiber Mill wasn’t surprised.  She said they can change in color, length and softness.

Okay, I have some more orders to fill and some more bags and boxes to pack.  I’m hoping to get back in my studio tomorrow, but I have to say, it’s been an exciting couple of days.

The sheep grazing
The sheep grazing, all their wool in boxes and bags.

4 thoughts on “Bags of Wool and Boxes of Bumps

  1. The rhythm of country life is different to that of the city. Or, it can be. We, like you and Jon, do most of our own work here in the country, buy our wood in long tree length logs, my husband cuts it up into burnable lengths with a chain saw, then we get a splitter to split the wood up and stack it in round mounds on the property. Our lives blend with the rhythm of the seasons, preparing for winter is the main focus. And like you have discovered with your sheep and wool sideline, what may be a sideline for you, brings in a little extra money that you may not have expected but find you appreciate and enjoy. Your wool colours are soft and lovely, I would think as the sheep mature, their coats may also vary from when the sheep were younger. Country living can bring such unexpected pleasures but there are people living here who lived as in the city, hiring people to do all the work that they hired in the city for similar work, gardeners, etc. We are a decade older than you and Jon but still physically fit for all the work we do around the property. Not our style even if we could afford it. Keep your sheep going, Maria, if you can. The colours of your wool are beautiful. And bumps? It’s a term I don’t know.
    SandyP in S.Ontario, Canada

  2. oh, wow! Congrats, Maria! I was still trying to decide which I might want to buy… guess I’ll be quicker on the draw next year! Good for you, tho! how fun to have so many interested fiber artists!
    –Anne

  3. Thank Jon, Maria, for explaining what ‘bumps’ are…first I’ve heard of the term, but then, I quilt, not weave.
    SandyP

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