Suzy’s Shawl Osage and Oatmeal is 19×65″. It is $175 + $15 shipping you can buy it here.
I don’t have to wonder if Suzy’s color choices for her shawls are influenced by the natural world. I just have to look at the photos she sends of her shawls with the landscape behind them.
Osage and Oatmeal , named for some of the wool Suzy used to make it, is her last shawl of the season. We’ll have to wait till next year for more. I love how the subtly of the colors reveal themselves. The pinkish tinged white is called Oatmeal and the solid green stripe is naturally dyed with Osage, a tree in the mulberry family.
The locks spun throughout the white is also naturally dyed.
The mohair Suzy uses in her Shawls come from her Angora goats Alice, Ruth, Lucy and April. The naturally dyed wool in Osage and Oatmeal comes from a fiber artist who Suzy met at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.
As always, each of Suzy’s shawls is a unique piece of wearable art. She hand spins all the yarn and hand knits each shawl. They are washed in a natural solution which makes them extra soft.
Osage and Oatmeal is 19″x65″ and is $175 + $15 shipping. You can buy it in my Etsy Shop, just click here. Or you can email me at [email protected]. I take checks, PayPal and Venmo.
Below is a video of Suzy’s goats April, Alice, Lucy and Ruth.
Jon was taking the video of my and my last ten skeins of wool for sale when then Zip took over. He’s been rubbing noses with the donkeys, Asher, Issachar and Suzy, but as we were taking the video Robin got into it.
As you can see in the video, Zip is so comfortable with the sheep, he went belly up for Robin.
Zip is making friends with the sheep and donkeys. Or who knows maybe they’ve been friends all along and they just decided to invite us to the party.
But back to the reason for this video, I do still have some of my Bedlam Farm Wool for sale.
I have 4 natural gray from Lori and Suzy, a mix of Romney and Border Lecister, 5 natural gray from Robin, which is pure Romney and one natural white from Merricat and Kim.
They are all 3 ply worsted and 200 yards for $27 each + shipping. They make great gifts and have inspired more than one person to learn to knit.
You can see all my wool yarn and buy them in my Etsy Shop, just click here.
Lori and Suzy’s wool, Merricat and Kim, and Robin’s wool. You can buy it here.
Although Ian arrived while it was still light out, it was soon too dark to see without the lights I hung in the pole barn that afternoon.
There were only four sheep to shear, Constance, Lori, Robin and Merricat so it went quick and easy. Except for Constance who gave Ian a hard time, but then she always does.
Constance’s wool was so long it was hard to fit into one bag.
Some people are wondering about shearing the sheep this time of year. It may seem cold to us humans, but sheep only need about a half inch of wool to keep them warm in the coldest weather. They will have gown that back in a week.
The most important thing is that they have shelter, like the pole barn where they can get out of the wind.
The days are still warm here, in the fifties this week. And the coldest night we’ve had so far was 25 degrees. These temperatures are not considered cold for the sheep. And if they do get cold, they huddle together to keep warm.
Ian shearing Robin. Robins wool is much darker than it was when I sheared it in the spring.
It is worse for the sheep to be carrying around a years worth of wool come the spring than to be shorn twice a year.
The rest of the sheep’s wool doesn’t grow as quickly as these four young Romneys. So I only shear them once a year in the spring.
Ian shearing Lori. Shearers always begin by shearing the sheep’s belly. That wool is short and usually dirty and get thrown away.
Ian did a great job as always. He’s easy with the sheep even when they give him a hard time. He talked to Lori when she got a little restless, cooing her name and she settled down. And although he doesn’t shear sheep full time anymore, he seemed more relaxed and easy going than I’d ever seen him.
When he was done and the wool tucked in plastic bags in the barn, we had Squash soup and bread for dinner. We talked about the creative life as we always do with Ian. Before he left, he read us his latest poem.
Fanny checking things out as I hung the lights in the barn
Ian will be here soon to shear the sheep.
Not all of them, just Lori, Robin, Constance and Merricat. Unlike the other sheep their wool grows long enough to shear twice a year. Last spring they had so much wool it was weighing them down.
Ian is coming after his full time job at a Slate mine, so it will be getting dark as he shears the sheep. After Jon and I got back from his appointment in Saratoga I hung a couple of flood lights in the barn to prepare for the shearing.
Fanny was curious as she always is about anything that goes on in the barnyard. And Fate was there to help in the ways she does. Zip showed up too.
I also got some other winter chores done before packing up more wool and dryer balls for the post office.
The things that need to be done this time of year are very different from the warmer months. I ran an extension cord to plug in the hens water bowl and keep it from freezing, put the storms on the bedroom windows, moved firewood into the house and got the fires going.
Ian will stay for dinner and share some of his new poems with us. I made Butternut Squash soup which I have a feeling we will all enjoy after being out in the cold. Although Ian keeps warm with his work, I’m mostly standing around watching and of course collection the wool.
Now we have to go and put the sheep in the barn. Good thing I remembered to get the grain. Without a dog to do the rounding up, grain is the only way I know to get the sheep to come to the barn.
Zip was also curious and came in the barn to see what was happening.
I’m going to make …myself learn to knit. What’s an easy place to start? It’s pretty sedating, yes? Our entire country needs to start knitting. A message from Jackie who bought my wool.
I pack up my dryer ball in paper bags, a label and my business card. In with each order is a post card with a picture of the sheep. I made the post cards last year, before Liam died. He is the first, then Issachar, whose wool is in the dryer balls and next to him Kim.
I’ve used up all the roving making dryer balls. I am still contacting people on my list and sending them out.
It’s been two weeks of shipping out my wool and it has sold very nicely, Thank you all.
Of 104 skeins I have about 25 still available. These are all natural colors, grays and whites from Robin, Biddy, Lori and Suzy, and Merricat and Kim. Some pure Romney and others a mix of Romney and Border Leicester or Karakul.
I took a video this morning introducing my sheep to people who might not know where my wool comes from. I’ll post it with the yarn in my Etsy Shop. Maybe people looking for wool on Etsy will find it, Bedlam Farm and my blog.
Supposedly, people are more likely to look at something on Etsy if there is a video.
Thank you for all the good feedback from those of you who have bought my wool. I love to hear it as you can imagine.
Ronnie is buying it as a gift for her daughter. ” My daughter is going to be so surprised with working with the REAL thing.” she wrote me.
And Stephanie learned to know when she was 15 years old, but hasn’t knit since then. “You and your sheep inspired me” she wrote.
I weighed a skein of yarn for Theresa. She’s been buying yarn by the weight not yardage for 50 years and wanted to make sure she’d have enough for a scarf. ” I love the feel of this yarn.” Theresa wrote.
So, if you love to knit or crochet or know someone else who does my wool makes a nice gift. Natural grays and white are a good combination. And Biddy’s last 4oz’s of brown Romney wool is unusually soft.
I just finished packing up my wool orders for the day, now I’m on to Dryer Balls.
I have fifty six dryer balls made and another bag of roving to make into more. I’m making the Dryer Balls from Issachar and Ashers wool. That’s a mix of Romney, Cormo and Blue FaceLeicester. They do a great job in the dryer as well as being durable.
I also started getting in touch with the people on my list from last year that want my Dryer Balls. Still not sure if I’ll have any left after I go through the list.
But I’ll find out soon.
Issachar and Asher with the rest of the sheep following.
The last two day Socks and Constance have been hanging out together. I wonder if they know that I mixed their wool together to make my red and blue yarn. It’s as if they’re saying Come on Maria, Take our picture we know you still have some red yarn to sell.
My head is full of wool.
A week of wool. Picking it up from the mill, counting it, labeling it, taking pictures and posting them in my Etsy Shop. Checking my email to see what has sold. Messaging Thank you’s (Thank you! Thank you!) and getting pictures of last years wool made into shawls and socks, making connections with people as they let me know what they will be making with the wool they bought. Words that bring me joy and encouragement.
Packing up wool in bags and boxes and bringing it to the postoffice.
Winding 8 oz balls of roving and squeezing them into plastic bags that are really just the right size. Winding 1 oz dryer balls over and over, shoving the wool balls into very long and tight socks and tying each one off with a piece of yarn. Putting them in the washer and dryer then cutting the yarn and pulling the soft compact balls out of the socks with satisfaction.
Making sure the door to the guest room/office is closed so the dogs don’t get in. What fun they would have with all that good smelling wool.
I go to bed thinking of my wool. I dream about wool, I wake up worrying that I forgot to answer an email about my wool or packed 2 blue skeins instead of 3.
And what if I can’t sell it all?
I look at the bags of wool taking up the whole bed in the guest room. 104 skeins and four 32oz bags of roving. Twice as much as usual since I only bring the wool to the mill once a year now. Over 100 labels to make and tie onto each skein. Next year I’ll come up with a more efficient way of making the labels, I think. I won’t wait for the wool to arrive to figure it out I tell myself even though I know I’m lying.
And I begin to wonder if it’s worth all the work.
I begin to doubt myself. Don’t look too closely to the numbers I warn myself. Don’t think about the Etsy fees, the cost of hay, the vet bills, repairs to the barn, the cost of brush hogging, the value of my time.
I go downstairs and find Jon in his study. Do you have a minute, I ask, are you in the middle of something? And I perch myself on the table next to his desk, my feet already resting on his leg, before he can even answer.
He turns away from his computer screen to look at me. He’s better about this kind of thing than I am. I get annoyed if I’m in the middle of doing something and get interrupted, but Jon says, “I always have time of you.”
I need a pep talk I tell him. And recite my wool fears.
He doesn’t even have to think about it. Jon tells me this is who I am. The sheep, the animals, the farm and the wool is why we are here. You love the animals he says, you love feeding them and caring for them and talking to them and taking pictures and videos of them. You love living with them and working with them.
Then he reminds me how we chose this life. We may not make a lot of money, but we get to do what we love, every day.
I give him a kiss and thank him. That’s just what I needed to hear I say. Then I’m gone and Jon’s back to his work.
I go back upstairs,open the door to the guest room and I’m greeted by the smell of wool. It’s the smell of warm and an icy cold day at the same time, the smell of earth and hay and of something soft.
I check my email and see I sold three more skeins of wool and another ball of roving. And I get back to doing the work I love.
Merricat and Kim’s Natural white, Robin’s natural gray, Constance and Sock’s Red, Biddy’s natural Brown and Lori and Suzy’s Teal with is sold out. Each Skien is $27 + Shipping You can buy them in my Etsy Shop, just click here.
Zip with my wool from Merricat and Kim, Robin, Constance and Socks, Biddy and Lori and Suzy. You can buy it here.
I was taking more pictures of some of the yarn I still have available when Zip showed up. I haven’t seen him sitting on the front porch yet, but he is often under it. A place all our cats have been fond of.
It was an unusually warm day, warm enough for a Monarch Butterfly to be eating from the Zinnia’s in front of my studio. In past years, the flowers would have fallen to the frost by now. I had my studio door open and the dogs ran in and out as I did my work.
I’m pretty beat from the week. Now I’m looking forward to a light dinner, and a glass of wine. Maybe some popcorn as Jon and I watch a mystery later on.
I want to thank all of you who have bought my wool so far. I feel like, it’s a success already.
I just sold the third ball of Issachar’s roving and more of my wool this morning.
There’s still some available.
Each skien is labeled with the sheep it came from. They are all 200 yards of 3 ply worsted. And every order comes with a Thank You post card of my sheep.
You can see all my wool and buy it in my Etsy Shop. Just click here.
Zip got a sniff of the wool I wonder if he knows it comes from the sheep.
I can hear my dryer balls thumping around in the dryer as I write this. This is part of the process of felting the dryer balls. First they go in the washer on deep wash with hot water and soap, then in the dryer on the “Hi” setting for an hour.
Once they come out I will have sixty dryer balls. I still haven’t had a chance to go through my list to see how many requests for them I have. And I still have one more bag of roving to make into dryer balls.
I’ll do that next week.
I also finished sewing my Spirit Owl Potholders today. I already sold seven of them, but I’m not sure which are sold yet, so I won’t put the remaining three up for sale in my Etsy Shop until Monday.
My head is so into my wool, I can hardly think of anything else. I haven’t taken a walk all week, but this is the way it goes when I get my wool. I put other things aside for it.
Except for my Spirit Owl, they somehow broke though.
“Your wool is the best and I like knowing the sheep that it came from. It just makes me feel good. ” Joanne, (who buys my wool every year.)
Jon visited me in my studio this afternoon when I was making dryer balls. I finished off one 320z bag of Asher’s roving making 30 dryer balls. I have two more bags to go. On Monday I’ll be getting in touch with the people on my list who asked about them last year.
I don’t know if I’ll have enough dryer ball for everyone on the list, but I imagine some of those people won’t still want them. I’ll have to see how it goes.
I sold over half my yarn already but still have more available. You can see and buy it in my Etsy Shop, just click here.
Teal wool from Lori and Suzy, Biddy’s natural brown and Red wool from Constance and Socks.
