Change of Name, Knitted Sheep and Yarn nearly done!!

I have been waiting a few weeks now for my fleece that was sent off to be washed, carded and spun in to knitting yarn, and I had a phone call on Thursday to say it was all ready now and will be sent back to me shortly.

Really excited now and I have been designing my yarn bands and POS for the yarn so when it goes into the shop it will look great and everyone will be able to see the process behind the yarn.

I have renamed my business, as you will have seen from the blog, as I think it is a better name. Olive and Friends is now a business of Knitting/Crochet yarn, patterns, Kits and items knitted using recycled/left over yarn from weaving Harris Tweed.

A little about the name I have chosen, Olive is one of my Sheep, a very friendly and naughty Blackface sheep, and has now become the figurehead for my business. Her friends (as friendly and naughty) consist of other Blackface, Cheviot, Swaledale and Hebridean sheep, and there are a few pictures below.

When I get my fleece back I will update, and also list some of the yarn for sale online so watch this space.

I am busy weaving, and whilst I weave I also knit these lovely cute sheepies (also Heeland Coo's too) out of the leftover yarn from the tweeds, available at Hebridean Hobby Crafts and soon to be online too (see my folksy shop listed at the top/bottom of this blog)

 

I will hopefully have an update and pictures of the yarn for you next Sunday but leave you with a picture of Olive and her friends!

Well its been quite a while since I have blogged, I have almost forgotten about it as I have been so busy, but going to try to get back into the swing of it.

I have been busy with weaving the beautiful Harris Tweed in my (breezy) but lovely loom shed. The weather here has been great over the last 6 or so weeks, only the last week we have had a fair bit of rain, needed though to make the grass grow, its a costly business feeding sheepies.

I have sent off my collection of fleece from last years shearing, 24kilos in total, to the Natural Fibre Company, in Cornwall to be spun into yarn. 2 big bags went down last week and it is in the process of being washed, carded and spun into beautiful yarn, which will then be available for sale in Hebridean Cottage Crafts, Point Street, Stornoway.

I am also hoping to make some patterns to go with the yarn so I can sell some kits so watch this space for pictures of my new patterns.

I am also knitting wee sheep and Heeland Coo's out of harris yarn, I make them whilst im weaving, to sell in Hebridean Cottage Crafts too, pictures of them to follow.

I leave you with a picture of the bags of fleece that got sent off.

Oh Dear, Broken Technology!

Well my plan to blog more often has not really worked, I have a camera that wont turn on and have just gone to charge my FlipHD video camera and noticed that I have cracked the lens cover! I have been on line and it can be replaced by a watch repairer so that the plan in town tomorrow, after the Olympic torch as gone as I wont be able to park when the torch is going through town!

My next blog was going to be pictures of my knitted donkeys, that I am knitting for the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon. I have made 3 mini wooleys and 2 large woolies at the moment, more to be made before my trip down to visit in August.

If anyone wants the patterns for these (and there are crocheted patterns for items too) you can contact Ruth Burrough through the Donkey Sanctuary website and they can be emailed out.

If the stills camera really wont work, I will be getting another in August, but going to try everything I can (short of hitting it! - well I wont hit it too hard).

Ducks and Donkeys

Well its been ages since I have posted, so have decided to start to post a little more regular now. I have a new Laptop so its much more easy and quick to upload pictures, and thanks to my coming second in a competition I now have a very cool Flip ultraHD video camera! Never had one before so I have been experimenting, and below is my first movie!

The 3 drakes that are on the beginning of the movie have been removed from living with the ladies as they are a little too amorous and keep leaping on my ladies! The other 2 drakes still living with the ladies are much more sedate.

I am making this year my year for charity knitting, and although I have only made one I have decided to make lots of knitted donkeys for The Donkey Sanctuary, Sidmouth, in the South West of England. I love donkeys and when we lived in England I used to go and see them, now whenever we visit family down in England we make a point of visiting the Donkeys. I have until the End of August to knit a whole heard so watch this space!!

Long time, New arrivals and Learning New things!

Well its been a very long time since I last blogged, I can't believe where the time has gone really. Since the last blog I have taken on some new sheep, 2 lovely Blackface ewe's called Olive and Minty, 2 Hebridean ewes called HS1 and HS2 (Hebridean sheep 1 and 2, and also local post codes!) and 3 Hebridean Rams, PopEye, Brutus and Kevin! Taken from a friend that could no longer look after them they have settled in well and are super friendly (able to give them a cuddle, friendly!)

                                          My 4 New Girls (Olive is at the front, as usual)

I have also decided that I get 'second Sock syndrome', now for those of you that have never knitted socks its the feeling that you get that once you have made one sock, you have no desire to make the other, leaving one very lovely but sad single sock.

I decided to remedy this by getting the book, Toe Up 2 at a time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes and give it a try. It is also a first for knitting toe up too and to me seems like the perfect thing to do, as you don't run out of yarn, you just knit the leg as long as the yarn let you as the toe and foot are done first.

I have cast on and done the toes tonight, and I'm already addicted to doing it this way. The increase for the toe looks really neat and both socks will turn out the same. I would recommend this book! Pictures to follow of socks in progress!

We had last night very high winds, some parts of the Island recorded 101mph. The power was off for 16 hours and has been on and off all day, all OK, but glad the powers back on so the heating works!!

Pictures of sheared sheep, at last!

Finally got a few pictures of the sheared sheep, our friendly sheep, Timmy, was not too keen to come up and have a cuddle this morning as he usually does but none the worse for wear after their eventfull day yesterday. Timmy is the one with the T on him, it is harder to tell now they have been sheared so we sprayed him!

The Shearing is Done!

Today in the post the clippers came, just on the perfect day to start the shearing of the sheep. This is the first ever time we have done this, but my sister is a dog groomer so had a good understanding on how to handle the clippers!

It has been the most beautiful day here today, blue skies with a few white fluffy clouds, so we thought we would start. We didn't know how many would get done as the last time we caught them 2 got out and we could not get them back in the pen. We caught 4 to sart with, the black on evaded us but after the white ones were done, and with a little pursuasion with a bucket of food we got him too, we got them all sheared in under 3 hours, and I have 5 lovely fleeces that are ready to be washed for spinning.

Take a look at the pics, there is only one of them sheared at the moment, and as you can see they are not too keen to get too close at just yet, it will take a day or so for them to come back down and let us get near!

From This

To This!

As you can see, they are not too keen to come too close!

The Black sheep has faded over time, the ends are brown and the underneath is grey!

Pictures to follow of the sheared sheep, when they like us again! There was no one spare to take pictures while the shearing was being done, it was all hand on deck. The sheep do look very cute now they have their summer cuts, they look like lambs again and were running and playing after being sheared, I bet they feel better with out all that fleece on now.