Uncategorized
The Dorset Wool Year – May and June 2021
Jul
So, I have combined two months together. The time has flown by this year and life outside Dorset Wool went a bit crazy…. Not least the amount of Science tutoring as young people prepared for exams.
May and June 2021 – Weather Report
May was cold, wet and horrible – enough said really. We even had hail/snow on several days. The plants shivered and the sheep huddled. I was hoping for lambs, but as the weather didn’t improve at any stage, I was glad they didn’t appear.
June didn’t improve much. There were some really warm days and I felt for the sheep in their woolly coats. The trouble was it wasn’t really dry enough to do anything. At least it warmed up enough for the plants to start to grow and flower. This included the thistles, which seem to have benefitted from the cold and damp weather…
Sheep Report
I continued to keep the flocks apart, so that when lambs appeared I would be able to look after them better. Sadly, no lambs arrived. I am not sure why, but the ewes were a little large (fat) and it was a young ram lamb. There was another factor though and that was dogs. There is a path beside the field I have traditionally kept for my in-lamb ewes and where we have lambed most years. It wasn’t until I was watching more carefully that I realised the ewes were getting very worried by the free-running dogs that came passed throughout the day. People don’t seem to understand that sheep don’t need to be in the same field as their dogs to be worried by them. There have been several occasions when my sheep have been worried by dogs that have got into the field. This makes them wary of any dog running by…. The ewes appear to have been pregnant as they have developed mammary tissue but have lost the lambs at some point. I will have to rethink what I do next year or I will lose all the great fibre genes I have in the flock.
In the few warm days towards the end of the month, I managed to shear some of the sheep. It takes a great deal of time to catch and quietly shear them in the field. I did manage to beat some of the fly strike – flies have also benefitted from the cold and damp weather…
Dorset Wool
In May, I returned to the crafting community group. We meet every Thursday morning from 10am – 12pm at Frampton Village Hall and the cost is £3 per session. Everyone is welcome, so if you are local or not so local, please pop along, all crafts are encouraged and discussed. In August I will be giving a free workshop on Nalbinding. There are workshops every month, but we all give help and advice to each other as well as have a laugh.
In June, my parents visited so I took a much need week off. We had a lovely time catching up with family and visited Sculpture by the Lakes during their Arts week. This meant meeting friends I hadn’t seen for over a year and of course admiring crafters work and the sculptures. I also gave a young lady a one-to-one spinning lesson which was lovely and I am available to give tutorials again now.
Coming Up
On Thursday 15th July (that’s in 2 days) at 2.30pm I am presenting a go-live on the Dorset Wool Facebook page. The topic is ‘How to Process a Fleece’. If you are interested, please watch, but it will also be available on replay in the ‘Live’ tab. There you will also find previous ‘lives’ on woad dyeing. I got a lovely grey blue…
Life is returning to normal, so I will be joining fellow Bronze Age reenactors in the Ancient Wessex Network at Salisbury Museum for the festival of archaeology weekend (24th – 25th July). Where we will be doing all things pre-historic and there will be opportunities to have a go at different skills. I will, of course, be focusing on textiles.
Happy Woolly Crafting
Jo
