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A special delivery for the sheep

Winter on the smallholding is all about keeping our woolly friends fed, watered and mucked out.

The beginning of November marks the start of the “big hay ceremony”.  This means that every morning and evening we fill the feeders up with fresh hay while the sheep mill around “helping” – which roughly translates to them helping themselves to hay while we attempt to get it in the feeders!

eagerly awaiting new bucket licks

The hay sees them through until spring but if the winter is mild they’ll spend less time at the feeders and trundle up the hill to the higher pastures foraging for grass and small plants bravely making an appearance.  Winter grass isn’t very nutritious though and our Ryelands are lowland sheep and not as tough as their hill bred cousins.  The wouldn’t survive a Scottish winter without their daily hay.

new buckets arriving!

This year the winter has been particularly cold, we’ve had snow on the ground for more than two weeks and since Christmas the sheep had had enough of foraging in the hills and set up camp in the paddock by the house.  The paddock is their sanctuary, a lot of our sheep were born in the paddock so it’s also a nursery.  It’s a safe place for them to come to to get out of the elements.  There’s a big shed where they can shelter from the rain, there are also apple trees which they enjoy sitting under whilst chewing the cud.  But best of all, the paddock is home to their hay feeders and their favourite big orange buckets.  These orange buckets are a special winter treat which sheep adore, they’re lick buckets which contain nutrients, vitamins and minerals and lots of yummy ingredients.  They just can’t get enough of them!

yummy yum!

Yesterday the sheep had licked their buckets clean and were eagerly awaiting new ones.  As I heaved the buckets out of the wheelbarrow and dragged them into the barn I had barely got the lids off when I was set upon by nineteen teddy bears in a Winney the Pooh rugby scrum.  Fortunately I managed to get out more or less unscathed and sat on a straw bale to recover whilst watching their happy faces listening to them licking away for all they were worth, happy days! 😊

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Autumn Harvest

As they days shorten and the night draws in, the autumn harvest is coming to a close. The onions are all tied up in onion strings. We had a much better crop this year, netting them off helped stop the birds digging them up. As ever, those grown from seed soon caught up with the onion sets so maybe we’ll just sow seeds in future.

autumn homebrewThe last apples are clinging to our neighbour’s apple tree. Those on the ground are being hoovered up by blackbirds or whisked away in the beaks of crows. Our apples are all picked, and have found their way into the freezer (for future apple crumbles) or the brewing room where cider and cider vinegar production is underway.

It has not been that warm but fermentation has continued, albeit a little slowly.

turnips
turnips

We still have a few winter crops left, plenty of beetroot and turnips sit petiently in the ground awaiting their turn to be made into soup. The nematodes did their work and slug damage has been minimal. The mice or moles have, however, been helping themselves to the beetroot. Fortunately, this year they are large so there’s plenty left for us.

The carrot box did brilliantly and there are only one or two carrots left so one job this winter will be to build a second box. It has been a long time since I have managed to grow perfectly shaped carrots.

The only crop not doing so well are the brussell sprouts. Seemingly strong and healthy plants are producing few sprouts. We’ve been racking our brains on this one though general consensus seems to be stress (they’d fallen over) and nitrogen deficiency (though healthy leaves would contradict this). So, not too much green veg for the winter motnhs.

Preparation for next year is well underway with lots of mulching.

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Dogs Talk – new book published

After eight months of writing, re-writing, editing, re-reading and proof checking, I am pleased to say I have finally published my second book “Dogs Talk – Four Dogs Tell Their Stories”. The original idea actually came from a journal kept a few years ago by a dog called Kika.

Kika the sight hound
Kika

Kika came to stay with us while her owner was in hospital. Kika had many issues and was what could best be described as a badly behaved dog. I say this as an experienced dog psychologist who has helped a number of problem dogs over the years.

George the Anatolian shepherd
George

In an attempt to explain some of the principles of dog psychology to her owner without sounding bossy or patronising, Kika kept a journal. The idea was that Kika’s explanations, from a dog’s perspective, would help Kika’s owner better understand Kika’s needs. By doing so, Kika would become both happier and better behaved. I added a number of useful pointers at the back. It was called the Kika Chronicles.

Maxi the terrier
Maxi

Over the years, I have had a number of dogs, each a rescue dog and each with it’s own set of issues. Building on the idea of the Kika Chronicles, I wrote three sections, one for each dog, relating their experiences on moving in with me. Each is written as though it is the dog telling its own story.

Haribo the tri-colour collie
Haribo

The three dogs are quite different in terms of breeds, needs, issues and temperament. Each presented a unique challenge. All benefitted and became happier and more balanced dogs.

To find out more, read on…

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Mind the Gap

new fence trees planted

As autumn turns into winter and the harvest is complete, our focus turns to winter jobs. These are mostly maintenance to the walls and fences. There are a number of gaps where previous owners have taken down stone dykes for one reason or another and they look kind of wrong, for want of a better term.

new fenceI like doing these kind of outdoor jobs in the winter because there are no midges. First stop was a gap between a stone dyke and a gate. at around 10m, it was too long to put in a stone dyke mainly because there were not enough stones lying around. We decided on a combination of hedge and fence. Some extra hawthorns were added to a pending tree order (we plant trees most winters too) and I got to work putting in the fence. For once this was easy. The ground was soft and the posts went in with just a few taps. No underground rocks lay in wait. Further, at one end a fence already existed so there was a large, strong post already in place.

After the fence was in, I added some trees. There are a lot of self seeding willow and hazel trees growing in inappropriate places, so I dug about 20 of these out and planted them in their new home. Once the hawthorns arrive, I’ll add the hedge and also plant up the surrounding area with a small mixed woodland.

 

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Bot’s explosive bot

Hario the tri-colour collie

We have two dogs here, George and Haribo and both have a number of pet names. For example, George is often called “G” and Haribo “H”. Haribo also gets called “Bot”. This is a shortened version of “Haribot” which was spawned during the period Britain had the “maybot” as prime minister.

Anyway, recently, Haribo(t) has taken to leaving us presents in the night. These are not pleasant presents, in fact they are night time poos. These have been coming in various sizes, textures and smells, all spread across a wide area (as collies like to do) and all of which are not a lot of fun to clean up. Not every night, but pretty much one night in two. As you can imagine, we didn’t take photos.

We tried the most likely approaches of which, top of the list, was a good worming. A good wormer was procured from the vet but it only seemed to help for a week or so. We wormed him again with much the same result. The night time poos continued to adorn the morning living room floor.

We switched both dogs’ meals so that they got their large meal in the morning and a snack in the evening. Still the poos came. We were scratching our heads. Haribo is only eight so it shouldn’t be an age related issue.

Finally, the penny dropped. Haribo had become quite overweight a while back and so his food was reduced. While doing wonders for his shape and fitness, his tummy is still in denial. As such, Haribo has honed his scavenging skills. Now, we knew he had a pretty stronge urge to eat poo. He likes sheep poo the best, but any poo will do. Because of this, we had been keeping an eye on him. However, like most dogs, he knows exactly when he’s not being watched. As soon as he thinks the coast is clear, he’ll scavenge a bit of poo. Leave him in a down, turn your back, wait a few seconds and turn back and he’ll still be in a down. However, it won’t be where you left him. He’ll have shuffled over a bit, scoffed a quick poo and will be lying there licking his lips with a “butter wouldn’t melt” expression.

So, we tried an experiment – we put him on a lead. That might sound like no big deal but normally the dogs get to roam freely when we walk through our fields. Not that freely, truth be told, as Haribo’s partner in crime, George, also has a bit of a scavenging habit, but that’s another story. Anyway, by keeping Haribo close, we have managed to block his poo eating efforts. And it has worked, we are now getting up in the morning to a clean living room floor. Bliss! Also, Haribo likes being on the lead. Well, he’s a collie and they like being given something to do even if it’s just an instruction to walk next to you.

The whole episode has spawned a new musical ditty, often to be heard being sung around the house – “no shitee in the nightee”

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Something new in the shop😀

From time to time I am asked if I run courses on making felted fleece rugs.

Last year I pondered hosting courses here on our smallholding.   The trouble is, I wasn’t sure how I would best be able do this because the method I use to make these rugs is quite time consuming.  Each rug is carefully constructed putting locks into place little by little.  As you can see if you click here, one rug takes about a week to make.

As I was pondering what to do, our friendly virus made an appearance, hmm I thought, what to do?  Then my brain clicked into gear, why don’t I offer a downloadable course that people can learn do in their own time?

So I got to work, and fast-forward a few months …

I am happy to announce to you fabulous crafty folk who love all things sheepie, that I have just uploaded a course and it is available to order from our shop!!  Click here for more info 😊

I’ve been working on this for quite a while as you can see from the videos, I filmed myself at work in the height of summer, midges and all.  Seems like a long time ago now as I look out of the window at the autumn drizzle.

Once I’d written the instructions I wanted to test them out on a willing victim so I sent them to a pal in Australia along with the videos.  I’m very happy to report that the instructions apparently make sense.  My friend made a fabulous rug and has since made a few more, (perhaps I should mention that it’s quite addictive)!

Happy my instructions worked, I couldn’t wait to get them uploaded and available to the whole wide world.  But I was stopped in my tracks by Adrian (hubs) who suggested editing them.  “Hmph” I thought, “how annoying, I’m sure they’re fine and won’t need a re-read”.  Well Adrian wasn’t going to let it go – I suspect he wanted to make the most of this opportunity and get his own back on me for me scribbling zillions of notes and drawing silly faces all over the smallholding book he wrote last year and the dog book he is in the middle of writing now.

Sure enough, back came my pretty booklet, all covered in scribbles.  I had to admit though, once I’d deciphered the hieroglyphics masquerading as handwriting, I was secretly pleased Adrian had offered his editing services as I was shocked to realise there were a lot of typos lurking, not to mention some rather dubious grammar.

Well since then I’ve made the final changes and we’ve put everything into a zip file and made it available at long last.

If any of you order the course and make a rug I would love to hear from you, please include photos of your creations!  I can’t wait to see already!

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A new role for Tina Sparkle

Two weeks ago our dear brave hennie Bim, passed away to the Great Hen Run in the Sky.

Bim fit and healthy again
Bim

Bim was a remarkable hen, she lived a whole year and a half longer than predicted since developing a serious condition called “egg yolk peritonitis”.

Basically this meant that every time Bim laid an egg, the yolk would miss popping into the egg shell and instead, slip into her coelomic cavity where it festered and became infected.

Since being diagnosed back in the summer of 2019, Bim somehow managed to shrug off the infection (with a bit of help from us but mostly by her own remarkableness) and carried on with her every day business of scratching around, bobbing about and laying eggs, well, internal ones anyway.

When Bim was first diagnosed, we gave her antibiotics, then garlic and other potions to keep her going in between the antiobiotic injections, click here to see more: and here, and here

Winter came and her swelling subsided in line with the hens not laying over the winter months.

Cherokee the cockerel

 

 

With the arrival of spring though, Bim started to swell up again and our hearts’ sank.

Bim swelling
Bim and her swelling

We thought long and hard and had several cups of tea over which we made the decision to leave off the injections.  She’s an elderly hen and we felt the invasive treatment would cause her more stress than the condition itself.  Being an older girl, her breast was on the skinny side and it was actually really tricky to find some muscle to stick the needle in.  So we continued to monitor her through the peak egg laying months, spring and summer, and continuted to give her garlic and cider vinegar.

One day earlier in the year, April or thereabouts, Bim decided she’d had enough of garlic and refused to eat any more.  I can’t say I blame her, she was developing very garlicky breath and Cherokee the cockerel and the other hens had been complaining.

Garlic-free, Bim seemed happy enough despite the swelling which caused her to waddle like a penguin.  We continued to monitor her and the swelling came and went but never completely disappeared.

Sometimes I think perhaps the reason Bim kept going for so long was because she had an important job to do, she was “Top Hen”!  This meant that she was first to the corn in the morning, and, well, first to everything really.  Her status meant that the other hens looked up to her and gave her lots of respect, including Cherokee the cockerel.

If any of the hens stepped out of line, Bim would give them a sharp telling off in the form of a peck.  The hens and Cherokee all understood this and were happy to follow Bim’s lead.

Right up to her last day, Bim commanded respect amongst the flock, however, we suspected we knew who was “second in command” and who would take over when eventually Bim breathed her last breath.

Tina Sparkle embracing her new role

And that was Tina Sparkle.

Tina Sparkle is a confident hen of a certain age.  We inherited her when we moved to Auchenstroan so we’re not actually sure how old she is, she could be 5 or 6 or older.  Tina Sparkle is a small hen, particularly compared to Bim who was a big girl, but she doesn’t let her size get in the way of her natural leadership skills.  She has slipped into Bim’s shoes very happily, and the other hens (not forgetting Cherokee) are all more than happy to follow her lead.

We wish Tina Sparkle every success in her new role and have no doubts that she is the right lady for the job.  Congratulations Tina Sparkle!

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Polytunnel built at last

polytunnel complete

As anyone who has read my book might now realise, it’s hard keeping up with everything on a smallholding. This is particularly true as we both have to work to pay the bills. A while back, I mentioned this loss of control of some of the veggie patches in a blog entry – Taking back control – one area of the vegetable garden had gone completely wild.

veggie patch overgrown
veggie patch overgrown

This area was where we should have been growing our salad crops. However, last year the slugs and snails had got the lot and so we were experimenting with pots. We took our eyes of the veggie patch and the weeds took advantage. The pots were not a great success, really lettuces and so on need their roots in the ground to flourish. We had a think about it and thought a polytunnel might prove the answer. Under cover, the salads should do better (it can be a bit wet and windy here). The tomatoes, too, would flourish.

polytunnel area covered
Weed suppression underway

We measured the area and bought ourselves a polytunnel which, of course, arrived in kit form. I stored it in a shed while we started preparing the ground. The paths were covered in old carpet and the beds in cardboard and wool. This suppressed most of the weeds, the buttercups proving the hardest to conquer.

Then it was time to get the build underway. The original plan was to have a contractor put it up. We are so busy it was hard to see where we’d find time to build it ourselves. However, some unexpected roof repairs and a contractor that was also very busy meant I decided to put it up myself. How hard could it be?

Not too hard, as it happened. Not an easy start when I found the instruction leaflet soaking wet and illegible. Thank goodness for the internet and PDF downloads. Having watched the instruction video, I made one of my better decision – rather than going all out and building it in one go, I broke it down into stages.

The first was getting the water pipe and electric cable ready. We had installed a large rainwater tank earlier in the year and the pipe was ready and waiting. It just needed to be put underground and into the polytunnel. The electric cable was laid at the same time.

polytunnel frame up
polytunnel hoops

Next was getting the foundations and hoops in place. That went pretty well though, that said, the instructions on squaring the foundations were correct but hard to implement. My maths background was suddenly useful as I designed a simple way to get this right. Quite easy really, I just tied the four corners together with string at the correct length and put them in the ground at roughly the right place. Then I connected the diagonals with string (at the correct length) and marked the middle of the string. Then all I had to do was line up the centres of the diagonals while keeping all the string taut. Took about 20 minutes. That done, the foundations could be drilled into place. After that, the hoops could go up and I had welcome assistance from Nicole in getting them installed. It was starting to take shape.

The following day, I put up the rest of the frame. This included A frame bars to add extra strength – it can get pretty stormy here. The door frames proved challenging insofar as it was at this point I found that the existing path and veggie beds were not square and some realignment was needed. I took the opportunity to add frames around all the veggie beds to keep the soil in place.

polytunnel frame complete
polytunnel frame complete

It seemed a good idea to sort out the interior as much as possible before the plastic went on. I had a day or two to do this as I had planned the plastic installation for that rare sunny, wind free day that we sometimes get here. I knocked in a couple of posts and installed the tap and electrical sockets. I also created an area for Nicole to use in her rug making. Making felted fleece rugs uses a lot of water and here, the water could flow freely into the ground (as opposed to all over a wooden shed floor).

That all done, it was time to get the plastic on. This turned out to be harder than it looked. I was working on my own and while I got most of the main area taut, one panel ended up a bit loose. Nicole helped around the door frames with the platting and pulling the plastic tight. The plastic was held in place by metal spring clips which, while fairly simple to install, took its tool on my fingers – blisters galore.

Nevertheless, it’s up, it works and all the veggie beds have been mulched. I have tidied it up around the outer edges sinking the plastic into the ground and laying membrane and gravel to keep the weeds down. We are looking forward to a bumper salad crop next year.

polytunnel complete
polytunnel complete

 

 

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The story of Vera, a sore ear, and a tube of toothpaste

If you are squeamish or having dinner, this story may not be for you😳

As some of you may already know from following our stories, one of our woolly girls, Vera, has been plagued by “the itchies” all summer.

She has developed photosensitisation due to (most likely) eating a plant containing an alkaloid which then causes, in some cases, an allergic reaction to the sun.

Her condition slowly develops with the advance of summer, and then dwindles with the onset of autumn.  During the height of summer, Vera can often be found on her own seeking shelter in the pig ark or the lambing shed, somewhere away from the sun’s rays.  Exposure to the sun causes her un-woolled parts to become red and itchy and gets worse after shearing.

A complication arising from this is haematomas of the ear caused by shaking of the head as a result of the itching and general irritation.   Blood vessels then burst which in turn causes swelling and more discomfort.

It’s a vicious cycle and poor Vera has been in and out of the inspection pen almost daily while we applied udder cream to her sore skin, (we used to use sudocreme but have since discovered udder cream to be much better).  We’ve also been giving her steroid injections on and off through the summer to help with the swelling,  and we’ve also been checking her daily for the shepherd’s nemesis; blowfly activity, aka maggots, (the blowfly have been quite a problem this summer).  Lately we’ve added another job to our Vera care, we’ve been cleaning her ear with cotton wool dipped in hibiscrub as her left ear has been leaking puss recently, probably due to the haemotoma becoming infected.

If you’re eating whilst reading this, you may want to finish first 😉

Two weeks ago, Vera’s ear started to look quite bad, it was already swollen from the haematoma, but the addition of the puss and blood made it look even worse.  The appearance of puss and blood sounds worse than it actually is.  If “stuff” was coming out of the ear that meant that it was draining and the infection would eventually clear by itself, it’s the body’s way of getting rid of things.  But we needed to watch her carefully and make sure infection didn’t take hold.  Sheep are very stoical and will be brave for a long time before giving up over-night.  So we upped our checks and also phoned the vet to check if we should be doing anything other than the daily hibiscrub clean up.  We were advised to give her a long acting antibiotic and to keep keeping an eye on her.

We duly did this, we gave her her first jab of Betamox yesterday and wiped her ear clean whilst being thankful there are hardly any flies around now what with it being September.

Today we had hoped to see some small improvement, but poor Vera seemed to be shaking her head more, and her ear was still enormous, almost fit to burst.

We had a cup of tea and decided to call the vet out to have a look, just to be sure.  We didn’t think the infection was draining fast enough, it looked as though things were backing up, and although the antibiotic would be a safety net for Vera, it wouldn’t stop the immediate discomfort caused by the pulsating swelling.

The vet came out this very afternoon, it was Linda.  Linda, like the rest of the team at the local vet surgery is gentle, caring and very knowledgeable.  She knows Vera well, and Vera also knows Linda though tends to give her a wide berth!

So before Linda arrived we penned Vera up.

Once Linda arrived we got to work, we knew what Linda would be doing would be quite invasive and we had to keep Vera as still as possible.

We backed Vera into a corner and Adrian made sure she didn’t swing her rump round and try a three point turn.  I supported her head, while Linda held her ear and got to work.

First she inspected it closely and confirmed our suspicions, there was an infection going along the whole length of the ear.  There were two main “pockets” of infection, one at the tip end, and one at the other bottom end.

There was already a small escape route at the bottom end where blood had been seeping out for the last week or so.  However Linda wasn’t sure if the two pockets were connected and wasn’t keen on lancing both sites as there are lots of blood vessels in the ear.

She decided to work at the top end where the blood vessels are more spaced out and there would be less risk of nicking one.

She inserted a needle into the first pocket and squeezed.

Turn away now if you’re squeamish.

Quite a lot of puss came out, but not enough.

So Linda asked us to get some warm water and hibiscrub, she wanted to squirt water through to completely wash it out.

Now here’s the interesting part, it turned out both infection sites were connected, so when Linda injected warm water through at the top, out it came at the bottom!  This was excellent news, it meant that we could wash her ear out in one go, without having to repeat the operation.

As Linda sloshed warm water through using her syringe, all I could think about as I watched what was coming out the other end, was toothpaste.  It was truly fascinating, and weirdly exciting.  Vera for her part was relaxing into the process, chewing cud and giving the occasional sigh.  At times she looked up, stretching her neck with her eyes half closed, it must have been like having a very itchy spot scratched, deep below the surface, a spot which has been itchy for a long time, what a relief!

When there was no more toothpaste coming out and only clear water, we all came up for air.  We were a bit spattered but very happy.  Vera’s ear looked much better, it was still a bit swollen from the internal damage caused by the haematoma, but it had lost that red, angry look.  We gave Vera a wee treat of her favourite sheep nuts and led her out to join the others.

We thanked Linda and said goodbye, put the kettle on and had some tea and plum crumble, I almost declined the cream but decided I was too hungry to say no 😋

 

 

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The tale of the “little” wooden sheep

chainsaw carved sheep wearing jacket

As lots of you know who visit our page, I take on commissions as well as selling things from our shop.  I’m mainly asked to make rugs for people but sometimes I get more unusual requests, for example, recently a lady with her own flock of sheep asked me to make some cushions from her favourite sheep’s fleeces.   Sometimes the unusual requests are, well, slightly more unusual shall we say, in this particular case anyway – I was asked to make a jacket for a chainsaw carved, solid wooden sheep called “Lamby”.

To make things even more fun, the request was top secret, a birthday surprise for a friend of ours, Christine, who farm-sits for us on the rare occasions that we go away.

I had to be careful not to let anything slip out in conversation and had to work to a time scale to have the jacket ready in time for the birthday surprise!

So I allocated two weeks, and set about rummaging in the shed for the ideal fleece.

Now I should point out that “Lamby” the wooden, chainsaw carved sheep is actually a sculpture of a real live sheep belonging to our friend.  So I had several photos to work with so I could make the jacket look authentic.  Lamby is a Texel – Herdwick cross, and I had plenty of the right fleeces in the shed because to make things even more fun, our birthday friend Christine, happens to be the lady who gives me her fleeces every year!

So, armed with the perfect fleece, complete with purple paint spray on the bottom, I set about preparing it.  This means going through the fleece and selecting the nicest looking locks.  Not all locks are the same in one fleece, some are matted, prone to breakage, badly sheared, or just plain “manky”!  I like to cherry pick my locks so that only the nicest go into what I’m making.

In the meantime, Christine’s husband, Russell, said he’d bring the wooden sheep over and leave it with me so I could get all the measurements I needed.

Now for some strange reason I had imagined the wooden sheep to be like one of those toys on wheels that you drag around.  I’m not sure why I thought this, but when Russell arrived with the wooden sheep fresh from the chainsaw carver (https://www.facebook.com/chipoffchainsawcarving/), I nearly fell over backwards.  He opened the boot of his pick-up, and there she was, she was enormous!!  Probably bigger than the biggest sheep I’ve ever seen.  Once I’d recovered myself and my husband and Russell had given themselves hernias getting her out of the car and heaving her into the shed with ratchet straps, I could see she was just beautiful!  Intricately carved with amazing attention to detail I was left a bit speechless to be honest, which my husband would probably say is a rare occurrence.

The following day, after mulling things over and waking up a bit in the night in a cold sweat, I decided I’d need at least two more fleeces, one wasn’t going to be big enough.  I also started to wonder if two weeks would be enough time to get the job done.  Bearing in mind I’ve never made a felted fleece jacket before, least of all for a wooden sheep!

But in amongst the panic I was also hugely excited.  I absolutely love making stuff, I love sewing, I love felt making, and this task would embody my two favourite things!  Like a woman possessed I started to plan designs in my head, would I line it?  Should I add a hood?  What colour lining should I make? Should I make it reversible? How would it fasten?  I had excitement butterflies from all the mulling and absolutely couldn’t wait to get started.  Soon my work space started to resemble a mad professor’s workshop, there was wool everywhere, bits of pattern paper, bubble wrap, pink spotty fabric, it was such FUN!!!! By now I had a vision in my mind as to how I wanted the Lamby jacket to look and had it all drawn out on pattern paper.  (Well, I had to order some more pattern paper actually as I’d scribbled so many “first attempts” that I ran out of paper!)  I also cut up a few old bed sheets to make my “toiles” much to Adrian’s horror, “are those our new bedsheets from Marks and Spencer’s”? He asked me as I disappeared into my parlour like a puff of smoke!

Days went by and I worked away, I sweated and toiled as I tore locks from fleeces and made huge piles of “usable locks” and “locks for veggie patch”  (non-usable locks would be used as mulch in the garden).

A week went by and I decided I had enough locks to start laying them out onto my enormous template ready and waiting in the shed.

Off I went trailing wool in my wake and Adrian didn’t see me for days as I placed locks of wool, small bunches at a time, until the entire template was completely covered.  It was laborious work, but seeing it grow before my eyes was deeply satisfying, a bit like putting compost on the garden.  You start counting wheelbarrow loads, at first you work out there are 50 more loads to go, and then suddenly you realise there are only 3!!

At long last, with the template covered with locks, I was ready to add the hot water and soap and begin felting.

I pondered how much water I’d need.  Normally to make a large rug I use two enormous pans full.  For this job I reckoned I would need at least 6.

Pans ready on the aga, I started to felt, running backwards and forwards between the shed and the kitchen like a bee, I thought, this is what it must have been like for a Victorian girl working “in service”, carrying huge boiling pans of water to and fro.  I spared a thought for my Auntie Edie who worked “in service” in a big house during the 1920s.  Auntie Edie would have been proud of me, I inherited her Singer sewing machine and I was sorry she couldn’t see what I was getting up to, we would have had a cup of tea together and discussed fabric and wool and things like that.

But back to felting, three days went by and I repeated the water ceremony.  I wet the wool, massaged it, soaped it, rolled it up, then I rolled the bundle 400 times and let it rest.

On day three after a total of 1,600 rolls I was satisfied the wool had felted.

Now to let it dry!!

I absolutely couldn’t wait for it to dry so I could try it out for size on Lamby, and begin to snip it to shape so I could start the fun part, attaching the pink spotty lining to it!

But I had to be patient, oh dear, not my favourite thing I do admit.

So I hurried things along and stuck it on the aga.

In two days it was dry (ish), and I took my scissors to it.

Then I cut out the lining and realised I’d made a wee mistake, I needed to be able to turn the whole thing inside out as I’d be sewing it together “right sides facing” but the felted fleece was so huge I’d need to allow a long slit to be able to turn it the right side out.  I’d later sew the slit up by hand and make it as discreet as possible.  I decided to cut the lining down the middle but in my excitement I forgot to add seam allowance.  Luckily I’d ordered twice as much fabric as I needed, phew!! I set about cutting it correctly and this time my plan worked!

I fought with the sewing machine and pondered getting a more rufty tufy one one day, but meanwhile, I squeezed everything through and my John Lewis machine did me proud.  I was pleased as punch!

With the jacket now finished all that was left for me to do was try it on Lamby, and let Russell know he could come and collect it ready for the next day.

I’m very pleased to report that Christine loves her wooden sheep complete with woolly jacket 😊