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Rosedean Ryeland YarnRSS feed

Posted: Monday 9 May, 2016

by Rosemary Champion at 5:34pm in Smallholding 3 comments Comments closed

Well, Pixie’s teenies are doing fine. They’re quite happy having a bottle and sleeping with their mum. We had a wee scare on the Tuesday or Wednesday after they were born – when we went out to do the 10pm feed, the ewe lambs was bleeding from her back end. Phoned the vet and he said it was probably a wee membrane that had ripped as she passed faeces. She has a Hibiscrub bath and was fine by the 2am feed. They’re in at night and out during the day – the weather has been pretty good; dry, sunny but windy. Good lamb growing weather J

We’ve sold three ewes with six lambs at foot plus two gimmers up to Sutherland, to start a new Coloured Ryeland flock there. The tup lambs are being castrated tomorrow and a Louping Ill vaccine administered, then they’ll be off the following week. They’re going to a very good home – with beautiful sea views.

We had a very strange incident with the laying hens the other day. We usually have 32 or so eggs out of the brown henhouse – I went to collect eggs and there were three. Three! Following day, we got 17. We can only think that it’s crows so Dan’s put a bird scarer in front of the pophole. It seems to be working for now.

Weather-wise, it’s been a decent week – dry and mainly sunny, but windy. The fields have all dried up, so Dan should be able to get out with the harrow and topper and give those rushes a bashing. I’ve signed up for a Soil Association course on rush control without chemicals, on 7th June. We sprayed once but even with a knapsack spot spraying, it made a bit of a mess. And we don’t really like using chemicals if we can avoid it.

All our potatoes are in and the brassicas are hardening off. Other veggies are coming away too and will be ready for planting out soon. The weeds are also doing well – I need to get into the fruit garden tomorrow and weed. I think our raspberries are failing – they look pretty poor compared to previous years, I think.

The highlight of the week was the launch of Rosedean Ryelands Yarn on Saturday, at “fluph”, a yarn shop in Dundee www.fluph.co.uk. There was lots of interest and we were delighted that well known knitwear designer, Kate Davies www.katedaviesdesigns.com came along. I’m really excited about this – with interest in knitting growing, I think there’s real scope for small producers of quality fleece and yarn.

Rosedean Ryelands yarn

Dan built me a new website with an on-line shop - www.rosedeanryelands.co.uk - so if you fancy some lovely, undyed DK yarn, swing by for a look  :-)

Comments

Anne Stuart

Saturday 25 November, 2017 at 3:57pm

BOught some of your lovely Ryeland wool at the Forfar Farmers' Market some weeks ago. As you were not too sure about how much I would need, let me tell you how it went. I used 4 old no. 10 needles(can't find my needle measure to check modern equivalent ). The final measurement of the sock was - heel to top - 27cms / length of foot - 25cms - to fit mens' size 8 - and all this from one ball of wool !! So no joins were needed. I've only done one so far but thought you'd like to know. The top was longer as I wanted them to go with my husband's walking boots. They have turned out well - thick and warm. I believe they may work out a little softer if knitted on old size 9 needles. Good luck with your enterprise ! Anne Stuart

Anne Stuart

Saturday 25 November, 2017 at 4:05pm

Saturday 25 November, 2017 at 3:57pm

BOught some of your lovely Ryeland wool at the Forfar Farmers' Market some weeks ago. As you were not too sure about how much I would need, let me tell you how it went. I used 4 old no. 10 needles(can't find my needle measure to check modern equivalent ). The final measurement of the sock was - heel to top - 27cms / length of foot - 25cms - to fit mens' size 8 - and all this from one ball of wool !! So no joins were needed. I've only done one so far but thought you'd like to know. The top was longer as I wanted them to go with my husband's walking boots. They have turned out well - thick and warm. I believe they may work out a little softer if knitted on old size 9 needles. Good luck with your enterprise ! Anne Stuart

Rosemary

Monday 27 November, 2017 at 9:52am

Glad you liked the yarn and thank you for taking the time to comment on it. Hope wam feet are the order of the day!

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