Sarah Jane Humke

Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival 2018

Sarah Jane Humke

May 1, 2018

I am, once again, in charge of classes for the Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival for this year. I’m really quite proud of the class list that we have come up with for this years attendees. There’s a little something in it for almost everyone!

For the knitters, I have several great classes on offer. Annie Modesitt is teaching her famous Combination Knitting class, which has sold out at major shows everywhere, as well as her Backyard Leaves class which I have personally taken and is a fantastic skill building class. We also have two great classes by M.J. Harris, who has taught for us before and did a FANTASTIC job of it. For those interested in learning double knitting, she’s teaching a Double Knitting Basics class so that you can jump right into some seriously cool, double-sided, colorwork! M.J. is also teaching a course in shawl shaping basics. If you have ever tried to find a pattern for a specific shawl with a specific design with no luck, then this class is for you! Deb Robson is teaching one knitting class at the 2018 IS&WF and it’s her ever popular “Rare-Breeds Wool” class where you will learn about at least 10 different rare breeds of sheep by knitting them!

Weavers haven’t been left out. We have a class being taught by Deb Lundy on how to make a pinwheel table runner. Check out the photos for this awesome project!

Spinners are getting a lot of options this year. Robin Goatey is teaching a course called “Spindles of the World” in which you get to learn how to use three different types of spindles and then you get to take home the one that you like best. Such a great idea for someone wanting to learn new kinds of spindling. Kimberly Darling is back by MUCH popular request with her “No Fear Spinning: Creative Spinning Techniques” class. I remember being so jealous of the students in her class last year as they looked and sounded as though they were having a blast! Kimberly is also teaching her popular “Fractal Fascination” class which sold-out and had a waiting list last year. In it she shows you how to use those spectacular hand-painted rovings that you get so that you end-up with spectacular hand-spun yarns! Peggy Doney is a new instructor to the IS&WF this year but she’s taught her popular classes at events like Taos and Estes Park. She’s bringing us the class “Behold the (Not So) Humble Slub!”. Make sure to take a peek at the photos of what you will be learning in this class as the art yarns she’s teaching folks to make are absolutely spectacular. Deb Robson is teaching our first Friday class this year. It’s an all-day class called “Love the One You’re With” and it’s about using wools that are local to our area. We’ve been working really hard on getting her some great fleeces to play with. She’s also teaching an all-day class on Saturday all about Shetland sheep. There are so many aspects to this amazing breed that it’s hard to get it all into a single day class!

For all those folks who like to dye or play with color, we haven’t forgotten about you! Darlene Megli is offering a class called, “Not Everyone Wants to Dye!” that is going to show you how to use fiber blending to get the colors that you want for your spinning. Maggie Howe is offering not one but two dyeing classes this year. Her “Traditional Hot Pot Natural Dyes” is a great introduction to natural dyeing. Her other class, “Indigo Dyeing”, sounds like a super fun exploration of this popular natural dye. Peggy Doney is also teaching a dyeing class on Sunday called “24-Color Wheel X 2”. In it you will dye the entire rainbow, twice! Seriously, if you are interested in taking your dyeing skills to the next level, take this class.

We have two felting classes this year. One is by Rhonda Berman called “Zipper Needle Felted Art”. In it you will combine needle felting with the humble zipper and leave with an amazing ornament. Really, check out the photos of the projects! The other is a wet-felting class taught by Jill Johnson. You will leave with a felted necklace with a design of your own inspiration.

Rug hooking is becoming really popular right now which is why we’re offering the , “Intro to Rug Hooking” class with Teresa Goatey. You will gain all the skills you need to set you to hooking to your heart’s content.

We don’t just have classes for adults. The Wrights are back again this year with their popular kids classes. On Saturday they are offering the “Sunset Paper Plate Weaving” class and on Sunday the “Wet Felted Animal Habitat Playmat”. These classes are not only fun (the kids were so stinking cute singing their little songs last year) but educational as well. If you have kids, I would STRONGLY encourage you to sign them up for one or both of these classes. Besides, you cannot deny, the wet felted habitat playmat is freaking cool.

In addition to all these fantastic classes going on, we also have the ASI Wool Handling School coming to the IS&WF for the first time! This a class for shepherds who would like to be able to make more money from their flocks by having the wool clip become a larger source of income. I took this course a couple of years ago and it’s great, totally recommend it.

I’m starting to feel like one of those guys on the infomercials who keeps saying, “But wait! There’s more!” because, well, there is more! Deb Robson is going to be giving two talks during the festival. The first talk is a Saturday evening ticketed event and is about “The Magic of Wool”. It’s about all the qualities that make wool so amazing and impossible to replicate. The second talk is Sunday afternoon and is free for everyone to attend. Deb will be discussing some of her current work and answering questions from the audience. If you’re interested in her research or methodology, you won’t want to miss it!

In addition to all the great classes and talks going on, we are having shearing demos, stockdog exercises, and spinning and knitting demos by local area guilds. The Hall of Breeds is up to around twenty different breeds of sheep this year, which is amazing. There’s a fantastic fleece show with Lettie Kline judging again this year. There are photo competitions and a silent auction with lots of great prizes to win. New for this year is a Shetland sheep show which I’m personally excited about as I will probably have some sheep in it. Herbert and my three year-old niece have been “practicing” to lead for the Junior showmanship competition.

In addition to all of these fantastic events and classes going on, there are a ton of vendors as well with pretty much anything wooly your heart desires. So come, get your learning on, get your shopping on, watch some cute kids with fluffy sheep, and have a great weekend with us in Ames!

Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival Homepage

Morning Lamb

Sarah Jane Humke

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April 30, 2018

We had another lamb this morning, this time a little ewe lamb. She was born to Katherine and I had a difficult time getting a photo of her because Katherine had her under the chicken coop and wasn’t too keen on me getting close!

However, she was a brand-new baby into the world so was curious about me and came out briefly to explore.

She was so new that she was still damp and mama was trying to follow her around and clean her off still. Hopefully I will be able to get better photos of her tonight without resorting to crawling under the chicken coop!

More Lambs

Sarah Jane Humke

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April 30, 2018

Another set of lovely twins was born this weekend. Once again it was a ram/ewe set. This is good as it keeps the numbers even (though we always wish for ewes here).

This is Abigail and her twins were a little different than usual. The ewe, who is dark, is TINY. The white ram is about normal size for a single lamb. I thought that the tiny girl wasn’t healthy at first, but now I can see that she’s alert and up and running around and eating just as much as her larger brother is, she’s just really little.

First (planned) lambs

Sarah Jane Humke

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April 27, 2018

Those that follow me on instagram know that I had an unexpected lamb arrive in early March. She was born to a pair of Jacob sheep that I was given from a neighbor. The ram has been wethered but I guess that he managed to sneak one in before Christmas because, ta-da! Lamb in early March. Her name is Lisa and because her parents names are Marge and Homer (if you could hear Homers bah’s, you would understand how he received that moniker). This is little Lisa:

My Shetland flock was set to start lambing, well, yesterday. And they did. Miss Katniss, the second lamb ever born in my flock, gave birth to a perfect little ewe and ram combo.

I was nervous about this year as I have a bunch of first-timers giving birth and they are all ones born on my farm. However, Miss Katniss knew what she was doing and took to motherhood quite easily.

Here’s hoping that the rest of lambing goes as well!

Thrum-roll Please

Sarah Jane Humke

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January 14, 2018

So yeah, I made another pair of thrummed mittens. I bought a new coat and needed some mittens that matched them better than my old ones. I also wanted to make a few changes to how I made the mittens to make them work better for me.

The first pair that I made a few years ago were too short, both for the length of my hand and the wrist. I was perpetually getting icy wrists and cold fingertips. So I made this pair longer in both directions.

I also added neon yellow.

The mitten on the right is turned inside-out so that you can see the safety-yellow thrums. The mitten on the left is how it will look on my hands.

The roving is from Yarn Geek Fibers and is 22 micron Polwarth. The yarn is from Fiber Curio and Sundries and is and 80/20 Corriedale/Tencel DK weight that I held double to make it thicker (I wanted these puppies to be really warm!)

If you are looking for a thrummed mitten pattern, there are a number of them online for free. These were sort-of Frankenknit using the parts of several patterns that I liked various aspects of.

The Return of the Rental Ram

Sarah Jane Humke

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January 7, 2018

Technically, he was a leased ram, but rental ram just has a sound to it doesn’t it?

The rental ram in question is the same one that I used last year, the lovely Nuuk from Sommarang Farm. He won Yearling Ram at this years MSSBA show at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. Last year he was just a ram lamb and I was a little, um, dubious as to if he was up to the job of taking care of my ladies, but he did just fine. This year, as a full-grown ram, there was no question from the get-go as to his ability to handle the job he was being hired for.

I picked Nuuk up at the beginning of December and I returned him this weekend in the back of my Honda Fit. It’s about a four-hour drive from here in Iowa to his home in Wisconsin. This year I took Dusty with me to keep me company, so this was my company driving up there.

Yep, two snoozing boys. I think that Nuuk was just worn-out from his job the past month combined with the warm car and he was out for most of the trip like a light. Dusty is usually out like a light in the car so long as he doesn’t think that we are going to the vet.

Most of the time my view was something like this:

Not the most exciting landscape, especially in the winter. But Wisconsin still yields great barn watching opportunities and it was a pretty nice, though cold, day to be driving up there.

On the way home I always try to stop at The Cat and Crow in Mt. Horeb, WI.

It is such a lovely shop to peruse. The ladies that run it are just lovely to talk to and they really do a great job of supplying locally produced yarns and fibers. If you are ever in the area, I strongly suggest that you stop by and check out their wonderfully curated selection!

Getting Ready

Sarah Jane Humke

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January 1, 2018

I leave for a three week trip on the 16th of January. Those that know me know that packing is a major thing with me. I like to shop while I am traveling and usually I am visiting people that I know and love so I have gifts. This trip is no exception. However, due to the nature of my travels, I have to be very limited inn my packing. I’m allowed one checked bag up to 23 kg (50 pounds), one carry-on bag at 8 kg (about 18 pounds) and a purse. So, I am using my trusty 29″ eBags rolling duffle bag as my checked bag. Since I am taking rather a lot of trains and buses on this trip, I didn’t really want a second rolling suitcase as my carry-on. It’s often difficult enough to get one thing rolling on cobblestones and in the snow, let alone two. So I’m trying a new bag, the eBags Motherlode Weekender Convertible Junior as my carry-on. It can be either a backpack or an over-the-shoulder type of bag. I’m planning on carrying nearly all my clothes in this as I am staying at a lot of friends houses on this trip and I can do laundry pretty easily. Then my purse/personal item will be my Tom Bihn Makers Bag (which is my everyday purse).

For me, this is traveling light. Normally I would have a full second suitcase. But the airlines are getting tougher and tougher on people traveling with two suitcases and I am also flying on a couple of the low-cost European airlines while I am over there, where you pay for even one checked bag.

However, it’s not just packing that I have to do. Because I have a flock of sheep and a flock of chickens (along with a small pack of dogs), I have to arrange a sitter for them. Basically someone to do chores while I am gone. Since it’s winter, they are oddly not as big of a deal as they are in the summer. Check water, collect eggs and check chicken feed, check minerals and protein tubs, and make sure that the sheep have enough hay. Honestly, usually about ten minutes. In the summer, there is a lot of moving fences and electrical cords and so on. I’m lucky that I have some lovely people that are coming out to do the chores for me while I am gone. I still need to write-up an instruction sheet for them with all the numbers that they will possibly need in case of emergency.

The other things that I need to do are finish the knitting project on the needles as I plan on wearing it a lot (it’s a large hap shawl and I am knitting on the edging and it’s big and the edging is black and taking forever!), knit my mittens and hat (ahem), and figure out a knitting project to keep me occupied on my many flights. I’m thinking lace, just for weight and space requirements. However, I need something complex enough to keep me from getting insanely bored but isn’t all active pattern as I will be traveling and not having 100% concentration to give. I’m thinking about Sylvia McFadden’s A Joyful Thread as travel knitting. Has anyone made it??

So you might be curious as to where all I am going. First I am spending a day in Amsterdam as I have not gotten to really see the Rijksmuseum in all the times that I have been there (they were completely closed or mostly closed for a ten year renovation of the museum). Then I am traveling by train to Helmond to visit my friend Marleen and her family for a few days. Then I am flying into Hamburg to visit my friend Tini and her family for a few days. Then from Hamburg, I will fly to Vilnius, Lithuania where I am meeting up with my friend Veronica and we are going to explore that city for 2 days. Then Veronica and I are taking a bus to Riga, Latvia to explore that city for a couple of days and then by bus again to Tallinn, where I am meeting-up with some more friends for my 40th birthday! Yay! Then from Tallinn, I will ferry to Helsinki with my friend Malin and take the train to my friend Barbro’s where I will spend a few days. Barbro and her husband will drive me to Malin’s house where I will spend a few more days before flying home from Helsinki. It’s going to be a busy few weeks and I am really excited to get to see my friends again. I do plan on blogging about it but I am not promising anything at this point!

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Sarah Jane Humke

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January 1, 2018

Right at this moment it’s -16 degrees Fahrenheit (-26.6 Celsius for the rest of the world) outside. I’ll be honest with you and say that I can’t really tell a lot of difference between -16 and -9 degrees except when I have to take my glove off for fine motor skill functions, then my hand gets dangerously cold just a little bit faster.

When it’s this cold out, most of my day is spent inside, trying to defrost from my last outing, making sure that the sheep and chickens have non-frozen water available to them and plenty of food. It takes a lot more energy for the sheep and chickens to stay warm in this weather even with wool and down. I take suet cakes to the chickens to give them energy boosts and the sheep get some of their “treat feed” at least once a day in this weather. The chickens are all inside all day as it’s just too dangerously cold for them to be free-ranging it today. They don’t seem to mind honestly. The sheep all have shelter from the wind and plenty of food and they all just cuddle-up with one another and sit in a sunny spot and chew their cud.

I took this photo of me for my friend Barbro because she made the scarf I am wearing and I thought that she would enjoy seeing it frost encrusted with pieces of hay stuck to it.You see, most knitters love to see their knitted gifts being worn and used. Bonus if it’s being worn and used to feed other sheep that are going to go on to make nice wool for knitters to eventually use. So if you received a hand crafted gift this year and aren’t sure if you should use that scarf or save it for special, use it. Seriously. And maybe take a photo and send it to the crafter. It’s the best thank you that you could send us….

Herbert Has a Come to Jesus Moment

Sarah Jane Humke

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December 31, 2017

Literally. Baby Jesus that is.

Every year our neighbors host a live nativity at their farm. I’ve never gotten to go to it in the past as there has always been something else going on that night. This year they asked if they could borrow some sheep for it and I agreed.
So of course I sent Herbert, Mr. Social himself, along with a couple of the wethered lambs. Herbert is always a crowd-pleaser and the wethered lambs are still small enough that they look like lambs.

Since I didn’t have anything going on that evening, I went to see the live nativity. Now, most live nativities in this area simply that, usually a bunch of people in costume standing around with a bunch of animals around them. Sometimes there’s a real baby, often it depends on how cold it is (this is Iowa after all). There’s usually some sheep, a donkey or two, and if they go all out, a few camels (camels get crazy popular around here this time of the year!)

This wasn’t that kind of nativity. I would actually call this a pageant. Everyone came in and sat-down on benches in the barn. There were singers and actors and readers and a full-on sound system. There was a donkey that reluctantly carried Mary in on it’s back. There was a whole flock of little angels in costume complete with tinsel halos. There was a King Harold complete with lit-up throne. There was a person in the rafters of the barn shining very bright flashlights on the actors as the lighting department. There was an angel (child) that was hung-out on cables and reeled back in after saying his lines. I mean, this was a full-on production.

It was wonderful and touching and completely homemade. There wasn’t a touch of the commercial about it. It was simply my neighbors with their family and friends putting on this wonderful show for the rest of the neighbors and friends and anyone who happened to drive by and see the sign. And in the midst of all of this, were Herbert and the lambs.

You can see the sheep down below King Herod (in purple). Sorry about the fuzzy, I didn’t really want to use a flash during a production.

The little flock did well. The lambs were more nervous than Herbert as this was their first outing away from the farm. Herbert, however, was his usual calm and friendly self. The only time that he got a little nervous was when all 100 plus people in the barn started singing “Silent Night”. He’s not exactly used to group singing as we didn’t really serenade him at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival last June (though that is an interesting idea….). He received lots of head scratches after the program was over from the kids and adults that were in attendance.

If the neighbors ask to borrow the sheep next year, I think that I will try to take part a little more. I can walk Herbert around for people to pet before hand and probably keep him on his lead so that the shepherds can “shepherd” at least one sheep in with them. Also, I will let them borrow my shepherd’s crook, for authenticity of course.

2017 Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival

Sarah Jane Humke

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April 18, 2017

I have been volunteering to help with the 2017 Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival quite a lot this year. I’m really excited to be working on the line-up of classes. We have a bunch of new ideas that we are implementing this year. Our Shepherding 101 classes are designed for the beginning shepherd (or anyone who just wants to go over the basics!) and feature things like fecal test counts, FAMACHA scoring, and marketing fleeces. We have an entire Children’s Corner with classes of fibery fun just for kids. There is a whole series of in-depth producer education on Saturday. And of course, we have a wide selection of fiber artistry classes for all skill levels!

I am also going to be taking a few of my Shetland flock to represent in the Hall of Breeds. We’re really excited about how many breeds are going to be represented this year. I haven’t decided which of the monsters I am going to be taking, but I’m sure that Herbert will be in the mix!

In a twist, I am going to be one of the instructors at the IS&WF this year. I’m going to be teaching an introductory lace course. I’m really looking forward to getting a new crop of lace knitters excited about my favorite form of knitting! I’m planning on doing a brief “tour” of lace knitting around the world for inspiration.

185717-IowaSheep