2017 has been a wonderfully blessed year here. My husband fully got the Meishan registry off the ground and the Livestock conservancy was at our farm to look at them!! He was in Out Here magazine with them! And will be in the spring issue of Country side magazine also !
My spinning goals for the year were not so lofty.. I wanted to perfect a quicker way to make my lockspun yarns.. done!
We got horses and started riding together for some much needed farm fun. I did a national seminar on milking donkeys! I found a sheep breed who's fleece I love and can also be milked that does well on my hilly rough lands! Score!
All that is so wonderful!! But I had personal goals this year !
That was to get better at my favorite ever fiber art... Crochet!!
When I really get my mind on accomplishing something I give it 100%. And well, expanding my crochet skills has been a lot more fun than my last 2 major goals.. which 7 years ago was to grow all our own food ( except coffee, chocolate and salt) mission accomplished! I'm not kidding And I hope I never have to do it again!! absolutely the hardest most stressful thing I've ever done.
Moving on from that accomplishment was necessary for the next goal to happen...
Which was this last year was to adapt a more stress free lifestyle, to get my health back and my fitness level up so I can handle the sheep and farm in general. praise God , mission accomplished there too!
In a way, because I love crocheting SO much it was part of my de-stressing plan.
So this year I learned fair isle color work, Tunisian (several Tunisian stitches!) solomans knot and broomstick lace techniques, cable techniques , beaded crochet and made projects using each technique.
And A long long time on my to do list.. I made sweaters!!!
Really really good fitting sweaters!
I had made tops and sweaters before just never the ultra cool top down well fitting sweaters I had always admired.. I'm SO happy I finally did it!
I am making more....
I had made tops and sweaters before just never the ultra cool top down well fitting sweaters I had always admired.. I'm SO happy I finally did it!
I am making more....
And here's a picture of my fitted Tunisian vest. Made with the help of a craftsy class!! Gotta love Dora! Fantastic designer and pattern writer.
My spinning goals for the year were not so lofty.. I wanted to perfect a quicker way to make my lockspun yarns.. done!
I wanted to make lace weight alpaca yarn.. done!
And I wanted to make a mohair boucles yarn .. also done!
And this coming year... I really want to get even better at my favorite fiber arts! So in order to do that I have to make a new plan.
After all a dream without a plan is kinda worthless in the long run! It's in the works .. seriously I was printing a project organizer just yesterday! Plan in motion 😊😊😊
For a farm goal I really really do hope to try and train one of my Icelandic ewes to milk. I desperately miss sheep milk! Not sure it will be possible since they have never been milked . I do have two ewe lambs that should be ready 2019 though. I just want it now! I have plenty frozen for soap making but I want to make fresh ricotta and mozzarella again! Or my pepper jack! I miss making sheep cheese.
Nothing.. I mean nothing compares to sheep milk. And this is coming from a girl who has drank goat, cow, donkey and camel milk! Yes... I said donkey and camel milk😁
( donkey milk is super sweet and yummy too though)
My other farm goal... to get my hands dirty in the garden again. I took last year off after gardening after growing ALL our veggies for all four seasons of the year for 6 years.. yep I was tired! My ground needed some time off and I wanted to concentrate on getting healthy and learning about horses. That's what I did so now I'm refreshed and ready to get dirty!
I have a ridiculous amount of food put up.. I simply used to grow to much food so I will concentrate on only growing what my husband and I need. No extras.. I'm to the point where I know what grows well and what I need to do in my climate to give the plant the best chance to produce optimum results.
Having said that disasters still occur.. I'm working with the southeast weather and pest load here after all!
Have you thought about goals you'd like to accomplish this year?? Be it work related , personal goals or just better means of de-stressing! They all need a plan...
Not just a dream.
I personally have to pray a lot too! Since I'm naturally lazy it's sometimes hard to get motivated. I've stayed the course this last year with a big help from God and
My ever supportive husband is always great too.. a total gift.
I'm thankful for it all.
Now... back to planning 😁😁😁🐑🐑🐑💕💕😜