Desert Weyr Blog
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The Cloak Is Finished!
It’s finally done – or nearly done. I ended up not putting the shoulder cape on at all. I also hand-stitched black twill tape around the front edge to prevent things from unraveling. I may also add it to the bottom if it seems to need it. The clasp is inaccurate for the time. It… Continue reading
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Porch Construction Has Started
Bill is back to add a covered deck to the back of the house. Our first task is to take down the existing small porch. We’ll add a concrete patio to the right between the door and the garage, and the deck to the left will wrap around to the front and side. There will… Continue reading
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Rams on Pasture
Now that the hay is in, we can put the rams out on the front pear orchard pasture. They’ll clean up the parts we cannot cut. This is the first time all the sheep will be out on pasture at the same time. We have one ewe who is sick and one ewe and a… Continue reading
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Our First Cutting Hay Is in the Barn!
Judd came back and finished stacking the hay in the barn. Here he is getting the last bales out of our front pear orchard field. These pictures show the last load of hay getting stacked in the barn. Now it’s all in. Continue reading
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Cloak Is in Progress
With the help of your messages, some help on Ravelry, various emailers, and a few phone calls, I finally decided on how to sew the cloak fabric together. I used a figure-eight stitch while holding the right sides of the fabric together. Then, I flattened the seams and pressed them. These pictures show how I… Continue reading
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Our First Harvest!
My black thumb hasn’t killed anything yet, and I harvested the first of the peas today! OK, so it’s a meager harvest, but there are a lot more growing. These sure tasted good! Continue reading
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Cloak Problems – Need Suggestions
Today, I started laying out the cloak pattern for my 18th-century Black Welsh cloak. Because my fabric is so much narrower than normal, I cut a long piece of muslin to 24 inches to match it. Then, I pieced the cloak pattern together out of that. I cut the muslin and laid it out on… Continue reading
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First Hay in the Barn
Our first load of hay was delivered late in the day today. Unfortunately, the face was uneven, and the stack fell down. Ken re-stacked it so the next ones would be okay. Continue reading
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The Cloak: Pattern Testing
The whole reason I have Black Welsh Mountain Sheep is that I wanted to make a traditional medieval Black Welsh cloak. While most folks would go buy a cloak or, at best, buy fabric and make one, I did things a bit differently. I bought the sheep, bought a spinning wheel, learned to spin, and… Continue reading
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Independence Day Thoughts
As we celebrate our Independence Day (two days late from history, but this is traditional :-)), our town is having its annual Cherry Days event. This year, there are actually cherries! Some years, we have frozen; some years, they come later; and some years, like this one, they’re perfect. Sweet Black Bings (never shipped, and… Continue reading