Winter wonderland

Greetings from an unusually snowy Betwixtmas week at Oak Knoll Farm! The lambs are seeing snow for the first time; the yearlings haven’t weathered more than a brief flurry until now either. Sheep don’t mind the white stuff, but this storm system came with strong northeast winds and temperatures straight from the Canadian interior. We registered a wind chill of -3F, and even the lambs shorn in September were still doing fine, but Chico was shivering and so we merged flocks and let all eighty breeding ewes and youngsters bunk together in the barn. It seemed like less work to sort everybody when we get a thaw than to separate the llama and try to move him on his own!

Lambs watching the first flakes start to accumulate.

Lupine and Winston, affectionate even when frosty

Inside, we’re lucky to have power and water and plenty of wood for the stove. We have grandparents tested and tucked into the spare bedroom until the conditions are more clement, and they’re keeping the kids busy with puzzles and audiobooks. I’ve been knitting on my partner’s sweater in our Spyhop yarn—lots more wool has been delivered to the mill for another batch that will be ready this spring—and reading Diane Wilson’s The Seed Keeper, a beautiful new novel of a woman’s reconnection with her Dakhota family after surviving the foster care system and of her people’s struggle to preserve their way of life.

I give up on forecasting what the new year might hold; at this point San Juan Woolworks is scheduled to participate in Vogue Knitting Live Seattle’s April show, but omicron or whatever comes next could certainly scupper those plans. I’m going to knit samples as if the festival is happening, and then I’ll have them on hand for whenever we can safely gather! I’ve got several lovely big boxes of silvery grey Selkie in from the mill and I’m watching the mail for some skeins of Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Mighty Mo to hold together with it for a sweater—I was totally sold on this combination of yarns when I saw Karla’s Veronika cardigan at this fall’s Explore 4 retreat with Deb Robson.

It’s so soft and light and drapey!

Time to get the dyepots simmering on the wood stove with frozen flowers from last summer… but first, a few more sled runs while the snow lingers and the sun is shining. Wishing you woolly warmth and days of rest at the turn of the year.