Book report: Garden of the Brave in War

I wouldn't really want to be a shepherdess in Iran either then or now, but my interest in sheep keeps leading me to provide more quotes from this book before it goes back to the owner

"Come," said Jahan Shah. "Let's go and see the animals---a relief from the whining humans.";  He put the sheepskin coat around my shoulders, and we went out into the muck of the farm courtyard. A little snow now whirled in the wind and we ducked quickly into the stables, dark and warm, smelling of hay--the sheep, at our entrance, thumping their hoofs and bleating. Jahan Shah leaned against a stall while the shepherd moved amount the sheep, pulling them around one by one to show the heavy flap of wool and fat that hands downs over the rumps of the local sheep. Sometimes Jahan Shah would lift a flap, as tough to gauge its weight. Then he moved over to the sheep that had lambed and, kneeling down, he picked up to of the lambs in his arms and began to rub his cheek against their fleece, whispering to them, tickling them, finally holding them out from himself and laughing at them" p. 118

Another instance O'Donnell is talking to Khalom,

After a time, Khanom appeared leading two sheep by long chains Only the oval of her face and her arm in its bright blue sweater sleeve caught the light that was left….I asked her to sit down for she loves to talk…It came out that she had sold the sheep. I knew that dealers had been around all day, prodding and poling at the sheep, and there had been much prolonged and scrappy bargaining. Iranian men do not like to bargain with Iranian women; the latter can be very difficult. In any event, she had sold them and at her price, and further she had known that she would, for she had dreamt the whole affair the night before. p. 127



So, in my internet research started in the last post for knitting in Iran, I found these lovelies from the Brooklyn Museum which has permitted sharing of the image (yay)

If you would like to see a stunning color image of these check this out

http://awalimofstormhold.wordpress.com/tag/knitting/

Back on the subject of socks, Priscilla Gibson-Robert's Ethnic Socks and Stockings might help one get a little closer to a pair of Iranian inspired socks

And there are some interesting comments on "jorabs" which are toe-up socks from central Asia knit in beautiful colors 

Not a Shepherdess Yet

I would love to have a fiber source at home;  I live in a neighborhood/community,  so keeping large animals is kinda out.  Plus, I have no babysitters for such animals, if heaven forbid I should go away for vacation (really shouldn't complain because I did twice this month...).  However, I am considering purchase of a bunny at the Southeastern Annual Fiber Fair this fall.  I'm reading up and trying to figure out whether  bunny would work in with my lifestyle.

Once upon a time I wanted to keep silkworms.  I can't have any until I have enough to feed them. To that end I asked for mulberry trees (worm food) for my birthday several years ago.  Here is one (still in a pot)

and here is the other (put in the ground 2 years ago).

Clearly, something is wrong with my yard.  I have always fertilized it, and this year I am trying to water the smaller one more. (Gosh, do you think that would help?!)

 So it was a big let down to visit my brother's last month.  I was walking around his property, looked down, and realized I was stepping on berries. Mulberries. Looked up and saw this

And, he has another.  He refused to keep silkworms for me (he's 5 hours away by car) even though I offered to pay him!  Darnit.  AND he lives near Asheville, the site of SAFF.

Here's the update on the Noro afghan:  working on a knit on border to make little wavy scallops for a border

Yes, some of the squares are upsidedown.

Book Report: "Trafficking in Sheep"

I enjoy reading about raising sheep and I just finished Anne Barclay Priest's book entitled Trafficking in Sheep.

Over a period of years, Anne bought an island in Nova Scotia, and decided to keep sheep on it.  I thought about this and it made sense, natural boundaries and all. (It of course put me in mind of the on North Ronaldsay in Scotland).  And, as it turns out, lotsa people around the world keep sheep on islands.

Anne kept Scottish Blackface sheep, which I saw in Scotland.

Not very soft, but practical.

Anne later build a home in Greenville, in upstate New York, where she would take her first year ewes to prevent the ram on the island from impregnating them, as the girls needed to be two years old before having lambs.

I googled Anne's name, hoping to get in touch with her, and discovered some information about her on this lovely blog. Here is another entry with great photos of sheep handling and shearing.

Anne later kept Border Leicesters on her farm in Greenville, enjoying the softer wool for knitting sweaters for herself.  She  mentions briefley in the book that she also was a spinner and weaver.

Another google hit, revealed Anne Barclay Priest's brief obituary in the New York Times, which indicates that she passed away last November (2010) while feeding her sheep.  So lovely that she published this memoir for us.

This book probably would be most interesting for those of us frustrated by not being able to be a real shepherdess ( a genre entitled agrarian fantasy by goodreads.com!), and also by those who already are. 

This all puts me in mind of my favorite Billy Collins poem

Flock

It has been calculated that
each copy of the Gutenburg Bible
required the skins of 300 sheep.

I can see them

squeezed into the holding pen

behind the stone building

where the printing press is housed.

All of them squirming around

to find a little room

and looking so much alike

it would be nearly impossible to count them.

And there is no telling which one of them

will carry the news

that the Lord is a Shepherd,

one of the few things

they already know.

Billy Collins

Biased Book Review: Running for the Hills

I have this absolutely misplaced feeling that I was meant to be a sheep farmer/angora bunny raiser/alpaca farmer/the list goes on.  I mean, come on, there was a sheep farm in my family five generations back?!  OK... I admit...it's not five direct generations. 


In that interest, I sometimes likes to read books about people-who-raise-fiber-bearing-animals.  And imagine in my misplaced way that I am one of them.  


I just finished the very well written (with intelligent humor) Running for the Hills:  Growing Up On My Mother's Sheep Farm in Wales, by Horatio Clare.

Couldn't find a  better image of the cover of the American edition, here's a photo of the British edition, slightly different title, depicting Horatio as an adorable towhead

Horatio's parents were from London.  It's the 70's, his mother Jenny wants a different lifestyle both for her and their children. They purchase a sheep farm in southwestern Wales, in the mountains near the Brecon Beacons mountain range.  Horatio's Dad does not share that vision, and he ultimately  returns full time to London, helping out occasionally.  Jenny is left raising two little boys, and and must work hard to sustain her family on the sheep farm.  She has help from Jack, a crusty and solid local retired farmer, along with other neighbors.


When they bought their farm, 100 sheep came along with it.  Horatio explains in the book that when a farm was sold, some sheep came along with it.  They had a number of breed in this original flock, mostly Welsh Mountain

which are small and hardy with thick white fleeces.  The majority of the rest were Suffolk crosses

Suffolks are black faced with thinner fleeces, had "bigger, more profitable" lambs, but these were less sturdy in the cold.  A few  other breeds were mixed in:  Badgers (a variety of Welsh Mountain), Radnors, and Speckles. 


Ram lambs are "tups," ewe lambs are "theaves." Tups were sold in their first nine months, preferably before winter to avoid feeding them when grass was scarce.  Yearlings were one year olds, mostly theaves, and were sold to farms looking to add to their breeding stock.  Their flock grows over the years.

Jenny has incredible affection for her animals; they are always fed and well cared for, unlike some of her farmer neighbors. She cares for them so much it's hard to believe that she sells them for meat.  

I emailed Horatio Clare via his website to ask him about the use of the wool.  He replied said yes, the farm did sell the fleeces:  

The story of wool in Wales is melancholy. Jack  recalled decades when it was still so valuable that the annual haul would pay a tennant farmer's rent for the year. By the time my parents got into it all the fleeces from every farm were bought by the Wool Marketing Board. You had to make sure there was no bracken or hay in it, and not too many dags, and that the sacks were sewn up in the approved fashion. In return for this they sent you a cheque, for a fixed sum per sack. The rate declined steadily with the market for wool. Sometimes there would be a spike - a particular fashion season would bump up prices - but now the cheques barely cover the cost of the shearing.

The Wool Marketing Board still exists, and the system continues as it did. They drop off new sacks each year, and still collect the valley's output from the farm where it has always been assembled. On occasion, when Mum has a particularly beautiful fleece, she holds it back to give to anyone who might appreciate it. There are rumours that it might make a comeback as an excellent source of insulation - but I fear man-made fibres are always going to be cheaper. 

As the boys age, Jenny decides to sell the farm and move to  local town.  She may still be keeping some sheep!

I know from everyone's  favorite knitting podcaster, Brenda, there there are still woolen mills in Wales operating today, and perhaps they were in the 70's, but of course the scale is nowhere what it was 100 years ago.  I hope Brenda has read this book.  Interestingly, she also lives in Pembrokeshire, the setting for this memoire.  Pembrokeshire looks pretty blowy and cold, sticking out in to the  sea like that.

Interestingly, my favorite knitting tour guide, Joyce, is leading a tour to Wales in 2011, which includes Pembrokeshire. I won't be joining in, at least not in 2011.


Horation Clare's website is: http://www.horatioclare.co.uk/ Do visit, he's published two other books since.


The British Wool Marketing Board is here.