cheviot coziness

My sheep are insane. I know this. They love me and I love them and I am allowed to scratch their cheeks or pick hay flecks from their wool for as long as the other barn residents allow, but if I attempt to trim their hooves or shear their wool, or handle them in any way that restricts their opportunities to escape, they cannot stand it and it is all I can do to hold them in place. Or not.

And yet, there is nothing so soothing as watching the sheep when they are at rest. Tension simply drains away and the blood pressure drops.

Seth likes to lie with his chin on something, and if it happens to be his snuggly mother, all the better.

Their wool makes the comfiest socks, too. While not quite soft enough to be worn directly on more tender skin, cheviot is sufficiently soft for feet. It also has a unique ‘helical crimp’ that gives the wool a resilience and spring ideal for sock knitting. Before Maria left, I was able to make her two pairs (and a spare single) of squishy, cozy socks out of the wool she used for her dyeing project this summer. Between the two of us, we sheared, carded, spun, dyed and knitted these at home- sheep to sock. For some reason, that makes them feel even cozier.

Maria has always liked mismatching her socks, so not having enough of a given color for two was not a problem for her.