Cranking Out of 2011

Another year is coming to a close in a couple days.  If you read my blog entry from last New Year's, you know that I no longer make resolutions.  There's a reason for that.   I don't need anything else to fail at!

So, it gives me great pleasure to show some progress on the antique circular sock knitting machine that I purchased...ahem....three or four years ago!   



In my defense, the manual is a bad photocopy of the instructions from around 1930-40.  Apparently, if you lived during those times, you would have had a neighbour who had one that could show you how to thread the thing!  The lady that I bought this from had not used the equipment.

I dug out the parts and took advantage of the extra day off work plus the good nature of my family to make this yesterday's project.

The key point that I've learned is that you first need to make some netting to hold your weights.  And before that, my handy hubby had to come up with a device to help with the casting on of the thread.  Thank goodness for YouTube...it helped us get to this point.

At the right end, you see what the netting looks like.  It is made with every other needle installed.  The rest is knit with every needle installed.  I used some 2/8 cotton that I had in my weaving stash, so the knit isn't tight like it would be with sock yarn.  We put a knot in the end to hold the weight which kept the tension.  The whole thing went well until we tried to join some real sock yarn to this.

Our next task will be to produce a simple tube with sock yarn.  There's a few steps to learn before a real sock with emerge from this contraption. 

Don't look for an update on this anytime soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  2012 - can you believe it?











Peace and Joy

Well, Christmas is almost here.  Shiny coloured things all around!

This is the last bit of yarn painting that I did...probably the last of the year.  Interesting that these two skeins were painted using the same three colours: burgundy, olive and golden ochre.  The one you see on the left had the dyed applied with distinct colour repeats and little overlap.  On the skein shown on the right, I applied the dyes randomly throughout the skein and the colours mixed quite freely.

On a cool crisp day, the hayloft is one of my favourite places.  I'm not sure what it is about the hayloft that is so comforting.  Perhaps it is the peace in knowing that my alpacas will have enough to eat until spring pasture time.  It could be the quiet stillness and isolation of the hayloft is a good place for reflection.  It might be that the hayloft is a drawback in history, that the skeleton of this post and beam barn reflects decades of honest, hard work by farm families.  Our full hay loft is the result of the labour of two farm families - one who produced the hay and ours that put it up.

Peace

It doesn't matter to the herd that they eat the same hay from fall to spring...every new bale that gets brought out gets the same reaction.  It's like throwing candies into the middle of a kindergarten class.

Joy

I Wish You Peace and Joy at Christmas and always.







Miracles Happen: An Update

I was thinking of someone the other day, when I was reminded of the theme of my post from last Christmas, called Miracles Happen.
So I reread it.

Here's an update...

The young man in the hospital beat incredible odds and a dismal prognosis.  He came home.

The soldier whose last tour in Afghanistan ended just before last Christmas is expecting my friend's first grandchild!

My friend who spent last Christmas worried about her diagnosis was told that the cancer treatments worked.

And the weight that was on my shoulders is lightened by others.  There are angels among us.

Sometimes, miracles happen.

I still Believe.

December Trials...

The snow has finally arrived!  Oh, sure...it's pretty.



 But why couldn't it just fall on the lawn and not the driveway?

Last week was a fun week of white-knuckle driving...black ice, then deep snow, frozen mounds of slush on the highway.  (Note to self:  if I'm worried about getting out of the driveway, I should perhaps stay home.)

Winter has arrived and, if history repeats itself, it will stay for 5 months.  I better get used to it.
It's time for me to look in the mirror and say "Suck it up, buttercup". 

Here's my latest handspun, handpainted, homegrown baby alpaca yarn on my umbrella swift.

The handpainting or handdying process makes a mess of the skein organization, so usually I will wind the skein from the swift to either a ball winder or a skein winder.  In this case, I needed to put the skein on the skein winder in order to measure the yarn.



I was lucky to buy this old skein winder off of a friend who salvages old fibre arts equipment, fixes it and resells.  Along with the swift, it's a valuable tool of my craft.  While my skein is on the skein winder, I can figure out how much yarn I have in my skein and from their determine how it compares to yarn standards in terms of yards per pound or meters per 100g skein. (yes, I have a metric to imperial conversion calculator!)  This is important to know if it will suit a weaving or knitting project, and whether I will have enough to complete the project.  





These are my two newest skeins. 

I can usually achieve a nice balanced handspun yarn.  This latest spinning project was a challenge.  I was using up some wonderfully soft cria fleece that unfortunately had a lot of second cuts from shearing and VM (vegetable matter like hay and twiggy things) in it.  I wouldn't sell that fleece because of that but the fibre itself was way too lovely to throw out (after all, my little cria spent a whole year growing it).  When you start with 'problem' fleece, even with careful preparation, it's hard to end up with rovings that just glide through your hands at the spinning wheel.  While spinning, I had to keep stopping to pick out clumps of crud.  Then, I decided to use my electric spinner, which I am still getting used to, to ply it.  I ended up with yarn that almost has the appearance of a boucle yarn...not what I planned but I think it will still create two shawls or large scarves for a couple of people that I love.  I'm excited to start those knitting projects.

Wet Sundays are Good

Today is a wet Sunday in November. 

It's 10C today.  This is somewhat odd for our climate.  We've had an incredibly warm fall and have had no snow to date...none.  Not even freezing rain.  Usually by this time, we've had one or two days where the school buses are cancelled.  I'm not complaining.  I know the snow is coming.  In fact, the weather network says that we'll see it mid week.  I have my snow tires on.  I bought new winter barn boots.  Our cut firewood is piled and ready.    When the cold and the snow come, we'll likely be living with it for 4-5 months, so I will count my blessings for the extra time to prepare.

There's no obligations today that we need to leave home for.  I picked a couple jobs that needed to be done and we worked as a family to get them done.  One job was to replace the mailbox post that was run over by the guy that delivered our logs last month.  That was a rather big job, but it's done!

Now our day is meant for relaxation.  Comfy clothes, hot chocolate.  I've got some handspun yarn soaking in preparation for handpaint that I might get to later.  We might watch some of Season 1 of The Waltons that I brought home from the library.  Family is coming for supper...picking up Chinese food on the way.   Total relaxation is on the agenda!

I am knitting a very simple, long scarf in 100% alpaca of the highest quality.  In Canada's grading system, this quality is known as "Grade 1", but internationally, the fibre used in this yarn would be called "Royal Baby".  Whatever it's called on paper...you can just refer to it as "holy cow, that's soft".

I tend to knit pretty simple patterns because I'm not a very advanced knitter.  However, this scarf is absolutely beautiful in it's simplicity.  As I was knitting it, and thinking that it was such a simple pattern (knit 3 and purl 1 in 2 combinations, that's it!) and yet, the outcome was such a gorgeous scarf.

In reality, it is the yarn that makes this scarf a classic beauty that, with proper care will serve someone for a lifetime.  It will become softer with wear as the fibres in the yarn relax and bloom.  The rich natural colour of the fibres will not fade over time.  The same scarf pattern, if knit in a cheap, manmade fibre would simply not produce a classic piece. 

Knitting is labour intensive.  If you knit, you do because you enjoy it.  But it's your labour, your skill, your time.  Choose beautiful yarns made from natural fibres to create timeless classic knitwear.   

 

November, BLAHvember

November in Northern Ontario.  Damp, grey, wet, cold, dark at 5:00pm.

All those fun things like:
- getting the snow tires on
- remembering to put my snow wiper in the car and buy some ice-melt at the hardware store
- trying to remember to put away all those tools before they get buried in the snow
- staying out of the bush so I don't get shot by a hunter
- lugging hay out through the muck of the barnyard
- the start of "hat-head" season
- the extra 2 lbs in the newspaper that is Christmas advertising
- someone reminding you that there are only 47 shopping days left, then 46, then 45, then 44...
- freezing rain
- fourteen hours of darkness and ten hours of grey dimness

and for me, November is also the month that my age changes.  Okay, the number doesn't just 'change'...it actually increases.

So, I am changing the name to BLAH-vember.

Are you with me?

Chin up.  We'll get through it with a big dose of Vitamin D.
And Vitamin F. (F is for fibre, preferably alpaca fibre in beautiful handdyed colours and it's also for friends that make you laugh)

Here's something else.

A few years ago, my sister sent me this silly card by the artist named Sark.  It was titled 'How to be a Succulent Wild Woman' and had suggestions like

- paint your soul
- be rare eccentric and original
- celebrate your gorgeous friendships with women
I have this card cover taped up where I can see it when I am doing office work.

Look what I found in the library the other day!

It's a lovely happy book by Sark, all about learning to cultivate pleasure in our lives no matter what else is happening.  Apparently, there is another book titled " Succulent Wild Woman".

This is good month for this book!
I hope you are finding pleasure these days...you deserve it!

Meet Luxor

I'd like you to meet Luxor.  His registered name is Bolivian Luxor and he is the original herdsire here at Misty Haven Alpacas, since the fall of 2002.  Luxor had been imported into Canada from the U.S. in 1997 as foundation stock for the Canadian registry.  We purchased Luxor from a farm in Saskatchewan along with four females.  We knew his was a special alpaca from the start. 

He is handsome here in this winter picture from 2003.  Luxor always loved the ladies.  Whenever we needed him for service, all we had to do was whistle out the male's barn door and hold up the halter.  He'd come running, and you would swear that as he pranced past the girl's fenceline, he'd nod his head in their direction, give a wink and ask "Which one of you is feeling LUCKY today?"

We started this alpaca gig with no experience and no fellow breeders nearby.  But Luxor turned out to be a reliable breeder who didn't need any human advice or veterinary intervention to do his job.

He also had an abundant, thick coat and long staple length, and passed his nice conformation to the cria he sired.

Luxor was and is a tricky one when we are trying to trim his tonails or get him onto the shearing table.  He knows how to very quickly hit the floor and tuck all four feet under him so that you can't grab them.  We've learned to adapt and he has learned to trust us.

When he was a young stud, he was very aggressive with the other males.  At times, we had to separate him from the other male alpacas.  He was the dominant male and definitely did not want to give up his barn priviledges.

As the younger herdsires came to the farm,  Luxor did eventually lose his standing.  He served as the "spit-checker" for a year or so.  A "spit-checker" is put with a female who is expected to be pregnant.  If she is pregnant, she spits at him and runs away.  It took Luxor a little while, but he did figure out what the deal was.  He got so that he would walk into the barn, take one look at "her", give us a look that said "If you think I'm going in there with that crazy -----, you got another thing comin'" and turn back to the door.  So, we knew the female was pregnant.

At some point, we thought maybe he had just lost the urge to try (and you could understand how), so we called another young stud in as a double-check after Luxor had refused to tease the female.  I swear, as he was heading out of the male's door and the young eager stud was racing in with his tail up....I heard Luxor snicker and whisper to him "Go for it buddy, she WANTS you!!!"  Meanwhile, the big female was aiming gobs of green regurgitated grass directly at the incoming young fool.

The picture above was taken just last week. Luxor will be 15 years old this coming February. He chooses to spend much of his time in the back pasture, either alone or with the old gelding llama. He has his favorite shady stand of trees where he has his own sandy dustbath wore down. He wants no part in the wrestling and competing with the younger males.

His fleece is now pretty coarse. As he has aged, he's had warts show up on his ears and under his coat. Some mornings I have to walk out to the back pasture and call for him as he hasn't showed up at the barn. When he sees me, he will start to walk back to the barn, doing a pretty good Tim Conway impersonation. My friend Marj says that he just does that because he knows I'll wait 10 minutes for him to make his way to me.

The textbooks say that alpacas live to be 18-20 years in North America with proper care and nutrition. I personally question whether there have been enough statistics captured to make that statement. In South America, where alpacas originate, they are usually culled before their natural lifespan. I do know that the past few years, Luxor has maintained his weight and does not seem plagued with dental issues that is often the case with older alpacas. As I have said, I have noticed him moving slower this year but generally, I think Luxor still has a good life on the farm.