Almost Summer

Well, I won't bore you with the details of why I've been too busy to blog for several weeks.  Life happens and blog entries sometime get to the bottom of the priority list.  Thanks to everyone who takes the time to leave comments on my blog.  I really do appreciate it.

As I am writing this, I am waiting for our hay producer to call giving us the go-ahead to leave to pick up the first of four loads of hay.  The trailer has been on the truck since Thursday.  It's always a waiting game for the hay-drying weather.  We've had great weather for 4 days and then last night, at our house was a major downpour.  Thankfully, the hay farm, which is about a 30 drive south only got a sprinkling.  The hay wasn't lost but needed a bit more time to dry today.  So, it will be 5:00pm by the time we load our first bale on the trailer.  Gatorade and chocolate bars are our friends today.

We sheared our herd of alpaca in between the rainy days at the beginning of June.  I can't let this go without posting a before and after shot.

This is Lily.  If you've been reading this blog, you will remember Lily, the cria that was rejected by her dam.  Her first start was with dried colostrum, then milk with yogurt, then goat kid milk replacer.  She likely wouldn't have survived except that she was soon adopted by a maiden alpaca who miraculously started lactating to feed her.  It was a happy story.  She's now a saucy yearling with great conformation and lovely fleece.

Well, I guess she doesn't have her fleece anymore!  I do! It's in a couple bags waiting for processing into yarn.

People often ask me if the alpacas mind being sheared.  Well, alpacas seem to have their own personalities and therefore, their own opinions about being sheared.  Giving up control to a group of people, with one of them holding some power shears, is undoubtably not an alpaca's idea of a good time.  However, the majority of ours seem to actually relax on the table to the point of appearing to be snoozing.  No doubt many appreciate the instant cool sensation from being released from those pounds of fibre growth.

Every year, though, there is one winner in "The Most Annoying Alpaca on the Table" award.  This year was Vivaldi.  Vivaldi is normally a very calm, cool 2 year old.  The whole time on the table though, he screamed a very high pitch, deafening squeal and had very vile smelling green spit bubbling out of his mouth.  Of course, since he was laying on his side on the shearing table, his head was rubbing in the green slime.  The person covering the head also came in contact with the smelly green slime.  (That would be my freaked out teenage daughter :) hehehe)

So, without further ado, I present "Vivaldi the Slime-Faced".  Shame on you Vivaldi, you smelly boy.

Maybe next year, he will remember that we are helping him by removing his warm fleece, not trying to harm him.
I found a new book at my public library that every handspinner that I know will want to rush to get their hands on.  It's called "The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook"  by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius.

It is literally packed with valuable facts about animal fibres used in spinning and interest tidbits of information about the history of our relationship with these animals around the world.  For each breed or species, there is a summary of the animal, pictures of both the animal, and their fibre, facts about the fibre that includes staple length, fleece weight, fiber diameters, lock characteristics and natural colours.  It's just beautiful.

Although I have the library's copy currently, this is one of those books that I should have on my bookshelf.
So far, I've planted lettuce, purple beans, squash and 3 types of tomatoes in my little garden.  I still have room for a couple plants.  This is going to be my most successful garden yet.

I'm not sure how many hours until the actual calendar start of summer is here.  But with any luck, I'll have a loft full of sweet smelling hay.

Winter Bones

It's February! More sunny days and longer daylight hours are noticeable. I notice in Facebook that many friends are posting spring and summer pictures to give us all hope. I was listening to the CBC radio program about gardening the other day. The expert was telling us how to plan your garden, so that even the 'winter bones' of your garden are appealing. Well, I'll have to work on that. However, it did make me look at things differently while walking back from the barn.

Sumac in the winter is quite lovely.
My sumac study didn't last long before I noticed that some wild critter (either a fox or a martin, likely) had dug up a dead muskrat that had been buried in the snow. Ahhhh, the 'winter bones' of my rural garden need some refining, for sure.

I have been busy with all things and accomplishing nothing, it seems. I hope to have some finished projects to show you soon.

I was invited to give a presentation at the Powassan Public Library at the end of January. The topic began as 'yarn', but soon transformed into an evening to expose new or previous knitters to many possibilities of knitting with the new fibres and colours available. A couple friends really helped out by bringing their great sample garments. Obviously, I am biased with my alpaca yarn, but I did want to showcase all the possibilities. We also explored some of the environmental and fair trade considerations when buying yarn. Thanks to a friend made through Ravelry.com, I was able to show slides of some very funky wearable art made with novelty art yarn. I was pleased with the large turnout and hope that the evening helped the library to start a knitting program in this community.

I shared a few pictures of harvesting alpaca for my yarn. The audience loved these "before, during and after" pictures, as usual.

A good friend, Suzanne, and I have been planning a project for well over a year. I had some black alpaca yarn that was more suitable for weaving material than knitting. Suzanne and I had decided that there was probably enough there to weave two black jackets if we put them on one loom. We've talked a lot about this over many months. Suzanne grew tired of talking about it. So, we've picked out patterns. We've consulted with Ralph, our weaving guru. We've gone shopping for some colour accent yarn (of course, after shopping, I discovered the perfect Noro novelty yarn in my stash). We've planned the warp (apparently in a garment, even random colour needs to be planned carefully). We made the warp. Suzanne is weaving the material at her apartment.

I am really looking forward to having something made from alpaca handcrafted by my friend Suzanne. Besides being an accomplished weaver/artist, Suzanne is a very special person in my life.
Alpaca are a huge part of my life. This garment will be so special.

Suzanne is very focussed on this project. I think it might be consuming her! We have already discussed hand-crafted buttons for this garment.


Here's a picture of Aurelia. I've shown you pictures of her beautiful fleece before. She actually is a brilliant white although the picture looks like she is fawn. I'm sure it is just the overcast lighting, because she couldn't possibly be that dirty.