You know that saying, “I’d like to be a fly on the wall during that”? Well, sometimes I imagine what our adventures would look like from the outside. Take sinking post holes, for example. I almost listed it as another hobby on my profile page, I did so much of it this spring. We’d just acquired the new boys (Marcello, Bravado, and Merlin), so we needed more paddock space for quarantine.
Ah gates. They make life so much easier. Once you've put them in.
The big boys are finally out of quarantine! Mom and Dad let them out into the larger turnout area yesterday morning. They still can’t mix with the rest of the herd, but at least they get to explore a bit more. Poor Marcello is not the sharpest tool in the shed, so he managed to get himself behind the shelter and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the front. Bravado inspected everything closely, and approved. Merlin just wanted to graze.
No way, Jose, he ain't budging.
After spending a few hours out, it was time to go back into the paddock so the girls could have their turn. This, unfortunately, was not part of the boys’ plan. Dad put fresh hay in their paddock, which got Marcello and Bravado to come in. Merlin was having none of it, just “no way” from the old man. Marcello and Bravado got themselves out again while Dad was trying to shoo Merlin in! Hee hee. Alpaca fire drill!
On Sunday night I spun another 150 yards of “Dark Heart” yarn. Usually I’m pretty good at ending up with two bobbins that have about the same amount of yarn on them, so I don’t have leftovers after I ply. Last night, not so much. So I decided to try this “Andean plying bracelet” thing I read about. It’s a special way of winding singles onto your hand, so you can ply from both ends of the same yarn, instead of from two different singles.
I had more single left over than I thought.
To make one, you anchor the end of you yarn to your thumb. Then, working with your palm facing you, you make the “Star Trek” sign and put the yarn between middle and ring finger. You wrap your middle finger, go across the front of your hand, around your pinkie and across the back of your hand, then repeat.
Pulling your middle finger out of all that yarn is a little difficult, but those loops keep the yarn organized on your wrist.
After all your yarn is wound off the bobbin and around your hand, you wiggle your middle finger out of the loops very carefully. The loops will twist around each other a little, which helps to keep them all organized. Then you tie the end that was wrapped around your thumb and the tail end to your leader, and ply like normal!
It's kinda difficult to wind it off your had at first, but you figure it out.
I had to slow down the wheel a gear, because it took some learning to figure out how to pull yarn out of the bracelet. But this technique saved me a whole bunch of time.
We’ve been busy, busy bees! Over the weekend we made sure we had pictures of everything, and updated our business cards and portfolios. Check out some of my favorites.
One of Mom's thick, warm baby alpaca scarves.
Baby alpaca yarn is wonderful, and Mom knits the thickest, warmest scarves from it. She uses a loom, so the stitch is quite different from most knit scarves.
I sorta invented this one as I went, not sure what I think of it.
I took the time to crochet something last week. I haven’t really done anything but spin in ages, so this kind of shawl thing was a fun side project. I only had one skein of alpaca yarn from our friend’s alpacas, so I had to make something up.
One of my most recent yarns.
We call this one Christmas Tulips. I buy the red merino roving and then mix it with Tulip’s fiber. We have white alpacas (Tuscany, Morocco, Merlin and Bravado), but I haven’t started dyeing yet.
Yay! I got to meet and then huggle Marseille yesterday!
Squeee! So cute!
Aww. Our girl has gained three pounds in her first week! She and Trip look nearly the same size, and Trip is a month old!
These two are great friends.
Jeez. What could I possibly say that would add to the inherent awesomeness of these two fluffies?
It’s a not-very-secret secret that I am bored easily. Spinning doesn’t seem like a natural fit for a fickle crafter, and it probably isn’t. I usually get halfway into spinning one bobbin of singles before I am absolutely sick of the color. I was half done with a bobbin of Tulip’s fiber that I was adding red merino wool to intermittently for color, when I decided to try a new drafting technique.
I hold both fiber sources in my left hand, and draft from both at once.
Marled yarn is produced by holding two different colors of fiber at the same time, and drafting (pulling) from them equally. It’s really hard when the two fibers were prepared entirely differently. Tulip’s fiber is really light and fluffy roving, and the red is much more dense.
It has a nice swirl look to it as a single.
Commercially produced marled yarn is usually just two different colors plied together, which makes it look like candy cane. My singles look that way, but when I ply them the swirl will relax, and the two colors will run more parallel to each other. I think. I’ll let you know.
I'm going to ply these two together, for a holiday yarn.
I am so ready to be done with this yarn; it’s been on the bobbin for at least a week. And I had to let the red rest, since the green was done so long ago. The twist relaxes right out over time, so the two would not have been close to even if I had plied right away.
The new boys have been in quarantine for quite a while now, but they’ll be allowed into the larger turnout area later this week! They still won’t be allowed to mix with the girls for another month. Marcello and Merlin had their *ahem*…operations on Tuesday. All went well, the drugs they’re given are “dissociative”, which means they don’t remember what happened. But they know it was bad.
Bravado, as the only castrated male, is the only one of the new boys who cares about things other than girls...like the new baby just on the other side of the fence.
Bravado, cute stuff that he is, was already castrated, so it’s especially exciting for him to join the herd. He already cares about things other than the ladies, and really wants to meet the new baby.
One of the first things she did in turn out was crash headlong into a fence at full speed. She was fine, but I can picture the look on her face.
Mikayla and Marsy (sorry Mom, I tried to call her Marseille for a while) are doing well. Tripoli got his first shots yesterday. All five of the baby barn swallows are *loudly* healthy.
Goodness! They are getting too big for that nest.
And flying lessons for the kingbirds are going well. They still come into the barn and hang out at the nest at night, though.
Mamma (or Dadda) kingbird shows two babies how it's done. They feed by perching on fences (trees, in the wild) and darting out to catch flies and other insects.
I totally understand the mentality of boomerang baby birds. When the nest is this awesome, leaving is really hard!
I guess I thought I didn’t have enough hobbies. After all, I only spin, knit, crochet, felt, and quilt. Also, incongruously, I play video games *shhh, don’t tell Mom*. But a friend was biking to work the other day when he saw a loom at a yard sale, and he immediately thought of me. For only $200, this loom was too good a deal to pass up.
Setting up the loom. Derby doesn't approve of me acquiring a new hobby that doesn't involve loving on him.
Here’s a little story about Mikayla. Mikayla and Tulip were both pregnant on shearing day, a month or two away from their due dates. Our vet recommended giving them a shot that prevents premature births, since shearing can be stressful. It sounded easy! Just a tiny little needle into the shoulder, life goes on, right?
Wrong. So wrong.
What are you looking at?
Cliff House Alpacas 