Wooly Works

A Rant...

2011-01-17T21:39:00.005-07:00

Whoever said that finishing a large knitting project is like saying farewell to an old friend............IS LYING. It's more like plodding through a marathon while sporting a migraine headache.

I recently undertook to knit a lace wedding shawl for my lovely daughter-in-law who married my oldest son in December. It was finished in late November, just in time to keep me from going over the edge. It made use of three different patterns, a sideways edge and was knit in the traditional Shetland style. Sounds romantic, eh?

Well, let me tell you, mittens look mighty nice to me right now. The sideways edge seemed to take an eternity and when it was finally finished and blocked, I could not wait to get it out the door and away from my home and my needles. Bleh!!

Oh, the grinding of teeth and the headaches this shawl inspired. The weight gain in my backside and remolding of my posterior profile while I sat and knitted. The gross neglect of my responsibilities. I honestly hope it becomes an heirloom, is well loved and is passed down from generation to generation--because if it ends up felted or torn, I may well kill the person who perpetrated such an action against five months of my life!

Enough ragging.

I'm done.

So...how are you?

A Resurrection of Sanity?

2011-01-16T08:24:00.003-07:00

After months, no, years of blogging inactivity, I'm here to say that I think I'm going insane and need to have a life again. I tend to be a single minded person and immerse myself completely in one project at a time. Most recently, that project has been Triangle Cross Ranch. It's a wonderful place, and the people there are really special people. However, it's only taken me two full years to realize that I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I'm wrung out with giving 100% to the Ranch.

My first step towards restoring my sanity is this blog and recording my thoughts and activities for no one but myself, for the most part, so that I can look at them from the outside as time goes on. My second step is returning to my love of all things wooly and of making things from scratch with my animals' fiber. My third step is to shelter my private life from my Ranch life. More steps? Probably. I don't want to abandon my role at the Ranch, but staying on the track I'm on will ensure that eventually I'll burn out and leave just to keep my sanity intact.

Hmmmm...everyone grows up sometime. Better late than never, I say.

A Ranch Update

2009-02-07T15:34:00.022-07:00

Triangle Cross Ranch is such a wonderful place that I feel blessed to be part of it. The Ranch has a blog that you should check out. We're introducing the staff and the Ranchers so the next few months should be especially fun. They're all such unique individuals that they should each have their own theme music!

The new greenhouse goes to work this coming week as the Ranchers start bedding plants and herbs from seed. The Ranchers helped put it together and walked down the foundation materials so they would stay put. It took a few weeks to get it up. To be honest, no one is really excited to start the gardening program again because the weather is still so cold. We've had some very warm days recently that got us thinking about spring, but today the cold is creeping back and we'd all rather stay inside.

One of our Ranchers has had some financial difficulties recently, falling behind on his account by a substantial amount. This young man has been living at the Ranch for 21 years, paying his own bills through government benefits and income from his part-time job as a busboy at a local restaurant. He's autistic, so moving him to another facility would be traumatic, tragic and disastrous for him. We're on a mission to find money for him so he can stay at the Ranch. It's been an exercise in creative accounting and problem solving. The good part is that all of the Ranchers will benefit from the final outcome. It just stinks that everything seems to be about the money... Our young man has no idea that there's a problem and, hopefully, will never have to know.

We're not funded by the state, so all of our residents have to pay the difference between their tuition costs and what they receive from their SSI and disability income. I'll have more to say about that philosophy and the politics of it on the TCR blog at a later date.

The Ranchers continue to make hand made felt throughout the winter. They should be finished with all of the fiber in the workshop by the end of March so they can spend more time on the gardens. We'll shear again in May.

We took all of our 2 year old and older angora goats to the sale in January to save on feed costs. The newborn spring angora kids will arrive in June, but we'll be bottle feeding about 25 dairy goat kids in a couple of weeks for a local goat dairy. We'll rotate babies in and out as they grow out of the bottle feeding stage right through to the end of spring.

So there you have it. Life at the Ranch goes on as the Ranchers go to movies, play Special Olympics sports, visit friends, work at jobs, play games, do chores, help around the house, volunteer, get grumpy, get over being grumpy and just generally have a normal life. Honestly, I'd like to have as active a social calendar as they have.

So drop on by the TCR blog and we'll see you there as we introduce our lovely gang!

Y'all come back now, hear?

We're Baaaaaack!

2009-01-11T08:01:00.003-07:00

Whew! It's been quite few weeks since I've plied my fingers to the keyboard at this site. Forgive me for being unable to do too many things at once.

I've gone to work for the first time since my children were very young. I stopped working when my oldest son started school. I've been home schooling my children since then--17 years--raising livestock, processing fiber and I reentered the work force in the middle of September. I'm the temporary director at Triangle Cross Ranch and should know whether I'm permanent or not by the middle of February. In some ways, I hope the board of directors don't hire me. I could come back home and continue along with what I've nearly always done. In other ways, I hope they keep me on because I love the Ranch, its mission and its people. It's a great opportunity to make some important contributions--well, and the extra money is great, too.

So here at the WoolyWorks, things are quiet. The winter has moved into the "sunshine and bone chilling cold" stage and the "when is spring going to get here" stage. I've just this morning moved my angora does in with the bucks and all is well. We'll have kids in May and June this year, rather than March and April as in the past. We've lost some kids to spring snow storms in the past so I'm not sorry to have late kids.

I have a new buck this year as well. His name is Romeo and he's the nicest and sweetest boy ever. Hermes is still here and still raring to go. He's a lot more of a touch-me-not than Romeo, though. Hermes likes his nose and forehead scratched and that's really all. Romeo likes full body rub downs and hugs and doesn't mind you touching his horns at all. That makes for some smelly and yucky bonding time when he's in rut. Bleh!

The alpacas are thin this year. We had a really bad year last year with some deaths and unexplained illnesses so we're still recovering from that. We didn't breed any alpacas this year to give them some time to recover physically. We're also waiting to see how our young ones fare this year. We lost several to some kind of wasting disease that our vet could never identify.

So, other than chasing down a load of hay, draining hoses and watching the poop pile up and freeze, the animal work has decreased appreciably. It will be nice to see spring arrive again.

Enough for now. I'll check in again in a few days with some pictures and some updates on all things fiber.

The Faces of Friends

2008-09-11T13:59:00.005-06:00

Every morning and evening, I'm greeted by the most beautiful and eager of faces. I have to say, I'm the highlight of their day. I bring the treats and provide most of the excitement that they experience in each 24 hour period. Their huge dark eyes fix on me while they wait, just out of reach, for their grain.

Alpacas are so stoic that you can't tell something is wrong until it's nearly too late, but just give them the hope of a treat or the promise of a good spraying down on their legs, and the poker faces disappear. They're all eagerness and self-forgetfulness when the good stuff comes out.

Baby face, you've got the cutest little baby face...

Look Mommy! The alpaca is smiling!!

Brown...

2008-09-08T18:49:00.003-06:00

More toys...brown on brown...and more brown.

Three Babies in One Day!!

2008-09-06T17:35:00.005-06:00

Yes, we had three, count 'em, three, babies in one two hour period today. I got home from town, looked out in the pen and yelled, "We have a baby out there! No,....wait, we have two babies!! Oh my gosh!.....we have three babies!!! All of them were still wet, two were up, one couldn't have been more than 15 minutes old and all the after births were accounted for on the ground.

So here they are! The black is a little male out of our Timothy and Zayne. The big brown one is a boy as well out of Zion and our Taliesin. The little rose gray with the white face is a female out of Miss Rose and Black Knight. The first two are out of completely home bred and home grown stock. Miss Rose and Black Knight have produced three gray females in a row now. This little one has an umbilical hernia so she's wearing a belly band.

And then there's our little Rowdy. Sadly, he lost his mama to a perforated bowel last week. She was such a sweet girl and gave us such a sweet little baby. He's our bottle baby now at the tender age of 2 months, and has just gotten over the shock of losing his mama. He's attached himself to a young maiden of ours, Zakaree, and they're quite the pair. He's an awfully good boy, very vocal and a little confused about all these babies. Today, he thinks Miss Rose is his mama, so he's been tossed into a separate pen for now. Rose's baby needs to get all the colostrum she can get and Rowdy will only deplete the supply. Rose would have taken him, too, if we hadn't interfered. She has some mental challenges and would have abandon her baby in favor of Rowdy.

We have one more female to deliver, our silver gray Eliana, and she's due any day now, if our timing is right. Oh, I just love babies!!

School Ramblings...

2008-09-03T08:56:00.003-06:00

After 9 years of home school, my oldest daughter started as a freshman at the local public school two weeks ago. I have to say that I miss her terribly. I still have one more at home for school, but I've never been the kind of mom who can't wait to ship the kids off to school in the fall or to camp in the summer. I've enjoyed every one of my children, from the adult boys to my youngest at 11.

Oh, I know she's happy and enjoying herself thoroughly. I know that it was high time to get her out from under my protective wings. I know she'll bloom in the school environment. I know she already has loads of friends and will make more as time goes on. I know, I know, I know,...but the house seems oddly empty without her.

I felt the same way when the boys went to school, but I still had two little ones to keep me busy. It's just different this time. Perhaps it's my age and perhaps it's the anticipation of an empty nest in the not too distant future. Whatever it is, it's hard to have her gone from 7:00 am until 4:30 pm and not be part of what she's doing.

So, wake up mom! I tell myself. She needs to be away from you. She needs to figure some things out on her own. Ssssiiiiiiiggggghhhhhh..... OK. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. I'll live and I'll get over it eventually.

The youngest has just started school here at home on Tuesday, so we're off and running with that. She's a lovely girl and, being the youngest, has waited all this time to get her mom alone and all to herself. I hope she's not disappointed with what she gets. She's quite the social butterfly, but not very good at thinking for herself in a crowd. She'd be carried along by the popular opinion and the group consensus on what's appropriate behavior and what is not. She would be forever in trouble and it's not worth it to me to lose her at such a young age.

Well, I'm feeling better just for writing this down. I have plenty to keep me busy here until the youngest is old enough for high school. I'd better get focused and get going. I have three concentrated years in which to help fashion a girl into a young woman.

Another Addition and a Perfect Sunset

2008-08-19T11:20:00.007-06:00

Meet Little Blossom. She's another one of Alan Dart's amazing patterns. I think she's a very nice addition to our growing gang of toys. They're all looking forward to Christmas this year and finding a special little person to love them. See how anxious they look?

The sun went down on a perfect evening last night, leaving a silhouette of the farm countryside. This is just another reason why I love my life here on the farm.

Scarecrow Sam

2008-08-14T18:51:00.005-06:00

Scarecrow Sam is finally finished! Isn't he adorable, and made by my 14 year old daughter!

Here's her next project. It looks like a bowling pin, a gourd, or a rotten summer squash. Actually, it's a gnome in process and knit in the round. We've both gotten the hang of altering flat knitting patterns to knitting in the round. It saves us tons of time and produces a neater finish.

More on the gnome in due time.

Gnome, Ma'am

2008-08-11T13:49:00.004-06:00

The latest in the toy craze! This little guy is one of Alan Dart's Yuletide Gnomes. He's made of about 1/3 alpaca and the rest is wool, a bit of acrylic for the face and nose and some of that hairy novelty yarn for the beard. I think he's my favorite so far.

Oh, and here's Sam the Scarecrow, looking a little bit, um, bland at the moment laying on is back, no wait, his front, um, well, we'll have to wait for his face to appear I guess. Bethy is hard at work on him and he should take shape in just a few more days.

Panda, Anyone?

2008-08-08T10:58:00.004-06:00

This is the latest addition to the bear population here. He's knitted from black alpaca and white alpaca/mohair blend. The pattern is Jean Greenhowe's teddy bear pattern from Traditional Favorites. I altered the finishing to allow him to be jointed, rather than sewn on one position. I also didn't like the eyes very much--kind of panicked looking, I thought. So, I added a slanted eyelid that softens the stark look of fear to a dreamier and friendlier expression.

I quite like his looks now. He's off to become a gift for a college girl's birthday.

Sock Progress

2008-08-05T07:33:00.001-06:00

More progress on the knit along sock by Kathleen of A Bag of Olives!!

Knit Along Progress

2008-07-29T17:32:00.004-06:00

Here is the first cuff from one of our sock knitters. It's knitted by Kathleen of A Bag of Olives. You go girl! Chances are good that the yarn she's using is hand spun and completely her own, unlike mine, which was Paton's Wool. This qualifies this up and coming pair of socks for a "home spun hand knit" award when they're finished!!

Here is the latest in the ongoing cupcake projects. There was a girl's slumber party here this past weekend and these are Abby's offering for the refreshments. Aren't they adorable?

Sock KAL-The Toe and Kitchener Stitch

2008-07-26T12:25:00.011-06:00

The last task to complete your fabulous socks is upon us. It's time to finish the toe and weave it together for a seamless and perfect ending. You've knitted down the foot until about 2" of length remain. We'll be doing a striped toe in colors B and C, so if you like more color and a longer toe, you can start the stripes well before we begin to decrease. The color stripes pattern is where the clock pattern ends so you can remove your markers.

We're going to change colors at the bottom of the foot where it won't show as much. After you knit one round in the new color, there will be a jog where the first round ends and the second round begins. To minimize this, we're going to reach down into the previous color row and pull a stitch up one row and knit it together with the first stitch of the round. It will look like a slip stitch when finished, being two rows tall. This floating stitch only occurs on the second round after the color change.

Change to color B and knit around.

At the beginning of needle #1, reach down with the tip of your right needle and pick up the right side of the stitch directly below (it will be in color A)...

and put it on your left needle without twisting it.

Knit this stitch and the first st. on #1 together. Knit around.

Change to color C and knit around. Repeat the second round as above, picking up the stitch below in the previous color and knitting it together with the first stitch on needle #1.

The stripe pattern is two rounds wide in each color, unless you want something thinner or wider. Substitute however you like. Floating the first stitch from below always happens on second round (and only the 2nd round) after the color change. If you don't care whether you have a jog in your stripes or not, knit happily around and disregard the directions for addressing this jog.

Next round: Change to color B and knit around.
Next round: Knit (floating the colors st. if you like) and decrease as follows:
#1: k to last 3 sts., k2tog, k1
#2: k1, ssk, k to last 3 sts., k2tog, k1
#3: k1, ssk, k to end.

If the toe were laying flat on the table, the decreases take place one stitch in from the edge on both sides of the toe, top and bottom, so there will be four decreases each round. It helps me to get a visual for this so I don't have to keep looking at the directions.

Next round: Change to color C and knit around.
Next round: Knit a decrease round as above, (floating the color st. if you like)

Continue striping and decreasing on every other round as above until 32 sts. remain, 8 on #1 and #3 each.
Work a decrease round on every round until 16 sts. remain.
Using needle #3, knit across the sts. on needle #1 so that the remaining sts. are held on 2 needles only with 8 on each.
The join with the floated stitch is visible in the photo above, but once it's blocked, it will be much less visible.

Kitchener Stitch

We'll finish the toe by weaving the stitches together using a technique called Kitchener Stitch. I don't know how it got it's title. Basically, Kitchener Stitch reproduces the knit stitches, creating what looks like a continuous knit fabric. There are no seams and it looks for all the world like the knitter knit the toe from back to front without stopping. It's brilliant and very useful in all kinds of garments. Here's how it works:

Cut the working yarn into a long tail (18 in. or more) and thread it onto a tapestry needle. With all of the stitches held on two needles, hold the needles together, one in the front and one in the back with the working yarn tail coming from the back needle.

Set up row: Using the tapestry needle run the yarn through the first stitch in the front as if to purl. Then run the yarn through the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit. Pull snug.

Row one: Slip the first st. of the front needle onto the tapestry needle as if to knit, enter the 2nd st on front needle as if to purl, leaving it one the knitting nee both dle. Pull the yarn through stitches. Snug up yarn, but not tightly.

Slip the first st. on back needle as if to purl. Enter the 2nd st. on back needle as if to knit. Pull yarn through both sts. and snug up the yarn, but not tightly.

Row two up to last row: Repeat as above. There will be one less st. on each needle each repeat until only 2 sts. are left.

Last row: Slip front st. as to knit, slip back st. as to purl. Snug up yarn, weave in end.

Knit, purl, purl, knit. That's how I remember the order. Always slip the first st. off the needle, thread through the second, front and then back. slip knit, purl front. Slip purl, knit back. Once you get the first couple of repeats finished, it all falls into a rhythm.

Woo Hoo! the toe is finished. It may look a little rough in the picture but after blocking, it will look perfect. Now we have to go back to the cuff, sew the edges of the twisted edging together and weave in all of the ends. After that, it's done!!

Try on your sock.

Admire your handiwork.

Start on the second one if you haven't already.

Send me the pictures at woolyworks@odysseyrockranch.com along with your own story and comments or your own blog or web address. If you've got something to share, please send it along and I'll post if for you here and on our website and/or link to your site.

Finally, wear your socks proudly, present them as gifts to only the most important people in your life, or sell them on Etsy.com .

Write your own patterns and dream up your own designs.

Design new and better ways to accomplish knitting tasks.

Write a book.

Become famous!!

What a difference a Sock KAL can make!

Jack's Rowdy Cowboy and Company

2008-07-24T13:39:00.008-06:00

Well, the jury is in on the baby's name. We've decided on.....

Jack's Rowdy Cowboy.

Thanks for all the input. We labored over the name and I hope this is the one that sticks. We've been known to change names all the way up to sending in the registration papers. He's such a character and such a trouble maker that we had to choose something to reflect that. Rebel was very tempting and Lone Star was discussed for quite a while. In fact, every name that was suggested painted a different image for us to consider. It's so much appreciated. There are 9 more babies due in the fall, so we'll need lots more help.

I thought you should have the chance to meet the jury:

Aren't they an intelligent and attentive looking group?

Sock KAL-Turn the Heel, Work the Gusset OR Knit a Massive Bump on Purpose

2008-07-18T10:30:00.004-06:00

Welcome back for more of the Wooly Works Sock Knit Along. Have you finished your cuffs? Are you ready to knit down the leg and--gasp!--turn the heel? This time we're going to really kick things into high gear, so here we go, ready or not. We left off at the end of 8 round of ribbing.

You know, if you don't like the color pattern or didn't feel up to tackling it, you could work 12-16 rounds of ribbing and call it good. You'll have a fabulously luxurious sock when you're done no matter what you do.

The next step is to knit the leg portion. This is where the bulk of the knitting happens and to make it just a little more interesting and to add some class, we're going to work a clock pattern. A clock is a small insertion that runs the length of the leg and foot and is worked at both ends of needle#2. It's usually 3-5 sts. wide and can be as simple as 3 purl sts. to break up the stocking stitch or as complex as a cable or simple lace insertion. For ours, we will do a mock cable twist with a purl stitch on each side.

To set up, knit across the sts. on needle #1. On needle #2, p1, k2, p1 and place a marker. Knit across to the last four sts., place a marker, p1, k2, p1. Knit across the sts. on needle #3.

This is the pattern for the clock:

Row 1: p1, k2, p1
Rows 2-3: Repeat row 1
Row 4: p1, k2tog but do not slip off of needle. Insert right needle tip between the 2 sts. and knit the first st. again. Slip both off of needle together. P1.
Repeat these four rows at both end of needle #2 for the length of the sock. The markers will remind you to work the pattern.

Knit on down the leg until it's the length you want it to be.

I made mine 4 inches from the bottom of the ribbing for a total length of 8" from cuff to beginning of heel flap. If you want to make knee socks, there is some shaping for the calf that needs to happen. Let me know if you need help with this.

Now you're ready to knit the heel flap. This is done back and forth on two needles and knit over 1/2 the total sts. So, knit across the sts. on needle #1 so that they're all on one needle.

Put a point protector on the ends of needle #2 or wrap a rubber band around the ends so you don't lose your sts. while you turn the heel.

Turn the work, change to color B and purl back. Turn.
Next row, sl1 as if to purl, k1, sl1, k1 across. Turn.
Change to color C and purl back. Turn.
Next row, sl1, k1 across.

Repeat these 4 rows, changing colors every two rows, or as you choose, until the heel flap measures about 3 inches and ending in color C.

Now you're ready to...ta dah!...TURN THE HEEL!

We'll be using the short row technique, which is how most Americans I know learned to turn their first heel. Relax, it's easy. I'll give you a recipe just in case you've been dreading this part.
Change to color B and purl across 14 sts. p2tog, p1, turn. You'll be turning the work before you reach the end, leaving some sts. unworked--7 of them to be exact.

Sl1, k5, ssk, k1, turn. If it's easier, you can k2tog, instead of the ssk. No one but you will know the difference, I promise.

There will now be a gap between where you turned the knitting and the unworked sts. on both ends. You'll knit up to the gap, work the sts on either side of the gap together (p2tog, ssk, or k2tog), work one more st. and turn. It's easier for me to turn a heel with this in mind than having to count every time. The number of unworked sts. should decrease with every row until you run out of sts. to work. When you run out, you're done.

Sl1, p6, p2tog, p1, turn.
Sl1, k7, ssk, k1, turn.
Sl1, p8, p2tog, p1, turn.
Sl1, k9, ssk, k1, turn.
Sl1, p10, p2tog, p1, turn.
Sl1, k11, ssk, k1, turn.
Sl1, p12, p2tog, turn
Sl1, k12, ssk, turn (14 sts left on needle)

Heel turned! Congratulations!

Now rejoin color A and pick up 13 sts. along the left side of the heel flap. The right side should be facing you when you pick them up. If you aren't sure how to pick up sts. let me know and I'll send you some help. Now knit across the sts. on needle #2--remember needle #2? Don't forget to work your clock pattern. After you're finished with needle #2, pick up 13 sts. along the opposite side of the heel flap.

These picked up sts. will run vertically along the sides of the heel flap and perpendicular to the heel flap sts., so you don't want gaping holes in the knitting. Thirteen stitches is not a magic number, and it may not be enough for your heel flap. Be sure to pick up enough sts. to close any gaps and make sure you pick up the same number of sts. on both sides. I actually picked up 17 sts. on each side.

All of your needles are now back in use, but you have a rectangle with one needle holding the heel flap, one needle on each side holding the picked up sts., and needle #2 intact with its original 24 sts. With the working yarn on needle #3, knit across 7 of the sts. on the needles holding the heel flap sts. Slip the remaining 7 sts. onto needle #1.

You're back to your knitting triangle and at the starting point at the back of the heel. It's time to work the gusset.

The gusset is when you decrease your sts. back to your original count so the sock fits the contours of the foot and you can knit on down the foot.

Begin by knitting the sts. on needle #1 up to the last 3 sts. K2tog, k1.
Knit across the sts. on needle #2, remembering work the clock pattern.
On needle #3, k1, ssk, knit to end of needle. One round completed.
Knit one round plain--don't forget your clock pattern on #2.

Repeat these two rounds, continuing to decrease at the end of #1 and the beginning of #3 on every other round, until 24 total sts. remain--12 sts. on needles #1 and #3, and 24 sts. on needle #2. When you're done, you'll see that you've inserted an enormous bump in an otherwise neat and tidy tube. Don't forget to work the clock pattern throughout.

So, is it obvious that I've forgotten to work my clock pattern more than once? If you forget and end up with the clock stopping at the ankle, who's going to tell you that you didn't plan it that way? If you make a mistake once, you fix it. If you make it twice, you say a few nasty words while you fix it. If you make the same mistake three times, it becomes a design element. AND, if you make a mistake and don't know it until after you've knitted 12 rounds, it STILL becomes a design element. I'm the lord of my knitting, right?

Well, it's all down hill now. Knit down the foot (remembering the clock pattern, of course) until you're 2 inches short of the desired foot length.

We'll finish the toe next time!! Maybe you'll leave the toes off so you can wear your flip flops with them, eh? As always, if you're fast, you can always work on that second sock. They match better when they're worked as close to the same time as possible. The techniques for using long circular needles to do two socks at once are brilliant and make nearly perfectly matching socks. I just prefer the old fashioned way, I guess. See you in a few days!!

Sock KAL

2008-07-16T15:59:00.004-06:00

It's time for the Wooly Works sock knit along! I have one knitter knitting along with me so if you'd like to join us, grab your needles and yarns and let's go. I'll be posting the pattern a little at a time here, but if you'd like to have it all at one shot, check our website at http://odysseyrockranch.com . It's posted there under Free Patterns.

We're starting with something simple but fun and I think you'll be pleased with the results. No comments please about my color choices or lack of color coordination. I'm using some wool with contrasting colors so you can see the work progress. My skill at taking pictures is limited so I need all the help I can get. Besides, I want your socks to be the highlight of our KAL, not mine.

You'll need US #3 (3.25 mm, UK #10) straight needles and #3 dpn's. You'll also need three colors of yarn, with the main color A, and the others designated as B and C. Cast on 48 stitches onto the straight needles and knit 2 rows in color A. Join color B and knit 2 rows. Join color C and knit 2 rows.

OK, I couldn't find my #3 straights, so I used #2 (2.75 mm, UK #12) straights. I already broke my own rules--just so you know. I'll still use #3 dpn's.

Rejoin color A, knit 1 row and then work a twisted edge as follows:

K4, rotate the right needle 360 degrees, K4, rotate, K4 and continue across to the end.

At the end of this row, transfer all sts. to dpn's and join into round by working K2 P2 ribbing (2x2 ribbing).

Work 8 rounds of ribbing. Purl two rounds and knit one round plain.

The next step is to work the color pattern. Work it as follows:

K2 in color A, k2 in color B. Repeat around three times.
K2 in color B, k2 in color A. Repeat around three times.
Repeat first three rounds.

This is how I knit the pattern, but the posted pattern says to work vertical stripes. I broke my own rules again, but isn't knitting about being creative? Isn't it about creating a work of wearable art that suits the maker? In my world, a pattern is just a blueprint, a suggestive guide and an idea builder. I don't write or use patterns as if they're a recipe or a code of conduct. They're always a work in progress and the knitter gets to decide what the progress looks like and where it ultimately goes. I hope your socks look completely different from mine!!

Knit one round plain in color A.
Purl two rounds in color A.
Work 8 more rounds of 2x2 ribbing.

OK, that's it for now. Go and work on that much and come back in a couple of days for the rest or go to our website for the complete pattern and work on ahead. You can put your cuff stitches on a string and start the second sock, which isn't a bad idea if you want to have both socks be an exact match. See you in a couple of days!!

P.S., just in case you're curious about the shawl progress, here it is on a string so I could check the pattern. So far so good. It will still take me the rest of the summer. I'm at 576 stitches now and it's getting good!! I'm still promising to get better directions and pictures up soon for those who want to knit along but couldn't follow my sketchy directions!

More Stuff From a Very Hot Farm

2008-07-11T12:07:00.005-06:00

It's 102F today. Whew! We got the chores done early and ran to the house where we've been hunkered down in the air conditioning. The irrigation water will run all on its own until it cools off this evening and the animals all have plenty of shade and water, so we're fiddling with our own little projects.

Yesterday, a nice thunderstorm rolled in around 3:00. We're hoping for the same today.

Did I mention that I'm spinning dog hair for a woman from the Boulder area? She's saved the hair from her four dogs for 13 years. I'm working on just over 8 ounces of Golden Retriever undercoat and will start on a blend of black standard poodle and black alpaca next week. There is also a white poodle and something called a labradoodle (?). Interesting stuff. It's coming along well, but the stink--even after washing--is something else. It all smells like old dog, which will probably be a great comfort to the owner, but is just stinky to me. The black poodle died just after I collected the hair from the owner, so she's looking forward to having something from that animal. I don't blame her. I'm pretty attached to my animals as well.

My Abby is again creating cupcakes and cookies with her decorating skills and once again I'm impressed with this youngster's ability and eye. She worked with a recipe this time instead of just a boxed mix, so they taste good this time.

This is the latest bear in our growing collection. It's turned out to be a girl. Since I haven't gotten around to knitting any clothes for it, we used my daughter's doll clothes to cover the "bearness". No name for it yet, as it's gender could change with a simple change of garb. This one is made of handspun alpaca mohair blend, silver gray alpaca, and some bits of gray angora bunny. The ears and paws should fuzz up significantly with time and handling. However, I think it's time for something a little more traditional in the bear department. Jean Greenhowe has some very nice bear patterns and so does Debbie Bliss. I'll start there.

The summer cold finally caught me. The rest of the family had it last week as I gloated over being more hardy and vigorous than they. I've been fighting with a sore throat for three days, although I wouldn't admit it was actually sore--just a little tight is all--and today I have the running nose, slight fever and puffy eyes. Yuck. I hate that feeling when you're not sleepy, but your eyes and head say to lay down and sleep. As I lay there, my mind says, "The windows need washed. The weeds need sprayed. The website needs updated. The floors need scrubbing. What about the painting project? When are you going to clean the carpets? Weren't you going to sort through the storage shed?" Oh my. Why can't I remember all those things when I'm feeling good?

It's a good thing it's HOT today and I have a good excuse to give myself to neglecting all of those things, eh?

First Baby of the Summer

2008-07-10T18:33:00.003-06:00

Our first baby alpaca (cria) of the season was born this week. He's beautiful and oh so energetic. He likes chest butting his mother and jumping on her back when she's laying down. He's quite the trouble maker in the female herd. Without any other babies arriving until fall, I'm afraid he'll find lots of ways to play and amuse himself that won't exactly endear him to the big girls.

He needs a name! His sire's name is Jumpin' Jack Flash and his mother is Odyssey's Morning Star. We've been calling him Cowboy since he sports a nice saddle on his back and we have to call him something, but we need some help! The last time we just called an animal something out of necessity, we ended up calling her Little Sister and it's stuck! Not quite an elegant or memorable name for registered breeding stock.

Suggestions? Should we have a contest?

Circular Shawl Knit Along and News From the Farm

2008-07-05T21:50:00.004-06:00

I've been working on a circular shawl this summer. To be honest, I just started last week, but it's coming along nicely and will be done by the end of the summer. I attended a conference for 4 days and had lots and lots of time to work on it during the break out sessions, so it's further along than I anticipated. I did my first one three years ago and it's by far my favorite knitting project. I knit a lot in the car, at swim meets, and such, and a circular shawl is so convenient to take along. You can't lose your a needle because you use a circular needle for most of the work, the knitting forms a nice little sack for the ball of yarn and the project offers a nice balance between mindless knitting and mild challenge. I learned this pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book, A Knitter's Almanac. For anyone who would like to knit along, I'll give some detail of how it progresses.

The pattern is based on the principle that the diameter of a circle doubles as the circumference doubles. If you're not mathematically inclined, don't be intimidated. It's very simple once you've been through the first few increases. In fact, it's so simple that I think it's a much better beginner's project than the scores of cell phone covers and fingerless mitts that are seen in the beginner's pattern books.

You'll need a set of 5 dpn's, although you'll start on 4, increase to 5 dpn's and then transfer to a circular. It sounds complicated, but it's really not at all.

I cast on 9 sts. and joined them on 3 dp needles, 3 sts. on each needle. Be careful not to twist the sts. Knit one round. This first round is frustrating, what with the needles sliding around and only a few stitches. It can be the undoing of a new or easily frustrated knitter, but stick with it and the rewards will be worth it. I had to start over twice myself. Just be sure to rest the needles on your lap while you get through this first round so your needles don't drop to the floor and roll under the table or slide down the couch cushions. (The voice of experience...)

After knitting the first round, the stitches should be firmer on the needles. Double your sts. by (yo, k1) around - 18 sts., 6 on each needle. Don't forget that yo at the beginning of each dpn. It's easy to forget, so keep that in your mind as you increase. That's the first increase round and this is where we begin the geometry of the thing.

Knit 3 rounds straight and then double your sts. again by (yo, k1) around - 36 sts. Arrange the sts. on 4 dpn's so that you have 9 sts. on each needle. Knit 6 rounds straight and double your sts. again to 72 sts. Do you see the increasing pattern? Double your sts. and double the number of knit rounds. You'll go on to double your sts. to 144 and knit 12 rounds, 288 sts. and 24 rounds, and 576 sts. and 48 rounds. You shouldn't need to knit more than these 48 rounds, which would mean increasing to 1152 sts. and 96 rounds, but I suppose it's possible. You're creating a perfect circle and I suppose the size of that circle is only limited by the supply of yarn and patience. When the shawl is the size you want it to be, stop.

Transfer your work to a circular needle whenever it gets big enough. I transferred mine onto a 12 inch circular at 72 sts.

About the time you are knitting the 12 rounds you'll be thinking how plain the knitting looks, unless you've chosen an interesting novelty or painted yarn, of course. This is the time to start a stitch pattern. Any stitch pattern that is divisible by 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18 or 24 will do. Look in your stitch pattern books or look online at some of the stitch libraries. Most will give directions for flat knitting and will say that a pattern is worked over a certain number of stitches + 1, or +2. When knitting in the round, you can eliminate those extra stitches (+1, +2) and just concentrate on the main pattern. The repeats will follow one another very neatly as you go around. As a challenge, choose more than one pattern and place a different pattern in each space between the increase rows.

You may also choose to play with color during the knitting. Again, look at some resources or come up with your own patterns and choose something that will fit into the stitch count with no stitches left over.

If you like, choose no patterns at all and knit calmly along in stocking st. until the very end. You will have a lovely piece when you finish with concentric circles of yo's that will make it look lacy and beautiful. If you don't like the look of yo's, you can double your stitches by (m1, k1) or by (kfb, k1). However you choose to do it, just remember to double your sts. and then double the rounds beginning on the very next round.

For my piece I chose a raspberry alpaca in sport weight. I tried a lace weight, but it was much too flimsy for me, as I'm a little heavy handed. Best to know your limitations, I think. I'm using size 6 needles and a 12 inch circular. I'll have to move up to a 16 inch circular as the thing grows, but I don't think I'll need more than that. You may want to use a longer circular so you can see your pattern more clearly as it grows. I'm estimating that I'll use between 1000 and 1250 yards of yarn so I have five 250 yd. balls of the same dye lot.

After I had 36 sts., 9 on each dp, I started a variation of a simple razor shell lace pattern. I adjusted the pattern to fit one repeat on each needle. [ k3, yo, slip 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k3] This gives 6 sts. of plain stocking stitch between the yo's, which is not ideal, but it worked for me. It's a 2 round repeat, with the second round being plain knit. I continued the same pattern after the next increase round and the transfer to the circular needle. I adjusted the placement of the pattern to line up with the previous yo's. You don't have to do that. You can just begin knitting the pattern as you did before the increase round, but know that the yo's will be offset, rather than in a neat column.

After the increase to 144 sts., I started the Old Shale pattern. Since it's an 18 st. and 4 round repeat, it fit in perfectly. Keep in mind that if a pattern doesn't fit you can adjust it to fit or increase one or two sts. in each pattern repeat to accommodate it and no one's the wiser. This shawl pattern is very forgiving and blocking works absolute wonders in the end.

So here I am, at the end of my 24 rounds and right at the point of increasing to 288 stitches. And here it is again after the increase to 576 stitches and things are moving along really well.

After the final rounds, we'll be putting on a sideways edge so that we don't have to cast off all of those stitches. I'll wait to post about that as we get to that point. So get busy on that circular shawl and we'll compare notes soon. You have some sticky bits to get through and then the knitting just sails along.

As a side note, Bethy is working on her next doll. She chose Jean Greenhowe's most famous doll, Sam Scarecrow, to go with her baby scarecrow. I'm also working on writing down my pattern for the amigurumi alpaca. There've been lots of requests for that.

I've just acquired a new book featuring toy designer Alan Dart. I stumbled across the one and only copy at the local Borders store by accident. I'd never heard of him before, but his knitted toys are to die for. It's such a great book that I searched the internet for another to give as a gift, and it's quite hard to get a copy of. Hopefully, we'll be turning out some of his designs soon.

Finally, this is my latest teddy bear. He's kind of a "bear in the buff" for now, as I've not gotten around knitting him, or her, some clothes. Good thing it's summer. We've been planning a teddy bear knit along and I think we'll do one of these little guys.

Finally, more cupcakes are appearing almost daily. Abigail made these little gems in honor of her sister's return from a week at camp. I think she missed her just a little bit...

Just a summer's day

2008-06-20T17:44:00.003-06:00

The weather is hotter today. It's been such a cool spring that it's nice to have the sun pound us now and then. It was hot enough that we ended our work early and came in to enjoy the cool of the house. My oldest daughter Bethy finished her little scarecrow baby from one of Jean Greenhowe's books. Bethy isn't all that happy with the results but I think he's very cute for her first try at this kind of pattern. On to greater challenges and the bigger dolls for her.

Younger daughter, Abigail, tried her hand at decorating cupcakes--also her first try at the tender age of 11. We found a website all about baking and decorating cupcakes. They have a monthly challenge and the first one is making flower cupcakes. Here's her entry. I think they turned out really good, although the cake is just from a mix. I'm sure she'll get better at the baking part, but for now, she's very excited about the decorating.

As usual, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in around 3:30.

During the storm and through the rain and hail, the sun shone brightly through the clouds and the rainbow seemed to end right at our house. We searched and searched for the pot of gold, but with no luck. Alas, all we got was a picture and a cool and windless summer evening. Good trade if you ask me.

Sheared, shaved, shorn

2008-06-13T09:17:00.002-06:00

Well, we've reached the other side of the shearing mountain. I now have a barn full of alpaca fiber in clear plastic trash bags, forming yet another mountain for me to scale.

We shear our animals using ropes and pulleys that stretch the animal out on the floor.

This is how the shearers from New Zealand do it and they're the absolute best. Because alpacas' instincts tell them that their heads, bellies and legs should never be touched lest they become a quick meal for a predator, this method of shearing incapacitates them so we can get the job done in 20 minutes or less. It's also much safer for the animal. Sheep shears can cut the skin wide open in a split second and a jumpy and nervous animal like an alpaca is especially at risk for this. I've heard of people shearing their animals standing up, but I can't imagine getting a safe, thorough and clean cut with the animal fussing and jumping around. It's also difficult to get all of the fiber off of the animal in the belly area, back end and the arm pits when the animal is standing. Not removing that fiber is an invitation for skin parasites and an opportunity to overlook areas that may harbor infection or wounds from the previous year.

Contrary to the concerns of those who believe that this method of shearing is cruel, I believe it is the most humane, the safest, the most efficient, and best option in terms of the long term health and comfort of the animal. The ropes allow me to put my hands and my eyes on every part of the animal, which gives me a chance to discover any previously unseen injuries or conditions that have developed. I think this is important for the overall health of the animal. 20-30 minutes stretched out on the ropes is much better than living 24/7 with the discomfort and long term effects of a chronic infection or infestation.

OK, enough of the preaching. This is our set up and here is an animal on the floor ready to shear. Most of the animals are not stretched tightly unless they struggle and fight. Pregnant females are not stretched fully and are not put on their bellies for any long than it takes to turn them over.

We take the blanket off first.

If we can get it in one piece, so much the better, but if an animal is having a hard time of it or if the female is within 30 days of delivery, we'll do one side at a time. The blanket is the main section of fleece, from the shoulder to the hip, possible including the neck if the fiber is of high quality. This is the prime fiber and the most valuable.

After the blanket, I shear the belly, the back leg and the neck and head--in that order. The animal is then raised upright and I shear the back end, the tail and the other side of the neck and head.

The animal is turned over to the opposite side and the last of the belly, the back leg, the front leg and the chest area are finished. The animal is completely sheared in an average of 20 minutes. We take the opportunity to trim toe nails, give vaccinations, vitamin injections and wormer paste. At the end of 30 minutes, the animal is back in the pen with the herd wondering what just happened.

I'd love to say I'm as good as the NZ guys, but that will never happen. With a full crew, those guys can shear an alpaca in 10 minutes and they can do 50-60 animals in one day. Sheesh! I'm not that fast, that tough, that young, or that focused. I do 10-12 on a good day, and I never have a full crew--just me and my two girls. I'm always afraid I'll get too tired and cut the animals by accident just because I wasn't on top of my game. Also, my shearing helpers are my two young girls who don't need to be wearing their backs out by trying to be heroic.

So that part of the year is over. We sheared our own animals and sheared for several other farms. I don't know how many we did altogether, but I'm glad it's done. We'll shear goats again in the fall and we'll be sorting, cleaning, and combing fiber for the rest of the summer. After that, the knitting starts again--hurrah!!

Gearing up for Shearing

2008-05-15T18:14:00.012-06:00

It's time. It's time to strip those animals of their worldly coverings and harvest their wool. It's time for all fiber producing animals to pay up for a year's board and care. Yes, it's time to shear.

However, the spring has been slow in coming and the temperature's still only hovering around 50F today with threats of freezing rain in the evenings. So, we've had lots of time to piddle around and "get ready". We've already sheared our goats, thankfully, because they needed it so badly. They were shivering in their little shelters immediately after the denuding, so we opened up the west side of the chicken house for them to huddle into. It's helped them a lot and when the pasture gate is open, they hardly complain at all while they barge out toward the greens. As soon as the rain starts to fall, though, they all run, lickety split, to the shelters again as if they'll melt in the rain.

We're sharpening our own blades this year. We purchased the sharpening stone in partnership with another alpaca farm, trading a portion of an animal for our part of the purchase price. Last year, I spent over $300 getting my blades sharpened throughout the shearing season. We figure that this will pay for itself within 2 seasons even if we don't take in any outside sharpening work.

So here it is, our nifty DIY blade sharpener. Like most things, there's a trick to it and being the visual learner that I am, I had to have our partnering farmer come over and show me how to do it right. I had sharpened several sets the week before to do some shearing out near the Nebraska line and the blades that I sharpened wouldn't cut. As it turns out, they were sharpened just fine, but didn't get completely demagnetized. Go figure. It's a good thing I had two sets of brand new blades with me or I'd have lost the job altogether.

This is how it works. You charge the stone with oil and grit, not too much of each or you'll pretty much make mud. Hold the blade with the magnet so that you don't touch the stone as it turns clockwise. Press the blade to the stone and repeatedly move the blade from center to outside edge in a straight line. There should be an even shower of sparks and you should be able to see the worn parts clear away little by little. It takes just a few seconds to sharpen a blade, but it takes a keen eye to make sure it's done correctly. Blades are used in sets--a comb and a cutter. Both are sharpened exactly the same way, but the combs take a little longer and little more attention because they're larger. This is a group of 10 combs waiting to be sharpened. You can see the magnet in the next picture and the word "demagnetizer" is a strong clue to the last one.

After sharpening, you must pass them over a demagnetizer. I had done this previously, but I didn't know that if you turn off the demagnetizer while the blade is still on it, it will re-magnetize the blade. So...I pass the blades over the demagnetizer, take them at least three feet away and then I can turn off the demagnetizer. After that, you wash the blades in a degreaser solution, blow dry with an air compressor and then oil them so they're ready for use. I did my 16 sets of sheep blades and 6 sets of goat blades in under an hour, from beginning to end.

The girls and I have a shearing job this Saturday for 4 alpacas and 9 angora goats. We'll start shearing our alpacas as soon as the weather calms and the nights are slightly warmer. I'll be moaning about my sore back and knees by then, just so you know. It's better to know what to expect, I think.

See you on the other side...

A Mother's Day Tribute

2008-05-11T18:57:00.013-06:00

Well, we're back!! After what seems like ages, we're finally catching up on the spring work (more on that later) and have time for sharing once again. So how are all of you? I've missed reading blogs and staying in the loop of everyone's lives and interests. I hope this finds everyone healthy, happy and eager to meet tomorrow.

Today is Mother's Day and I want to share my mother with you. She passed away on November 22, 2006 after a 5 year battle with ovarian cancer.

Phyllis Hoecher was born to dry land farmers in northern Colorado in 1933. She was the youngest of 6 children and a product of the Great Depression, which molded her character and outlook for the rest of her life. When we were growing up, she told us such stories of hard times and making the best of what they had. My grandpa was an Austrian immigrant who came to America at the age of 9. After marrying my grandma, he lost his first farm for $17 tax money and his second farm for $49 tax. To feed his children, he operated a still during Prohibition, making and selling moonshine on a small farm just one mile across the section from where we live now. When the revenuers came to raid his place, he buried the still and forgot where he put it. It's buried somewhere on that farm yet today.

My grandpa walked 8 miles every night to the nearby settlement of Cornish to play poker to bring in money during the Depression. He played at the saloon--yes the saloon--just like in the cowboy movies, although it wasn't glamorous in the least. He would play poker until the wee hours of the morning, walk the 8 miles home and go to work in the fields during the day. The family was lucky not to have starved. The stories of eating baking powder biscuits with small bits of sorghum and boiled turnips for days on end are still fresh in my mind.

She attended schools right near where we live now and met and married my father in this area as well. The Depression was probably the single most influential era in my mother's life. The scarcity of money, food, clothing, housing, jobs, and everything else necessary for daily living took its toll. She emerged, as so many did, wary of government and bankers, distrusting of everyone, including some of her own family, and tight fisted with her money. Her father told her, "Don't you EVER trust ANYONE," and she pretty much never did. She never threw anything away, but saved it all because "everything has a use and you'll be sorry if you don't have it later." This is a picture of the students in Mama's one room school on the Colorado prairie near Pierce, Colorado in 1939. She's in the front row on the right end.

After marrying my father, they farmed various farms as tenants and then finally bought the home place, right here, in 1964. It was a miracle for them to get it, with no money down and small annual payments. They bought it for $22,500.00, less than an average new car costs today. I've lived here my whole life and hope I never leave. My mother hoped the same, and God was merciful to her in that she was able to live here until she went on to heaven. This is my mom and dad's wedding picture with my grandparents, Gustav and Mildred Hoecher.

My mother was a registered nurse for 50 years. She worked at the local hospital at night and farmed with Papa during the day. They struggled. They had four girls within the first 7 years of marriage, dealt with health problems, fought to make the farm payment every year, faced weather and falling prices, and wrangled with marital issues. Throughout every challenge, Mama always reminded us that she was blessed because she always had more than she ever had as a child. I believed her--most of the time. She always told us that being happy is a choice you make, not an experience that happens. I believed her. This is one of my favorite pictures of all of us girls. I'm the one in the front with the fat belly. My sister Kathleen, of A Bag of Olives, is holding our baby sister.

Mama was a strong willed woman with a bigger than life personality. Standing only 5'4" at her peak, she wielded great influence. She was opinionated and passionate about the things that were important to her--her family, her land and home, her nursing career, her community. I remember her standing toe to toe more than once with the ditch rider arguing about why he wouldn't give us our full measure of water for irrigation. I remember her getting in a doctor's face about his lack of compassion towards an ailing patient. I remember her fighting for my opportunity to audition for a sports scholarship at the local university, even thought I wasn't on "the list". (I got the scholarship, by the way, to Mama's everlasting satisfaction.) She was competent, confident, intelligent, well researched, fearless and prepared to do battle. How do you stand up to that? Very few could.

I always felt overwhelmed by Mama's personality. She was more than I could ever imagine being. In a way, I was afraid of her--afraid of her disapproval and anger, afraid of falling short of her expectations. I rarely said "No" to her, even as an adult, due to that fear. She had a wicked and sharp tongue when riled and her sarcasm cut deeply. It would hurt her to know that.

But as we both grew older, we became friends. She was no longer the rescuer and the teacher to me. She relaxed and seemed to enjoy my company and thus, I was able to relax. We spent weekends camping with the grandchildren. We took road trips to out of the way places like Mesa Verde for exploring, Red Mountain Pass for the amazing beauty, South Fork for fishing, and Pawnee Buttes for the ever changing prairie. We canned vegetables, butchered chickens, learned to work her very first video camera and communicate by email. We talked about life, love, the future, ideals, hopes and dreams. Mama revealed more of herself to me during that period than I ever thought possible. She didn't try to make a point. She just seemed to want to share herself with someone that she finally felt she could trust. I was glad to be the keeper of her secrets.

No one was more shocked than I was when she came home from the doctor crying. The woman who had always been physically, emotionally and mentally strong was broken. The doctor didn't make a diagnosis, but she knew she had cancer. She knew the signs and symptoms and read it all. She fought for 5 long years and during that time, my girls grew from primary schoolers into young women and my boys into adults. Despite all my rantings about chemotherapy and the incompetence of doctors, they gave us 5 precious years that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

Mama passed away the day before Thanksgiving and we thanked God for her life and her passing. It was a relief and a release to let her go, even though I miss her terribly. She is now walking the streets of glory with her Savior and reaping the rewards of a life well lived.

Thanks for letting me share her with you. There are loads of details that I could include, but those will come up in due time as life continues on.

Mama and her brother in 1945.

Mama and her family in 1945.

Papa and Mama with my Abby in 2000.

The Quirky Bear

2008-04-05T20:06:00.005-06:00

This is Goober. He's our latest addition in the quest for a use for scratchy yarn and the ever rowing yarn stash.

He was made using some handspun leftovers from Gandalf's light rose gray fleece. Goober's pattern came from Claire Garland's book, "Knitted Bears."

While his body is made of handspun alpaca, his little red overalls are made from some leftover wool sock yarn, and yes, they are knit in the round.

My daughter thinks he need a nice pair of striped socks or knitted shoes, but I kind of like him

in his "bear" feet--pun totally intended!

Adopt An Alpaca

2008-04-02T09:10:00.006-06:00

Attention all would-be farmers, ranchers and shepherds at heart! If you’ve wanted to own fiber producing livestock, but your situation doesn’t allow for them, you can now adopt an alpaca for your very own for a cost of $200 per year. This $200 will be used here on the farm to pay for feed, water, shearing, and vet costs for 12 months.

Alpacas are walking miracles. They are gentle in temperament and highly intelligent, with huge dark eyes and expressive faces that will completely disarm you. They produce a luxury fiber that is prized for it’s warmth, amazing softness and drape in every fiber preparation from knitting to weaving to felt making. Our alpacas are a combination of Chilean and Peruvian bloodlines that produce soft fleeces in dark and rich colors; blacks, medium to dark browns, and grays, with a few whites thrown in for variety. We have male and female breeding stock, non-breeding males, young weanlings, and 10 babies arriving in the fall.

Here’s what you will receive:

1. A framed picture of your alpaca.

2. A copy of the ARI registration certificate for your alpaca, showing the date of birth and genetic history of the animal.

3. Monthly reports concerning activity, breeding, diet, veterinary information and picture updates.

4. After our yearly spring shearing, you will receive the raw fleece, both the prime blanket and the seconds, which will be bagged separately. If the fleece is not acceptable, you will be given a similar fleece as a replacement.

5. Input into naming the offspring produced by your animal and first hand information concerning any breeding decisions made.

6. An open invitation to visit the farm and interact with your alpaca in person, as well as an invitation to shearing days and any shows attended.

7. The ribbons and awards won by your alpaca at any alpaca show or fleece show.

8. Knowledge that you are helping to support the small family farm and provide the board and care for an exquisite animal.

9. If you adopt a bred female, you can add the baby for only $50 for the first year and receive the fleece from it’s first full body shearing. This is the very best of the best in alpaca fleece!

10. If you decide to purchase livestock from us in the future, you will receive a 20% discount on the listed price of any animal on our farm or 25% off the price of your adopted animal.

Support fees are not refundable. This money will be spent for the costs of daily care for your animal. With the price of fuel at an all time high, all farm costs, including feed and water, are also at an all time high, so please take your commitment seriously. Your payment of support does not constitute ownership of the animal but entitles you to regular communications, ownership of the fleece, farm privileges, all awards, and advance information on anything pertaining to your animal.

In the event that your animal is sold or, God forbid, passes into the ether, you will be given another animal to love and care for. You may make that choice yourself or we will choose a similar animal for you. At the end of 12 months you may opt out of the program or choose a different animal.

Thank you for your support. You involvement means so much to us. My family lives on the eastern Colorado farm where I was born and where my parents farmed for 45 years. Traditional farming has become an exercise in futility and we are constantly looking for ways to preserve and pass on our heritage while maintaining our contribution to our community, both locally and nationally. We look forward to partnering with you as you endeavor to do the same.

You can find out more about us and view all of our animals available for adoption at www.alpacanation.com.

For sheep lovers, please go to adoptalambny.blogspot.com to see some gorgeous lambs at Maggie’s Farm.

Ami Alpaca?

2008-03-28T20:59:00.005-06:00

What kind of name does this little beast get? Amigurumi Alpaca? Alpagarumi? Ami Alpaca? Amipacarumi? Amialgapacarumi?

He was fun to make and really boosts my confidence when it comes to crochet. He's a combination of several patterns that I found by two different authors. I used Tamoko Takamori's donkey pattern and Ana Paula Rimoli's hedgehog pattern to get all the pieces I needed. The proportions aren't the same as their patterns, but that's where I started. He's made out the odds and ends of my own handspun alpaca yarn, which seems appropriate.

Now he just needs a name...

Ahhh, to be seamless...

2008-03-27T19:29:00.007-06:00

Seamless--it's such a soothing word. I love the whole concept of seamlessness. The word itself is just heaven to hear and ssssssso fun to sssssssay. It sounds pastoral, peaceful, clean, efficient and calm.

I remember now why I have never really taken my book on knitted teddy bears seriously. It's the finishing work--sewing all those tiny, nondescript pieces together by hand, stuffing with just the right amount of fiber fill, embroidering faces on them afterwards. The knitting itself is a no brainer. Anyone who can follow directions can knit up the pieces, although I've never figured out exactly why pattern writers insist on knitters making two identical flat pieces to sew together afterwards, rather than just having the whole thing knit in the round. It seems so much easier to skip the whole sewing up phase and spend the time knitting happily along in one piece.

So, this collection of oddments is what resulted from following a pattern for a knitted bunny.

It doesn't look like much, except a whole lot of finishing work in order to make some sense of it all. I placed the eyes and sewed on the ears, only to find that the ears were uneven and the eyes looked slightly reptilian--a little unnerving on a disembodied and slightly overstuffed head. This was not the time to think of names for the poor creature.

The arms and legs went well enough until the directions said, "Sew head into place." That's it. No tips on how to stabilize the neck without over stuffing, so I over stuffed and sewed the head on, mostly just to keep those eyes from staring at me. The nose pointed resolutely to the ceiling and would not be put in any other position. Out came the seams for try #2. Unstuffing the head to an acceptably squishy state, I again sewed it on. It flopped back like one of Sweeney Todd's poor victims and bore a hideous lumpy seam, so out came the seams again for try #3. A little more stuffing and another attempt at repositioning, another attempt, and another, until finally, after six tries, the head is on and, bless me, that's where it's staying. A nice bow around the neck will hide the ropey scar it now bears as a testament to the futility of knitting tiny flat pattern pieces. I embroidered a pink smile on it's pathetic little face to hide the reality of the suffering it both inflicted and endured.

It doesn't look so bad now, but I'm not naming it. It's just too painful. My mind is working out how to knit the next one in the round with far fewer pieces to alleviate the pain and suffering. I'm thinking of applying to become the poster child for seamless knitting.

Signs of Spring and Treasure Hunting

2008-03-25T18:52:00.005-06:00

All is brown and barren, the air is crisp and cold in the morning even when the sun is shining brightly, and sadly, there are no goat kids this year. But spring is coming anyway! I can tell! The first sign is that the ground has thawed enough for the dogs to dig up their treasures to share with one and all. Where they originally came from and how they remembered where they hid them for the winter is knowledge too deep and wide for me, particularly when I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that both of the dogs are terrified of living cows. I'm sure that this disposition comes from having been chased unceremoniously from the neighbor's pasture by a nasty longhorn with a new calf, who proceeded to patrol the fence line all summer. To my knowledge, neither has even come within 100 yards of a cow ever again. But I digress...

I just know that various parts of the bovine skeletal system lay bleached and white on the front yard this morning, in all of their shocking glory, with two very proud doggy treasure hunters showing them off. They look like quite the ruthless killers, bloody pirates, and masked bandits, particularly Sunny, who boasts of having bullied the cat out of his share of the booty.

Change of plan

2008-03-24T08:10:00.004-06:00

Well..."the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." At least I'm not alone in this.

My oh so carefully planned sweater already has experienced a set back. The pattern and gauge are fine, the knitting is going along very well, and I like the look of it very much, but there's a problem. The yarn that felt soft and lovely in the skein, knits up into a fabric that is scratchy against the skin. I was going to continue on as if nothing was wrong, but then I had to ask myself if I would actually wear a sweater that felt like that. With a resounding "No!" going through my mind, I'm ripping it out today. Thankfully, I didn't wait until I was half way up the body before deciding to change yarn.

I'm nearly sick as I think about it. All that handspun yarn, all the experimentation and planning...well, welcome to my world. Sometimes it seems like I spend more time ripping back than actually moving forward with a project. I have loads of black alpaca and some charcoal unspun Icelandic wool that would go together nicely if I change the gauge and some of the pattern elements, but I'm really saving that for another hooded jacket. Hmmmm.... Today looks like a day to search through my yarn inventory for about 2000 yards of...something...something plain that will show off the pattern stitches. I have lots of painted yarns, but I don't like to combine knit/purl stitch patterns with elaborate color because I think you lose the effect of both elements. Less is more, you know.

So what to do with the white handspun? I'm remembering how I already wrote about jumping on the bandwagon of making little crocheted toys and that's been fun--really fun. I suppose that I now have yards and yards of white handspun yarn that can be turned into little toys and dyed to my own taste. If I double the yarn and use a bigger hook, I can probably felt them as well. With the mohair in the yarn, the felted pieces will become furry and fuzzy. Just the thing for stuffed animal toys, so all is not lost. I also have a teddy bear book that I've never really taken seriously. Maybe there's a silver lining out there somewhere?

On a happier note, the rose gray jacket is ready to assemble. I'm going shopping this week for polar fleece with which to line it and for some really great buttons. I expect to have to spend as much as $2 per button to get what I want and I'll need eight of them. Ouch!

On an even happier note, the Easter snow storm has melted away already and it's looking a little more like spring. The first two yellow crocuses just poked their heads up, so there's hope for warmth and green that will end what feels to me like the longest winter on record. While I was walking yesterday, I noticed that the trees were just beginning to bud. The sea gulls were following the tractor through the field as the farmer was discing it up, so there must be insects and such stirring in the ground. All the signs of spring are there, but it has yet to spring!

With warmer weather comes major cleaning of livestock pens, a huge mucking out of the barns, irrigation, and shearing. There will have to be a large renovation effort to repair the damage that the freezing wind has done on several fronts during the winter--sagging wind breaks, loose boards here and there, posts broken off in the frozen ground, and such. I'm looking forward to it this year. Just to have winter say goodbye for a while will be worth it.

Well, off to rip! With the prospect of spring, ripping out that sweater doesn't seem so bad!

Breaking and Entering?

2008-03-20T17:30:00.006-06:00

It was a raging winding day today. The news said gusts of up to 80 miles per hour, so I think that's what must have blown the door open while I was gone today. I drove up to the house after picking up the girls from piano to find the storm door standing wide open and the hinges bent and beyond repair.

As we entered the house, we were met by the large and welcoming smiles of two dogs and two cats, lounging in the living room like a happy family. Sunny, the greeter, met us at the door, and was shuffled dutifully outside without a complaint. Bloke also seemed genuinely happy to see us, until he realized that he was inviting us in the house, rather than the other way around. His face stood down to the "uh oh, I'm in trouble" pose and he dropped to the floor looking very sad. He trundled out, slow and sorry, indeed. The cats, completely unrepentant, were quickly tossed out and the search for damage began.

A quick survey of the house turned up only one box of breakfast cereal emptied and eaten. Surprisingly, no wet bathroom floors, no hair all over the furniture, no muddy paw prints, no cat paw prints in the butter dish, no trash rifled through, no blankets dragged to the floor, no rumpled beds, none of the usual signs of unauthorized invasion and accompanying frenzied search for treats and toilet drinking. It seems that the little buggers didn't even lay on the couch or beds.

They're sitting outside now looking hopefully in the windows. The consequences of getting in the house illegally are the same, whether they wreak havoc or not--they get tossed out on their collective ears. Sunny has started barking at the house and at Bloke. I wonder if he's regretting not taking liberties when he had the chance.

Amigurumi link

2008-03-17T16:44:00.002-06:00

I just found out that the author of a very good book on amigurumi is a blogger. Here's her link just in case you want to check out Ana Paula Rimoli. Her little creations make us look like such pathetic losers, and I love her stuff!

Tagged...

2008-03-14T21:00:00.001-06:00

Well, I've been tagged by A Bag of Olives and here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I'm a hermit at heart. My fondest daydream is about living in the era of the American pioneer with my nearest neighbor 20 miles away and me being completely self sufficient.

2. When I was in 2nd grade and it was my turn to make supper, I cooked enough macaroni and cheese to feed the Huns. Then I scorched the entire batch so badly it was inedible. My dad came in from working in the field to find me crying my eyes out because I just knew my mother would "kill" me when she got home from work. He took me out to find a shovel and together we buried the the whole lot--macaroni, pan and all--in a hole by the chicken house. He helped me scramble some eggs and make toast for supper and we never told my mom.

3. I still secretly dream of being a musician one day, knowing full well that I'd rather die than be the center of attention.

4. The telephone intimidates me and I hate to talk on it. I'd rather send letters, e-mail, or leave notes for people. I'm not really afraid of people in general, but talking on the telephone is so uncomfortable for me that I'd rather not even have one.

5. I don't like horses. I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't, although I like and appreciate nearly ever other kind of animal. To be honest, I'm afraid of them because of their combination of size and keen intelligence.

6. I talk to myself all the time--out loud. Sometimes I don't realize that I'm saying things aloud and then get caught looking foolish in front of people. I'm not sorry, though, and I keep right on doing it.

7. I love organization--at least the thought of it. I can never really make it work for me for any length of time, but the idea is great. I've been the proud owner of 3 day planners in my lifetime, but don't ask me where they are or if I ever used them. Self discipline has never been my strength and routines drive me insane, but I really do just love the idea of being organized.

Sheesh! What a pathetic and fearful person I must be! Perhaps just my state of mind today or something.

The only people I know to tag are the ones that I read regularly, so I'm tagging:

Debra in France
Breezy
Irish Eyes
Marit
Elizabethd
Inthemud
Cowgirl
Milla

Anatomy and Evolution of a Sweater

2008-03-13T21:48:00.002-06:00

I always thought that knitting a sweater was a little like a marriage commitment--interminably long with questionable results at the end of all that time. Don't get me wrong. I've been married for 24 years and I've also knitted many sweaters, but when I first started knitting in earnest, I focused on small projects because I could see the end clearly. Not so with sweaters. The human form is so varied and the complexities of fitting such a form and accommodating personal taste was so daunting that I just couldn't imagine knitting for that long and using all of that yarn, only to find that the final product didn't fit a living soul, nor appeal to any sensible being. Even after following a pattern faithfully to the end, I found that the sleeves were too short, the body rode up at the center or the bands at the hip or neck were too tight.

With that in mind, I began searching for solutions. To my great delight, I found such authors as Elizabeth Zimmermann
and Priscilla Gibson Roberts
who have guided me in not only knitting sweaters that fit, but in designing my own patterns rather than being a poor blind follower.

With that in mind, I've decided to begin posting the prenatal and birthing processes of a sweater. Whatever life it decides to pursue beyond it's final entrance into the world as a complete work is up to its owner, but the birthing and creation is my business.

My sweater began as hair on an animal's back--actually two animals. Dolly, my poor short sighted angora goat, and Justice, a very sexy alpaca beast, contributed ample supplies of white woolly stuff for me to use. Their fleeces were blended and processed into soft and creamy rovings that I've spent the last few months spinning in stop and start sessions. I have four skeins of approximately 400 yards and between 8-10 oz. each. I think it may take another two skeins to complete the sweater and I'll continue spinning, stop and start of course, as the sweater progresses.

The raw materials have been gathered and dealt with, and the charts below are the actual conception of the sweater itself. I've decided on an Aran style sweater. No color patterns for this one, but a plethora of knit and purl patterns that should hold my interest and keep me feeling challenged. It was so much fun to experiment with patterns and stitch counts. I made dozens of different drawings and finally settled on a central star with vertical patterns on either side. There will be simple cables that will run on either side of the center pattern as well as up the sleeves and on to the neck line via the shoulder straps. There will be full gussets under the arms and 2x2 ribbing at the cuffs, hip band and neck line.

Women purchase infinitely more sweaters than men, so this will be a woman's garment. It will be a women's size 10-12, which is an average/large woman's size. Chest size is 40", and sleeve length is 18" from underarm to wrist. These measurements should give the finished sweater enough roominess to be comfortable and practical.

The next step is to ball up the yarn and knit a gauge swatch so I'll know how many stitches to cast on.

My swatch measured 5 stitches to the inch measured over stocking stitch on #5 needles. The cables pulled in about 10-12% of the width. The chest measurement being 100%, multiply it times the gauge, so 40 x 5 = 200 + 20 (10%) extra for the cable pull = 220 total stitches for the body of the sweater, but I'll cast on the original 200 so the bottom band is doesn't flap in the breeze or ride up. Once the ribbing is finished, I'll increase to 210 stitches and then again when the patterns begin to 220.

All measurements are based on the 100% chest measurement of 40 in. or 200 stitches. The sleeves are cast on at the wrist at 20% of the chest and increased every 5th row to about 33%. I haven't decided how I'll work the sleeves yet but I'll play that by ear. So now it begins. I'll keep you up to date on the progress, but I tend to work on several projects at once, and the spring outside work is approaching.

I'm just getting to the end of the hooded jacket in rose gray alpaca and wool. I have half of a sleeve to finish and the hood to knit before I can assemble. Pictures very soon!!

Jumping on the Bandwagon??

2008-03-11T14:27:00.004-06:00

The latest craze in the knit/crochet world is amigurumi. In Japanese, it means small knitted or crocheted toys. I think it's a requirement for them to be cute and easy to make in order to be considered amigurumi.

I went looking on the internet to see what I could find, and do you know that there are thousands of sites that feature nothing but these cute little critters? I had no idea. There are even sites dedicated to "monster" amigurumi creations. Go figure...

It seemed silly to pass up the opportunity to make some toys while they're in vogue, so here are my first attempts at making these adorable little guys. I'm not very adept at crochet, so they weren't quite as easy at first as the websites say they are, but I got the hang of it pretty fast. My biggest problem is making the faces. Embroidery and cross stitch baffle me to no end, so while the actual toy only took a few hours to complete, it took me 2 days to get the face on so it didn't look horrifying--another learning experience and another huge learning curve.

I started with the free patterns on the Lion Brand website, but there are hundreds of free patterns out there. The first one I made is a lion--just in case you can't tell what it's supposed to be. He actually looks more like a pop tart than an animal, but the fuzzy head helps his looks tremendously. I had trouble keeping track of my rounds and counting, so he's got one leg shorter than the other and one arm that's too fat. Oh well, forge onwards and upwards.

The second one is a bunny and I really hope that it's self-evident. I did a better job of counting and keeping the stitches in order. I like this one much more and I'm encouraged to continue on, even though it looks a little like it's showing signs of male pattern baldness with the placement of the ears. My daughter Abby is making a ducky that's going to be great and I'm working on a blue androgynous and nonspecific animal guy. We'll see what happens...

So here we are jumping on the bandwagon, but hey, everybody's doin' it!

A Quick Tutorial on Spinning Yarn and a Little Bit About the Game of Baseball...

2008-03-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

Much has been written about spinning. It's an old craft that has come back into popularity in certain circles and it's been analyzed and picked apart by modern fiber artists until it seems somewhat mysterious and spiritual. Writers have expounded on the meditative qualities of spinning, the reflective attributes and the relaxing nature of the process. Others have turned out formulas for measuring twist, wraps per inch, grist and the like, making it a mathematical procedure and encouraging the spinner to measure their work at regular intervals to insure consistency. Still others have turned out entire books on the history, care and feeding of a spinning wheel and how to improve on the latest method of twisting hair into string.

But the fact remains that spinning, in all of its forms, is simply twisting fibers into string, a few strands at a time. Whether the work is done in a commercial mill on an enormous automated spinner, whether it's done on an electric or treadled spinning wheel in the home,

whether it's done on a hand spindle like the Indians and the Peruvians,

or whether it's done on something as simple as a whisk from the kitchen drawer (it's a little weird, but it can be done)

or a forked stick from the back yard, spinning is the craft of twist.

Managing the amount of fiber that's being twisted and the amount of twist being applied are the two things that occupy a spinner's mind and hands. More fiber being twisted at one time equals a thicker yarn and less equals a finer yarn. Simple. More twist applied equals a firmer and sturdier yarn and less equals a softer and more fragile yarn. Again, simple.

So what's the big deal? For spinners like me who rely on their sense of touch more than objective measurement, it isn't a big deal. For those who need absolute assurance of a consistent product, it can be quite involved and time consuming. I'll touch on the measuring when appropriate, but since it gives me a headache to think about it too much, it will be just a slight touch. Just like anything else, spinning can be analyzed and worked over to the point that it absolutely saps all the fun out of it and I surely don't want to do anything that isn't fun or interesting. Well, duh...

These are my favorite hand spindles.

I used them frequently in the past because my boys played a lot of baseball when they were younger and I could take one along with me. Baseball is the most boring game ever invented and my hand spindle kept my mind occupied during the three hour games and torturous weekend tournaments. The spindle is made of the top or bottom whorl and the shaft running through the center with a hook on the top to catch the yarn and keep it from flying off, and to keep the spindle from rolling under the bed. It is turned by hand and as it turns it twists the yarn. The spinner lets out more and more fiber to be twisted as the spindle turns and the spindle hangs by the spun yarn.

Eventually, the freshly spun yarn reaches the ground and the spinner has to stop and wind it around the shaft. The twisted yarn is stored on the shaft as the spinning progresses. I like to give my spindle an almighty spin by running the shaft up my leg like a top. It spins longer that way and I don't have to stop to keep turning it as I spin.

Going back to baseball, my spindle and I would stand on the top row of bleachers, looking very interested in seeing the entire baseball field. In reality, I was using the distance from the top of the bleachers to the ground to spin yards and yards of yarn without having to stop and wind on as often. I looked like the attentive and dedicated baseball mom, but I was just being an opportunist. Baseball is a lot like a TV soap opera--you can stop paying attention for hours and hours and then come back to it and pretty much pick up right where you left off without missing a beat. But I digress...

This is my spinning wheel.

If you turn a hand spindle on its side and think of it as the wheel, you can see how it translates to an actual spinning wheel.

The treadles at the bottom are operated by the feet in order to turn the wheel, which turns the bobbin, which spins the fibers.

OK with that? I think that's probably enough detail--the only thing more boring than technical descriptions about a low tech machine is actually...well...baseball. Some wheels have a smoother or faster action than others but each one, regardless of brand or type will be as individual as the spinner. It just takes some practice and time to get used to the way the wheel feels when it's working.

Managing the amount of fibers that are spun at any one time starts with what's called drafting. This is simply pulling and thinning the prepared fibers apart lengthwise without breaking the continuous stream.

The roving in this picture started out as two rovings the same length, but the one on the bottom has been drafted and is ready to spin. It's at least 5 times its original length but hasn't been broken.

I prefer to predraft my fibers because it makes the spinning go faster and it exposes any imperfections (bumps, knots, bits of hay, and yes, sometimes poop...) in the processed roving--and there are always imperfections, regardless of how meticulously prepared.

Fiber has a tendency to want to stick to itself and other fibers--lint out of the clothes dryer, dog hair on the furniture--so we make good use of that tendency. The spinner attaches the drafted fiber to the leader string on the bobbin by just laying it up against it the leader and starting to twist. The fibers will stick to the leader, the leader will twist the fibers into itself, and you're off and running. The wheel, via a brake band, will apply some tension to the string and provide "take up" which will cause the yarn to wind itself around the bobbin. All the spinner has to do is slightly ease up on the counter tension and "push" the yarn towards the bobbin rather than pulling against the tension.

The movements for spinning are draft, slide back, hold, wind on. During the draft, it's important that there be no twist between the hands, which is called the drafting zone. Twist makes the loose fibers stable and you don't want them to be stable until you decide how thick you want the yarn to be. Once the twist enters the fibers, it will be nigh unto impossible to draft it any thinner, so keep the twist in front of the leading hand by pinching off the yarn and control the predrafted fiber supply loosely in the back hand. Fingers of the front hand pinching off the twist with the same pressure as pulling a sewing needle through fabric, back hand controlling the fiber loosely and gently like holding a baby bird in the whole hand, keeping it still without crushing it.

The slide is when you slide both hands back, while still holding the yarn with the leading hand and drafting with the following hand, to allow more fibers to be drafted and spun, thus working your way through the river of fiber you're spinning. This is done repeatedly until the proper amount of twist has been added and the twisted yarn is long enough to wind on.

The hold is allowing the wheel to add twist. The longer the hold, the tighter the twist, so this is where a good eye or keen sense of touch comes in handy. This is also where some spinners will actually measure the angle of twist to make sure it's consistent. (Egads, here comes my headache...) Overtwist is when the yarn is so twisted that it starts to double back on itself in ugly bumps. It happens to everyone and the way to fix it is to slide back and let the twist follow into newly drafted fiber. The twist will follow your fingers and when the overtwist is smoothed out, wind on. (We'll get to that.) I saw a brightly colored novelty yarn in a store one time that was nothing but overtwist and bumps. It was selling for a ridiculous price and I was empowered and encouraged to keep spinning!

Slightly release the counter tension on the yarn and move your hands towards the bobbin to allow the winding on. You don't have to do anything else in this step because the wheel does it for you.

Slide back and begin drafting again. It's best to work at least 2 feet from the wheel, rather than feeding on 2-3 inches at a time. The back and shoulders pay the price and the craft seems less attractive when hunched over the wheel, suffering over each and every inch that passes through your hands.

During all of this, the feet are treadling continuously and relentlessly, maintaining a constant speed and always in the same direction. Developing a rhythm helps move the work along and makes it less stressful. My first attempts at spinning were teeth grinding bouts of frustration,

but the rhythm came with practice and experience and the frustration flew away. Once you don't have to concentrate on your feet, your hands learn a lot faster and your whole body relaxes.

OK, that's really about it. It sounds complicated, but describing movements that become quite natural in a short amount of time always sounds more complicated than it is. So, spin up a couple of bobbins of yarn, both spun in the same direction. Don't worry about lumps, bumps, thin spots, knots, overtwist, or anything else. (Except, perhaps any poop--you must pick that out, really. It will be dry.) Just spin it up. If you have enough bobbins to spin more, spin that up too, until you're sick and tired of it or until you run out of fiber. Chances are good that the character of the yarn has gotten smoother, thinner and more consistent. Chances are good that you're looking for another batch of fiber to spin. Chances are good that you've started collecting the cotton out of aspirin bottles to spin. Chances are good that you've started wondering if you could learn to knit, weave, do macrame, or make rope (depending on what your yarn looks like).

But wait--it's not quite over. We still need to ply in order to balance the yarn and to use it without it twisting back on itself. There are many ways to make and use single ply yarns, but first yarns are usually plied.

To make a simple 2-ply yarn, get two plastic buckets and put one full bobbin in each, one on either side of your chair. Pull the singles yarn from each bobbin and attach the two strands together onto an empty bobbin on the spinning wheel. Treadle in the opposite direction as the strands were originally spun and the let the two strands twist around each other.

Slide back, pull more singles, feed on. Watch the plying twist and try to keep it even and consistent. Experiment with how much twist to put into the ply. Count the number of treadles, or measure the angle of twist if you must (remember geometry 101?). Use up all of the yarn on the two bobbins and keep on plying until it's all gone. If you want to measure the thickness of your yarn, take a ruler and begin wrapping the yarn around and around the ruler. Push it tightly together and measure how many wraps go around one inch. This is called wraps per inch, wpi, and as technical as I ever get on purpose. It's a measurement that will allow you to compare one yarn with another in terms of thickness and will allow you to mark your progress and preferences as you go along.

Skein it up by wrapping it around two chairs or use another ingenious device to help you do that. Done! There are infinite ways to tweak, add, adjust, change, or personalize the process, but that's it in a nutshell. I made a lead rope out of my first yarn because it was a ghastly shade of yellow, ungodly coarse wool from market sheep, the singles were thicker than my index finger and horribly uneven. It's a great rope and I'm still very proud and still think I'm quite smart for all that. It's nearly 8 years old and I think it's currently holding a gate shut, but there you have it...all yarn has a use!

These are some samples of handspun yarn.

Magical Felt with the Ranchers

2008-02-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

There are loads of books out on felt these days. It seems like it's the new fashion craft of the season and there's little wonder. Making felt is an amazing and satisfying process. It's simple and straightforward, highly creative, and you really can't make a mistake.

Making felt is simply the process of matting and shrinking animal fiber together in a controlled fashion. Controlling the shape and rate of shrinkage are the keys to success. Felting can be done by an individual or in a gang, whichever fits your preferences or your needs.

My good friends at Triangle Cross Ranch will be helping us with this project. Since it's winter and most of the outside activities are either unpleasant or impossible because of the wicked wind and crushing cold, these folk are now bona fide experts in making felt--and they make felt as a gang.

OK, so, rule number one in making felt--there is no having fun or smiling. Absolutely NO fun!! Do you hear me?

Oh dear, I don't think they're listening.

To begin, we'll need either raw washed fiber, or carded batts. I think it's easier to use batts and I think the results are a little more even and predictable.

Lay down a piece of fabric as a base to build your felt upon. We use old sheer, but textured curtains. (Dotted Swiss or polyester lace is perfect, but make sure it's really ugly. That's important.) Next build your first layer of fiber by laying pieces like shingles on your fabric, with all the fibers going the same direction. To build the second layer, place the fiber perpendicular to the first layer. Do the same for the third layer and then check for holes or uneven spots, not heavier or lighter in places, but very evenly distributed. Place another piece of textured fabric on top of these layers.

Wet the fiber with hot soapy water...

...and press the water into all of the fibers under your fabric until they're saturated. The wet fibers will begin to smell like an animal and the people making the felt will wrinkle their noses and perhaps complain slightly. Those who thrive on texture and sensory activities will thrill to the feel of the soap and warm water, the smell of the fiber and the contrast between the rough fabric and the soft wool. It will calm them and they'll look forward to it week after week.

When all the fibers are wet, rub them gently in a circular motion so that none of the fibers shift from their positions. The amount of pressure is similar to the pressure you use to apply moisturizer to your face in the morning. Continue rubbing the entire surface until the fibers begin to hold together.

Keep rubbing... (...how much longer?)

turn it over and do the other side, and rub some more... (...my arms are tired...)

until you have what we call prefelt. (...are we done yet?)

Prefelt is when the fibers begin to mat together and it passes the "tent test". To test this, pinch a small bit of your fiber and pull up. If it forms a little tent, it's prefelted. Take off the top fabric and rub firmly and aggressively to shrink and harden the felt. We even scrub it on a washboard or a textured drainboard to firm it up.

Rinse in cold water. OK. Do you have felt? Is it fabric? Felt is, indeed, fabric. It may be thick or thin depending on how much fiber was used, but it's very durable--nearly indestructible. There are some details I've left out, like how much water and soap, but that's the gist of it.

We've recently been making our felt in larger and larger sheets by rolling it in a textured rug or mat and rolling it back and forth. It's absolutely magic the way it becomes felt in just a few short minutes. Place the fabric on top of a textured rug or mat (old bamboo blinds or outdoor mats are perfect). Build the layers on the sheer fabric as before, but you can now use larger pieces of fiber in building the layers. We use full sized batts for this. Put the sheer fabric on top.

Wet the fiber and press as before. After the fibers are all saturated, roll the entire works around a wooden dowel rod or a broom handle.

Rubber band it to hold it together and squeeze out the excess water.

NOW, roll, roll and roll some more.

Put on some music and dance and shuffle while you roll back and forth. If you get tired, sit down and roll it with your feet. Hook it to the back of your bike so it will roll as you pedal and let your bike do the work, but ROLL!

Unroll it, do the tent test, add color, and roll some more. Reroll if you need to, but it should be prefelted in no time. In this way, our Ranchers make prefelt in 15 minutes from building the layers to completed prefelt. It's absolutely brilliant and saves us loads of work.

We're learning to make mittens and bags out of our felt fabric and we're only getting started. We made our first three pairs of mittens three weeks ago out of some ugly cast off fiber by simply cutting the pieces out and hand stitching them together.

The Ranchers have been taking turns wearing them to do chores, even thought my oldest daughter thought she was going to have a pair for herself. So far, they're the warmest work gloves they have. Pretty good product testers, eh?

Just think, all this creativity and hard work without an ounce of fun, conversation, or silliness! Looks and sounds like a sweat shop to me...

...maybe not.

You can read more about Triangle Cross Ranch at www.trianglecrossranch.net or at
trianglecrossranchblog.blogspot.com

More Sherpas

2008-02-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

We finished another 6 sherpa hats this week and they're ready to ship off. The first batch was received with excitement and complete satisfaction, with the buyer saying, "I LOVE THEM ALL! They're just what I wanted!!" Nice to get feedback like that.

Fibers and fleeces

2008-02-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

The question has been asked, "What is the difference between fiber and yarn?" It's actually been asked more than once and I, in my wisdom, have neglected to actually give a meaningful answer. I forget that not everyone lives in my world, so here is my best effort at explaining fiber, at least in the terms that I'm familiar with.

Fiber is a raw material. It comes from plant sources (cotton, hemp, corn silk, flax, soy silk, bamboo, etc,) and from animal sources (wool, alpaca, mohair, silk, cashmere, angora, dog hair, llama, camel down, camel hair, etc.) All animals and all plants produce fiber in some form, but some are more usable than others and some fibers take some real creativity to find uses for them. I know absolutely nothing about plant fiber, so that's the last mention I'll make of that.

In my world, fiber is the bag of alpaca fleece you sink your hands into and breath in the earthy (and sometimes down right stinky) animal smell right after it comes off the animal, enjoying the total sensory experience--including the static electricity. It's still warm from the animal's body and the newly shorn ends look like a silk carpet.

It makes you groan slightly with the richness of color and luxurious softness. In my world, fiber is the mohair that smells and feels greasy until you wash and dry it so that it shines like silk and curls into perfect ringlets like doll hair. By the way, "fleece" is just another word for an animal's coat of hair that is harvested for use, usually some kind of wool. The blanket of an animal is the fiber that is shorn off of the sides, back, hips and shoulders. It the best fiber on the animal. The neck, leg, belly and...well... less desirable areas are normally either thrown away or used for things like garden mulch, lining chicken nests or animal bedding.

The first step in transforming raw fiber into something usable is skirting. This is where the entire fleece is spread out on a large mesh screen and sorted in order to remove impurities, unusable bits, and soiled fibers. During this phase, the wool is also sorted and graded according to fineness, color, and use. Some fiber will be coarse and straight (leg and belly hair) and most will be crimpy and soft (back, shoulder, neck, hip). Crimp is the wave in the fiber that gives it loft. Not all types of animal fleece will have crimp, but if crimp is a consideration, consistency in frequency and amplitude throughout the entire blanket area is important.

This first step is very important, as a poor job of skirting can ruin the fiber for it's intended use and create problems at every stage of processing. Imagine a gorgeous alpaca sweater in lilac and sage with tiny bits of hay stems scratching you every time you wear it!

After skirting, the fiber is washed and laid back out on the mesh screen to air dry. This is washed and dried alpaca ready for the either carding or combing. This animal has two colors in her blanket and the processed fiber should produce a tweedy marled looking yarn or felt.

If the fiber is agitated during the washing, it will mat itself into a shrunken, shaggy mess, beyond rescue and never to be used again. (How, exactly, would I know this? Experience, my dear, experience!) It will be a total loss, so the washing must be done by careful soaking with a mild soap and meticulous rinsing. I use my clothes washer only on the final spin cycle to spin out the rinse water. There's no matting and felting together as long as the whole mass moves in the same direction.

These fibers are mohair and they've been through a picker. You can see the huge sharp spikes in the picker and the resulting fluff. There are spikes on both top and bottom of this wicked thing and they pull the locks apart so they can be rearranged. Because mohair curls and twists, it benefits more than most fibers from being put through the picker unless you're using it for doll hair or spinning a curly novelty yarn. The young man running the picker is one of our Ranchers at Triangle Cross Ranch. He's decided that this is his niche and he loves running this machine--with heavy gloves and close supervision for safety.

After picking and fluffing, fiber is carded or combed in order to arrange the individual fibers so that they're all going basically the same direction. I like to dye raw fibers, right after washing because it adds interest to the carding and combing and it's ever so much fun to blend colors at this stage. Experimenting with different color combinations and imagining the finished products makes the work go quickly. (I've learned more about color theory on my drum carder than any class or instructor could have taught me.) Fiber off of a carding machine is called a batt or roving. If you're a quilter, you know what batting is and this is nearly the same, but made from natural animal fiber rather than polyfiber. You can use hand cards--two curved paddles with carding cloth (teeth) on each, but with the amount of fiber we produce a year, hand cards are kind of like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. The white batts are mohair and the brown/gray is alpaca.

From a comb, the fiber is called top or sometimes a roving. This is a thin, continuous "river" of fiber that is ready for spinning. Again, the tools of the trade offer long sharp spikes and look like weapons of mass destruction.

So far, the fiber has progressed from fresh raw fleece, to washed and dried fiber, to combed top or carded batts and rovings. From here, it can be spun into yarn, made into wet felt, needle felted, locker hooked or anything you can dream up. Up to this point, it's been pretty much all work and no play. Dyeing the raw fleece helps, but it's still a lot of production work and not always pleasant. It can be dirty and smelly work, although quite satisfying for me. I just love to see a huge pile of carded batts sitting on the table after a good day's work. More than that, I love to see fewer and fewer bags of raw fleece sitting in my barn.

Enough for now. More later on two preparations that I consider the bridges between fiber and finished goods and the beginnings of the creative process--the magical, incredible, wonderful process of felt and the meditative, reflective, sometimes tedious process of spinning. Just think, we'll be knitting in no time! Whoopee!

Contract Knitting and Winter Fun

2008-01-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I have been knitting sherpa hats this week for a fellow alpaca breeder. They sent us a box full of yarn with loose directions to knit hats with ear flaps and tassels. This is what we've come up with so far. I'm not sure I would have chosen purple and yellow to go together exclusively, but apparently, those are the school colors where they live. Overall, I think the results are good, and we can proceed with the rest of the lot as soon as they look at the first shipment and give us the go ahead.

I'm so proud of my nearly 14 year old daughter. She can turn out a knitted sherpa in a single evening. She's not always motivated, but this time she's doesn't have to wait for the items to sell to get her money, so she's quite keen to get paid. It's a good lesson for her to learn--time is money--and she does good work in a short amount of time. She's got her procedure mapped out pretty well and I'll post it here for any interested knitters.

Materials: 250 yds. alpaca yarn DK or sport weight.
Size 7 circular needle (12-16 inch)
Size 7 double points
Scissors
Tapestry needle

Holding 2 strands together during all knitting, cast on 98 stitches and join without twisting. Knit in stocking stitch for 35 rounds. Add any color patterns, cables, lace or knit/purl patterns you like. Decrease as follows: K12, K2tog around, knit 1 round plain. K11, K2tog around, knit 1 round plain. K10, K2tog around, knit 1 round plain. Continue in this fashion, changing over to double points when necessary. When you reach K5, K2tog, eliminate the plain round and decrease every round. Fasten off. This type of crown decrease will produce a swirl. If you prefer a straight decrease line, alternate K2tog with SSK every other decrease round.

Still holding two strands together, pick up 24 stitches along the bottom edge of the hat using one double point needle. Purl back. You will be knitting back and forth now. Begin decreasing on the stocking stitch side as follows: K1, K2tog, K to 3 stitches before end of row, K2tog, K1. Purl back. Continue these decreases until you have 12 stitches left on the needle and decrease on both the knit side and the purl side, one stitch in from the edge. When you have 4 stitches left, decrease the center two stitches and bind off all in the same row.

Pick up 24 stitches on the opposite side of the hat. Be sure that you pick up the stitches at least a third of the way back from the front so that the flaps will cover the ears and be far enough back from the eyes. (Flaps should NOT be centered, but towards the back of the hat.) Repeat above for second flap.

Finish the entire edge of the hat with a double or treble crochet edge. Wider is better, since stocking stitch rolls back on itself. Weave in all ends. Make cords and tassels using contrasting scrap yarn or the remaining yarn in the ball for the end of each ear flap and for the top. For the most durable finish, thread the cord through the flaps and the top, rather than sewing them on after the fact. We do knitted cord, twisted cord or braids and then leave a tasseled fringe on the bottom or attach a puff ball or other type of tassel. Traditional Peruvian sherpas have short cords and tassels, but Americans seem to prefer longer cords and heavier tassels. Your choice and your taste.

My youngest daughter and her friend spent nearly an entire weekend dressing up the cats in teddy bear clothes. Just another activity in their very busy winter social schedule. It's a good thing the cats are patient animals and tolerant of being dressed in drag.

A New Recipe with a Dash Update

2008-01-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

It's 11 F (-11 C) today and light snow is just starting to fall. Oh look, can you see Dash? He's peeking over the fence to see who's coming out to impose on his day and he's not even wearing his blankie. His mama (the big white girl) is letting him nurse now, after two weeks of spitting him off and generally treating him like an annoying stranger after his illness. I don't know if there's any milk left for him to have, but I don't think it matters. He's done so much better than either the vet or I expected, although he's really small and the weight gain is painfully slow. The gray baby is a full two months younger than he is and has had a growth spurt over Christmas. She makes him look like a squirt.

I just have to post a new recipe that I tried out. I found it in a book called "Soup and Bread", by Crescent Dragonwagon. I thought the author's name was a little strange, but the book is marvelous. With it being the frozen days of winter here, I was glad to find a book dedicated to two of my favorite types of winter foods and without a lot of the odd ingredients that are so fashionable, expensive and hard to find like kombu, daikon, kuzu, mahimahi, seitan, among many others--I don't even know what most of these are and doubt that my family would eat them even if I did. This book offers pure home cooking with some healthy and flavorful twists and I just love it.

My current favorite is called Supreme of Chicken and Olive Soup. I had never heard of putting olives in soup before and it sounded intriguing so I took the chance of my family refusing to eat a bite of it and wasting all the good ingredients. Results? Everyone loved it and it's now on our favorite list. I served it with hot baking powder biscuits and cold green salad.

So here is it is for your consideration and use. Enjoy!

Supreme of Chicken and Olive Soup Eureka

4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
1 c. dry white wine
4 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1 rib celery diced
5 tbsp flour
1/2 c. peas
1 1/2 c. milk or half and half
1/2 c. cooked rice
1/4 c. pitted olives cut into fat rounds
1/4 c. pimento stuffed green olives, sliced into fat rounds
3 c. chunked cooked chicken
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. In a soup pot, combine the chicken stock and wine and boil. Turn down heat and simmer.
2. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until slightly softened. Add the carrot and and celery and saute, stirring, another 5 or 6 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the veg with flour and lower heat. Cook 2 minutes while stirring in the flour. Gradually stir in some of the stock mixture and then whisk in the thickened pan contents to the remainder of the stock. Simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Add milk to soup. Add the peas along with the olives, rice, and chicken. Heat through and season to taste.

Pretty simple and basic--mostly just a home made cream of chicken soup. I used 2% milk and left out the peas (because my oldest son won't touch them) and added nearly three times the amount of olives. I also boiled the chicken and used the stock from that rather than purchasing actual chicken stock. Good luck and I hope you like this as much as we did.

Back to Work

2008-01-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a long Christmas and New Year's season. We turned out reams of gloves, socks and hats in a short amount of time and I've taken a couple of weeks to let my eye sight return to normal. In that short break, my thoughts have turned to weaving.

My mother left a four-harness loom when she passed on. It actually belongs to my sister in Peru, but it's much too bulky to pack off to South America, so here it remains. I'm not a good weaver in any sense, as I think that looms are too complicated, not portable enough and just too time intensive. So why would I think about weaving now? I'm not sure, but it's consuming my thoughts, even in my sleep. I have a rigid heddle loom that I work on sometimes, and I like that for making purses, ponchos and wraps, but invariably, I end up with an odd project that ends up sitting unfinished on the loom for what seems like ages (while I pursue knitting and felting ventures) and I don't really have the heart to cut it off and start something else after all the time it took to warp the silly thing to begin with. It's not just a matter of unraveling and salvaging the yarn for another project, as with knitting. I will lose loads of yarn if I don't finish, so there it sits and what to do?

I'm in the process of making weaving cards. Card weaving is used to weave bands and belts, mostly. That will fit in fine with the knitting and felting that we already do, used as hat bands, purse straps, edgings, embellishments and belts. It's portable, cheap, and suited to small projects if I read the information correctly. I'm making my cards out of an old deck of playing cards that has lost some of its members. I have 44 cards in all and I think that should be enough for my purposes and for the rest of my life. I can make bands on my rigid heddle as well, so I'm hoping my youngest daughter will be interested in the card weaving. She can make friendship bracelets with them and she's very "into" that right now. She received one as a Christmas gift that had flower beads sewn on after the weaving and it's just gorgeous--and possibly inspiring?

The knitting goes on at an even pace. I'm in the process of finding out more about online outlets for our woolens. Places like Etsy, Fiber Finds, and eBay are on the list. I'm not sure why eBay scares me, but it does. I avoid going to that site rather than doing the proper research and getting my pictures and descriptions ready. I'm still looking for more options, and even though eBay seems like a "no brainer" I just don't want to go there. Perhaps it's laziness or just fear of the unknown. I don't know.

In the meantime, I have a rose gray hooded jacket in the works and I'm charting out the designs for an Aran sweater. Along with that, I'm spinning a white lot of alpaca/mohair blend. There's really a lot of it and it looks like it's going to be a long project. I'm spinning the singles at approximately 28-30 wraps per inch with no particular project in mind.

I do have a son who would like to marry his girlfriend and I would just love to make a white handspun lace shawl in the Shetland tradition for her when they finally decide to marry and this yarn would do quite nicely for that. I've read about shawls that were made for the bride and given to her at or just before the wedding. The couple would sleep under it their first night together, the wife would wrap it around her shoulders during pregnancy, she would wrap her babies in it and use it as a cover while nursing them, it would lie as a coverlet on their bed in the warm months, she would wear it on her shoulders in the cold months, and she would be buried in it at her passing. How I would love to provide something so dear, so intimate and so lasting to my children and their spouses. Goodness, I have four children. I have a lot of work ahead of me!

2008-01-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am a
Sunflower

What Flower
Are You?

Have fun with this one!

A letter to myself

2008-01-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Heike at goddess in the groove! I'm supposed to write a letter to my 13 year old self, so here goes.

Dear Suzzanne,

Thirteen is a difficult time for a young girl, but trust me, it's not nearly as hard as you're making it out to be. Less drama is always better than more if you want people to trust you and if you want your word to mean something.

There are a few things you'll need to know as you grow up, because growing up is so messy and so hard. I could write a book on the things you'll need to know in order to succeed, but I know you well enough to realize that you wouldn't read it anyway. You're far too strong willed and impatient to read a volume of wisdom, even if it was guaranteed to prevent all your problems and make you famous. So here are just a few pearls that I know will help you navigate some of the biggest obstacles and bumps.

First, your mother doesn't really dislike you and she's not always mad at you. She's working a full time job, working on the farm nearly full time, raising a family, struggling with her own health and marriage issues, and trying to juggle some pretty meagre finances. In short, she's stressed out and doesn't think about you nearly as often as you think she does, although she loves you desperately and completely and that love will grow as you both get older. She will give you her last penny when you need it and will go without necessities to provide your wants. She will be your best friend as you get older and you will be one of her best friends as well. When she's gone, you're going to miss her more than you could have ever imagined, so make the most of the time you have with her.

Second, stop comparing yourself with others. Stop it right now. Do you hear me? You're completely unique and completely different than anyone else, just like every other person who lives on this planet. Each individual is a work of art, and you are no exception. You aren't any better than anyone else and you aren't any less than anyone else. To elevate yourself above others so you feel better about yourself is wrong, just as it's wrong to elevate others and make yourself less in your own eyes. Of course, there will be people who will do both of those things, but that doesn't make it right.

Third, people are not your enemies. You will have to relate to them eventually, so start now. Don't second guess yourself, just be yourself. Yes, there are people who won't treat you well, but for the most part, people will treat you just the way you treat them. If you want to have friends you must show yourself friendly. That means you must make an effort.

Fourth, be thankful for what you have and for the life you've been given. There are people who live their whole lives with less love and less opportunity than you've already had in your first 13 years. Learn to be content with life as it is today. Tomorrow has it's own problems and you'll deal with those as they come, but be happy just to have lived this day. There's a lot to be happy about if you start with gratitude.

Fifth, choices--all choices--have consequences. Some are good, some are bad, but all choices carry consequences, so think before you act. Innocent people often pay the consequences for the choices of others, so this makes it all the more important that you think ahead and count the cost, both to you and to others, before you act. One thoughtless act can reap a lifetime of sorrow or trouble for yourself and for those you love. Morality, values, ethics and priorities are a reflection of who you are and they guide your actions, so think and consider thoughtfully before you make a move.

Finally, you have a lot of natural abilities, but you have been given the gifts of an iron clad work ethic and a sharp mind, and you must make use of both in order to succeed. All the natural talent in the world won't matter for one minute if you don't apply "elbow grease", sweat and good old fashioned ingenuity to the process. Expect temporary failures, but don't be put off by them.

You're bursting with life, potential, and expectations, kid. You've got more going for you than you think you do. Trust me, I've got a vested interest here, so I know what I'm talking about. Good luck. I'll be waiting for you.

I'm tagging Pondside, Yarnplayer and Debra in France for now. Boy do I need to read more blogs!

Dash

2007-12-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

This is Dash. He's seven months old, just weaning age, and he went into kidney failure last week. We rushed him to the vet when we noticed him laying down, listless and acting too friendly for an alpaca. Blood tests showed that he had a pretty severe infection--what and where we don't really know--and that his kidneys were shutting down. How can this happen so fast? The day before, Dash was running around the pen with the rest of the herd and eating and drinking.

Happily, Dash is recovering nicely and his body seems to have healed from the infection, thanks to a brilliant vet, some stout antibiotics, 500 units of I.V. fluids a day, and very dedicated intensive care nurse--me.

He's got some ground to make up with putting some weight back on, but he's been out of his warm little sick room and out with the herd in the barn. It's pounding snow outside, so the barn doors will be closed to keep him inside. It's amazing to me how quickly an animal will perk up when he sees his herd. Dash was barely moving around, scooting from place to place because he was too weak to get up on his own, wetting himself for the same reason, and when I took him outside with me while I fed the animals in the barn, he saw his mama and started wobbling around on his feet. Now, three days later, he's getting around so well that I can't catch him, he's eating everything he can get to, and pushing to get to the water. He's not 100% yet, but very nearly. The turning point was getting him back out with his herd mates.

So, 10 days after the initial crisis, Dash is up and seems to be healthy, albeit more than a bit thin for the experience. He hates me now. I think he keeps waiting for me to grab him and poke him with needle or force something down his throat, just like I have for the last 10 days. I'm sure he thinks I caused it all, and who's to say I didn't? I'm responsible for the well being of my herd and if I dropped the ball, I guess he has every right to hate me. He'll be my reminder to remain vigilant and on guard for parasites, infections, and disease. It's my job after all and I'm so thankful that Dash has come through it alive and well. Tragedy averted.

Craftsman, artisan, or hobbyist?

2007-12-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hooray! The last knitting for money ended today! I feel a little like I'm selling my soul or something when I say it that way, but I'll have a couple of weeks now for my own knitting. I got a last minute order for another pair of mohair slippers and had to spin up two bobbins of mohair to make it work. I read accounts of people who spin as an art form and for the relaxation of it, but that's a pipe dream for me. It seems to me that I spin mostly out of necessity--in short, I need the yarn!

How wonderful to sit and enjoy the colors playing against each other and feel the texture of the fiber as it slips between my fingers. NOT! Lately, when I spin, it's because I have an order for yarn or a project that needs a certain fiber. When the yarn is for felting, I don't even bother to ply or finish the yarn. I just knit it straight off the bobbin and slog on. I'd like to be creative and all that, but business is business, even when it frustrates the creative spirit. My mother once told me that if necessity is the mother of invention, frustration must be the father of progress! Amen to that, sister!

It's wicked cold here. I slept in until 8:00 this morning and it was -3 degrees Fahrenheit when I got up. It only got up to a whopping high of 12 degrees at around 2:00 this afternoon. Wasn't it in the 70's only a few weeks ago when we were trying to sell sweaters and mittens at the show?

I was called crafty at the library a few days ago. I've been called that before and it sets my teeth just slightly on edge. Visions of lunch buckets made out of bleach bottles with crocheted drawstring tops and rugs made out of plastic grocery sacks float before my eyes and I feel a little nauseous. The lady at the library said that she was certainly NOT crafty, but described herself as intellectually creative. I smiled benignly and moved on.

I think I know what she was trying to say, but it made me think about what the term "crafty" really means. To me the word "crafty" conjures images of school children making log cabins out of pop sickle sticks and glue. I think back to making reindeer out of empty thread spools at Christmas time and turkeys out of pine cones and colored paper. Perhaps I need to think differently.

So I looked up the word "craft". My old dictionary from the 70's says that a craft is a "skill or ability in something, especially in handwork or the arts; proficiency; expertise. " I like that. A craftsman is "an artist as considered with regard to technique." I like that, too, but I like the word artisan better for some reason, although the definition is quite the same as all the others. It seems to speak of creating beauty and purpose at the same time, rather than favoring one over the other. It also seems to suggest something greater than a hobbyist mindset.

The biggest problem I have with the word "crafty" is that there's an awful lot of hard work that I have to do before I actually get to be creative. I don't think people realize that when they use a word like "crafty". Daily chores, cleaning pens, hauling hay, shearing, skirting and sorting fiber, running it all through the picker, carding, combing and a host of other tasks take up a lot of time and really make the word craft seem silly and meaningless. If you ask me, it's really more a lifestyle than a craft. It never ends. It's not a hobby and I don't just pop down to the local Hobby Lobby and pick up something to knit with.

OK, so I don't see myself as an artist and I sometimes think that people who elevate their activities to the level of art are a little stuffy and fussy. I don't want to be like that. I guess I just want others to realize that what we do is not just a flash in the pan or a pastime. We're serious about what we do. Maybe too serious. Maybe that's the problem I have with the word "crafty". I probably need to take my own advice, so liberally handed out to my children---"Get over yourself!"

Snowy Days, Books, and General Rambling

2007-12-11T11:12:00.001-07:00

I've added music since the last time I posted. I just love bluegrass, (it's kind of who I am, I think) but it's annoying to some people. Please don't leave if you think it's obnoxious. Just go to the bottom and pause it and come on back.

The snow and cold finally arrived. It's been a nice slow gathering, rather than the usual blow in and blow out type of storm that we usually get. The trees were frosted over this morning and the snow has only just stopped after two days.

Lots of time to knit and knit, and oh, did I say knit? We're nearly done with all of our Christmas orders. The list seems small when I look at it, but the time taken for each item was considerable. Four pairs of gloves, three pairs of felted mohair boots, one lace hat with flowers, three sherpas, four pairs of socks, and one sweater--all since the middle of October. Only one pair of felted boots remain and then I can work on my own Christmas list. Yahoo! And it's only the 11th of December!! I've already got two after-Christmas items to work on, but they will have to wait until my own list is finished.

We blocked lace shawls today. My sister made them and neither was blocked when they arrived and didn't get blocked in time to sell. They're both made of our own alpaca and as I'm taking the pictures, I can see places where the circles aren't true and the points are mushy. I'll have to fix that right away.

While those are drying, I'm weaving in the ends of the last pair of gloves (fingerless) and starting on the the felted boots. I sound like I'm so very efficient as I write this, but the truth is, I spend an awful lot of time dreaming about the next project or the next yarn, rather than actually putting feet to my dreams.

I love books, don't you? I could look at pictures of patterns and colors all day long and never really do anything of substance. I really like a good fiction read as well, especially a mystery, but I'm addicted to eye candy. I found a book on snowflakes in the bookstore the other day and stood fascinated for nearly 30 minutes thumbing through the pictures. I looked the Planet Earth book as well and couldn't bear to put it down until I saw the price tag--eegads! That changed my mind right away about how necessary those pictures were.

Is it any wonder that I return to pattern books and magazines over and over in search of the "perfect" look? I can easily spend an entire day in a bookstore searching through knitting books and doing more daydreaming.

I get awfully tired of pattern books that show the same old cell phone covers, wrist warmers (what are they for anyway---to warm your...wrists?) scarves and and ipod cases. There's a lot of them out there, and good for the authors if they can sell books like that, but I'm always on the hunt for something new and different. (Let's not even talk about the unhealthy looking models with bad hair and nasty looks on their faces. That's another whole rant!) I particularly like Nicky Epstein's books because she challenges me to do something different and "out there", even though I continually fall back to Elizabeth Zimmerman and Mary Thomas for the tried and true.

I've ripped out whole projects because I didn't like the results and I've ripped out half finished projects because it wasn't what I envisioned. The thought of wasting huge amounts of yarn on an ugly item is horrific to me. I'd rather start over and get it right, at least in my own estimation, than finish and hate what I made. I guess I consider the old ways my foundation, but I love a challenge, even if it means frustration and failure.

So, we're fully into the cold months of winter now with no outside work to do until the snow goes away. It's a perfect time to make lists and plan the knitting for the year (and to ramble aimlessly on a blog). I'll never stick to the list--I never do--but it's loads of fun to pretend that I will, and pour over the books and pictures and plans. If I can mix in some spinning time and other productive work, all will be well. Maybe the snow will stick around for a while. March? April?

Prairie Beauty

2007-12-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

Pink clouds hung over the east fields just at sunset this evening and only for a few minutes, turning everything pink. Even the air turned pink. My goodness, after I said it was sometimes hard to find beauty on the prairie, there is this!

Now, how can I create this in yarn and fibers? That's always the question, isn't it?

2007-12-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since my last installment and I want to start with my youngest daughter's picture of a prairie sunset. Sometimes I envy those who live near green forests and lush meadows, but the prairie has it's own beauty, although it's sometimes a challenge to find the beauty in a raging windy day or dry brown fields in the winter. Wild wide open space, clear blue skies and fresh air is what we do best. This is where I live and work and I adore the life I lead. Have I said that before?

Our best show of the year was a bust. The weather was so warm that people were coming in their shorts and tank tops----and we sell hand knits? A problem. Here are some pictures of our booth. They changed the booth size to 10x8, rather than the 10x10 that we planned for, so some last minute shuffling followed.

We got the last hand painted yarns done the week prior and because of the lack of interest in wool at the show, my trunks are full of gorgeous yarns just waiting to be snatched up and used. (...and the problem with that is...?) My sister took some home to Peru with her, but not nearly enough. She does the most amazing crochet I've ever seen and crochet done in hand painted yarn makes you weep!

I learned some lessons, though. Several, in fact. I learned that I've despised the areas where my strengths lie--gloves, socks, mittens, etc.--and tried to pursue what I consider more artful fiber arts with limited success. I learned that gloves, socks, and mittens can be infused with beauty and can carry an artistic flair nearly as well as the amazing works my sister produces. I learned that I still compare myself to my sister and always come up lacking, at least in my own mind. (When, oh when, will I ever truly grow up?) I learned that people really do want the things that I make well and that less can be more. It takes both craftsmen and artists to make the world go round. Finally, I learned that following your first love is usually the path that brings the greatest satisfaction. (...she says as she looks wise and wonderful...) Will these lessons carry over to life in general? Oh, yeah, there is that.

So...is it any surprise that the things that people are ordering for Christmas are socks, gloves, mittens, and hats? I'm nearly done with most of the custom Christmas orders and I'm so pleased with the results. Keeping in mind the lessons above, I put my own sense of taste and design into them, for what it's worth, and I'm really pleased with how it's all turning out. The great part is that I'll only get better! It's just a matter of experimentation and taking risks balanced with doing the old things well day after day. Simple, eh? (...she says doubtfully...) Thank goodness there's nothing new under the sun and I don't really have to reinvent the wheel!

Painting, Dipping and Dyeing

2007-11-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

It was a warmish day today with no wind. A perfect day for dyeing yarns. We've put in some lace and fingering weights this year, hoping to move past the current fascination with bulky and chunky yarns. Alpaca and mohair are such dense fibers and are sufficiently expensive that a bulky weight is overkill--like a bulky silk or bulky weight cashmere. We're hoping that knitters will put a strand of our light and vividly colored yarn with their neutral wools and cottons.

We started with our favorites--hand paints. Our challenges this year are to be more organized and specific about how we produce a color combination so we can reproduce it, and to give names to our colorways. (I had to find out what colorway means on Yarnplayer's blog to be able to use that word...I feel kind of smart for using it now.)

In progress is the combo that we're calling "Thistle". It echoes the colors of the Canadian thistles that infest our fields and ditch banks. It's a hideous weed with spikes and stickers, but it's a very pretty weed when in bloom, just before I spray it and kill it with 2-4-D. It's shown hanging to dry alongside some solid colored lilac yarn.

My daughter put together some nice combinations as well, using pinks and raspberry colors along with some yellow and orange here and there. We've named one "Autumn Sunset" and the other "Passion Punch", named after her favorite flavor of sherbet. She made it by splattering the yarn with color. She also splattered the walls, curtains and floor in my wool barn, so "Passion Punch" will be with us for a long, long time.

We also did some solids we named "Bubble Gum" and "Red Hot". My sister Cookie, painted one that we're calling "Tutti Fruitti" by splattering red, orange and teal on white yarn in quite a controlled fashion and completely avoiding the walls. We thought we may have to overdye the batch because it looked a little odd, but after steaming, it turned out really good. We have another day planned tomorrow to work on greens and blues.

I read in a magazine about using a knitting machine to quickly knit a "blank" of undyed yarn and then hand paint it to create a non-repeating yarn. I tried that for the first time last year and liked the results, but I used one color that didn't mesh with the rest of the color progression. I tried a small sample again today and I'm excited to do more. I used a white yarn and progressively dyed from red to orange to yellow. Because the yarn is already knitted, when it's dry, I'll unravel it, skein it and it will be fabulous as a non-repeater against a black or perhaps brown background. The color blocks will be yards long, rather than inches or feet long. I'd like to do some autumn colors this way and knit some garments with leaf patterns and perhaps some twining cables to imitate the fall foliage. Muted greens, oranges, yellows, browns and reds...I'm actually salivating.

The wind has come up since we came in and it's getting cold quickly. We'll see how we fare tomorrow. After I post good pictures of dye lots I'll need loads of help putting names with them.

Just a quick shot at the very end of our little helpers. Mr. Alf, the guard cat turned nurse maid, was looking after the little ones this afternoon. Cheeseman was kicked out of the barn for disturbing the peace. "Passion Punch" footprints tell the tale.

Sweater-in-the-making and the story behind it

2007-11-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is Bethy again!
This is a picture of my first sweater-in-progress. Until now I've been to afraid to do anything other than scarves, hats, blankets, and occasionally a single mitten or sock. But suddenly I had the urge to be brave. What I really wanted to do was make the "wrap" in the picture below. But it never worked out that way.

At first it was too thin to be nice looking. So then I had to double the yarn I was knitting with making it twice as thick. After ripping it out a couple times, I finally finished it. It was just me and my mom and both of us were finishing up some projects. When I had finally threaded in the last loose ends, I jumped up, put it on, and displayed it proudly. After wearing it for a while I realized it didn't fit well unless I put my hands behind my back and then it kept riding up. I guess I didn't notice that the form in the picture didn't have any arms and that does make difference in how something fits.

After a few minutes, me and my mom decided we didn't like it. "What are we going to do?!" I asked. "We'll make it into a sweater!" proclaimed Mama (being the practical one). So now it's going to be a ribbed sweater. If you look closer at the half-done sweater, you'll see it sucks in at the bottom. Luckily for me, I makes it perfect for a form-fitting sweater. The top will fit the chest fine and the bottom will form to the waist.
I'm working on the sleeves now, frantically knitting(or am going to be frantically knitting, seeing as I just started the sleeves last night!) to be done for the Christmas Boutique in a town called Windsor close by. I hope it turns out all right! And I sure hope it will sell! I'll get pictures of the thing when I get the sleeves, neck, and edges done! Woohoo! My first ever sweater! My moms been bugging me to knit a sweater for ages, but I've been dragging my feet about it until now I've forced myself into it! Oh well!

For your enjoyment here is a picture of the CheeseMan! Go Chester Cheeto!

Goats, Wooly and Otherwise

2007-11-04T20:20:00.001-07:00

It's past time for us to shear our goats. Every spring and fall, we shear our angoras to harvest their mohair. It looks like doll hair, and in fact, many doll manufacturers use mohair for that purpose. As for us, we skirt, wash, and process our mohair into yarn to use for weaving and knitting. Alpaca/mohair blends are some of our favorite yarns to knit with and the colors of each compliment each other nicely. Alpaca is a wool, that carries some luster and takes very little to lend a lot of warmth. Mohair is a hair that carries loads of luster and is known for the halo is produces in finished goods. Both take up dye at different rates and the combination of the two together make for some interesting results.

The animals themselves originate in Turkey. Like most goats, they're social when hand raised and they like people, although they're suspicious of strangers. We leave their horns intact, rather than burn them off as babies. This gives us a nice way to handle them, although they don't like to have their horns messed with. Our angoras have never used their horns as weapons against people, but they can do quite a lot of damage to fences and can put up quite a show of head butting with one another. They're very territorial and will butt a fence when they feel that any other animal is encroaching on their turf or threatening their feed.

They're slop hogs, one and all, and seem to be able to eat constantly without ill effects. There's a myth that circulates out there that goats will eat anything whatsoever, but that's not the case at all. They can be quite picky when food is plentiful. The truth of it is that goats are survivors and will eat whatever they have to eat in order to do so. Our goats have never been in that position and never will be.

There's also an idea circulating that goats are geniuses at getting out of their pens and enclosures. This is, unfortunately, quite true. It's a case of the proverbial grass being greener. Our goats love to push at gates and fences and find a way out, which is immediately followed by frantic calls for help to be rescued from their own sins. They don't really want to be out because it's an unknown and they may be exposed to something apart from their routine--and like all livestock, they're creatures of routines and habit. They love their schedules and are the first to remind the care giver that she's late getting out to the barn. What an amazing sense of time they have!! When they get out, we open the gate and they all run back into the pen in a panic to see who is first.

They're actually a lot like children in the way they scrap and fight, in the way they compete to be first, in the way they hoard their food and in the ultimate sweetness of their temperaments. They're a lovely bunch of bickering ladies.

These are some of our kids from this past spring. We had 12 kids and sold all but 4, keeping two blacks and two whites. We don't really want to grow our herd. We already have more mohair than we can keep up with, but we absolutely adore angora kids. They look and act like puppies. They even chew and nibble like puppies. Bottle feeding can be a feeding frenzy and we just love it.

We don't milk our angoras, although you can. We get the milk to feed our babies, our kittens, our dogs and our family from two dairy goats, Nubians, that we keep for that specific purpose. Pansy, our Grandma goat, is 14 and past her prime. We don't breed her any longer and she'll live here until her life is over. I think she's given enough for one goat. Her picture is the one on our title bar above and in the last picture here. She's the nicest old lady I've ever met, and I've met more than a few!

The Ranchers at Work

2007-11-03T15:47:00.000-06:00

Hi! It's Bethy again! I am posting some pictures of the Ranchers(do you remember the Ranchers?) hard at work picking, carding, dyeing and needle felting. Picking is the process of fluffing the fleece up with the most wicked machine in the world. The machine is basically just combing the fleece out so it's easier to card. Carding is the process of combing it out again but more evenly so it can be spun or felted. The Ranchers are doing needle felt here. You put the fleece on top of a foam something-or-other and gently poking it until it's felted. Then you cut them out in shapes(at least that's what the Rancher's are doing) like angels, bells, and gingerbread men for Christmas tree ornaments. The last process is dyeing the felted shapes into colors. Although I don't have any pictures right now, I'll try my best to get them the next time the Ranchers do this and I can take pictures.
These are hard working people who I just love with all my heart. My mom probably already told you but these are people that are developmentally disabled adults. Some of them were born autistic, some were born retarded, some had accidents that caused brain damage. But no matter what happened to them, I love them so much. They're all as sweet as they can be!
Well that's all for now(from me anyway). Thanks for reading!

Purple Dye and Goodbye to the Devil's Socks

2007-10-31T17:05:00.000-06:00

You didn't know that the devil wore pink socks, did you? Well, here they are, all finished and ready to leave the premises. Thank goodness! I hope they fit! I like the results, but for heaven's sake, how involved should I get in the life of a pair of socks?! So onward to the next pair--two pairs, actually--of blue men's socks. Simple, straightforward, no extras, so much easier. Right? Right?

Today started with a misty sunrise. I trekked out to the wool barn to start some dyepots and my little companion followed, fearless as ever. His name is Cheeto (CheeseMan to you) and he's one of four kittens from this summer. My husband would like to get rid of all of them, but so far, only one has found a new home. He's a keeper as far as I'm concerned, even though his appearance is common as mud.

I concentrated on purples and blues today. I need a couple of skeins of blue for the rest of the sock order and the purples just struck me as the thing to do, even after that pink sunrise.

I really like this process and some of the surprises that you get when you don't treat it as a science. My challenge this year, however, is to become more scientific and accurate about what I'm doing. I also have to come up with some names for my colorways. Right now, I'm trying to reproduce a hand paint that we did last year that looked like a lilac bush, both in the skein and after it was knit up. This year, I'm trying it as a dip dye. We'll see how that turns out. The few purples and blues drying outside my wool barn are done on white and gray yarns with slightly different results. As soon as my sister arrives, we'll go into production mode, but for now it's a little here and a little there.

Alf

2007-10-29T07:49:00.000-06:00

Alf, our guard cat. A brilliant mouser, he looks like a million other cats, but his personality is what makes him special. You can tell by the condition of his ears that he's had a fight or two in his lifetime. Alf hangs out with the dogs and comes when you call his name. He rides the hay when we stack it in the truck and jumps in the back of the empty truck to ride with the dogs. He's the first to greet in the morning and the last to say good night. Quite a character, is he. I'm not really a lover of house cats, but if I were to ever move away from the farm, Alf would have to go with me.

Red Lace

2007-10-27T16:28:00.001-06:00

The model of this red shawl was oh so pleased to display it. (You can tell by the smug look on her young face.) It started out as a neutral silver gray, but I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I dyed it with a tomato red dye to come up with this cranberry color. It's knit Shetland style with no cast off edge, but in a triangle, rather than the traditional square. It's more than a pretty accessory. Because it's 100% alpaca, it actually quite warm, holes and all. I'm not sure I like the color, but I very much like the design of it--simple Turkish faggoting in the center, plowed acre for the wide border and an eyelet sawtoothed edge--all the easiest of lace stitches, but with a nice effect overall, I think.

Now, how about some help with how to take better pictures?

Yarn, yarn, yarn!!!

2007-10-27T12:43:00.000-06:00

The first of my mill processed yarn has arrived. I send in about 80% of my fleeces to a mill for processing because I could never keep up with hand processing and hand spinning all of it. I keep the show fleeces and most of the grays to hand spin. It's also cheaper for a customer to purchase. Mill spun sells for between $12 and $18 per skein and hand spun sells for $25-30 a skein.

This is harvest for me, when I get to see nearly all of my alpaca fleeces in their yarn form. It's an exciting time for us all because the next step is to dye it. We'll do solids, dip dyes, space dyes, hand paints--you name it and we'll do it. We've never been very good at keeping track of our dye lots or our methods. It's just too much fun to apply color and let the chips fall where they may. This year, however, I have some customers who are asking for repeats of previous years, so it's time to start measuring (no! not that!), keeping records and sample cards, and trying to be more consistent.

My blacks, browns, and fawns will come in next week and I'll have close to 100 pounds of yarn to sell. Obviously, we can't dye blacks and darks, but as we found last year, the fawns and light browns dye up with terrific results. The colors are muted and earthy, rather than clear and bright. The grays give us rich jewel colors. Over course, we'll save back some of each natural color to sell as is, but the greatest fun of the season is the dyeing.

For those of us who have a serious yarn addiction, pictures like this can evoke tremors, salivating and even faints as we contemplate the possibilities and future adventures. If you're one of those, just wait until you see the pictures after the lot has been dyed. If you're one whose spouse has put out a cease and desist order on your yarn spending, I'm sorry for you. I'm sure we'll still have yarn left when the order is lifted!

I've requested some lighter weights this year--sport, fingering and lace--as well as some suri yarn. In case you've never heard of suri's, they are the type of alpaca whose fleece grows in twists and lock, rather than perpendicular to the body like wool. The look is kind of a "bed head" look, or somewhat like dread locks. They're amazing animals and there are much fewer of them around than the typical wool alpaca which is called a huacaya. Suri yarn is much more lustrous and behaves more like silk than wool, although it's wonderfully warm and less is more when working with it. A bulky or worsted suri yarn is overkill and the price per ounce for yarn ($15 and up) would break the bank, so we've got fingering and lace weights to work with.

We had three suri's until this year when they were sold to a new home in Pennsylvania earlier this fall. The first was a complete surprise to us when she was born. Her mother was a black huacaya and when her baby popped out, we didn't quite know what to think or what to do with her. She was the strangest baby we'd ever seen. As it turns out, the breeder we bought the mom from didn't realize that either the males got out and an accidental breeding happened or some other mistake happened and we got a half suri baby. I'm not posting a picture of her because she is ghastly looking by breed standards.

The offspring of this first suri became my favorite baby. Her name is Esme and she was born during a cold front, complete with sub-zero temps and driving winds. Her mama had not a drop of milk, so Esme came to live in my laundry room. For 11 days we bottle fed her and took her outside 4-5 times a day (with her little jacket on) to be with the herd and her mama. After 11 days, miracle of miracles, she took to nursing. Our vet was surprised, saying he'd never heard of any animal nursing after that length of time. So, Esme...not a high quality animal, but very sweet. The final suri was a little boy we called Tanner, born this year in June. Thankfully, all three went to the same excellent home and I'm out of the suri business. Whew!

So... I'm looking forward to digging into the dyes, but I'll wait until my sister arrives from Peru. I need her eyes and her judgment because I've put together some awful color combinations and my yarn is precious. I can't really afford to ruin any of it. To be fair, I've done nice combos, too, but two minds are better than one, don't you think?

Blue skies and old barns

2007-10-24T09:26:00.001-06:00

What a glorious day it is today! We had our first hard freeze over the weekend and our first snow on Sunday, thankfully doing away with nearly all of the flies. Today, the sun is back in it's full glory and it will soon be 70 degrees F. Tonight it will be down to 25 degrees or less. Indian summer we call this and it's my favorite time of year.

The third cutting of hay is in windrows, ready to bale. There's not much of it this year. We tried to put in grass alongside the alfalfa and we're not sure how successful we really were. It's always been alfalfa for us so we don't really know what a successful crop of grass hay looks like. We've actually had a pretty good year for rainfall. The last few years were drought years, with less than 8 inches of rain in a year, but this year we had intermittent, but heavy rain and at opportune times.

The old barn still looks somewhat picturesque surrounded by the aging trees and the fading fences. One day it really will blow over and I'll be sad. Until then, I can complain about how shabby it looks and how ugly it is, compared to the barns others in our area have. It sits not 30 steps from my back door and perhaps that's the real problem. Rustic, encroaching on an attempt at civilized living, makes the whole works look messy and old. Ah well, it does it's job and does it well. And the price was right, since it didn't cost us a penny to build and put to work.

I was struck by how utterly clear and blue the sky is this morning. That's not unusual for us, but somehow this morning, it just bowled me over. Have I said before how much I love the life I lead?

Sock Saga in Pink

2007-10-23T07:32:00.001-06:00

The saga of the socks continues. I'm only on my second pair and I think I've ripped this one out at least a dozen times. I'm normally a very laid back person, at least in most ways, but for some reason, perfectionism rears it's ugly head at the least opportune moments. The customer asked for two shade of pink for her pre-teen daughter and left the rest to me. Sounds like a knitter's dream, but it's turned into a nightmare. Perhaps I've given myself too many choices this time and can't make up my mind for the best design. I've been sitting up late at night trying different things until my eyes crossed and I finally told myself, "It's just a sock for heaven's sake. Get on with it." I finally opted for a simple baby cable and an hourglass heel and toe. And so, I'm marching towards the toe on the first and just starting the cables on the second. It's still slow going because my eyes really are tired and over worked at this point.

I wonder if the eyes are the first things to go as we get older. (Oh, wait, the waist already went!) I rebel at the thought of wearing glasses, especially bifocals. I'm awful about locating keys, cell phones, sunglasses. How could glasses be any better? I shrink at thinking I might be dependent on the silly things. I suppose worse things could happen, but I've been dragging my feet about having my eyes checked. If I pretend there's not a problem, it will just go away, right? If I deny the problem, everything will be alright. Isn't that how it works? I know better, but still can't seem to move my feet in the direction of an eye doctor, or whatever they call themselves.

Perhaps I should just repeat my solution to the sock saga. "You have to see, for heaven's sake. Get on with it!" I hope they don't have too many choices when I get to the doctor's office.

Charlie

2007-10-20T14:54:00.000-06:00

I'm one of the teenage daughters and I live on the farm. I'm 13 and this is my favorite goat, Charlie. You see, he was born on a cold, cold, cold, (12 below zero F) February evening... and Charlie's mama got scared and ran away from her babies(just born). We found the twins on the ground. The first was dead(sniff) but the second was holding onto life by a thread. We rushed him inside and put him on a heating pad. He was nearly dead and my mom was telling me how we had done our best for him and that it would be OK if he died. At about 11:00 pm, my dad came in and told us to do something with this animal because he was standing up, wagging his tail and hollering for food. I bottle fed him that night and every day after that until he was grown. Today, Charlie is as much a pet as one of the dogs. He knows that he's a member of the farm management team. He has a beautiful curly white fleece as soft and sweet as his personality.

What joy!! What wonder!!! What a miracle..
Ok I'll stop there before I get too goofy.

His picture isn't very nice because he wouldn't back up from the camera so we could take a nice one. We'll shear him next week and then he'll look like a little lamb.

Fawn sweater

2007-10-18T12:51:00.001-06:00

I don't have any beautiful models here today, except Celeste, and she has declined to do a photo shoot today. Models! Sheeesh! Who knew they were so finicky about things! It turns out that the sleeves on this sweater are not very complimentary to her particular body type (four legs and a curly tail), so I tucked a dark scarf inside the sweater to show the stitching and the motifs to a better advantage:

The sweater is of medium fawn alpaca yarn with a crocheted tie closure; bell sleeves; shell edging.

Transportation in style

2007-10-16T22:35:00.001-06:00

I just had to post this picture. The last time I had alpacas transported, the driver showed up with a shiny silver 52 foot, air-conditioned trailer with security cameras, auto feed grain feeders, cushioned mats, and I swear there was mood music playing. But this! This is much more my style. I didn't even notice the llamas looking out the back window until I had already looked at it many times! What a hoot!

Some special people and a special place

2007-10-16T08:41:00.000-06:00

Not far from my farm is an amazing place for people who overflow with enthusiasm, innocence and possibilities. These people are called developmentally disabled by society, but really, they're just wonderful folks who enjoy life. They live at a ranch called Triangle Cross Ranch and I think they're the luckiest of people to be there. At the Ranch, they raise two alpacas, 9 angora goats, a cat, seven bunnies and two horses. They do the chores, process the wool from their animals into felt, participate in Special Olympics, volunteer at the local food bank, clean the local park every week, keep the houses clean, go to social gatherings, and basically live as "normal" a life as they possibly can. Most don't know they're disabled because they are such an accepted part of their local community.

The goal of the Ranch is "to create a new definition of normal..." I just love that and I think they're really doing a good job of it. The residents are generally happy people who live with purpose and anticipation of what the next day holds. Here's the acrostic that describes life at the Ranch. N - Necessary to the community; O - Oriented to daily life; R - Realistic in expectations; M - Moral in action; A - Abilities beyond disabilities; L - Loved beyond measure.

If this sounds like an advertisement for the Ranch, forgive me. I just think it's an absolutely amazing place and I wonder at the families that are willing for their family member to sit all day long in an institutional setting and watch videos or play cards.

Triangle Cross Ranch doesn't receive any federal funding to do what they do, so the fund raising is an ongoing effort, as is the volunteer search. Obviously, my family and I are quite involved at TCR. My girls are quite at home there among the residents and staff. It's actually a safe haven for us when life overwhelms. It's an escape into contentment and a simpler existence.

Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match

2007-10-15T21:46:00.000-06:00

Time for breeding to begin. We've actually been breeding alpacas for several weeks, but some of them are just now starting to show signs of being interested. With alpacas, it's fairly easy to tell if a female is in cycle because she'll lay down (cush) for the male if she is. If she's not in cycle, she'll spit him off and if she's pregnant, she'll really spit at him. The signs of a successful breeding is that a female will flirt, breed and then turn into a witch, when she's around a male, that is. Not really that different from humans, I think. As with most breeding males, they're not at all conscious of what the female wants or doesn't want. They're completely, 100%, absolutely single minded! Did I mention that it's not all that different from humans?

We have several young females that have never been bred before and it's taking them a little time to understand what exactly is going on. We also have two young males that have never bred before and they're so clueless, it's absurd. I'm just not the kind of breeder who will actually
physically involve myself with the details of male and female contact. (Did I say that delicately enough?) I figure that if they don't know how, they're not ready yet.

These are some of our pairings for this year. Both of these pairs have produced beautiful gray offspring and we hope to repeat that. Rose is shown with Roxy, her baby from last year out of Black Knight. We liked the results so much we're repeating that breeding. Solace is our leading black female and we're breeding her again this year to our light rose gray male, Gandalf. They produced a lovely silver gray female born this past spring. Of all my males, Gandalf is the sweetest gentleman. He's kinder and gentler with my females than most of the others. I like him for that. And for the fact that he's just plain handsome.

Rose is a "special" animal. I purchased her from a farm in Spokane, WA and found out after the fact that she suffers with seizures--petit mal and an occasional grand mal. She had never been handled when I got her; born, raised and bred in a large pasture. We've worked with her until she's pretty tolerant of us and actually fairly friendly as long as our interactions are on her terms. We're careful with her feed and her stress levels. We give a year off from breeding about every two or three years and use rescue remedy when we have to shear her or do any shots or foot care. I'll never be able to sell her. Like the lovely grandma goat, Pansy, whose face graces my front page, she'll live out her life here until she dies. Not a bad life for her all in all. She serves her purpose and gives me a pretty baby every year or so and provides the most beautiful rose gray fleece to work with and in return, she lives a stress free life. Sweaters and shawls made from her wool sell for our highest prices. Even if they didn't, I'd keep making them, if only for myself. It's a strange relationship we have, Rose and I, but it works for us. I'm so glad I have her.

As far as goats go, it's Mr. Hermes all the way. He holds the honor of being the one and only proven buck on the farm and has a great track record. He'll only get three of the six females, though. I'm giving one of my older females the year off and sending two out to be bred elsewhere. I'm not telling Hermes anything about that yet. I'm hoping to be able to use his son, Sawyer, in a couple of years with some of the upcoming kids from the outside buck. Don't they just look like "Me and Mini Me"?

Work, work, work...or is it?

2007-10-15T08:55:00.001-06:00

This is where I work, at least this is my indoor work space. We created this space by covering the west side of our outside porch. The wind in the winter drives at us from the north west, so covering the porch also served the purpose of protecting the west side and preserving our heating fuel. We installed a wood stove and the place is quite cozy in the winter, although pretty hot in the late afternoon during the summer.

The other reason we created this space was so that my husband could sit down in the evening without sitting on yet another project and without sitting on...stepping in...tripping over knitting needles and paraphernalia.

I usually spin on a Lendrum wheel, but it seems that my daughter prefers my wheel over hers, so I've taken to spinning on my mother's wheel. My mother, who was a hard worker and a farm woman from the ground up, passed away in November 2006 and I think it's fitting that her wheel be put to good use. She had an Ashford wheel and it works just fine for me. It's nice to be able carry on with something that my mother put so much time and effort into.

The first pair of socks are finished and blocking on the counter. I hope the lady likes them, otherwise, I guess I'll have to sell them elsewhere or send them to my sister in New York for Christmas. She adores hand knit alpaca socks when they have six feet of snow on the ground in the winter.

The first three skeins of my daughter's "Bethy" yarn, as we call it, are done. It's a little too loose for my taste but we'll see how it knits up.

I couldn't resist adding a picture of one of our black beauties. She's a 4 month old cria and her name is Onyx. Doesn't she make you want to hug her?

Rain, Goats and Yarn

2007-10-14T17:27:00.000-06:00

Another cloudy, rainy day today. That's two in a row and it's wonderful. We're used to lots of sun, a lot of wind, browns and greens. With the rain, everything looks so green. The weather is cooling off quickly and just in time to chase away the flies and bugs. The corn fields are bare and brown, so the green is refreshing.

Even our old barn looks tolerable surrounded by green. We've been hoping this barn would blow over for years now, but even though it looks like it's fixing to fall over, it's probably the strongest building on our place. Such an ugly barn, but it serves its purpose. So much of our place is made up of old wood, "jerry rigged" fencing and old outbuildings, but you know, they just keep on doing their jobs. I suppose there are worse things than old buildings and fences.......like no buildings or fences, I guess!

His Royal Hugeness Hermes is standing out in the rain, seeming to enjoy it. He's in his prime and at his stinkiest this time of year. He can't wait for the girls to arrive in his pen the first of December. I think he uses way too much aftershave for my taste, but his girls just swoon over him and think he's beeeautiful! He does do his job, however and seems to enjoy being the sole breeding male on the place.

My daughter is spinning a bumpy novelty yarn from Mr. Hermes' fleece (extra well washed, of course) blended with a black alpaca from our black beauty, Solace. The combination creates a lovely dark charcoal color that we're plying with a silver thread. I think it's going to be great. It amounts to three skeins of about 200 yards each, so not quite enough for a sweater. She's got her work ahead of her to get enough done, but she's only about half way through the batch of rovings.

Good stuff here

2007-10-14T07:56:00.000-06:00

Heh, I'm the other half of the blog team...the less resourceful, the less down to earth, and the one that makes things more complicated than they need to be. I have my life spread out from Wyoming down through Colorado and further south to where I am right now - Peru. How much more complicated do I need to be? Yeesh.

Look at what comes from the Wooly Works workshop! Beautiful stuff here! Even the model is great!

Anyway, we make good stuff here. The Christmas and holiday season is upon us. We head to Windsor in November to put our good stuff out there for people to see, touch, and smell. I personally have a hat knit from Peruvian sheep's wool that still has that lovely sheepy lanolin aroma on it. It was fun to knit, but it took up over half of that yarn, so I'm left with less than enough to make another felted hat...What to do, what to do? I seem to have that problem lately - leftover yarns that I haven't enough to make the project that I want...maybe with time, I'll have enough in my leftover stash to make a granny square blanket...afghanland, here I come!

I recently received a book from Amazon.com, "Amazing Crochet Lace", by Doris Chan. WOOHOO! There are some great patterns in there! But, me being me, I'll probably only make the original pattern once and then modify the beejeebers out of it to suit myself...hence the one of a kind creations. Hang on Doris! I won't be long in making one of your fabulous patterns and then twisting the daylights out of the concept and ending up with something completely different.

Okay - I'm off to organize all those odds 'n ends of yarn left overs. They MAY make a few great HATS!

A Rainy Day

2007-10-13T15:08:00.000-06:00

It's a rare rainy Saturday for us in Colorado. Such a nice change from the hot and dry of summer. The transition into fall isn't as dramatic here as it is in other places, but it's nice all the same. Hopefully, we won't see any sun for a couple of days so we can all get into the spirit of the fall season.

The animals don't seem to mind looking a little bedraggled in the rain. I think they enjoy the change in weather as much as we do. The "sentinels" are a little more somber today as they watch over the home place.

All in all, a lovely day to stay inside and catch up on those socks I've been working on. I'll be done with the first pair this evening and move on to the next pair--at least two shades of pink for a young preteen girl. I'll have to dye more yarn, but I'm looking forward to that part--maybe a painted yarn or a space dyed yarn.

It's a great life I lead...

Socks and more

2007-10-13T10:35:00.001-06:00

Actually, there are two of us involved with this Wooly Work. I'm the less poetic, less creative, less deep half of the partnership. My sister knits and crochets one-of-a-kind works of art that dazzle and amaze. I..., well, I knit socks, mittens, and gloves. Recently I added sweaters to my knitting habit, but I always viewed them as kind of like a marriage commitment. They took forever to complete and the results were sometimes less than I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, I've been married for 23 years and I'm a happy person, but, well you understand.

So, sweaters. Well, I've completed three seamless yoke sweaters, ala Elizabeth Zimmermann, in four months and I think I'm hooked now. Each one took less time than the previous one to complete. I love them done in alpaca, or an alpaca mohair blend, because of the weight of them and I personally know the animals that provided the fiber.

With Christmas coming, we're getting a lot of orders for hand knit socks. I really like to knit socks, but my problem is with getting an exact match. I like to "do my own thing", which is loads of fun, but can lead to a lot of silly problems that could have been avoided if I'd just either written down what I did with the first sock, or actually followed a pattern--gasp! I think it's a character issue.

I've ordered a book on knitting two socks at a time on circular needles. I hope it isn't a huge waste of money. I'm hoping it saves me time. It may have to wait for later, though, because this isn't the season for experimenting. It's the time to take up tried and true methods and turn those socks out like clockwork. I usually have several hours each evening to work on them, after the chores are done and the supper is eaten. It takes me about a week of evenings to finish a pair of socks, but as Christmas gets closer, I'll knit during the day as well, and then it will be about two to three days to finish a pair. It's amazing what blind panic can do to the productivity of an individual on a deadline.

Carmen - Angora beauty

2007-10-09T12:24:00.000-06:00

This is Carmen. Carmen is 4 years old and has produced her second batch of kids this year. She's an Angora doe, with a beautifully soft fleece. She's so gentle and obviously NOT camera-shy!

Carmen's fleece goes to make sweaters and yarns. She is sheared two to three times a year, and we love the fleece she gives us!

2007-10-06T17:29:00.000-06:00

Sometimes things just aren't so clear.

This Hyar's the Wooly Works

2007-10-06T17:20:00.000-06:00

So I says, says I...this hyar's The Wooly Works, and we got lots o' things to show ya, and lots o' things to say...