Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving Knitting and a little bit of Spinning

My Thanksgiving knitting and spinning projects! More details to follow soon.  The brown yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, in the Fedora colorway. The multi-colored yarn a skein of kettle-dyed yarn from www.michiganspinning.etsy.com I have been very happy with both these yarns. The yarn on the spindle is a blend I carded this week. I took a random bump  brown roving from the sample pack I purchased this summer and carded it up with angora. It spun up quickly and now I am navajo plying the single. The yarn itself is a brown heather with gold, green, and mauve running through it.

 


This yarn is my first go at lock spinning. I spun up two different colours of dyed Teeswater locks and then plied the single with a commercial lace-weight yarn. I'm not sure yet what I'll make with it. Perhaps crocheted/knitted flowers or other embelishments? 


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Greetings my friends! It has been awhile since I was last able to post and I must say I've missed it very much. Here on the home front we have been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tomorrow being Thanksgiving we are cleaning  house and beginning our meal preparations. The menu for Thanksgiving dinner is as follows:

Turkey with stuffing & gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Beet, Carrot & Apple Salad
Cranberry sauce
Dinner Rolls
Grasshopper pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie

We are looking forward to spending time with family and reflecting with gratitude on the abundant bessings God has bestowed upon us.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Meet Our New Suri Alpacas, Windfall & Mounty!!!!

Yes, this is the new adventure which I spoke of in my last post! About a month ago we got two male suri alpacas.  It was a completely unplanned venture, and came about rather suddenly. But we all talked it over and prayed about it, and a couple weeks after the fact, they arrived in their new home!


This is Mounty. He is 6 years old and a shy little guy. He is quite stocky in build, and about a head shorter then our other Suri boy, Windfall. Mounty was pretty skittish when we first got him. Within a day or so he had calmed down quite a bit and we were able to feed him grass right out of our hands. He's adjusted beautifully to his new home.


And this is Windfall! He is 7 years old, and clearly the alpaca in charge! As I stated above, Windfall is a head taller then Mounty. He's built differently and is not stocky at all. The front of his legs are covered in tight curly locks so we are anticipating some beautiful curls on him when his coat is grown out. Windfall lets us pet him on a daily basis, which is lovely. 


Mounty


Mounty in the background. Windfall's curly legs in the foreground.


Windfall.


Windfall, background. Mounty, foreground.


Windfall.


Mounty.
Looking at the two above pictures you can see the difference in the boys builds. Even though Mounty doesn't have the tight curls that Windfall dose, he still has a soft and beautiful coat. I think his fiber will be amazing to spin!

We are so excited to have alpacas, it is such a blessing! They have been quite the learning experience so far. Despite everything we previously knew concerning alpacas, nothing compares to owning them and encountering little situations that arise every now and then. There are more alpaca farmers in the area and we were able to get lots of advice and some help from a young couple who live not to far down the road. He has also offered to do our shearing come spring, and since they live close by the cost for shearing will not be as much as we had anticipated. What a blessing!

The boys LOVE to be hand fed fresh grass. Their enclosure is temporary until the spring when we can put them out in a bigger field. So consequently they keep their little patch of grass nibbled short. Fresh grass by the handfuls is always a treat and the crowd against each other and sometimes us in their haste to get to it first. Normally two of us go in the enclosure to give them their treat of grass. Windfall is quite the piggy and tends to steal Mounty's treats and grain if allowed.

I look forward to sharing more about our suri boys as we sally forth on this new venture!