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!

Spinning Romney and Walnut Dye.

Happy Autumn my friends! It is hard to believe that October is almost over! Only one day left. This month has flown by. I have not accomplished quite as much in the fiber arts as I was hoping to this last month as we have been busy preparing for winter. The garden is cleared of produce though we still need to pull out plants and burn them. We also started on a new venture that has taken up quite a bit of time, I'll be sharing that in my next post! We had a beautiful week and a half of Indian Summer weather this October. It was amazing to have such warm weather for so long in October, we spent as much time outside as possible! I was picked up my Romney again and started working on it during our Indian summer. I finished carding all the Romney locks and now have a bag stuffed full of rolags. I also started spinning up the rolags into this yarn. This is a project that I am taking my own sweet time on as it is for me and doesn't need to be done at any particular time.

I still am completely happy with my purchase of this Romney! It was a joy to card up the locks and such a pleasure to spin as well! 
The other big project I have going right now is walnut dye. My brother and I saw a bunch of walnuts scattered along the side of the road and stopped to ask permission to pick them up. The gentlemen said to take all we wanted so we picked two grocery bags of ripe, green walnuts.

I let them sit over the weekend as I was busy and a few of them ended up going bad. I was following the instructions for walnut dyeing in the Spin Off Summer 2011 issue. I wore old clothes and gloves as I did NOT want brown hands for several weeks. I used an extra paving stone and hammer to pound off the husk.

All the good husks I tossed into one of our big metal tubs. The few bad pieces I had I tossed into the fire pit to be burnt.

And the nuts went into a basket to dry and later be cracked!

Despite the fact that I wore gloves, a little bit of walnut juice somehow managed to leak into the glove and my finger was slightly brown for days! I ended up putting some slim plastic gloves under the heavy gloves to protect my hands. 

I put just enough water in the tub to cover them. The next step is to let them soak for a week to a week and a half. We ended up going on a short family Holiday so my walnut dye will have been soaking for two weeks come tomorrow. I have three more grocery bags of walnuts to prep tomorrow. My Dad found a place where we can get as many as we need, and can come back next year too! Such a blessing as we have had a hard time finding somewhere to get decent walnuts. The walnuts that my Dad brought me look amazing! They are huge, and almost flawless, they look like pears! I'll probably end up soaking them for two weeks as well because I want my dye to all be of the same strength. Though I suppose if I mix it all together in one big batch it won't make any difference. My end goal is to dye up enough of the alpaca fiber that I was given this summer to make myself a sweater. I'm hoping to make the sweater this winter, but that might not happen as I'll have to spin all the fiber up still! Right now I'm just trying to get the dye made up while the walnuts are fresh and available, and the fiber dyed. Maybe after all my Christmas presents are done and set aside I can focus on making some sweaters!

After The Rain

A few weeks ago, when our grass was still green and the leaves had not yet started changing, we had a fierce thunderstorm with lots of rain. When it quit I was able to take some lovely after-the-storm photos.

At one point the double rainbow was arched all the way across the sky, it was stunning!

It was a gorgeous evening, with such interesting clouds and lighting! Everything was bathed in a mellow, golden light.

Just A Bit Of Birthday Sewing

This past week my sister and I puled out the scraps and did a little bit of birthday sewing for a friend. At first we were contemplate a small quilted table scarf but then we hit upon the idea of these coasters. Everyone needs and uses coasters, right? Of course! It was the perfect idea. We brainstormed colours, then patterns. We decided upon Courthouse Steps, Log Cabin, Vertical Stripes, and  Crazy Quilt block.
Once colours and patterns were decided we set to work cutting, tracing, and sewing.
The coasters went fast, and were fun little projects to make up.

Court House Steps Coaster

Now I RARELY machine quilt anything, (in fact I believe in all my years sewing I have only ever machine quilted one thing and that was my quilted knitting bag) but we decided to quilt the coaster as they will be seeing a lot of use and also tossed in the washer quite a bit. Machine quilting will give them more durability and they should hold together for years to come. 

Log Cabin Coaster

Crazy Coaster

The Crazy Coaster was my personal favourite. I just love how the colours, shapes and quilting came together for such an interesting textured look.

Diagonal Stripes Coaster

We made them approximately 4 1/2 inches square. Not too big, but just perfect for holding a large mug of cocoa! 

WIP: Pavo Sock & Church Mittens

 I've been working on finishing up an old project, and also starting a new, but long planned project. The old WIP is my Pavo socks. I just finished turning the heel this evening and only have a short cuff to do and then I can bind off. I'm so excited to have these socks done so that I can start wearing them! With the coming of autumns chilly days I'm really wishing I had more hand knit socks!

 The new project is my Church Mittens. I'm using the pattern "Winter Sky Slip Stitch Mittens" from the Spin Off magazine, Summer 2009. Back around February or so I decided to spin up this lovely Polworth/angora roving into the Main colour for my mittens. The green-blue roving is Corriedale wool that I hand-painted last summer. This is the secondary colour in my mittens.

I had four ounces of my Polworth. I purchased this last fall and as winter is fast approaching I decided I had better get on the ball and finish the spinning so I could start the knitting. I spun up two ounces last week on my  drop spindle, and I spun the other two ounces yesterday afternoon. It is a worsted weight so spun up and plied very quickly. It dried over night and this morning it was ready to go.

 I did start the mittens last night. This is how far I am as of this evening. So far I have done the Set-up rounds, Cuff, Ribbing, and Hand. Now I am too the thumbhole. It is a quick knit, very easy I think and the slip-stitch colour work is quite interesting. I'm enjoying knitting the mittens, not only because I like the pattern, but also because I love knitting with my own handspun yarn!

These mittens will be perfect for those freezing Sunday mornings when my hands go numb walking from the house to the car. I was planning on them being only for church, but I can see that is not going to be the case. They are working up so warm that I  am sure I will be wearing them practically everywhere I go this winter! The angora was causing the roving to felt slightly so I anticipate my mitts will meld together a little bit and make them all the warmer.
Ah, happy sigh!
 I should go my friends. It is suppertime and there is a delightful smell of chicken soup coming from the kitchen. Have a lovely evening!

Finished Object : Chocolate Mint Helix!!!

I completed my Chocolate Mint Helix scarf today! I love the way it looks, the drape,the fit, the warmth..... it is wonderful! Just perfect for those chilly autumn days when there is a cold drizzle and the wind wants to blow down my coat collar. It will be wonderful in the winter as well. Sunday mornings are frigid on our windswept hill. I did take my time knitting it. But I finally decided to just finish it up today, for a few reasons: 
 #1. It's taking me way to long to complete such a simple project.
 #2. It's getting cold and I wanted to wear it.
 #3. I needed the needles for another project. 
All very good reasons to finish it up I though.The Helix scarf is a very easy knit, simply inserting short row wedges along the sides. This was the perfect on-the-go knit as the pattern is so easily memorized and it is a small project so is easy to carry along in one's purse.
The yarn is my own handspun, I spun it on one of my top whorl drop spindles. It was a merino roving that I purchased this summer already dyed up in this colorway. I'm pleased with the yarn and the finished results of the Helix. I'll definitely be starting another one in the near future. As soon as I have some more spare fingering yarn that is! 

Autumn In The Country