ALpaca routine

With the long shadows created by the early morning sun, they like to gather in this corner of the pasture first thing in the morning. The little ones can often be seen resting together with an adult. It seems that Cassa Blanca is most often that adult, would that make her the daycare provider of the group? She's almost always the one that watches over the resting crias.

(Cassa Blanca is the large white girl on the right.)

Hubby has a routine with the alpacas and they know it well now. They spend the night in the pasture where the barn is but in the daytime, we like for them to use another pasture to graze in. They seem to prefer the first pasture maybe because it's the one they know best maybe. So how do you lead a herd to a different spot? With food of course.

Every morning, hubby gets the pellets from the barn, and walks out to the second pasture with it. Feeders are installed along the fence just for that purpose.

They let him lead the way and follow closely behind.

While the adults were busy eating their pellets, the crias were willing to pose for me.

The boys: Tenelly and Fernando just behind.

Don't let Tenelly's sweet look fool you, he's quite the little sh*t disturber. He loves to take a run and 'bump' into the adults. Seems to be a favorite game of his...we could say Like father, like son!!!

Fernando has grown lots and caught up with the others.

And there is also our little girl, Carmella.

With this morning's sun, it was the perfect time for a great face picture. With her dark skin and fiber, she's very difficult to photograph. But today gave me the perfect lighting!

Still wet from the morning dew, her brown fleece will be cherished next harvest time!

Now, this next part will surely make you laugh, just because of the pictures if not because of what we did.

Lily came home today from a visit with her boyfriend on another farm. Now how do you transport an alpaca when you don't own a trailer to do so?

Some people use a van but we don't have one of those either.

No problemo!

A Honda CRV does the job!

It was a short 15 minute drive.

Lily needed a bit of coaxing to get in and she did not lie down right away but eventually she settled and enjoyed the view. (At least we think she did.)

 She came and poked me and hubby in the head a couple of time.

Are we there yet?

What do you mean we have another 5 minutes!

Lily is now in the pasture, we are happy to have her back with us!

Alpaca knitting

Oh boy, still no picture of my Cameo shawl and Vitamin D sweater...golly, maybe I just need to hang them on a hanger and take the camera out! Keep it simple.
But I've been happily knitting when I have time here and there.
I've combined soft 100% white alpaca yarn with some of my handspun yarns to create colourful hats. I had blogged about spinning the yarn here.
I was so excited when I started knitting with this stripping handspun and saw that I could knit three rows and the colours worked just right. It's great when things just work out this way.
This hat is a size Large, it would fit an adult. (Obviously, the styrofoam head I have it on is rather small.) I still have to add the ties to finish it off.

I've been knitting a few of these hats to add to my table at the Farmer's Market.

This one is still wet and needs ties too.

Each one is different thanks to the self stripping handspun yarn.

I've also knitted some fingerless mittens in with Ginger's alpaca fleece. This yarn is blended with mohair. It's so soft, I might call these mine! More for the shop.

I must have frogged them three times before I was happy with the design of the pattern.

I love how they fit, especially at the wrist.

They still need a light blocking, especially the picot edge.

And there's been a tiny bit of dyeing. I took the pots outside and got things brewing.

Here are a few merino tops drying on the clothesline.

They will be added to the Etsy shop this week.

Tomorrow, the pups get their first visit to the vet!

That's always a major undertaking now that it's only hubby and I.

Two more weeks, and they will start leaving us to join their new families...

As much work as it is to care for a litter of Goldens, it's always bitter sweet to see them go.

One of them just might be staying with us...I'll let you know when we decide.)

I'm back to the market on saturday, stop and say hello!

Weekend plans

I'll be at the North Bay Farmers' Market this saturday from 8am to 1pm. The yarns, rovings, soaps are ready to be loaded in the car as are the tables, canopy etc. There are so many wonderful things happening at the market with a variety of vendors and products.

If you are in the area, come over and say hi!

The kids have been asking for a wing night, so we will get together and fire up the fryer and eat our fill on saturday!

I'm behind in showing you my FOs. My goal this week is to take pictures (or have them taken by hubby) of my Vitamin D and my Cameo. Both are done and have been worn lots!

Yesterday, I finished the cuff on my toe-up socks. Plain socks for mindless knitting when I'm waiting in the doctor's office or when travelling in the car.

And I leave you with a picture of two pups from our current litter. At 4 weeks, they are so adorable and ready to explore the world. Only a few pups still available.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Day of rest

The Tour de France is on a day of rest today and so are the spinners that joined the Tour de fleece.
I've spun every day so far and even a little bit today.

I spent most of the day with my 2 year old grand daughter. She is such a bubbly, talkative child. We are quite busy when she's around.
She has very often seen me spin at my spinning wheel. She understand that the wheel is mine and only mine. She's been very good at respecting that. I see her walk up to the wheel and closely look at the fiber.
These past few days, I've enjoyed spinning outside and taking advantage of a light breeze.
When we were downstairs, O asked me to bring her wooden rocking horse back upstairs and outside on the deck. So that's what I did. I then watched her set her little chair behind the horse, put a small ball of yarn between the horse's legs. She then sat on the chair, put her feet on the horse's rockers and proceeded to push on the rockers with her feet.
I couldn't quite figure out what she was doing so I asked her. She replied: ''I'm making alpaca yarn.'' I then realized she was 'spinning' too!

She certainly made my heart sing with those words!

Wilting in the heat

Even Mia found this heat to be too much today. She watched me ply my singles and wondered how many times would I stop to go take a dip in the pool to cool off.

She's such a good companion, always following me around the house.

My SW Merino got done this morning.

This is what I need to ply, 6 bobbins of singles.  I decided to do a 2 ply yarn. If I was to do a 3 ply yarn, it would end up being too thick, almost a worsted weight yarn. So 2 ply it will be.

Here is the first one.

And the blue mohair is all done too but still drying.

Stay cool!

Day 4

Here we are at Day 4 of TdF....still going strong! (So much fun to have an excuse to spin this much!!) But tomorrow, I'll be out of the house most of the day so minimal spinning most likely.

I completed the merino top started yesterday...turns out it has a lot more green than I thought. I started with a superwash merino today. It's just so easy to spin this stuff...almost too slippery. I hated dyeing it for that reason but to spin...F.U.N.!

I saw another shawl on Araignee's blog that would be really nice for handspun. The stripes are on the vertical. I might prefer this pattern...not sure yet.

TdF Day 3 and The three amigos

Day 3 of TdF:

Up bright and early this morning, with only the cat and dogs to keep me company. The sun is bright and very warm, what a great day to be alive!!!

More spinning. I completed the blue mohair but decided not to ply it today since I need to change to my Plying head to do so. I am instead starting with a merino top I hand dyed and could not let go to my shop.

These are the tops that I would like to use in the shawl I will knit myself. I started on the greenish-yellow and blue on the back right corner.

I have about half of it done now. I'll surely be spinning a bit more today.

It's so nice to be spinning again. But I must pace myself or I won't be able to spin for the duration of the Tour de Fleece / Tour de France!

On the farm front:

The three crias are inseparable. Playing, sleeping and resting together is the norm.

(Tenelly, Carmella and Fernando)
There are bunnies everywhere this year. I don't have a garden so they are just great fun to have around. 

And my alpaca yarn is now here!!!

It's almost ready to label and sell.
Here is Makushla's contribution.

And Aurelia's contribution.

And Ginger's contribution

As for Alicia's contribution, I had that done in roving. More on that another time.

Son was here for a wonderful breakfast first thing this morning. Dear hubby is taking me out for dinner, then cake at daughter's house. I can't ask more anything more on my B-day!

Tour de Fleece

Day 1:

Well Day 1 of the Tour de Fleece (TdF) went by without me...I did not get to my wheel on Saturday.

After a morning at the market with my alpaca products and soaps, hubby and I had a wonderful dinner at our dear friends cottage near Temagami. We came home late and my bed was calling me!

Day 2:

Great start. I have a wonderful box of mohair fleece from Wellington Fibre farm in a shade of blue. I already had about 50g spun and this morning I was able to spin about 160 g.

I have about 40g left to spin tomorrow and I hope to be able to ply it on Day 3 or 4.

My intention is to spin different blue fleeces during the TdF and combine all of them in a shawl such as this, or this.

Canada is 145 years old today!

I consider myself very fortunate to live here.

Long life to you Canada!

and tomorrow...my B day!

My muskoka chair

In our area, a very casual, comfortable outdoor wooden chair is known as the muskoka chair. It has wide armrests to place your cup of coffee (or better yet, a cold glass of beer). Low to the ground with a reclining back, you cannot help but to relax when you sit in it. I know that it's also known as the Adirondack chair in New York state. Whatever the name, it's the best way to enjoy the summer!
Muskoka is a very well known cottage-country area in northern Ontario, just two hours north of Toronto. Ordinary people, like you and me, have had family cottages for many generations on the 1600 lakes in the area. It's also well known that Shania Twain, Cindy Crawford and Goldie Hawn (to name a few) also have cottages in the Muskokas.

This chair is perfect for knitting and I've been knitting like crazy. Once again, the socks were put aside for something colourful, in my favorite colours...green and blue

I could not knit fast enough to get to the striped portion of this project.

And there's a picot edge on one side.

The shawl is Cameo by Paulina Popiolek. Even though I intended on joining the knitting frenzy and casting on for my own Color Affection shawl, I just could not decide on three colours to do it. But it was so easy to choose two colours to make the Cameo!
The yarn is my own hand dyed superwash merino/nylon blend.

And this is why I love blue and green so much...it's all around me!

What is your favorite colour combo?

Early morning birth

The window in our bedroom is low enough that we can see out to the pastures when lying in bed. I love looking outside as I wake up. Doesn't matter what season it is, the scenery is always beautiful.  This morning, I got up at about 6am and I could see one white alpaca was out of the barn. She was by herself. 

We realized that it was Alicia and that she was giving birth. About 10 minutes later, a white cria was on the ground.

We felt very lucky to witness this. What a great way to start your day!

We watched from the window as this newborn struggled to get up on his feet.

The herd quickly gathered to congratulate the mom and admire the little one.

Fernando came over to get a closer look and greet his new playmate.

A little white male, 17.4 lbs. 

I love the little pink nose.

He must take after his mom, I find Alicia very pretty.

We have not yet come up with a name for him.

(little dance of joy for more white fleece for me.)

On to a knitting update...

I went to my LYS the other day and had a look around...should have known this would be too tempting. But the damage is not too bad!

When I saw the colour combination of this skein, I knew I had to have it!

I certainly don't need more sock yarn but I just could not resist it.

Fleece Artist from Nova Scotia have the most beautiful colourways! 

Now I can't wait to complete the pair of super plain socks I'm currently working on...almost there.

I'll tell you all about this new short row heel I found on YouTube when I'm done knitting them.

Till then, stay cool. Certain parts of Ontario are being hit by a heat wave.