More dying of course

This what I have been doing the last few days..............more dying. I want to make sock kits to sell at the markets so I now had to write up my pattern to put in the kits...not as easy as it sounds! I wrote up how I thought I knit socks then typed it into the computer and printed it out and then the big test.........knit a sock following my directions to see if I missed anything. Well typing the pattern in with all that knit two purl whatever, good grief, what a job! I was cross eyed and crazy by the time I had finished. Then I started on the test sock to find my mistakes, well it would go pretty good for a bit and then with my short attention span I would forget to follow the pattern and just be knitting away..........now did I follow what I had written down?? Who knows............I will really pay attention to the second sock, I did and I think I have the pattern down right so just have to go back and do changes on the pattern in the computer and I am away!!
We live on a hill and the wind almost blows us away, after having to replace the siding and roofing on the back of the house this spring plus the headache of water coming through the non-sided walls before Mr. Fix-it could get here we decided that we had to invest in a wind fence. Mr. Windfence man was so busy when we got in touch with him this spring that he said it would be Aug. before he could get here, we said put us on the list. He phoned and said he would be here last Friday but then phoned and said he could not make it and was coming Monday. Now all the rainfree days we have had this summer why would it decide to rain on Monday, he dug the holes and got the poles up but then had to give up as we could not have gotten the cement truck in without wreaking the yard. I really held out on the windfence thing because we have such a great view, o.k. I would rather not have to deal with the wind so I will just have to sacrifice interference with the view but the posts are just posts.....the color of them is just post color!! I think I thought they would be painted!! Now my work is cut out for me in doing something to disguise or camouflage these post colored posts, maybe I should have planned ahead and had him deliver the posts ahead of time and I could have sponged some color on them.........will have to think on this. He will be here tomorrow hopefully and get the wind netting put up, then we can put stuff on the deck and not have it blow away, what would be great is if I could put wet fibre out to dry and not have to go gather it up in the barnyard.
Well I am off to the garden and see what is going on down there. We battled with the gophers all spring to figure out ways to keep them out of the raised beds we had to resorted to if we wanted to grow anything and now I find them digging up the potatoes to eat so decided to change tactics...........maybe if I could find things that they thought were tastier and put them out and they could eat that and get their mind off the potatoes..........o.k. I had a few cobs of corn that I could sacrifice, so I took them down to the garden and so far it looks like it will work, took down a couple over ripe pears last night........so far so good. I had a friend phone the other day and he asked how the garden was coming so was telling him about the problem with the gophers and how I thought I had maybe solved it. He said that it was the first time he heard of someone negotiating with rodents..........I said what ever works.

Time is Flying by again!!

I can not believe that it is Friday already!! Where did the week go! This time last week we were trying to get things ready for the llama show at the fair and of course bake the thousand dollar saskatoon pie! Here is the pie.................does that not look like a prize winner? Somebody did not think so...........never even placed!! But the great news was out of eighty some pies the winner was a thirteen year old girl. But I did come away from the fair with these.I got first, second and third in the fleece class for my llama fleeces. I entered the fleeces in the fleece show at the up coming Llama Conference so had the person who is taking care of it take them with her and I was to send the info to her, there was a class for two oz. of llama fibre picked free of guard hair and trash that someone was going to spin one oz. and it would be judged with the one oz of unspun fibre and I was talked into entering it, as the deadline for getting it in was already over she said if I got it in fast I would make it so............I picked fibre all day Sunday, Sunday was such a overcast day it was hard to see so when I looked at the picked fibre Monday morning.......good grief.......it still had all this guard hair in it!! So I picked at it all day Monday. (do you ever question your sanity? I am sure I had brain damage from sniffing all that llama fibre) I also needed a picture of the animal the fibre belonged to, also needed pictures for the animals whose fleeces I was entering, I thought well that is no problem as I took good pictures of them when they were sheared. When I went to the computer to print the pictures out.............I COULD NOT FIND THE PICTURES!! After banging my head on the desk for a while I remembered (I guess banging one's head on the desk does produce results)that when I saved the pictures they came up on the computer screen as icons and I had put them in the trashcan and I had not emptied the trash!! So I dug them out!! Now to print them........what a mess, they would not print out properly...........so I accused the printer of having a hissy fit and I might have said a few bad words, so I decided to put the pictures on a disk and as the resident husband was going into town he would get them printed at a one hour thing. o.k. he came back home with the pictures...........do these people not look at the pictures they print!! One one picture they cut the ears right off the llama!! Well I just had to walk away for a while. After supper when resident husband and resident dog went to bed I had a look at the pictures again trying to decide what to do because this stuff should have been mailed yesterday. I decided maybe I was too harsh on the printer, I would give her another chance at redeeming herself, so I would give one last try on getting her to print a picture..........she did it, the picture printed...........I used the regular color cartridge and not the photo color one........photo color color cartridge must be toast. So after I apologized profusely to the printer I got everything packed up to mail the next morning but not (I hate to admit this) before I had entered three more things....completed garments made out of llama fibre that are not made yet. I have to blame it on the brain damage I suffered from all the fibre sniffing and it being after midnight. Somedays I wish they would lock me up and throw away the key!! Wish me luck. I better get on with my day.

Where have the days gone?

Time seems to be going so fast, do not know where the days have gone. As we are the directors of the llama show at the Millarville fair we are trying to get everything organized, just finished getting the program for the show all typed into the computer and printed out a copy to take to the printers. Did you hear the big yahoo. Also got all the pictures from last year into the photo album, I like to organize them by winners in class and was hard this year as I was not at the show last year, I with Grandson Brendan looked after the market table, this year we won't do the table on that day so I can be at the show. We are having our first fleece show so that should be interesting. The only entrys I put in this year were three fleeces in the fleece show and of course the saskatoon pie, I got second last year so I have to enter this year...right? First prize was five hundred dollars last year and this year because it is the fairs hundredth year first prize is a thousand dollars.When I was filling out my entry form I was tempted to entry more things, thought about it and then gave myself a good smack.............been there............done that.
Just ran down to the garden and apologized to the vegetables for neglecting them, gave them a little drink and promised to go down and do a better job tomorrow, look like the peas and beans need picking again and there are a few more ripe strawberries needed to be picked too.
But I did have time to knit up a pair of socks out of one of the skeins I dyed, will try to put a picture in. Also spun up some alpaca/kid mohair/merino wool/ roving, did it quite fine as I want to weave some scarves with it, was a lot of spinning and plying but got it done.........600yds. No wonder it seemed I was spinning forever. Had a bit left on the bobbin so am spinning some more, it is a light tan color so will maybe try dyeing some. Well am off to do a bit of spinning before bed.

Pictures of dyed Yarn

I did it!! I have been trying to move some pictures into the blog, finally sent an S.O.S. to Brendan (grandson#2) and he gave me instructions..........and I even wrote them down.....still could not move the pictures, was just going to send him another S.O.S. to ask for instructions that even the dog could follow when I figured it out.............at least I thought I had figured it out.......still did not work...........then found the problem............I had not checked the little box that said I accepted the terms for posting pictures.............so did that. So the pictures are just plopped in, next thing is to figure out how to move them around. It takes me a long time but I finally get there. Thanks Brendan...........will pay you in home baked cookies.
Was cooler yesterday so decided to bake bread and then I would go down to the garden to pick the peas today...............I should have picked the peas yesterday and baked the bread today. Was only eight above this morning, I almost froze. This morning I got my llama fleeces ready to go for the fibre show at the fair, we had to have them to the drop off by the tenth, then this afternoon I put on my winter coat, woolhat and gloves and went down the garden. So picked the peas and got them shelled. They say rain for tomorrow, we will see. I'm off to do a bit of spinning before bed.

Here I go.....My first Blog

I have been reading and enjoying spinning and knitting blogs for ages always wanting to try my own blog, so here I go not really knowing what I am doing. I own llamas and goats and always seem to be knee deep in bags of fleece but always wanting more...........more..........more. My daughter judged a fleece show a bit ago and I was helping her................not a good thing..........all I could say was do you think they would sell this fleece and wishing I had brought my spinning wheel so I could have spun samples, even if I would have brought my drop spindle.............have to think of that next time.
We finally got all our llamas sheared this year so my time has been spent sorting fleeces, washing fleeces and trying to get some spun up. I bought some alpaca fleeces and had them processed at the local mill so have been also spinning some of that, I had some of the the alpaca mixed with some of the mohair off my goats into sock yarn so have been knitting socks. Then because I can not spin fast enough I bought some wool skeins as I love doing rainbow dying, have got three dye pots done so far...........love it.............love it....you never know what colors you are going to get!! Also tried some yarn painting but find it is very time consuming (probably because I really do not know what I am doing???) but will keep trying, right now I am painting the skeins for a friend who is knitting mittens. She says the colors are turning out great so have to get in and see them. Next on my list is painting some roving!! I love spinning roving dyed in rainbow colors.I have to get busy creating as the falls sales are coming up fast!! Where did the summer go?? I almost had a panic attack the day I went to town and noticed people were putting hay up.............that means fall is just around the corner.
Well am off to get at my day..........hmmm....would I have time to sneek another dyepot of wool in today?? We will see.