Hats!! Hats and more hats!!

We still have snow all over the ground, first it rained and then it snowed, thank-goodness it was not that cold but the roof and the siding of the house was coated with ice and snow and when it warmed up it slid off. What a racket!! It took me a while to figure out what was going on....I kept jumping and the cats kept running and hiding. Now tomorrow they say it is supposed to start warming up and we have wind warnings. I see already the mice have started digging in the front flowerbed all around my bulbs!! What to do?? I have to figure something out or I will not have any plants left, these are not ordinary small mice these are monster mice, we have put out those live mouse traps but they are too large to get into them.
But I can not worry about the mice at the moment, have to knit...knit...knit for the upcoming Christmas market next weekend. Am stuck on hats at the moment. had dyed up some knitted tubes or what they call sock blanks and knit four hats, they are all bright and sunny looking, then decided I would knit a childs hat with earflaps that you felt after you have knit it....good grief!! Look how big it was but o.k. I was following the pattern for once and it should turn out o.k. but was worried as it really looked too wide and I know it shrinks a lot more up and down than it does around. So in the washer it went hot wash cold rinse twice and it did shrink up and down o.k. but was way too wide around like I suspected and it no way fit a child, it is too big, will fit an adult. I think I should have spaced the stitches between the earflaps different, they have the same amount of stitches in the front as the back and it would fit better with less stitches in the back. Here I thought going with a pattern would be so much faster. Will have to think what to do with it...could I do something to ease the extra fullness in the back or should I turn it upside down and stick a flowerpot in it....hmmm...better sleep on it. Will try another one tomorrow and use smaller needles.

Never enough time in a day...or a week!!

Trying to remember where I was last post, time just keeps getting away from me and it does not help that RH volunteered to be President of Llama Canada after we discussed he was not going to be!! So he is on the computer whenever he can, returning e-mails..skype calls etc. I said to him that I was going to order myself a laptop...he said good idea...then he could take it with him when he goes to the conference...I said EXCUSE ME it will be MINE, why in the hell did he think I was getting my own computer!! Things are being accidentally erased etc. etc. He is not that great on the computer and I seem to be always rescuing him.
I think I was knitting on the scarf that was a cream color llama yarn and had spun the silk to knit with it to perk it up...well it was not working so ripped it out. The llama skein was spun so loose at the mill that it just had no life to it so I replyed it and set it and I think it is going to look better. had to set it aside to get my stuff ready for the guild sale last Sat. Finished another llama scarf in a natural brown color and then got the dye pots out and got twenty skeins of Merino wool dyed up and a few of the knitted tubes that you unravel to knit something from. Took my stuff in Friday night as they were setting things up, was such a beautiful balmy calm evening that you hated to go inside. Then it was up early Sat. morning to get in to the sale, it takes me over an hour to get there from where I live here in the hills. Well when I got up it was windy and some snow was coming down and I thought as the weatherman had said we would just get a few showers on the weekend we were probably just having our own weather thing like we usually do and away I went, the snow had stopped when I got down to town so that was good and I decided to take the back roads instead of the highway.....well!! all of a sudden I was in a snowstorm, heavy wet snow!! but I was not turning back, I was going to be at the sale and kept going, glad I was on the back road and not the highway with slush flying all over, got to the highway down into B.D. and then onto the back road to the hall where the sale was thinking all the time, everyone went to so much work and there will not be anyone at the sale, well I could not believe my eyes when I drove up....I could not even park near the hall as there were so many cars there all ready!! They do not open the doors until ten but had all these people standing out in the snow at nine-thirty so they let them in, when I got in the hall it was wall to wall people. I sat and knit and talked..and then talked some more, this last year I have not been able to get to any of the meetings so it was so great to see old friends and meet some new ones. By the time it was ready to pack up and leave for home the snow had stopped and the roads were clear again. we had a couple of days of dry weather and I did manage to get a couple pictures of the baby llama...I think I am going to call her Blossom, at first she did not want her picture taken, was not co-operating at all, I took a few pictures and then the camera said the memory card was full!! I was so upset!! It was if she knew as there she was standing cute as could be. When I downloaded the pictures I found that a couple I had taken were not too bad. Now have to get busy on items for the Christmas sale in a week and a half, have been knitting off a couple of tubes I had dyed and made four hats so far, forgot to take pictures, will do that tomorrow. Last night we had another storm blow in and the ground is covered with snow again, thank-goodness it is not that cold, I am still hoping for a stretch of Indian summer...do you think there is a chance?? I can always hope....right??

Snow and More Snow!!

The snow has never left and I am tired of winter already!!! Mr weatherman says it is supposed to warm up and the snow disappear and I sure hope he is right. We have not had anymore llama babies, either they are not preg. and are just fat and grumpy or are waiting until warm weather. Got a picture of the little baby alpaca down in the field with her Mom, snow does not seem to bother her at all, she races around the field having a great time. The little white llama races around too but could not find her in the field as she blends in with the snow. I brought my Mum plant in as it was full of buds and it is living under my light I use when I am knitting and the buds are starting to open up, it was a plant my husband brought home for me in April not noticing that all the flowers were bent over and dying (he does not notice these things) so I trimmed it up and put it outside when the weather warmed up, what a surprise for it to flower, hopefully all the buds will bloom.
We had our Thanksgiving on Sunday and all the kids and Grandsons were out for dinner, only one missing was youngest son who works and lives in northern Alberta, he will be home this weekend for a visit.
Guild sale coming up so have been spinning and knitting, started the scarf with the silk I spun knit with the llama yarn, really is not knitting up like I thought it would but am not going to rip it back, it is the one row scarf pattern and I remember thinking the same thing when I knit the red scarf and when I finished it and blocked it, it turned out great. The llama yarn was some a friend had spun at a mill and it does not have much twist in it, I should have put it through the spinning wheel and put a bit more twist in it. I find the mills often do not put enough twist in llama yarn. Have been cleaning and carding more of the llama like I spun for the conference so I have enough to make a scarf, have a bit more to clean and card and then can get it spun up. Am going to run out of time as I also wanted to card some of the llama and alpaca fibre I had washed and dehaired at the mill this spring and better get the dye pots going. Never enough time and this snow does not help...had to take some time out to be depressed.....need some sun to get motivated.....right??

This is unbelievable!!

This picture says it all, look at my poor rose!! Thank-goodness we got all the vegetables out of the garden when we did, and the forecast for this week is not good either although some of the snow melted as the sun came out for a bit but now the wind has been blowing like crazy and I do not know whether it was rain or snow hitting the windows. Just took the dog out and it must have been rain as I do not see any new snow, who knows by morning what we will have. please let us get some warmer weather before winter really sets in as there still is yard work to get done. We also had a baby llama born just before the snow and the rest of the girls are still waiting, probably for better weather....I hope. Got a picture of the new baby in the barn this afternoon, and by the look of her ears and her curly fibre her father just might be the Suri Alpaca boy...hmmmmm I see we will have to have her blood typed to make sure...forgot to say it was another girl!! Am really hoping for all girls this year. The little alpaca baby is running races with her mother these days, does not take them long to get going. Have to think of some names pretty soon. Got the cold room all sorted out so I have room for the potatoes but did not get them brought in...ran out of day as usual. I got the silk I spun plied and steamed and it turned out great, so hopefully it works with the llama/bamboo yarn for the knitted scarf. Well am off to bed and hope I do not wake up to more snow in the morning!!

Doing a bit of everything!!

What have I been busy with?? Have to think and try to catch up with myself. I had entered five things in the conference fibre show but only got four finished, the skein of handspun llama yarn was still damp as I tossed it into the bag as RH went out the door. Spent the weekend feeding and hugging my goats and watching for llama babies. Could not believe it when I got a first on all four items I entered, I did them in such a rush. I had also entered a couple of fleeces that had also been at two other shows, had not had much time to clean them up for the first shows so tossed them out on the sorting table and resorted them (could not believe what a terrible job I had done before) plus I brought back three fleeces from a friend to enter and resorted them too, they were from animals we had sold them. They got first and second and I got a third for one of mine, I lost points as this year they made a new rule about weight of a fleece and I had only put half of a fleece in because I did not have time to clean the whole thing up, never enough time!!
This llama baby watch thing is making me crazy as they are all overdue now, one llama had a still born baby, do not know what happened. Then old mummy alpaca had her baby, now I don't think she has ever had anything but boys but this year she gave us a little dark brown girl, got a picture of her but the wind was blowing so hard that day she could not even hold her ears up, she is so cute.
Got all the potatoes dug and at the moment they are spread out on the garage floor, job for today is to get them bagged and into the cold room. I took the carrots and beets out of the garden and have the carrots all washed up and bagged and in the fridge, that took a whole day as there must be forty pounds of them, now just have to get the beets made into pickles. RH brought home a case of plums from the market this weekend so have them pitted and in the freezer waiting for jam making day. Fall sales are coming up so in spare moments am knitting and spinning, was going to make a scarf out of a skein of llama/bamboo in a cream color but it just looked so blah, I had a small pkg of silk in fall colors so have spun that up and just plyed it and will knit that in with the cream color skein and that will brighten it up....I hope...anyway that is the plan. Well am off to get at the day, first thing on the list is getting the potatoes into the cold room...but where am I going to put the fleece that is stored in there.........