Almost Finished knitting Orders!!

Well have finished all the knitting orders I had to have done in time for Christmas, have two pair of socks to knit and would like to have them finished too but no panic over them, almost have one pair finished and they should have been finished but my right wrist is giving me grief, can not use it today and can not find my brace, it has been at least ten years since I needed it so who knows where it is, so knitting is on hold for a bit. Did some carding of alpaca fibre adding some merino silk to it

And got some soft fluff, which I spun into yarn

And then knit into a pair of fingerless mitts

which completed the order for fingerless mitts

Also had a last minute order for a pair of slipper socks with a leather heel sewn on for an elderly fellow for his wife, he has been a good customer, he loves my socks so got them knit up and off to him. Forgot to get a picture before they left the house. Now to some house cleaning, it gets scary when the dust bunnies are big enough you mistake them for a cat, have had to corral them with the dust mop until I had time to get at vacuuming. Have to get the baking done for the kids and grandsons goody bags, also have to make some plum jam for them, put the plums in the deepfreeze this summer, now to get the jam made up. Sister Jean has been baking up a storm and gave us some of her baking for Christmas which is the best gift ever, have hidden it away from the other person in the house, keep telling him it is a Christmas gift so he can not have it until Christmas Day. Still have not sent my Christmas cards or even written my Christmas letter but then people are used to getting it late, they would be too shocked to get them early, has never happened. We have really had winter here, cold...cold...everything looks so white and clean out there, weatherman says it is supposed to warm up a bit starting tomorrow....hope he is right. Well off to vacuum and decide what to have for supper, had made up a big pot of soup but it is almost done.

Markets Done!! But Still Knitting!!

All our markets are over for this year although I am still finishing up orders, hopefully by the end of this week I will be finished them. Last market was not the greatest,  we were so crowded together in the area we were in it was hard to even move...even the customers. My allergies to dust and all the perfumed items almost did me in, Friday was bad as they were open until 9 pm as they had a Santa Parade and it was so cold out and having to drive home in a cold car.....not good!! I had finally decided on what decoration to put on my felt hats and managed to get flowers crochet and sewn on four of the hats, took them really not knowing if customers would be interested in them. Well the four sold right away and people wanted to buy the flowers I had made, of course I had not made any flowers for sale that were not on the hats. Sat. I took the other three hats and yarn to make the flowers and as fast as I made and sew the flowers on the hats they were sold. A person just never knows what will appeal to customers, for some reason the way the hats were made they pretty well suited everyone, people would say they did not look good in hats and then they would try them on and never want to take them off, I really liked the pink hat and thought I might keep it......well it was the first one to sell. Will have to make some more after Christmas.

So it is just knit...knit...knit  around here and my right wrist is swollen and sore which I am trying to ignore. I know I am knitting too fast but it is hard to slow down as I want to get everything finished and off to customers so I can get my baking and house cleaning done up and get organized for Christmas around here. Well off to bed, we have had nice sunny weather for the last few days but is to get colder tomorrow. Cats had been sleeping but right now are running around doing something.......good grief... they have pulled the stuffing out of their toy and it is all over the floor....now Grey Kitty is carrying around the stuffing-less toy talking to it like it was her baby. Better go clean things up and hope they also realize it is bedtime!!!

Knitting and Knitting and Knitting.................

Am late in posting, our market on the weekend was so successful I do not have many knitted items left so that is what I have been doing is knitting and then some more knitting. So far have a pair of socks and a pair and a half of fingerless mitts, hopefully will finish the other pair tomorrow. Have a Dr. appointment tomorrow but RH has to go into town too so he can drive and I will knit while he drives. Did not get the hats decorated to put on the table last week so will have them done for the coming market, the market this coming weekend is two days, thank-goodness I have enough yarn and fibre to cover the table. Friend and partner Gaby is also at home knitting up a storm, she knits the mitts for our tables and she sold many of them. Took a picture of our table while it was well stocked, Gaby is behind the  table.

Had dyed up a few pots of wool for the market and of course forgot to take pictures until I had everything packaged up ready to go. Took a picture of what I had left after the market, I dyed enough to cover the coming market thank-goodness. Should have dyed a couple more pots but this will have to do.   
    I have been working on a website and hopefully in the new year I can get the fibre page up, just have not had time lately, am really looking forward to January when things slow down a bit. Well my website such as it is is out there on the web but I have not advertised it as yet so it was a surprise when this lady came over and said she had been on my website and read my blog!! That was so super. They had the tables across from us, she had beautiful scarves on her table and her husband creates beautiful  pottery . Evaneseenee Gallery and Art Studio    I am getting him to make me a special pot...which I will share with you later.
     Well it is after midnight here and I think my eyes are saying it is bedtime!!  And so is my brain!!

Spinning and Dyeing and Admiring the Cactus!!

 Stayed up late last night and finished spinning and plying some more of the llama/merino/soy silk and here she is ready to be washed and hung to dry. Am having problems with my electric spinning wheel and suspect it could the fluctuation in the power with the cold weather, have not had a problem before so my spinning is not what it should be but it will look rustic and handspun....right. Is really hard to keep an even twist when it slows down and then speeds up. It is warming up right now so hopefully will not have to worry about it, should really do some spinning when it is warmer and see if that is the problem........hmmm....while I am writing this another thought has come to mind....could it be the electric cord I am using is too long.......all the cords were taken for use at the Christmas market a few weeks ago and do not know what happened to them so in desperation I brought  this really long cord in to plug the spinning wheel in....and it is really long. RH did buy a couple new short cords the other day so will try replacing the long one tomorrow, that might solve the problem.

Washed up some of the Alpaca sock yarn I had spun at the mill to get the spinning oil out of it, have to get that reskeined tomorrow . Am slowly...slowly...getting things ready for Sat. Although I really did not feel like it I managed to get some yarn dyed tonight, will try to get a few more skeins dyed tomorrow, did not help that the other person in the house wanted help with the computer when I was in the middle of it, I prefer not to have any humans in the house when I am dyeing, is enough to have the demands of the house animals, to them I can just say go! go!

I am so busy with all this market stuff I am missing the blooming of the Christmas cactus, the sun was out today so opened the blinds to give them some sun, the way they are blooming they will be finished by Christmas.

The white Christmas cactus is my Grandmother's, when she moved to the lodge it moved to my house, this plant has to be at least forty years old or older, can not remember when she got it, it is a very large plant.

Now this Cactus was gifted to me by my Son and Daughter-in-law because it was not happy at their house and it was always all pink...look at it...now it has some white blooms..and they are on the same branches as the pink blooms, it is like Grandmothers cactus is moving in on the other cactus.

Now this Cactus was my mother-in-laws and it came to me when she passed away, it looked like I was going to lose it, it was all wilted so I repotted it about a week ago and has it ever perked up, I don't think the soil was holding the water anymore...and look at it...it was all pink too... and now it has white blossoms on it. When I find a minute will have to read up on Christmas Cactus and see if I can find out why this is happening. The cactus are so beautiful but sooooo messy.  The temperature is getting warmer outside and with it the wind is coming up, now they are warning us of blowing snow, hope it does not get too bad as the feed truck is supposed to arrive and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel so need it bad. Well off to bed!! Tomorrow is another day!!

We are in a Deep Freeze!!

Knit a pair of fingerless mitts from the llama..merino..soy silk and almost have another mitt knit, have to get spinning so I have enough yarn, will wash and block this pair tomorrow. Washed up twenty skeins of yarn today and have them hanging drying. I like to wash the spinning oils out of the yarn I get spun at the mill, makes it so much nicer to knit with.

 Had knit and felted these hats a while ago but was not happy with the shape of them so put them in mesh bags and put them back through a short wash and rinse in the washer. Then tugged and stretched and finally got them into shape, they turned out pretty good, will let them dry and then crochet some flowers or something to decorate them, have seven of them.

Went through all my balls of yarn trying to find some colors that would go well with the hat colors, might try a few pin felted flowers, will see, I better get myself organized or am not going to get everything finished. Christmas market is this Saturday. Tomorrow really should get a couple of dye pots going, only have one skein left from the last market, can not leave it too late or they will not be dry in time. Do not think frozen yarn will sell too well. Right now the temperature is -30.8 and it is cold out there, thank-goodness no wind. Weatherman says it should warm up a bit by the end of the week and hope he is right. When it is this cold you do not want to go far, specially when you live up in the hills like we do, is a real trek to get down to where you have cell phone reception, not good if you have car trouble. Well off to bed, dog actually went out to do his business...mainly because he knows that is the only way he will get a biscuit.

Another Pair of Socks Finished and Yarn Ready to Go!!

Well here is how the llama yarn turned out, not plyed as tight as I like but after her ordeal she is looking not too bad, should make a pair or two of rustic looking fingerless mitts, when I was spinning this roving up I did not know whether I was going to like it but after I plyed it and set the twist I love it, it is sooo soft.......which is surprising after all it went through at my hands I tell you!! Each ply spun on different spinning wheels...then getting into a tangled mess when the bobbin on the spinning wheel fell apart......she is looking pretty good!

Finished another pair of socks last night and got little miss llama roving wound into a ball and although I could barely keep my eyes open (won't mention what time this was) I cast on and got started on the fingerless mitts, could not wait to see how she was going to knit up and am not disappointed, although I only have a few inches knit it is looking good. Have already started spinning some more of the llama/merino/soy silk roving and will see how it looks done properly....well I hope done properly...who knows...!!
    Well have a loaf of bread on the go in the bread maker, I enjoy making it by hand, you can start your day out right by taking any frustrations out on dough kneading but have decided to use my bread kneading time knitting. RH just informed me last night his wool gloves I knit him last year are toast and he needs a new pair...it never ends......better get a new pair started.....but want to knit on the fingerless mitts a bit first..then maybe I will cast on for the gloves.......It is -22 outside with a breeze so who knows what the chill factor is....the animals have not come out of the barns.....so is a good day to stay inside and knit!!

Poor Little Rosebud and the Spinning Mess!!

Here is what poor little rosebud looks like this morning, snow and blowing snow all night until noon today, drifts all over the place. finally the sky cleared and the sun came out for a bit but tonight it is -22.6. It just got too cold too fast.

  

Last night as I was spinning all of a sudden my electric spinning wheel just did not seem to have much power.....I thought maybe the power was low....hoping that was the problem and not the motor!! Off I went to make some supper and this morning I went down to see if I could see what the problem was, I had oiled the shaft but maybe that was the problem and I would oil it again.......while I was trying to take the bobbin off......there was my problem...the end had come off the bobbin!! O.K. breathing a sigh of relief that it was not the motor I took the bobbin off and started to wind the yarn onto a paper roll on my yarn winder.....and ended up with a real mess!! I finally had to cut the mess out and managed to get the rest of the yarn wound off the bobbin, RH came in from doing chores just as I was wishing I had a few more hands and lent a hand in getting things under control. Now I had a bobbin spun on my lendrum of this llama...merino...soy silk mixture and thought I would spin a bobbin on the electric spinner and then ply them together, hoping that it would ply up reasonally......now throw this messing about in the mix!! HopefullyI would end up with something I could use!!

                                                              Well got it plyed up and here is the result, did not look too bad after all this poor yarn had gone through. She has had her bath and is hanging on the shower rod drying. Tomorrow will tell the tale but I think it will turn out O.K.  I will make some fingerless mitts with it. Will spin some more of the roving tomorrow and hopefully get it to the plying stage without all the drama. Got the bobbin ends all glued on and hope they hold. Well the day is done and am off to bed.....tomorrow is another day!!

Well...winter has hit with a Bang!!

 We went from a nice warm day to instant winter in a few hours and the really bad part was it rained first. I took this picture just before dark yesterday and it has snowed all day today, so we have quite a bit of snow and also had some wild wind and power outage overnight. Temps also dropped so it has been cold, animals were out grazing yesterday but did not see anyone out today, they stayed in the barn and munched hay. RH had a dentist appointment in the city yesterday but canceled it thank-goodness. I just stayed tucked in the house knitting socks and spinning some yarn  for fingerless mitts hopefully will finish spinning and get get it plied, ready to start knitting tomorrow .                                                                                                                            

Since  I took the picture of these socks I have finished them and knit one more sock and started its mate, hope to have at least four pair knit for the first market. Can not believe it is Thursday tomorrow........week is going to be gone before I know it!! Well.......time to put the needles away and off to bed, weatherman just said snow ending tomorrow but it is staying cold..............not used to this!! Little Miss Rosebud was wrong about us skipping winter....she is sitting out there with a covering of snow......trying to be brave.......

Slowly making Progress!!

I bought this scratching thing for the cats, Was hoping Grey Kitty would use it instead of a post on the oak railing and it has worked...she has claimed it as you can see. It came with a pkg of catnip which she loves, if I forget to put a bit of catnip on it before I go to bed at night you should hear the howling. Now I thought both cats could use it but Sheba thinks it is beneath her to use it or even like the catnip and if Grey Kitty plays with the feather thing which has a bell on it, it annoys Sheba and she has to go smack Grey Kitty. They are just like human children.....

Finally have the sock order finished, all washed blocked and ready to go. Hopefully I can manage to get a few more pair knit in time for the next craft market, people have been complaining as I have no socks on my table......I am knitting as fast as I can!!  Have to get some more fleece sorted and off to the mill to get some more sock yarn spun up before I run out.  Quite nice out today so will try to get out to the garage and get some sorting fibre done. Took time to vacuum the house and repot one of the Christmas cactus that was looking pretty sad, don't think the soil in her pot was absorbing the water anymore, even though she looked like she was on her last legs she had flower buds coming out. I have four big plants and the other three are starting to bloom, can not get over how long a Christmas cactus lives, the one I got that was my Grandmothers must be thirty years old or more, the one that I inherited when my mother-in-law passed away has been around for ages. Keep thinking I should start some new plants off the old plants just incase but....do I really have room for more plants?? 

As soon as I finished the sock orders I started on the fingerless mitts order, think I have five pair to do....better check on that. I had spun up some black Alpaca fibre a bit ago from our boy Blackberry, it is so silky and shiny you would think it was silk. Is hard to get a good picture so you can see the sheen on it, don't know whether all black alpaca is so silky but we have three animals that have the black silky fibre. Had some spun up at the mill in the spring mixed with merino and bamboo............I think it was bamboo....and it turned out so nice, have not knit with it yet. As soon as I finish this pair I will knit some of it up. Have to also get some llama fibre carded up and spun to knit the rest of the fingerless mitts ordered, they are for the same lady that ordered five pair from me a couple months ago and took them with her when she went to New york and gave them as gifts.


I finally figured out how to separate my pictures with text......sort of...instead of having to just pile my pictures in at the beginning of the post, I finally noticed that they had updated blogger with all sorts of new options so I updated......and then had a bit of a panic attack on how to use everything.....will not know if it worked until I post...will I?? Have been trying to get a website up and running and talk about using every brain cell I own!! but I am determined to do it.  I keep telling myself that I am exercising my brain. Well off to knit a bit!! It has been great with no distractions the last few days, RH is off helping son Tom lay stone tile on some of his floors and it has kept him so busy he has not had time to even phone me.

Miss Rosebud is still hanging in there!!

Here is little Miss Rosebud looking so cute, will have to call her November Rose. Should I make her a little shelter when the cold weather arrives which they are saying is Monday, there is another little bud sitting beside her.
I knit and then felted some wool hats a bit ago but thought they needed some decoration on them, have been crocheting flowers to put on them but I think I need to get some finer yarn, trying to decide if these flowers are too large for the hats. I had bought some fancy buttons a while ago to use in the centers but now can not find them, I should have some multicolored silk roving tucked away some where, will maybe spin up a bit of that tomorrow and see how that works for flowers. I am trying to curb my imagination as I have been thinking of crocheting small butterflies.....maybe some little lady bug buttons....to put with the flowers.....think anyone would wear them?? a few of the hats are quite large so should toss them back in the washing machine to shrink them a bit more.
Tomorrow is the last day of the market, fingerless mitts are all sold and have one pair of socks left. Am almost finished the order for the five pair of socks and then have an order for five pair of fingerless mitts. Have two more Christmas markets before Christmas so will hopefully get something knit for them. Have a couple of neat items to knit after Christmas when it slows down a bit, am excited to start them!! Off to knit a bit on a sock and then off to bed............after I change all the clocks....better not forget to do that!!

Still Knitting.......with Help!!

Finished a couple more pair of wristwarmers and started on another pair of socks....is really hard with my knitting partner.....every time I knit a stitch I lift her with my arm. Hard on the shoulder. But am slowly making progress. Tomorrow R.H. will go get the tent set up and everything ready for Friday morning. Weather has been so nice the last few days, we are hoping the wind stays away, last year it was warm but the wind was so bad they could not set anything up on the Thursday, people that did get their tents up came back in the morning and everything had blown away so hoping it is not a rerun this year. Well have put down the knitting needles for the night and off to bed, up early tomorrow and reskein some yarn I washed and get everything tagged and packed to go

Does this mean we are skipping winter this year??

Well here I am again, just can not seem to get my blog updated regularly, could this be a senior problem or just too much going on. when I looked out the window the other day I noticed my rose bush who said good-bye, see you in the spring and popped out rose hips all of a sudden has a couple of rose buds, just read in the local paper that the crocus's have come out.....does this mean spring is on the way and we are not having winter this year, sounds good to me. Weather has been sunny and warm the last few days, still have a few flowers struggling along giving some color out there.
What have I been doing??.....knitting...what else, can not seem to get caught up, just had a lady phone ordering five more pair of alpaca socks and I have an order for at least five pair of wristwarmers before Christmas. The Christmas markets start this weekend and I do not have much to put on the tables as I sold all summer at the farmers markets, thank goodness friend Gabie and daughter M.J. will have items to fill the table. Better get a couple of dye pots going today so yarn will be dry enough for the market and get the carder going for some more roving. When I hear people complaining they are bored and have nothing to do am tempted to hand them some knitting needles and some yarn. Also have been trying to get a website up and going, always running into road blocks, next time I have a question on how to do something I will have to remind them to answer in language understandable by a senior citizen. This website is really using up brain cells fast I tell you, had a ahha moment a few minutes ago on a couple things I was having problems with and fixed it up, will get there eventually. Have to get some fibre pictures on this blog next time, keep forgetting to take pictures.

The Sun is out!!

After many days of rain and fog and yes even a day of snow we have had sun and the temps into the double digits. Thought I would run out and do a sun dance then quickly changed my mind....what if I stumble and accidentally do a rain dance.....Wonder if the weather would stay nice long enough to put some stain on the back deck. We have had such a long wet spring and summer if we can call it summer, maybe now we will get our summer. Usually I do not sell my knitted items and yarn at the market over the summer, I spend the time getting stock ready for the Christmas markets but this year RH decided maybe if he had some of my knitted items and yarn on his table it would draw more people.....well it did and I have sold all of my things I had knitted plus he is coming home with all these orders, so that is what I have been doing steady, knitting...knitting...and I have warned him not to say I will knit anymore gloves for anyone!! he came home and said that this man had lost a finger in an accident and could I make him a pair of gloves......so I made him the pair of gloves but.....RH came home and said the guy said he had asked for two pair of gloves at the time....so have been knitting the other pair and it is not going smoothly to say the least, it is black yarn and I am doing most of my knitting at night these days, thought I was going great and almost finished the other night but when I started the last finger.....not enough stitches....so put it down carefully (was tempted to take the scissors to it) and went to bed. Had a look at it in the morning and found the dropped stitches so rip...rip...now it is done except for working in the ends but I will tell the world...I am not even knitting another pair. Have not been able to keep up with the wristwarmers and do not mind knitting them. Finally spun up some of the llama roving I had processed at the mill, had it blended with merino wool and one batch has bamboo mixed with it and the other has soy silk, while I was spinning it I kept thinking that it did not feel that soft, am used to mixing merino and reg silk with my llama, but when I plyed it it turned out beautifully, have knit a pair of wristwarmers out of the llama-merino-soysilk and love them. Have to spin another bobbin and get it plyed and see how the llama-merino-bamboo turns out. Did not take any pictures as yet, think about it as I am working with the fibre but never get it done. Have an order for a small pair of lady's mitts...notice I am saying mitts and not gloves...out of alpaca and I have to spin the yarn first, then yesterday RH came home with an order for two pair of socks. How am I going to get anything knit for the Christmas markets, hopefully the girls I share a table with have been working hard this summer.
Well better get outside while the sun is out, I run on solar power and my batteries are almost dead, have to get the carrots and potatoes out of the ground as soon as it is dry enough. The frost we had did not do my sunflowers in so hope they can finish blooming, the little birds will love the seeds this winter. Love the little song birds, the baby bluebirds came up to play in the rock garden but then had a couple big hawks arrive and decide they were going to live on the back deck, screaming and flying around the house, scared off all the songbirds and poor Sheba, one of the resident housecats who only ventures out to the front flowerbed terrified to go out at all. Now after the snow and rain we had a few weeks ago have not seen them around and hopefully they have moved on.

Hot!! Hot Day!!

It was hot today, I think the hottest day this summer.....I think it is summer now...hard to tell as we have had more cool days then hot days, so went out and gave all the plants a drink and then we waited until we got enough shade on the north side of the garage so we could get the dog run up....yup finally have a proper dog run, after all these years of my complaining we have a dog run. RH phoned from the city the other day and said he found a dog run on sale...should he get it.....well....yes!! So that is what we did today with the resident dog supervising. Wonder if he realizes that it is for him.
Tried to fix the mistake in the fingerless mitts I was knitting but finally had to pull all out and start over....that is what I get for sleep knitting. Have a good three inches knit and so far so good, should be able to finish them tomorrow. Then the dye pots have got to come out as most of my dyed yarn sold at the market on Sat. Well off to bed, the thing I love about living up here in the hills is no matter how hot it is during the day it always cools down at night.

I am back...hopefully!!

Have to get back to blogging, where has the time gone and I can say that the snow has disappeared and things have been growing, slowly but getting there. We have a couple of warm days and then we are back to cool and rainy. so excited to see pods forming on the peas in the garden and had our first salad of fresh lettuce. Just love the colors of the lettuce....hate to pick it. Am so glad to have the raised beds as the weeds have just gone crazy with all the rain we have had, I think I should have a machete to whack a path to my garden every morning.
We have listed our place for sale so all we have been doing is finishing up everything around the house and yard and now it is clean...clean...just in case someone wants to come and look at it. I just finish vacuuming and the cats have a tussle and there go the fur balls rolling around. Have been having health issues, had a bad reaction to some medication which brought the arthritis out full force so I can barely get around some days so other then trying to keep the dust out of the house and the weeds out of the garden have not accomplished much in the fibre department, but have to get the dye pots out and get busy, RH has hooked up a stove in the garage so I can dye out there, it will be so great as the burners are farther apart then the burners on my cooktop in the house so I can put two of my big pots on at once. Am just on my way out to get my sorting table up and get some llama and alpaca fibre sorted. Got the fibre back from the mill, they spun the black alpaca into yarn but said the llama I sent was a bit too long for them to spin so sent it back in roving, have almost got one bobbin spun up of the roving, can not wait to get another bobbin spun and get it plyed. In knitting I have a few pair of slipper sox knit and have been busy knitting wrist warmers out of llama, was supposed to have another pair finished for RH to take to the market this morning but eyes and fingers gave out last night, noticed a mistake way back and did not have the energy to fix it so just went to bed. The days of working all night are long gone. Have been enjoying my flowers, the iris I thought the mice had done in for me year before last appeared and made up for the lost year, my pink rose had died back as the snow appeared in Oct. last year while it was blooming so it is not that tall this year but has really been blooming. Well I better get out and give all my plants a drink before they think I have forgotten them, going to be a beautiful warm day today so better get out and enjoy it.

I Think it is Finally Spring!!

I think it is spring as we have had a couple of nice days...oh no...did I actually say that!! Probably tomorrow will be another snow day!! I went to the greenhouse today and picked up some plants for in my pots for on the railing and some fillers for my pots of geraniums, I am hoping that the geraniums can finally go out, but we did have a couple of thunder storms with a bit of rain, hail and wind. Thank-goodness it was just the edge of it. Good news is the garden is coming up, slow but is coming, no mouse damage so far, hoping I did most of them in, although a few little trees were chewed on during the winter. A little apple tree that I started from a apple seed and had got to be four feet high last year and I was so excited as it has grown almost two feet a year....has died to the ground...:(..good news is it is coming back. If the rodents do not do damage and the deer that was in the garden last year does not come back and the hail does not get it.....I should have a good garden. I wish I had not written that last sentence....it makes me wonder....why did I plant a garden if I have all these strikes against me?? Because I do not give up..I will have a garden!! yes I will!!
Not too much on the fibre front, we have our place listed for sale so that means cleaning and sorting etc etc, I really have too much stuff I tell you, no one needs that much stuff, so doing that plus gardening and helping with the shearing...which still is not finished because of the weather. I had to send my entry's in for the fleece show without knowing whose fleece it will be, the longer we leave the shearing of the llamas the more trash will be in them, not a happy thought. Still have not taken any pictures of the fibre I had processed at the mill, have to make a note to do that. When RH left the big tractor down by the garden I said you should not have done that as next time you want to use it the birds will have made a nest in it and sure enough when he went to move it days later this is what he found, thank goodness the bird had just finished laying the eggs so had not been sitting on them. So he took the nest out and gave it to me, it was so beautiful with four little eggs, I really wanted to keep the nest as you can see they had put a bit of llama fibre in it but did not want to bring it in the house as who knows what could be in it so I left the nest outside and brought the eggs in, I will coat the eggs with a clear varnish and hope I can save them. The next morning I remembered something I had read about saving a nest.....I think I have it right.....they had said to put the nest (without the eggs in it) in the oven at a low temp. for a bit and then it would be safe to keep in the house, if there were any bugs in it they would be gone. So I went outside to find the nest and it was gone...either the wind blew it away...or I could dream that the little birds came back and took it piece by piece...and made a new nest somewhere safe. I am going to believe they recycled their nest. it is after midnight and I think the computer is telling me it wants to go to bed as it is doing weird things with my text, have to keep going back and fixing it.

Why Did I say The Snow was Off the Tulips!!

Well the snow came back this week, this is what it looked like out the kitchen window yesterday, today the ground is covered with snow but it has stopped snowing. It got to below zero with a good breeze so brought my little greenhouse in with all my little plants in it just in case, have all the garden planted and only the beets and the spinach was up and they should be o.k. Last year our last big snow fall was June the sixth and my peas and beans were up and even though I covered them I lost a lot of them, so here is hoping this is the last of the snow for this spring. We really needed the moisture but could we not have a nice warm rain but should not complain as other countries have worse problems with their weather.
The biggest problem with the wet snow is we had just sheared the alpacas and a few of the llamas, most of them can get into barns and shelters except the males because with them one will go into the barn and will not let the others in so RH was out moving animals around to get them all in, he had to take panels in and separate the bad boys who were chasing everyone out into their own little space and managed to get everyone in out of the wet and cold. So please Mother Nature....no more cold and snow!!
I have been doing a bit of knitting and crocheting, made another scarf out of the same one row pattern I had made the other scarves, took me a while to find what pattern I had used until it came to me I had not used the patterns I had....I had made up my own pattern...why do I not make notes of what I do. Then I had dyed up some more of that very fine llama yarn and decided to crochet a large scarf or mini shawl thing and when I got it long enough decided to crochet a curve on the end....and it turned out so great but.....when I had started the scarf I had a square end and I went back to add a curved end to it....and can not remember how I did the curve....another problem with not writing down how I did something.....grrrr....put it aside for a bit and have been knitting on a scarf, will go back to it on a nice sunny day when I am not stressed out about all the snow on the ground...and on my tulips!!
I just got my order back from the llama and alpaca fleece I had sent to be processed, the llama was too long for them to spin into yarn so they made it up in roving, I had them mix the llama with some merino and bamboo and it is so soft, can not wait to spin a sample and the black alpaca they spun into yarn was mixed with merino and soy silk. Did not get any pictures of it as yet. Well off to transplant some herb plants I still have under the lights, hopefully it will warm up enough they can go into the little greenhouse in a day or two, wondering whether I should put the greenhouse back out or leave it inside for another day.......

The Snow is off the Tulip!!

Well the snow is off the tulip but we still have a couple snow drifts still remaining in the yard. Sun has been out but is not that warm and today the wind is swirling around the house....and the smell of smoke...is there a forest fire out there somewhere?? Am going to go out and blow down to the garden area in a bit and see if it has dried out enough to plant some seeds (if the wind goes down....don't want to plant the neighbors garden....) I can not believe the perennials have survived all the snow days we have had lately, they are tough little guys. Knit a couple of scarves, love this pattern, it is so easy to knit, is called a one row pattern. I had picked up this sparkly yarn a year ago but could not find a pattern I wanted to use until I found this pattern I had scribbled on a scrap of paper, can not wait to knit the pattern up in some of my handspun. Then wanted to knit something different and always loved this little sheep pattern...for some reason I keep calling it a bear...it had some cabling on the tummy but I did not care for it so did seed st. and I love it, looks more like fur.....see I did it again....I think I am going to say it is a bear. Just pinned some felt on for eyes and nose for now, trying to decide whether to use the felt or just emb.the eyes and nose on. Just heard from the mill they have my fibre processed and it is on it's way, wanted to have it all spun into yarn but the llama fibre was too long so they put it into roving but could spin the black alpaca into yarn. The black alpaca is from our Blackberry Boy, it was so silky so it should turn out great. Now hopefully the weather will warm up so we can get the llamas and alpacas sheared for this year. Meanwhile I am off to the garden to see what is going on down there!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

This is what we woke to today!! my poor little tulip trying to bloom, I keep telling my perennials to hang in there as this can not last forever. Hope everyone has a great mothers day today, this is usually the day I go to the plant places to get some new plants.......but if you can not put them outside.....need a greenhouse of my own again..maybe a greenhouse big enough to just live it with all my plants!! Can always dream!!

Did I say Spring was here......silly me!!

I really did think that spring had come, got all the raised beds ready to plant, admired all my perennials coming up and then.....this is what we got....this is what it looked like a week ago. Snow and blowing snow with hurricane force winds, our power was out for fourteen hours one day. usually we can just go out and hook up the generator for a bit but RH had been doing some work in the barn and did not have it hooked up, he finally went out and got it going just before the power came back on. We have the wind fence and our winds usually come from the southwest but this time the winds and snow came from the northwest and really whopped us. Younger son Ryan had a few days off work so he came down from northern Alberta and brought his holiday trailer to leave, we always put it down on this side of the windfence so it has a bit of protection. When the wind and snow were coming from the northwest I suggested he maybe should sleep in the house, he said no he would be o.k. in the trailer....well...when I looked out the window when I got up in the morning the trailer had blown off the front support and was sitting at an angle, we were just going go down and see how he was doing when he came out of the trailer and blew up to the house. He said he felt it go down and was sleeping with his head lower than his feet. Later in the day when he came in from outside I asked him if it was still blowing so hard and he said he did not think so as he could keep his hat on. The drifts are slowly disappearing as the temp has not been that high. The llamas could even walk on the drifts without falling in, when I went out to take some pictures it was so icy it was all I could do to stay upright. We thought we had it bad but south of us they had more snow and the ranchers lost a lot of baby calves as they got buried under the snow, people we know who have llamas managed to get out to their pasture and could see the cows but could not find their llamas, finally they seen a couple of heads barely above the snow, they called neighbors and with everyone working shoveled them out, thank-goodness they were o.k. Sure glad we did not have the llamas and alpacas sheared as yet but shearing is going to be so late, fleece shows are coming up soon and entry forms have to be sent in, but we will not know what fleeces to put in until we shear and see what condition they are in after all this wet weather. Today we started out with sun but has turned into rain-snow. Planted a couple of dahlias and lilies in pots in the house thinking I would put them out during the day and bring them in at night until it warmed up, now they are going to get too tall. I am going to take them out to the garage and put them in the window, won't be so warm out there, hopefully it does not get cold enough to freeze. I am having a terrible time writing this post as I keep getting booted off, thank-goodness it keeps saving!! Hope I can post next week that we finally have spring....or maybe not...look what happened before when I said it was spring!!