More dying and willow branches

Well I got a pot of mohair curls, some mohair roving and some wool skeins dyed in time for our guild sale, took pictures of the mohair curls...........too yummy, wanted to keep them and just look at them and I got pictures of my wool skeins but forgot to take pictures of the mohair rovings and they were all sold. All the mohair curls also sold and have orders for more so better get another pot on the next day or so and I do have a couple of wool skeins left from the sale so can knit some socks. I have to get to the mill to get some more wool yarn to dye so have some for the Christmas sale. My thrum slippers sold so am knitting on another pair and this time I am being really crazy placing the different colored thrums, it was hard but is getting easier all the time. The sale was great as usual, I sat and knit on my thrum slipper....and unknit on my thrum slipper....have to confess I did not get very far in my knitting, someone would want to see how to knit the thrums in and then somehow the slipper would get turned around, I usually try to have the heel already turned before I try to knit and demo. And then I talked...........and then talked some more..........actually I talked until I was dizzy. and what was the greatest thing I got at the sale you ask me???.........Willow branches.....fresh willow branches!! Free......someone had used them as a display..........I have to confess there was a lot of begging on someones part but that someone brought them home in her car. Now I am on my way out to the car to bring them in and form them into wreaths in time for Christmas. It has been five years since I have had willow to make some wreaths. I had my own willow tree at the last place so I could just run out and snip and then we moved to this rocky tree less hill. The only tree I found while walking the quarter section was this poor little evergreen that had been chewed down by cows for years and the poor little guy was so narled and twisted. I said to resident husband....we either have to move him up by the house or we have to give him some friends and build a fence around them. We moved him up by the house and put a little mesh fence around him so he would not get peeded to death (boy dogs) and he was petted and admired and encouraged and he is so beautiful now, his branches grow at least a foot a year.
Well am out to bring my willow in, can not find my brown tape to cover the wires, it has only been five years so do not know why I can not put my fingers on it...do you? I will replace the wire later. Will try to get pictures of the wreaths.

How did I do at the show?

Remember the items I entered in the show at the llama convention? I had entered three llama fleeces and one came in first in the class, I had entered a hat and a pair of socks and the socks came in third, a lady had knit a pair of gloves and entered in that class, anyone that knits gloves should come in first, good grief.........all those fingers to knit, I have trouble with a thumb on a pair of mitts!! Then I had spent all that time picking guard hair and trash out of a llama fleece to enter the class that you send in two oz. of fibre and they spun one oz. and displayed it with the oz. of unspun fibre. I got first in that class with my entry and it took supreme over the whole show!! My winnings were a fifty dollar certificate to the mill for fibre processing, a couple of T shirts with a picture of a handpainted picture of a llama's head and a little stuffed llama. Forgot to take a picture of the t-shirts, husband had forgot to bring them so just got them in the mail yesterday. Will have to take a picture of the llama picture on them, I love it. Just went and took a picture of the t-shirt picture to post.
What else have I been doing? Sock knitting, had three orders for socks so have been trying to knit on them a bit each day, have a pair and a sock of another pair almost done. Have so much to do keep running in circles so decided that everynight before I go to bed I will write down what I want to accomplish the next day and because I can focus on that instead of trying to figure out what to do next it seems like I am accomplishing something. What is really great is when you look at your list before you head for bed and you have done what was on the list plus a few more things it feels like you are in control and if I don't get something done I had on the list I can add it to the next day and not feel bad about it because I probably had done a few things that weren't on the list for the day. Otherwise it seems if you don't get finished what you thought you should, you go to bed thinking that you did not get anything done that day. Writing down what you did accomplish that day lets you see that you are getting things done! When I tried to plan the whole week in advance and did not get everything done I felt I should have it was depressing. I don't know whether this makes sense to anyone else but me??
On the windsceen front.................still have not seen Mr. Windfenceman!! Mr. Windfenceman..yahoo!! The posts you put up are not stopping much wind!! They need the screen on them!!

Predators!! Predators!! Predators!!

First I had gophers in the garden eating my vegetables, then there were badgers digging up the pastures to get the gophers, then the other day when I went down to the garden my cute little prairie chickens had been scratching the dirt off the potatoes and eating them. Now we have a coyote in the barnyard getting my goats. Is this what they mean when they say to move to the country for peace and quiet. (Oh I forgot about that cute little Ermine that I saved from the dog...........that went out to the barnyard that night and got some of my chickens) We had a problem with a coyote a few years ago, he would get the big dog to chase him down the back of the property then he would sneak around the front and get a goat!! I spent many a day as the goat herder walking hill and dale with the goats to keep them safe. Now my time was not entirely wasted as I decided that I could knit socks as I walked with them. Now if goats see you have something in your hands they think it is something for them to eat so I had to disguise what I was doing so wore my jacket with the big pocket in front and tucked it in and as I was knitting with two colors I put the balls of yarn inside my jacket and ran the strands out the sleeves, then I could knit as I walked and if the goats noticed I could just tuck my knitting in the pocket. I called the socks I knit Wild Flower socks as they hit the ground occasionally. We had put up some field fence and have not had a problem for a few years but all of a sudden we are losing goats and do not know how he is getting in. One day when I ran out to chase him away he jumped right over the high fence..........now what are we going to do?? We nailed pieces of 2x4's on the top of the posts around the pastures and strung barb wire along the top. So that solved that but then we found another goat dead just inside the fence..........the goat had put its head through the wire to eat on the outside and the coyote grabbed it. The grass was so high the goats could not see him coming so then the grass had to be cut down around the pastures. We have not seen the coyote for a bit so hopefully he has moved on. We have a Jack Russel named Maxx, was so afraid the coyote was going to get him because he knows no fear and almost caught the coyote by the tail the other day...........He has been renamed "Dead Dog".
We decided it was time to get the garden cleaned up and veggie's put away for the winter as we have been having some cool nights. I went down and got the carrots and onions all out of the ground. Now I was so worried that we would not have enough potatoes for the winter.........I spent all that time putting out treats for the gophers and prairie chickens to distract them from the potatoes........when the potatoes were dug and brought up to the cold room......we have over five hundred pounds of potatoes in the cold room!! I could have put a sign on the garden gate for anyone that came by to just help them selves!! Everyone knows what they are getting for Christmas this year. Will drop some off at the food bank.
So that has been the move to the country and live the quiet life!! Husband is at the market today so I better go out and feed the critters before they come knocking at the door.

Just trying to regain my sanity

I just can not believe it has been that long since I wrote, where did the time go?? The last couple of days I have been trying to regain my sanity (if I ever had it in the first place) Resident husband is off to the llama convention until Sunday night so I have the place to myself if you can call it that with three animals in the house and at least two hundred in the barnyard. Remember when I entered items in the show at the llama convention? well that is what I have been doing, trying to get the items made up, at the time (remember I was high on sniffing llama fibre and it was after midnight when I made the decision)Now I can usually knit socks in my sleep but the yarn I had spun up was quite a finer yarn than I am used to knitting with so had to look for another pattern, it ended up I had to knit three socks before two were the right size, so o.k. the socks were done, I had entered a hat so had to card and spin the yarn for that and of course it was also finer than I make my hats with so had to look for another pattern, even knit a swatch to make sure I would be knitting on gauge but it was done. ............hat is a little on the big size. Now came the big headache, I had entered a woven scarf and I could not get the loom to work properly, have not used it for at least four years. So decided to do a practice scarf out of other yarn before I put the llama yarn that I had bought from a friend on the loom as I did not want to wreak it. Just could not figure out what was wrong with the loom, changed some things around and was still having problems. Had just decided that I was going to scrap the scarf entry and was leaving the loom when a lightbulb came on in my head...........figured out what the problem could be. Now I only had one day to warp the loom, weave the scarf and finish it off...........could I do it? The next morning I decided to go for it so wound the warp and got it on the loom, was worried a bit about the yarn as it did not have much twist to it and whether it would be strong enough, but it held up and I got it woven and took it off the loom and was going to tie knots in the fringe so when I washed it it would not fray........the knots would not stay tied, finally pulled them as tight as I could and washed it gently........all the knots came out of the fringe and it frayed and the twist in the yarn must not have been set at the mill and the scarf went wonky..........so the scarf did not go to the show after all that!! It is sitting on the counter pouting. I took a picture of the yarn I spun for the hat but forgot to get a picture of the hat. Will post the yarn picture.
That is what I have been up to in the knitting and weaving area but there has been a lot more besides that going on around here, this post is long enough so will post the rest tomorrow. Also the wind has been blowing and we still do not have the windscreen up, have not heard from Mr. Windfenceman.........is he lost out there ?? Yahoo!! Yahoo!! Mr. Windfenceman...........we are right over here.

What have I been doing?

I have been winding some of my colored skeins into balls to make sock and hat kits. Mrs Beasley was insistent than she be the one to hold them for the picture, see how happy she is, otherwise this is her regular job.............a cat lap, although she looked pretty happy doing that too. So that is done and I am onto the next project (the alpaca fibre sorting is an on going thing of course)I decided to do something wild and crazy with the thrum slippers I knit so I rainbow dyed up some roving and used that for the thrums. Now this was going to be super easy I was just going to randomly knit the thrums in but the blue and purple looked so great together I thought (this always gets me into trouble) that I would alternate blue and purple which did look great butttttttt now the simple random thrum idea was out the window and I had to pay attention to what color went where and with my lack of attention span I ended up ripping out as I would get two thrums side by side of the same color! Plus I had to pick through the roving to get only blue and purple............I could have just dyed blue and purple in the first place! Now on the finished slipper there is a place that I have three purple thrums together..........and I did not notice it until I had knit down a bit and I did not want to rip out again so I just left it and I am going to remember to do the same thing on the other slipper so they match.......and I am going to say that it is a artistic design......right?..... But I am going to knit a pair with all the colors together, I am going to force myself even if the colors are fighting with each other..........although I have noticed that the lime green and the rusty orange color look great together. Well husband is off to the farmers market today and I can see my little goat friends standing in a row looking at the house waiting for me to go out and take care of them so I better get moving, they have been known to open the gate and come and get me so I am off!!

Guess what came to our house

On the fibre scene guess what came to live with us a couple of weeks ago???If you know me you know it has four legs ( although when I think of it the gift ducks only had two legs each....) Gift Alpacas, the pictures are of the girls and their babies but a week before we had brought home the boys so there are twelve all together. Plus I bought all the fibre that has been stored up from them for the last five years or more.......I can not say the words that would tell you how much fibre that is, let us just say it is a lot!! So now I am busy sorting it to send some to the mill for processing which is taking some time as these animals wore a lot of their food and as their fibre is really soft it is stuck in the fibre.........so........pick..pick..pick. Keep trying to stay focused on the sorting as I keep getting this urge to run to the spinning wheel and spin a sample. So I am set for fibre for a long time............right? But you know maybe I could use some.......I dare not say the word. I have the cold room stacked with bags of fibre............where am I going to put the potatoes?? So I am pulling fibre out of my eyeballs and I am sure I have involuntarily eaten my share at this point. Now we have the llamas and when we shear them they are cute in their poodle cuts but these poor alpacas when they shear them they are naked and it is not attractive.....but it is growing on me. Another thing for me to get used to is the llamas walk around with their noses in the air like they own the world and the alpacas just sort of walk around quietly..........I am so afraid they are depressed, am always worrying about them, went out and had a few words with them.....they seem o.k. will just have to get used to it. Well back to sorting alpaca fibre.

Still running in circles

Well back to the windfence saga, Mr Windfenceman had said that he would be back in a couple days to finish the fence.........Did not show up........did not call, on Tuesday morning I was thinking maybe we should call and see what his plans were. When he left he had the poles in the holes he dug and had braced the poles in place but we had a wind and rain storm during the night a few days later and the braces on a couple poles had snapped and a couple poles were leaning over. Well at noon on Tuesday here he came with the cement truck behind him, so the poles and the pads with hooks in them for the guide wires are set in cement and he said it would take seven days to set up properly and then he will come back and put up the windscreen. When the wind was blowing the other days the poles were swaying.
Now that I figured out how to keep the gophers from eating the potatoes by leaving tastier treats for them I will not have to worry about them............the badgers have moved in and are trying to dig the gophers out!! When I looked out the window the other day I noticed this mound of freshly dug dirt which I had not noticed before?? Then the next morning there were a lot of mounds of dug up dirt, so went down and had a look this morning and sure enough...........badgers digging, what a mess!! Now how to get rid of the badgers?? What are their favorite treats....does anyone know?