And another thing.....

From the comments so far, it looks like I have good reason to continue! I wasn't going to quit, but it is nice to be validated to continue! Keep those comments coming!

I looked at my blog as well, in this time of reflection and I ask you......Am I fighting middle age still, or am I fending off old age? I am referring to my banner at the top of the blog and now that this is the year I turn 60 ( I only feel 30.....of course, I use to say I felt 19) does my banner need a new subtitle????

Update on the bench and vanity from Mom's house: After all the research, I realized what we had in our possession, so I took the bench to be reupholstered, and talked to the gentleman there about the possibility of stripping the paint off the vanity and refinishing it as well. The bottom line was that the vanity would cost about $2400 to strip and refinish and there would be NO guarantee that he could restore it to the original beautiful mahogany finish since he had no way to determine how the piece was prepared for the paint back in the 60's. So I had to let it go for a pittance, but it is now sold to a nice young family who knows the treasure they may have if they put a little sweat equity into it.

As for the bench, this is fabric I purchased:

and since I am not paying to refinish the vanity, I decided to have the wood restored and finished as well as the upholstery replaced. Not cheap, but as my brother told me, it is a significant family keepsake.

I knit a second pair of mittens from the handspun alpaca

and now have started on a simple watch cap.

Maybe I'll add a stripe to the top of the hat for interest. I could use black or ivory for contrast. I'll have to see how that develops as it is knit up. So from 10 oz of raw fiber, at least 3 project sprang forth. Not bad....

And I am spinning. I finished a beautiful Merino from JulieSpins in the color: Canada (Photo courtesy of Julie)

which I navajo plied into a nice worsted weight

and I am now working on a Finn fiber from Bride Flight Studios

in the color: Oracle of Delphi. (Photo from her Etsy site) It is so soft and inviting. At spinning group last Sunday I was told that since Finn has a long staple, it makes a nice single ply yarn, so that is my goal so far.

Every time I checked her shop, it was empty, but I lucked into this one.
Timing is everything, and I will be checking again often, as all the sold colors were gorgeous.

There's more, but I don't want to spill it all out at once.

Knitting with handspun Alpaca

I have had a heckuva time planning a project for my Alpaca yarn. I finished spinning it up, and plying it, but it is thinner than I thought it would be.

I believe it is heavy fingering or sport now, even held double (that is 4 individual plies). First, I thought a scarf and I tried a few ideas, settling on a 3X3 rib pattern, but it was eating the yarn like there is no tomorrow. I started out with 10 oz of raw fleece, and I'll be damned if more than 3 months of washing, carding and spinning would go into a single project for someone who might never appreciate the effort that went into it. I turned to mittens, but couldn't find a pattern for the gauge I was getting, and knitting with size 9 double points was awkward at best for pattern work. I then decided to get out long size 7 needles, and use another pattern for basic construction, and now I am knitting plain mittens using the magic loop method.

The fabric created is nice and I should be able to get a few pairs out of my yarn. Since Alpaca is warmer than wool, these should be nice for family members in cold climates. I have til February to complete a couple of pairs, so I think this is doable. The second pair I may knit as fingerless mittens for more dexterity. To be continued.

GAAA- Square no. 4

Square #4 is by Julie H Levy and is still one of the squares labeled "easy". The intertwining cables are flowing nicely, and the diamonds and bobbled cables remind me of my Grandma's Aran sweaters. Unlike the previous squares, this is nearly 12"wide unblocked, so I have to be careful that it doesn't grow when I wash and block it. I am using size 7 needles on this one, as recommended, but I am starting to think that maybe I should have gone down a size in all the squares, because the yarn is on the lighter side of worsted, not a heavy dense worsted that I was hoping for. When looking it up on Ravelry, several mentioned that the Araucania Nature Wool is more like a heavy DK weight than aran worsted. All the cabling and texture will make this a warm afghan, even if not a heavy one.

And in case you were wondering if I am spinning too, here is the first bobbin of Alpaca, that I washed, picked by hand, carded and spun. There is still quite a bit of VM in it, and it feels a bit greasy, so I will give the finished yarn a good scouring when I set the twist.

Alpaca on the Rocks

As promised, this Alpaca show did not disappoint. There were some different vendors this year, or at least ones I did not notice last year. Having learned so much in this past short year, I was more willing to consider raw fiber in larger quantities. I did not buy a whole fleece, but I did get approx. 10 oz of raw fiber. I was amazed what 10 oz of raw fiber looked like.......

Guess what this is???!!!

A pillowcase of picked and washed Alpaca Fiber, about 10 oz, donated by Keller from Jefferson Farms.

The photographs do not do justice to the beautiful color (rose grey with brown) or the exquisite softness of the fiber. I just couldn't keep my hands out of it,

so I washed it all, in 4 batches in the kitchen sink. Above is 1/2 of the unwashed fiber. I even carded up 5 rolags,

but I am saving up spinning it till it is all carded. I can tell already that it will be wonderful to spin, and I must decide what weight yarn it wants to be.

And that's not all!!!!!!!.......................

Three Meadows Ranch brought both fiber (which came home with me) and the animal (which did not)!!! This fiber was blended from the raw fiber into a heathery light brown. Here is the generous donor, Morning Angel:

on the left. With her two tone fiber, this is the blended result:

This fiber is not in roving form but a large batt weighing in at 8 oz. This too, is bad color....I must retake it outside.

I am not done yet....there's more!

Another meet up with my blogging friend, Becky, who bought the other batt of Morning Angel's fiber. She also arranged to buy a whole fleece from a real cutie who was grey and ivory.(edited to add: his name is Kiernan) That is the cutie standing tall right behind us! The camera didn't capture the color properly, but if you check out her blog when she gets the processed roving, I am sure there will be more photos.

Here is another photo:

More random Alpacas:

All these Alpacas were sheared this past spring, so with the cooler weather they will begin to grow their winter fleece, and the whole process starts all over again. How is that for a renewable resource???

Processing Alpaca Fiber...ooooooh

Just about a year ago, I blogged about going to Alpaca on the Rocks, where I enjoyed myself immensely: petting the animals, talking to the breeders, fondling the fibers and yarn, and dropping a few $$. One of the fibers: the Suri Alpaca raw fiber was a generous gift from a breeder when I told her I had no experience with Suri. It went from this:

to this after washing, carding, and spinning:

A second fiber I purchased was Huacaya Alpaca fiber in black. This was washed, but still unprocessed in any other way. I thought I would show the steps I took finally this week, to bring this fiber from its very natural state to spun.

Straight out of the bag, this is what it looked like. You could see the original curls and feel the softness. But it would be necessary to fluff out the fibers and line them up somewhat for even spinning. On Ravelry last year, I purchased from another Raveler a pair of Ashford Handcards and began to work this fiber. It is almost like brushing out a dog for smoothness.

Several passes on the cards is followed by rolling the batt into a rolag

From this stage, I spun on my wheel and these are how nice the singles look!

So, that is the process from start to finish. Of course, if you have raw DIRTY fiber, then there are the added steps of washing, rinsing, and drying the fiber to get to the point where you can begin to card it. I plan on making the singles into two ply fiber and then maybe knitting a black and white hat with the white alpaca above. I was bound and determined to finished this fiber up before this weekend because guess what.....Alpaca on the Rocks is here again and with all that I have learned this year, I may invest in lots more fiber!

Start to finish: right to left, without the live animal which did not fit on the ironing board!

What a weekend!

I really love having weekends off because I can take advantage of all the events that only happen on weekends.

On Saturday, I walked around the block with $4.00 in my pocket and took in several garage sales. I would have tried to hold one myself, but I worked on Friday, which is the big day in our neighborhood. Can you tell I was on a strict budget....after all, I was going to the Estes Park Wool Market on Sunday, but more about that later.

For $1.00 I purchased a used pitchfork. Weird, I know, but I have a compost setup and have never been able to turn it, and now I can.

I have been on the lookout for a higher table with a solid top where I could clamp my swift (skein winder) and a couple of doors up there was this sweet magazine rack/table which would fill my needs perfectly.....cheap and functional and only $3.00!!! Last year I almost bought a solid wood sofa table for $90, so I am thrilled with this purchase. I had been using the insides of a drawer on a dresser in that room and this is so much better.

On Sunday, Stacy and I went up to Estes Park for the Wool Market, which by many national standards is a small show....only one vendor barn with lots of cute animals to pet and coo at. Can you keep a secret....Sunday is a great day to go to the show. The crowds were light and we didn't feel like everything was sold out. Also, traffic through Boulder was much lighter as well. Don't tell anyone, or else Sunday will get just as insane as Saturday is up there.....Shhhhhh Of course, next year we are planning on going up for workshops on Thursday and Friday and we can leave before the crowds get back on Saturday. The best part was being able to get into all the booths, talk to the vendors, especially Maggie Casey at the Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins booth. What a sweetheart she is, just as I imagined from her book.

For the tour de Fleece next month, I purchased from Cloud City Fibers 2 pounds of Ashland Bay merino roving in the Color English Garden. Yes, it is commercial, but in my price range and very nice quality..consistant throughout the batch.

I also couldn't resist the Fall Kid Dyed Roving from KaiMohair in the color Caribbean. I am amazed how soft and shiny it is and my goal with it will be to spin for a shawl. The 4.2 oz should be enough if I spin fine enough. Ok all together now.....group "Ahhhhhhhh OoOoooh!

Obligatory cute animal photos from the show:

Gift Iris #2 and other distractions

Finally the bloom opened up on the second iris plant from Becky, It is a rich white with a hint of periwinkle in the beard. There is one more to go that has a bloom stalk in development. Stay tuned....

Here is my one and only poppy bloom this year. Maybe it is tired, since in past years, there have been up to a dozen blooms. My plan is to give it lots of miracle grow and we will see what happens next year!

Spinning updates:

This is the Suri Alpaca from several postings back. The single on the bobbin felt like twine and still felt greasy, so after consulting with my spinning group, I washed the singles again, hung them to dry and now I will ply them into a two ply...and wash again to set the twist. The singles are so much softer and more of what I expected, so plying is on tonight's agenda.

This is the softest merino from Juliespins in Brilliant Hibiscus which I spun thicker and plyed into two ply. I haven't checked the wraps per inch yet, but it will fall somewhere between worsted and bulky. Hats are planned...maybe the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal hat, or a Ysolda beret like Gretel or Rose Red. Any suggestions???

As the Who said, "I'm Free!!"

Am I dating myself with the Who reference???    I passed my last exam today at work, so now I am free to knit, spin and read my own choice of books in my free time!    I am now fully licensed and registered at my new job, so my free time is my own, without guilt!    If anyone tells you they are too old to learn new tricks, like the proverbial old dog, tell them about me, reinventing myself at the age of nearly 59.   Anything is possible if you work hard enough and take a chance.   Of course, I was definitely aided by my new boss who also took a chance on me.    I am forever grateful for her confidence in me, and the opportunity she has given me..

Another walk in the trail on Sunday and I visited my friend, the Koi, and it looks like mating season is over for this year.   I talked to a wonderful older lady at the pond, who told me that this Koi has been in the pond for 19 years and she knows the woman who released it there.   It grew too large for her yard pond and she has been watching it over the years, grow to this enormous size.   I understand that there was another one, but it has not been seen in a couple of years.   The heron was back as well, but no photos of interest there this time.

A few more flower shots:

These are tropical Hibiscus that I am growing in pots on the back porch.   Now that there is no more smoking at my home, I can enjoy this back patio again, so I thought I would dress it up with plants.   I have always loved Hibiscus flowers, and I have discovered that so does the dog!    The first weekend, she ate about 8 blooms. I worried that they would make her sick, so I googled them and learned that in the South Sea Islands, the blooms are eaten in salads.    So the dog would not get sick, but I was not happy, nevertheless.    I then sprayed the two plants with Liquid Fence which does a good job keeping the bunnies from eating my flowers  and it seems to have discouraged the dog as well!   Good, now I don't have to kill her..........
My clematis have broken out in a multitude of blooms.   Too bad they only last a few weeks

Another weather report......Rain! Rain! Go Away!    Once the sun shines again, as it must, things will be very lush and green.    I should have some new Iris blooming from the ones sent to me by IronNeedles last fall.    I have buds on at least two varieties, and can hardly wait to see the blooms!  This photo is before the rains began again.   Once the sun comes out again, I know it will pop open with a fury!

Tonight I worked (played) on spinning the Suri Alpaca fiber that I was given at one of the Alpaca shows earlier this spring.  To remind you, here is my washing episode.   After watching many videos on hand-carding, I tried again and I think I have the hang of it now.   Here are a few photos of the progress:

I carded up a bunch of fiber, but my rolags are not nice and pretty like I see them in the videos and in books, so I just gathered the fiber off the carders and put the bunches in a plastic bag.   I then spun from the resulting clouds of fiber, best as I could.

And here are the singles on my wheel.   

I will be two-plying this yarn and should have about 2-3 oz of finished yarn when I am done.

Before the rains began, I photographed my original Iris, which had been in my garden for many years.   Usually, by the time they are ready to bloom, we get the strong Spring storms which make the heavy bloom stalks just lay down in defeat.   This year, I enjoyed many blooms before the winds and rain began.   

Of course, now they are down, and it is too sad to photograph, so enjoy the before photo!