This little hand knit sheep is named Peanut. He was created by Sara from Tucson, Arizona, for her Woolies Shop on Etsy. He is knitted from Rouge's handspun, rose gray alpaca yarn that Sara purchased from me back in June. You really need to visit this shop because I have the feeling that if something could be knit, Sara could do it. Her shop is full of speciality toys and stuffed animals like sheep, llamas, owls, and, of course, bear. She has a lovely black alpaca shawl listed and a pair of knitted clogs that I want for myself. Besides her knitting, she lists llama and mohair fiber for a friend.

EEEHAW! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Celeste is 34 days pregnant. Russ, our vet, just left after ultrasounding her. I was holding on to her head and neck and he's got the probe up there (somewhere), while he's looking at the little camera on his headband. She's squirming a little, I'm getting nervous holding this 200 pound alpaca, and he asks if I want to see..... Just tell me and get this over, she's not going to stand much longer. Actually he then took a picture and told me one of the little dots was the embryo. Guess I have to believe him. He said it's really cool to see the little heart beating.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Ariana, the other girl, isn't far enough along for him to ultrasound really (21 days) but he took a look anyway and thinks maybe he saw something. We drew blood from her to do a progesterone test. Should know in a few days. The sample will go to Michigan State in Lansing, just 30 miles or so down the road.

This is what I've been doing for the last couple of days. Well, besides spinning and knitting. Yes, and being in the barn. Click on them for a big picture. I think that I might have the "dying alpaca without felting it" figured out. I'm using the crockpot or oven, add the dye powder dry method and liking the results. Jennifer at Laughing Rat has helped me a bunch and I thank her.
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I'm happy that I have figured out how to do the paper label and don't they look "purty" spread out like that. Want to get a bunch more dyed up before the Allegan Fiber Fest. I do have these listed in my Etsy shop. If you want to visit, you can just click on northstaralpacas under the pictures of some things in my shop.
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The weather here in midMichigan has been hot and dry. So much so that crops are stressing. The trees in our yard are starting to drop leaves. We are a little worried about getting hay for the winter. We usually order 200 bales of grass hay for the alpacas, and 600 bales of grass/alfalfa for the horses. DH talked to our hay man last night and we will probably have to get some 1st cutting Timothy for the horses and he thinks he may have some 2nd cutting grass for the alpacas. Half the horses are going to turn their noses up at the Timothy 'cause they have always had the yummy, leafy stuff. The prediction is for rain this weekend. Sure hope so.

This is the BabyDoll SouthDown fleece that was given to me last week when we picked up our white lamb, Phoebe, and ram, Aries. I put it out on the table on the deck to pick out the junk. Oh, my, what a job! I guess that I'm really spoiled with the half hour that it takes me to pick out an alpaca fleece. Since this was my first sheep fleece, I wasn't totally sure what to do. Well, I weighed it - don't really know why I weighed it, but it weighed 11 pounds. I'm used to about 4 pounds of alpaca but guess the lanolin must weigh a lot. Speaking of lanolin, yuck - I don't like the feel nor the smell. Will definitely have to get used to that. I went around the outside pulling of lots of dirty, matted stuff. I was pitching and pitching it untill I realized I probably needed to stop or I would be throwing it all away. I tried to pick at the sticks, straw, and hay but finally just gave up. Hmmmm, thought I, maybe it will wash away....

I put about 4 ounces in mesh bags and into the washing machine to soak with some Dawn in the very hottest water that I could get. It soaked for about an hour and I spun it out (no agitating, mind you). When I looked at it, it was still yucky. I did this 3 more times. Wonder I didn't felt the whole thing. What I now have is some fairly white fleece that is full of tiny VM. I'm going to card it up and imagine that the VM is going to fall out.

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BTW, Lisa, thanks for the corn/bean salsa recipe. I have really been chowing down, you're right, it's addictive. Topped taco salad with it yesterday.

Lisa, who owes me a recipe, asked for a picture of the lambs. Thanks, Lisa, I wanted an excuse to post them. This is Maddy, an Olde English BabyDoll Southdown. Maddy's 3 months old, about the size of our Sheltie, and came with her mom Cardigan. She is supposedly weaned but we catch her occasionally going to the milk bar. I will try to get a picture of 2 month old, white Phoebe who is still in quarantine. Phoebe isn't quite as nervous as she was when we brought her home. In a week we will be able to put her with Maddy. I am so hoping that they play together.

I have become totally obsessed with dying! Before I developed my crock pot method, it was a big mess, time consuming, and I didn't like the results. Now, I can do a pot or 2 everyday and not feel like it's such a big deal. The fiber is retaining its alpaca-like qualities and I'm loving it. Loving it so much, that I want to spin it myself and not put it into my Etsy store as roving. Maybe I will get so much accumulated that I will think I don't have the time to spin it. I know that I should be working on a custom order, but this is so fun! Actually, I do force myself to do a skein for the order and then reward myself by doing some dyed roving. I have to do up another bobbin of that green above, ply it, and then work on the order.
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Son Rob left yesterday morning to go back to Pennsylvania and called about 5 to say that he arrived safely. That's just too damn far away. Miss him tremendously already.
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We picked up two more sheep yesterday at Brooklyn, Mich. , a just weaned lamb and a 2 year old ram. I feel so sorry for the little lamb. She, Phoebe is her name, is quarantined in a pen next to the ram. Apparently, it's a good practice not to put them in with the rest in case they might be carrying some illness from their home farm. Phoebe doesn't cry but just tries so hard to get through the gate to be with her friend. We purchased these two from Larry and Joan Egeler.

This is the bag that I'm going to use at the Michigan Fiber Fest next month to hold all my yarn and roving sales. ☺ I thought the long narrow feature would be great for skeined yarns. I ordered the bags from ULINE and the stickers from a shop on Etsy, my favorite shopping site. Amy made these 2 1/2 inch stickers for me very reasonably. Amy is a college student from Connecticut and runs the etsy store, KittyCrossBones. She sells lots of custom promotional items like bookmarks, scratch cards, checkbook covers, and, of course, stickers and labels. I highly recommend connecting with her if you have the need. She was fun and personable to work with and although, my picture isn't the greatest, she does lovely work, and needed little effort on my part. BTW, that's Celeste in the sticker. And did you know that you can click on pictures for enlargements?
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The barn romances have ended now for a while. We took Alde home yesterday and will wait a couple more weeks for the vet to do an ultrasound on the two girls, Celeste and Ariana, to confirm their pregnancies.
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Son, Rob, will be here from Pennsylvania until Monday. So enjoy having him home!