New Alpaca/Merino Yarn Arrives

Look what came in the mail Thursday. 37 skeins of gorgeous, beautiful, wanna hug yarn. Back on January 13th, 2009, I mailed 6 pounds of gray Alpaca from Tribute who lives with Leslie and Bob at Irish Valley Farms, and 4 pounds, 15 ounces of colored Merino that I bought from the McMurrys at Genopalette. After the sheep is washed, it loses some weight so I'm calling this a 60%Alpaca/40%Merino Blend, DK weight yarn.
If you are interested, Stonehedge charged $186.02 to wash, spin, skein, and ship this back to me.
It didn't even take a month for them to process and return it.....and with a little note on the receipt saying "Beautiful" which really pleases me.
I do think this is beautiful. Probably the prettiest yarn that I have received from any mill.

The little sheep picture here is from McMurry's farm of some of their sheep. Look the young lambs have long tails.

Ivan's Colic

My plans this morning were to go to the feed store and get grain for the horses. They are all older and eat Equine Senior. I'm very lucky because I can watch all the horses very well from my kitchen. These pictures were shot just opening the deck door. Anyway, there was Ivan pawing, looking at his stomach, getting up and down, and not eating. These are sure signs of colic, a horsey upset stomach that can be serious. I took him back into the barn and then took him for a walk down the road. Sometimes a little exercise will help. I lunged him a little in the indoor arena (it's zero out there this a.m.). I knew he was upset because he didn't stop and munch on the hay stacked in there. I gave him an injection of 6 cc of Banamine which usually helps a lot. Then put him in a big stall with fresh water. Sometimes in the winter the horses just don't drink

enough which can cause them to colic. The good thing is he pooped while I was walking him so I don't think that he is impacted.

Because he looks bright and alert (as you can see by the picture above) I'm going to go let him back out into the sunshine ☼

The little picture here is of the other three looking at someone walking down the road. They look like they are all together but are actually separated by fences.

Maybe I'll get to the feed store afterall.....

Two Maples

I have google alerts for NorthStarAlpacas and Maple Smith so that when these words are mentioned out there somewhere, I get a link to them. My Maple links are usually related to wood, you know- bats, musical instruments, things like that, and of course, lots of Maple Leaf hockey referrals.

But this week I was linked to http://joshbrandymaple.wordpress.com/ , the blog of Brandy Shelton of Johnson City, Tennessee. Lo and behold, here's little Maple Rae who was born on December 7, 2008.

Oh, my, another Maple. It's kind of like having another grandbaby out there.

Brandy (mom) and I have corresponded some. She wondered how I got my name. My grandma, who died in her 30s, was named Maple, and the story goes (I find this hard to believe) that she was named after my greatgrandfather's girlfriend back in Ireland.

JR's Gruel and Hungry Deer

Yesterday I increased Jr's food intake to 3 tubes of 3 ounces of gruel 3 times a day. 27 ounces surely seems like enough to make him grow faster. He weighed 29 pounds last Friday when I weighed him (4 months old). I'm having to mix up a lot more now. I keep it in the frig and then syringe it into the tubes a couple of ounces at a time.
I just drop the capped tubes into hot water to warm it up, when warm, I wrap the tubes in towels which I keep inside my jacket until I get to the barn.
☼
The dogs and I took a walk out behind the house. The deer have pretty much taken down all my fences to get into my little grove for food. There are apple and pine trees there. You can see where they have been digging for the apples. Poor deer. They are pretty hungry this winter and we have way too many here in midMichigan. When I was young, we had to go "UpNorth" to see any. I'm thinking we will be having a big put up fence party when the ground thaws.
Behind this grove is horse pasture and then an open corn field. The wild turkeys have been very busy scrounging in the corn field this week.

Custom Alpaca Hat

Sara from northern Illinois liked the pattern on this brown hat and asked me if I could make her one in grays. Of course, says I, frantically trying to remember what I did. I seldom do the same thing twice and don't write it down. Fortunately the hat hadn't sold so I was able to look at it. Super easy - Cast on about 75 on size 4 needles, knit for a while, switch colors and to a size 7 needle. Knit for 5 rows and then 1 row of purl . Repeat until desired height. Do some decreasing then yarn overs every 4 or 5 stitches to make holes for the tie. Knit garter stitch for a couple more inches and bind off. Make an I Cord to match the border.
Unfortunately I didn't have any gray yarn so I spun up a couple ounces from Reggie, a herd sire owned by Sharon Winsauer and the Kuklas in Jackson. That's the handsome guy pictured above. I also spun about an ounce that I added black to as I spun for the trim on the hat.

So, this is what I came up with. I will go list it in my shop now and send Sara a note that it is finished.

It's here if you want to see it in my Etsy shop - just click →. PonyTail/BigHair Hat

Lunch with the Alpacas

I had to run out to the barn for Jr's (Libra) noon feeding of gruel and took my camera to show you that the little guy is still with us. Tonight is weigh in and I'm hoping that he will hit 30 pounds. He's layered up here with a turtle neck underneath his coat. The taller white guy standing behind him is Astra (Snickers) who was born 3 days before Jr. Astra is about 4 times larger. I had a little naming help with Astra. Marianne was the winner of my naming contest.

More Finished Fiber

Look what Michele from Jersey City, NJ just finished.....a lovely black/brown scarf that will be gifted to a friend. I know it doesn't show up great for you but black is incredibly hard to photograph, I think. I have problems photographing red also.

The fleeces were from Sonata ↑, black Chinella, and black Berringer. Go here to read Michele's blog where she mentions the fiber in a couple of posts.