Shear Day

Yesterday was "shear day" I get so excited for this annual event that I can hardly sleep the night before. I so look forward to getting my hands into those bags of fleece, yet I worry about the alpacas stressing while they are being sheared. We lay them on mats on the ground on their side and stretch their legs out. Their legs are tethered to hobbles which are attached to a pole running beside the prone alpaca. A pulley system allows the legs to be stretched out or quickly released. After our shearers clip one side, a team of 3 or 4 gently flip the 'paca to do the other side. While the shearing is going on a team of friends collect the fiber into firsts (prime), seconds, and thirds (which I trash). While they are down, a good friend like Beth will trim their topnotches to keep the hair out of their eyes. Husband Smitty will trim their toe nails, and Dave, the shearer, will check their teeth. Dave uses a rotorary type dremel tool to even up their bottom teeth if they need it and he will nip off any sharp "fighting teeth" with trimmers if they are dangerously sharp. Alpacas do not have top teeth but rather a hard plate for chewing.

I guess that I'm getting carried away telling about this process but it's a big event on the farm. We did ten alpacas at friend Nancy's and twelve here in the afternoon. We are very fortunate to have about ten friends show up to help us.

Now about the picture on top. Doesn't he look like a walking Q-Tip? We gave Orion a fancy show cut because he will be going to a show in September, but Pollux got the standard. We haven't told Pollux yet but he will become a "fiber boy" when he is closer to two years old. He's not quite breeding material.

I have cleaned Orion's fleece shown in the picture and need to get at least one more done today. I like to pick through them out on the deck so that the trash can just fall through. More on fleece cleaning later.

Yarn for Etsy Shop

Because I have a Showcase (an almost front page on the Etsy site) in my store tomorrow, I wanted to do something colorful and special to be featured. This is some alpaca that I had dyed a while back and yesterday I spun into a single. Then I spun up another single of two alpaca blends (one is a Suri), and plyed them together. This yarn was on my mind when I went to bed, couldn't sleep, so got up at 2 o'clock to knit up this little swatch with U.S. # 9 needles. I really like how it turned out and wish that I had a whole bunch more dyed up.

Tomorrow is our shearing day. We will go to a friends in the morning to help shear her alpacas and come back here after lunch to do our ten. Our shearer is Dave Binkowski and his wife, Nancy, has a shop on Etsy.

This is my dear friend, Beth, who shows our alpacas for us. The pictures were taken while she was waiting to go into the show ring. Beth has her horse, Cord, here at our barn. The brown boy on the bottom left is Orion, and the white guy on the upper right is Pollux. Both boys placed 4th in their classes.

The show was great fun and rather profitable as I sold quite a bit of yarn and knitted stuff. I even managed to get a skein of yarn spun up for my Faroese Shawl. I have decided to use Sivia Harding's "Follow the Leader" pattern. It calls for 1100 yards but friend Cary says it will probably take less. I think I will just start knitting it and spin up what I need as I go along.

Alpaca Show and Vet Call

Tomorrow my dear friend, Beth, and I will be taking these two little boys to an alpaca show in Davisburg, MI. The drive will take us a couple of hours which I don't mind but we have to go on I-75, which is an expressway. Hauling a horse trailer on a "big" road will always terrify me, especially if I have some of my 4 legged friends in the back. I'm trying to get organized today because I would hate to forget some important - like the 'pacas or my spinning wheel.

I put an announcement in my Etsy shop that it is closed until Tuesday. I am taking lots with me to, hopefully, sell and would feel terrible if someone ordered an item that I sold. Last year sales at this show were great. I sold several handspun & knitted hats, but it was very cold. This weekend is supposed to be really nice - sunny and in the 70s.

Our vet came yesterday to look at our pony's eye. She stained it and decided that it has some ulcers (sores?). We are using an antibiotic and a steroid ointment in her eye plus a little Bute in her grain. Kelly is being very good about letting me apply the medication but I do have to have Smitty hold her for me. Vet wants to look at her in a week and thinks that it may just clear up.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php?id=1178104771341U67624
I'm in an Etsy treasury today. Take a look while I try to figure out how to get the pictures here.

Horse talk

Been rather neglectful with my blogging so will add a few notes here. Yesterday was our oldest granddaughter's birthday (we have two). Birthday party on Sunday with other grandparents and cousins. Lots of fun.

This picture is rather old but it is of the birthday girl and Kelly - well, me too. We have known for a few years that Kelly's eyes were failing but in just a week, one eye has completely clouded over and is a whitish opaque. I can't understand why this would happen so fast. We are giving her a little Bute to reduce any inflamation although it doesn't look sore and she's not showing any indication of pain.

We have four horses in the barn who are all on Equine Sr. Kelly, the pony above, is nearly blind; Abbey, 26 year old quarter horse, is doing great but retired; Cord, my friend Beth's 20 something, quarter horse is asthmatic but happy and eager to go for a trail ride; and Ivan, my guy, is standing around getting fat. I really need to start riding again.

This is a picture of us from last summer. Ivan is showing off how well he can bend. All you dressage riders know how important "the bend" is. He would like you to notice that he is using his whole body, not just his neck. Ivan is a Percheron/thoroughbred cross and has been the perfect horse for me. Our experiences together include lots of dressage lessons, a few shows, jumping, camping, trail riding, giving lessons together, and just hanging out learning stupid horse tricks. He has an incredible sense of humor. When we give a lesson, if the student doesn't use his/her hands, legs, and seat correctly, Ivan will just go to a corner and stand. No amount of prodding will get him to move until all the rider's body parts are lined up.

I will probably talk more about the horses as time goes on because they are a very big part of my life. Right now I need to go spin because I ordered some awesome Faroese Shawl patterns from Margaret Pittman > www.heritageyarns.com <> I am spinning the lovely rose gray fiber from Rouge. Have about 300 yards done but think I will need about 700.

Dang! I cannot get my pictures to stay where I put them. Need to figure this out.

Rose Gray Yarn

This fiber was grown by Rouge, a very handsome alpaca who lives in Michigan. While my dearest friend, Maryanne, owned him, he came here for a breeding visit. He also got to go to an alpaca show in Davisburg, Michigan last spring. As you can probably see from Rouge's picture, his

fleece has lots of variations and shades of the rose gray.

The fiber that I used to spin this particular skein of yarn was rather dark but has light colors running through it. It was great fun to spin.

Occasionally after I spin up a skein, I just have to knit a swatch (don't you think that sounds like a dirty word?).

I used U.S. # 9 needles and did sort of a knit 2 together, yarn over pattern because I thought this would make a lovely lacey scarf or shawl.

My intention was to list this in my Etsy shop but they have the site down again until about 4 or 5 this evening. At least that's what the announcement was when I tried to log in. This is going to make a lot of people angry. Because it's reasonably new (about 2 years old, I think) they do have a lot of problems. The site is growing faster than the management can keep up. This is an excellent online place to shop for handmade items. They do allow commercial supplies that they are going to keep separate. I am thrilled to have an outlet for my yarn 'cause as I've mentioned again and again I love to spin.