Passing On Addictions

I guess that my addictions and/or passions are both my love of animals and of fiber arts. My own three grown children are animal lovers, be it dogs, cats, birds, worms, wildlife, whatever, and this passion has filtered down to the two grandgirls. This is 5 year old Elizabeth resting on my good girl, Cassie, and 8 year old Meredith is holding up her first, just cut off the loom, weaving. She thinks her weaving wants to be a pillow. We used up a bunch of my not really nice alpaca handspun yarns for our first project.

I'm pretty optimistic that we may hook our little, always on the go, Elizabeth into our fiber fun. She spun a little yarn on my wheel for the first time yesterday. Before this she just wanted to pedal - FAST. She also wove a couple rows on Meredith's weaving.

I'm alternating spinning the yarn and knitting on my Faroese shawl pattern. I have made enough mistakes that I'm not entering it into the MIAF fiber arts contest this fall. I still am really enjoying the knitting on this so am already thinking ahead to what kind of yarn to spin for my next one. Maybe some of that alpaca/dyed silk that is being made into roving for me......

Love is in the Air

Yesterday I mentioned how little the alpacas look in the horse trailer. I took this picture this morning so that you could see. The 4 legged is Sonata, 2 legged is husband, who I call Smitty, but his name is really Howes.

Today Sonata made the journey to Belding, MI, to hopefully be courted by Tribute to Money. He is a handsome, gray stud who lives with Leslie and Bob Gosnell at Irish Valley Farm . You can see him if you take that link and click on alpacas. You can also see Sonata's mom, JLFA Sofie.

I whispered across the fence to Tribute's ear "Healthy, rose gray, girl" That would be the ultimate for us. Sonata probably won't be home for a few months and we will really miss her. She's our greeter for all our visitors because she gives kisses and likes to be scratched. Little Orion will have to assume this role 'till she gets home.

The two girls left here, Celeste and Ariana, look lonesome in their pen. They are going to meet up with a boy who is coming to visit next week. I can only hope for 4 babies next spring.

Lady Belita's Holiday

This morning we took Lady Belita to Jackson to be bred. I always get a chuckle loading a 200 pound alpaca into our rather large, slant load horse trailer when I am used to seeing my nearly 2000 pound horse in there. Alpacas cush right down when traveling and many folks transport them in their cars or vans. I have never seen 'paca poop in our trailer after a trip. Tidy little darlings, aren't they?

Belita was our first alpaca purchase from our now dear friends, Lew and Kathy Kukla of Luka's Alpaca Ranch. Going to visit one of their studs is no big deal to Belita. When Smitty let her go in the pasture, about 10 females had to come up to say hi and sniff and check her out. At least half of them are old buddies. Unlike horses, the check in went quickly with no squabbles. Belita ran right up to the barn to investigate. I know she was shouting, "I'm home, I'm home"

Belita will be 7 in September and she has given us two boys and a girl, Celeste. She will hopefully breed to a handsome white Peruvian boy named Eveander. We are surely hoping for another girl in 11 months. With white on both sides of the lineage, the cria will be white.

Karen Harbaugh

Yesterday I mentioned that I have met some interesting folks through my Etsy shop. Karen is another one. She bought some roving from me that she wanted to spin up, and we have had an on and off correspondence throughout the winter. I received three of her books yesterday and will be diving into Dragon Lovers, or maybe Night Fires, or.... when I get off this computer. I think that it is incredible that a fellow spinner out in Washington state has this wonderful writing talent - and that I sort of know her. And she has an Etsy shop to pass along her handspun yarn. You can view her novels and get acquainted at her web site.

Sales Goal

Handsome Beau with Awesome Fiber

My goal for sales in my Etsy shop was to have 100 in 6 months. Thanks to selling two of Mary's flowers and 4 ounces of Beau's fiber yesterday, I had 99 sales as of yesterday. EEEHAW! Etsy has been really good to and for me.....a profitable outlet for my creative endeavors. Plus I have met some really interesting friends. For example, I have purchased roving and silk from

Isis's Etsy Shop and we are going to meet up in person in August at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan.

EEEEEHAW!!!! Again!!!!

June 1st Update: 100th sale of Berringer's yarn to Rebecca Bateman. Link to her Etsy shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=18076 Visit her to see her lovely paintings. Thank you, Rebecca for being my 100th sale. Your friend will love his scarf, handmade by you.

Abandoned Socks

This is the sock that I'm abandoning to work on my shawl. Did I tell you, the shawl is a blast? I'm waking up in the middle of the night to knit a few rows.

Back to the sock - the match is knitted to the heel and I'm feeling really guilty about starting a new project. All my knitting friends are telling me that it's ok. They have unfinished (UFOs) projects all over their homes. This just doesn't feel right to me. Isn't my sock going to feel neglected and abandoned stuck on those needles in a bag? I'm told that after I have been knitting for a while, I will cope better - and happily, cheerfully, without guilt leave something behind to start a new project.

I'm afraid that I may never come back to these socks. Even though this is alpaca yarn, it's not really nice stuff. I bought it on line because I thought if I really goof on this project, I don't want to use my nice homespun. What I don't like about it: It's not really soft like alpaca should be. It split easily while knitting. And it has guard hairs - yuck! I hate those harsh little buggers sticking out.

Marianne in the Netherlands

Oh, my, I just went visiting some of my blog friends and look what I found on Marianne's blog. Yep, some yarn that she had purchased from me and a picture of Rouge (it is his fiber).

What a huge thrill for me to come across this. I just feel so international and special. Thank you, Marianne.