Author: Miss Lynne

Saturday I went to the community center for a sewing class with the ladies from Cherokee quilt guild. Linda Cunningham was the instructor and she was teaching the Sharon Schamber applique method.

It uses a particular interface ( Sharon’s own brand) that goes to fiber when washed and puffs up to give a slight trapunto effect. It also uses Elmer school glue, so takes you back to your childhood. It was a very relaxing day and we all came away with a complete sampler. Linda also brought some of her show quilts. All had been done using this method and they were amazing.

On Wednesday we drove up to walnut knoll farm in Canon to collect the first two of our new additions. Luckily the weather played nice and stayed dry for us so the journey took about 2 hours. We got there about 6 and got so involved in catching up with George and Judy that instead of taking them out for dinner we ended up with takeout, Subway foot longs. Not to much of an issue for us as its our favorite fast food.

Before it got too dark we loaded Magic and Kloud into the back of the trailer. They were a little skittish at first but quickly settled and cushed down. By the time we got home it was 11.30 and they were glad to get out of the trailer and into their new home. We will keep them separate from the rest of the herd for a while but as they are in the middle field both male and females were very interested to see the new guys arrive.

Kloud is obviously as attractive to other alpacas as she is to us and I am not sure who is the more enamored with her, our girls or our boys. Or maybe it is Magic that that they are lusting after.

We will have just enough time to get these two settled before the other nine arrive.

Better pictures to follow

I decided to enter one of my alpacas into the Georgia alpaca show in November. I thought the spin off would be a good place to start, basically you take 2 ounces of fiber, clean out the debris, you are not allowed to wash, card or comb it. How hard can that be says the voice of inexperience?

Let me tell you how hard, I spent must have been 8 hours altogether going through the fiber with a pair of tweezers and my reading glasses trying to pick out every last bit of dirt and grass. I think next year I am going to wrap all of the alpacas in cling film after they get sheared as I can’t think of any other way to keep them clean, especially the boys.

Fingers crossed that I get good marks. I will let you know.

I thought I would stop putting it off and have a go at dyeing some of my alpaca batts. I had bought some Cushing dyes from an online auction but had no idea what the colors were going to come out like.

I mixed a teaspoon of the powder in some boiling water in a canning jar added salt, the fiber, some more water and a half cup of white vinegar. I then let them stand for 30 minutes and then stood them in my canning pan and filed the pan with water and brought it to a rolling boil for about an hour.

I am pretty pleased with the results. They will need to dry and then I will re-card them

I have been spinning the beautiful fiber that Sally gave me. Of course it is alpaca and its from a lovely alpaca called Pearl, she produces super soft fiber with quite long staple length. It is spinning up really well, I have spilt the roving in half so that I can have a nice balanced 2 ply yarn, hopefully!

Next week we are picking up the first two of our new alpacas. We will want to keep them separate from the rest of the herd for a short while so we needed to get more gates, another fan and a feeding trough that will also be low enough for the cria to feed from when they get here.

We must have looked like the Clampets as we drove home.

We bought a large water Mellon and decided to give some of it to our very spoilt chickens as you can see they were loving it.

My rooster is such a good looking dude but he has been very subdued since the incident with the Cochin, he lets the girls boss him around.

This is Rocky my Dorking, I think she looks very stylish with her comb flopped over on one side. All of our animals get treated very well as you can see.

Last Friday lunchtime I flew to Denver to meet Sally Ball and also see my new alpacas. For some reason while on the plane I was remembering one of the best flights I ever had. It was in the early 90’s and I was lucky enough to have a flight from Zurich that was operated by Lauder air, a small airline owned by Niki Lauder. It was amazing, a 20 seater with comfy leather seats.all the crew were in designer outfits, we had drinks served in crystal glases and the food was served on hand painted plates. Not quite the same as my delta flight with plastic cups and a bag of pretzels.

I picked up a rental car when I got to Denver and drive it to the south west to Sally’ s house. It was great to finally meet her and her herd! We were chatting as if we had known each other for ever. Later that evening we drove to the local bar to meet Kim and have dinner, Sally also gave me a fab gift, some roving from Pearl (one of her herd) that was hand dyed a stunning blue color. After more chatting and some good food, I drove off to my hotel.

Next morning I drove back to Sally’s where I also got to meet Jim, her better half. Off to the local knitting so to meet a great bunch of ladies, all part of the lace knitting group.

We then made our way to Kim’s to meet the ladies, they were such sweet girls and the cria were so cute. I also got to feel a soft upper palate in one of Kim s new boys, we are hoping it will harden up but waiting for the vets opinion.

 

 

Kim had made us as great lunch and then off to Diane’s to see her alpacas and also see the sire for two of my next year’s cria.

My lovely weekend was coming to an end, but there was also a severe weather warning, threats of tornadoes and storms. So I decided to get my rental car back to the airport hotel as soon as possible. It was as good job I did as the sky quickly turned and the winds were very strong.

Up at 4 am on the Sunday to fly back home. Can’t wait till the girls all arrive here in September.

I spent the morning sewing, pictures to follow in a future blog. Called my mum to see how she is. Always fun to talk to her and catch up on what she is doing. After a lunch of our fresh eggs poached on toast we decided to go for a hike out through the back of our property again. Our alpaca girls were busy sunning  themselves as we walked around the sides of their pasture.

Either that or they were rolling about laughing at the fact that we were off for  hike on such a hot day. Our dogs were slower than normal as they were also feeling the heat a bit, but they were still happy to be out walking.  By the time we got into the cover of the woods we were dripping with perspiration. In the woods we were treated to some stunning fungi we really need to get a book to identify all these different types. We have seen so many different types in and around the property.

When we got back home I put the fans on and have the alpacas a good hose down. One of our chickens is feeling broody, it’s one of the Ameraucanas, so we have given her some eggs to sit on, let’s see if anything hatches.

Late this evening I got a special delivery, my Pat Green triple drum carder arrived. I am going to read all the instructions while I am flying to Denver tomorrow. Really excited but also nervous to use it.

Nice walk in the morning, the temperature was down in the low 60`s and its surprising how cold that felt to us. Certainly did not take us very long to acclimatize. As the day moved on the temperature went up to the 90`s although was not too bad as the humidity stayed low.

Lunchtime I went out to give the alpacas a house down so they could keep cool. They were fighting over who could get closer to me. They really love to have their legs and bellies hosed with cold water. You don’t spray their backs as the fiber is so dense it would not dry and then you run the risk of it getting moldy.

One of our boys had a very small cut on the back of his leg, probably from a tussle with the others and every day we entice him into the catch pen with some pellets so we can spray Vetricyn on it. It’s healed very nicely. He also had a little bit of scaly skin on his feet that we think might be mites, we have been treating it with a natural cure we saw on paca this a Facebook site. It is 6 lemons soaked in a bucket of water for 4 days then put into a spray bottle with 4 drops of tea tree oil. It really seems to have cleared out up, but it amazes me that he falls for the pellet trick every day!

Last night I was able to finish off some more of my UFO`s plied some of my spinning and actually don’t think I have to pretend it’s at yarn this time.

I also finished the scarf I have been weaving on the rigid heddle and this is a picture I took before washing and finishing the fringe