Cloverbud interview at the fair

Jacob got to show his chicken, Sparkle, at the fair yesterday. Sparkle is a three month old golden buff hen and he was very excited to share her with the judge and his 4H friends. He is incredibly proud of his medal and has it hung on his wall!
It wound up being a crazy long day. I had to run home, drop off the chicken, run back, pick up husband and kids to drop hubby off, then run back to the fair again so the boys could walk in the 4H parade. Then a few rides with friends and finally babyman said enough already so we came home. Phew!






















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New addition

One more bunny coming to join us tomorrow! She is a black French angora and I'm getting a fantastic deal on her diego the owners relocating. Pedigreed and show quality. I wasn't going to get more rabbits but I figure she will be a good investment because: I can blend her with Nibbler for a nice grey/black wool, it will give me a darker angora to offer, the cage I'm getting with her will be a good size for breeding usage, and she has a nice coat ready for the rabbit demo I'm doing the end of this month (my other rabbits are bald).
Any ideas on a name for her?



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The alpaca bunny smackdown

It all began innocently enough. One day on twitter I was speaking with Alpacamundo and mentioned that I've worked with angora for so long now that alpaca almost feels coarse. She felt those were fightin' words and I said, a little competition perhaps? After much deliberation we decided to trade samples along with neutral third party spinner, vtknitboy.
I sent along a bit of my best from Nougat, my chocolate agouti (shawl finished pictures coming soon!). In return I received a half ounce of peachish tan alpaca. Admittedy it is a very fine fiber and I spun it light and thin to see what it could do. It did have quite a bit of VM which I struggled with but the fiber itself is quite nice.
In comparison to Nougat however, on softness factor only, I feel the bunny still wins. I do however think the alpaca is a stronger fiber than the angora, and I do love me a blended angora/alpaca spinning batt for the best of both worlds. Since the bunny goes a long way, a 10% angora to alpaca blend can make for arctic quality finished goods.
This has been really fun so far and I'm delighted to see how others have jumped in. I'm anxiously awaiting verdict from Alpacamundo and Vtknitboy.


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Babyman's hat

For whatever reason my son hands me the same ball of yarn everytime we visit our local yarn store. I decided finally to buy it and make him something. He has requested a hat and socks. Here is the finished hat. It's a bit short but since it's crochet I may lengthen it come winter. For now it makes a nice summer skull cap. The yarn is lambs pride superwash in true green.










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By popular demand

A better shot of the sheep:



I think I'm going to name the little black one Nibbler after the pet from Futurama. I've yet to see him stop eating.
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Bock! Ererooo!

One thing I forgot to note- as we are dragging Dudley down the hill, Noodle the rooster decided to greet his wooly new friend with a series of loud gusty crows. It was awesome :-)



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No free range sheep for me!

So I'm sitting there folding laundry when I see a sheep peeking in my living room window. Now I admit I had been thinking it'd be nice to fence in that area and have sheep peeking in the window but the key word is 'fence'.
Anyhow, since I've had more exercise in one day than a fat lady needs, I will spare you the play by play and give you the short version:

Bad news: sheep are loose!
Good news: they trimmed up the grassy spot near the swing set that hubby hates to mow.
Better news: after much todo and hulaballoo and chasing around they moseyed back into their pen all by themselves.
Awesomest news: looks like our organic insect repellent worked- after all that Mucking around in the bushes I didn't pick up a single tick!!!

Phew.

Am I a real farmer yet?


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