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.


-- Post From My iPhone

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.










-- Post From My iPhone

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.
-- Post From My iPhone

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 :-)



-- Post From My iPhone

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?


-- Post From My iPhone

The sheep have arrived!

My two wethers are here! And what an adventure it was to get them here. Imagine, torrential pouring down rain. Two wet sheep. My aforementioned awful steep driveway. The sheep lady shows up and can't get her truck up the drive. So, I drive down the hill in my SUW, load the first sheep into my trunk as I sit with him holding him down by the horns as my husband drives is back up. First sheep is Dudley, a two year old morrit wether who weighs about 175lb and is no wimp. No wimp, who is now sitting in my lap pooping away as I hang onto his horns for dear life as we bumpity bump and get air hauling tail up the grand canyon that is my driveway.
Next, we have to get him into the sheep pen, which is halfway back down the hill.



See barn to right, garage, upper left. Imagine hurricane force rains, dragging an angry national geographic looking big horned mountain type Icelandic sheep by the horns from said garage to said barn. Thankfully after a brief scuttle getting out of the car, he offered no resistance heading into the pen and immediately started noshing on the foliage.
The littler sheep was caged and thus a bit easier to get in. Both seem to be enjoying the grasses and weeds after a cursory exploration of their new digs.
Any name suggestions for the black lamb?




-- Post From My iPhone

Mm fiberlicious

I spent a few hours today blending 3oz of honey tussah into 7.5oz of white merino.
Ohhhh I couldn't have dreamed how pretty this wouldve turned out. It is awesome. And soooo soft. I have no idea yet how I want to spin it but I'm planning for something close to the skin. It's that soft.












I wound up with a big huge soft puffy bagful. I am sooo excited.
-- Post From My iPhone