Monday, May 25, 2015

Mill it!

Today I threw in the towel and admitted to myself that I would not have time (or interest) in preparing our alpaca fiber. I am a KNITTER! So we took 5 years worth of sheared fiber to a fiber mill. It weighs around 130 pounds.

We sorted through 72 small bags of fiber to determine how it should be used. There are so many choices...

We will turn 84 pounds of it into yarn, and 45 pounds of it into rug yarn, rugs or felt.

We saw a new-born cria. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but you can take our word for it when we tell you that it was the sweetest little creature!

We are exhausted. But the good news is that we have until January to rest and set up an Etsy shop to sell all these goods from! Let us know if you would like to pre-order.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Thank You For the Music... I Mean... Yarn

I've been feeling very thankful this three-day weekend. We have almost made it to summer vacation after a tough year. My students gave me a nice thank you basket of yarn and knitting needles at the awards banquet last weekend. The personalized gift was thoughtful, and I am using the pink yarn to made some "blankies" for my niece's twin dolls. (She also recently acquired twin sisters, so she might need a little extra something when I see her on vacation in a few weeks.)


In other news, my garden has produced one beautiful red rose so far.

And my veggie beds are a little (OK, a lot) over run by chamomile, which in spite of its amazing medicinal properties, is a weed. 

I was warned to keep this problem in hand by, well, actually weeding, but they are really pretty...

Finally, I decided that if life hands you chamomile, you should make tea.

The tea is DELICIOUS!

And hopefully the little blankets will be appreciated also.

Happy almost summer!

Friday, May 22, 2015

Look Who Made the Yearbook!

One Sunday last October we hosted a few members of the yearbook staff at our farm. The result, a funny article and some fantastic pictures. 
...And lots of requests for me to sign the page from my students! Gladly, as I was told that my paragraph-long tributes were "too formal" today. I'm pretty quirky too...