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.

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!

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...

Terrible Internet

This post was about most of Saturday's activities. The Internet was terribly slow, and I got behind on my trip posts.

First, we must stay on topic: there are all sorts of great shops where wonderful traditional knitted outfits may be purchased in Salzburg. I had a great time looking, but no knitting or purchasing happened at this time. Win!

First I give you, some cheese: the fountain in the Mirabell Gardens that were featured in The Sound of Music.

And the stairs where Do-Re-Mi happened. We have listened to the sound track of The Sound of Music about three times in our bus already. We are ready for something new. 

This is where Herbert von Karajan lived growing up. This beautiful house overlooks the Salzach River.

On the bridge over the Salzach looking into the old town and at the fortress. All the locks on the bridge are out there by couples who wish their relationship to last forever. You lock the lock to the bridge and then throw away the key into the river. Surely, you will not break up if you can't unlock your lock on the bridge...

The open air market had many delicious and beautiful items for sale. I thought the flowers were especially pretty.

The side of the cathedral as seen from inside the cemetery. Mozart's sister is buried here. This cemetery also shows up in The Sound of Music.

The view from the Festung Hohensalzburg, the fortress overlooking the city.

This is where Mozart was born! Great museum inside was worth the time to explore.

We had dinner in the oldest restaurant in Europe. Apparently Charlemagne dined here on a visit around the time this establishment opened. Yes, the date in the plaque is 803.

The dessert was a delicious half frozen vanilla mousse with cocoa Mozart and a treble clef on the side. Delicious and charming, though perhaps not in that order!

I am technically a day behind due to poor Internet service, as mentioned previously. Today we went to the Salt Mines near Salzburg, visited the Melk Abbey, where we also had a short Easter service just for our group, and then drove the enormously long way to Vienna, where we enjoyed a concert at the Musikverein, that many of us know from watching the New Year's Concert. I will load pictures and brief descriptions tomorrow. 

I leave you with this funny picture and wish you a Happy Easter!

Spring Break Knitting

Spring Break started yesterday, and what better way to launch it but to start with a skein of yarn...

I got it into a massive snarl that took my a long time to translate into this ball of yarn. Once I was comfortably seated on the airplane, Totoro was helping me design my new hand warmers. Yup, it's April and I haven't given up on my dream of some warm mitts.

Salt pretzel with butter...

Wait, where are we here? Well... Let me show you around Munich for a while. 

Coming up on the "Magnificent Mile" shopping district equivalent of Munich. All the fancy pants stores you can imagine, beginning with Gucci on the corner. 

The cathedral lurking behind a park. Most of these pictures are taken out of a bus window, so they are a little sketchy on many fronts.

Part of our group in front of the Rathaus. 

The Center of Justice is housed in an amazing building.

An example of Greek architecture one of Bavaria's former rulers was obsessed with reproducing at home.

Lady Bavaria, a statue in the style of the Statue of Liberty. She was built first as a test model, and yes, you CAN climb into her head!

The Olympic tower and facility.

BMW headquarters and museum.

A view from our rest stop en route to Salzburg. "The hills are alive..." OK, I'll stop now. We listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack on the bus already. 

Chiemsee, a large lake in the region.

One of those iconic Bavarian churches with the onion tower.

After a delicious meal at the Imlauer Biergarten, (no beer for us chaperones-boohoo!) we are all super tired from traveling and socializing. Time to get some sleep. Zzzzz...

Tomorrow we will do a walking tour of Salzburg, most likely in the rain. Hooray for Spring Break knitting!

Itching to Garden

A few winter aconites have graced our brown garden beds already, but I was really looking forward to getting my hands dirty before too long.

Last weekend I couldn't stand it any longer, so on a visit to Lowe's, I picked up a dozen broccoli plants and some pre-started spinach.

In no time, I had a garden bed prepared and all the plants tucked into their new earthen home. The weather forecast predicted temps in the teens (the forecast did not disappoint), so I threw a few layers of garden cloth over everything to keep them snug.

Yesterday I saw the first crocus clump in the garden.

My knit pig keeps going on journeys throughout the house. After he was found in a decorative basket of knit eggs, I couldn't resist this tableau.

Unfortunately all this chilly weather is still making me crave some new mitts. That is certainly the surest sign that spring is right around the corner, right?

Spring Chicken

While the age of our chickens may not be the youngest any more, they seem to be harbingers of Spring. 

Heinrich laid her first egg today. Bright weather and warmth must be close behind! Cluck, cluck!!