What's been on my wheel -

 A couple of years ago, some friends of ours gave me 4 or 5 Alpaca fleeces.  Two of them were this lovely coffee color - in fact, the critter's name was Java - two were that pretty rose grey color, and unfortunately the black fleece came infested with moths - it went in the dumpster.  But when John was meeting up with Chuck from Evergreen Fleece Processing to take him the last of our Shetland fleeces, I decided it was time to get those fleeces out of the living room so I took them along with.  The results were about 8 lbs of lovely alpaca roving. 

This lovely Alpaca fiber has 20% Merino and it is a dream to spin.  I have about 5 pounds of it.  There are also about 3 lbs. of straight rose grey alpaca roving (not blended with wool)   If you are interested in buying some fiber, or having me custom spin you some yarn, leave me a comment.  :-) 

Haircuts in September?

Last spring, before we could get Pearl's 9 inch fleece sheared, it got so heavy that she started rolling (in an attempt to roo it?) on the ground and rubbing up against things, which totally felted it right on her body. So, as her fleece was already measuring 4-6 inches, The Shepherd decided that he was going to have her sheared, now. Unfortunately, our regular shearer Marsha was not available, but she recommended a young fellow named Zander, who lives on Guemes Island - about an hour & a half's drive and a 10 minute ferry ride away. He called Zander and he was going to be available Saturday morning "anytime before 11:00" - so we made our plans - get up early - he loaded the sheep (did I mention that we brought Luna too?) into the trailer - I had to get up early (on a Saturday!) and off we went. Well, there are many beautiful places on the way to Guemes (pronounded guay'-mas) and you will have to trust me on that, because I left my camera at home (remember what I said about getting up early?)

Guemes Island is served by the Washington State Ferry system - They have a little ferry that probably holds 25 or so cars - we just made the cut for the trip over, and had to wait a crossing on the way back. But it was a nice day and surprisingly the girls were very quiet (probably so stunned by what was going on that they couldn't speak!)

Anyhow, Zander seems to have taken naturally to shearing sheep - he wasn't bothered much by their squirmy-ness (I however, was about ready to have a fit because Luna was thrashing around so much I thought she was going to break her silly neck). Even so, she got a beautiful haircut, as you can see, with nary a nick.





He got so close her skin looks like corduroy! Actually with the warm weather we are having this week, I hope they don't get sunburned.






So, sheeps were shorn, and we got back to the mainland, stopped and had a quick sub sandwich, then we headed to Camano Island (this time, accessed by a bridge, not a ferry) where The Shepherd was going to check on another one of his landscaping jobs.





He did these raised beds last spring. Don't these folks have a fantastic view!








And this bed along side the driveway, with another "dry streambed"











And this bed by their garage - these pictures were actually taken in April - everything looks very healthy and "grown up" now.

We were there for an hour or so, while he confered with the homeowners - I sat in the nice sun in the truck and read a good book. And the girls were very quiet.

The trip home was a straight shot up I-5 - Sheep unloaded and back in to the barn - where everyone looked at them and went "Eeek - who are you?" (no matter that they had all been together less than 8 hours before).

The other thing that was planned for the afternoon (before the detour to Camano Island was on the docket) was going over to my friend Den and Sharon's to look at, and hopefully, purchase some Alpaca fleeces to blend with some of our Shetland wool. Here is one of the fleeces we bought - this one is actually for Kathy at Sheep Thrills Farm in Arizona. The three we got were white, rose grey and a little lighter than this one. Hopefully they will mix well with our Shetland fleeces and be fun to spin as well.

What a difference a year makes...

Grandnephew Parker & the Shepherd, Uncle John, July 2006 - he's almost one






Here's Parker, with his daddy last weekend at 22 months. He's getting to be a big boy!

By the way, remember these girls from last month - well check out what Leigh made last weekend! Is that not cute, or what! She is so talented, and I have learned a lot from her blog. If you are interested in fiber, check it out.

The little alien's sisters -

Since I teased you all with the picture of the little alpaca in yesterday's post, I thought I'd post the rest of the pictures I took on Saturday at Al's birthday party.

"Pick me, pick me!" , we said -

The alpacas spent most of the party out in the far corner of the pasture, but were glad to come in when they heard the feed bucket being rattled. Isn't the brown & white one splendid looking?

They were pretty social, but clearly not used to the kind of noise that the group was making.

Doesn't this look like a great place to be an aplaca?

Yeah, she didn't care much for this party business. I think I may have a great greeting card picture on my hands, don't you?