Lazy Days of Summer

It would be easy to say that I am lazing around this summer, but not totally true. We have been gathering animals up almost nightly to treat the animals for worms. We have learned how to do the FAMANCHA test and about 10 animals are still seriously anemic. I am going to shear a few of them over the next few days, since the stress has caused them to blow their fleeces. My feed bills have become vet and medicine bills.

My garden is thriving. I love the sunflowers and I have been playing around with a few apps on my ipad to create some cool looks. This one is called Broken Wall. I love the Twirl the most.

I have been canning tomatoes in various forms. I have Thai peppers and have been adding them to make hot sauce. Seems like tomatoes are turning red every time I walk by them. I am picking them as soon as they start to turn red, so the slugs and worms do not get them.

My sister, Nadia, came to visit with her husband, so I took a break from spinning. I have to get back to carding, since I am going to Spinquest in Front Royal, VA, as a vendor this Saturday. If you are looking for some cool stuff from independent fiber artists, come check it out.

I am also focusing my yarn sales on my online eshop. I am listing periodically on etsy, but have discovered that people get lost there since there is so much.

Fog? Yarns!

I took this photo early yesterday morning. Makes me think of fall. I had just let all of the angora goats into Watusi's area, since it is now fully goat proof. Watusi got moved up to the pen near the house.

 This was taken in the afternoon. The goats are making a serious inroad into the ragweed, so I will not have to mow! The farmer is coming to build the 3 sided shelter for the alpacas in this area tomorrow. It is the last one that we will do this year. Next year we will fence in more areas where tractors can't get to mow the hay and put shelters there. It will allow me to rotate pastures and keep the animals from having so many parasite issues.

I listed these yarns on my eshop last night: www.uniquedesignsbykathyshop.com. Buy 2 or more and get free shipping. Let me know, so I can send you an invoice.

Colors

My multicolored sunflowers are now opening. The colors are very close to the colors inside my house. I love them! I will dry a few, but will probably give most of the seeds to my African Gray and the goats. They love them and it helps their coats shine.

These are two of the photos that I took for someone who wanted to see what colors I have in kid mohair. The tan skein above is Suri. I have been spinning for projects and just realized that I need to be spinning for the shop! Most of my colors have gone pastel. I am going to have to spin and then dye to get some vibrant colors.

These are all kid mohair batts. I have almost finished spinning the one on the left and will over dye it with slate blue. I plan to spin and dye each one a different color. The sheen shows up beautifully in this photo.

Above are mohair locks from two "black" kids. The silvery gray one has taupe tips and is as soft as a white fleece. The one on the right is the blackest fleece that I have ever had. It is funny since the black kids all start out pitch black when born.