New yarns and lambs

Above is the beginnings of another freeform yarn. I am going to call it on the ranch, since a package of animal buttons triggered the whole scheme. I have already started filling the bobbin: beads, coils and animals so far. It is going to be fun. Might have to do another one, since I really love the color scheme.
This is going to be my next yarn. It is based on the colors of a seashore motif. I already have all of the materials gathered, so I will able to jump right into it.



I spun the yarn for the darker trees on my latest landscape. I hope to needlefelt it on tomorrow and add some rocks along the stream. Then I will probably call it done. I could always keep adding, but I have an idea for another landscape, so this one needs to be finished!



Cacao, a Shetland yearling had a ram lamb yesterday morning. Since she was born brown and I am pretty sure that the ram was also brown, I was not surprised.

I don't have any classes scheduled tomorrow, so I hope someone shows up to keep me company. If not, my On the Ranch skein is going to be finished. I have a fourth of a bobbin already filled. No previews on this one!

Oh, and on another front, I have been asked to do a presentation on Freeform in September for the Old Pueblo Knitters. I have not been in a while, so it will be nice to see familiar faces again.

Another ewe

Mousse had an ewe late this afternoon. I had to cut my weekly outing to Barnes and Nobles short this evening, because I had to be sure that the lamb was actually drinking off Mousse. Based on belly size when I got back, I was pretty sure that she was, so I held her for a few minutes, let her go and she ran directly to the teats. She knows where to go!

She is brown. I have had a lot of brown lambs this year out of moms, who have usually given me blacks and greys. It will shake things up! I had some lovely colored fleeces this past year and expect the same this year.

Freeform Yarn: Memories of childhood

Above are the beginnings of my selection for the yarn. It kept growing, so I did a second one (which I have not photographed yet) that has a different theme.
The first section, while still on the bobbin.
A close up view of some of the buttons.
Another close up view.

Out with the animals

As I wrote before, No Size got out. If you have not been out before, the big guy on the left with the curling horns, is No Size. He is getting rather fat, so he does not need to be out.
When the feed wagon goes out, he is right in the middle. He is not shoving any of the rest away, so I figured he has earned some freedom.
I was out milking this morning and got hot, so I turned on the misters that Marc put out for the alpacas. Emmy has discovered the mister, while the alpacas are sitting in a depression that I have filled with water.
Without a big "to do" Spots had twin ewes this afternoon. Both are up and eating. This is the first time that she has given me a brown lamb. Shetland color genetics are really random. She has also usually had rams. A nice change, since it means I can keep them. They will not be bred this year, since they are born so late.

Spin ins

The spin in group yesterday was a lot of fun and very inspirational. The group has decided that it would be nice to meet more often, so we are going to meet the first and third Saturdays of the month from 10-1. If you are a spinner in Tucson, or just visiting on those dates, feel free to join us. There is room for quite a few of us. We do not know each other really well, so it is not an exclusive group and no one will feel left out. There are beginning drop spindlers, to professional spinners, so lots of ideas are floated around. Of course, the fun is not just in the spinning. We all have very interesting lives and wildly different backgrounds, which makes for a lot of sharing.

In other news, I let No Size continue to run around with all of the does and kids, since he managed to escape again. He is so laid back - he really looks like a teddy bear. He is starting to look heavy, so he needs room to roam. By the end of July, I will be splitting animals back in to pens again.

I also let out the doe that was playing surrogate mom for Palo Seco. He is three months old and she needs more room to roam. She blended back into the herd instantly.

I locked Agave's mother back up, since they do not seem to be connecting and Agave was looking kind of thin. She felt pretty solid when I picked her up, but I just started to worry. Better safe than sorry!

The two ewes in the arena and Spots are still hanging in there. My concern now is that they won't have much milk for their lambs, since it is so hot. They do not seem to be stressing and the afternoon winds are cooling.

Inspirations

Lexie Birren says she still has things she wants to do to her landscape, but she brought it by to show me before she flew home to Colorado. She used some very interesting needle felting to create rocks and her river. They don't show up very well in the photo, but I see an artist in the making.

Flowers and silk worms

One of my friends from Patagonia stopped by on Tuesday and visited a while. She brought her silk worms, so I got a close look at how they begin creating their cocoons. I could see myself trying to raise them, but without mulberry bushes, it would not be a realistic idea.

She uses toilet paper rolls cut up and connected with paper clips to create condos for them. She is going to come back and show me the cocoons and how she uses them. Rather interesting.
Three cell phone/ipod bags.
I had lent the skein of yarn that used for the bag below to a friend to use in making embellishments for something. She returned a portion of the skein this week and I was too lazy to rewind it into a skein, so I decided to crochet up a rectangle to see how it would look. Turned out just the right size for my cell phone, so I am likely to keep it. The above bag inspired me to make two others. I used fiber that I had spun into yarn from crazy carded batts. I ended up with a piece of mohair that was in just the right place to look like a flower. I made the third one, shown in the photo above. If you look at it sideways, you can see a flower with a blue stem. It just showed up, unplanned!