Moment of Zen

And now, here's a moment of zen:

Shearing 2011

Shearing happened this year on the third of June and everything went well! Shearing is always fun (except for the inevitable alpaca spit) and this year was no exception. Here's a picture of the boys milling about before we got the shearing started.

And here's a picture of a few of the girls pre-shearing.

Valentina needs her bangs cut big time!

Scott, the Alpaca Shearer, did the shearing this year. He always does a great job.

The horses were watching us closely. "You better not even THINK about shearing me."

After everybody got sheared, the girls lined up to be sprayed with the hose. Ahhh!

And Chance (the horse) came by to see if DH could spare any of his apple.

Well, it's off to start spinning the fleece!!

Garden Accomplished!

Yea for holidays from work! Finally the garden is completely planted. The potatoes, onions, scallions, and peas have been in since early April.





But yesterday the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers went in.





Oh, yeah. And the beans, cucumbers, carrots, and corn. But they're not much to talk about yet.



Okay, garden. GROW!

Spring

Spring has sprung,
the grass has riz.
I wonder where
the birdies iz??

I just put the seeds into my Aerogrow last week to start the seedlings for this year's garden and LOOK !!!!!





They're already starting to sprout!!! YEA!!!

Tapestry Weaving Class

About three weeks ago I took the most awesome class; Getting Started with Tapestry Weaving. Diane Bowman taught the class at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center. She is a very accomplished weaver and has done some amazing tapestries. What a great class she taught! We learned several tapestry techniques by doing a sampler:


and then designed a piece to incorporate the techniques we had learned. Here's my resulting designed piece:



Just what I need: another fiber obsession.

Winning Name for Bear

The judges have spoken and they have chosen Lisa's suggestion of "Geronimo" as the name for my new bear!

Thanks, everyone, for participating!

Help Me Name My New Bear

I got a prezzy! My dear, sweet sister gave me a bear fetish. He is SOOOO fun!



He looks to me like he's found a frozen pond and just can't help running to the edge and sliding across the ice.





But he needs a name. Please help me find a name for my new bear. And you might win a prize for your help! Leave a comment on this blog post with a suggestion for a name for my new bear by midnight February 14, 2011, MST. The winning name (chosen by a panel of 2 judges) will be announced on February 20, 2011.



Prize will be a handmade bear from Enchanted Sky Enterprises.

Warping is Heck

Okay, okay. So I cheated. I tied on to the last warp and pulled the warp through the beater and the heddles. But I still managed to break TWO warps during the process (and then I had to hunt down the broken warps and string them through. Sheesh!)



I did manage to warp enough for both a scarf and the material to make some mittens. The mittens are a custom order but the scarf will go to hubby as a Christmas present. Don't you LOVE the mad rush to finish up Christmas projects?

This Will (Probably) Never Happen Again!

I've been working on a custom order I received (to be given as a Christmas gift by the customer) for three skeins of hand-spun yarn. The fun thing is that the customer has given me complete latitude in choosing colors and yarn weight. The only stipulation for the order has been that the yarn include alpaca fleece. Now this is the kind of customer I like! But that's not the thing that will probably never happen again.

Here are the three skeins I've done to complete this order:



The bright blue is a light fingering weight yarn that is a mixture of 50% white suri alpaca, 30% blue merino, and 20% silk. Heaven to spin! The alpaca fleece came from Sakura, a gorgeous dam who has consistently produced ~4 pounds of blanket fleece at an average of 21 microns. The dark brown yarn is a sport weight and a mixture of 50% brown huycaya alpaca, 30% yellow merino, and 20% silk. The alpaca fleece came from Victoria with a micron count ~45. The lighter brown skein has one ply that is 70% brown/pink/white merino and 30% silk and a second ply that is 100% white suri alpaca. The alpaca fleece for this skein came from Valentina, another dam whose micron count averages ~20.

Now when I spin I'm not very good about planning ahead to have one ply come out about the same length as the other ply. Even if I weigh the roving before I start to spin and make sure that I have the same amount for each ply, I always come out with lots more of one ply than the other. For example, when I spun the two plies for the bright blue yarn, this is how much of one ply I had left over when I ran out of the other ply:



The same was true for the dark brown skein.

But THIS is how much I had left over of the merino/silk blend when I ran out of the alpaca for the lighter brown skein! 44 inches!



This will probably never happen again!

Have You Ever Wondered . . .

what happens to a cinnamon roll when you vacuum pack it?

Hubby has a new toy. A vacuum packer.



It's been useful in putting up our yearly supply of green chile, putting up some left-over spaghetti sauce made with tomatoes from the garden, etc.

Yesterday hubby expressed a yearning for cinnamon rolls.

"I'll make us some for breakfast tomorrow," I said.

And so I did. Or rather I let the bread machine mix up the dough and then did the finishing touches (rolled out the dough, put butter, cinnamon, and sugar in the center, rolled the dough up and cut it into pieces, let the pieces rise, and then baked the rolls).

They were beautiful when they came out of the oven last night . . .



All they needed was some frosting and nuts. Yum!

But the plan was to have them for breakfast this morning. So I was packing them up into a container to put in the refridgerator.

"Should we vacuum pack them?" hubby asked.

"Um, I think vacuum packing would pretty much flatten the cinnamon rolls," I said.

He was looking at the vacuum packer longingly. I could tell he REALLY wanted to try it out. "Okay, we can try one," I said.





The word "pancake" comes to mind.

So now you know. Don't try this trick at home, kids.

The 25 Year Quilt

I have been working on a candlewicking quilt for 25 years (not continuously). I now have terrific motivation for finishing the quilt because my nephew has gotten married and I think it would be the perfect wedding present for him and his new bride.



I started it when I was living in Knoxville, TN, working for Martin Marietta Energy Systems, and also working on my advanced degree at University of Tennessee. It was my sanity project. There is nothing quite so zen (and mindless) as making french knot after french knot and sometimes you just need that. This quilt (in all its pieces) has followed me across the country and I've finally, FINALLY, finished all the candlewicking required so that the pieces are ready for assembly.



There are 18 stenciled squares and 17 unstenciled squares for a total of 35 squares.

The stenciled squares have 4 small hearts (one in each corner) with 34 french knots each (total of 136 knots/square).


Additionally, there are 8 stenciled flowers on each stenciled square with 50 french knots each (total of 400 knots/square). There are also 8 leaf bundles on each stenciled square with 50 french knots each (total of 400 knots/square).



One large heart in the center of the stenciled squares has 43 french knots/square.



So for each stenciled square there is a total of 136 + 400 + 400 + 43 = 979 french knots. For 18 stenciled squares that's 17622 french knots.

The unstenciled squares have the same features: 4 small hearts in the corners (34 french knots each for total of 136 knots/square), 8 flowers (but with 55 french knots per flower - 440 knots/square), 8 leaf bundles (40 french knots/leaf bundle - 320 knots/square), and one large heart in the center (64 french knots/square). For each unstenciled square there is a total of 136 + 440 + 320 + 64 = 960 french knots. For 17 unstenciled squares that's 16320 french knots.

For the entire quilt I have made 17622 + 16320 = 33942 french knots.



No wonder it's taken 25 years!!!

Chili Roasting

One of the things I love best about fall is roasting and putting up green chili for the winter. This weekend we bought a bushel of Socorro green chili, had it roasted, peeled it, and packaged it up for the freezer. Ah, the smell! It's so yummy. Here's some of the pods that are ready for peeling:



Here's some of the roasted pods next to the peeled pods. We peel, split, and rinse the majority of the pods for use on sandwiches and in omelettes. A few of these get "sampled" as the peeling process continues (well, you've got to keep your strength up!).



But some of the pods stay intact for use as rellenos. Here's a roasted pod before it is peeled and the peeled pod (ready to be a relleno)! Yum! Ready to be stuffed with cheese, breaded, and fried. Breakfast of Champions!

Sakura's Fleece

This is Sakura.



I've been working for the past month on skirting and cleaning a couple of her fleeces.



So I've gotten about 2 lbs of the fleece skirted, washed, and dried. This weekend I finally got around to carding 1/2 lb of it with 1/2 lb of Paradise Fibers Sky merino/silk.



+



=



I've gotten 1 oz spun up so far . . .



Do I really have to go to work tomorow???? :(

It's a SEKRET!

Hello there. Long time, no post. Well, I'm here today to share a SEKRET! It's my hubby's birthday soon and I've made him an Aloha shirt out of material with sea turtles on it! I'm so excited for him to see it but he's just going to have to wait until his birthday. But YOU can see it now! Here's a view of the front:



The back view is shown here:



And here's a close up of the turtles:



He's got a whale Aloha shirt and now he'll have a sea turtle Aloha shirt. What's next? Maybe a shark Aloha shirt . . . .