Last one

This picture is for my sister, Donna. She wanted me to zoom in and crop the picture of me and Silver Bells the alpaca.




Here you go. I'm off on vacation this afternoon now.

Angelic

Yeah, it's a two-fer kind of posting day.

Anyhow, here's a picture of the Angel Lace shawl that I'm making:

Gotta run now!

Better view

Here are better pictures of Queen Silvia:

Isn't she lovely? Her debut is today. So is Knit Night. I am also taking the afternoon off. It's a good day!

Fiber-y fun

First off-the Queen Silvia is finished!



Sorry about the picture being dark. It was getting dark on the porch when I finished pinning this out to block. I'll take better pictures soon!

I started a new shawl after the pinning was done. It's Evelyn Clark's Angel Lace Shawl. I am using Silky Merino, a 50% merino/50%silk blend laceweight yarn from Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill in Wisconsin in the Pale Lilac color. I have 19 rows done so far.

My newest thing is that I am learning to spindle spin. I ordered a Learn to Spin kit from Thomas Golding. Here it is:





It's really pretty addicting. This is my first attempt at this. The yarn is pretty thick yet. I am going to find some pretty pink to spin and ply with this to make a winter hat. The wool roving included with the kit is grayish Coopworth wool. I really like the spindle. This is bad. Really bad. I feel a whole new addiction coming on. I am already planning my custom made 2" spindle. I like this morning glory one:



I better save a lot of money for it. As my father said, "Don't buy cheap tools". No problem there.

It's wild freakin' kingdom out there

It's the last day of school in the regular semester. The students are moving out. The traffic is terrible because of it. There are parents parked all over the place moving stuff out. The bars have barricades on the sides of the road just waiting for the partiers later. On the up side, the campus will soon be ours again!

For the past two weeks we have been having a fight with the redwing blackbirds in our backyard. Again. We are winning so far this year. All of their nests have been knocked down by us as they are being built, which really makes the birds mad.

The neighbors have a robins nest on their light by the back door:

If you look real close at the picture, you can see Mrs. Robin in her nest. At least robins don't swoop at you when you get near their nests. I got pretty close to take this picture.

The lilacs are blooming really pretty in our yard now.

Here is a volunteer pansy from the pansies that Paulette had hanging on the fence last year:

On the knitting front, I am now on row 3 of the border of my shawl. The rows are reaaaaaallllly long. It takes about an hour and a half to finish one. There are only 14, thank God.

Just a little off the top, please

Yesterday Paulette and I went to our friend, Patty's alpaca farm, Apple Orchard Alpacas, to help with the shearing of her alpacas. We were there for 4 hours, which just flew by. It was fun finding out how alpaca fiber comes into being. Of course, I have pictures:

This is Chocolate Liberty, a lovely llama. She was born on the 4th of July, hence the Liberty part of her name. Libby is expecting a baby, which is due any day now.

Here is Paulette making friends with the lovely Silver Bells, an alpaca.

Here's me with Silver Bells. She's such a sweetie!

Pictures of the alpaca shearing follow:

In the last picture, Ben, Patty's son, is doing the shearing. Patty is in the peach shirt, and that's Paulette in the blue.



I don't have any pictures of me helping, because it's kind of hard to take pictures when you're actually helping. Those alpacas sure are strong, especially when they start struggling because they've had enough now and just want to run around. When they're done shearing, they also get their shots while they're still tethered down. When they're released, they are weighed before they get to go back outside.

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day! Here are some flowers for you:

I am making really good progress on my Queen Silvia shawl:

Pretty good for about a week and a half, eh?

Finally, finally, this weekend is almost here. A weekend to do whatever I want. I'm so happy. Tomorrow holds: cleaning (bleh), a trip to Iris Fine Yarns and who knows what else. On Sunday we can finally finish with the spring clean up in the yard. On one of those days we're going to Patty's alpaca farm, Apple Orchard Alpacas, where they are shearing the alpacas this weekend.

Of course, knitting will be in there somewhere. I am determined to try and get to the halfway point on the above shawl. Not that it's an endurance test or anything. In my mind I'm already thinking of the next two projects. You knitters know how it is. That's why I am going to try and find, "Knitting Lace Triangles", by Evelyn Clark this weekend. Vicki was right (yes you were!) about what I should use the blue/green Sea Silk yarn for. She suggested a small shawl. I think I will!