Daphne the Alpaca

This is a long one.
We have had a bit of a traumatic time with the Alpacas lately, resulting in us losing our wonderful Daphne to heart disease ....

Beautiful Daphne

One Saturday evening, having been fine all day, Daphne started heavy breathing with flared nostrils. Concerned, I sent a video to Emma (my Alpaca Guru) who thought that she may have been stressed by something, so the opinion was to leave her quiet and warm overnight and see what the morning would bring. Sure enough in the morning Daphne was up and about, fighting for the food, hay and attention as normal. Phew - I was relieved she was ok. But not so. Later that afternoon she started to breathe with difficulty, making a 'catching' sound in her throat. So I called the vet and described her symptoms - he thought she may have a chest infection so came to visit her with all intentions of giving her antibiotics and something to ease her symptoms. 

As soon as he listened to her chest he said that things had just got complicated. What he could hear as well as lungs full of fluid, was a very large heart murmur which he had never heard the likes of in any large animal before. Things were not looking good, but we decided on some treatment to see if it would lessen the fluid and enable him to hear the heart more clearly. So poor Daphne had painkillers, steroids, antibiotics and diuretics with the plan for the vet to visit in 48 hours to evaluate her again. I stayed with her for a couple of hours, and she settled into the straw bed so I left her to sleep.
In the morning, she was up and about, desperate to get out of the stable and wolfed down her breakfast and ate hay. I really thought that the drugs had helped and she had turned a corner. So all day I checked on her every hour. At three pm I went to the farm and she was in the field eating grass. I didn't go over to her as she looked just fine so left her there munching away. 

Sadly, later at 4pm when I went to see her. she was in the yard and her breathing was worse than it had been the night before. So I called the vet again to come and see her. This time I got a lovely vet called Emily, who knew a fair bit about camelids having done an extra module in her training with Claire Whitehead (who is an expert in camelid care). By now Daphne was lying down in the stable struggling to breathe with her head almost lying on the floor, quite obviously in trouble. Emily listened to Daphnes chest and actually gasped at what she heard  - in her words 'a stonking great heart murmur'. Either this had always been there and something had made it worse, or she had had something like an infection happen that had settled on her heart valves, causing her heart to not be able to pump properly.

To say I was devastated is an understatement. I knew what this meant but I had to be the one to make the decision. There was nothing more we could do for this beautiful creature who was looking at right at me, her great big eyes almost imploring me to help her. I am a strong person emotionally, but I have to admit that it took me longer than it should have to make this decision - I have made it before with cats and guinea pigs, but never with an animal so big and never with an animal that I had such a close bond with. Daphne had been 'well' two days before all of this and I couldnt get my head round the fact that I would have to let her go. But, with Emilys and my husbands help I did it. Daphne was suffering so much and no treatment would have made her better, so in bits, I gave her the biggest hug she had ever had (even though she hated hugs!) and said goodbye. It was so hard to do. And I left her with Emily and the nurse to help her out of her pain. 

I can tell you I didn't sleep that night, and cried for the next day I was so affected by the events of the past two days.

Daphne on the day I got my Alpacas..

We miss her so much in the yard. She was always the first to come and say hello, would fight you for the food bucket, would let me rub her neck (sometimes) and was so beautiful in every way. I look for her in the field sometimes, missing her white colour next to the other two. Beau and Autumn spent a few days looking for her and seem to have settled now but are missing their third amigo, so now I am over the shock of it all, I am looking for a new amigo to join the gang. Life is very quiet with two Alpacas, and for their sake they need to be in a herd, even if its a herd of just three..

The Three Amigos

There's so many photos of her that I shall never forget her - my first Alpaca, my first Alpaca loss.

RIP Daphers, you were a true beaut xxx

My first Etsy Sale - Yikes!

Yesterday I had my first sale on Etsy - a lady in America bought 4 skeins of my hand spun yarn, shown in the photos. I am so happy that she liked it enough to buy it as I think it's beautiful, but I am so nervous about whether she will like it as much when she actually gets it!

  

The reason I am so nervous is that to me, every skein I hand spin is quite a personal thing - so much goes into it from blending, carding, spinning, skeining, washing, drying, labelling and marketing that I love them all, but I am obviously biased because they are mine! I also know all the little imperfections, which to me makes a hand spun skein of yarn unique but to others might be seen as 'mistakes'

So, as always, I am hoping I haven't sold my 'unique' yarn to someone who is expecting perfection. I don't know why I always do this to myself as any one who has bought my yarn in the past has loved it, but each time I worry!

 Now I know there are many many talented spinners out there who create the most beautiful perfectly smooth, regular yarns (and I am totally in awe of their skills) but my spinning style always ends up slightly different. If I really concentrate I can spin fairly even 4 ply yarn (my Daphne shawl was as close to a 4 ply as I could get) but the odd slub always appears. To me, if you want perfection you should be looking at something that is commercially spun. My ideal hand spun yarn is soft and bouncy and squishy and that is generally what I make. 

Hopefully my new customer in America agrees and I can stop worrying......this time!

Happy knitting
Love from Tina xx

West Yorkshire Spinners

Just thought I'd post a little bit about my favourite British yarn company, West Yorkshire Spinners.

When I opened my wool shop back in 2012, I found this company and began to stock their products. Back then there was only a handful of yarns to choose from, but I loved their Bluefaced Leicester Roving and the Aire Valley Fusions Aran and always kept some on the shelf. Since then, WYS has gone from strength to strength and now produce a much wider range of yarns (I'm sure we are all aware of and have probably knitted with their fantastic Signature 4 ply). Everything is produced in their own factory in Yorkshire, with fibre sourced mainly from the UK - a huge plus for me as I love to buy British where I can.

One of the Signature 4 Ply ranges

Another plus for me is that everyone I deal with from Julie the Rep, or anyone else in the factory or office is so helpful, chatty and appreciative of their customers, even when the order is only a couple of patterns - good customer service is a must for me, and at WYS is it great..

Recently, I have bought in three new yarns from WYS - Exquisite Lace (it really is!), Wensleydale Gems (a range of the brightest, beautifullest 100% Wensleydale yarn) and Bo Peep Luxury Baby Yarn, and I have to say I cannot find anything but great things to say about each yarn. Pattern support is fabulous, with patterns for garments as well as smaller accessories all available. 

Exquisite Lace

Wensleydale Gems

I am eyeing up the Gems in Amber colour for a Jasmine shawl, once I've finished my latest pair of Signature socks!

Jasmine Shawl

If you are interested in any of these products, they are available at LoobyLou Yarns I also have the patterns for each yarn in stock too....!

Bo Peep Pattern Book (22 beautiful baby and toddler patterns)

I am such a fan of these yarns, if I ever had another bricks and mortar yarn shop then I would fill it with one of everything West Yorkshire Spinners makes - then everyone could have a try and see if they like it as much as I do.

I'm off now to finish my socks so I can get started on the shawl...never mind all the other unfinished projects I have, or all the spinning I need to do, I need to knit with Amber!!

Happy knitting everyone

Tina xx

From Shearing to Shawl....

The Three Amigos

Last year, I became the proud owner of three Alpacas and before I brought them home, I helped out with their shearing at Bird Farm Alpacas. I had great fun getting hands on with them, and to top it all I came away with their fleeces to process.

Daphers

I started with Daphne's fleece, and when I began to sort it, I found a fair amount of a lovely peachy beige fleece amongst the white - when she came to live with me I realised she had a golden patch on her back which had given me this lovely colour. So I picked it out and processed it separately, and ended up with a lovely big batt of honey coloured soft fluffy cloud.

My daughter helping to sort...

Once it was washed, dried and carded I spun it up as finely as I could (not easy for me!) but I ended up with 430 metres of almost 4 ply with a few bits of added texture. Enough for a fairly big shawl, not enough for a garment. I wanted something simple to show off the yarn and spent days searching for the right pattern but couldnt find anything that I felt was correct, or that I had enough meterage for. There was plenty of smaller patterns but I wanted to use every last bit of Daphne and not waste any!

The finished yarn

So in the end I just cast on three stitches and started to increase, then added some sections of yarn over knit two together followed by stocking stitch, and knitted until I ran out of yarn. And I am so pleased with the result - my Daphne Shawl. Simple but pretty, you can see the texture and colour of the yarn - and its so so soft. Daphne was a pleasure to work with and I'm sure she will be a pleasure to wear although I'm not trying it now with the little heatwave we are having!  I am sure she will be worn a lot in the winter though....

The finished Daphne Shawl

 So now I have Daphnes' white fleece ready to spin, and already have a request for a Daphne shawl in white so I had better get spinning I think!

Carding Daphnes white fleece

Ready for spinning!

 I hope you are ll enjoying the warmth at the moment, and hope you are not too hot to knit/crochet/spin etc. I've found a little shady spot in the garden that is perfect and is where I am off to now...

Happy making, and thanks for reading

Tina xx

Handspun Yarn

I've been spinning quite a bit lately, and the more I spin the more I love doing it. Its so rhythmic and gentle that you can't help relax and enjoy it. I can even watch a little bit of TV now, once I've got used to the feel of the fibre and how its spinning up. 

I just thought I'd share with you some of my latest creations. Probably two years ago I went to a show and bought a bag full of odds and ends of Merino - I had no idea what was inside the sealed bag but it was going fairly cheap and I couldn't leave it there. Since then it has sat on a shelf in the shop stockroom, moved to Wales with me and sat on a shelf in the craft room. I decided it was time to do something with it, so I opened it and found a whole mish mash of colours in varying amounts. Some of it was a yukky brown which really was too yukky to use but the rest was a mixture of colours with a whole lot of black there too.


 I decided to spin the black first to see how much there was, and then I spun all the small amounts of colours onto one bobbin - they looked so pretty and I realised that plied with the black they would look lovely, and I was right! A little skein of rainbow yarn that looks just like Liquorice allsorts - beautiful. I wish I had had more of the colours to make more of this - so bright and cheerful I really like it. 

Next I had to use up a whole load of red fleece, so I spun this and also plied it with the black. Such a contrast with the red against the black, actually quite stunning if you like bold and brassy! I am a fan of red, so I love it.

With all the black used up, I turned my attention to the navy blue. As I loved the contrast of the red and black, I thought I would try another bright combination and so I used up the white and the silver fleece and plied it with the navy. Again, such a stark contrast made for a lovely bold effect. 

I'm loving all these bold contrasts, and am thinking that this is where I may head for most of the yarn that I make. Not to say I won't be spinning up some other colour ways - its Wonderwool in a few weeks time and who knows what delights I will come away with from there. And there's also all my alpaca fleeces - natural colours only for those beauties, but I shall also be on the look out for bright bold coloured fleeces to contrast each other once spun into yarn. 

All of my handspun yarn is available on this website with more being added all the time now. I just hope you like it as much as I do! 

Happy knitting/crocheting/spinning/making

Tina xx

A new home for the Alpacas...

So my Alpacas came to live with me last August, in my own little field at the back of the house which was just amazing to be able to go down the path and be there with them. I really was living my dream! 

Unfortunately, the water board dug up the road in front of us and this seems to have changed the water drainage from the mountain and now my little piece of heaven is a flooded muddy brown slippery mess that is not capable of sustaining any sort of livestock on it. 

I had to move the Alpacas pretty quickly as I was concerned about them slipping and hurting themselves and so managed to get a field just down the lane - sadly the farmer put her rental prices up so high that I had to look again and luckily the lovely farmers from the neighbouring pig farm offered to over winter them in one of their fields. So that's where they have been since last November, with the knowledge that this was just a temporary home for them. A bit of a trek down to the field twice a day but over the winter it has been really lovely to get up and get the fresh morning air on my face and start the day with a walk (I've even enjoyed walking down there in the rain, wind and snow!)

Now though, Liz and Andy need their field back and so I have been looking for somewhere else for my fluffy little ones to live. As luck would have it, another really lovely person who has been looking after a smallholding nearby has let me have use of the fields, stables and yard that she has been caring for....stables and a yard - total luxury! No more climbing over a barbed wire fence to get water from the stream, and a place to lock the silly Alpacas in if there's frost or snow (they sleep out in all weathers and you can tell - they are all so so very dirty!)

Look at the state of him!!

There's a couple of downsides - the farm is even further away than the current field, not really a problem as I walk past it every day with the dogs, but it does mean I can't just 'pop' to see the Alpacas, and the fields have been a little neglected and the drainage is very bad so they are quite wet. However, there's lots of grass and I can move them off if its too wet into the stable yard, where they will be safe and dry. 

The upsides are plenty: Dry areas, a stable, running water, storage for food and hay (I have to carry it with me at the moment), plenty of grazing, and a pretty badger faced sheep called Maggie who already lives there! I can't wait to get them up there, get them dry and see how much they like it. AND (and this is the best news!) I can have MORE ALPACAS there if I want to!!!!! (and oh yes, I really want to!) So watch this space - if it turns out to be suitable for Alpacas, I might just get two more............I'm excited even thinking about the possibility!!

I'll post some photos when they are there, but for now here are some pictures of the new fields and stables..

Lots of love
Tina xx

Spinning....

At last things are beginning to settle down and I have found even some more time to spin (Yay)

I've had a lovely stash of fibre just waiting for ages to be made into yarn, so I have been totally in my element making a dent in it - I'm about a quarter of the way through and am determined to get it all done before we get some dry weather, as then I will be making a start on my alpaca fleeces, and once I start on them I doubt I will have time for anything else for a while.

I have decided through my choice of fibres to spin that I have quite a colourful taste - although a lot of them don't spin up as I think they will, I have quite a bright 'pile' sat here in front of me and its quite lovely! Its all listed on the website for sale, and I sold two skeins just by putting the photos on Instagram, which for me is amazing as I consider myself to be very new to spinning and I see so many spinners producing such lovely yarn.

I like to keep a little bit of texture in my yarns - there's the odd 'slub' here and there and I think this gives the yarn some added texture and interest. I'm saving up for the equipment to spin art yarn as I really do love the uniqueness of each and every skein.

Anyway, back to this latest batch of yarn - I learnt to Navaho or Chain ply, which is a technique to make a three ply yarn from a single ply, and is also used to create colour effects with multi coloured fibre. None of the skeins listed are Navaho plied, as I got the technique but not the tension......I now have a couple of skeins of really really twisted yarn that I either need to rescue or throw out for the birds!!

In my last blog I showed you some colourful fibre that I was about to spin - here it is all sun, washed and skeined and ready to go into the shop

I'm off now to start on some more spinning, so I hope you are all doing what you like to do the most too..

Happy knitting/spinning/crocheting or other stuff (ing)!

Tina xx

Some Spinning......finally!

At last I have found some time to sit down and concentrate on some spinning. Its only when I actually get some serious spinning time in that I realise just how much I miss it when I'm not doing it!

I had a beautiful batt of peacock blue fibre mixed with black, purple and sparkly that I have been looking at longingly since I bought it - and when I started spinning it I was delighted with the effect  I was seeing on my bobbin. Sometimes you lose a lot of the vibrancy of the colours, but this one was spinning up beautifully.

                           

The finished item is just lovely. I don't profess to be an expert spinner and my yarns are not always 100 percent even, but I personally love the slight variations in the texture of hand spun yarns. Especially mine! This one is waiting to be washed and will then go onto the website for sale, I am sure it will make a really pretty something!

                                 

I am now spinning up a batt of rainbow colour merino and hoping I'm as pleased with this one as I am with the peacock sparkle.

Happy knitting (spinning, crocheting or whatever you are crafting at today)

Tina x