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
This is Autumn, my Alpaca. Autumn and Daphne came me to live with me last August from Bird Farm Alpacas in Lampeter. I have known Emma and Rodney for some time and when I moved to Wales, only an hour from where they live I visited regularly and decided I wanted some Alpacas of my own.
After lots of thought, meeting and greeting and discussions with Emma, I chose two ladies. Autumn and Daphne
Autumn has a skin condition where she loses hair on her ears, legs, nose and eyes and despite years of tests, treatment, trials, love and medicines by Emma she still had bald ears and puffy eyelids and a bald spot on her nose. You can see in the photos below how she looked....
What attracted me to Autumn was not her looks, but her peaceful manner and total acceptance of the ear washing and cream application, even though she hated it. And bless her, I loved how daft she looked with sudocreme on her ears and nose!
Since she has been with me, I have continued the treatment - washing with a mild antiseptic, drying and applying some sort of barrier cream every two to three days. In November I had to move them to a field a bit further away where warm water was not available, and so, in January I changed my treatment of Autumns skin. I thought that with treatment there was no change for the better, so how about leaving it untreated for a while and see what happens........and look at what has happened! The main photo shows Autumn with eyelashes and a furry nose, she looks so pretty now!I Unfortunately her ears are still totally hairless, but at least her face looks beautiful now, and I am hoping this hair growth will last - Emma thinks she is better suited to the damper conditions of winter, so we will see as the weather gets better what happens. But for now, I am over the moon happy with her pretty eyes :-)
I have added a photo of Daphne - my other wonky Alpaca, she had severe hip damage last year when she was kicked by a horse, but still managed to produce little Gus with no problem. She walks with a slight 'gait' now and has one really sticky up hip bone but is otherwise fit and healthy. She has a lovely nature, quite bossy and definitely not scared of human contact when its food time and I love her to bits. I'm going to start halter training her soon, can you imagine how funny it would be to take her for a walk through the village.........!
How did I ever get by without Alpacas in my life I'll never know, but these two lovelies make me smile every day (yes, even when I'm picking up their poo and its pouring with rain and I never get a lie in bed!)
I have their fleeces from last year which I am about to process, so I will post some photos when I'm doing it!
Have a great day
Tina x
Happy New Year!!
Yes I know its February, but I am struggling to work out just where January went to! it seems to me that time flies by faster and faster......not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it does mean its 98 days since I last blogged so it is about time I did.Since my last blog, Christmas has been and gone - all the children and their partners were here as well as my Cousin, his wife and two babies so we had a really busy but lovely time. Being here in Wales with all the visitors plus I was quite poorly for most of it with sinusitis, meant I didn't make it back to Thornbury over the holidays which I am sad about as its weird not seeing my Mum at Christmas. Also only having one car made it almost impossible to go anywhere as hubby needs it daily for work. But now, I have stopped my part time jobs away from the house and have a new (to me) car, hopefully I can make more time for family back in Thornbury.About my new car.......Please can someone keep reminding me NEVER to 'just go and have a look' at cars? Because as you can see from the photo below, I went to have a look and came back with a beautiful green VW Beetle Convertible. Its so lovely. But I live in Wales. At the foot of a 1000m mountain that holds the rainclouds. And I bought a convertible?!? But it is a thing of beauty and hopefully I shall get the chance to put the roof down a few times this summer......
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| Betty Von Beetle |
In other news, I totally redecorated the second bedroom - we found an original fireplace which we have restored to full working order, but I haven't used it yet as the refurbished fire surround is so pretty I don't want to make it dirty just yet!
We also had snow! Not much in the garden, but up on the mountain was more snow than I've ever seen before - way up past my knees. I can't tell you how exciting it was, and I am hoping for it to snow again so I can go and play some more.
The mountain is good for snow, not so good for all the rain......Luckily I managed to get the Alpacas a winter coat and get them on the day before it snowed! They actually look quite cool in their new coats, and I'm a lot happier that they are staying a bit drier and warmer.
So I'm hoping for one more snow storm, then I really can't wait for Springtime......light mornings and evenings, new growth in the garden and a bit of warmth outside. Here's a little glimpse I found in the garden the other day.....
I hope you've all managed to get in a bit more knitting than I have these couple of months. I did manage to finish an order for four pairs of socks in time for Christmas (Phew) and so have started a couple of new projects and started to finish some WIPs I have...Have a lovely FebruaryTina xxx
