Wool Combs

Errr - I've been shopping!  Couldn't live without these Indigo Hound wool combs any longer.  They arrived last week from the USA, and really I don't know how I managed without them.  They're so much better at preparing camel and llama wool than carders.

Lethal Weapons!

This is some llama being combed :-

and then pulled through my home-made milk bottle top diz (basically, a piece of plastic with a hole in it)

To make a perfectly clean (well, almost) length of fibre ready for spinning.

It may not be dramatically faster than using carders, but it's much more satisfying, and the result is so much more professional-looking.  Worth every penny!

Catching Up

Posts have been a bit sparse on here of late, not because I've not been doing anything worth writing about, more because there's just been too much going on.  So, here's what's been happening lately to keep us so busy.

There were gigs to be played :-

Sud Rock Festival

Look at the size of that stage!

Jeff, the bass player was to the right, Steve in the centre, Eric left, and Geoff the drummer is just visible in the background!  It's got to be the largest stage Eric's ever played on.  They had sound engineers too:-

and their own air-conditioned porta-cabin kitted out with settees, cool drinks etc.


The next day we went to visit Sarah and Paul of La Maison des Chameaux, to (finally!!!!) deliver her sweater.  I was a bit worried whether it would still fit her, as she's lost weight since we last saw her.  Luckily, she likes them "sloppy"!

We had a fabulous lunch with them outside in the shade (ankles got bitten to death though!), and ogled their kittens,

Basket of Fun!

My favourite

Their mother was killed on the road last week, so Hershey the dog has adopted them and regularly gives them a good clean and keeps them in order.

She's very protective of them, and sees off any other inquisitive cats.

As usual, it's impossible to visit Sarah and not come away with something.  Like half a ton of camel, llama, alpaca and sheep's wool!

I don't have enough lifetime left to spin all of this!


The cotton bolls are growing like mad - can't be too long now before they start to open.

They're still flowering too

These are such pretty plants, even if you're not interested in spinning the cotton.


This was a little dyeing project I did a while ago.  I found lots of these red dock seeds in and around the garden, and thought there must be some potential for colour.  So I collected them, just put the seeds in a pan of water, and soaked them for a day or two.

The dye was quite a deep colour and I was hopeful it may give a reddish orange.  I mordanted some fleece with alum and cream of tartar and heated it up slowly in the dye bath.  The results weren't quite what I'd expected, but it's still a nice colour.  That's it on the right below, next to a second-dip in the madder dye bath.

2nd dip madder on left, red dock seed on right

My current knitting project, the Buds of May shawl, has reached a standstill - I'm stuck! I'm about 60% through, and the pattern has become quite ambiguous and confusing.  So it's sitting in a bag, abandoned, until I manage to find some time to sit and work it out. This pattern would definitely not suit a beginner.  No photo, because I'm pretty disgusted with it at the moment.


Finally, the garden is producing lots at the moment.  I harvested this lot yesterday.

Yes, there are 26 cucumbers there!  Some of these will be pickled in jars, hopefully today, and I think some chilled cucumber soup is in order.

A few days ago I bottled 15 jars of tomatoes, and the next lot are ready for processing. Then yesterday I was given a large bucket of yellow plums, so they need bottling today too.  Maybe it would be a good idea to get out of bed and get on with it!!

Finally Finished . . . Or is it?

Well, at long last, here is Sarah's sweater all finished :-

As you can see, there are various shades in there (the fleece from 4 camels was all mixed together in the bag and, although I tried to match the same colours, I obviously haven't managed it).  Personally, I don't think it detracts from the whole sweater, and it's nice to think that all the camels have contributed.  But maybe the next one I'll just use one animal (i.e. Talullah the llama, or Brewster the alpaca).

The sleeves look a bit short, but I have tried it on and they should be just the right length. It's probably because the sweater actually turned into a sweater dress - I got carried away knitting the main body!

Anyway, I hope she likes it - it's pretty scary knitting something for a friend, especially when she hasn't had chance to try it on during the project.  Fingers crossed!

So, it's been a longer project than it should have been, but it's finally done . . . although, that neck looks a bit baggy round the edge, maybe I'll just take that bit out and knit the edge a bit tighter!

Projects Progress

Just in case you think we're just sitting here idle since we've been iced-in, you wouldn't be far wrong.  But there has been knitting, and spinning, and planning.

Firstly, I spun the first skein of mohair/silk for my Rowan cardigan.  I weighed out probably a bit more than 100g (70g mohair and 30g silk), and have ended up with 95g, giving me 694 yards (640m).  The cardigan needs less than 1,374 yards, so I reckon if I do another skein of the same weight, I should have enough.

I was very careful not to put too much twist in this while spinning, because I realised it would have to be a single strand, not plied, and I didn't want it to "lean" to one side in the knitting.  When taking it off the bobbin though, I did have 3 or 4 places which were too thin or didn't quite have enough twist, so I ended up knotting those together.  I'll deal with them properly when I'm knitting the cardigan.

The wool has a nice sheen from the silk (which shows up in the second photo), and a bit of fluffiness from the mohair (which you can just see on the first photo) and should be nice to wear next to the skin.  This still has to be dyed, and I'm a bit undecided on the colour.  It will either be blues or pinks, two of my favourite colours, but I just don't know which to choose.

Before I can finish this though, I decided it was time to do some knitting.  I've been promising Sarah (from the Camel Farm) that I'd knit her a camel wool sweater using the wool from her own camels.  As winter is (hopefully!) almost over, I thought I'd better get on with it.  Otherwise she won't get to wear it until next winter.

The wool is spun as chunky, and she decided she wanted a long, baggy sweater with a deep rib and v-neck.  I only had enough wool if I used mainly camel but with alpaca and llama mixed in.  Since these were different colours (Brewster is a bit of a ginger nut, and Tallulah is dark grayish brown), we decided it was best if I spun some more camel and knit it all one colour.

This is as far as I've got so far - 17.5"/45cm, and am almost ready to start the neck decreases.  I have two balls of wool left, so this afternoon's job is to spin this lot :-

which will give me another ball of wool just in time to carry on knitting.  There may be a slight pause while I spin some more though.

Loads'a'Llamas

Yesterday we were invited to go and see some llamas.  Eric had advertised some music equipment on a local website and it turned out that the couple who came to see what he had for sale have 14 llamas (well, some of them are her mother's, but it amounts to the same thing).  They were absolutely gorgeous (especially the two adolescents!) but the sad thing is that they want to sell up and emigrate to Canada, so the llamas will eventually have to be sold.

I thought you might like to see some of the photos I took (not exactly professional, but some of them are amusing).

Ooooer - scary person in the field, we're not going over there!

Cheeeese!!!

Who pinched my llama's head?

Smile for the nice lady!

What nice lady?  Oh, her??

The last two llamas are 14 months old so haven't finished growing yet.

I'd taken my spinning wheel with me, so we took some wool from the brown youngster and I quickly spun a little sample.  It was a bit strawy, but lovely and soft.  They're probably going to be sheared before too long, so may be available to buy.

In the meantime, anyone want to buy a house in France with 14 llamas?

Meet the Animals

Here are the photos I took at La Maison des Chameaux at the weekend.  I still don't know which camel is which, but will put names on if I know them.

This one's definitely Alice because she's the only one who wears a harness :-

The rest of the ladies :-

 

Actually, I don't know if I got each individual camel - someone may have had two photos taken.  There was one who insisted on following me around and posing!

This is Brewster Bob, the alpaca, who simply refused to pose or look at me :-

 

And Talullah (llama) is just about visible at the other side of the field, in the sunshine :-

She wasn't having anything to do with me!

This is one of the Ouessant sheep.  They only grow to about 50cm in height - think they're called Ushant in the UK.

 

Then there are the goats and pigs (these are a cross of Chinese and Vietnamese pot bellied pigs, one of which is very cruelly named "Lardon" - except I know for a fact that it's not going to be eaten!)

And finally this magnificent chap wanders around all day wherever he pleases, keeping his harem in order :-

 

Wish he'd have let me get closer because he really is gorgeous.  Every time I inched a bit nearer, he turned his back on me!!

There were rabbits wandering around, geese (scary!), ducks, hens and, coming soon, silk worms!!  Well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

Well, don't think I'll make photographer of the year - but maybe I should blame the camera!  And, everyone knows you should never work with children and animals!!

Long Time No Speak

We're now entering the second week of our stay in sunny Scotland and Eric's Mum is still in hospital.  The doctor has now told us that there's no way she can go home again, so we are trying to make arrangements for a nursing home.  Not good news, but we know she'll be looked after a lot better there.

The good news is that my spinning wheel came with us this time - didn't have to hide it in the boot as Eric suggested I bring it.  I managed to put quite a bit of stuff through my drum carder before we left home, but have brought the old hand carders just in case I run out.  I'm currently spinning Brewster Bob (he's the cutest alpaca at La Maison des Chameaux, in fact, he's the only alpaca at La Maison! - sorry Brewster, but you are cute anyway!!)  Also brought a bag of llama (from Tallulah), a bag of camel, and some red and blue merino which I need to spin to finish my sweater dress.

Spinning activities happen in the morning, hospital visits in the afternoon (we don't go in the evenings any more as she just gets too tired) and cooking and knitting in the evening.  What an exciting life we have here!

Tomorrow night we're going to the local village pub where some friends are putting on a traditional music night.  Pete, our friend who has a traditional music shop in Stonehaven, has promised to bring a guitar for Eric so he can play a tune or two.  That might come as a bit of a shock to the audience though as he's a rock and blues man!  Should be an interesting night.