Did I say Spring???

Well, it's surely not summer--it's closer to winter. This picture of "Mother Earth and Earth Dog" was taken by a friend who lives only 10 miles east and went outside to play in the 4 inches of snow that came down at her house yesterday!  Here on the farm, the yearling girls were out early and cushing together on their hill, but when the snow started, back to the shelters they went! It snowed on the farm, but didn't lay, but it was cold and windy.

But tulips and daffodils have made their way out of the mud and  I'm sure will be blooming in a couple of weeks. It's sunny today, but supposed to be rainy for the next few days. Don't know when I'll be able to shear. Last year it wasn't until the third week in June and it may be that late again if spring keeps coming in so reluctantly!

I'm getting ready to head north to a fiber festival in Fairfield (South Spokane) Washington on May 7. Will be taking roving, alpaca socks, alpaca yarns and other miscellaneous things of interest to fiber folks.

Today as I worked down at the Artisan Barn studio, I plied two bobbins of alpaca--one a darker gray huacaya and the other a white suri. I have to take it off the plying bobbin and wash it tonight. Can't decide if I'll try to sell it or use it myself for a cowl--what I had in mind originally.

In the meantime, I'm working on a beaded lace shawl with 100 percent baby alpaca--it's Alpaca Cloud in Raspberry from KnitPicks and the beads match perfectly. The pattern is a lace sampler and its fun to see the different lace patterns take shape and decide where I'll add the beads.

A Happy Easter to all!

Girl Scouts Visit!

On two different Saturdays this month, I hosted Girl Scouts--a local troop from Moscow, ID, and one from Spokane, WA. I was ready to greet the girls and leaders with two of my yearling girls haltered--Leyla, my black yearling who loves to get petted and will give kisses, and Madison, a white girl who is almost as friendly. "How cute they are!" was the first thing the girls said on climbing out of the cars.

The girls took turns leading Madison and Leyla as we walked to visit the yearling boys' pen. Naturally, the favorite was Miguel (below). They looked at alpaca's feet (which have soft pads and nails, like dogs') and in their mouths (which have teeth in front only on the bottom with a plate on top). Then we walked up to the adult females and provided them with alfalfa treats. The girls thought their hands were being tickled as the alpacas gently took the treats from outstretched hands with their top lips.

The girls were able to learn that alpacas, while not llamas, are in the same family of camelids. Kathryn, the llama, was happy to get some treats, as were the bigger herdsires. They were able to pick out the one huacaya alpaca in the herd (in the picture to the right--the caramel colored girl with white chin and a "do"!) They thought that Leroy, the gelding, had true attitude as he kept his ears back until they held out treats for him!

After the girls searched for eggs and admired the young pullets, they gathered around two tables in the garage and made zipper pulls with felted alpaca fiber balls. I had dyed the alpaca fiber earlier with Kool-Aid (see the picture below). One of the girls said the purple fiber still smelled like grape! They used needles, beads, embroidery thread, glue, and sequins to decorate their projects.

They learned about how fiber is made into yarn and got to see what suri fiber looks like when it has been sheared off the alpaca and is ready to skirt (clean out the veggie matter and short pieces) and to turn the carder.

The girls had cake and lemonade and they made me a gift of Girl Scout cookies. How I remember the days when I sold them! They got an alpaca maze, some alpaca puzzles and an information sheet to take home.

We made a tour of my garden where they picked and ate fresh green beans, gathered crookneck squash and tomatoes to take home. One of them remembered how I had offered them each a ziplock back of alpaca poop!to take home, since it is such great fertilizer. We tramped up to the manure pile and the youngest girls had a great time dancing on top of the manure pile--you never know what might really capture the attention of your visitors!! We all enjoyed ourselves!