Fiber Arts Friday: Some Progress

With getting our puppy last weekend I didn't expect to have much fiber time this week, however I did managed to squeeze in a little.

I wound the second skein of Aspen and promptly started knitting with it.  In my sleep-deprived state, I forgot to take a photo of the finished skein.  So here's a photo of the little bit of knitting I accomplished this week.

The bit to the left of the blue marker is the second skein which I spun thinner than the first.  It's much closer to the gauge I intended for the first skein.  :-/

I look forward to the day where I can spin what I want when I want.  I know that will come with practice, but geez, it's frustrating sometimes. 

Anyway, I might be fooling myself here, but I don't think the transition between the two skeins is visually apparent in the pattern.  But I can feel the difference and the color seems more blue to the right and green to the left.  So I am having thoughts of starting over and using only the second skein.

With the smaller gauge, the second skein is more than long enough to cover the complete pattern.  However, as I mentioned I have been a bit sleep deprived so I may hold off on making that decision.

In the meantime, it's Fiber Arts Friday so please join me and head over to Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see what all of the fabulous fiber artist have been up to.

Alpaca Wrestling

It was such a beautiful day at home in Colorado today.  So The LGD Puppy, The Alpaca Dog and I decided to sit in the yard outside the girls' corral and soak up a bit of sunshine.

The puppy has been saying hello to the alpacas for the last several days and so I was hoping I would be able to capture that with my camera.

Instead, Daisy was feeling feisty and got Frieda to wrestle with her.

Introducing: KayaKyi Annapurna

Hubba and I picked up our Livestock Guardian Puppy yesterday.  She is a 12-week old Tibetan Mastiff.

She's a big girl and quite a lot bigger than when we saw her about a month ago.

Yesterday was all about making sure she had a safe and uneventful ride home as well as a smooth introduction to The Alpaca Dog.

We had been telling him for weeks that we were going to get him a sister, but it certainly didn't set in until now.

They took a little time getting to know each other and were playing before too long.

We did not formally introduce the puppy and the alpacas.  We decided they should watch the doggie introductions and take some time to get comfortable with the idea of another dog around first.

Our breeder is KayaKyi Tibetan Mastiffs.  Our puppy's fancy name is KayaKyi Annapurna.  We are calling her Wonton.

Fiber Arts Friday: Spinning Aspen, part 2

Finally, I have finished spinning the second skein of Aspen.  :-)

My immediate reaction when the roving arrived is that it looks more green than the first skein.


Lot #1 knit up on the left, Lot #2 prior to spinning on right

But I think it will be fine...

... the colors match pretty well.  So I plan to start knitting where the colors match the closest.

In other news: we get our puppy* today!  So I'm not sure how much progress I'll make on fiber stuff for the next few weeks.  I'm so excited!

Be sure to check out the all of the fiber fun going on at Wisdom Begins in Wonder's Fiber Arts Friday linky party.

* Updated: corrected puppy link

Helping Out

These are three of our offspring... Alpacamundo's Daisy, Frieda and Big Thompson.


 Daisy and Frieda are half-siblings as are Frieda and Big Thompson... three generations of Alpacamundo Crias.  :-)

It just cracks me up.  These three are like a little gang.  They are the first to check out what's going on and they always go together.

If you look very carefully, you can see the Alpaca Dog is just outside the corral waiting for his friends to come out and play.

I'm not sure what Big Thompson will do when we wean him next month and he has to move in with the little boys.

Friends

The Alpaca Dog loves our neighbor's dogs.  He will sit out while we're doing alpaca chores and watch their yard hoping they will come out to play.

He would play this game all day if he could.

One Small Change: December, January, February and March

It's been a while since I've posted about our Small Changes, but that doesn't mean we haven't been thinking about our environment or making any progress toward reducing our footprint.  So here's a recap for December, January and February as well as a plan for March.

Thermostat: We have been very successful at holding the house temperature to 60 degrees F.  Our beds have extra blankets on them, we wear extra layers and each have a blanket for lounging.  We often wear a (hand knit by me) hat in the house too.  A couple of days when the temperatures were extremely cold  (-15F) we talked about raising the thermostat, but didn't and our energy bills have rewarded us in a big way.

Hair Color: I have been coloring my hair for nearly 20 years.  I love the brightness fresh highlights can give, especially in the spring and the dead of winter.  But last time I got my hair cut, I did not have any highlights added.  I had been thinking about foregoing the color for a year or so and letting my hair grow out.  So who knows?  I may change my mind once all of the highlights have been cut out, but for now I'm enjoying the natural color and grey that is plentiful.

Paper Plates:  We had bought a huge stack of paper plates for a series of parties we had last spring and summer and since they were around we were using them for regular meals.  Then it seemed we were buying and using paper plates a lot.  Eventually we ran out several weeks before we were able to get to the warehouse store.  I decided I wasn't going to buy them.  Hubba questioned it when we passed them then decided he didn't like the idea of throwing them out either.

For March:  Mending Clothes

The zipper has broken on one of Hubba's vests, I have a few small holes in a sweater and I've noticed some socks that could benefit from a little darning.

I remember my Grandmother being a wiz at these sort of mundane tasks.  But me on the other hand... well, I can replace buttons with the best of them, but when it comes to zippers and darning I have a few things to learn.  March seems like the perfect time to get started.  :-)

If you're interested in seeing what others are doing to improve their affect on our environment or would like to participate, please head over to the One Small Change Blog, new folks are always welcome.