Here are some yarn photos for Jan to peek at. This is "Tree Shadow" handspun merino yarn. Back to the spinning wheel tonight... while watching a repeat of the great TV art show "Star Portraits," with Rolf Harris. I have seen the series before, but loved it. Good spinning viewing!!
I have been knitting these socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn in the purple iris colourway. They are a combination of components of socks in "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. I have been using the wonderful stitchkeepers which I got from The Loopy Ewe - thanks to Sheri for matching the colour of my stitchkeepers with the sock yarn!! Nice touch!!
Shearing day at Alleena Alpaca Stud was VERY busy and thoroughly enjoyable. I managed to go home with bags more fleece - I only brought home really lovely quality fleece to play with -bad alpaca fleece is pretty nasty stuff to mess with, in my opinion. The shorn alpacas look funny with their fluffy heads, especially the babies.
My extravangant order from The Loopy Ewe came - lovingly undone and rummaged through by Customs, with pamphlets from Australian Quarantine and all squished up again with sticky tape - THANKS CUSTOMS!!
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Sage - I LOVE this colour...
Indian Summer Supersock Yarn by Cherry Tree Hill, Louet Gems in scrummy Cranberry...
Blue Faced Leicester Fingering Weight Yarn by Gypsy Knits in Lavendar Blue pictured with laceweight 100% silk Schaefer Yarn Andrea in Dian Fossey colourway...
WPI Tool from Nancy's Knit Knacks - I already have one of these but wanted a couple dotted around the house near my various wheels as I use them all the time. If you are a spinner, these are great and come with a handy little yarn classification chart (You could make you own, of course...)
And stitckeepers for my sock dpn needles - these are great little doovers - much more effective than the little rubbery thingies I have been using previously, and safer for little kiddies who like to delve into knitting bags, as they cover the points. 
Oh, how I loved spinning this BFL yarn! The long fibres just glided through my hands. It was effortless to spin, and is a soft delight to squish. This is my "Freedom Cry" colourway, spun 2 ply in sport weight. There is still some more left to ply, when my little one isn't so demanding due to this nasty flu THAT WON'T GO AWAY. I have had a little preschool-sized body attached to my legs for a fortnight!
I have succumbed. I placed a SOMEWHAT TOO LARGE order with Sheri at The Loopy Ewe for some patterns and scrumdidly yarn. Sheri has very politely been answering my 101 emailed questions, and has a nice range of yarns and other items. US$16 flat postage fee to Australia, and she offers some nice perks for returning customers. Certainly worth a lookie-see.
About a year ago, just as we were selling our small farm, I won a lovely female alpaca in a raffle, of all things! No, not a frozen chook, or a meat tray, but a live alpaca!! Since then, that special alpaca had a female babe, and we have them on agistment. It was a nice way to ease out of the farm (although I still would like another farm in the future!), and was obviously meant to be, as I have been interested in alpacas since they started being imported into Australia when I was a teenager.
A lovely friend has just given me mountains of alpaca fleeces, some of which are short but extremely soft cria fleeces. I had to refuse bags of the stuff, but my garage is still packed to the ceiling. There will be LOTS of carding and spinning of those fleeces soon. At the moment I am still getting through the alpaca fleeces I am spinning for a customer. I'm surrounded by mountains of alpaca fibre!! 
I have listed some new fibres from the dyepot - this scrumdidly sooper-squishulated Blue-Faced Leicester, above in the "Freedom Cry" colourway, is gorgeous, with a nice long staple. Lurvely. There are some other colours listed too, and some merino. Also the odd yarn. Listed on the webstore and etsy. 
I've been pottering around in my studio dyeing some yarn and fibres - it has been a while since I have been able to get away from the kids. Even though my studio is very well ventilated, I don't like the idea of them breathing in any of the nasty fumes. 
More fibrey goodies (NAUGHTY!!!). Humbug BFL and silk roving (top left), humbug shetland (top centre), humbug BFL (top right) and humbug jacob roving (bottom of top photo). The jacob, in particular, is calling my name. I've been wanting to try the wool of this sheep breed since I was about 14 years old reading up on sheep books. (Weird adolescent?? or die-hard fibre-holic??) MUST GET SOME SPINNING ACTION HAPPENING SOON!! 
Above is evidence of cardigan knitting action, a top priority due to the COLD weather and COLD house. More info soon. 
I realised Friday night that I had no beanie to wear while watching my kids play Aussie Rules footy on Saturday morning. The games were out at Richmond where the wind blows over mountains (and any snow that has fallen around Oberon and Orange) right into our faces at the footy field. A cold day was predicted by the weather bureau, and I remembered last time I was there on such a day it was bitterly cold. Therefore I stayed up very late Friday frantically knitting myself a beanie - the rest of the family already had one each.
I have gone mad acquiring different wool samples to use when doing the guild spinning competence course (however, that may be just an excuse to buy the stuff...) I like the idea of working through a programme to make sure I try out lots of fibres and ideas. A nice challenge, perhaps not as much as the challenge of actually making the time to do it in between family commitments and house renovations! Anyhoo, the intention is there...
Above are some of the fibres I have been enjoying lately - the brown yarn is some handspun alpaca that I am spinning for a customer. The white roving on the left is blue faced leicester (mmm) and the white roving on the right is wensleydale, which I can't wait to see once it is dyed - such long fibres, too. More therapeutic fibres making their way here in the next week or so. I am fascinated by all the different fleece characteristics of different sheep breeds, and other natural fibres as well. Love it!!
Hi all.
I am totally addicted to knitting this jumper - "Sahara" from Stitch Diva. I'm knitting it in Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply machine washable pure wool Classic, colour shade "Spinifex". It will be a nice, not totally soft (! I don't mind a bit of itchy scratch - I WILL NOT wear acrylic as it makes me feel ill) garden variety jumper for me this winter. I am casting off the diamond rib pattern at the bottom and am ready to start the sleeves. The cold weather has hit here in the mornings, although the middle of the day is gorgeous, so I'm knitting like a maniac. My WIP is beautifully styled here with my youngest daughter's Bed Teddy and Bertie the Bus.
Have got to say, I am a total convert to this top down seamless garment knitting. Quite some time ago I bought Barbara Walker's book "Knitting from the Top", and have only just started ploughing through it. Fabulous!!
This is our new little petal born two days ago. Her neck has been shaved so that the vet could rehydrate her as her mum won't let her feed. We now have to hold the mum everytime the baby wants a drink of milk! Hopefully the mother will get the hang of it soon, at the moment it is kick-spit-kick-spit!! and the baby needs to be a little more pushy about feeding too! The mother is a bit sore from the whole ordeal. 
I have just listed some new colourways of 4 ply handpainted superwash merino yarn on our webstore page. I haven't yet listed them on etsy, but may when the mood takes me! There are also some mis-dyed skeins, aka "Science Experiments 1-3" which are available heavily discounted. 
I'm up to my eyeballs in alpaca fibre which I am custom spinning. Lovely white, choc brown and black. There is a lot of grass in the brown fleece - the alpacas love to roll around, so the fleece can pick up all sorts of bits and pieces. Needless to say, shearing is usually done before the grass burrs arrive. And dust! Worse than usual, of course, due to the drought. Luckily, I don't usually react to the dust when carding or spinning.
This straight kind of spinning is nice when I need to turn off the brain and just spin, spin, spin. It is fluid, unlike when spinning some of my other yarns. Therapy!
I have been busy filling custom orders for handpainted yarns, amongst other things. Here is a small sample of the dyeing I have been doing. New colourways have been added to the webstore page, with more to come in the next week or so. Most of the yarns I have dyed are sold already, so I'll list more on the store in the next week or so. I LOVE working with colour and coming up with new combinations. 
