Knitting, knitting, knitting...

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!!

Our New Little Girl!!

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.

Cute as a button, though. I was holding her today, she is so fluffy and was snuggling into me. I'm sure she loves me the best...

I asked for a white female cria - gotta say I am very happy with the results!! Hopefully everything will work out OK for both of them.

Store Update and...a BABY ALPACA !!!

Life is still going by in a blur. But I have managed a store update and major etsy store update.

Our lovely female alpaca that we won after buying one ticket IN A RAFFLE last year (!) has just given birth to a little white female cria. The new mum, though, is a little bewildered and not letting the little one feed, so with a lot of work and crossed fingers, hopefully things will work out OK. I'm visiting them tomorrow (they are on agistment as we have sold our farm), so there may be some photos in the near future...

Still up to my eyeballs spinning alpaca when I can peel my preschooler off me...

More New Colourways!

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.

There are also some more Bohemian-Style Handspun Yarn skeins to be listed when I next get a few moments.

Back to spinning the alpaca...

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!