Friday, May 14, 2010

Mid May - Where did April Go?

Maybe the less said about April 10 the better. The year of the rotten lambing! Attacks from crows (they deserve the collective - "a murder of crows"!), accidental death, mismothering, poor grass etc, etc. Having said that, the Anglsey Easies were indeed easy with very good performance despite all the adversity - that is until this week when one precocious lamb started leading the flock through gaps in the hedgerow into the neighbors field, gaps that appeared as the weeks and other wild stuff didn't materialise - largely due to the dryness (yes, dryness) of the soil generally.
Some plants died (a constantly flowering Wallflower bush for one) while others benefited - so few slugs and snails that the Hostas are having a holiday.
The raw Alpaca fleece arrived finally due to the good will of Irene, Mary and Joan but it it a daunting project indeed, even more so than last year:
Alpaca raw fleece 2010
But some progress is made:
Alpaca raw fleece 2010
And:
Alpaca raw fleece 2010
This accounts for about 1/2 the usable stuff (a lot is going into the waste) - the rest hangs there waiting.
One good thing - it seems less smelly and dusty this time which is good as I recently had an allergic sking reaction to lamb's pee pee - the little devil relieved herself while I was carrying her across my chest. I suppose this is a form of ammonical dermatitis - aka nappy rash. It's gone now I'm glad to say.

My Falling Leaves shawl returned along with the Alpaca and I was finally able to add a picot edge to the neck and front sides. It works well 'though the photos are not great (as usual :).
:
Falling leaves shawl
Falling leaves shawl

Rocket flower yarn is back in action as I decided to make the Miss Potter fingerless gloves with it (the rest of this yarn went to a shawl and a scarf). Decided to make them 2-ply so had to run the single back through the wheel - S wise - then ply Z wise;
Miss Potter Fingerless
Only one done so far.

Meanwhile, continue to spin Frekkie 09 fleece - worsted single from the long part and fat 2-ply from the short stuff. Got about 1,600 yards of the worsted, much less of the woolen so far - probably for a woven project - but not sure yet.

Anyway - more stuff later if I get a chance.

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3 comments:

Irene said...

OH! How I love it found you and that it is less messy than last year!!! The bad news is that I found the shawl pin at the bottom of my bag the other day. An Post does work and I will get to them too!!!

I have missed you! Really glad to see that you are back on the blog and that you came out on the other side of lambing mishaps!

Big hug, hon!

Lindy said...

The Miss Potter turned out really well! It is a good pattern for that hand-painted yarn. I love the colours!

Catherine said...

Ah Lindy, enabling away, I'm glad to say :)