Harvesting the Fiber~ guest blogger Andee

For those of you who don't know. My parents have an alpaca farm. I help out on the farm with chores. I love being around the alpacas. Last week my parents headed to Las Vegas for an alpaca auction. While they were gone my sisters and I chipped in our time to care for the herd. I was in charge of morning feedings and cleaning the pens. All was going well until we got hit by a huge snow storm!  My parents flight was canceled and they were stuck in Vegas.

I had been getting up all week at 6 am to hit the gym for an hour, then to the farm to feed. Then got back home to get the kids off to school. Then back to the farm to clean pens, then back home to work and take care of my husband (who just had shoulder surgery).

After seven days of this I was SOOO exhausted and could barely stand up to move from the couch. I felt like I was a contestant on the Biggest Looser. I was getting quite a work out. I felt like I deserved a Biggest Looser Weigh in today. I was ready to stand up on the scale this morning and watch the weight tick away to reveal I lost 8 lbs. Woo Hoo. I really did work my butt off this week. But now my parents are home and I hopefully will have more time to relax and knit.

I have really enjoyed working on my Spire. I took a little brake from it to work out a new pattern. I just ordered 1600 yards of Loft for it :) Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time swatching and writing patterns and I have nothing to show for it :( I'm going to try to get as much done on my Spire before my new yarn comes. I got a notice it shipped today, so I better knit faster!

I feel like this looks much cooler in person than it does in pictures.

I'm not sure how well it comes across on the computer, but I am really happy with it in person.

The colors didn't completely fade smoothly, but I really like it.

I inserted two strands of waste yarn at two points.

I am thinking about opening it up so I can wear this as a cardigan / vest.

It will be an heirloom Snuggy.

 

I think I'll get more use out of it if I can wear it. I will decide after I block it.

If I don't want to make the arm holes I'll just graft the row back together, otherwise I'll work some

knitting magic to make nice arm holes.

 

And since I went on so much about the farm in the beginning of this post.

I thought I should include some farm shots I took with my cell phone.

It has been tooooooo cold to carry around my good camera.

 

 

I shoveled walk ways in each of the fields so the alpacas could walk in lighter snow.

At one point four of them were laying in one of the walkways head to tail. They looked like

the alpaca bobsledding team. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture.

 

Kigo found a nice warm spot in the barn.

 

In other exciting news we bought a travel trailer. I claimed my knitting spot!

I can't wait for it to warm up and we'll be off camping.

I see weeks of traveling, knitting and photography in my near future.

I can't wait!