Saturday, September 24, 2011

Fall is Here!

Fall has arrived, and brought beautiful weather, at least in central Michigan!

I had a great day today at the Meridian Heritage Festival in Haslett.  There were tons of visitors, and I sold quite a few items!  I'm back tomorrow for the last crafters market of the season.  Here's a couple photos of my display today.  The wind wasn't very cooperative, but eventually I got everything to stay put and not fly away!



I was hoping to have llama news to report, but our truck broke down last weekend, so we couldn't pick up my new little gelding!  So my parents are going next weekend to get him at the HLAA Fall Show, where he is being shown by his breeder.  I'm hoping he will finish his ALSA Halter Champion!

I do have puppy news as promised though!!  I found a litter in north-central Michigan, and went to take a look today.  The parents are fabulous dogs, and the puppies are adorable!  I picked out a gorgeous little girl, who will be coming home with me in two weeks!  Now I have to do a lot of shopping and pick out a name!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

End of the Show Season & Other News

Wow, I'm terrible at maintaining this blog!  I promise to get better, now that my life has calmed down a bit. This post is going to be very random, but I wanted to update everything that's going on around the farm!

First, pictures of some of my state fair entries!  Too much stuff to take individual pictures with ribbons, but you get the idea.
Handspun yarn & the pile of ribbons!

Felted & embroidered hat, handspun earband, and felted wreath.

Felted bag & flower.

Handspun shawl.

Next, onto some recent knitting projects.  First is a set of convertible mittens for my boyfriend.  This was the first pattern that I heavily modified, and I really live how they turned out!  Even more important, he loved them!!

The roving below is yak and merino...gorgeous stuff purchased from the Trading Post Fiber Shop in Pendleton, IN.  It is my current spinning project, which I will finally get to finish this weekend at the Pioneer Fair!

***Shameless plug:  If you're in the central Indiana area this weekend, come check out the Pioneer Fair at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.  Lots of people demonstrating pioneer crafts and other activities!  Special kids' activities throughout the day!***

And last but not least, a gorgeous silk/merino shawl that I knit.  It didn't end up as big as I was hoping for, but hopefully blocking will stretch it out somewhat.


 Now we'll move on to some farm news...

LamaFest was a ton of fun over Labor Day weekend.  Ralph and Annie came up to Lansing, and showed for 2 long days.  Ralph did very well for himself in the novice performance classes, but didn't quite place.  He was also last in halter!  Annie behaved very well on Saturday, but decided that a double show was too much stress, so Sunday wasn't quite as smooth!  She placed in halter and adult showmanship both days.

The best news from the show is that I'm adding a new little llama to the herd!  CNS Mr. T is coming from Chip N Seal Farm in Rushville.  He's a yearling gelding, and is going to be my newest show llama!  He already has quite a record in halter...almost has his Champion!  Hopefully I can finish that and his ROM next year, as well as get him used to performance and ground driving.  I have big plans for this little guy!  We're going to pick him up on Saturday evening, so more pics to come next week.  He's been shown quite a bit this summer, so we're going to quarantine him with Duque and Ralph until I can do fecals on him and the rest of the herd when I go home next month.

We also tried getting another farm addition, but it didn't quite work out.  Latte our angora rabbit seemed a bit lonely after her brother Mocha died last summer, so I finally found a friend for her.  We found a breeder of Harlequin rabbits (they are calico!) at the state fair this year, and she sold us a little 4 month old female.  Unfortunately Latte and the little girl didn't see eye to eye.  I think Latte is just too old for such an energetic youngster, so the new girl found another home with a 4-H club in Greenfield.

Well, I think that's enough news for one post!  I promise to post more regularly in the future...  I have back to back craft fairs next weekend, so hopefully I can report great success when those are over!  And I'm looking to add a puppy to my crazy life, so I may have big news in the near future!