Llama Biography #17: Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian

I'll warn you...this is a sad llama biography.

Llama #17 in our herd was Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian.

Sid had a lot of symptoms of being dysmature (looked premature but wasn't born early): floppy ears, weird fiber, and soft pasterns.

In the spring of 2004, we finally managed to get our junior herdsire, AAL Navarro, to successfully settle a female.  He was bred with Casa Loma's Little Sheba, and in May 2005 she gave birth to a little male cria.

I came home from school one afternoon to find Sheba looking very uncomfortable.  I waited around to see if anything would happen, but she hadn't made any progress by the time my mom got home.  We finally decided that we needed some help, so we loaded Sheba up in the trailer and headed for the vet.

By the time we got there Sheba had managed to deliver the front legs, and the vet quickly pulled the rest of the cria.  The vet thought that Sheba's contractions weren't strong enough for her to deliver the cria, possibly due to a selenium deficiency.  We then spent an hour or so waiting for the cria to stand and nurse, and finally we headed home- Sheba in the trailer and the cria on my lap in the truck.

The night was very stormy, and after hearing a song on the radio I really wanted to name the baby "Rainmaker", but I'd been waiting for awhile to name a black and white cria "Snowflake Obsidian", so I went with that instead.

Sheba and Sid spent several chilly days and nights locked in a pen in the barn, but finally they got to have some time outside in the back yard.

Sheba and Sid.

When Sid was 2 days old, we had our other vet out to the house to draw blood for an IgG test (which evaluates the cria's immune system and how much colostrum they got).  Two more days later, we found out that his IgG was low, and the vet was back out to give him a plasma transfer.  Sid seemed to have turned a corner by the time the vet gave him the plasma, but shortly after he finished the transfer Sid started straining and acting very uncomfortable.  I'm still not sure what happened, but the next day Sid was septic and going downhill fast.  Unfortunately he didn't make it through the night.  I'll never forget my sister's voice on the phone (I was at dance that night) when she was telling me that Sid had just died.  I cried all the way home, and on and off for the next day or 2.

Sid had the coolest fiber...he may have been our first suri!

Sid was the first cria (actually the first llama of any age) that we had ever lost, and it hit all of us very hard.  Sheba cried for days, it was pretty heartbreaking.  We gave Sheba several months to recover, and then bred her for another cria.  She sold before the cria was born, but luckily she easily delivered a healthy cria the next time around!

RIP Sid.

Novelty Plying- Wrapping

I will admit, I'm not much of a novelty yarn spinner.  I try from time to time, but I don't think I'm creative enough.  One thing I love to do though is novelty plying.  

My usual go-to is spiral plying.  I was given a huge box of rayon embroidery thread by my mother-in-law, and it is perfect for spiral plying.  With spiral plying, you hold one strand taught (usually the embroidery thread for me), and let the other strand spiral around it.  It is quite fun and very easy, and perfect for extending the yardage of a unique single ply yarn.

Spiral ply yarn (wool single and embroidery thread).

Something more new for me was wrap plying or wrapping.  Wrapping is the opposite of spiral plying...you keep the handspun single taught, and let the embroidery thread loosely wrap around it.  It is easier on a wheel with a flush orifice, but can be done with my Delta orifice as well.  This is a pretty simple wrapped yarn, but you can get very creative with it!

Wool single, spun very loosely and roughly.  I wanted to preserve the texture of the dyed locks. 

This shows how to position the strands while plying.  The wrapping strand should be at a 90* angle to the taught strand.  (My hand isn't actually positioned like this while plying, I had to use my other hand to take the picture!) 

A wider view of the strand positions.

Finished wrapped yarn.  (This picture shows the wrapping strand better.)

A true-color view of the finished yarn.  It is very light and fluffy!

I just finished setting the twist on this yarn tonight, so once it is dry in a few days it will go into my Etsy shop!

Straw Bale Cold Frame

Here in upstate NY, our growing season is really short.  Adding in lots of rain in the spring, it makes it very hard to get the garden tilled very early in the year.  Thus, I realized early on that I would need to start plants in the house before the weather was nice enough to plant.  To make the process easier, I decided I wanted to build a cold frame in which to house the larger seedlings before I could transplant them.

I found a picture on Pinterest of a cold frame made of straw bales and old windows.  This seemed like the best plan for me, as I have tons of hay bales for the llamas and several old windows from the barn.  So a few weeks ago when we had a nice day I got to work.

The cold frame itself is very simple.  Mine is 6 hay bales arranged in a rectangle, with 2 old windows on top.  Originally I was using tiltable windows from the trailer we took down, but it turned out those were too much trouble (they would open on their own), so I switched them out for the simple wood frame ones from the top of the big barn.  Luckily the new ones fit as well.  I placed it on a south-facing slope (a gentle one though) so it would get the most sun.

My cold frame.

Thermometer in the top left corner.

The old windows.

The first day after I erected the cold frame, I checked the temperature when I was leaving for work (about 7:30 am).  Unfortunately, it was only about 8*F higher than the air temperature- not nearly warm enough on nights when it is almost freezing!

Temperature before windows were added (air temp).

Temperature just a few minutes after the windows were added.

So I started researching ways to heat cold frames without electricity, and made some modifications.  I added black landscape fabric to the sides and bottom of the cold frame, and put in a bucket of water.  Both should absorb heat during the day and release it at night.  Next week I'm also going to put a black trash bag in the bottom (for more heat), and some more landscape fabric on top (to shade the plants).  I figure I can also fill the bucket with hot water from the house on really cold nights, which should help increase the temperature.  It is supposed to get really cold again Monday night, but after that I'm going to try putting the onions and broccoli outside.  I need to transplant more tomatoes, and I'm running out of room in the house!

If anyone has suggestions on better ways to design or heat a cold frame (without electricity), I'd love to hear them!

Ag Day at Morrisville College

I love doing public relations stuff with the llamas.  Most kids (and adults for that matter) have never been up close and personal with a llama or alpaca, so it is fun to introduce them.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do as much PR work with my animals since going to college, but I used to do a lot in high school.

A few weeks ago, a student from Morrisville College contacted me about bringing llamas to their "Ag Day".  Our FFA group used to do this in high school, so I was excited about participating.

Yesterday I was really worried about the rain (it has rained for several days in a row), but I decided to brave it this morning.  Turns out the weather was spotty...it went from nice and sunny to pouring rain, and everything in between.  In the end I didn't get too wet, and even ended up with a sunburn!

I took Kara and Ralph to be my ambassadors.  Ralph wanted nothing to do with anyone...he was much too preoccupied with staring down all of the other animals (especially the turkey!).  Kara was a little angel though!  Once she warmed up, she let all sorts of people pet her, even on the head.  She may have been a bit overwhelmed by the end, as she laid down just out of reach, but she was still really well behaved.  I was so proud!

They were really excited about the green grass!

I really hope I can find some additional PR opportunities for the future, it is very rewarding!

Knitting Pattern #5: Leafing Out Hat

I realized yesterday that I completely forgot to write a garden blog post on Saturday, so to make up for it I'm posting a new free knitting pattern!

This hat was a lot of work...I had an idea of what I wanted (stockinette hat with lace around the edge), but just couldn't find the right lace pattern to make it work.  I ended up changing what I originally wanted to do, and switched to a stockinette hat with a vertical lace motif.  I chose a gorgeous skein of handspun merino/silk/bamboo, and started knitting.  It was the first hat I'd ever designed, and due to the lace motif I had some issues with the decreases at the top.  It ended up having pointy corners, so I scrapped the pattern (not the hat though) and started over.

The second time around I went back to the original plan...stockinette with a lace edge.  I found a really simple but visually appealing lace pattern and modified it for working in the round.  This time I chose a plain tan handspun CVM yarn to knit with.  All in all I really like how the pattern came out!

I make a really bad model...

Leafing Out Hat

Women's Small/Medium

Autumn Hill Llamas DK Weight, 1 skein (or ~120 yards DK weight yarn)

#6 needles (double point or circular)

20 sts and 28 rows = 4" in stockinette

Cast on 102 stitches, join to work in the round.

Knit 1 round.

Work pattern chart.

Knit in stockinette (knit every row) until 5.75" from edge (at longest point).

Begin decreases.

• *k23, k2tog, k11, k2tog, k11, k2tog* twice around
• knit
• *k10, k2tog*
• knit
• *k9, k2tog*
• knit
• *k8, k2tog*
• knit
• *k7, k2tog*
• knit
• *k6, k2tog*
• knit
• *k5, k2tog*
• knit
• *k4, k2tog*
• knit
• *k3, k2tog*
• knit
• *k2, k2tog*
• knit
• *k1, k2tog*
• knit
• *k2tog*

Cut yarn and thread end through the remaining stitches.  Pull tight to close the hole.  Weave in ends.

The pattern hasn't been test knit, so forgive any mistakes you find and please let me know so I can fix them.

**It is now on Ravelry!**

I also have to mention that my baby (Autumn Hill's Karakoram) turns 2 today!  It's hard to believe that she's the last baby we had on the farm...and kind of sad.  Kara has really grown up in the past 2 years, but I'm hoping she grows a little more in height before she's done!

Newborn Kara.

Kara a few weeks ago.

Dealing With Mud

Spring in upstate NY means one thing...mud!  Back in Indiana, we had tons of pasture, so even when things got a little muddy in the spring the llamas couldn't do much damage to the fields.  Here at the new farm however, their pasture is much smaller and they could do a lot of damage by walking around in the mud.

My solution this year is a sacrifice pen.  It is about 30' square, and is just outside their pen in the barn.  I've slowly been covering it with waste hay from their feeders, to cut down on the mud.

They're not happy about their reduced "digs", but it's better in the long run!

The right side of the pen.

The left side of the pen.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I planted grass seed in the pasture, but it has been rather chilly so it doesn't seem to have germinated yet.  The existing grass is starting to grow, so hopefully the new stuff will start soon!

Etsy Shop Updates

I don't have much to write about this week, I'll apologize.  Once it quits raining I'm going to take pictures of my 2 new knitting patterns and get the patterns up here, I promise!

Until then, lots of pretty yarn and batt pictures...

All of these are available in my Etsy shop!