Monday, March 31, 2014

Is Spring really here?

Today feels like spring with warm winds and lots of sun. The forecast is for more cold weather  in 48 hours. The signs of spring are all around. Gold finches are turning bright gold, the garlic has shot it's way past the winter mulch and is 4 inches tall, and the snow drops are in full bloom, so there is hope all around us.
              Life has been busy here the last few weeks. Two weeks ago the whole flock was still snug in their winter coats.
Now the studio is filled with beautiful fleeces in varying stages of processing.   After 14 years of shearing llamas I have finally come up with the perfect  way to shear these big independent critters. Last years addition of Cheyenne the alpaca lead me to lot of investigation as to how to shear  him. I came across a method on line that looked great.  this method is a simple cross tie system with an addition of a girth under their belly hooked up to the ceiling with a bit of spring to keep them from laying down.  I rigged up  a amazing system yesterday with chains from the ceiling that I hooked the heavy duty bungie straps to.  I am going to get myself a  official girth strap for my next time but the   ropes sewn together worked for  this first time.I had the smoothest shearing ever! The spring (bungie strap) system discourages them from kicking. This new system cut shearing time in half. I took a pick of Perkins  before I started and hope folks can use this one in their shearing of camelids.
 A reminder that this Saturday is the  Iowa Federation of Spinners and Weavers spring meeting in Waterloo. I will be there vending along with lot of other fiber fun. Hope lots of folks can come check it out. Here is a quick shot of the  new blend I got back last week I am calling it Mojave Tweed.
My coffee break is over I have to sign off and  go back out to  more barn cleaning.