A New Addition



Say hello to Dolly. We always wanted camelids - besides being really cool creatures, they go along with our "new world livestock" theme much better than angora goats do. Alpacas are beyond our price range for the time being, since a breeding pair still can cost about the same as our house, so a llama will do. Dolly is bred to a guanaco, so we will have a very interesting cria next spring. The sheep and goats are not sure about her yet, but they will figure out that she isn't going to eat them. She is missing her cria that was just weaned this morning, so she isn't particularly happy to be here yet, but she seems to be a sweetie. I want to play with her and give her hugs and kisses and she isn't really interested in that. She probably won't be all that affectionate, as that just isn't the nature of llamas. She is ready for shearing - that may be an adventure.

This week we sold two angora goats and five sheep, so it should amount to a net decrease in feed consumption, which is a good thing.

Knitting Progress



This picture was taken Friday morning, but it has taken me until now to have time to upload pictures. The joining round on a raglan sweater seems intimidating until you do it. No big deal - you just put the underarm stitches on scrap yarn to graft later, then knit the sleeves in their places as your are knitting the next row of the body. Well, once you do it it makes perfect sense. I'm a hands-on learner so trying it brings it all together much more so than reading about it in the instructions or a book. From that point you are on the home stretch - the yoke with its decreases and then the neck. I am actually up to the point now where I am about to start on the neck, and will probably have it done tomorrow. Then all I have left is to graft the underarms and work in the ends and the sweater will be all finished! Seamless construction is pretty nifty.