PetuniaLu

It’s kind of like a big long laundry week around here! Because I am trying to keep some of my costs down, I have chosen to work primarily with unprocessed fiber. So if the theme for the next few weeks is repetitive please forgive me! I am basically living at the fiber laundromat;-)

Seriously though, today I have completed washing almost 2 lbs of llama wool. My goal is to have just under 20 pounds of this lovely stuff dyed and combed for my SAFF inventory, so I need to be working even faster than that! But, I made really good progress on it today. I get kind of carried away with the way it feels and find myself just petting it sometimes!

I have been busy with my knitting project this week too, and have made some really good progress. Saturday is the baby shower, and I have been knitting for 9 months in preparation for this special little guy! I am proud to announce that he will be receiving all of these goodies:

Progress on you-know-who’s sweater has been slow this week. One sleeve cap is done, but with all the other stuff going on, well, it had to be put onto the back burner. Sorry, you-know-who! I hope to have it done by the end of the month. Meanwhile, you should just smell all of your birthday flowers!

I got two packages in the mail today! Wow, I feel spoiled! The first was all kinds of surprises from my secret summer fiber buddy (she revealed herself with this package since the summer is over now!) Thanks Melissa, for the beautiful purple lorna’s lace yarn and the awesome new orifice hook!

The orifice hook is just in time, because The Woolery package I ordered the other day came today, too! So I have a nice new footman to treadle connector for my spinning wheel!

Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last week or so:

This is a Romney fleece from a lady in our fiber guild! It was very messy, but I think it is going to clean up nicely in the end:-) I have most of it done, but there is about 1/3 of it that pervasively filled with VM!

Here is some other fiber I have been playing with for the last week:

Some of Cozette’s llama wool! It is cleaning very easily. Since I don’t have a flick carder, I went and bought myself a little dog brush. Not terribly professional, but it gets the job done!

Busy, busy! Monday, WhorlingTides, Might Could and I made a dear new friend, Cozette! Cozette is the owner of about 65 llamas. She and her llamas live in north Alabama, just outside of Huntsvile, at Cozy Cove Farm. WhorlingTides, Might Could and I went on holiday to visit them on Monday, and we had a blast! The farm is a lovely, green 80+ acres, complete with barns and pastures.

A Cozy Cove Llama Stallion (picture taken by WhorlingTides)

The llamas are quite pervasive- everywhere we looked there were more llamas! We got to help Cozette move her herd of geldings from one pasture to another, and then she took us to the barn where all the ladies were gathering. It was a humid Alabama summer afternoon and in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, the lady llamas were gathering in the barn, and lingering around a giant fan. We got to walk among them and pet them as they milled around in the barn, eyeing us curiously. Thanks, Cozette! We had a great time!

Perhaps in the last few weeks I have neglected to mention that this crazy petunia-head has signed up as a vendor at the Southeast Animal Fiber Festival (SAFF) in Asheville , North Carolina in October? WOW! Sometimes, I wonder what I was thinking, and then I remember that my life has been consumed with animal fiber over the last few months. I love it! So, I am sharing a table with… you guessed it! Might Could and WhorlingTides! AND, our new friend Cozette is thinking of joining us as well, which would be a ton of fun!

I have been spending a lot of my time lately trying to get things ready for the festival. I think these are things that I would normally be doing on my own, but the festival has accelerated my activities and increased the quantities that I am working with. This week, aside from visiting the Llama farm, I have spent some time dyeing some BFL and some Masham with indigo, washed 2 Alpaca fleeces, 1 Romney fleece, and have started to wash some Llama. I have managed to break the footman to treadle connector on my new(ish) spinning wheel, and have had to order the new part along with some other goodies from The Woolery. But, most importantly, I am almost done with the Trapeze jacket! I think it will be finished just in time for YOU-KNOW-WHO’s birthday on the 15th! This is very exciting!

BTW, if anyone would like some Llama fiber, let me know! I have some that I can sell (either raw or scoured!)