We are having a ball! We went to the swimming hole yesterday. The boys all took the boats Grandpa made for them out of leftover lumber ends. We put strings on them and they pulled them around most of the afternoon. Grampa had the water pistol and Karen and I sat in the shade with the camera. Our little dog turned out to be a water bug, too, so everybody had a good time! lol We went home and made milkshakes then the boys played in the creek with their boats for the rest of the day.

Shane had a school field trip to a farm and brought home some llama fiber. He brought it to California to have Gramma show him how to make a teddy bear out of his llama wool. Here he is carding it. We got it spun up and we’ll start weaving the bear later this week. We also spun up some wool to make his ‘stash’ go further! He did fine but I didn’t get a picture of him spinning. I’m sure there will be more photo ops later!

After the boys had a turn Stephanie spun most of the llama and some of the wool.

Mac had to try his hand at it. He needed a bit of help but didn’t do too badly.

Here’s Chris spinning his share of the skein. He’s doing pretty good at it!

This is a snap of my woven bedspread. The orange plaid square in the center is pure Samoyed fur, the one on the left it is blended with some cormo and plied with silk. The fuzzy patch on the right is a bit of Samoyed blended with alpaca. This yarn was washed when it was spun but, tho it was a bit fuzzy when I wove it, this “bloom” you see in the picture happened after it was on the bed and in use. I hasten to add that it is not shedding. But you can see that it does indeed get very like angora. Now this is just one kind of dog fur, I can’t say how another would do, but I agree with Elena that it makes a very warm fabric, light weight, and quite as soft & “silky” as angora, too. I didn’t have any trouble with odor, I spun it “raw” and washed it as yarn. My FIL did bathe the dogs before he combed, them, tho, so that probably helped a lot.
I probably would not have used it in my blanket if I’d had any idea how it would do, but it adds a “conversation piece” tho the project! 😛

I’m learning to be a carpenter’s helper or gofer, in other words! lol I got him busy closing in the porch so they grandkids will have a place to sleep. Daughter and the 4 young’ns are arriving on the 25th and Randy has been really busy at the contractor business now that the weather is nice, of course, so I have to get him when I can! I’m also taking over the lawn mowing and yard cleaning so he has more time to put in on this project.
Fiber arts? I did dye some waste wool yesterday with some left-over Rit but that’s been it for a couple weeks!

As we started up Parks Creek Road, (which follows the headwaters of the Trinity!) we saw this field of Mule-eared Sunflowers. Mixed in with them were shades of blue Larkspur and brightly colored Pinks, too. Very pretty! You don’t usually see these sunflowers in such abundance so I coudln’t resist taking a dozen or so photo’s! 😀

We rode up Parks Creek to where the road was closed by the snow, around 5000′. The picture is High Camp Creek near Cement Bluff & lake. Randy and Jack walked up to look at the little falls. It was nice up there. Warm, with a gentle bit of a chilly breeze, nice spring smells in the clean air. The road was cleared of fallen debris by the loggers who would like to go to work up there, but the USFS hasn’t done any road work yet. It’s in charge of the Mt. Shasta district so they probably won’t until the road is open to their side. Not much longer now if the weather keeps up as warm as it’s been. One of the accesses to the Pacific Crest Trail is in the pass. The dogs enjoyed this outing, too. Cori was just like a kid, digging and rolling in the snow. Funny!