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!

I know there hasn’t been much of weaving on this blog lately but there is sooo much going on that I really haven’t been doing much weaving. I am carding wool and rosy is spinning so there will be yarn to go with when I do get started!
Meantime… the strawberries are ripe! Not my own, we buy these from the oriental farmers in the Redding area. These are not the big, fat, hollow, green, moldy things you get in the super market with neither flavor or fragrance. These are the real thing! A reasonable size, solid, perfectly ripe, freshly picked, red, juicy, fragrant, wonderfully sweet all on their own. You need no sugar, just some nice thick cream! ummmmmm! I’ll freeze some whole, too, for shakes later this summer. The kids will love that! I do that with the biggest blackberries, too, and peaches also are good that way.
Just 3 more weeks and my daughter and 4 grandkids will be with us. I’m so excited! 😀

Here’s Rosy leading the way to the new pig house. They followed along nicely until she got to the gate! It took the better part of an hour of coaxing and bribing (apples and cheese!) but they are in now and settled down nicely. Being short guys the alpacas and donkeys liked to tease them a bit but now they have their own quarters. And nice ones they are, too. My sister is one clever gal, and did most of the carpentry herself. She has window boxes to go there under the windows, too, so it is going to be quite pretty. The trim & the gate will be painted dark green to match the other buildings. Her rabbits are housed in one end and Arthur and Maggie share the other and have a nice yard, too.
We had an fun weekend and a nice visit.

May_Day.bmp (820k file)
Back in the Olden Days, before the communists took it over, we kids used to enjoy May Day. There was May Pole dances, which were a lot of fun, skipping around the pole getting our ribbons tangled up something fine! lol And making May Baskets. You could make your basket out of almost anything. We kids usually wove them from paper. We fill them with grubby handsful of wild flowers. Then we’d take them to the house of some friend, or usually an elderly lady that we liked, hang the basket on the door knob, knock or ring and then run hide. The ladies always were properly surprised and loudly grateful to whatever good fairy had brought the gift. We loved it and they loved it. Too bad such a nice ‘holiday’ got forgotten while we still remember ones like Halloween, where the idea is to get rather than to give. But I thought I’d share my favorite May Day paper flower project. We made them in school every year for May Day and Mother’s Day. Put them in a little basket and surprise and elderly neighbor next Saturday.