Finished Knits & Photo Bombers

If you visited my post over at "A Girl in Sheep Clothing" you would have seen this picture of Awan photo bombing my shawl picture.  I had the camera set up on a tripod and I was taking pictures with my remote shutter button. The alpacas were much more interested in the camera than me and my alpaca Quill shawl.

I really love how my Quill turned out. I am sure I will use it as a blanket 90% of the time, but I'm sure I'll wear it out and about as a shawl once and a while too.

I also finished my Chesterfield Sweater. I was watching my parents dog, Harper, for the weekend and he was more interested in photo bombing my pictures, so in the end I just let him join along.

 

I really love this sweater. I modified the pattern slightly. The pattern has longer lighter color on the sleeves. I added length to the body of the sweater so it fit more of a tunic style.  This balanced out the length of the color change on the sleeves.  I love how it turned out.  I am thinking I might have to shrink it just a tad, but it is fine for now.

 

I used Isager Tvinni Merino yarn for this sweater.  I was knitting it as part of My Sister's Knitter KAL/CAL & Luvinthemommyhoods Summer Sweater KAL.  When I saw the pattern come out in the new Brooklyn Tweed's Men Collection I knew I had to make the Girlfriend version for myself. I am very happy with the yarn. Since I don't have a store close to me that sells Brooklyn Tweed yarn and if I ordered Beaverslide yarn I wouldn't have had it in time for the start date of the KAL, so I went to Chelsea Yarns (my favorite yarn store).  I was so excited when she showed me this Isager yarn because it reminded me exactly of Beaverslide.  So in the end I am trilled with it and I am looking forward to wearing it all Fall.

 

With that said I am chomping at the bit to cast on another sweater.  I have a sweater in mind that I want to make, but I can't find a pattern. I have been trying to knit from patterns for the entire year and not write any of my own. But I'm really fighting the urge to start charting up my own pattern.  I really do love writing patterns, but it can be very time consuming.

 

Well see.....

 

joining with Ginny's Yarn Along

Play Date with Harper

My parents dog Harper came over today for a play date with Tiny.  I forgot how many hours a day Tiny used to torture play with Harley. Harper is such a good boy and it has been fun having him in the house.

 

I just posted some pictures of my finished Quill Shawl over on the "Girls in Sheep Clothing" blog. Swing on by and check it out and Awan the alpaca photo bombing my photo shoot.

An After Dinner Walk

 

Smoke Ring just hanging out.

 

There is nothing better than a big wet chocolate lab that loves to fetch sticks in the pond.

Except when that big chocolate lab shakes off. hee hee

pumpkins

 

Don't you wish you had alpacas in your back yard?!

Yesterday we headed over to the farm for dinner at my parents. We have been doing a lot of entertaining at our house so it was a nice to get a break from cooking for the night.  Thanks Mom & Dad.  After we had some cheese burgers on the back deck we went for a little walk. The weather was just beautiful yesterday. It was so refreshing to not be too hot or too cold. It was just perfect.  Everyone had ice pops and I enjoyed getting a chance to take a few pictures.  Harper my parents dog was having so much fun in the pond. I couldn't help but take a ton of pictures of him. He is such a good boy.

 

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. We had to say bye to our cousins that are moving to Dallas, Texas. It was sad, but we are hoping to go out and visit them.  It looks like there are a lot of fun things to do in Dallas so the kids are excited.



The Apple Tree Herd

My parents were in Vermont this weekend at Cas-Cad-Nac Farm picking up their new herdsire Smoke Ring.  So this morning the kids and I went to the farm to clean the pens for my parents.  My boys are such a great help with the chores.  They pick up a bucket, grab a rake, and are off to work without any direction.  They will sweep and fill water buckets without being told how to do it. They just know it needs to get done and they do it.  I didn't have my camera on me to get shots of them carrying the buckets of water together or running through the sprinklers with the alpacas, but trust me they were adorable.  I am very grateful for having them with me (when they are in good moods) at the farm to help out.  When they are in bad moods it is another story.

 

So here is the herd in the field I wrote about the other day.

Awan doing an impression of a giraffe.

Blue was enjoying some clover.

Clover isn't bad for the alpacas, but it makes them have foamy mouths.

 

Blue showed off that his mouth doesn't get foamy from clovers.

 

Silly alpacas. It is hard not laughing at them right after they are sheered.

I just had to take this picture... sorry guys.

Harper isn't to sure about the alpacas taking over his playground.  He loves playing in the field where they are now.  Hopefully he will get along with them and they can all play in the field together one day.

 

So this is........ THE NEW GUY! So exciting!

 



It was pouring rain when he got to the farm and I left my camera in the house, but it stopped just long enough that I ran over to get a few pictures. He decided to roll in the dirt just as I got close enough for some pictures.

 

He is going to be a herdsire and hopefully this time next year he will have some little ones running around the farm.  He is quite a handsome fella and is going to work great with my parents gray breeding program.

 

We aren't sure what we are going to call him. By we I mean my mom and sisters. Remember the middle child thing I have going on.  So his official name is Smoke Ring.  The farm he came from calls him Smoker.  I liked calling him Smokey, but my mom is not a big fan of any of those names.  His father's name is Royal Ring of Fire and is known at his farm as "Ringo".

So they are playing around with different names for him.  I want to call him Johnny Cash. I think of Johnny Cash when I hear Ring of Fire. But Johnny Cash was the man in black and that would probably be a better name for a black alpaca. And there are probably 100 alpacas named Johnny Cash.  But I like it.  Doesn't he look like a Johnny?

 



I have a feeling his name is going to end up closer to his dad's like Ringo or Ringer.  I'll let you know when they decide.

 

 

Here's Johnny and Kigo sizing up each other. They are the two head honcho herdsires on the farm.  They weren't really sizing each other up, but it looks like that so I had to say it.

 

Okay now it started to rain even harder so I got one more picture and ran for cover. 

 

In case you were wondering what the new guy looks like with his fleece here he is in all his glory.  Oh and a list of some of his awards. He has a few more I have to add.

 

 

ARROW ACRES FARM LLC Welcome to Smoke Ring's Page Offical Name: CCNF SMOKE RING ARI#31425544 DOB July 17, 2010 Huacaya Herdsire Color: Light Rose Gray Sire: CCNF Royal Ring of Fire Dam: Maid Marian D531 AOA Awards 1st Place - 2011 North American 4th Place - 2011 Futurity 1st Place - 2011 Northeast Alpaca Expo 1st Place - 2011 Green Mountain Show 1st Place - 2012 Spring Bling Fleece Show 1st Place - 2012 Minnesota Alpaca Expo Fleece Show 1st Place - 2012 New England Fleece Classic 1st Place - 2012 Great Midwest Alpaca Festival (fleece) 1st Place - 2013 North American Alpaca Show Reserve Champion Grey Huacaya - 2012 Great Midwest Alpaca Festival (fleece) Reserve Champion Grey Huacaya - 2013 North American Alpaca Show

So that is the excitement at the farm today.  If you are interesting in finding out more about Smoke Ring you can check him out here.