Spinning for winter woolies

I know, it's been so long since I posted anything here. We get so busy and I forget to take pictures of what we've done or I just don't feel like sitting down and writing about it all.

Anyway, I was up early this morning because Ken overslept and didn't have time to feed the horses and goats as he usually does. So after feeding everyone and a couple of cups of tea and a trip around the net looking at other peoples blogs, and thinking: "man I wish people would updates their blogs more often" ....hmmm, guilt set in.

Fall came and has almost turned to winter. We've had hard frosts most mornings this week which has put me in the knitting and spinning mode. I just ordered some Wool of the Andes from

Knit Picks

The Shoreline Twist and the Tidepool Heather.

Last winter I was so cold all the time until I found an old wool sweater in a box and tried it on. I couldn't believe the difference real wool makes. Forget the double sweatshirts. This year we're all having pure wool sweaters, wool hats and scarves! Joshua likes to pull his socks up over the bottom of his pants when he goes out in the cold so I told him I would make him some little leg warmer things to save his socks which remain baggy at the top after being stretched over jeans!

I started by spinning up some llama and alpaca fiber I found on ebay. Also got a good start on the red merino mill ends that I bought LAST year. Love that stuff! It spins so nice and it's also treated with superwash so it can be thrown in the washer.

The dark brown in the pictures is the alpaca, the lighter browns are llama and the other twisted two color yarns are a bit of both. I'm not sure how well llama and wool work together when plied but I had those bits of singles left over and decided to give it a try. Will have to be careful when washing the fabric in case the wool shrinks more than the llama. It'll probably end up as an accent color in a scarf. Or Josh's leg warmer/fake sock tops.