Welcome Rockin Robin!

Meet my new alpaca Robin! He arrived last night, is almost 2 years old (this September) & dark brown. He has had a tough time his first 24 hours here being accepted into the group. Two of them are fine with him but Christopher beats him up, won't let him eat, Chestnut won't let him eat & Nevis tried to breed him the within the first 15 minutes after he arrived. Luckily, he will eat out of my hand easily so I hand fed him this morning & tonight. I will probably have to fix him a dish at the other end of the barn for now until the others get used too him. I just love his color. Tonight in the drizzly overcast light he looked dark maroon brown. Funny, he has a lot of guard hair on his brisket. Isn't he beautiful!

TTFN.

Daily Grommet & New Spinning Wheel

Well, I have been busy with my new job. I went to New York again this past week for more training. I will have to go one more time, probably in a month.

One of my products from my little soap company was selected to be featured on Daily Grommet (http://www.dailygrommet.com/products/132-Steep-Falls-Soap-Company-Lavender-Pillow-Mist). This is a link to the feature & video. My Lavender Pillow Mist is a favorite of the founder of the online business. They did a wonderful job, professional photographer & videographer. I was flattered & they really did a lot of work on my behalf.

I also treated myself to a new spinning wheel, the Kromski Sonata. I have had my eye on this wheel since it first came out. I decided to finally get it & sell my Ashford Traditional. The Sonata is a folding wheel with a really nice carrying bag so I can take it with me much easier than trying to take the Traditional & it is also much easier to just take it to a different part of the house to sit and spin. I have spun on it two evenings now & I really like it. It is beautiful mahogany.

The carrying case is REALLY nice quality (as is the wheel).

I also did the Denmark Sheepfest a few Saturdays ago. It is a very small fiber fest & is really fun because it gets a lot of traffic for such a little event & I know most of the people....... AND it is local, so I really enjoy doing it. I bought some roving to try water color needle felting. I thought this blue and green would make a nice background for flowers or fish in the sea. I've never done water color needle felting but I bought a book & would like to try it.

I also bought a spinning wheel basket at the sheepfest. You hang it on your spinning wheel & you can put your oil, hook, pens, notepad and whathaveyou in it. I don't know yet if I'm going to hang it on my wheel or use it for something else.

While at the sheepfest, I had brought my drum carder so I could get some carding done that I had been wanting to do for a year. I wanted to blend some of my black alpaca with brown alpaca. So I got some done! I've already spun a couple of batts on my new Sonata.

When I went to visit Romney Ridge Farm last fall, Kelly gave me a sample of Southdown Babydoll sheep's wool to try spinning. I haven't gotten to it yet but I think I will within the next couple of weeks. I've had it setting on my table so I see it everyday & won't forget about it.

Oh, I made yogurt for the first time last weekend with my new yogurt maker & it came out great! The only thing, which didn't bother me anyways, was that it was lumpy like cottage cheese. I didn't care, it tasted wonderful!

Well, I am headed to Foss Mountain Farm in New Hampshire this afternoon to look at a couple of brown alpacas.

TTFN.