No Kittens = Time to Play with Fiber!

With the kittens gone this week I got busy carding up all kinds of fiber blend batts on Tuesday. I recently sorted through my enormous stash of fibers and put them into boxes and bags by colors and it was really easy to sort through and pick out what I wanted to blend this time.

I'm just going to post pics of the batts and a link to the Custom Fiber Blend batt section in my Etsy store so you can go there for more information if you're interested in them.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Thelma and Louise - ADOPTED!

Tuesday morning I took Thelma and Louise to the vet's to be spayed. Yes, Louise IS a female. She looks totally different "down there" than Thelma but she is a girl. The people who were adopting her almost changed their minds because they thought they were getting a male kitten and male cats are generally more affectionate than females, but they decided to get her!

I met my friend Deanna in Woodland Park and she bought me lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant. She then followed me to Divide to the animal shelter and picked up her new baby girl, Thelma. She picked Thelma up and Thelma crawled up to her shoulder and proceeded to growl at all the other cats in the room. Deanna put her in the crate and Thelma immediately curled up, sighed and watched out the window serenely. I made up a certificate for Thelma - "Certified Diva", graduate of Level I training is Miss Precious' Diva Academy. Its signed by Precious, DMT (Diva Master Teacher). Deanna got a hoot out of it and I had a blast coming up with it!

Thelma is settling into her new home and has already put the dogs in their place. I'm anxious to hear how the night went. Hopefully she was tired enough to sleep through the night without raising a ruckus.

They hadn't picked up Louise yet when we were there at the shelter yesterday so I hope that their adoption is going as well as Thelma's and that they are as pleased with their new baby as Thelma's new Momma is.

This foster period was the longest we've ever had - 10 weeks to the day. It was also the hardest to part with them but knowing they went to excellent loving homes made it much easier. And, kitten season will be here soon so we'll probably be playing with new fosters soon enough.

Munchkin and Moose are distraught that their girls are gone. They spent the entire day and half the night calling for them. Sigh...I know boys, its hard saying goodbye!

Wordless Wednesday

Springtime in the Rockies!

Welcome to Springtime in the Rockies! Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes...it'll change! Here's what we woke up to this morning. Six inches of the heavy white stuff! We're under a Winter Storm Warning until 9 AM tomorrow. We could get up to 15 inches of this stuff!

But inside, we have a roaring fire keeping us toasty warm.

And in the breakfast room - which is more of a "mud room" just inside the back door - the geraniums are in full bloom. Ah yes, Springtime in the Rockies!

I posted 15 pictures on my Facebook page. Go here to check them out.

Happy Earth Day!

Wishing you all a happy Earth Day today!

While I don't believe that "Climate Change" is what they say it is, I do believe that we need to be more environmentally responsible. I believe that we need to take better care of Mother Earth.  I recycle, we don't use chemicals and pesticides on the gardens here at the ranch (we use the best natural fertilizer - composted manure!) and I try to upcycle and reuse whenever I can. I have also started to switch over to heavy metal free dyes. I would love to hear what everyone does to help take care of our planet.

Wordless Wednesday - The Life of Cats

Hmmm...Now what?!

Last night I went into the kitchen to fix dinner. This is what I found on the stove. I did a dye pot yesterday so the oven was still warm. Leave it to Precious to scope out the warmest sleeping spots in the house. I ran and got the camera and she was right where she was when I discovered her. She opened her eyes and looked at me like "What?! Can't you see I'm sleeping here?!" I debated on going out to eat but decided to move Her Highness so I could fix the Tilapia filets I had already thawed out for dinner.

Thelma has a new Momma!

Thelma, one of our foster kittens, has a new Momma! One of our llama friends fell in love with her and decided to adopt her. Deanna put a deposit down on Thelma and will pick her up the day after Thelma is spayed, which should be within the next two weeks. We are just waiting on Louis to get better litter box trained and his stools firmed up so he will be more adoptable. We're SO happy that Thelma is going to go to a really good loving furever home and we'll be able to keep up to date on how she's doing. Her new name is Tinker or Tinky - short for Tinkerbelle. She has gotten very lovable and follows us everywhere and comes running now when either one of us comes out of the bedroom or our offices. Thank you Deanna for adopting this beautiful little girl! I'm sure she is going to give you lots of love and tons of smiles!

Wordless Wednesday - Vacation August 2007 - SW Colorado

I was busy this weekend!

Yesterday DH went to the Caucus so I had the house to myself for a few hours. I haven't carded up very many fiber batts over the past few weeks because of the foster kittens. I decided it was time to go through my stash and make up the batts I've been dreaming of for weeks now.

I did three batts yesterday and two batts on Friday.

Desert Sunset

Spring Meadow

Misty

Frozen Waterfall

Painted Desert

It felt SO good to get back to creating fiber batts again! I found some fibers that I forgot I had in my stash that I'm going to use this coming week to make more batts. Stay tuned for more fibery goodness!

Happy Caturday!

Relax and take it easy this weekend. Munchkin and the foster kids are all snuggled in on Annie's oversized chair. Sorry the photos are so red but my sheers are burgundy so the entire room is bathed in a red glow!

Another Art Yarn!

I recently traded some dyed fleece for this fabulous fiber batt from JazzTurtle on Etsy. The batt contains: merino, bamboo rayon, soy silk, milk protein fiber, corriedale fleece, targhee fleece, merino/cormo fleece, kid mohair locks, bamboo noil, silk noil, sari silk and angelina. I stripped the batt into several thin strips and then started with the tan and worked my way through to the blue fibers. I spun it thick and thin (although I wish I had spun it a bit thicker) and then plied it with an organic cotton thread in coordinating colors and formed coils and beehives by pushing the fiber up onto the cotton thread as I plied it.

The batt started out like this: Day at the Beach fiber batt

And the finished yarn looks like this: Day at the Beach Art Yarn

This yarn is available in our Etsy store. 84 yards and 4.0 ounces.

Wordless Wednesday (is somebody spoiled?!)

SOLD - Congratulations & Thank You Whispering Spirit Ranch!

This past Saturday we sold two llamas to some wonderful customers who are just getting started on their llama journey. They bought three of our male llamas last Fall (Midnight Hour: ALSA ROM and multiple Grand & Reserve Grand Champion and Top 10 at Grand Nationals two years in a row - Argentum: a show quality silver male by our ALSA Halter Champion Tempis Fugit out of our best producing female Winona Wildfire - Chocolate Chip: the cutest little loud appaloosa cria we've ever had here on the ranch, you've all surely seen photos of Chip here on the blog!) They selected two females from our herd: Tender is the Night and Charisma. Both of these girls are sweet as can be and enjoy back rubs, chin scratches and eagerly nibble little treats out of your hand.

This is Tender is the Night

And this is Little Rock Charisma

Charisma is one of only two Black Jack daughters in our herd. Charisma's last cria was Shimmering Sands, a gorgeous miniature suri male with rose gray fiber. Charisma and Tender is the Night will both be coming back to Split Rock Ranch late this Spring to be sheared and to be bred to one of our males so they should have beautiful crias for their new owners by late next Spring.

Congratulations and thank you to Whispering Spirit Ranch! We appreciate your business and your friendship and look forward to helping you on your exciting llama journey.

New Handspun Yarns

I started spinning Autumn in Oregon several days ago and it seemed to take forever to spin 4.5 ounces of merino/silk roving into a thin single so I could navajo-ply it. I finally finished it, steamed it and listed it yesterday. It is already sold but I wanted to show you the finished skein of yarn. I love how it turned out with the colors staying rich and true from the navajo plying.

It started out as this roving

And became this skein of yarn

I just received my March roving from CloudLover69's roving of the month club and it was a gorgeous roving in pink, peach, spring grass green, lavender and creamy white. I decided to strip the roving into thicker strips and spun it thick and thin then plyed it with a cotton embroidery thread in a coordinating color. I ended up with a 125 yard skein of thick and thin thread plyed yarn that looks like this - I called it Hello Spring TNT (TNT = Thick-N-Thin)

Then I decided to play with the singles yarn and started pushing it up on the cotton thread as I plyed, forming coils and beehives. This is my first attempt at a coils or beehives yarn and it was a blast to do. I am going to do more of this type of yarn soon! I made a 45 yards skein and a mini test skein of 16 yards for a total of 61 yards of super squishy novelty yarn. Here are the two skeins I ended up with of Hello Spring CNB (CNB = Coils-N-Beehives)

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter!

Spring Celebration Giveaway!

Paige, over at Lenox Knits blog, is having a Spring Celebration Giveaway! I donated this skein of handspun merino yarn in beautiful spring colors to the giveaway.

 From Lenox Knits blog:

Come Celebrate Spring with me! Thanks to generous friends, I'm offering nine handmade prizes with a combined value of over $200. It is open to everyone and there will be free international shipping! See rules below.

Here is what you could possibly win:
A Crocheted Silk with Pearls Wrap Bracelet or Long Necklace-- WillOaks Studio $20

Wine Bottle Gift Bag with 4 Coasters-- Nature Acre $15

Three bars of handmade soap (your choice of scents)-- Happy Goat's Soap $15

Skein of Handspun/HandDyed Wool Yarn in Spring colors-- Split Rock Ranch $20

Seminole Patchwork Pillow in bold Spring colors-- So Many Colors $50

Antique Vintage Button Pendant-- Alterity Button Jewelry $25

Lime green Spring knit scarf with an appliqued XL tee-shirt from the remaining inventory of GrayEyedScorpio --Lenox Knits combined value at $35

Knitted Yoda Star Wars Golf Club Cover-- Tracey Knits $25

OR 2 like new craft books from my own library Craftivity: 40 Projects for the DIY Lifestyle & AntiCraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister valued at $25.

So please hop on over to Lenox Knits and get in on the chance to win one of these fabulous prizes!