Foster Kittens Update

Sorry I haven't posted in a week but things have been pretty busy around here. I wanted to share an update on the foster kittens. They are growing and becoming more and more friendly by the day. Little Magpie follows me everywhere wanting to be picked up and snuggled. Raven is finally over his fear aggression and comes running to see us, too. He loves to be snuggled and loves to play. They're getting very adventuresome and spend plenty of time each day wrestling and tumbling but they still sleep quite a bit, too. Here are some updated photos of the kittens.

When they first met Uncle Munchkin they wanted to nurse.

New Foster Kittens!

When I took Barbie, Kenny, Krissy and Jellybean back to the shelter last Monday I told them that we needed a little break. Just enough time to get my bathroom scrubbed clean and the carpet cleaned before we took in more foster kittens. Fortunately I got the bathroom cleaned last Tuesday and we got the carpets mostly clean. I got a call from the shelter this past Sunday; they had two little feral kittens that had been caught at the children's ARK in nearby Green Mountain Falls and they needed a foster home for them. We dropped everything and ran to the shelter to get there before they closed and picked these little babes up. One is black and white and the other is solid black except for a little bit of white on the chest and the tummy. I decided to call them Raven and Magpie (I'm sure you can figure out which one is which!) I think Raven is a boy and Magpie is a girl but I'm not good at sexing young kittens so we'll have to wait a bit to see if I'm right.

When we picked them up Raven was hissing, spitting and swatting at everyone. I put on my leather gardening gloves (but only after he nailed me - literally - and got me good on one of my fingers) and picked him up. He was scared but finally relaxed. Magpie was curious and outgoing from the very beginning. I tried to feed them some gruel made of organic rice baby cereal, powdered milk replacer and meat baby food mixed with warm water. They had absolutely no clue how to eat out of a dish. Crap...two bottle fed kittens! I fixed a bottle for them and they drank eagerly. Okay, more work but at least they were eating.

Monday morning Magpie came to greet me and Raven dove for cover. Once Raven figured out that I was the chow wagon, he decided I perhaps wasn't nearly as bad as he first thought I was and he came to get his share of the bottle. I continued to try the gruel only I started offering it to them on the end of my fingers, which Magpie immediately started to eat. Raven would eat out of a spoon! Hooray!

Yesterday morning they came out of the cube much faster and eagerly ate the gruel - off the spoon and then out of the dish. Yippee! Progress!! After eating they both climbed into my lap and played then snuggled with me.

This morning they both came running when I went to feed them and they eagerly lapped up their breakfast out of the bowl. Whew...no more bottle feeding!! They are curious and playful and I am amazed at how quickly they came around. Of course, they are probably no more than 4 to 5 weeks old so they are at the perfect age for weaning and socializing.

When I was looking at Magpie Sunday night I thought she might be a polydactyl cat with an extra toe on her right front foot. After I inspected it closely on Monday I discovered that she only has 3 toes on that foot - two of them are melded together with only one toenail growing out of it. It makes her look like she is giving a Vulcan greeting - "Live long and prosper!" Because of this malformed foot (and perhaps due to their young age) Magpie is kind of tipsy and clumsy but when I read about polydactyl cats it said that it is common for them to have some difficulties learning to walk when they are kittens. I figured it would be the same for her. Look at her foot (the one on your left) and see what I'm talking about.

But they're healthy, happy, playful and curious little kittens and I am sure somebody will love little Magpie even with that unique little foot! She has amazing energy and such a loving personality who couldn't fall in love with her?!

What's on the Spinning Wheel

Before I show you what's on the wheel right now, I want to show you how the Tuscany custom yarn turned out. I was amazed at the yardage I managed to get out of this roving! I ended up with a 3.8 ounce skein with 403 yards of yarn! I had a bit left on the second bobbin that I Navajo-plied (basically you ply the yarn back on itself) and ended up with 0.3 ounces and 32 yards. The customer wanted 400 - 450 yards of a heavy fingering weight yarn and I dyed up just over 4 ounces in the hopes I would be able to spin that into the required yardage. I love it when a plan works out! The customer was thrilled with the finished yarn and it shipped out on Friday.

And on the spinning wheel now is a merino/tencel roving that I dyed up in a colorway that I called "India Spices" - deep orange, aztec gold, brown and burgundy. It is spinning up nice and thin and is looking incredibly rich. I'll post pics of the yarn when I have it done. I am spinning this up for a friend who loves to crochet and she fell in love with this colorway. The finished yarn should have incredible drape and luster to it.

On the Wheel, Kitten Update, Etc.

We're still staying busy here at the ranch but I wanted to share some updates with you.

First, the foster kittens went back to the shelter on Monday. It was very difficult for us to say goodbye to these gorgeous kittens. Jellybean was the most difficult to let go this time. She has adjusted well to life in the shelter, although the little feral kittens were terrified of their new home. They were spayed and neutered yesterday and I'm hoping they find their new furever homes soon.

Uncle Munchkin was extremely upset that I took his babies away. He came into my office and peed on my chair and then spent hours roaming the house calling for the kittens. I promised him that I would get more kittens for him to care for soon - but he's still mad! Here's a photo I snapped of Munchkin and three of the kittens lounging on the bags of fiber in the bathtub. That's Barbie tucked under Munchkin, Kenny with his head over Munchkin's leg and Jellybean lounging in her favorite sunny side up position behind. Krissy was in the cube on the floor snoozing at the time.

I am in the middle of a custom dye/spinning order right now. I'm spinning up superwash BFL into sock yarn. I have finished spinning the first bobbin - half of a 4 ounce braid - and will get started on the second half hopefully today. If I can get 400 to 450 yards out of these 4 ounces I'll be done with the job but if not, I'll have to dye up another 2 ounces to get the required yardage for the customer. This colorway is called "Tuscany". I love the rich earthy colors in it!

Here is one 2 ounce braid along with the other braid stripped and ready for spinning.

And here is half of the first bobbin on the wheel

Busy, Busy, Busy...No Rest for the Weary!

Things are still crazy busy around here lately but I have gotten quite a bit of fibery fun squeezed in over the past couple of weeks.

Finally finished spinning the Zinnias merino roving. It took me two weeks (of spinning off and on, not hours at a time!) to get the first half of the roving spun fine and smooth so I decided to Navajo-ply that bobbin and I spun the second half of the roving thick and thin bulky and plied it with a coordinating cotton thread.

I'm knitting up the N-plied yarn (the bottom skein in the photo) using a dropped stitch pattern to make a long scarf. 

Then I'm going to use this yarn as fringe on one edge of the scarf, which will make it almost like a shawl. This Rainbow yarn is tailspun Teeswater locks spun by Esther at Jazzturtle. 

And the finished scarf/shawl should look something like this

Except I may not cut the tailspun yarn to make fringe, I may crochet it along the outside edge of the scarf instead. I'll have to play with it to see what works best.

Tomorrow I'll try to post what's on the wheel right now and what's waiting in the spinning queue. 

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Relax and take it easy!

Wordless Wednesday

I have been AWOL - Sorry!

I am so sorry that I haven't posted anything in almost two weeks! It has been so crazy busy here lately that I just haven't had the time or energy to put up a new post and some days I haven't even been able to get through all my emails.

This is going to be a hodge-podge post of what is on my spinning wheel and what is next in the spinning queue, llamas, foster kittens, etc.

Here is what is on my spinning wheel right now - Zinnias colorway on merino roving by Spinningawesomegood on Etsy. I split the roving into thinner strips and separated those strips into approximately equal weight halves that I will spin on two bobbins and then ply together to allow the bright colors to fall where they may - it should be a vibrant yarn!

Next up is a custom dyed superwash BFL roving that I dyed for a customer who wants to make socks out of the finished yarn. I don't have any photos of the colorway but it is in shades of Burgundy, Russet, Gold Ochre and Olive. It will be spun onto two bobbins and plyed to allow the colors to fall where they may and blend together throughout the length of yarn.

Then I have a custom order to spin the following roving - a merino/tencel roving that I dyed in my India Spices colorway. This yarn should have incredible drape and luster to it!

We have sheared a few more llamas in the past couple of weeks but our schedule has not allowed us to shear as many as we would have liked and we are quickly running out of time to get them sheared. I don't like to shear any later than mid-July because we start getting snow early (last year we got our first snow on the last day of summer) and we can get snow into May so I want to be sure that the llamas have enough fiber growth before the cold weather and snow hits.

We sold another llama this past weekend. This is Midnight's Amazing Grace - these photos are from when she was a yearling and she has grown a LOT but I don't have more recent photos to share. We sheared her for her new owners so she will be nice and cool at her new home. She has been reunited with her mother and one of her sisters at her new home so she is very happy where she is at now.

And I can't resist sharing a photo of Grace when she was a cria - sorry but her momma's behind is in the photo, not her best side!

And, no, that isn't dirt on Grace, she had gray on her face, legs and down the center of her back when she was young!

The foster kittens are growing like crazy and are slowly getting better adjusted to being around people and the dogs and other cats. They should be ready to be spayed and neutered within the next couple of weeks and ready for adoption to their new furever homes. Jellybean has been dubbed "dangerously cute" by our daughter, who has nicknamed Jellybean "The Geiger Tiger" because she purrs constantly!

Uncle Munchkin with Barbie, Kenny and Jellybean. Krissy was sleeping in the cube instead of in the tub with the rest of the crew. They love sleeping on the bags of wool!

So, that's some of what we've been up to lately. How is everyone else's summer going?!

A New Treasury - Sunrise, Sunset

Yesterday I curated another Treasury on Etsy. This one was inspired by a fabulous sunset photo in someone's etsy shop so I set out to find fibers and misc. items in sunrise and sunset colors. I think I found some amazing art to feature - from photos to yarn to spinning batts and rovings to handdyed silk scarves to handknit scarves to handmade polymer clay pendants and hand beaded bracelets to handmade soap.

Sunrise, Sunset - Enjoy!

Black Pearl has a new home!

Last Sunday some of our customers came to the ranch and brought two females they recently purchased from us so we could shear the girls and then breed them to our males. I did a modified lion cut on both of the girls. I usually only shear the barrel section but it is much hotter where they live now so I sheared the barrel and most of their back legs. They are so much cooler now!

While they were here, our customers/friends were looking at our young male llamas and fell in love with Black Pearl. I had barrel sheared him on Saturday in case some other prospective buyers might be interested in him (which they weren't - but now I know why I needed to shear him). Black Pearl is out of Minnie Pearl who consistently produces extremely sweet and easy to handle crias. He has always loved to give little llama kisses through the fence. When he started giving kisses on Sunday, they fell in love with him and wanted to take him home.

Here is Black Pearl after shearing - he has gone to a wonderful loving home where they are already referring to him as their "main man".

Congratulations and thank you Whispering Spirit Ranch!

New Handspun Yarns

I've been busy spinning lately and finished up three skeins of yarn.

First up is a merino/bambo/silk 50/25/25 roving handdyed by Coby Kopec of CJ Kopec Creations in her White Cap colorway. This roving was a joy to spin - so soft and easy to spin thin - I ended up with a light DK weight 350 yard two-ply skein that weighs 3.7 ounces and then navajo-plied the remainder of the yarn into a 24 yard skein that weighs 0.3 ounces. This yarn is incredibly soft with amazing drape and luster. White Caps is available in my Etsy store.

Here's the roving before spinning

And here are the finished yarns

And here is the second set of yarns. I spun up a beautiful batt called Peacock created by Esther at Jazz Turtle Creations on Etsy. The batt contained: merino, milk protein, bamboo rayon, kid mohair locks, border leicester locks, glitterati, sari silk tangles, angelina and are plied with a cotton yarn/thread in coordinating colors.

Here is the batt before spinning

I spun this one thick and thin and plied it with a cotton yarn/thread in coordinating colors. I had so much yarn that it wouldn't all fit on the bobbin so I had to make two skeins of Peacock yarn. The first skein is 89 yards and 3.3 ounces. The second skein is 85 yards and 2.4 ounces. Both are worsted weight yarns. The second skein is a bit thinner than the first one. Peacock and Peacock II can both be found in my Etsy store.

Foster Kittens Update

The foster kittens have grown like crazy in the past week! Little Krissy who was so emaciated that she couldn't even stand up on her own when I got her now looks like Jabba the Hut. My vet told me that feral and stray cats who don't know when or where their next meal will come from will gorge themselves when they find food. Apparently Krissy fits this profile. Poor little baby. I'm just happy that she has put weight on and is playing with the other kittens. They are still a bit jumpy around people but are warming up to us and getting better every day.

Here is Kenny, lounging on his favorite fleece blankie.

And Barbie lounging on her favorite blankie (doesn't she look like she's smiling?!)

And Krissy has crawled up to the highest spot she could find and is lounging on her favorite sherpa fleece bed (see the Buddha belly on this girl?!)

And last but certainly not least is little Jellybean who is now completely off the bottle and on solid foods with the rest of the kittens (whew!) And her hair has grown back, too.

She runs to us and climbs right up our legs and all the way up to our shoulder where she sits like a little parrot.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Please take a moment today to thank our service men and women who make daily sacrifices to preserve and protect our country and our freedoms. And please remember and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. All gave some, but some gave all. I love the song by Billy Ray Cyrus - "Some Gave All" and I have shared the YouTube video link in the post below.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday!

Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All