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

Foster Kittens Update

It has been touch and go, up and down this week with the foster kittens. Barbie and Kenny are doing great. Barbie is very sociable, affectionate and purrs like crazy when I cuddle her. Kenny is still a bit frightened but will let me cuddle him without laying his ears back now. Krissy, the third kitten in the litter, has turned the corner I believe. She weighed a mere 13.4 ounces when I picked her up on Monday. Barbie and Kenny were 1 pound 2 ounces and 1 pound 3 ounces so they weighed almost half again as much as Krissy did. Krissy went up to 13.8 ounces, then back down to 13 ounces (she wanted to sleep instead of eat she was so weak) and this morning when I weighed her she weighs 14.4 ounces so she's gained a full ounce in 3 days, which is good.

Here are the three kittens: Barbie is in front, Kenny is back left and Krissy is back right.

Krissy is a blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell. Her main color is that blue/gray and she has patches of peachy/cream all over, which you can't see in this photo but I'll get better pics when she's gotten stronger and is looking a bit better. She's still a bit scraggly looking.

And then there is little Jellybean. She is at least 5 weeks old and she should be starting to eat solid foods. The canned KMR she has been drinking is fairly expensive and each little can only lasts two days so it is costing about $2/day to feed her! I found an all species powdered milk replacer at the feed store and decided to switch her over to it. I mixed 25% of the new formula with the KMR for a few days and then had to go to 50/50 because the KMR was almost gone and she refused to eat. She got diarrhea with a tinge of blood which means she wasn't absorbing the food anyway so we went and bought more cans of the KMR for her and she's still upset. I think she's hungry and the formula isn't filling her up so she's getting very frustrated. She's lost a couple of ounces but is still alert and active so I'm hoping she'll start eating the rice baby cereal, milk replacer, meat baby food gruel I've been making for the other kittens. Thank goodness we have these other kittens here now to help her learn how to eat and play and be a normal kitten! 

We're in Another Etsy Treasury!

Wow - one of my listings is in yet another Treasury on Etsy! This one is curated by Paige at Lenox Knits (plenox on Etsy) and is called "Lenox Knit's Blog Buddies Southwest Theme" and contains gorgeous items with a Southwest theme! These are some great items by some gifted artists and blogging buddies. Please take a look!

My item is the Jewels of the Southwest custom fiber blend batts.

And speaking of Etsy Treasuries, the Somewhere Over the Rainbow Treasury that I blogged about on Sunday May 23rd made it to the FRONT PAGE of Etsy on Monday morning May 24th! And I MISSED IT! I got up early and got my chores done so I could meet somebody in Divide to pick up the third kitten out of the litter that was found at the trailer park. She was so weak and frail that I spent most of the day working to get her to eat and drink and warmed up so she didn't die. I didn't realize until Monday night when I looked at my store stats on craftopolis.com and saw that the store had 135 unique visitors and 510 page views that day that something was up. I went to another site where they tell you if your store has been featured on the front page of Etsy and sure enough - it had been on the front page that morning at 8 AM. Unfortunately I didn't get a screen shot of it. Does anyone know how you can get a screen shot?

Barbie, Kenny & Jellybean Update

Last Friday I decided to introduce little Jellybean, the bottle fed foster kitten, to the newest foster kittens, Barbie and Kenny. They hit it off right away and played then slept together off and on throughout the entire day. I put Jellybean back into her crate that night and then back into the bathroom with Barbie and Kenny on Saturday where they played and played and played. Barbie and Kenny even showed Jellybean how to eat out of a bowl, although she still prefers her bottle, but she's eating some beef or chicken baby food along with her formula now.

Jellybean can hold her own against these other kittens - they only outweigh her by a couple of ounces. Here, Jellybean is going in for the kill on Kenny.

The kittens blend right in with the little throw rug in the bathroom. Camo kitties!

And when they're done playing, here's how they like to sleep.

I think it is so sweet how Barbie and Kenny have let little Jellybean into their family. 

Jellybean is finally growing back some hair now so she doesn't look like a Chinese Crested dog or a Sphynx cat.

And last night the people who found Barbie and Kenny called me to let me know they had caught the third kitten of the litter. I picked her up this morning and she is in sad condition. She was so weak and lethargic it was scary but she immediately started eating some of the chicken baby food and lapped up some warm formula and then crawled on top of the cube to sleep with her brother and sister. She is a gorgeous blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell that I named Krissy. She's a beautiful blue/gray with peachy slotches all over her. I'll get pics of her after she's feeling a bit better.

All four of these kittens will need new furever homes in several weeks after they've been socialized, acclimated to the other cats and dogs and spayed/neutered. So if you're in the area and looking for a beautiful kitten companion, please keep these kittens in mind.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Etsy Treasury

One of my Roving of the Month Club listings made it into this beautiful Etsy Treasury called "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" curated by DreamsFactory. What a gorgeous collection of rainbow colored items!

Meet Barbie & Kenny

Here are the two kittens we just took in to foster. The one up front is a female and the one in back is a male. They are gorgeous little tabby cats! These came from the trailer park near the Wal-Mart in Woodland Park. Their Momma had her kittens underneath one of the trailers and had torn through the insulation on the bottom of the trailer. The kittens had been playing all over under the trailer, driving the owner's dog crazy. They managed to catch two of the three kittens. I haven't heard anything more about the third kitten - a little gray one. I named the little female Barbie and the male is Kenny. If you're in the area and you can give one or both of these little guys a good loving furever home, please let me know. They can be adopted through TCRAS (Teller County Regional Animal Shelter) after they have been spayed and neutered. The adoption fee covers the spay/neuter and all their shots. TCRAS is a no-kill shelter so the cats don't have a short time-line for adoption but they would be so much happier in their own home! We have a wonderful group of staff and volunteers that provide so much time, energy and love to the animals. Go TEAM CAT! ;o)

Barbie and Kenny are so shy and scared right now. They spent the first day inside this little cube hiding behind the little stuffed rabbit inside. This morning I found them on top of their cube cuddled together. They had eaten every last bite of the food I put out for them, drank quite a bit of the water and they didn't budge when I came in to visit them this morning. Yesterday if they were out of their cube they high-tailed it as fast as they could go to "safety". Kenny is hissy but he's pretty much all talk and no action. I've been able to pick him up without problems from the very beginning but he's tried to nail others who attempt to pick him up. I think they'll come around quickly because I can get them to purr when I snuggle them. You can't see it in this pic but Kenny has the most gorgeous blue eyes. Barbie's eyes are a gorgeous hazel and she is a spotted tortoiseshell tabby - she has red in with the gray/brown of her fur and spots along with the stripes, which you can see much better in the photo below.

Little Kenny is a dark gray/brown striped Tabby. His stripes are better defined than Barbie's are and I think he's going to be a gorgeous cat! He sure is a cute little guy now. ;o)

Wordless Wednesday