The sheep have names! My MIL named the white one Tootles after a stuffed toy sheep she had as a child. We named the black one Ivy. It was orignally Divey, after the childrens song with lyrics that go, little lambsey divey, but I was the only one that got it. So, name change. I like Ivy as well though. We made it through the weekend without any mishaps, the sheep are contently chowing down on the over growth in their pasture, and everyone I know in real life has called me a farmer. Well, there are worse lives, right? I spent the weekend spinning. It is so much easier for me to spin on the weekends than knit. Easier to stop spinning and wrap the end of the single around some spot on the wheel than to have to keep saying, "let me finish this row", remember to put stoppers on needles, put it down somewhere safe. These are the singles I got from the yarn I overdyed right before I went on vacation.

These are the plied singles. I love the colors of this yarn. I am planning on making the garter stitch Faroese shawl out of this yarn if it seems like I have enough when I am done spinning it up. This is 192 yards, and I probably have this much again, plus a little more still to spin. It is about 12 WPI. I kept stopping as I plyed to make Sean admire color combinations. He got sick of that about half way through the first bobbin of plied yarn and I had to shut up. I didn't quit thinking, "Oh, look at this peice, though." Bless his heart, everytime I made him look, he did look. He tried to fake enthusiasm, but I could tell he was thinking, "How many peices of yarn can she expect me to look at?"

I also spun up a sample of the alpaca that I combed on Friday. As I was combing it, all I could think was how nice it was, what nice yarn it was going to make. Spinning it up, I kept thinking it was going to be awful. The singles were hairy, there was no way to spin them fluffy, they curled up tight. I thought it was going to be rough and prickly. Imagine my surprise when I plied it, and it turned into this wonderfully soft, sport weight, rich, shimmery yarn with just a slight halo of fibers. It's just beautiful. I want to spin the rest of it up, but it will probably be a while. I am going to finish the shawl singles, and work on the shetland shawl this week. Plus seriously clean the house and start getting ready to get back to school after our short summer vacation. We were going to start today, the kids are ready, but I am not. I need to organize materials and find some pencils. We never have enough pencils. Bye for now!