This is Anya. Her coat has almost grown back since she was sheared. It has been three months.
This second picture is one that Sue sent us of Anya and her sister a month before we went to pick her up. We aren't sure which one is her. They both have the chestnut agouti coloring. Aren't they adorable?
I also ordered some woolpaca roving to blend with it to give it the memory and body of fine wool and the soft sheen of alpaca. Angora fiber, spun pure, does not have the springy memory that wool does, and it is very warm. My daughter is using this endeavor as her SAE project for her agricultural biology class, and will be doing a written report and a scrap book page about it, so I thought why not make a blog.
I also ordered a really nice merino lambs fleece from the same wonderful lady that we ordered the woolpaca roving, Kathy Lambert at www.etsy.com/shop/lambcamp. The sheep's name is Timmy. Perfect, right? Anya and Timmy mittens. We have ordered assorted rovings from her before. She is a wonderful person, and is so great to chat with and order things from. Her animals are all very beautiful. She has a wonderful blog: http://ranchoborrego.blogspot.com.
I will post pictures of our supplies as they arrive, our process as we work and describe our entire experience from raw fiber to finished project. Our plan is to knit/crochet some warm winter baby things, hat, scarf, mittens, booties, maybe even a sweater, for my cousin's baby that is due in November. We won't have to finish it all before the baby arrives, but hopefully in time for it to wear them before it gets too warm in the spring. We are looking at patterns now and will post those as well, if possible. My daughter is not a big knitter, so she may opt to nifty knitter a hat and possibly a scarf as well.
This picture is the fiber we harvested this first time. Check out the delicate colors striped over the length.
The fibers are mostly around 3 inches in length. There are some guard hairs and baby tips, but it is very soft and a beautiful color blend. It is, of course, very clean and we cut it very carefully.
I ordered a pair of Schact 112 tpi curved hand carders and a pair of English mini combs from woolery.com. I hope they don't take too long to get here. I am so excited. Although with all the projects I'm working on for my cousin's wedding, which is happening two weeks from this Saturday, I don't have much time for anything else.
