Hay, Knitting, And Spinning

It's been extremely mild this last little while, which is good for our lambs. We lost one of our lambs a few weeks ago while we were having the really cold temperatures. I always knew that he was not really healthy as he was born late. He was born in July and that just doesn't give them enough time before they are weaned to put on the fat they need to get through the -35 degree temperatures that we get in the winter. I had thought about leaving him through the winter with his mom... I probably should have but at the time he was so lively and his mom was being sold... but I should have sent him with his mom... but it was right at the time that they were being weaned anyway and I thought it would work out. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do. I am thinking though that this year I will keep the lambs with their moms and only breed them every second year... that way they will have time themselves to recuperate and the lambs can self wean. We will have a Cria this summer too and he/she will need to be with her mom too. The rams will just have to suffer on their own this year mind you they'll be fine I'm sure.  I am seriously thinking that I will keep all the sheep that are left except one black one with a white stripe on his face. I'm hoping that the hay situation will be better this year. I will also speak for hay earlier in the season and not wait for the farmers to get their hay up out of the fields. As a matter of a fact I've already spoken for next summer's crop with a fellow who we bought hay from this year. It will all be good I'm sure.

I went to a wonderful workshop on the weekend. I got lots out of learning how to knit in the Kaffe Fassett way... using colour to amplify pattern in your knitting. To be quite honest I'm having a bit of a dilemma.. I enjoyed the workshop so much I might be changing my mind about my 150 hour project that I have to do for my level 4 course. I had originally planned on spinning a cashmere blend yarn for this pattern... but now I can't get the idea of a Lopi sweater out of my mind.... I was thinking a nice Lopi Sweater with some colours that I dye myself... something like this...

I'm totally hamstrung... if you have ideas please let me know since I would love your opinion.

Lopi yarn spins fast and knits fast. Cashmere, not so much... but I have tons of cashmere...  Icelandic fleece only a little though I do have two small ones, which would mean that I would have to go looking for Icelandic fleeces now too (like that's a hardship!).

Oh! I am in such a quandry. HELP!

If you want to leave a comment... please, please, please, do so.

Meanwhile I'm off to have a shower and spin some camel down for the last camel question on the level 4 homework...