sea beanie a success!

Sea beanie with Bartok

I embarked on what felt like a rather ambitious project early in December and to my surprise the cables became easier and I finished it last night! Didn't take as long as I'd expected and once I got used to the cables I really started to make progress!
I had been looking for a project that had a nice pattern for a beanie that would suit our alpaca yarn. After some searching I settled on Sea Beanie by Elena Nodel. I really wanted to make it in Tux's cria yarn for Andrew but I only have a very small quantity of it so decided to test the pattern out in Julie in a size for me. Success!
Needless to say… I have already cast on the stitches to start Andrew's hat in Tux's yarn!

Sea beanie made in adagio alpacas Julie yarn

Another sublime little Spencer knitted vest

A good friend of mine is due to have a baby boy in a month do I decided to knit another little Spencer vest in our yarn for her. She lives in the UK so I'm going to have to hurry up and finish it!

I'm pleased to say that the back is done!

The 0-6mths size is so much quicker! Less than 1 ball of yarn even with the added 2.5cm I added into the back measurements.

I've done much better job of this one, my knitting is improving!

Tux has a bit too much fun...

Well, its never dull here at adagio alpacas! I looked out the window yesterday to see the sisters Ebony and Silhouette cuddled up together whilst Ebony let Tux have his way with her!

Tux looking wistfully at his girls and the steers are curious

Alpacas are very sweet when mating, the male often crooning to the female. Tux was no exception. Alpacas have very close family and friendship bonds within the herd and Ebony is obviously very close to Tux. Female alpacas are at their happiest when they are pregnant and get quite grumpy when they aren't! They are all a bit devastated that Tux has been separated. I have no idea how but somehow last night he managed to get back into the paddock with the girls! They have all been mooning about since I separated him a second time this morning.

We don't intend to bread with Tux much to our disappointment his fleece was not fine enough however cute he may be! I was planning on separating him out and arranging the castration for next week but obviously I was a week too slow! So the castration has been arranged for tomorrow... He can be back with his girls in a few days once he has healed.

Tux feeling sorry for himself

It is unlikely that anything will come of the mating, I double checked my quick reference guide, a wonderful resource from the Australian Alpaca Association, "Managing Alpacas in Australia" and it indicates that generally males become fertile between the ages of 18mths to 3 years. However I guess we will find out for sure in May/June next year!

The neighbour's lambs only just born

To complicate matters further, our bore pump has had to be removed to be fixed as the iron in the water has completely corroded out the pump, we were lucky it was still working at all! So whilst the boy slept today I had to find 4 lengths of hoses and associated connectors to be able to fill the steers' water back up! Not an easy task with our organisation system... or lack thereof! Luckily we are on town water as well as having a bore so I had another option!

In good news whilst I was sorting out the alternative water supply I looked across and one of my neighbour's sheep had had lambs! They were so new that they still had all the birth fluid on them. Very cute! The boy and I will have to wander down so he can look at them later. Unfortunately the only camera I had on me was the phone but the lambs were very cute!




Hopefully thats all the drama here for a while!

I love my alpacas

I love my alpacas, they have so much character! I have been making a special effort to encourage them to be comfortable around me, feeding them most days and gradually they have been responding. Especially since feed in our paddocks is low this year. (What a change from last year! Can't believe it!) They are nearly all eating from my hands and they all now come running when I call. (for food anyway!)
So this evening when we needed to move them to a different paddock I called them in for food and they came running. Once I'd shut them in the laneway and my husband had rearranged the gates  I collected some more food and started walking! To my delight and surprise they followed! With a small hiccough along the way (at the entrance to the next paddock they baulked and took off down the driveway... but with minimal encouragement they turned and sprinted towards the right paddock) they took off into the new paddock. One alpaca, Gedalyn, was so excited that she started to prance like a deer! So cute!

Shearing 2012

I think I will always find shearing time fascinating! The alpacas all react in different ways to being shorn and it's when we find out what the fleece of each alpaca is really like! The star of the show this year was Silver Rose (pet name socks), our rose grey girl. This was her second fleece and in a year it had grown about 5 inches! Such quantity too, her bag of fleece (and her mothers) was atleast twice, if not, three times the size of the rest! Her colour is so gorgeous! I can't wait to see what it will be like spun!

The photo is of Silver Rose and her mother after shearing, they look so scrawny shorn!

Adagio alpacas!

Launching adagio alpacas! We are relatively new to farming alpacas, have had alpacas for over 18 months now and love it! They are such characters! This blog is a work in progress, I will be adding information about each of our alpacas and hopefully take you on our journey with us!