A Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Winner!

(early morning fog coming up from the river)

 Alrighty then!  Today is THE day to announce the winner of Susan Anderson's "Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys".  Thanks so much for all the praise for Susan - she deserves every bit of it.  She's a special person and it's evident from your comments that I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Random.org has chosen number 63 and that belongs to a comment from Ashley (ashleym103) (I eliminated any accidental duplicates).  Ashley,  I've sent you a message on Ravelry and as soon as I hear from you, I'll send your mailing information on to Susan's publicist.  You should be receiving your very own copy of the book soon.  Thanks to all of you who took the time to enter and, if you'd like to have another chance at winning, the last stop on the blog book tour is with Angela Tong on her blog Oiyi's Crafts and is scheduled to start sometime today.

(Luna's always ready for a little extra attention)

So, with the excitement of reading all those comments behind me, it's back to my real life ... which is  tending the sheep, alpaca boys and llama girls and spending my days with my hands on this year's fiber harvest.  I'm not going to be vending at any of the fall fiber festivals this year.  I'm still waiting on my yarn to come back from Echoview Fiber Mill, but I'll be making the drive up to Ohio Valley at the end of this week to have some wool/alpaca blend roving processed, then it will be into the dye pots for me.  I'm planning on an open farm day sometime later this fall and I want to have a nice selection of yarn and dyed roving available.  As always, the hardest part for me is settling on the color palette to dye this year's "Fresh From the Farm Yarn".  After hosting the natural dye workshop here at the farm in May, I'm excited to use as many natural dyes as possible.  Stay tuned for progress reports!

(definitely want to repeat these colors from logwood)

It's also time to be making decisions about which ewes will be put in with Rowdy.  I have twelve half Wensleydale yearling ewes that I think would make a fine cross, but they are yearlings and have never lambed before, which means they'll need more hands-on attention than the older, more experienced ewes. Given my plans to simplify by only breeding a few girls (and the on-going issues with my shoulder), experience may be the winner here.   I'm still mulling over all the possibilities.

Here on the farm, we're moving into another part of the yearly cycle.  In most ways, we're getting ready for the cold winter days ahead.  At the same time we'll also be looking ahead to warm spring days of new lambs and fresh, green grass coming up in the pastures.  (And, unless there's another no-show year in the lambing maternity ward, the LAMB-CAM will return!)