admin

May 27, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday – Allergies

Let’s see here what have I been up to? Well last weekend I set up the new skirting table and worked through all the Lollypop fleeces. (Lollypop is the name of the Humane Society Farm). Later that day I found out a very important piece of information about myself and wool. I’m allergic to lanoline! Yup, I did ok skirting until I itched my cheek and my face totally broke out in hives. It has been a week now and the hives are just about gone. That will be the last time I skirt wool, I’ll stick with alpaca from now on.

My alpaca shawl is coming along nicely I’m currently on pattern row 25 out of 30. I’m so close to being finished! Unfortunately I’ve hit a crochet wall and I’m rather bored of it so I started another small project that I can switch back and forth with to keep my mind going.

Here’s the start of the new project. It’s is a basket weave scarf out of a Peruvian Wool and Tencel blend. Very soft and super shinny. Since most of my fiber festivals and vendor fairs are in the fall I figure I got to get a move on some inventory and this seemed like a good start.

What have you been up to this week?

Check out these Link Parties

May 25, 2011June 1, 2011

2011 Alpaca Fiber CSA Shares

Did you know that Dutch Hollow Acres started the Alpaca Fiber CSA movement? We have been offering CSA shares of our annual shearing for over 3 years now.

CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is often associated with farmers markets and food harvests but it also applies to natural fibers. Fiber farmers like Dutch Hollow Acres spend all year caring for and selectively breeding our fiber animals in anticipation of our annual shearing.

Last year we offered only raw fiber CSA shares which sold out quickly. This year with the addition of more animals to our heard we will be expanding our CSA shares to roving/batting and hand spun yarns.

The pricing is as follows

$75 – Raw– Alpaca prime blanket fleece (Beige or White only) This is a 1 time share and will be shipped out after the animals are sheared. The fleece will be skirted before shipping.

$125/$63 – Spinners – Quarterly (4x a year) shipments of alpaca or alpaca blended fiber ready to be spun. Colors and blends will change with each shipment throughout the year.
Full Share = 2lbs
Half Share = 1lbs

$150/$75 – Yarn – Quarterly (4x a year) shipments of alpaca or alpaca blended yarns handspun by me. Colors and blends will change with each shipment throughout the year.
Full Share = 2lbs
Half Share = 1lbs

Double check the title of the listing before placing your order.

Etsy
DutchHollowAcres

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011

WIP: Shawl and Crochet Tutorial

Reading through some posts from Fiber Arts Friday last week I noticed some questions from folks new to crochet. The question: How do you hold your work and control tension?

Since I’m still working on my alpaca shawl I thought I’d grab a couple of photos to show how I hold my work.

I like to run the yarn over my index, under my middle and over my ring and pinky. I found this method works the best for me both knitting continental style and for crochet. If I tried any other combination I ended up having to take my wedding band off because the yarn would get stuck in it.

For crochet I let the yarn stay far back on my index finger. I like to reach for the yarn and snag it with the hook. If I’m continental knitting I’ll move the yarn up past the 1^st knuckle so I can control it easier and move my finger back and forth so I can knit and purl without having to change positions.

Starting Chain Tip: If you’re new to crochet and have problem with your initial chain and then attempting the next row try this. Use a hook 2x as big as what you will be using on your project for the initial chain. That will prevent you from making the tension in your starting chain too tight and make your 2^nd row much easier to complete.

Hope this helps!

Click Here for Link Parties

May 25, 2011

Fiber Wordless Wednesday

This is what a really pissed off alpaca looks like. He got loose in a 3 acre field dragging a lead rope. Totally freaked himself out, ran around screaming for a good 15 minutes until M and I managed to herd him into a corner where I snagged the lead and got him back. Silly Alpaca.

Do you raise fiber animals? Share your photos with us.

Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets — Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

May 19, 2011

Fiber Arts Friday – Skirting Table

Guess what, it rained, again, which meant indoor projects. I don’t have a skirting table so it seemed like something worth tackling. Especially since our shearing is coming up soon.

Supply list

(4) Elbows
(2) T’s
(5) 5’ sections of 1.5” PVC pipe
(1) PVC Glue
(1) 10’ roll of ½” hardware cloth
Lots of cable ties

The hubby was kind enough to help me through the math to get all pipe to the right lengths. He also assisted with a few extra hands to glue everything together but getting the hardware cloth on was all up to me. That took quite awhile and I have a few stab marks on my arms from the process but it’s done!

It is 5’ x 5’10” so I should easily be able to get a whole fleece out on it for skirting. I’m planning on setting it up on a few saw horses that way I don’t have to worry about legs and storage. A flat table can easily be put away.

I’ve also been working away on my alpaca shawl. This is it’s “parked” state for the photo. I have 19 out of 30 pattern rows done so far. I hoped to have many more done but all the trouble I went through this week keeping my horse alive took priority. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read Here.

That sums it up! Have a good weekend.

Click Here for Link Parties