Blog

Posted on

Vacationing is Impossible

One thing that I mention to everyone who says they want to raise alpacas or horses is that vacationing is darn near impossible.   If you like to travel DO NOT own a farm.

Case in point:

This past weekend was our anniversary and boy wouldn’t it be nice if we could get away for a long weekend?  Plans were set and preparations to put the farm on “auto pilot” with helpers to keep an eye on things were made.  Feeling darn good about ourselves we left convinced we’d be able to enjoy our time away.

The first night away went smoothly, no calls from back home at all, we were able to enjoy a nice dinner out on the WW Durant.  Earlier in the week we had shipped off some of our alpaca to the chef and he prepared us a wonderful roasted red pepper, mushrooms and alpaca pasta dish.  YUMMY!  It was awesome to have such a great chef prepare our own meat for us and to be able to enjoy a scenic ride on Raquette Lake too.

The next day we recovered from our excess food and drink and hooked up with a friend to go out and see a movie.  Something as simple as going to a movie theater is often difficult and we hadn’t been out to a film in over 2-3 years!   20 minutes into the flick I remembered why.  Ring Ring! Uh oh, it’s the farm watcher!  Dashing to the back of the theater and out the door we answered the call.  The foul weather had blown down some of the fence and though the alpacas were still “contained” they would easily be able to get out.   I walked her through getting some grain and herding them back into the dirt paddock and locking them in.   Crisis averted!

The rest of the weekend seemed to go smoothly and dreams and wishes of a vacation home in the mountains filled our head.   Would it be possible to do these mini weekends away more frequently?   The thought consumed us on our drive home and we had it planned out how we could manage a farm and time off and were convinced we could manage both by the time we pulled into the driveway.

As we walked through the front door we were greeted with a story of how just a short time ago, one of the alpacas managed to cram their body through a small hole under the fence and wiggled their way to freedom.   The tale of how the escape artist was chased and captured retold to the delight of the farm sitter and to the realization there would never be a vacation home in the mountains for me.  *sigh*

Posted on

FAF: A bit of everything

Good Day Fiber Arts Friday Folks,

So this is what I’ve been up to as of late.  Crias!  We’ve had 2 cute girls born on the farm lately out of our new stud Alejandro.  So excited about this gals, their fiber is AMAZING and SO dense.  Even my one silky alpaca who never lets the studs density through has a cria that is super dense.  I’m thrilled to pieces with my boy.  Good Job Al!

I’ve been braiding away and making ropes.  Here’s a few photos of some of my latest projects.   Of course my phone rang half way through me making cord which ends up leaving my livingroom looking like this until I start up again.

Lastly here’s the progress I’ve made on my alpaca sweater vest.  I’m currently doing decreases every 6 rounds so it’s fitted for my lady figure.  Yeah right, me a lady? hardly.

That’s all for now.  TTYL

 

Posted on

FAF: Seminars and Sweater Vests

Welcome back Fiber Arts Friday Fans!

I’ve gotten a lot of interest on how to make the colorful ropes I’ve been braiding lately so I’ve decided to hold class on it.   My good Friend Jennifer at Seven Spirits Farm is kind enough to host the class in her beautiful new Fiber Studio and here’s the details:

Techniques

  •  6 strand round braid (confetti)
  •  6 strand round braid (spiral)
  •   8 strand round braid (herringbone)
  •  Finishing knot/tassel
  •   Hand loop splice

Materials provided

  •   Braiding cord
  •   Snap with attached core
  •   Hemostat
  •   Documentation

When: Saturday October 20th @ 9am
Where: Seven Spirits Farm 6424 Liberty Pole Rd Dansville N.Y
Cost: $60 per person – Limited to 8 people – Lunch Provided

Contact Us for more information

==============================================

Speaking of Braiding. Here’s a new one I’m currently working on just in time for hunting season.  I call it Camo.

UPDATE: as of 9am this morning this leash has already been sold.   If anyone wants one like it let me know.

==============================================

 

Other than that I’ve started my first ever sweater project!  Well Sweater Vest anyway.   The yarn is hand spun by Seven Spirits Farm from our boy CoHo.  I’ve always wanted a sweater out of him so now is my chance.  I’m thinking it’ll be another year before I finish it.

Well here’s photos of how far I’ve gotten and what my finish product hopes to look like.

 

 

Posted on

FAF: I’m Back! I think?

Hi Fiber Arts Friday Fans.

So for the past month I haven’t posted.  Why?  Day job, nuff said! Darn thing gets in the way of me having fun ALL the time.  Well with colleges and schools starting up again my work load drops off.  Thank goodness too because I was starting to get burnt out.

Anyway I’ve been able to pick up the fiber fun recently and here’s what I’ve been up to.

First I’ve been busy braiding LOTS of ropes.  I’ve finished 7 ropes in the last week.  Here’s a sample of some of the brightest dyes I’ve ever done in my life.

Alpaca Lead Rope

Of course I couldn’t help by braid up a pair of split reins for myself.  My camera still hates the color purple but here’s as close as I could get, the purple is nice and bright and the yellow is more of a gold color.  Can’t wait to show them off at my next horse show!

Alpaca Split Reins

 

Next photo is fiber-n-fiber,  I was stuck at a headend one day and brought my knitting with me.  Thought the concept of alpaca fiber and fiber-optics was way too funny of a photo to pass up.

Fiber and Fiber

 

Lastly I’ve been teaching myself a new braid!  This little tiny test braid has 12 strands! My that’s a lot of untangling of dangly ends.

12 strand braid

Ok that’s it for now.  What have you guys been up to?

 

Posted on

FAF: TdF Week 1

Hello Fiber Arts Friday fans

Well if you know Wonder Why Gal then you know we’re doing a Tour de Fleece event this month.  Spinning fiber every day the Tour de France is cycling.

Here’s a snippit of what I’ve been working on

I painted up some new rovings to wok with since I have LOTS of white fiber laying around.  Spinning white is fun but oh gosh can it get boring.

I tried my hand at core spun yarn which seems to have turned out nicely.  Pretty bulky too.

The purple you see on the bobbin I spun up from raw un-carded alpaca locks that were died a light purple.  Very interesting to try and spin up uncarded fiber but I love the way the yarn turned out.  Lots of fluffies, big poof, thin spots, and oh so soft.  Made for a great art yarn.

Well that’s it in a nut shell.