Category: Fiber Arts

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Fiber Market Monday – Alpaca Rug Yarn

Please excuse the tardiness of Fiber Market Monday today.  It’s been a rough weekend around the farm both physically and emotionally. But, I’m not here to get folks down with my blues.  So let’s talk FIBER!

This week I have to offer a beautiful array of rug yarns fresh from the mill!  A few weeks ago I showed you a rug I made from these yarns on my pegloom in just 1 hour.  In the past I’ve also done a combination crochet and sewn rug.  For this rug I used an ‘S’ hook and crochet a huge long chain out of the 100yrd bump and then sewed it together like you would with a braided rug into an oval.


Braided Alpaca Rug

1 of the 100yard bumps should make you a 20in x 30in rug.

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Fiber Market Monday’s
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Fiber Market Monday 

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Fiber Arts Friday: New Foal

Welcome back Fiber Arts Friday fans!

Ok, I must admit that I have not being getting much done fiber arts wise this week.  The reason, we have a new baby! 

I present to you DHA Reno’s Southern Belle

DHA Reno's Sothern Belle

The only fiber stuff I’ve done this week was 1) buying new alpacas and 2) dying some alpaca yarn for a customer.  I”ll have 3 new Accoyo Huacayas  joining our herd in a few weeks.  Yeah! My herd is growing, hello more fiber!

As for the dying, here she is cooking away in the crockpot.  I’m not sure why it looks bloody in the photo but the end yarn is a dark cranberry.  It’s currently hanging in the basement drying by our coal stove.  The yarn’s new owner has just gotten into knitting and blogging and with any good luck she’ll join in on the fun.

Alpaca Yarn Dye Pot

This just in at 5:30am!  The yarn is already dry! Isn’t it pretty?  Yarn is off of 2 of our alpaca girls Bella and Vanilla and is OH so soft.

Cranberry Alpaca Yarn

I will not be participating in next week’s FAF as I will be off taking a searing seminar. The farm will be in the trusted hands of the hubba and both our mom’s.  Hope everyone stays in their pastures and doesn’t cause them any troubles!

Don’t worry Fiber Market Monday’s will still be on so come join in the fun and highlight some of your handmade goodies that are for sale!

Click Here to see all the Link Parties I participate in!

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WIP: Green Shawl Progress

I’ve been working away on the green fan shawl when I can.  It’s to the point now where I hate doing a row because it takes SO long and there’s little visible growth.  But, I got 3 full pattern rows done on Tuesday which added another 6” to the shawl so I’m happy

crochet_fan_pattern_shawl

Size wise it currently is the length of 1 arm, my chest and to my elbow of the other arm.  I have a 6 foot wing span so I’m thinking it’s about 4.5 ft wide and about 2.75 ft long.  Yes, this is how I measure things.  Very scientific isn’t it?

crochet_fan_pattern_shawl

This is actually the first time I’ve used the 3.75mm crochet hook and it’s been angering my pinky.  The hook shaft must be rubbing on a nerve in my pinky finger and the darn think tingles after just a few minutes.  So I started modifying it.  At first I put on one of the rubber crochet grippies but that did nothing.  Next I added a post-it note and a sticker but it wasn’t fat enough so 3 more stickers were added.  Then the post-it note gave up its grip and the whole thing started to slide around so I added 2 rounds of scotch tape and slid the apparatus over the tape and it stuck nicely.  Lastly I still wanted more bulk on the end so took the rubber grip off my pen and put it on. 

Tada! My nice fat grip 3.75mm crochet hook.  Oh yeah, the only reason I did this is because the new ChiaoGoo hook that I bought that has a nice flat and fat bamboo handle made stitches too loosely compared to the hook I was using. Ugh.  Oh well, I’ll use it on another project from start to finish.

redneck_crochet_hook

With any luck I will have this shawl finished in time to go up for sale this coming Fiber Market Monday. What is Fiber Market Monday?  It’s a new link party specifically geared to promoting handmade fiber items, raw fiber or fiber animals so come on back this coming Monday and check out all the goodies!

Click Here for link parties I participate in!

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Fiber Arts Friday: Alpaca Rug Yarn

Hello Fiber Arts Friday Fans.

This week will be a quick one.  Usually I write up my posts days in advance but I’m late this week and scrambling to get one up.

Last weekend my mom, hubby and I packed into the car and took a trip down to Autumn Mist Fiber Mill to pick up my recently completed goodies. Last year I had sold my entire raw prime fleeces which left me with 3 years 3rds and some 2nds to play with.  I decided on having it made into rug yarn which is thick spun roving looking material spun around a cotton core. 

I’ve been waiting for this yarn for some time now to use on my homemade pegloom.  Even though we didn’t get back from our trip until 7pm that didn’t stop me from warping up the loom and start weaving. 

Just 1 hour after I started I had this beautiful rug! 

 

Shameless Plug:  I am going to start Fiber Market Monday’s back up next week.  You’re welcome to post about fiber projects your making that will be for sale or highlight a fiber animal that is for sale/stud or maybe their fleece is for sale.  Free advertising is always a good thing 🙂

Lastly I’m going to change how I share the link parties I participate in.  Instead of spamming you with all the buttons that I usually put here I’m on a collecting mission and will be organizing them all here.  Right now it is a work in progress but I have plenty of link parties to fillin all those blanks.   Still want your site on the front page? I offer very affordable advertising rates for everthing on the right hand column.

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WIP: Fan Pattern Shawl

I’m not sure why but I have a thing for shawls at the moment.  One thing I’ve learned is never pass up motivation! 

At first I decided this next project would be for ME.  But as I started working on the shawl with yarn I bought by ME for ME I realized it’s not what I wanted.  Ugh.  I’m so complicated sometimes!  I did realize that I love this pattern but the colors of the yarn weren’t doing anything for me.  Don’t get me wrong I really like this microfiber yarn, it’s soft, shinny and worked up easily but, I think I want some minor changes for a self-kept project.

So, this shawl, when finished, will be put up for sale.

Fan Pattern Shawl

My shawl will eventually be the exact same pattern but in an ivory (or charcoal) 100% alpaca lace weight yarn instead.  I’ve never attempted a lace project before.  I’m hoping having muscle memory with the green shawl will help me tackling a lace weight project.

I found the shawl pattern on Ravelry and it is written very well.  I had to read it line by line until I committed the pattern to memory and I’m thankful it was written correctly.

What are you up to this week?