Fiber Arts – Page 28 – Dutch Hollow Acres

May 7, 2010May 7, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Alpaca Rug

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook you know I’ve been working hard all week on this one and I’m sad to say I wasn’t able to finish it yet. Errrr. No worries, here’s what I’ve done so far.

At the Northeast Alpaca Expo last weekend I picked up 2.5lbs of cotton core spun alpaca rug yarn. I was just tickled to find rug yarn around a cotton core instead of jute. This meant I could easily crochet it without too much of a fight. Unfortunately any time you involve a ‘S’ size crochet hook there’s always a fight involved.

I actually made 2 rugs. The first one I made a SC rectangle rug and set it out and looked at it for a day and decided I didn’t like it at all so I ripped it apart. I wanted an oval rug and when I crocheted it the traditional way it was way too thick for my liking and the thickness resulted in a smaller rug size wise.

What I ended up doing was a hybrid between a braided rug and a crochet rug. I made a huge long single crochet line out of the rug yarn and then sewed it together like a braided rug. The last step is to felt it which is where I’m at now.

Here is a photo of my very soggy rug. It is not yet complete and is just in the beginning stages of felting. I must say, felting a rug is fun; it’s a lot like stomping on grapes. Just put it in a kiddy pool with warm water, some good tunes and stomp away!

April 30, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Scrap Yarn

One thing about making cord out of yarn is there is a lot of scrap. When I get to the end of a skein sometimes a run isn’t long enough to string the 28 feet across my living room so I have all these short bits of yarn. I brought a bunch to work with me to play with on my breaks and lunch and here is what I came up with. Boring squares.

The white/brown square is made out of organic cotton and the tri colored square is made out of alpaca. I figure I could use them as hot pads or mabe even a wash cloth. Any other ideas?

Don’t forget to visit Wonder Why Gal for other Fiber Arts Friday Posts.

April 26, 2010October 10, 2012

How To Braid A 6 Strand Rope With A Core

My last Friday Arts Friday post I had many comments on how to braid a lead rope. So while I worked on my latest one I decided to take a video and so you can see the technique.

The best braids are made out of cord and for beginners the easiest cord to work with is nylon parachute cord. For the project you are seeing in the video below I’m using 100% baby alpaca cord. If you’re interested, I can make cord out of your own alpaca yarn, email me for pricing info. To see or purchase the finished product in this tutorial click here.

When you are braiding round braids you’ll want a core to braid around to help keep the shape of the braid and give it some “meat” in your hands when holding on to it. Otherwise you’re braiding a tube which will deflate when you hold onto it. It also prevents the finished project from stretching out and gives it strength. Since the core is not visible it can be of any material you want, I opted to use some scrap acrylic.

Now you have to figure out the length and affix your core around the end snap. My core is made from 16 feet of chunky acrylic yarn fed through the snap and then twisted into cord to a length of 6.5 feet. I hate getting to the end of a braid just to find out I don’t have enough cord for the length I want so my rule of thumb to find the length of my strands is to double the length of my core. So you’re thinking; ok 6 foot leash doubled = (6) 12 foot strands? WRONG! We want a snap at the end of our leash which means we need (3) 24 foot strands folded in half with the snap in the center.

I’ve never been able to learn how to braid by reading so instead of describing it, I’ll let the video do the visual babble for me. If you have any questions feel free to ask away.

[flashvideo file=wp-content/uploads/Video/Braiding.flv /]

April 23, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday

TGIFAF! Welcome back to Fiber Arts Friday!

Next weekend is the big Northeast Alpaca Expo in Syracuse NY. We will be showing our cria Albina in it and that got me to thinking. I decided to add a little flair to our show presence by working up a special lead rope for the occasion. Since Beanie’s dam is white and her sire is Black I thought a little zebra coloring would be fun.

I had some scrap chunky acrylic yarn hanging around in the colors I wanted and got to work. I spun a rope core and did an 8 plait braid around it complete with a bolt snap and decorative knot and fringe at the end.

I’m very pleased with the outcome and can’t wait for the show! If you’ll be at the expo come check us out, we are sharing a stall with EastWest Alpaca Ranch.

April 16, 2010April 20, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday – Crochet Bottle Holder

So I was cleaning out my desk at work and found a stash of scrap yarn and crochet hooks! Of course this instantly meant craft day in the office. Looking around for some inspiration, my eyes locked on my water bottle. It looked so naked and lonely calling out, clothe me!

I started making a disk until it covered the bottom of the bottle and then SC up several rows to encase the bottom. For a little different flair I then went to a DC and finally back to SC at the top and DEC a few rows to taper it in and finally SC and SS handle so it’s easy to carry.

I must say I’m happy with the results! It’s a fast project and I managed to start and finish it on my lunch break!

Be sure to check out other Fiber Arts Friday posts @ WonderWhyGal