Tag: alpaca fiber

Good weather and big crowds made our stay at DEC days great!  Day 1 I had both CoHo and CW with us but CoHo decided he no longer wanted to be at trade shows.  He hummed, squealed and when some rowdy teens started to provoke him he covered them in spit.  Normally I’d be upset and embarrassed at this but as I said, they were rowdy teens *grin*

Day 2 I left CoHo home and CW came with me.  He must have been tired from all the fuss the day before because he slept almost the entire time.  The alpaca that got the most attention is what I called our “flat alpaca.”  I brought my Miracle blanket and any time someone wanted to pet the boys I herded them over to Miracle who was kind enough to never run away, kick or spit. 

All in all, it was a great weekend for both answering alpaca questions and selling my wears.  Next trip will be to the GV Hunt Races on October 9^th.

I have a new hydrant!  M. Finally finished the trenching and my new hydrant is in and looking oh so pretty next to our new barn.  Believe it or not I haven’t had a chance to use it yet because it’s been raining so much the boys are getting all their water intake from the grass.

I did manage to get one silly project done this week.  I was playing around on my knitting loom and worked up a small dog coat.  Since I don’t own a dog that small I opted to test it out on our new kitten Frito.  Well that turned out to be a good laugh since he couldn’t figure out how to walk with it on.  He figured out how to wiggle out of it in about an hour though.

Photos!  I got a call last night from a Photography student at SUNY Geneseo who’s looking to showcase local farms as her project.  She’ll be stopping over tomorrow morning to photograph our cute and fluffy herd, I’m sure the horses will get their moment too. 

 Speaking of photos here’s some of the girls I got this week.  Babies! Awe…..

Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday!

What a crazy week!  I’ll try to keep things short and to the point and in some sort of order without too much babbling.  Hope you can keep up.

1. We have yet another new cria!  Last Friday I got a call around 4pm saying there was another cria bouncing around the pasture.  Sure enough I came home to a very strong 17lb fawn girl who was already dry, up, nursing, and running around with her half sister.  I present to you Dutch Hollow’s Fontia.

2. Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival.  I did manage to sneak over to the fiber show for only an hour.  Next year I want to take classes and stay for a whole day.  It was the first time I’ve ever been to a fiber show and WOW, I so wish I could spend more time. 

I went for the purpose of talking to my local mill which I did.  I’ve got about 30lbs of fiber heading their way to be made into rug yarn.  

While I was there I ended up finding another tannery that captured my interest.  They claim they can process sheep/alpaca hides and make them washable! I’ll have to contact them when I have more time and learn more.  I was under the impression that the chemicals needed to make a fleece washable were illegal in the US but apparently they have another way?

3. This weekend is not only National Alpaca Farm Days but is also National Hunting and Fishing Days.  Since my neighbor happens to be the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and hosts the oldest DEC Days in the country I piggy back off them.  My farm is not able to handle the thousands of people that come for the DEC show so I set up a booth and bring a couple of my boys over to them.  This will be me 2^nd year participating in DEC Days and it is a whole bunch of fun with the exception of hunters constantly asking me if they can eat them.  I tell them no but they do give you great fiber to keep feet warm while in tree stands!

4. Inventory!  With vendor shows comes the need for inventory.  Here are some of the hats/scarfs that I’ve been making all week. 

That about wraps it up what did you do this week?

Welcome Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday followers.

If you haven’t figured out from last week’s FAF title I have fiber arts ADD.  I am always trying to figure out other ways of using my alpaca fiber and here are this week’s results.  I’m going to let the photos do all the talking.

I’m sure the question will come up on how I’m making the bracelets and necklaces.  I have a rope machine and I’m actually making really thin rope(cord) and then making knot jewelry like you would if working with hemp.   Check out Youtube and search for “how to make hemp necklace” and it’ll walk you through the steps.   If you have the ability to make cord this is a great way to use up all those 6-10 foot scrap peices of yarn!

The Skinny Scarf pattern I found on Ravelry. 

I actually finished 3 different loops reins with various patterns and have another 3 twisted but needing the knots to be finished.

Not to toot my own horn but I did seriously do all of these this week!  No clue how I did that with a full time job, farm chores, exercising horses, a wedding, a funeral and canning 15lbs of tomatoes.