Tag: Alpaca Yarn

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FAF – Spinning fun and Alpaca Cowl Pattern

What a long month of July.  No rain, intense heat, and lots of spinning for the Tour de Fleece.   Thankfully this year we got air conditioning! Yippy, so I managed to enjoy fiber in cool comfort instead of fighting with it sticking to me in sloppy humidity.

I present to you my collage of goodies that I worked on this past month.

Spinning wasn’t the only thing I did this past month.  I also managed to knit up a lovely cowl/ear warmer out of my very last ball of grey alpaca yarn.  All but 1 of my greys have sold and I’m keeping this cowl for myself in memory of them.  Thank you George, Gus and CoHo for the lovely warmth!

For those of you interested in this pattern.

Materials
200yrds DK weight
#7 8in round

Cast on:
100 stitches, place marker, knit 1st row

Pattern 4 row repeat:
K2, P2
K1, P2, K1
P2, K2
P1, K2, P1

Complete with extra stretchy bind off.  This is the one I used.

Be sure to check out our Link-Parties page to see what everyone else is up to this week!

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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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Fiber Arts Friday – Flat Alpacas Don’t Spit

Hello again Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday Folks.

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 9th.

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…..

 
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Fiber Arts Friday – Preparing for Shows

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 2nd 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?