Tag: yarn

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WIP – Tour de NY

Hi everyone I’m back!  What a trip up to the Adirondack Mountains I had.  Of course it’s Tour de Fleece right now so I brought my wheel along with me.  Since it sat in the passenger’s seat for the trip I found myself talking to it and finally gave it a name, Chester.  I’m sure most wheel’s have feminine names but this one just seemed like a Chester to me.  Say hi Chester!

Chester and I spent quite a bit of time together at the lake.  You can see a seaplane in the background coming in in one of the photos.  I was working on a brownish color alpaca/wool blend.  I must not have taken a finished photo of the yarn though.  Oh well I’ll save that one for Friday then.

Here’s what I have on one of my bobbins right now.  It’s a hand carded alpaca/wool/tencel blend.  I’m not sure if I’m going to leave it that color or dye it later.  It’s so shinny!

Lastly I couldn’t help but share this last photo.  While I was rummaging through the cabin looking for a snack the Triscuit box caught my eye.  Andrea, this is 100% for you, I know you’re on a gluten free diet so you probably would never have seen this otherwise.

Tour de Fleece folks participating in the beaded prize.  I’m going through all the photos today and will have a winner randomly picked out by NOON!

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Fiber Arts Friday – Shearing and Skirting

It was a long wait through some hot days but all of our alpacas are finally shorn!  I mentioned a while back that I attended the shearing clinic up at Jay Ward’s place this spring and I got my chance to do some more hands on shearing on my own animals.  I made the mistake of saving the last 3 animals for myself to shear.  My legs were shaking from fatigue after wrestling all the alpacas before them as the header.

My lovely shearer Chris Hatch was so kind to coach me though and gave me great tips on how he runs his pattern and handles all the smaller cria and tui jobs.  Thank you Chris and good luck in the alpaca shearing contest!

Of course after shearing you end up with bags upon bags of fiber everywhere!  12 animals time 3 bags each equals 36 bags stuffed with fluffy fiber.  So, I’ve been working my way through all the bags skirting them on my new skirting table.  Picking out VM as well as changes in color, guard hair, and consistency.  Which means I’ve created even more bags of fiber! (FYI The red on the cria’s nose is loose minerals, she looks like Rudolf though)

The good news? Those folks that participated in our Raw Alpaca Fiber CSA… your fleeces have been skirted, packaged and shipped out already!  You should get them soon! For those of you still wishing to take part in our CSA we do have full and half shares for Spinners and Yarn left! Check out our Etsy Store for details.

Oh yeah, last but not least progress has once again been made on the alpaca fan shawl.  I’m on pattern row 29 of 30! I was worried that 30 pattern rows would not stretch out enough for my wingspan but I think I might be ok.  We’ll see.  Worst case I might add 2 more pattern rows.

So what have you Fiber Arts Friday folks been up to?

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2011 Alpaca Fiber CSA Shares

Did you know that Dutch Hollow Acres started the Alpaca Fiber CSA movement? We have been offering CSA shares of our annual shearing for over 3 years now.

CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is often associated with farmers markets and food harvests but it also applies to natural fibers. Fiber farmers like Dutch Hollow Acres spend all year caring for and selectively breeding our fiber animals in anticipation of our annual shearing.

Last year we offered only raw fiber CSA shares which sold out quickly. This year with the addition of more animals to our heard we will be expanding our CSA shares to roving/batting and hand spun yarns.

The pricing is as follows

$75 – Raw– Alpaca prime blanket fleece (Beige or White only) This is a 1 time share and will be shipped out after the animals are sheared. The fleece will be skirted before shipping.

$125/$63 – Spinners – Quarterly (4x a year) shipments of alpaca or alpaca blended fiber ready to be spun. Colors and blends will change with each shipment throughout the year.
Full Share = 2lbs
Half Share = 1lbs

$150/$75 – Yarn – Quarterly (4x a year) shipments of alpaca or alpaca blended yarns handspun by me. Colors and blends will change with each shipment throughout the year.
Full Share = 2lbs
Half Share = 1lbs

Double check the title of the listing before placing your order.
Etsy
DutchHollowAcres
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WIP: Shawl and Crochet Tutorial

Reading through some posts from Fiber Arts Friday last week I noticed some questions from folks new to crochet.  The question: How do you hold your work and control tension?

Since I’m still working on my alpaca shawl I thought I’d grab a couple of photos to show how I hold my work.

I like to run the yarn over my index, under my middle and over my ring and pinky.  I found this method works the best for me both knitting continental style and for crochet.  If I tried any other combination I ended up having to take my wedding band off because the yarn would get stuck in it.

For crochet I let the yarn stay far back on my index finger.  I like to reach for the yarn and snag it with the hook.  If I’m continental knitting I’ll move the yarn up past the 1st knuckle so I can control it easier and move my finger back and forth so I can knit and purl without having to change positions.

Starting Chain Tip: If you’re new to crochet and have problem with your initial chain and then attempting the next row try this.  Use a hook 2x as big as what you will be using on your project for the initial chain.  That will prevent you from making the tension in your starting chain too tight and make your 2nd row much easier to complete.

Hope this helps!

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Fiber Market Monday – Green Fans Shawl

Welcome back to Fiber Market Mondays!
A place where fiber artists and fiber ranchers
can promote goods for sale for fiber lovers like you!

You’ve been watching its progress these past few weeks and the shawl is finally finished!  I had intentions of keeping this shawl for myself but decided to do one in alpaca instead and sell this one so here are the details

Materials: Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn
Color: Grass
Content: 100% Microfiber
Size: appox 6′ tip to tip and 3′ depth
Price: $80

[wp_eStore:product_id:45:end]

This is a light weight shawl perfect for spring and summer functions.  The fans and color pattern add that ‘pop’ to any outfit.  The long fringe adds a nice vertical contrast to the horizontal pattern.

FREE SHIPPING! for FMM followers use coupon code –  FMM

Green Fan Shawl - Progress

Green Fan Shawl - Finished

Don’t stop here! Check out these great fiber folks to see what specials they have today!

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