Roving, puni, sliver, batt, rolag, commercial top, worsted, woolen and so on.. I am feeling as if I am learning a new language. As I weave my way through the world of fiber I sometimes feel as if I will never get it all shoved in my brain. I cannot imagine that this all started with a few alpacas! At first I thought I would just raise the alpacas, shear them and toss the fiber into a coop. But once I had the bags full of this beautiful stuff (not a word acceptable to the fiber industry) I did not want to let go. Hence the spinning wheel and now on to a carder. While I understand the process of spinning and carding, the jargon is taking longer to absorb.
And of course there is the learning curve. Last year's shearing was not very organized. My shearer was wonderful but I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The sorting of the blanket from the seconds, from the thirds..Whew. Preparation is the key to shearing. I have done some reading on the subject and think the best plan is to have the animals in the night before to pick out the debris by hand. Of course not all the vegetable matter will be eliminated, but this should help greatly. I read somewhere that one farmer uses a hair dyer on his animals the night before to clean the vm out. Um..I am not sure about that. I don't think even the minis would tolerate the noise and the blast of hot air let alone an alpaca. I am looking forward to a positive shearing experience. Never mind that it was highlighted as one of the "dirtiest jobs."
Meanwhile I need to get along with moving the fiber I already have. I have bags and bags of fiber some of which is in roving and a lot more raw. It is time to get a move on and process the fiber and sell it. I am preparing my very first skein of yarn from Tula. I am going to submit it to the spin off at the MOPACA show in April. This will be Via Verde Farm's first show and entrance into the world of competition. I am pretty excited. And I opened an etsy store. I don't have the photos up yet and hope by the end of the weekend to be up and running. You can visit us at viaverde@etsy.com.
And of course there is the learning curve. Last year's shearing was not very organized. My shearer was wonderful but I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The sorting of the blanket from the seconds, from the thirds..Whew. Preparation is the key to shearing. I have done some reading on the subject and think the best plan is to have the animals in the night before to pick out the debris by hand. Of course not all the vegetable matter will be eliminated, but this should help greatly. I read somewhere that one farmer uses a hair dyer on his animals the night before to clean the vm out. Um..I am not sure about that. I don't think even the minis would tolerate the noise and the blast of hot air let alone an alpaca. I am looking forward to a positive shearing experience. Never mind that it was highlighted as one of the "dirtiest jobs."
Meanwhile I need to get along with moving the fiber I already have. I have bags and bags of fiber some of which is in roving and a lot more raw. It is time to get a move on and process the fiber and sell it. I am preparing my very first skein of yarn from Tula. I am going to submit it to the spin off at the MOPACA show in April. This will be Via Verde Farm's first show and entrance into the world of competition. I am pretty excited. And I opened an etsy store. I don't have the photos up yet and hope by the end of the weekend to be up and running. You can visit us at viaverde@etsy.com.
You didn't say you also blogged. Well, I'm following you now. Make sure you link into my blog on Fridays for Fiber Arts Friday. It's a great way to promote what you are doing, get feedback and also visit other people learning about fiber arts.
ReplyDeletewww.wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com
Oh, one more thing. Make sure you hyper-link in your blog so people can go right to your website references (like your etsy site, which I am going to check out next)
Keep up the good work.
Andrea