Life on Via Verde Farm

My Goat Thinks She Is A Miniature Horse

2012-02-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

Juliette just cannot be persuaded. She refuses to stay in the goat pen. Even if I manage to corral her in the pen she refuses to pal around with the other goats. She will sulk about the pen and whine.

The minute I open the gate to feed she is out like lightening. Her fat little body races down the paddock toward the horses. She slips under the fence and heads straight toward Willy and Sienna. She hangs right with the minis in their paddock. If I am in the barn working she will try to sneak into the grain room and knock off the lid of the grain bin and help herself.

Otherwise she is pretty good about staying with the horses. Sometimes she will climb the stairs of the house and hang on the front porch, usually this is around 4 pm. She paces back and forth and cries for me to come out to feed everyone.

She has a funny habit of protecting Willy's food from Sienna. I put the grain out in their feeder in the morning with some hay and Juliette will keep Sienna from getting to the feeder by grunting at her and sticking out her tongue It works! Sienna runs around to the other side of the feeder.

What surprises me is that the minis put up with her and never kick out at her or hurt her. They share food and space with her. They don't seem to mind if she stays near them. Maybe she is mini after all.

Fiber Arts Friday-Single ply spinning & Shawl Knitting

2012-01-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Yippee for Fiber Arts Friday! I managed to work on a few projects in this bitter cold snap we are having. My latest knitting success was posted on WIP. Now I am working on another shawl and knitting with alpaca. The yarn is complied from many leftover bobbins of hand spun yarn. The great aspect of this yarn is that I can keep adding to it as I go! The pattern is a bit of a free form one I downloaded from Raverly (stockinette stitch with a couple of YO). I am enjoying the knitting process and am surprised as the colors unfold into an interesting scheme. As you can see in the photo:

Next I debated about plying this strand of alpaca with a gold thread but changed my mind. I have been sitting on this bobbin for about 4 months (not literally, of course!) and finally decided to leave it as is. I hand dyed the fleece and added some angelina to give it a bit of sparkle. I also added a bit of banana silk. My intention was to create something with an Indian flair. Not at all sure what I will do with this skein.

That about wraps up my week. Check out Andrea's blog for lots more fiber fun.

WIP-DanDoh Scarf-Knitted Hug for Japan

2012-01-18T08:40:00.000-05:00

This is actually not a WIP. It is completed. The pattern is DanDoh Scarf by Yumiko Alexander and was designed as a way for the artist to contect with her homeland after the tsunami in March of 2011. She wanted to create a pattern as a memorial to those who suffered from the tragedy. And a beautiful pattern it is. I used a soy blend from my stash and size 9 circular needles. I prefer circular so my work doesn't slide off and I find them easier to knit with. I have no idea what kind of yarn or the exact blend because I threw away the info one time when I was cleaning my office. It is beautiful and the variegation in the yarn really does this scarf justice.

Farm Tip Tuesday-Keeping Track of Chores

2012-01-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

There is always something to do around the farm from fixing fences, cleaning water buckets, sweeping the hay loft, deworming the minis, herd health day, and the list goes on. I have had to struggle with the fact that the list never ends. I like to cross things off my list and move on, but that is not really what happens. The moment I cross off a duty and new one replaces it!
I found this vintage black board at a resale shop for $5.00. It is placed in a central location between the tack and grain rooms. In other words, I cannot ignore it. The black board works great for me to keep track of chores and a plus is that I don't lose the list.

Fiber Arts Friday-Catching Up

2012-01-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

As Friday rolls around I begin to wonder what I did all week with fiber. I frogged a project and started another one. It is too early to post photos as I am only on the second row.

Reflecting back over the week I think I was working on my Etsy store for a good part of it. I retook tons of photos and am slowly uploading yarn and roving. It is bit time consuming. I was messing around trying to get my focus right. I have a portrait lens on the camera and for some reason was having difficulty focussing and getting a clear perspective of the yarn. I think I have that all cleared up now. Yay!

Wednesday I went to the GR Yarnie Group and saw some friends. It was a lovely time. I did not knit at all! I jabbed the whole time. Imagine that??

And I finished the String Ray Shawl (aptly named by my son). It looks like a sting ray. I posted some photos of this one before. Cherry Hill Yarn in Charmed. Knit with a modified pattern. Very easy peasy. I love, love the color way. I could only get one skein so it is smaller than I would like.

I am posting a photo of my cat. I like to see other people's pets on FAF so I am posting one of TomTom the LGC (Livestock Guarding Cat). Only he is on break in this photo.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hop on over to Wonder Why Gal's for more fiber fun.

Wordless Wednesday-No Whining or Else

2012-01-11T07:42:00.000-05:00

Posted on the wall of the barn. Directed to teenagers and alpacas!

Farm Tip Tuesday-Heated Water Buckets

2012-01-10T09:11:00.000-05:00

I never even thought to put in automatic water feeders when we built our barn. I managed the first winter...barely. Finally I worked out a system to run electrical cords to my heated water buckets. Then I figured a way to use recycled milk jugs to keep the connections dry over the winter months. It has worked out pretty well. I have heated water buckets in five of my paddocks.
Only once did I have an issue. My male alpaca, Blazing Ben, got his foot caught in one of the extension cords and by the time I got down to the barn he had pulled the cord free from the bucket and tore down the stake. He wasn't hurt and all was well.

Ben is always doing crazy things. One time he got a bucket caught around his neck and he wore it for about an hour before I realized and could get it off of him. Needless to say there are no more small feed buckets in the pen. Another time I brought home new hay feeders with a grid on top to keep the hay in the feeder and off the ground. In the first 15 minutes he had the grid around his neck. He freaked out and tore it to smithereens. Pieces of PVC piping and sand were all over the paddock. I don't use those grids anymore either. But I digress...

This is a photo of my water bucket contraption.

And this is with the milk jug.

I used my favorite and all purpose tool-zip ties to keep the milk jug snug and prevent it from blowing away. I used duct tape to seal the connection between the two cords and to keep the cords in place on the stake. The stake I purchased at Family Farm and Home for a couple of bucks. This is the boys water and I placed it on cinder blocks so I don't have to bend over and I used a tire to secure the bucket in place. Just in case someone gets an idea in their head....

Friday Fiber Arts-First Post of the Year!

2012-01-06T08:04:00.000-05:00

Welcome all to the first post of 2012 FAF! I am looking forward to a year of fiber fun with all my friends on Wonder Why Gal's blog. I actually am getting a slow start. I have not spun yet this year. Kind of sad...
I have knitted these cute little cuffs from my hand spun and Classic Alpaca. I sort of made up the pattern as I went along. They are simple knit/purl with a couple of yarn overs/K2tog in a few rows. I have wanted to make some cuffs for awhile to wear as I am always cold. I am not completely finished. Can you see the safety pin? I haven't stitched them up yet. I may add a lace edging in crochet. We will see..

Goals for 2012-Let us be realistic. Please!

1. Finish the cuffs.
2. Finish all WIPs. No cheating on this one.
3. Learn two new spin techniques.
4. Attempt to post more fiber projects on this blog.
5. Finish skirting fleeces. Please do this immediately.

That is all. I am not going to have a bunch of things that I will feel overwhelmed about and then not be able to do. That is what I do. I get stressed by self imposed rules and then I cannot do anything. Ridiculous. At least I know myself. he he.

That about wraps up my Fiber-round up. Skip on over to Andrea's blog for a peek at more fiber fun!

Wordless Wednesday-Peek -A-Boo Kitten

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

WIP-It will all get done

2011-12-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

My WIPs this week are many. I got so frustrated with my capelet that it now looks like this

I would get my mojo and then someone would ask "Where is my green sweater?" or "Is there anything to eat?" and it would mess up my flow. It isn't a complicated pattern. What it needs is QUIET. A difficult thing to do with anyone in the house. The first few rows were good and then I think I had more mistakes than not. So I pulled it out and started something else. I did not give up ..mind you. I just will wait until I am retired.

I started on some mitts instead. I got the pattern off of Lion Brand Free patterns. I am using Classic Alpaca in dark blue and heather purple. I better have more success with this one. I have finished 3 shawls and really am getting back into the knitting groove.

As for spinning:

An Indian Bling Yarn that I have never plied. It will be done!

And I have this striped alpaca in purple/rose gray I am still spinning.

Some pink alpaca I bought from Hamelink Farms. I am thinking to ply this with dark rose gray or dark fawn.

And I am working on this beauty....again...alpaca... Did you think it wasn't?

Fiber Arts Friday-Knitting Lace

2011-12-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

I finished 2 kerchiefs and a small shawl. Now I am moving on to a capelet. I found a really pretty pattern in Stitch 'n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller. The pattern is Spiderweb Capelet by Erin Weckerle on page 110. I chose Classic Alpaca Yarn in the color of cinnamon.
I love knitting with alpaca and I had this yarn stashed on a shelf. It will be perfect for this project. It is a lovely light, lacy pattern. Lace is a new step for me as I never have knitted anything this "complicated" before so I am looking forward to the challenge.

I have started just a wee bit. I need to sit and concentrate on the pattern..not much quiet time around my house. I will probably be blabbing on about this for a few weeks!!

Photo taken in my new photo light box.

For those of you who submitted a suggestion on how to get wrinkles out..Kathryn and Ally...please send me your mailing address and the color angelina you would like to play with!! I will get that out to you!! Thanks for helping me out!

Fiber Arts Friday-Wrinkles

2011-12-02T13:18:00.001-05:00

I am writing once again about photography. Photography has been the reason that I haven't posted too many blogs. I don't really enjoy taking photographs. I find it time consuming, annoying and basically irritating. Kinda funny because my husband is an amazing photographer.
A while back I made a really lame photo box. It was not too sturdy and when I was rearranging my fiber stash I inadvertently dropped a box on it. Oops. It was crushed.
I decided I needed to get serious. I finally found one on Ebay and ordered it. Pretty good deal I think at $32.00 + shipping. So here I am with this awesome photo box and actually some excitement about taking pictures and I cannot get the backdrop to cooperate.

See how wrinkled the backdrop is???? GRRRR.

The worst faux pas in closeup photography is a wrinkly background. The kit came with 4 different colored backdrops and I want to use the white one for my rovings and yarn. I have been working on trying to get the wrinkles out all morning. This is why I am so late posting today. I stuck it in the dryer with a damp towel (3x because I kept forgetting to check when the cycle was over). I ironed it with steam, water spritz, magic sizing, and lavender spray. Each time I increased the temperature on the iron. I don't want to burn the synthetic material.

Go natural fibers!! They are so much easier to work with.

I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions?? I will send an 1 oz of angelina, in your choice of color, to the person with idea that works! Help....

Who Knew Playing With Goats Was Dangerous?

2011-11-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I was running up and down the hill in the goat pen and I injured my ankle. What was I doing? I was playing with the goats. I run up the hill and they follow. I run down the hill and they follow. They usually run in front of me to knock me down I suppose. My buck is getting big and he likes to run sideways down the hill. It is pretty funny actually. He usually tries to be in front and often crosses my path as we careen downward. Three of my goats have horns so I am careful about how fast we are going. Horns can be dangerous!

I must have hit a small hole in the ground and my ankle just twisted a bit. Not too badly but enough to make me howl. The seven of them were a bit shocked and stood there looking at me. They weren't too sympathetic and wandered off after a minute. So much for playtime.

Fiber Arts Friday-Tweeding

2011-11-18T14:29:00.000-05:00

I am having an obsession with tweed. I have been taking my natural rovings and spinning them with another color alpaca (dyed or natural). I have been coming up with all sorts of color combos and am wondering if I actually will be able to spin them all!

This is what I have done so far. I have on my bobbins fawn with purple and fawn with pink. That about wraps up my fiber arts week!

Pop on over to Andrea's blog for more fiber arts!

WIP-Knitting A Kerchief Shawl

2011-11-16T10:28:00.002-05:00

I am actually knitting. I know...I can hardly believe it myself. I think my daughter inspired me. She has been knitting as source of relaxation from her studies at the university. She is turning out to be pretty good too. In 4 weeks she is far beyond cables and is looking to knit a bag with the fair isle technique.
Meanwhile on the farm, I knitted this wonderful pattern by Cabin Fever #083 Fern Kerchief in wool.

I decided to not to mess up my hand spun alpaca. I didn't make one mistake in the pattern and was so happy that I right away knitted this kerchief

in my very own hand spun. The roving I spun was some from my own alpacas. I had it processed last year in a 50/50 blend of alpaca/merino. I sporadically spun in some beads. I will add more of the beads to the lace edge when I get there.

Fiber Arts Friday-My redesigned booth

2011-11-11T07:57:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor. A few weeks before the show I redesigned my booth with antique props. I staged the booth in my husband's studio before I left but as all vendors know a 10 x 10 space at home is not a 10 x 10 space at a show! It was a bit cramped. I also forgot to change the portrait lens on my camera. Oops. I couldn't get a wide angle picture. I guess it wouldn't have mattered because the aisle was too small to get a good shot anyhow.

Notice the ironing board (got it at an antique store for $10!) and the ladder. Happily I did not have to paint either the ladder or the shutters as they were already weathered vintage green.

Head on over to Andrea's blog for more Fiber Arts Friday happenings!

WIP-Just About Everything On My Farm!

2011-11-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

I am not working on fiber projects this week. I do have several spinning projects and a shawl I need to finish. Yes, I said shawl. I am actually knitting! I can thank Paula for that one!

What I am working on is the garden, the barn, the shed, the front porch, the back patio, the yard and the paddocks. I am trying to get things in order before the weather looks like this:

Arieya

2011-11-08T07:42:00.000-05:00

Areiya has begun to reveal an interesting pattern of white spots on her rose gray blanket. Her dame is Tula has white and brown spots sprinkled throughout her fiber. Her sire is NL Smokey from Ashton Stone Farms. She is sweet girl and I hope to bred her next fall.

Picture of the Day

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

I have decided to try something new on my blog. I am really terrible about posting regularly. I feel as if I need to write a book every time I post. I came up with a new plan. I am hopeful that I will feel obligated to write on my blog and improve my photography skills. So here we go....

Picture of the Day At Via Verde Farm

Really Cute Goats on Spools

Fiber Arts Friday-Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor

2011-10-21T07:09:00.000-04:00

This week found me scrambling to get all my inventory marked and ready to go to the Ann Arbor Fiber Fest. I also did a makeover on my booth. By now one would think I have the hang of hauling all my inventory and props to a show and setting up. Lots of vendors bring small trucks full of their props and inventory. I have seen creative ways to display skeins of yarn by hanging them from oversized drying racks to stacked neatly in large baskets. When you are one vendor in 100 standing out is difficult. It takes a few expos to figure out what you need and what is the best way to display your items so that your booth stands out.

I decided this year to keep my props simple. I mean simple in the fact that I can lift them by myself. My theme has always been vintage but I added a few pieces to pull it all together. I did purchase an antique wood ironing board for $10--great purchase!! Sorry I cannot show pictures yet. I have all my things packed, stacked and waiting in the garage for loading. But here is a really cute alpaca instead:

If you are planning on attending the Fest stop by and visit us. Darlene is coming with me to help out. I am looking forward to a weekend of fiber immersion!

Fiber Arts Friday-Sumac, Goldenrod, Marigolds..Oh My!!

2011-10-14T08:11:00.000-04:00

Natural dyeing is such a wonderful experience. Every step is enjoyable from gathering of the materials to the finished product. I have become quite adapt at identifying plants that can be used for dyes and even have had a few surprises in my quest for dyeable materials. For example, the Cornus Kousa Dogwood has beautiful pink berries. I wondered if these would be a good source for dye. I was surprised to learn that these brilliant fruits are edible!

The berry that is used in dyeing is found on the Red Osier dogwood.

I have not yet tried to dye with the Red Osier berries. However I did do plenty of dyeing the other weekend with a friend, Darlene. We choose sumac blooms, goldenrod, marigolds and indigo to dye our fiber. Darlene had spun up quite a few skeins of polypay and a few alpaca. I played around with locks. Here are our results:

That about rounds up my fiber week. Why don't your pop on over to Andrea's blog for more adventures in fiber!

Wordless Wednesday-Indigo Dyeing

2011-10-12T07:28:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday-Welcome to the World Miss Adalina!

2011-10-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

Fiber Arts Friday- What to Dye..What to Dye

2011-09-23T10:59:00.000-04:00

This week found me running from this and that. I was completely unorganized and all over the map. Part of the reason is that I am finally losing that exhausted feeling from the virus. I actually have energy and just don't know where to start! I should be in my paddocks cleaning up....but my fiber stash beckons.

With several fiber fests coming up I am trying to work my through my stash. I over dyed some fawn alpaca that I washed/picked a while ago. I used ruby red. I really love Greener Shades Dyes. The colors are clear and soft on white fiber. I am finding that the ruby red does over dye on fawn or light/medium rose gray nicely.

Amethyst purple dyes beautifully over medium or dark silver gray.

But I am not getting a darker color from Greener Shades and some colors of alpaca do not like to be over dyed. Do any of you have experience with Greener Shades? Or any thoughts?

Besides dyeing I spent some time spinning. I just need to ply the skein with the beads from last week. I still have my Indian bling skein which I am still spinning. And I started another bobbin of toffee colored alpaca.

This weekend I am headed Tealwater Ranch for National Alpaca Days. I will be setting up a fiber booth and if you are in the area stop by and see us. Cora has a lovely farm with beautiful alpacas! On Sunday I will be natural dyeing with a friend here on my farm. We are going to be using goldenrod, pokeberry, sumac and indigo. I cannot wait! If I can find another large pot I might sneak in dogwood berries.
That is all from Via Ver1de for the week. Enjoy your FAF and head on over to Andrea's blog to check out more fiber fun!

Fiber Arts Friday-Spinning, Dyeing, Carding, Photography and Salsa!

2011-09-16T08:03:00.000-04:00

Fiber Arts Friday this week found me busy. I just couldn't decide what to do so I tried it all. I have been sick for about 3 1/2 weeks now. Before that I was on vacation for 2 weeks. In between I dropped my daughter off at college and my other two started their busy schedules at school. As I was feeling better and everyone is off at school I hit the pavement running. Here is what I did this week:

First I thought I would spin 2 skeins. I did not quite meet the challenge. One is done and the other is on the bobbin. I still need to dye the fawn skein. The pink/brown skein has purple beads incorporated into it.

Don't look too closely at my uneven bobbin. I was talking to my daughter and got distracted!

Next I wanted to dye some fawn alpaca. I used Greener Shades Dyes in Ruby Red. Got a nice variegated look. I also dyed in purple, but it is currently on the drum carder.

Then I wanted to card a bit of Nightengale, my dark silver gray paca. I have about 2 oz and am seriously thinking of recarding it with some black angelina. We will see.

Finally I needed to take pictures for my Phat Fiber sample. Sometimes I find taking photos a pain. There are days when the light is just right, the battery is charged, the card is not full and I have inspiration. Others, as in today, I couldn't get it together. I had to postpone while I charged the battery. Finally I managed a few shots.

What I did not finish:

1. I still have several, actually more, fleeces that I need to skirt. I really, really need to finish them. Just not too excited I guess. I get bored. So yesterday I popped over to the library and check out Orhan Pamuk's book Red. I am going to try to listen to that while I skirt away!

2. Salsa that has taken me 3 days so far because I keep stopping to work on fiber. One day it will canned in jars.

I think I about covered my week. I hope you all had a good one. Head on over to Andrea's blog to read about what all the amazing fiber artists have been up to this week.

Fiber Wordless Wednesday-Esmerelda

2011-09-07T00:12:00.000-04:00

Hand spun Socks

2011-08-25T07:35:00.000-04:00

Last year I processed some of Captain Cavalier, my dark fawn male. He has a bit of a reddish tone to his fiber. It is quite beautiful. And he is cute as you can see.

The roving I had made I mixed with 50% merino in begonia (pink). I had spun some into a fine strand.
One day at Peaceful Knitters I met Joyce. She loves to knit socks on her vintage sock machine and invited me over to take a look. It was a beautiful piece of machinery. She knew all the ins and outs of its operations. We tried a commercially processed alpaca fiber first and it broke one of her needles. So we thought maybe a thinner hand spun would work. I sent some home with her and she knitted up these awesome socks. One is ribbed and the other not. She knitted both with 1 strand alpaca/merino and 1 strand of lycra. Lycra will help the socks to stay up and not slide down to my ankle.

I have worn them a couple of times. I am curious to see how my hand spun is going to hold up. The socks are super soft and comfy. My toes will be nice and warm this winter!

Bantam Chicken and her peeps

2011-08-08T08:00:00.013-04:00

I am really not a fan of Bantam Chickens. I prefer my Rhode Island Reds and Black Austrolorpes. They are good and consistent egg layers. I originally bought bantam chicks because I thought they were pretty. I purchased 5 chicks and ended up with one rooster. He is a tough little guy. I carry a stick when I enter their territory. He can really hurt you when he attacks. One time I was feeding my feral kits and I didn't see him creep up behind me. He jumped on my back and dug his toes into my shoulder. I nearly fainted with fright!
Anyhow one of female Bantams disappeared for about 2 weeks. I couldn't find her anywhere. Her wings haven't been clipped so I knew she could fly about if necessary. One evening during feeding chores, I lifted a flake of hay that had fallen and there she was nesting! I decided to leave her alone and to see what would happen. I have caught her before trying to nest, but she never stayed long on the eggs. This time was different. A few days ago I lifted the flake of hay to find her and a chick. I guess it takes about 24-48 hours for all of the eggs to hatch. I will move her to a safer place in a few days.
Update: I did move her and her 4 chicks. It has been fun to watch her feed her chicks and to see them jump on their mother. She sings to them at night while they are tucked under her feathers. Who said farming was uneventful??

Fiber Arts Friday-Weekly Roundup

2011-08-05T06:49:00.000-04:00

Have you ever spun something you weren't satisfied with? I am not very pleased with this purple skein and crystals. I spun the strands too thick and I did not add enough crystals. It looks rather sparse. Definitely not what I had in my mind. My daughter graciously asked if she could knit something from it.

On another note, I did card up my Pakistani batt and began to spin it. I spent quite a bit of time add "beads" to the skein and it didn't work very well. I tried to spin them in with gold thread and then wisps of fiber. Neither worked very well. I will now ply the beads on gold thread. I think it will be really pretty. I still am plugging away on this skein so I will post photos at the finish. Have a great weekend and happy Fiber Arts Friday! Pop over to WonderWhyGal for more fiber fun!

Fiber Arts Friday-Weekly Roundup

2011-07-29T08:57:00.000-04:00

I started off the week with good intentions...but I didn't progress on my spinning at all! I spent most of the week pulling my hair out trying to capture, humanely, a raccoon that keeps breaking into my chicken coop. It does help to have a properly working trap! Figured that one out the hard way. I also battled an eroding hill and found a Bantam chicken that had been missing. She is currently hatching 10 eggs. I will post photos next week. So here is what I did not get done.
Purple locks spun with crystal beads

Punjabi sunset, yet to be carded. Components are all assembled but no sari silk. I guess I could've added Shalwar Khamise silk!

Juxtaposed.This one is going to be interesting. Pink alpaca for the beginning then black and will be plied with a strand in the same colors but black then pink. I need to dye more pink paca.

Hopefully I will have some finished skeins to show off for next week. Check out Andrea's blog for some really amazing fiberistas! Happy FAF!

Friday Fiber Arts Tour De Fleece

2011-07-22T10:01:00.000-04:00

I confess that I have not spent too much time this week spinning. It has been so hot and miserable for my animals. I have been running down to the barn multiple times a day checking on them to make sure that they have water, spraying them off and adjusting the fans. I managed to sneak away yesterday and I attended the Ag Expo in Lansing. I had a great time and learned a lot! My little Kubota tractor is a toy compared to the huge ones that were on display!
Anyway back to spinning...so at the beginning of TdF I showed a picture of silver gray alpaca over dyed in purple. I have been spinning it and planned on adding crystal beads. It is taking me forever to finish as I have to dye and card the batts as I spin along. I am finally on my second bobbin and spinning in the beads.

I am excited to see how this will be plied.

One of the techniques I have been working on during TdF is plying. I was rummaging around my fiber stash and found many small balls of yarn that I have spun and did not yet have a use. I decided to ply them all together.

Overall I like the effect. Not sure about the pink/black section. I may end up taking that part out. Well off to take advantage of the rain and spin! Take a tour of more Fiber Arts happenings at Andrea's Blog.

Tour de Fleece Day 8, 7 , 6, 5

2011-07-15T08:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome to Friday Fiber Arts and Tour de Fleece. We have all been spinning a lot this week. Check out Andrea's Blog for more Tour De Fleece updates and to see what is happening on FAF.

I am really mixed up on which day we are on in our TDF and therefore will just post what I did this week. I had a lot of fun experimenting and testing out some new skills.

I finished plying 4th of July Alpaca Style. I need to find the right pattern for this one.

I spun up this whacky and fun yarn using thick n thin. The pink strand is merino and the white is alpaca from my girl White Lace. The nude babies, pacifiers and safety pins are obviously about a baby hence the name of this skein "It's A Girl." I wanted a structurally sound yarn. I used some beading thread to secure the babies onto the yarn. I followed Dutch Hollow's advice for stringing glass beads onto a skein. I, of course, took liberties with the word "bead."

And finally I used a technique I read about in Spin Control. I used two roving processed identically. One was a natural silver gray from my alpacas Nightengale & Tula and the other was a fawn roving from Quito. I over dyed it in Flame Red from Greener Shades Dyes. I took both rovings and lightly pre drafted them. I spin them simultaneously to create one medium thick strand of yarn. This skein is 100% alpaca and so soft. I let the fiber meander as it pleased while spinning and it created a lovely yarn. I am not sure how much is on the bobbin. I have yet to remove it onto the skein winder.

I didn't get much spinning done yesterday or today as I was getting my beloved Tractor fixed and repairing the chick coop. Hopefully tomorrow. I have the plans for an Indian inspired yarn. Off to dye up some yarn. Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Fiber Arts Tour De Fleece Day 5, 6

2011-07-08T08:34:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Friday Fiber Arts! Hope you are are having a great day. Check out Andrea's Blog for more Tour De Fleece updates.

Here is my update for TDF Day 5:

Still working on the purple alpaca. It is taking me longer than I thought. I ran out of fiber and needed to dye more.

On left is the purple and on the right is the original alpaca color. I have already washed this fleece and just have to dye it. It takes a couple of days to dry so I am getting behind on my spinning. I still need to ply my 4th of July skein. I cannot decide what to ply it with. I might ply it with a strand of red merino (still needs to spun) and a strand of gold thread. Any thoughts?
I am thinking of another skein to start. It might include small babies. HeHe. I know THAT has got you wondering!

Day 6
I spent most of the day in my barn fixing things. However I did take photos from my garden for color inspiration.

I can see many wonderful color combos from my flowers. We will see what I already have dyed up and ready to go. Have a great Fiber Day! Keep on Spinning.

Tour De Fleece Day 4, 3 , 2, 1

2011-07-05T23:27:00.000-04:00

Day 4

This is purple not brown. I over dyed silver gray fleece with a shade of purple. I have spun about 2 oz so far. I kept leaning back in my chair and falling asleep! No kidding. I finally gave up and crashed on the couch for a nap. I finished my batts this evening. This one is going to take a me awhile. I am dyeing more locks tomorrow. I might need quite a few. I think I might actually 3 ply this one. We will see. I am also debating about adding a string of silver thread. I think this will help me with Control (Not the Big Brother kind). I am practicing this technique among others.

Day 3

O.k. I didn't really do much on day 3.

Day 2

My dyed and hand carded batt "4th of July Alpaca Style." Single ply so far. Might actually ply this with a strand of red merino. Not sure yet. I may just leave it. It is drying now after I set the twist. Not very much on the bobbin. I carded 3 ounces but spun a thick n thin single. The yarn also has angelina, silk noil, banana silk...all my favs.

Day 1

Had one strand of alpaca, Nightengale, and wool dyed blue so I plied it with a strand of cotton and added beehives. It is hard to see the beehives in the finished skein as the strand of cotton has a lot going on. Total yards: @ 266. I named it after my Grandma's hand woven rug she had in her house.

Fiber Arts Friday-Learning A New Spinning Techinque

2011-07-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Fiber Arts Friday! A great day to check out what fiber happenings are out there. Check out Wonder Why Gal to more interesting blogs.

I decided to practice a bit before Tour De Fleece. I dyed up a white alpaca roving in greens and yellow. I carded them with bits of silk noil, banana silk, and bits of wool. I only added a bit of angelina! Using my fav book "Intertwined" by Lexi Boeger, I worked on thick n thin single ply.

I found this great stash at Salvation Army a while back and used a pink wool, very thin, strand to ply freely onto my single. I still wasn't sure that it was strong enough. So I decided to full it. Using one hot soapy tub of water and one cold tub of water I dunked the skein in the tubs alternating hot/cold about 4 times. I might have fulled the skein a bit too much. I notice in a few places the strands were stuck together a bit. But I felt much more comfortable that my yarn is stronger in the thick areas. The thick n thin technique is one that I really want to work on in Tour De Fleece. I like the contrasting colors of this skein and love the way the pink wool strand stands out. It compliments the fiber and I don't think it over powers the pretty greens and yellows.

4th of July Alpaca Style

2011-06-28T22:30:00.000-04:00

Well what can I say? I was cleaning the photography studio (which I now have taken over with fiber) and my drum carder kept calling me. So I dropped the vacuum and carded up these three batts on my Louet Jr. Actually I started one of batts in April as a Phat Fiber template but ended up not using it and went with another color combination for my Phattie samples. I diverge..as I was rummaging around in my fiber stash I found the template. I thought "hum This will make a fantastic 4th of July themed yarn. So there you go, I carded up 3 mini batts. I am going to spin these but am waiting for Tour de Fleece with Team of Wonder

So what is in these batts? Dyed blue alpaca, white alpaca, cream alpaca, natural fawn alpaca (there is a theme here) silk noil in red, white and blue, banana silk in white, and red angelina. Pretty fantastic blend!

I am thinking that I will spin these batts as a single thick/thin yarn. I have been practicing my technique. I will post a photo when I am finished.

Making Strawberry Jam for Miriam

2011-06-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

What tastes better than fresh strawberries? My 12 year old and a friend picked a load of the beautiful red jewels yesterday. I took 4 quarts and made strawberry jam. Today I will make strawberry syrup and strawberry shortcake. The rest will be cut up and frozen. And we will set aside a bowl filled with some fresh ones for Miriam to eat.

This is Miriam.

The jam turned out fantastic. Not too sweet. I actually was concerned because the recipe called for 7 cups of sugar. I actually followed the jam directions (I tend not to follow directions) and the end result is sweet but not an overload of sickly sugariness. I got the recipe from Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt. It is one of the best canning books I have used.

Strawberry Jam

Use strawberries the same day you pick them. Wash just before using. Chop the berries, then lightly crush them in small batches. Just crush the berries enough to release the juice.

Makes @ 9 half pint jars

4 cups hulled/crushed ripe strawberries (@2 quarts whole berries)
2 Tbls strained fresh lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1/2 tsp unsalted butter
1 (3 oz) pouch liquid pectin

In an 8-quart pan, combine the strawberries, lemon juice and sugar. Cover and let stand for 2 hours.

Remove the cover. Over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, heat the mixture utnil the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in the butter. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the the entire contents of the pectin pouch. Return the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Skim off any foam.
To prevent the jam from separating in the jars, allow the jam to cool 5 minutes or so to distribute the fruit. Ladle the hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth. Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings. Process half-pint jars in a 200F (93C) water bath for 10 minutes, pint jars for 15 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday-My Garden in the Rain

2011-06-15T20:17:00.000-04:00

I took this photo from a window with a screen. It is a bit fuzzy.

Felted balls- trial and error

2011-06-07T18:59:00.000-04:00

I know I have posted a blog on this topic before. However after a long time of messing around with doing it totally by hand I decided to use my washing machine. I always needle felt the balls.

I use fiber off the licker on my drum carder or roving from bits and pieces that I have around the house. I have been needle felting the ball first and then wet felting them in the sink. Finally I decided to throw a bunch in a laundry bag and into the washing machine. Oddly enough just as soon as I did an article came out in the latest Spin Off Magazine about making fiber balls and spinning them into a skein of yarn. Actually the same day I received my magazine I had just finished felting my first set of balls. They did get a tiny bit flattened and look more like stones than balls. I prefer the stone look.

I still have 2 big mesh bags to felt. I will probably end up with almost a pound. I usually felt about 7 or so ounces before I attend a fiber festival. They sell really fast and look fantastic in my wicker bowl. It is an easy project to do. The balls can be used for interior decorating, jewelry, or fiber arts.

Fiber Arts Friday - Alpaca is not boring!

2011-05-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

I am finding that many people are complaining about natural colors vs. lots of color. What I have read lately on sites I frequent is that brown, fawn or black is plain boring and without pizazz! Au contraire mes amies. I have been drum carding a few alpaca pouffes (mini batts) on my Louet Jr. drum carder. Of course, blending with natural alpaca. First I decide what gorgeous natural color of alpaca + hand dyed alpaca to mix together and then I just grab some corresponding angelina (I have a tons of bling). I purchased a bag of mixed fiber from Yarn Hollow a while back and I pull out some bits of silk noil, banana silk, merino, and so on in multicolors and weigh it all on a scale. I can get about 1 oz on my carder comfortably. Then I just begin to card it. I end up with 3 mini batts for a total of 3 oz for a package at my Etsy store. Each one is slightly different in that I don't feed the fiber in the carder exactly in the same pattern each time. So one pouffe might have more blue or green in the center while the second has more brown in the center. I like it this way, sort of a three way batt experience. I can pull off the batts in strips and spin as I want...far more interesting yarn. And although there is one or more of the 22 colors alpacas provide for us is is far from boring or pizzazzless!

Fiber Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

No worries! Andrew is just napping.

Friday Fiber Arts and Farm Friend Friday-Showing my Pacas

2011-05-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

The past two weeks have been filled with alpaca activities. I traveled to the Michigan Breeder's Show in Davisburg on May 5-8. I took 5 of my pacas. It is was a huge learning curve and so much fun. I met amazing people and had a wonderful time in the show ring. I went by myself and Ashton Stone Farms trailered my animals and helped me with getting my huge panels set up for the pens. I was a nervous wreck before the show. I had spent a fair amount of time worrying about halter training. Mostly because they were so naughty at home. Once in Davisburg, my guys behaved beautifully. It is interesting that alpacas can give you a hard time at home on the lead and at the show they march right along with you. Show offs! As for me, once the show started and it was time to enter the ring I felt absolutely calm and was able to enjoy every minute of it.
Here are a few photos of me in the ring. I received a couple of seconds, a third and a fourth place. Typically my animals were younger than most and some still had cria fleeces. I figured out it is better to wait to take them until they are older. Overall I feel it was a successful venture and am so glad I went.

Fiber Wordless Wednesday-Shedding Season

2011-05-04T06:51:00.000-04:00

Tis the season of shedding. Hair is everywhere. Whenever I pick up TomTom I am covered in gray fuzz. The minis, the goats, the cats, the bunnies are all hairy messes. Thankfully alpacas do not shed! And no I am not planning on spinning any of TomTom's fur.

Fiber Market Monday Orange Smash

2011-05-01T21:56:00.001-04:00

As spring rolls in so does my need for color. Instead of the monotone hues of winter I am pining for bright, fresh, bursting color. This orange smash 100% skein of alpaca is loaded with pizzaz. It reminds me of summer in full heat and the colorful cosmos springing up in my garden. At 110 yards it is perfect to knit up a thin scarf to wrap around your neck or some wrislets with a lace edge in a complementing color..yellow. Whatever ever the finished project, it is sure to be a smashing success! Check out my Etsy store for more information.

Fiber Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T13:51:00.000-04:00

The boys.

Fiber Market Monday-Angelina

2011-04-25T07:38:00.000-04:00

Angelina is a wonderful additive to any batt, roving or skein of yarn. It sparkles and glimmers and gives fiber a kick of something special. There are 8 different color choices at my Etsy store.
Check it out and add some bling to your day.

Friday Fiber Arts & Farm Friend Friday-Lots of fiber & Getting Garden Ready

2011-04-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

What a week! I washed, washed fiber and more fiber. My friend, Curly Twirly Bird graciously had me over to use her Pat Green Picker. What a honey that machine is! It looks like a medieval torture chamber but with careful attention you can pick a whole lot of fiber in a short time. It is fabulous. I finished quite a bit of fleeces. I am going to spin some of it straight from the cloud while the rest will be carded into alpaca pouffes.

Update on my horrible barn stall. It took me one week to finish cleaning it. Unfortunately I have a couple of things that just couldn't fit in and need a place elsewhere in the barn. My gut tells me to get rid of them. I know how that goes. The minute I send them off I will be searching everywhere for them because I suddenly am in need of them. Maybe I will shove them in the hay loft.

Meanwhile Sam and Noah put these concrete blocks to make raised beds in the garden. I brought over some compost from the monster pile and mixed it in with the soil already in the bed. The whole garden turned out nicely. I just need to add my plants which are on order from Seeds of Change. TOC offers a package of 6 seedlings of your choice. I purchased 12 plants- tomatoes, peppers and squash. From experience one zucchini plant is more than enough. We were a bit sick of eating fried, pickled and baked zucchini!

Now why don't you check out Wonder Why Gal and Verde Farm for more Fiber Arts and Farm Friends?

Fiber Wordless Wednesday-ARI Photo Contest

2011-04-20T10:26:00.000-04:00

A photo of Isabella. This won first place in the Alpaca Registry competition last week. It will be featured on the cover of the ARI annual report. It also happens to be my avatar.

Dinner on an Open Fiber..oops Fire.

2011-04-14T10:17:00.000-04:00

Sam getting the fire ready.

I just did not feel like cleaning the kitchen and thought we could use a change for dinner. I took some halibut filets and made a slit in the side. I stuffed each one with a lemon slice, cumin, coriander, chopped green onions, olive oil and parsley. I wrapped each filet in grapes leaves. I couldn't quite get the grapes leaves to wrap all the way around the filets so I used aluminum foil to enclose the fish. Then I opened the fridge and searched for some vegetables to cook as well. I had 3 packets of mushrooms tossed in soy sauce and oil. 2 packets of sliced potatoes and 2 packets of green beans tossed in olive oil, salt and a squeeze of lemon. Sam had started up the fire and then he cook up our meal. I made a green salad to accompany all this delicious food. It was very good. The fish had a smokey flavor, light yet not overpowering. I had soaked the grape leaves for 20 minutes in cold water before I wrapped the fish up. This took the bitterness out of the leaves and left a wonderful flavor which imparted in the fish. Next time I might add a bit more lemon and pepper. I highly suggest this meal if you just don't feel like slaving away in the kitchen or you want a change for dinner. The bonus was that the kids thought it was great!

Fire nearly ready.

The food is almost done.

Wordless Fiber Wednesday-Crias!

2011-04-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

Fiber Arts & Farm Friend Friday Phat Batt and Chores

2011-04-08T15:52:00.000-04:00

Fiber and chores fill most of my days. Not that doing anything related to fiber is a chore, mind you, it is quite the opposite. That said in order to have fiber from my alpacas I need to do stuff around the barn to ensure my babes are healthy, happy and fed. Chores seem to mount up quickly and on days when I have spent either running errands or running aimlessly around the house from room to room, I realize that my list in the barn is getting longer. This week I promised myself to cross out a few things. I sent out my Phatfiber samplers at the end of last week. April's theme is Butterflies and flutterbys. I chose the butterfly "lienix cinerascens."

And this is my interpretation of the butterfly in fiber form:

and packaging:

And for chores...no words needed.

Umm. Not finished with that one!

Wordless Fiber Wednesday-Kahula Kid

2011-04-06T07:06:00.000-04:00

Kahula Kid is one fine boy! (Just got back a fiber report)

He is cute to boot and rather full of vegetable matter. Sigh.

Hail and Snow..When is Spring?

2011-04-05T10:14:00.000-04:00

Hail and Snow on Sunday and Monday...

Ahhh...Today Spring has arrived!

Friday Fiber Arts & Farm Friend-2 weeks to finish a skein of yarn

2011-04-01T08:09:00.000-04:00

Oh boy! This skein took forever for me to finish. I have a black and dark silver gray alpaca mix in roving which I really wanted to spin up to see how it looks in yarn. I started spinning it about 2 weeks ago and I finished Tuesday night. It sat unplied on the bobbins for 7 days and then plied on a bobbin for three days because I couldn't find my tape measurer to set my skein winder at a yard and half. Now it is finally finished!!

My wrislets got set to the drawer for this week. I just haven't had a moment to concentrate and knit so maybe by August I will be able to post a photo of completion.

As far as farm activities this week..well mostly my time has been occupied, not to bore you, by feeding goats and feeding animals and cleaning the barn. I did acquire two chicks from my daughter's friend who was asked to prom by a boy. Huh? Yes. It is true. He bought two Bantam chicks and put them in box with food and water. He wrote on the box that she, the girl, is the only chick he would want to go to prom with. So of course she said yes, accepted the chicks and then realized she couldn't have them at home. As we live on farm she thought we could take them. We lived up to the expectation and now they are in my basement under the heating lamp. I hope they both are hens. I already have a rooster and he is beastly. I cannot take my eyes off of him when I enter the chicken pen. He comes after me and one time even landed on my head and scratched my forehead. No permanent damage to me thankfully! So if by chance I have a rooster or two I might be having a free giveaway on Twitter....just in case anyone is interested.

Off to go feed goats. Enjoy Friday Fiber Arts and Farm Friend Friday!

Wordless Fiber Wednesday-Captain Cavalier

2011-03-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

This is Captain Cavalier being himself!

Friday Fiber Arts-Knitting Update and Farm Friendly Goat Shed Cleaning

2011-03-25T06:58:00.000-04:00

Well what a week! I did not spend too much time on fiber arts as most of my time was dedicated to feeding 3 crazy goats. I finally moved from feeding 4x a day to 3x and this should help me enormously. However I did get a couple of skeins of yarn spun but they are still on the bobbins. And I managed to make a bit of progress on my wristlets. I realized that the pattern isn't written correctly. I am getting a dainty lace pattern and the picture of the wristlets does not have this lacey appearance. According to the directions sk2p means slip one, knit together pass stitch over (this is what is written by the author). And she wants me to k2 directly after sk2p. Does that mean knit two stitches? Well apparently not! It means k2tog. So why didn't she write it like that? Grrr. Anyhow I have been K2....knit two stitches. And it looks fine so far. If the wrislets get to the point where I decide it isn't going to work out, heck, I will just make something else..a scarf perhaps?

On another note my black goats have been coughing and the vet gave them a shot of medicine last week as they had bronchitis and pneumonia. (Thankfully I moved Mama goat out a week before her delivery and she was spared that illness). They were doing better towards the end of the week. Then we had this wet, damp weather. I moved them into the barn for a few days to keep them out of the mist and rain. I didn't want Anna Nana's condition to worsen. Since today was clear, cold and sunny I decided to clean the goat shed while goats recuperated in the barn. It is impossible to clean their house when they are in their paddock. They stand in the way and get between my legs and climb on the gator, whine and basically are a nuisance. Anyway what a mess it was! 4 gator loads of hay and muck later I had a nice clean house. Ready for the goats to return to mess it up again! Now for the alpacas....

Happy Friday Fiber Arts, Creative Friday and Farm Friendly Friday!

Wordless Wednesday-VVF Esmerelda

2011-03-23T09:10:00.000-04:00

Friday Fiber Arts PhatFiber Sweet Shop and some knittin

2011-03-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

Thought I would share my Phatfiber sample contribution this week for Friday Fiber Arts. The theme for this month is Sweet Shop. I chose some of my creamy alpaca fiber and twisted it together with hazelnut (dark fawn alpaca) and mocha (bay black and rose gray alpaca) into delicious tarts for spinning. Each packaged sample has a felted ball and some sprinkles made of felted fiber. It was so much fun to create and dream up a confection I hope is worthy of Willy Wonka's Factory! I got to take a peek at a box from last month and was humbled by the amazing fiber artists that contribute samples. Plus it was so fun to open a box and discover all the wonderful treasures inside.

My knitting project, unfortunately, has suffered this week. I am going to spare you the boredom of posting a photo that shows only four more rows. The reason I am so behined is that on Sunday we had three new kid goats born on the farm. I have been busy feeding them with a bottle 4x a day. Mama Faith goat was touch and go for the first few days after delivery so we decided to let her reserve all her energy repairing her body.Check out my previous blog to read about their harrowing birth!

This is Taima, my daughter, feeding the babes.
Check out Wonder Why Gal, Natural Suburbia and Verde Farm to see what fiber artists and farmers were up to this week!

Via Verde Farm goes to a Job Fair

2011-03-16T07:53:00.004-04:00

I was invited to speak at the Eastern Middle School Job Fair in the Forest Hills Public School District yesterday. I was of course speaking about my job as an Alpaca Farmer. This is the third year I have gone to the fair but the first time I took alpacas. The girls were the star event! I took Esmerelda and Areiya. Both are crias born this past fall. They were amazing. They were adorable and the kids loved them. I brought a slew of alpaca related items for the kids for show and tell. While that was of some interest they could not keep their eyes off the crias. I gave a fifteen minute talk about alpaca farming and in this picture they were listening to me as I was answering some of the questions they had to fill out on their forms. The crias were tough competition! But I didn't mind. I am just happy there was so much interest. It was a great day. I finished about 11 AM and got home just in time to bottle feed our new kid goats.

Birth of Goats

2011-03-14T06:42:00.001-04:00

Well I have to say I am exhausted. This day has been quite overwhelming in the sense of both joy and sorrow. I have a Nubian goat, Faith, that I knew was ready to deliver. She was right on target for her due date. I noticed Saturday evening that she was not quite herself. She was huge and very tired. This was not her first delivery. She has had two sets of twins and one set of triplets in the past. Yet I was worried about her. I checked on her at 11 pm, 12:30 am, 2:30 am, 4:30 am and 8:00 am. No news. She was uncomfortable but not really progressing along. By 10:00 am Sunday she was draining mucous and she had started her contractions. I was home alone so I called my friend Karyn and Catherine to come over in case I needed an extra hand or two. Thankfully I did this. Catherine lived for a time in Norway and delivered sheep. This was my first real goat delivery as my Dwarf Nigerian Christina Moon managed to have her twins before I got down to the barn. Was I nervous? Heck yes!
The first kid was born without a glitch. The second boy had a leg bent that we had to get straightened out. We waited awhile to see if there were anymore. Faith seemed fine and began to eat a bit. We thought she was finished. We waited some more. After 20 minutes we realized that she was trying to deliver another kid. She wasn't able to get him out. Catherine put her hands in and the kid was breach. By now Faith was on her side and we were concerned for her. The kid was pulled out but was stillborn. It was heart wrenching. And then there was another kids coming forth! And in the right position. She plopped out and was beautiful! Poor Faith. She had a hard time. She sniffed her unmoving kid and realized that he wasn't going to respond. She turned her head began to focus attention on her three beautiful babies.

A photo of the first born male.

We wondered if we could have prevented the stillborn. Should we have been more invasive sooner? Was there something else we could have done?
Truthfully I can ask myself all these questions but it was not meant to be. Living on a farm, breeding and raising animals has its miracle moments and it sorrowful moments. We must accept these times for what they are and savor life's precious gifts.

Friday Fiber Arts-Knitting Wrist Warmers

2011-03-11T07:21:00.011-05:00

I am attempting to pick up knitting again and realizing that I need to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. When I first started knitting I was focussing on felted purses and did not have alpacas. Now I have all this beautiful alpaca fiber and would like to make myself a few items. I found a nice EASY pattern for wrist warmers on Lion Brand Yarn Company. The pattern is Cottage Wrist Warmers. I am not using the suggested yarn obviously because I have my own. And because I am really awful about being told what to do!!
However I did check my gauge and am fine in that aspect. It is a simple lace pattern. I purl the first row and the second row is "K1 *yo, k2, sk2p, k2, yo, k1 (repeat from *). Easy right? Oh my gosh, I must have started over 10x. I start and then the phone rings and I forget where I am. Am I at k2, sk2p? Aggh! I finally learned to finish the row before setting it aside. I confess this is the second attempt to knit these wrist warmers. I tried with another yarn and was totally unsuccessful. I just could not concentrate. I pulled it out at least 4x. I set the whole project aside for a month and now I am retrying the pattern with different yarn and a new mindset. It is easy pattern yet I cannot get my mind wrapped around the project. I am not going to give up. I am determined to finish it. Even if I need to put it on a shelf for a while.

So I am sharing my first two rows today! So far so good.

And my lovely yarn was spun by my dear friend Curly Bird. She spun some of my alpaca Delphine, wool (merino, teaswater, romney), mohair, silk, desert sunset firestar, silver iris angelina. It is gorgeous. See her etsy shop for more beautifully hand spun yarns.
Check out the other awesome Friday Fiber Artists at Wonder Why Gal & Natural Suburbia.

Wordless Wednesday-Chester the Cat

2011-03-09T13:35:00.002-05:00

Hand Spun Alpaca

2011-03-04T07:08:00.008-05:00

I really love the beautiful natural colors of alpaca fiber. Here on our farm we have 18 pacas and each one is different in color from the other. Yes I have several dark silver grays, but each one has their own unique characteristics. Tula has a few beautiful brown spots on her coat while Nightengale is a "solid" beautiful mix of gray, dark gray and black. Even our fawn alpacas vary from dark fawn with a white foot, Iquique, to a solid light fawn as in Esmeralda. Every time a cria is born I love to imagine what the fiber will look like when it is spun up into a skein of yarn!
When I am on Etsy I see all these beautiful yarns chock full of gorgeous fibers and bursting with color. I love them all, but my heart is pulled to the dark bay, creams and rose grays of alpaca. I can imagine sunset orange with bay black or fawn with turquoise blue, lime paired with dark brown, peppermint pink plied with silver gray, etc. Natural alpaca fits with any color!
I have been working with color lately, but think I am going to start spinning my natural alpaca again. I am posting a few photos of hand spun yarn and hopefully you will be moved to spin some fawn, rose gray, white or brown alpaca too!!

Please check out Wonder Why Gal and Natural Suburbia for more Friday Fiber Arts!

Fallen Tree

2011-03-03T15:36:00.004-05:00

I have been watching this birch tree the past few days. I am not exactly sure when the top broke off. I think it was about a month ago when we had a huge wind storm. At first it looked as if it would fall by itself and towards the woods. However, I finally decided today that I must do something about it as it seems as if it isn't going to make things easy and behave itself and fall away from the chicken coop. The way it is caught on the trunk of the tree it is stuck pretty good. I took a survey of it yesterday and I am not sure that I can get it down myself. I thought about pulling on it, but don't want to be caught underneath! Who has time to have a broken leg? Not to mention any other injuries. I also thought about getting a ladder and a chainsaw but no worries that thought lasted a total of one second. The chainsaw is one machine on the farm I do not use! Gator, fine. Tractor..fine. leaf blower..fine. Heavy but fine. But not the chainsaw. I know me and I always have some weird thing happen. Tractor stuck in the compost pile, gator clogged in snow, breaks don't work on the mini-van, etc. so I don't want to take any chances with a chainsaw. It scares me actually. And imagine on a ladder?? No thanks. So I am going to have to call someone to take care of it. That someone will be my husband. Sam, are you reading this?? Can you please fix this tree??

Friday Fiber Arts-Felted Purse

2011-02-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Friday FIber Arts! This week we had snow days and lots of non-fiber related projects going on so I did decided to post a purse that I made when I first learned to knit about 4 years ago. I took a class at a local yarn shop and we knitted this purse. I picked my out my colors from Lamb's Pride wool. We learned to knit and purl and felt. I also learned how to mattress stitch, make an i-cord and cast on/off. Not in that order of course! But it was great for a beginner as it taught all the basic techniques for me to go out and knit on my own.
I use this bag a lot in the winter from carrying books around or as a... purse! The pattern we used for the class is Fiber Trends Fabulous Felt Totes designed by Leigh Radford. There are three sizes that you can make from this pattern. This is the medium size bag. I found the button at the yarn shop. It is made of clay and stamped in the exact color turquoise blue. That never happens when you are looking for something specific! I couldn't believe it myself. That is all from VVF this week. Enjoy FAF!

Check out all the other great Friday Fiber People at Wonder Why Gal or Natural Suburbia.

Baking a Cake

2011-02-24T21:17:00.007-05:00

Taima and I baked this delicious cake I found in my favorite cookbook by Joanne Harris. The recipe is called Gateau Lawrence and is on page 124 of this book. It has ground almonds and bittersweet chocolate. Two of my favorite ingredients. We used 4 eggs from our chickens that we raise here on the farm. I love fresh eggs. The yolks are dark and rich. The taste beats any organic egg in the store. The cake turned out to be deliciously rich. It doesn't look exactly as the photos in the book, but that is fine. It tastes wonderful.

Joanne Harris also happens to be one of my favorite authors. She is half French half British. She wrote Chocolat which was made into the movie starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Great film if you have not seen it. She has quite a few books and I have read them all but one. I loved Gentleman and Players and Five Quarters of the Orange. Both novels have twists and turns that you leave astonished as you turn the last pages. Most of her writing includes amazing descriptions of food. This is a passage from Five Quarters of the Orange "From them I learned to be mother again, cooking pancakes and thick herb-and-apple-sauges. I made jam for them from figs and green tomatoes and sour cherries and quinces. I let them play with the little brown mischievous goats and feed them crusts and pieces of carrot. We fed the hens, stroked the soft noses of the ponies, collected sorrel for the rabbits." The entire novel is woven with wonderful references to food and recipes. It is beautiful. Don't read it though when you are hungry.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-22T19:37:00.003-05:00

Iquique as a new born cria.

Iquique romping around and basically being adorable!

My kid goats

2011-02-20T07:59:00.006-05:00

I was searching through my photo files and I came across these adorable pics of my baby goats taken last summer. We have a Nigerian Dwarf goat that delivered in late spring of 2010. These two cute things ran all over the barn and caused havoc. They bothered the cats and the people. They would jump onto your lap and nibble your hair or actually eat it as they got older. Kid goats are hilarious to watch and are notoriously ornery. They were boys so we decided to sell them. I was lucky enough to find two little sisters who wanted to be in 4H. They purchased them and now they live happily up in the Coopersville area. I am anxiously waiting for our Nubian to deliver in March.I am looking forward to Spring and the sight of little animals exploring their new world. I will post the new photos of the babies when they arrive.

Alpaca Rugs

2011-02-16T13:18:00.005-05:00

As shearing season quickly approaches I am happy to say that this year I don't have bags and bags of unused fiber. I still have a lot of fiber but it all has either been processed or will be soon. I have a few show fleeces from last year that I am hand washing and posting on my etsy store. I also have some bags of naturally colored seconds left from last year's shearing which now also have a final destination.
When I first purchased my animals they came with bags of fiber and then I had my first shearing season as well. I wasn't sure where I was going to go with my fiber so it piled up a bit. This past summer I was able to move it all and get it out of the bags and into a product. This will be my third year of shearing. I have already marked the animals that will get show fleeces and the which animal's fiber will be made into roving, yarn, etc. All of the animals can contribute to these beautiful rugs. I sent out the fiber a while back to Ingrid's Texas Rugs and just received them this week. I chose simple patterns of mostly stripes or solids. Each one is 2 x 3 trimmed with cotton fringe. I think I need to keep one for myself.

Dyeing and Spinning

2011-02-11T20:15:00.011-05:00

I had a lot of fun dyeing, blending and spinning this skein. I started with Alpaca, of course. I have a couple of pounds of white pencil roving from our pretty girl, White Lace.

I took about 1 1/2 oz of fiber and dyed them in two hues of pink. I then blended the darker pink with merino, cashmere, peony angelina, silk noil, banana silk and small amounts of colored merino. For the lighter pink yarn I started to core spin with an acrylic yarn. It is actually 50% wool/50% acrylic. I ended up wrapping it around my pink single. I had a bit of twist that relaxed when I plied the yarn. I ended up with 70 yards. Still deciding what I am going make from this skein.

I also had so much fun dyeing alpaca locks. I took 1 oz fiber from each of Floreanna and Delphine, my two yearlings, and over dyed the fiber. I used purple on the dark silver gray locks and flame red on the rose gray locks. I am planning on dyeing some more this week. I got busy with taxes and reorganizing my office and never got back to dyeing. Hum. I should have thought taking my office apart before I actually did it. I cannot even put one foot in the door. It looks as if a tornado swept through the room!

That is all from my farm for this week. Check out lots of wonderful fiber people at Wonder Why Gal and Natural Suburbia!

Friday Fiber Arts-A Great Fiber Find

2011-02-11T10:08:00.006-05:00

A few months ago I ran into Salvation Army and lo and behold there was a pile of cones of yarn! I was so excited. I quickly grabbed them and tossed all seven in my cart. The price was great! At .99 each it was a chance I couldn't miss. When I got home I found some of the yarns had a tag on the inside of cone. I was able to determine that there was some wool, acrylic and wool, and cotton. I looked up the manufacturer online, Yeoman Yarns, to see what was the content of the boucle yarn.
Twirly Curly Bird pointed out some uses for the yarn from core spinning to felting add ins. There is quite a bit so I am sure I will keep busy with it for awhile.
I love great finds especially when they are fiber related!

Sienna

2011-02-08T08:41:00.005-05:00

This is a picture my husband took of Sienna our mini horse. I love the way her mane is tousled by the wind. It is as if she is a model for the cover of Vogue.

Friday Fiber Arts and Creative Friday-Dyeing Silk Noils/Spinning Alpaca Fiber

2011-02-03T18:25:00.009-05:00

This week was spent mostly digging out the barn from the huge snow storm. We ended up with about 15 1/2 inches of the white fluffy stuff. When I wasn't shoveling away I managed to take some new fiber I bought last week and a purple cabbage to dye up some beautiful purple silk noil.

It was quite easy to do and once I had mordanted my silk in alum/cream of tartar the entire process was smooth. I used the immersion method and allowed the dye pot to just reach the simmering point. I let the silk remain in the dye for about an hour and then it was pretty late at night I turned off the stove and let the silk stay in the dye bath overnight.

I had a really deep purple/blue color and then I added a dash of vinegar to the rinse bath to set the dye and remove the smell of any lingering cabbage. The vinegar brought out the red in the cabbage and gave the silk noil a variegated blueish-purple finish.

I also finally finished plying this skein of yarn. In another blog I showed the orange batt with some brown alpaca and banana silk. I ended up using my hackle to blend the fibers together.

I spun the orange mix and plied it with some dark brown alpaca. And I did not like it at all! I basically un plied it and this took forever. And plied it again using only the orange fiber. I guess that happens sometimes. How you might think two colors look together actually don't look great when plied. Oh well. Next time I will do a test trial. That is all for FAF this week. Click on Wonder Why Gal's and Creative Friday's Button at the bottom of my blog to see what other fiber people have done this week!

The Big Snow Storm

2011-02-02T12:15:00.004-05:00

We had quite a bit of snow last night. And finishing chores this morning was a bit challenging. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Friday Fiber Arts-This and That

2011-01-27T20:49:00.011-05:00

This week was a hodge podge of activities. Mostly I updated my Etsy site and attempted to organize my messes piling about my house. I had my share of tweets too! Thankfully I was able to cross off 1/3 of the items on my full page of "things to do list".
So what I did work on was a bit of dyeing some pencil roving and putting together a spinning kit that I might remove from Etsy and spin myself!

This was dyed in pink and purple. It turned out to be fuchsia.

And a spinning kit for February in honor of St. Valentine's Day. The felted balls will be a great addition to the spun yarn. This could be core spun. The pink pencil roving was dyed in Greener Shades. The white tussah silk is a new product on my Etsy store. I am debating between banana silk and tussah silk. I cannot decide which one I prefer to spin with more.

Other exciting news at VVF is that we are now a member of the Phatfiber Team. I am so excited. We will be making our debut in February for the Gems/Minerals sampler box. That about rounds out this week for FAF. Hopefully I will have some newly spun skeins to post for next week and I hope my to do list will be finished. I know...wishful thinking.
.

Dyeing with Walnuts Part II

2011-01-22T07:37:00.005-05:00

In the previous blog the fiber was mordanted and ready to go. We got our dye bath prepared. So if you left your fiber to dry you need to soak it in room temperature water so that it will accept the dye or if your fiber is still wet from the mordant bath you can use it right away. Once the dye bath is strained from the walnut husks it should be very dark and free of walnut matter. Place your pot with dye bath on the burner and slowly begin to warm. As the dye bath's temperature increase to room or a bit warmer add the fiber slowly. Make sure that your stainless steel or enamel pot is large enough so that the fiber has room to spread out. The dye bath should be able to reach all of the fiber.
Slowly bring the temperature to 160F and let the yarn simmer in the dye bath for 1 hour. Turn off heat and let the bath cool. At this point you can remove your skein of yarn or let it sit in the bath for as long as you wish depending on how dark you want the color. In the above pictures the medium brown was in the dye bath for one hour and the darkest skein sat for a few hours in the dye bath. You can easily leave your skin in overnight for a very dark rich color.
When your remove your skein, again do so carefully by removing it with a pair of tongs and catching one of the ties. If the skein is a bit twisted you can dip it back in to the bath a couple of times and the fibers will straighten themselves out.
The skein needs to be rinsed. I have a big plastic tub I fill with water and place the skein in and let soak for about 10 minutes and then I remove the skein and dump the water out and repeat until the water in the tub is clear. I also add a dash of vinegar to help set the dye and knock off smells from the dye bath. When the rinse water is clear remove the skein and gently squeeze out the water and hang to dry on a rack.
A couple of notes:
Black walnuts have a very permanent dye. The dye bath will stain everything so be careful when using this dye bath.
Natural dyes are not consistent as acid dyes and I am never sure quite what the finished product will look like but I enjoy the entire process.
Other interesting plants to dye with are sumac, Queen Anne's Lace, Foxglove, marigolds, onion skins, purple cabbage (on silk), snake grass, raspberry vines/leaves, Virginia Creeper and geraniums.Once you began dyeing with plants you began noticing all those "weeds" along the roadsides. It is amazing what you an find in your own backyard.

Friday Fiber Arts: Plant Dyeing and Mordant Part 1

2011-01-20T21:34:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I added some really beautiful plant dyed skeins to my etsy store. These skeins were dyed in the fall when walnut husks were plentiful. I gathered up a big bucket of walnuts from a tree at my neighbor's house. I filled the bucket with water and let the husks soak for 2 days. I drained the dye bath off and set the walnuts aside. Meanwhile I prepared my fiber. I had a couple of skeins that I first weighed and then presoaked for about 15 minutes in room temperature water. Please be sure that your skeins are tied in at least 5 places. I learned the hard way. I had a skein tangled up so badly that it is still sitting on a shelf waiting for me to fix.
While your skeins are soaking you can prepare the mordant. I use only alum and cream of tartar as my mordant. I use 10% alum and 5% cream of tartar to the weight of the fiber. Fill a large pot that is used only for dyeing purposes. Stainless steel or enamel are both good choices. Remember any utensil that you use for dyeing should be labelled and used only for dye and never for food preparation. I fill the pot with water and heat it up. Add the alum/c of tartar once the water is hot and stir so that it is evenly distributed in the bath. Remove your skeins from the presoak bath and gently squeeze the excess water out.Add the wool into the mordant bath--careful to prevent felting. Make sure fiber is completely covered by water.Simmer the mordant mixture for about 1 hour at 160F. I turn off the heat and let the fiber sit until it is cooler. I then remove it by grabbing the ties on the skein. If it is tangled you can dip it back it in the water a few times. This usually straightens out the fibers. Again gently squeeze out the excess water and you can either begin to dye or let it dry on a drying rack and save until you are ready to use.
Just a few more notes: I always dye outside when using plant dyes. And I use a propane burner as my heat source. Don't forget heavy duty rubber gloves to protect your hands.
I will post the walnut dyeing process tomorrow!

Check out these sites for more Fiber Arts: http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com and http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ Sorry my computer is being silly and I cannot add any urls. Working on this problem.

My boys

2011-01-20T07:39:00.001-05:00

Time for dinner. The boys walk single file to their shed to eat some yummy hay.

Orange batt update

2011-01-19T08:08:00.005-05:00

Just wanted to share the blended orange batt which I dyed last week with my Greener Shades dyes. The orange is very vibrant and I thought that it would look beautiful blended with banana silk dyed in yellows, alpaca/merino blend, alpaca and copper penny angelina. I was right! I have abour 1.6 oz total.

Friday Fiber Art-Greener Shades Dyes

2011-01-14T06:58:00.018-05:00

I ordered a new dye kit from the Woolery. I received it in just a few days and was able to dye up some batts yesterday. The dye I used is Greener Shades. These are metal-free acid dyes and can be used to dye protein fibers as well as nylon. I used alpaca, of course, and was pleased with the results. Their website is http://greenershades.stillrivermill.com/
According to their manual "Greener Shades dyes can require less energy as exhaustion may occur at a lower water temperatures." The eco-friendly theme fits in perfectly with AOBA's new marketing theme for 2011 and my own farm name Via Verde (Green Road)!

I purchased the starter pack that includes nine dyes, citric acid and instructions. This package should dye about 13 lbs of fiber. I choose Flame Red, Amethyst Purple and Sunset Orange. I dyed 5 -5 oz batts and some Wensleydale locks. As far as roving vs. batt to dye, I prefer rovings. I find them easier to handle and that the fiber is able to absorb better.
Using the Greener Shades color chart I can mix up a wide array of colors to suit my needs. While I just am beginning to experiment with this dye I can see many exciting projects in the future. And tons of fun blending and spinning.

I can see this batt with blended with dark fawn alpaca, copper penny angelina and a dash of silk dyed yellow.

Wensleydale locks given to my by Twirly Curly Bird.

Hues of pink and purple.
See all of Friday Fiber arts At Wonder Why Galhttp://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com/2011/01/fiber-arts-friday-tink-or-tear.html

Blending Alpaca Fiber..And Loving It!

2011-01-10T19:38:00.009-05:00

I could hardly wait to finish my chores so I could get down to business and blend some alpaca that I dyed late last week. As always I use an eco friendly dye and the colors turned out perfect and happily not exactly planned. I enjoy surprises occasionally.
Today I blended 3 small batts with various fibers. I bought this fantastic bag of mixed fibers from Yarn Hollow. There are a lot of bits and pieces in many colors.
I blended the pink/purple batt with purple angelina.

Then I spun it to see how it turned out. I thought this fiber should be named Barbie Doll Glitz. It has Barbie written all over it.

Next I blended a peachy/pink dyed alpaca roving from White Lace aptly named Peach Bliss. In the first picture the color is off a bit. I blended white/yellow silk, bfl in dark brown, bits of blue/green silk noil and dusty rose/aurora angelina. I can't spin this up until I finish with Barbie.

Another view:

I think I am addicted to fiber blending. The combinations of fibers and colors are endless. It is so much fun that I didn't want to stop to eat dinner!

Washing, washing alpaca fiber

2011-01-07T11:54:00.011-05:00

Most of this week has been spent washing alpaca locks. It has been very time consuming yet very rewarding. VVF Delphine was born last spring and is rose gray. His fiber is really pretty and has great crimp. I had sent several 2 oz samples of his fiber to different shows on the AOBA circuit. I decided not to have his fleece processed but to wash and sell his locks on Etsy. I did not really realize how long it would take me to wash ounce by ounce.
I have about a three pound bag. I start by carefully pulling out a handful of locks and putting all the cut tips together.
I pick out the tips and open them up a bit to get any veg matter cleaned out.

<

I carefully place the locks in a sack a bunch of lemons came in that I sewed together at one end. I fill a bowl with warm water and add my wool wash-eco friendly of course-to the water and swish it around.

I gently place the bag with the locks into the water and press down to immerse the locks in the water.

I let them soak for about 15 minutes unless I get busy doing something else and forget about them! When I remember or if I set the timer I remove the bag and dump the water down the drain. I prepare the same wash soak again. I only wash soak twice. After the second wash I dump the soapy water and add tepid clear water for the rinse soak. I also add a dash of vinegar. Again I let the locks soak for 10 minutes or so and repeat the rinse cycle one more time. I end up with 2 wash soaks and 2 rinse soaks. You can tweek this according to how dirty your alpaca fiber is. After the last rinse I remove the bag from the water and place it in a salad spinner-locks are still in the bag. I spin it a few rotations for the excess water to drain off. I remove the locks from the bag and fluff them up. I place them in a single layer on a towel to dry. While this process is time consuming the results are so worth it! I can spin now straight from the lock knowing my fiber is sparkly clean.

VVF Floreanna and the AOBA Ozarks Show

2010-12-15T09:41:00.006-05:00

I waited and waited for the results of the AOBA Ozarks show to be posted and I eagerly checked my mailbox for the results for a box with my fiber and hopefully ribbons. Actually I received the results pretty quickly (within in 12 days) but when you check the AOBA website at least 4 x a day it seems as if it is a long time.
I had sent 4 samples of 2 oz to the Ozarks show for the spin off. I like to send fiber samples to the spin off because I always get very good feedback. As it turns out my animals received 3 blue ribbons and a second. The photo above is one of my cria's from 2009. She is dark silver gray. Very lovely girl. I also sent in fiber from GA Blazing Ben's, VVF Delphine and GA Kahula Kid.
Nice gift for the holidays.

Friday Fiber Arts-Woodland Weaver And Spinners Sale

2010-12-10T00:12:00.004-05:00

This is what I will be doing this weekend. Hope all of you in the area can come by and check it out!

2010 TEXTILE ARTS MARKET
PRINCE CENTER, CALVIN COLLEGE CAMPUS

Friday, December 10, 2010 2p to 8p
Saturday, December 11, 2010 10a to 4:30p

The Yarn Hollow Open House

2010-12-04T14:15:00.003-05:00

Today was the open house at The Yarn Hollow in Grandville. It was a lot of fun. And the company was great. Thanks Melissa, twirly curly bird. As you can see from the picture Heather has her arms full of beautiful rovings and yarn. I picked up a gorgeous bag of multicolored hand dyed fleece by the Yarn Hollow ( a.k.a Rita Petteys) and some wrist warmers from Winding Wool Creek Fiber Mill, LLC. I found a lot of my wonderful knitting friends from the Peaceful Knitters Group (check them out on Raverly) were already there and knitting away! But I promised Juliette and Cait not to post their photos. Maybe next time.
All in all it was great and if you haven't stopped by they are open until 5 pm today.

Friday Fiber Arts-Etsy Store

2010-12-03T15:37:00.003-05:00

Most of this week has been spent taking photos and working on my etsy store. And it looks as if it paid off. The store was profiled on Etsy Treasury Alpaca Shack for VVF's Art Tarts.
Here is what they look like

Hope everyone has a fun filled fiber weekend!

Photographing Your Handmade Items

2010-11-28T18:19:00.008-05:00

Ah...It seems that taking care of your animals is not the end all be all of alpaca farming. While I find it the most relaxing I do also enjoy the fiber aspect of my job. Creating items from alpaca fiber is a lot of fun. However, I want to sell them too. There are a lot of ways that you can market your fiber. The most common is via the internet. Yet you can market your fiber at craft and fiber shows, offer classes, give demonstrations, join spinning groups and of course there is the Etsy store. Etsy is the mecca for handcraft items. Posting your items on Etsy is done in 1/2 hour. At least not the first time. I learned the hard way by setting up a store and then sort of winging the photographs. The pictures of your items are the single most important aspect of your store.
I am not a photographer. In fact I don't really have the patience for photography. I just want to put my item on a table and take a photo and be done with it. Unfortunately that is not how it works. So I decided after my initial attempt at my Etsy store I would pull everything off my site and restart after I did some thorough research. I started with the Storque blog on Etsy. I found a really great article by a photographer. She demonstrated how to build a light box-a suggestion that my professional photographer husband had recommended a long time ago to me. This box basically helps control the light so you can take better photos.
The link to her blog is http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/etsys-guide-to-photography-10979/ Copy and paste this then scroll down to the bottom of the page for the DIY light box. There is a lot of information there for the camera shy.

This is a photo of my box. In spite of not looking so great it has turned out to be a lifesaver. I don't have a professional camera and frankly don't know how to use half of the settings on my Olympus Stylus Tough. (It can be used underwater..ooo that is a thought!)

This is a photo of a skein of yarn taken in the light box.

And a skein outside of the light box.

How I did it.
I placed my light box on a stand. I turned a magnifying glass with a built in light on and placed it at the side of the
box. I placed white stock board paper in the bottom and at the back of the box. I turned off the flash and put a shadow adjustment on the camera. Then I began to think I how could enhance the photos by staging a bit. The draw back with the box is that you are limited on the size of items that fit into it. A skein of yarn works great but a gum ball machine is too tall. I searched around my house for some small items as the wood bowl seen in the photo at the top. It took me about four hours to complete this session and I took photos of about 10 items. I was getting tired and annoyed toward the end. I suggest that you set up your props and products the day before so you will be ready to focus only on the photographs. It is too distracting running around all over the house looking for stuff.

And speaking of stuff -try to be creative in your staging. Use color to enhance your product by placing it on a cloth or stand that makes your work pop out. I am thinking of putting my 2 oz rovings in a trifle bowl or perhaps on a tray that has a complimentary color to the roving. For example if you create felted flower pins you could place your pins with a small hand shovel or clay pot in the background maybe some soil scattered in the foreground. You get the idea...

Make it fun and creative so that it won't seem like work, but part of your overall project. The photos you can keep as records of your work or to submit to juried shows. Think of the broad picture (no pun intended).

Once your photos are taken you can upload them to a site <"http://www.picnik.com/"> to crop or fix the color saturation, etc. This site was suggested to me by Twirly Curly Bird. See her Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwirlyCurlyBird I highly recommend that you use this site or another similar one to clean up your photos before publishing them. Although I am still working on a few details such as the larger items that won't fit in my 12 x 12 x 12 light box. One step at a time. At least I have a store back up and running. And it has some pretty neat photos!

Dyeing the Color Spectrum

2010-11-17T16:37:00.004-05:00

My mom gave me Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan for my birthday back in September. I finally cracked it open and was delirious with the dyeing possibilities. I couldn't wait to get myself set up in the kitchen. I wanted to use her 'dyeing your own color wheel" instructions and get a spectrum of colors in alpaca. I was curious to see how alpaca would take the dye. Of course it is beautiful as I expected. I started off by reading the instructions, but not reading them at the same time. I screwed up and wasted a whole of McCormick food dye in yellow. I realized that I needed some coffee, a shower and music. I made a cup of joe, showered and put on some Regina Specktor/Cheb Khaled/Johnny Cash. My brain was ready.
I started by mixing the dyes, correctly this time. My jars were labeled and I had some alpaca seconds washed and ready to go.
Basically I soaked the fiber in 1 part vinegar 2 parts water for 30 minutes. I let it strain and then added it to the mason jar with the dye. I then let it stand for 30 minutes and then into the microwave for 2 minutes for the dye bath to run clear. After microwaving I rinsed the fiber and let it dry. Now I have a beautiful array of colors. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in dyeing. I have read several dye books and I think this Ms. Callahan's directions are very clear and well written. Don't take my mistake at the beginning as a fault of hers. The directions were clear. I was just not at the table. The photos are also of high quality and not over done or cluttered. She includes some really clever methods of dyeing cones, the parking meter method for stripes on yarn, and "mozzarella-style" dyeing with raw fleece. Cannot wait to post another dye method from this book!

Friday Fiber Arts-Dyeing Crazy Day

2010-11-11T16:17:00.016-05:00

I spent almost the entire day dyeing skeins of alpaca. Each skein is 110 yards of white 'paca. Alpaca really absorbs the colors well and I ended up with some nice finished products. I mixed Wilton Cake Dyes in mason jars and dipped entire skeins in bowls of color or striped dyed them with a basting brush. I choose hues from yellow, orange, copper to blues and greens. I also finished plying a few hand spun skeins. I let all the skeins dry outside on a dryer rack in the sun. A perfect day for fiber arts. I am scrambling about as I have an expo at Forest Hills Eastern high school on Saturday where I hope to sell some of these beauties.

This skein is alpaca/llama mix. I had some Christmas bling to jazz it up a bit. It was dyed in walnut husks. I plied in a string of red quilting thread with tiny pom poms. I am imagining a nice scarf knitted up from this one.

Enjoy your Fiber Arts Day! Check out Wonder Why Alpacas to see more Fibery Fun!

Friday Fiber Arts-Art Tarts

2010-11-05T07:37:00.006-04:00

As snow is threatening to fall today and I still have to do a few winterizing chores I will be a bit brief today...

This is one of my newest items that I sell at expos and on line. Curly Bird Express helped me brainstorm to come up with this cute packaging. I thought that I would share.
I used 100% alpaca and/or alpaca hand carded with various materials; silk, fire angel, cotton, other wool, some hand dyed, thread, sequins, etc. Placed about 1 /4 oz into a coffee filter and packaged them into bakery boxes. I topped off the 'tarts' with a felted bead. I thought this would be a fun gift idea for spinners or felters.

Check out all the fabulous fiber arts happenings at wonderwhyalpacafarm@blogspot.com

Preparing the Garden for Winter

2010-11-03T09:30:00.006-04:00

Ahh. That time of the year when the beautiful colors of summer have faded and we are left with a monochromatic landscape. I like the change of season and enjoy the rest of work from the summer months. Yet I miss the splashes of purples, pinks and oranges that I tuck in my garden between the eggplants, beans and tomatoes. I am keeping the back 1/2 of the plot for dye plants. Last summer I put in fox glove, marigolds and geraniums for the sole purpose of dyeing. Unfortunately I did not get to use any of them. I actually ended up loving the colors too much and did not want to cut them!
Back to garden preparation...I am late getting my garden prepared for winter. I was going to start this morning but I was too cold. When the temperature rises to about 50 F this afternoon I will pull out all the dead plants. I then typically spread a layer of new compost from the huge pile that I have written about in previous blogs. I cover the garden with tarps and place some of the fire pit logs on top to hold them in place over the winter. This system works pretty well. By the time we can actually plant in Michigan (which is about May 20th) the soil under the tarps is weed free. I just hoe it a bit and rake it. Sometimes I add more compost and then I plant my veges. I make a diagram of the garden and order all the plants during the winter. I have tried seeds and started them in the basement with lamps..Way too much work for me. Plus I sometimes forget to water the seedlings. I decided plants are the preferred route for me. Once I have planted the plants I usually place straw in a fairly thick layer all over the garden. It helps keeps weeds down and to retain water. Then I put my yard art in and voila..ready for summer.
I also have a few currants and some blueberry bushes that I need to take care of too. They keep being eaten by the deer or the occasional goat escapee. Grr. So I think this year I am going to keep them fenced. They are still small and never get a chance to grow. Their branches must be really tasty.
Hopefully it will take me only a couple of hours to get this job done. I want to spin this afternoon!

Last cria for 2010

2010-10-12T08:10:00.004-04:00

Areia is the last cria for us this year. She is the daughter of our dame, Tula and her sire is Smokey from Ashton Stone Farms. Check out their blog at http://ashtonstone.blogspot.com . She was born on Sunday at around 4 pm. Last year Tula had a more difficult birth. With Areia, she delivered in 15 minutes. I was there to see the whole event. The last few days Tula had been sitting in the shelter and isolating herself a bit. When she began delivery she was resting in the shelter while the rest of the herd was grazing. She walked to the bean pile and kept turning her head to see what was happening at her behind. I figured it might take a while but I was mistaken. She walked around, got down on the ground, walked back to the shelter, sat down, got up and delivered! She was very quiet until the cria arrived and then she just kept talking to her new baby. I moved them up to the barn and within 45 minutes Areia was speaking to her mother. Birth is a miraculous event. This is my 7th cria to be born on our farm. With each birth I am excited and anxious as I was when our first cria arrived, Quito, 1 1/2 years ago.
I try to stay out of the birthing process and let the mom do her job. Alpacas are very sufficient at taking care of their own delivery and care of their newborn crias. I only intervene if necessary and so far that has not happened. Thankfully. NowI will have to patiently wait until late next spring for the arrival of a new cria.

Friday Fiber Arts - Stripe dyeing with Wilton Dyes

2010-10-08T13:54:00.004-04:00

I was rummaging through some fiber stash and found a smallish roving of Rambouillet. I decided this fine piece would be perfect to stripe dye and try to work out some kinks in my Wilton dye experimentations. I really cannot commit to dyeing alpaca until I make sure that all goes well on other types of fiber...sorry Rambouillet. Rambouillet also known as French Merino. This breed was developed in 1786 with a flock of Spanish Merino was purchased by Louis XVI. Rambouillet yields a good meat and a fine grade wool.

Dyeing:
First I choose sky blue and true blue as my colors. I mixed some of the Wilton dye paste in a mason jar with a bit of vinegar and water. I placed the roving on a piece of saran wrap. I organized the fiber in a snake shape. Using a pastry brush that I dipped into the dye I dabbed the colors onto the fiber. When I had completely dyed the roving I wrapped it up in the saran wrap and placed in it a microwaveable container. On high heat for one minute I cooked the roving. I let it rest for a minute and then cooked it for another minute. I continued this process alternating between cooking 1 minute (total 10 minutes) and rest 1 minute (total 10 minutes).
I then unwrapped the fiber, rinsed it and hung it to dry. Voila!

Before spinning:
Unfortunately my photos are not showing the variation of colors. They are similar yet very rich and deep. I have the before and after spinning. I quickly spun some on a bobbin that had fawn alpaca on it. Therefore you might see a bit peaking out from underneath the blue. The entire roving is about 3 1/2 inches wide. I carefully separated strips lengthwise, about 1/8" wide and spun them.

After spinning:

Welcome Esmeralda

2010-10-06T08:24:00.005-04:00

I calculated the dates when Meddlin Millie was to have her cria. Obviously i was off. Not sure how this happened. I usually can pinpoint fairly accurately. I thought MM might have her cria in a week. So yesterday I was busy with a pellet stove in our studio above the garage. I lit it early in the morning so the studio would be warm by the time I finished feeding the animals. When I finally got up there two hours later the entire room was full of smoke. Grr. I spent the whole morning messing around with getting smoke out of the room and did not get to do all the fun things I had planned. Anyhow this explains why I did not see that a cria had been born. It was my son who relayed the exciting news. He had gotten a ride home with a friend and they were viewing the alpacas. He was very surprised to see Esmeralda in the pasture. He called me on his phone and said "There is a cria here." You can imagine what was running through my mind such as "Where are you?" ( I thought he was still at school) and "What are you talking about?" Sometimes teenagers really don't make any sense at all.
Long story short we have a beautiful new cria-FEMALE! And she seems she is going to be rose gray which is hardly surprising as her sire is a medium rose gray and is aptly named Andrew The Great.

This is Miriam and Esmeralda.
My son named Esmeralda. My family gets angry because I always name the crias. I told him my only condition is that he choose a name of a geographical location in South America. It is my "theme."

Pretty cute!

Wilton Cake Dyes and Alpaca FIber

2010-10-05T07:12:00.008-04:00

Yes, you can dye with Wilton Cake dyes. I was attending a Woodland Weavers and Spinners spinning meeting. A woman was working on a beautiful skein of striped roving in blues and purples. I asked her how she had dyed it and was surprised to hear that she used Wilton Cake dye. She explained the method she had used and truly the results were magnificent. I could hardly contain my excitement. As soon as I arrived home I ran to my pantry to dig out all the Wilton dyes I never use. I was excited to see quite a few jars in an array of colors. Whoohoo!
Someone asked me to dye alpaca fiber in red, orange and green. The results of this effort are below. The only thing I have about deciding a specific color or result before I dye is that I loose the thrill of the surprise.
Try as I might, I was unable to get a deep red or a deep green. I will work with this dye possibly even combining it with Kool Aid, my friend, to see what I can accomplish. Meanwhile I like the psychedelic hues that emerged.

Sugar Plum ( I have no idea what a sugar plum is, unless of course it is an actual sugared plum-yuck (This color definitely conjures up sugar plums dancing in my head).

Spooky Orange-uh not really. It is a great color for Halloween. Not too dark/scary and not to light/whimpy. Middle ground orange/fun.

Christmasy Fluff-I know it is not as dark a an actual pine but it does have some elements of leaf/tree. Perhaps it is a bit too light for Christmas bling. I will have to work on this.

Sugar Plum 2-no comment other than my second attempt at red. What can I say? It will look great with the Christmasy Fluff in a bracelet. And yes, I would wear it.

Battling the Compost Monster

2010-09-28T10:46:00.009-04:00

The Pile

Prior to an open house there is a lot do around the barn such as cleaning corners, vacuuming cobwebs, and organizing tools. These chores I wait until I have a deadline to complete. Now that all those things are done, it is time to really work, i.e. pasture management, soil erosion and the compost pile.

The minis are really hard on the paddocks. We have mostly sandy soil in our area which is great when you want to dig a hole but not so great when you want to grow grass. I reseeded the mini pasture last week and put straw on top. We had quite a bit of rain and now I can see a bit of growth. Hurray! I moved the minis, of course, to another paddock for the winter. So one chore down!

I also have some serious soil erosion issues. The alpacas are much easier on the pastures. They don't have upper teeth to yank the grass out by the root, as minis do, and their necks apparently are not as strong as the horses. Their padded feet don't destroy the growth. Even tiny horse hooves are treacherous to established grasses.
That being said, the issue is a hill in the girl's paddock. For some reason grass will not grow on the side and it is slowly eroding. So I have decided to use some of the gianormous manure pile that is accumulating at the back of the barn. I am also competing with the chickens to keep the soil intact around their fence. They love, love to peck and scratch at the fence line which of course leaves gaps under the fencing.
Fence Line for Chickens

The compost pile, beneficial in that I can use it where ever I am losing dirt, is a monster of a thing. It has out grown the space where it is supposed to be and is now a huge, enormous pile. In spite of my hard work to turn it with a tractor every few days it won't go away. It grows and grows. I think part of the problem is the hay that I shove into it. All that carbon off sets the balance of the pile. So maybe it is a good thing that I have erosion issues. I can just toss it about and maybe it will get smaller. Ha!

The compost house

So as October approaches I will not be doing fun fibery activities for a while, but battling against rain, chickens and a compost monster.

Grand River Spinners

2010-09-21T09:07:00.006-04:00

Melissa spinning recycled sari silk on her Lendrum. Paula working hard spinning some Jakob on her new Lady Bug wheel.

On Sunday Grand River Spinners met and spun for a couple of hours at Biggby's on East Beltline/28th Street in Grand Rapids. It was tons of fun. We have some new spinners and enjoyed sharing tips and techniques together. It was also Spin In Public Day/Weekend. (http://www.wwsipday.com/) So we celebrated by drinking coffee, chatting and spinning. We had several people stop by and ask questions or just sort of stare!!

Katie is spinning a "punk rock" roving on her spindle while Alita is taking a break from her drop spindle and knitting a fantastic pair of socks!

Tamara is spinning alpaca (of course) on a wire core. While Alita and Katie pose for the photo.

If you would like to join our group we meet the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month fromf 1-3pm. You can check out our Ravelry page and join us at Grand River Spinners. I am working on our own website and will have that up soon.

Friday Fiber Arts-Dyeing and Mixing Colors

2010-09-17T08:00:00.009-04:00

So I know I talk about kool aid alot! It actually is a cheap and pretty versatile dye. I have done a lot with cherry and strawberry packets and had some pretty wonderful results. I have been really wanting to dye greens. I searched around for a plant outside, but as Fall is fast approaching, I couldn't find anything suitable. So kool aid my old friend came to the rescue. I started with 50 g alpaca fiber. I mordanted the fiber in alum and cream of tartar. I prepared the dye bath by heating the water and tossing in 2 blue packets and 2 yellow packets of KA. Then I rinsed the fiber under warm water so it does not get shocked in the dye bath. I gently placed them in the pot and brought it to a simmer. I usually simmer about 1 hour. Then turn of the stove and let it sit until the bath is clear. Kool Aid is great in this way because the fiber absorbs it all. I am working on trying to get my colors on the fiber not to streak. I wanted these particular skeins to have color variation. I have been successful in the past with walnuts to get a really even dark color. Key tip is to put the dye in first and stir it around before adding the fiber. Especially with kool aid because the powder can adhere to certain parts of the fiber and not others. Anyway I ended up thinking the green was too minty. So I added a packet of lemon lime. And here is the result with a cherry roving next to it.

Now if someone can help me figure out how to keep the skeins tidy when dyeing. I tie off in three places and am very careful and blag..it is the same..twisted and upside down. Drives me crazy. I have the same problem with the hose in the barn. It doesn't matter what I do the hose or skein or whatever stingy thing must be a convoluted mess!

Anyway..this second photos is alpaca dyed in blue kool aid. I carded it on my Ashford hand carders with dark blue locks from a small bag I bought at the Michigan Fiber Festival two years ago. The bag was unlabeled so I am not sure what kind sheep provided these locks. I am going to check that out. And I added silver angel hair. There is about 1/2 oz of fiber in the bundle. I am going to do some more. I was inspired by a friend of mine who combined similar colors and created a beautiful skein of yarn on her drop spindle. Check out her blog at Curly Bird Express http://curlybirdexpress.blogspot.com/.

Spun necklace

2010-09-10T16:17:00.004-04:00

This necklace was a bit of mistake. It actually started as another project but ended as this. I added a lot of twist to create the jigs and jags in the yarn. I used alpaca dyed in purple kool aid and combed top pink merino. The clip at the back of the necklace is a vintage clip on earring. I would do a few things differently next time. I would take the ends of fiber and crochet them by wrapping them around the back of the necklace to ensure its durability. I would also try to twist the fiber a little more and I would use darker colors for the coming fall season. My kids voted for a necklace in black alpaca with gold bling.

A rainbow of felted alpaca balls

2010-09-08T07:06:00.009-04:00

Felting alpaca balls for jewelry is not as monotonous as it may seem. This selection are balls I recently made. I typically needle felt the ball to shape it. Then wet felt it for a more dense ball. The deep purple ball in the left corner is needle felted only. It is not as compact and solid which doesn't make very sturdy jewelry.
The balls shown here are a mixture of alpaca and wool. The orange ones are combed top merino. I don't really like to work with combed top. It tends to be harder to wet felt without creases and cracks. I prefer raw fiber that I have dyed and carded in my Ashford hand carders. The yellow dyes are from yellow cone flower and Queen Anne's Lace from my pasture. I top dyed the cone flower in pink kool aid to get a tie dye effect. The purple balls are white alpaca dyed in purple kool aid. The light brown color balls are fawn alpaca top dyed in orange kool aid. The remaining colors are wool with commercial dyes.
With a beautiful selection to choose from...I can imagine several interesting pieces of jewelry.