The Hollyhock Blog -

Teresa | May 18, 2012

The topper is finished!

If you think I’ve been a little scarce on details and pictures of the progress of the topper I was knitting, you are right. I had a good reason that turned out to be a moot point! I was planning to enter it into the Fiber Arts contest at Shepherd’s Harvest, but it turns out there were no other entries and the contest was cancelled at the last minute. I thought there might be the possibility that the judge might stumble upon it here in my blog and be able to connect it to me. But the deadline motivated me and it is finished!

All done

The pattern calls for a crocheted edge. I’ve not decided if I will add that or not.

The sleeve

This is how the sleeves turned out. I didn’t follow the pattern and I’m happy I didn’t. I like the way it looks without the zig-zagedness of adding in the repeats of the lace pattern as the pattern suggested.

Front view

I put yarn ties on it. I’ve worn it tied and have worn it with a shawl pin. I like it either way.

Wearing it

A friend took this picture of me wearing my new topper. I’m quite pleased with it. It was fun to make something for me. I’ve already got a couple other projects in mind to do for me. And maybe there will be a Fiber Arts contest to enter next year!

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, topper

Teresa | May 17, 2012

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I’m back and ready to catch up

Shepherd’s Harvest was wonderful! Perfect weather. Lots of fiber-loving friends, both old and new. It was great to re-aquaint with those I only see a few times a year. And making new fibery friends is such great fun. A special ‘thank-you’ to all my customers. I appreciate more than words can say!

Again, my booth was next to the booth of Twisted Suri Alpaca Ranch, so we could cover for each other when it got busy or we needed a break.

Mostly my side

Most of my things were on this side.

Center of booths

We met in the middle.

Their side

And most of this things on this end were from Twisted Suri.

Rug space

And the rugs had their space together on the rug rack. We have a pretty good system worked out for sharing our space. It works for us.

Since then I’ve returned some product to the Anoka Fiber Arts Co-op in the loft at Shepherd’s Choice in Anoka and spent a day working there. Stop by to see the new things.

And today, I received 15 bags of super soft white fiber from Kinney Valley Alpacas.

Just waiting to become yarn

This will be sorted and cleaned as soon as I get a chance! Then it will go to be spun into more yarn! My yarn was a big hit at Shepherd’s Harvest and I’m anxious to more yarn to dye!

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, Shepherd's Harvest, yarn

Teresa | May 11, 2012

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The Packing Challenge

I’ve been staging things to go to Shepherd’s Harvest for the last couple weeks. But yesterday, I had to get serious and try to fit it all into our car.

Product

I have 5 tote bins – the clear one in front is just yarn! The others have hats, mittens, socks, shawls and lots of other alpaca goodies for sale. The box in back has my rugs and place mats/stadium seats.

Fleeces

I have 7 fleeces and 2 bags of roving, a box of felting kits, and a small tote bin of wrist warmers.

Display racks

I’m also bringing my garment rack and my yarn rack. Fortunately, these come apart. By last night, all this was stuffed into the car! With the front passenger seat reserved for my suitcase, backpack, knitting project bag and one rack I forgot about yesterday.

Thanks to Twisted Suri Alpaca Ranch for bringing the grid-wall and tables for both our booths!

Baby news – nothing yet, but my husband could experience his first alpaca birth without me this weekend.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, craft fair, felting kits, mittens, Shepherd's Harvest, wrist warmer, yarn

Teresa | May 9, 2012

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Getting ready

The yarn I dyed is dry and rewound, labeled and priced.

Lace yarn

Sport weight

And 5 skeins of sport weight – 6 ounces, 100% alpaca, $27 each. All will be going to Shepherd’s Harvest this weekend, along with all the other yarn and alpaca products I will have in my booth there.

A little baby news: I thought Georgie was in labor this morning, but she proved me wrong. I think both she and Spotsie are pretty close. They are over 11 months along and I may miss the births while away this weekend.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, Shepherd's Harvest, yarn

Teresa | May 7, 2012

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First day of dyeing this year

This afternoon, under our deck, three pots were cooking on the propane burners.

Cookin' something

It was the first day of May that it wasn’t raining and I jumped at the chance to do a little dyeing. I had all my remaining white 100% alpaca yarn wound into skeins. First the pots held red, yellow and blue.

Round one

Then red became purple, yellow became orange and blue became green.

Round two

And that finished my yarn. Twelve skeins of lace, 4 oz each. Five skeins of sport weight, 6 oz each.

All in a day's work

There is all my yarn. It is drying in the breeze and should be ready to rewind into skeins tomorrow. It is supposed to rain again! So I can do ‘inside’ things tomorrow. I sure hope this means all the rain will have moved on by the weekend. I’ll have this yarn at Shepherd’s Harvest! See you there.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, lace yarn, yarn

Teresa | May 5, 2012

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More, more, more

I have more hats finished. I finished knitting and seaming these last night.

Before felting

The first on the left is made using up the remaining yarn scraps. The other 2 are made of one strand of yarn I dyed with a strand of undyed yarn. All 3 are 100% alpaca.

After felting

Just a few minutes in the washing machine with hot water and detergent and ’viola’! Three more felted hats are drying. I left the scrap ends on the outside of the first and am not going to trim them on this one like I did on the first hat. I’m curious to see which is preferred by customers!

And here are the new soap scents I finished this week.

Four new soap scents

I felted 10 each of Lemon Bar, Patchouli, Rainkissed Leaves, and Vanilla. They are available in my online store.

The hats, soap and all my products will be at Shepherd’s Harvest! Are you making plans to be there, too? I’m looking forward to another awesome fun weekend.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, felted hat, felted soap, Shepherd's Harvest

Teresa | May 3, 2012

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Shearing Day 2012

Last Saturday (4/28) was cold and spitting rain, but we were scheduled to shear and so we did.

Here's Rolly

This is Rolly waiting for the shearing to start.

In progress

His fiber is rolling off as it is sheared into my waiting hands.

One side done

This is one half of the fleece on the skirting table for a little skirting. Then I’ll bag them up for more thorough skirting and they’ll be ready for sale at Shepherd’s Harvest.

Another fleece

This is half of Vagabond’s fleece. Lovely fawn color and still soft for an ‘old guy’.

Another done

I think this is Carley sporting her new look.

Georgie - before

Georgie was the last to be sheared. Here she is waiting inside the closed pen all by herself as the others have been shorn and allowed to go in and outside.

Free at last

And now Georgie is done too and ready to join the others.

It is always great to have the shearing done each year. I love getting the big bundles of warm fiber off each alpaca, skirting it a little and bagging it for later. Thanks to my helpers and my shearer – you guys and gals are awesome. My fleeces will be for sale at Shepherd’s Harvest on May 12 – 13. If you like fiber, you will not want to miss it. Who’s going to Shepherd’s Harvest?

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca, shearing, Shepherd's Harvest

Teresa | April 28, 2012

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Hey, Chicks!

A phone call at 6:15 AM on a Saturday would have been annoying if we hadn’t already been awake. The call was from the local Post Office – our chicks had arrived.

How cute are they?

We quickly went to get them. We put them in a warm bathroom. They were adorable. Tiny and peeping.

Fuzzy feathers

They were here only a few short hours. Our neighbor is keeping them and was ready to give them food and water, so we moved them to their new home quickly. We had a busy day of shearing alpacas planned (pictures of that soon!) and didn’t want to leave them alone in our house. I think we will have to go visit the tomorrow! Peep, peep!

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: chicks

Teresa | April 26, 2012

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Sunshine and grass – Ahhhh

The early spring has allowed us to open the pasture for the alpacas.

Out in the pasture

They are loving it! Today was cooler and breezy.

My little herd

No bugs and yummy grass! Shearing in 2 days! Anyone looking for an alpaca fleece to spin?

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Alpaca

Teresa | April 23, 2012

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Happy beyond words

I’m not often speechless. While often surprised by the creations I make with my alpaca fiber, I’m not usually as thrilled with the outcome as I was today. I’ve been thinking about this hat for years. I bought the pattern many years ago and 5 months ago I made these. A few days ago I gave myself a pep talk and knit this.

Knitting complete

This was an idea that had been brewing in my head for a long time. The white yarn is knit throughout the hat. But the colored pieces are the left overs from the wrist warmers I knit. I usually have anywhere from a foot to a couple yards of yarn left over from each ball of yarn I knit into wrist warmers. I just randomly picked out colors from my scrap bag and left long tails. At this point I was a little overwhelmed by the drastic contrast of colors and was crossing my fingers for a good outcome.

Tails to the inside

This pattern is a bit unusual in that the ‘public’ side of the hat is the purl side and knitting machines knit so that the purl side is facing out as I knit. That is why all the tails are on the purl side. So I carefully threaded them to the opposite side, taking to care to be sure each stitch was completed in the colored yarns.

Felting complete

Then I felted the hat. I fell in love! It was the exact result I had hoped for. The tails got all tangled and dread lock-ish.

All the tails inside

Because of the felting the ends will not come loose, even though I didn’t tie any of them. I’m contemplating leaving the ends on the outside and just trimming them after felting. What do you think?

Hat complete

And here it is – not quite dry, but ready to go.

The other side

This is completely unique. I can never make an exact duplicate! I have more yarn scraps and hope to make a few more that will be similar. I love that the felting process softened and blended all the colors.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: acid dyes, Alpaca, felted hat

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