Archive for April 30, 2010

Teresa | April 30, 2010
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Shearing Day ’10

It was a little rainy and drizzly on Saturday, so we had to lock the alpacas inside until they were sheared.  They were not too happy about that, but it made for easy catching.   Here is the process in pictures.  While the alpacas may be frightened by the ordeal, we take care to keep them as calm as possible.  Lots of comforting words whispered to them. 

Jose' waiting for this his turn

Bands go around each back leg

And the front feet

The shearing begins

Toe nails get trimmed

The ropes keep them retrained while the shearing takes place.   They tend not to struggle once they feel they can’t move.

Half done, ready to shear the other side

Hand trim the leg fiber

 Fiber is left longer on the legs for fly protection during the summer.  Top knots (heads) and tails are also hand trimmed.

All done. Everyone checks out the new look.

Yummy fiber gets a quick skirting

And when the shearing is done, we admire the year’s effort from the alpacas of Hollyhock Farm!

Vagabond's fleece. Ready to bag for sale.

 Vagabond’s fleece got a day to dry out on the skirting table.

Camille's prime fiber

My 3 show fleeces

 Individually – from left to right, they are:

Sonny's fleece

 

Rolly's fleece

He had a lot more black than we could see before he was shorn.   Karen liked it so much, she asked me to send it to be processed to roving for her to spin.

Carley's fleece

Annie's fleece, cleaned and ready to be processed

More fiber to be sorted for sale or processing

And that is what has kept me from blogging!  I’m always to glad when the shearing is finished and all went well.  Shepherd’s Harvest is quickly approaching and I have to get my things ready for selling in the retail booth.  I need to get my show fleeces ready.   I need to get participants for the Fashion Show lined up!  This means charity knitting is probably on hold for a few weeks!

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Teresa | April 23, 2010
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Dyeing a rainbow

I dyed a skein (100% alpaca, from my new supply!) of each of the colors of commercial dye I purchased.  I mix each dye the same – 1 teaspoon of powder in a bottle that holds 3 cups of water.  I then measured about 50 cc (using a big syringe) of my dye solution for each 6 ounce skein. 

Day 1, yellow, purple, orange, green

My thought is this will give me a base for future dyeing and color mixing.  

Day 2, blue, pink, black, red

I keep all the dyeing specifics in a spreadsheet.   I cut a short piece of yarn from each skein, fold a piece of scotch tape over one end and code each sample to match a line of my spreadsheet.  The plan is to be able to re-create the colors if I choose.    I realize I won’t be able to match close enough to use in the same garment, but I should be in the ball park.  I will also know how to go lighter or darker than previous samples.   That is my plan anyway! 

More girls in full fiber.  Shearing is tomorrow! 

Honie's Gold

This is Honie, who belongs to Sawtooth Star Alpacas, but is boarded here.   She will be the first to have a baby – the end of May!

Camille

Camille is Honie’s daughter.   YUMMY fiber and still up for grabs!

Spotsie Dotsie

This is my Spotsie. 

Georgie

And Georgie is Spotsie’s daughter.   Her black fiber is not reserved either.  Let me know if you would like a fleece for your spinning pleasure!

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Teresa | April 21, 2010
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Escapees

As I walked by a window, I glanced out and saw something unusual.  Something black in the pasture.  We keep the pasture closed off until after shearing – there is hay on the ground that was pushed out with the snow.  Another look…. yep, someone had gotten through the gate.  Spotsie, Annie and Georgie were in the pasture, the others stuck behind the gate.  So I opened the gate and let them all out for the rest of the day.

"We have escaped"

They sure enjoyed it.

Out in the pasture

It was cool and breezy, no bugs, not too hot, perfect for grazing.  But now they will have to wait until after they are sheared on Saturday. 

Annie M.

This is Annie resting after her day of adventure.  Does she ever need a haircut!  She can barely see.

The boys

Rolly in front, then Sonny and Vagabond in back in his pen.

And I did get these 2 pair of mittens knit today.  

2 more pair

Yeah – blaze orange.   My supply of charity acrylic yarn is dwindling.  Color selection is down to oranges and neutrals. 

I have some yarn drying that I dyed today.  Pictures and more dyeing to come!

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Teresa | April 16, 2010
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The latest felting kit

The last couple weeks, I’ve been working on creating a new felting kit.  I chose a cute little bunny in a flower pot from the designs selected by my partners at Twisted Suri Alpacas.  After dyeing and stamping and all that, I got to needle felt the design.  This is the fun part!  And I am ‘required’ to do every design so I have an example to take the pictures for the packaging.  ;)

Bunny #1

I asked for opinions and 3 out of 3 (4 of 4 if I include my own opinion!) were not thrilled with the bunny’s color.  So…..

Bunny #1 removed

I had carded white and black fiber together for the gray and thought I had a really nice gray roving!  I’m considering attempting to combine a bunch more and even try spinning it.  Gray yarn is so popular, but gray alpacas are rare.  (It is a bonus when good still comes out of an experiment gone awry!)  But a gray bunny was not to be.  So I tried again.

Bunny #2

This is the finished picture!   Already in our Etsy shop.   Cute and fun to make.

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Teresa | April 15, 2010
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Mittens, again

Last week did not produce anything for charity for me to blog about.  It was a crazy, busy week.  But today I have these. 

More mittens

More mittens

Another 2 pair of little mittens.  Nothing new, not very exciting,  rather ho-hum for you to see at this point!   But I think they will be welcomed by a little person with cold fingers when winter comes around next year. 

We are in full preparation for shearing – trying to keep the alpacas’ area as clean as possible.  And after that is Shepherd’s Harvest.  I’ll have fleeces to get ready for the show, fleeces to get ready for sale and things to get ready for sale in the retail booth.

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Teresa | April 13, 2010
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Sad news

Over the winter we had been trying to get Chestina to lose some weight.   But something went wrong and she didn’t stop losing.  After we checked her over and found nothing, we had blood tests done that revealed she had fatty liver disease.  While being over-weight is a factor, it seems there needs to be a stressor to set it off.  It might have been cutting back her feed, the extra cold winter, or even a dispute with another alpaca.  There is no way to know.  But after we started her on a pile of medications, she took a turn for the worse and stopped eating.  After that she only lasted a couple day.  She passed away early Sunday morning.  It was a tough day for us. 

On a much happier and exciting note, Spotsie, Embrace and Annie all seem to be getting very round bellies, as well as Honie who is boarded here.  It looks like we’ll have a herd of crias this summer.   Shearing day is only 11 days away.  After that, we’ll be able to see baby movement much easier.

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Teresa | April 2, 2010
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Anticipation

Our neighbor has a small flock of bantam chickens who seem to be out producing themselves.   We are the fortunate recipient of part of this windfall.   We don’t eat nearly as many eggs now, as I will need when I start baking Amish Cinnamon bread for the Farmer’s Market  in May.   The bread recipe calls for 3 large eggs per batch.  I make 4 or 5 batches each week.  That’s a lot of large eggs – and even more bantam eggs. 

4 eggs

4 eggs

Aren’t they pretty.  I use 4 or 5 of these little eggs per batch of bread.    I stirred up that many eggs in little plastic containers.

3 containers of eggs

3 containers of eggs

I freeze those for a day and pop out my frozen ‘egg-cube’.

Eggs for 6 batches of bread

Eggs for 6 batches of bread

Then I keep my bag of eggs frozen until needed in May or June!

Baby News!!!   Yesterday I’m sure I saw Annie’s baby moving inside her.  Her fiber is so long, I was quite surprised to see movement.   Lots of exciting things going on here!

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