The Hollyhock Blog

Pie Anyone?   Pie is one dessert that will go out my way for.   And I’m going tomorrow!  The first Friday of August is the annual Pie Day festival in my hometown of Braham, MN.   And, yes, pie is the star of the day.   There are lots of things going on — Sweet as Pie car show, kids ‘n berries area, Pie-Alluia Chorus will sing, Pie eating contest (do you see a theme going on here?) and lots of pies to eat.  Home made pies.  I know, my mom helps bake them.  She even donated some of the rhubarb from her  garden this year.  And I will be there - at the big arts & crafts show and I’m bringing my handmade alpaca things!  Yarn, hats, mittens, scarves and all the things that most people wouldn’t dream of wearing the beginning of August in Minnesota.  But there are those folks who are looking ahead, those who know that a HOT, HUMID summer day will be followed by the COLD, WINDY days of winter.  This is the third year I’ve been a vendor at Pie Day.  I like catching up with folks I only see a couple times a year.  And I like talking about alpacas to new folks.   And I like going back to my hometown.  And I like pie!  I really like pie! 

A few weeks ago, Georgie got her first haircut!  I hand sheared her.  Off went her brown fiber — down to very black fiber on her blanket (mid-section).   I left the fiber a little longer on her legs and upper neck and head to give her some protection from flies and gnats.  It hard to see the color difference in this photo – even harder to get that little one to pose for a picture! 

 Georgie’s name has stuck, but Cloudette’s name has undergone many revisions.  That name just didn’t roll off the tongue.   Cloudy just didn’t fit – she is far from cloudy – more like sunshine!   For a split second, she was Clementine.  Out of the blue, Darryl called her Sweet Clementine, which made me think of Sweet Caroline, which further made me think of Carol.   Carol was the wife of Darryl’s Uncle Stanley.   Carol passed away before I met Darryl but I did get to know Stanley before he passed away.   So I put their names together and came up with Caro-ley, which morphed into Carley.   And that seems to be good. 

They have both discovered that they like pea pods - which we had in abundance from our garden’s pea crop.   Georgie will walk up to me and look me in the eye and I swear I can hear hear her say ‘Got anymore of that green candy?’   She has me wrapped around her little toe!   Totally!  

I have gotten a little weaving done.    You can see a bit of the herringbone pattern on the corner of the purple throw.

It’s coming along.  I think I’m over the learning curve, so I should finish it up soon. 

This past week the gals on the Farm Tour Committee of Alpacas of Minnesota and I met some serious deadlines!   Kathy of Jackpot! Alpacas created a wonderful poster.  Linda of Foothills Alpacas formatted a booklet with information on 50 alpaca farms.  Kathe of Sawtooth Star Alpacas created a map of the farms which is the centerfold of the booklet.  And the reason for the fuss?   Farm Tour 2008!  Sept 27 – 28.  Over 50 farms across Minn open our barns to the public.   The posters and booklets are at the printer.  Next Sat, we’ll stuff packets of promotional material for the farms participating in Farm Tour and hand them out at the Alpacas of Minnesota meeting.  Visit ExploreAlpacas.com to see where all the details.

Rachel of Rach-Al-Paca Farm will be at that meeting next Sat, too, which gives me a great opportunity to get fiber to her without paying for shipping.  So I’m off to sort fiber.   I want to have some roving made and some yarn made and I really want to reclaim a large portion of my home!  I’ll be getting back some roving that Rachel has processed so I’m looking forward to some spinning in the future. 

We’ve been quite involved in a non-alpaca related event that has taken a lot of time over the last weeks.  But I’ve still managed to get a few fiber things done.

 I finished spinning and plying this skein of yarn.   The grey is from 70% merino / 30% alpaca roving that I picked up at Shepherd’s Harvest in May.  It is from River’s Edge Weaving Studio.   The white is from Mr. I. M. Perky, the young male begot from Embrace who we traded for our Vagabond.  His fiber is shiny white – the whitest of any alpaca we’ve had here.  There is just over 6 ounces, 160 yards of yarn somewhere between worsted and bulky weight.   Very nice and for sale. 

And in the garden, a  casualty of the winds – and fortunately, the only casualty we had here, was 2 of my indigo plants.  I pulled the little green branch accidentally while weeding.  See how green it is compared to the dead/dried plant that the wind broke.   There is definitely dye in that dead plant!  I can hardly wait until I can use the leaves for dyeing.  But I’m also a little nervous, as I’ve never dyed with indigo before – it is a bit more complicated than my usual Kool-Aid dye!

And I’ve even started weaving a big triangle to become a wonderful purple throw / blanket.  I’ve been commissioned to make this.  I dyed the yarn the beginning of June, and I’m finally getting started on the weaving part.  It’s a new pattern for me, so it took a while for me to get the hang of it.  It is a herringbone pattern.  It is difficult to get pictures while on the loom, but I hope to keep working on it and have it photo-ready soon.

On June 19, 20 and 21 I spent my days at Rocking Horse Farm near St. Cloud, MN.  I attending Knitting Machine Camp!  There was actually the space for those who wanted to to camp on the grounds.  But I’m close enough that I was able to drive home each night.  It is a beautiful farm, no longer in production, but with old buildings in various states of restoration.   Carole Wurst and her family have a wonderful studio/store/classroom there, which is where the camp was held.

For the three days, I tried to absorb as much as I could from Carole and the other ‘campers’.   Tips and ideas and so much knowledge was in the air those days, if I retained even a small percentage, I should be able to create some wonderful new alpaca items.

The first day I made this shawl using a tuck stitch.  The yarn is from a garage sale – cotton and acrylic – and the shawl is destined for donation to a church fund-raiser.

The machine does most of the work on this.  It is all in the set-up.   The detail is wonderful.  I can’t wait to try this in my alpaca yarn.

The second day, I worked on a hooded baby sweater.  The knitting is done.  I need to sew up the sleeves, finish the hood edge, add a zipper and weave in all the yarn ends.

This is knit with garage sale acrylic yarn and is destined for a fund-raiser or the local food and clothing shelf.   I use acrylic yarn as my ‘practise’ yarn to learn the ropes before I try to knit with alpaca yarn.

On the third day, I started a baby bunting.   It is very cute, but not very far along! 

But Life happened after my camp days, and I’ve not even got my machine unpacked since.   But I’ve been busily working on tying up loose ends in the rest of my life, so I can dedicate some serious time to imprinting my brain with knitting machine techniques. 

Another great thing took place that I forgot to mention in a timely fashion.  The first meeting of a new spinning/knitting/weaving guild happened in Elk River.  We don’t have a name yet, but have set our meeting day as the second Tuesday of each month, from 6 – 9 PM, at the activity room of the senior apartment building – Guardian Angels.   We had 10 gals attend and 2 more interested.   It looks like it will be a fun and informative group.