The Hollyhock Blog

There seems little to post about these days.  The temps outside are cold – we had a couple days last week that nearly reached thawing, but just to be above zero has been a treat.   The alpacas are fine with this – eating hay outside and laying down outside to chew their cud and let their fiber grow!

I have reserved a stall at the Minnesota Alpaca Expo which is the first weekend of April.  So I decided that today was the day to start training for the show since it was about 10 degrees by midday.  Step one to halter and lead training is just getting used to having a halter on.  So I put a halter on each of the crias from 2008 – Carley, Georgie and Camille – while I was cleaning and filling hay and water.  After 20 or 30 minutes, I was done with my work and I removed the halters.  While they didn’t seem to like the halters at first, they soon got used them and went about their business of eating hay.  A few more times of just wearing halters, and we’ll move on to step two.   If the weather cooperates, I may even take my camera out in the cold.

I’m still knitting on baby blankets and hats to put into inventory.  I need to get the baby socks done to complete the sets.  I’ve nearly finished a few pair of wrist warmers, too.  But this weekend my spinning guild is going on retreat.  We are going to Linden Hills, where we went last year.  I haven’t done much spinning lately and am looking forward to uninterrupted spin-time.  I’m planning to bring more roving to spin that could be spun in a month, but I’m hoping to finish the Mixed Cria roving I’ve been working on for sometime.  After that — who knows which I’ll want to spin, so I’m bringing Vagabond’s and Toro’s!

I come from a family of volunteers.  My parents did their share (and then some) of leading the 4-H Club, Girl Scout and Boy Scout Troops.  And so I didn’t want yesterday to pass without making a contribution – no matter how small. 

Little mittens for cold hands

So I made these 2 pair of mittens on my knitting machine last night.  I’ll hand them off to a gal in my knitting group who likes to sew seams.  She’ll finish them and they will be given to some kids in need.

I did forget to mention that there was also knitting on the ski trip of last week.  The knitting was mostly done in the truck on the way there and back.  But first, these were shots on the way to Grand Marais, MN.  Darryl took these at Cascade River State Park.  Just a hint of the beauty to come.

Cascade River

The river was mostly frozen over, but there were spots where the water was moving so fast that it kept the ice from freezing over.  

Lake Superior

On the lower left of this photo is where the Cascade River runs into Lake Superior.  The rocks were beautifully covered with ice and icicles.

Horizon past Lake Superior

The sun was shining and it was pretty warm that day – nearly 20 degrees.  I didn’t even put my boots – just hiked up the river and back to Lake Superior in my tennis shoes.  My feet stayed warm in my alpaca socks!

The following day (last Monday, 1/12) was also very nice.  We skied most of the day on the trails at and around Bear Skin Lodge.

Peek-a-boo

By Tuesday, the temperature was dropping.  We skied some, but I spent more time inside.

Trails at Bear Skin

Above are our lodge-mates for the duration of our trip.   On Wednesday we headed back home. 

I’ve been working on baby blanket sets.  Mostly these are knit while riding or in the evenings.  I can knit these with little attention required to the knitting.  Each blanket takes about 20 hours to knit. 

Baby blankets nearly done

The finishing (weaving in the ends) takes a little more concentration.  I still have that to do on each.  I have little ear-flap hats done in pink and green.  I’ll knithats in the plum and purple and either tiny socks or mitts to complete each set.  Add these to the lavender and blue sets already on the sales shelves and I should have enough inventory of these for most of 2009.  They are made from 80% alpaca 20% acrylic Baby Alpaca Brush from Plymouth Yarn – very soft and cuddly for any baby!  These sets are great gifts for a co-worker who is expecting a baby.  Pool the money and give a one-of-a-kind gift.  Blanket – $40, hat – $15, socks or mitts – $15,  three-piece set – $65.

Last Saturday was great fun!  Except for one thing — my Mom ended up not being able to participate.   She hadan abscessed tooth and was just starting to get relief from antibiotics.  She’s a great photographer, and I was hoping she would take some shots of the 4-H’ers during class.   Fortunately, I was able to get a few photos from the 4-H Program Director, Lorelei Swenson. 

There were 2 soap felting classes.  Each class first learned how to use a drum carder.  Each student took a turn at turning the crank and feeding the fiber into the carder.  Don’t these 2 girls look serious? 

Learning to card alpaca fiber

 After the fiber was carded, each student got a ‘blank’ bar of soap and 4 pieces of fiber.  Step 1 was to wet the bar of soap.

Step 1 of soap felting

Then the fiber was wrapped around the bar of soap and rubbed until it was felted.  While the kids were working on the felting process, I told them information on alpacas and answered lots of questions. 

Adding fiber to soap bar

The third and final class was felting cat toys.  I’ve no pictures from this class, but I can say they were a great group.   The cat toy project is much more involved – it requires bubble wrap, kneading, fulling, cutting to remove the plastic  pattern and sewing up the hole.  The kids worked hard and each got their toy done during the 50 minute class. 

I hope the kids enjoyed the day.  I know I did.  I’m looking forward to repeating the classes next year – hopefully, with help from my Mom.  

When I got home from the Project Day, I unpacked all my felting stuff and packed for vacation.  Darryl and I have been joining friends for a few days each January at Bear Skin Lodge since 2001.  We ski, eat, relax, eat, ski, eat, hike to view moose, eat and eat some more.   The cold and the skiing seem to balance out the eating!  More on the vacation tomorrow.

This Saturday, I’ll be helping teach Pine County 4-H kids about felting.  Pine County, MN is my home county.  I was in 4-H there for 10 years.  I took countless projects to the county fair and, once old enough, took a project to the MN state fair each year.  And my most successful project was….. (can you guess?)…. knitting.  So my love of yarn and needlework goes way back.  And now I’m able to ‘give back’ to the 4-H kids of Pine County.  

My mom is a bit of an institution in Pine County 4-H history.  She was selected as 4-H leader of the century some years back.  She has been a 4-H leader in some capacity since I was a kid.  Mom was asked to help with Pine County’s Project Day.   Together we came up with the idea of teaching some felting classes.

We’ll teach 2 classes on felting soap and the third class will make felted cat toys.  Each class is 50 minutes-enough time to allow the kids to get a real feel for felting.  So far, there is room for many more kids to join the classes, but there are at least 3 signed up for each class.  That’s enough to make the trip worth it for me.