This little guy was born on November 7th while we were in California at a friend’s sons wedding.  Our ranch sitter took super care of him – named him Caldwell – and he is doing great.

He is a Golden One son with Chinchero, Dom Lucilio and Royal Fawn in his lineage.  The brightness (shine) in this guy’s fleece is unbelievable!

Then one week later I went down to the pastures first thing in the morning to find this little critter on the ground already.Even though we missed this guys birth, we didn’t miss it by much.   We  were able to see him take his first steps and begin nursing.  As he – Harrison – began to get up Annie decided that she might as well have her baby so in the next 30 minutes we had another cria.  This time we had a little girl. 

This is sweet little Sabine.  She and Harrison are our first Express’ Masterpiece Renoir’s babies.  They both are grandkids of Accoyo Express and Peruvian Presidio.  Some pretty fantastic bloodlines!

Claire meets Calhoun. 

Claire is not real sure about Crosby looking at her.

Claire really loved Luke the best!

Close up of Karen’s yarn.  She started with Shadow’s rovings and then did some spinning with Calhoun’s raw fleece.  Shadow is the medium fawn color and Calhoun is the medium brown color.  Mother and son – looking good!

The two single yarns are being plyed into a two-ply yarn.  Now we have a designer yarn!  It’s just beautiful.  Karen is a beautiful spinner and we are so thankful that she comes to our ranch during National Alpaca Farm Days and displays her talent.

I am writing this blog in hopes that I can win a free skein of pure white alpaca yarn.  I just love winning things —-

Take a look at http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/2009/08/alpaca-yarn-giveaway/#comments for more information on winning this beautiful skein of 100% alpaca yarn.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed…..

I got an email the other day from a person who had visited our website.  She sent me an email from the Contact Us tab of our website.

She wrote to me about two gelded alpacas that she had bought about a year and a half ago who needed to be adopted.  Her concern was that her time was not what it was back in late 2007 as her mother has developed some health issues that need her attention.  She is very concerned for her ‘boys’ in that she thinks they need more attention than she can give them right now and wanted to know if I could help her in any way.

We have a herd of 30 alpacas right now and that is about our limit.  So, I knew that we personally couldn’t help her but I told her that I would see if I could help by contacting some yahoo groups that I am a member of.

This morning I posted on texasfiberguild on yahoo groups and asked if anyone would be interested in adopting these two boys.   Almost immediately I got a phone call from Mary in San Angelo who is a retired teacher and she along with some of her almost retired teacher friends have some alpacas of their own.  She has interest in adopting these two boys! 

I just think it is so nice that there are others out there who are willing to help out.  Times are a little tough right now, but I think if these two women can get together they can help each other out and the two alpacas will have some more buddies to play with.  And besides – you can get that beautiful fiber each year and DO something with it!  By the way, Mary informed me that she is one of those crazy alpaca people – join the crowd Mary, there are lots of us!

So a BIG thank you to Mary – I hope this all works out.

Not finished, but on it’s way….  felted alpaca hat.  All I need to do is finish the edge and finish the embellishments – that’s the fun part, but also the part where I have to be “in the mood”.

Though we weren’t able to attend the Great Western Alpaca Show in Denver, CO this year, I did send in some spin-off fiber and one fleece.  I was happy that Renoir made the top six in his white classification coming in at 6th place out of 12 in fleece competition.  Not a blue ribbon, but a ribbon nonetheless. GWAS is a very competitive show and that includes every class offered. 

Then on Friday I picked up another box at the Post Office and in it were the two spin-off results.  Renoir got another blue ribbon – the coveted gingham one – and I was thrilled.  His score was 93/100!  Some of the comments that the spinner made were:  Beautiful fleece!   Well prepared!  Great bundles!  Spun beautifully.  Then she commented that his fleece would make great yarn for fine lace knitting!    He was 1st out of 8 entries.  Way to go Renoir!

In a spin off you send in 2 ozs. of blanket fiber.  Make sure you send in a little over 2 ozs. because if you are under weight you do get points removed from your final score.  I usually try to send in about 2.5 ozs. to be on the safe side.

The judging criteria for a spin-off are:  First Impression, Staple length (min. 3 inches), Cleanliness (this is one area where preparation will make a big difference), Lack of second cuts (this one too – get rid of all those second cuts and you’ll keep all your points), Lack of guard hair, Crimp, Staple (architecture), Uniformity, Fineness, Hand, Ease of preparation for spinning, Ease of spinning, Hand feel - softness of yarn & loft, and Brightness. 

I must mention that Stonewall took a 4th of 7 with his spin-off entry.  That’s pretty good for an older boy.  We are proud of you, too, Stonewall!

Last Thursday I went with a friend over to the Texas Fiber Mill where a fiber guild called Blue Earth Guild was meeting for the day.  The project for the day was learning to make felted hats out of your favorite fiber.  I took some carded alpaca fiber from a girl of ours named Shadow, she’s a real nice medium fawn color.

I have felted hats two times before, but I always like taking a refresher course!   We had a real nice day and here are some pictures of our hat making process.

Here is a picture of Deb Sharp helping someone with their hat.  In this picture you can see some of the supplies that you need to make a felted hat.

This is a picture of the hat that I was making.  At this stage I have the resist form between two layers of felted fiber and it’s in the basic shape of a ‘hat’.

This is a picture of my hat after it had  been worked slowly over the hat form.  I really like this hat style for a girl.  It is called a bell cloche.  I found my hat forms on the internet at hatshapers.com.  They have a nice variety of hat forms in many different sizes.

In this picture the girls are rinsing the soap out of their felted hat forms.

These girls are just felting away on their almost complete hats!

Gaston College

The Alpaca Fiber  Symposium

SIXTH        Waite Hill Fabrics  

I was very happy to learn of Waite Hill Fabrics.  I have a personal friend who lives nearby and designs beautiful clothing.  She has been looking for a producer of alpaca fabric to use in her clothing.  A year or so ago I  put her into contact with some names that I had received via an alpaca networking group, but she didn’t get very far in her search for fabric.  Now I have a new place I can lead her to.

Waite Hill Fabrics are designers and producers of exclusive US alpaca yarns, fabrics and apparel.  They custom process fiber in their 100% worsted spinning mill with a quick turn around time.  They are not a mini mill.  They are the American alpaca textile commercial industry producer of light weight alpaca fabric and apparel from your fiber or theirs – all done in the USA.

They call themselves the ‘new kid on the block’, but with their production techniques and network of textile companies, they can produce virtually any weight, finish and design of fabric in alpaca and alpaca blends. 

Waite Hill Fabrics is in the process of expanding it’s spinning mill so that they will be able to produce 32,000 square yards of light weight all natural alpaca fabric.  They will be producing American made alpaca long underwear, t-shirts, and light weight knitted women’s tops. 

Linda and Bruce Bennett have been raising alpacas for over 12 years and now have a herd of about 40 alpacas.  During the years they have been loking for ways to improve the alpaca itself and the alpaca industry in general.  Bruce has over 30 years experience in manufacturing with 35 plus years experience in design.  Linda has over 35 years experience running numerous businesses and non profits and over 17 years experience in fiber arts and design.  Linda and Bruce have also developed an all natural alpaca feed supplement that boosts the immune sustem and helps fight external and internal parasites all naturally.

Gaston College

The Alpaca Fiber Symposium

FIFTH        NEAFP or New England Alpaca Fiber Pool has been around since 1997.  They are a fiber pool and help farms profit by pooling small lots of fiber into large lots thereby gaining access to commercial US manufacturers.   The products are returned to the farmers for resale in their farm stores and other retail places.

NEAFP has a Fiber Bank in operation which helps to speed up the order fulfillment process and cut down on shipping costs.  Farmers are encouraged to send in all their fiber at once, get credit for it, and order throughout the year using their fiber credits in the fiber bank. 

There are no membership fees or sign ups.  Any alpaca farm who wants to embrace the fiber side of their business can submit fiber to the pool and take advantage of NEAFP’s services.  The Fiber Pool is committed to helping farms succeed in their fiber endeavors and offers monthly business advice and resources in their newsletter.

NEAFP offers products like socks, hats, scarves, gloves, blankets, afghans, animal coats, yarn and fabric. 

One item I saw that I thought was really cute was this tote bag.

This would make a great overnight bag or a knitting bag.  Maybe even a carry all for books.  Very cute and colorful!

Read here for a blog entry about The Alpaca Fiber Symposium from NEAFP’s blog.  

In NEAFP’s brochure they offer as their Core Values the following;

1.  Only US manufactured products
2.  Strong commitment to quality
3.  Dedicated to offering tools and resources to insure customers success
4.  Utilize all grades of alpaca fiber
5.  Choose eco-conscious and green manufacturers (whatever that means)

I do commend them for the work they are doing and really think their product has improved over the years.  It’s great to have another choice or venue for processing our beautiful alpaca fiber.

Gaston College

The Alpaca Fiber Symposium

FOURTH       NAAFP or North American Alpaca Fiber Producers  is an agriculture cooperative that was created to establish the highest level of quality alpaca products produced in North America.  This service is for alpaca fiber producers who have had their fiber sorted by a Certified Sorter using the Certified SortedTM System.  

NAAFP answers the question that many of us have – What do you do with the fiber?  They have developed products for all grades of fiber matching the specific qualities of that grade to the proper product use.  If you have a ranch store at your ranch, you can sell your products there at a set retail price.  If you can’t or don’t want to sell your products, NAAFP can sell them for you at their retail outlet.

Robyn Kuhl and Carrie Hull, also known as Coarse Broads, Inc. trains Certified Fiber Sorters at Robyn’s ranch in Sandpoint, ID and various other ranches across the country.  Check here for their 2009 schedule.

There is a membership fee to be a part of NAAFP.  They have regional collection sites for the fiber around the US in order to keep shipping costs low.  The Certified Sorter comes to your ranch to ’sort’ the fiber as it comes off of the alpacas.  There is usually a fee of around $15.00 per animal to have this process done.

I am anxiously awaiting the first shipment of finished products from our 2008 shearing.  I’m sure it will be wonderful…