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”.

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

SECOND     The Back to Back Fiber Products, LLC  is a company using North American Alpaca Fiber in their non woven products.

Two sisters with an entrepreneurial heart – one a fiber artist, the other an animal lover and alpaca breeder – and from that a great non woven product called Pacafil quilt batting. 

They also have PacaFluff that you can buy in beautiful bright colors.

Sue Bunch, the fiber artist and Linda Lundstrom of Zodiac Ranch, the animal lover, have been in business since 2004 after discovering at the 2003 AOBA Fiber to Fashion Conference that there had to be a way to bring alpaca fiber to the quilting world.  Now that’s fast work!

Their desire was to develop a way to take the shorter huacaya fibers and use them for quilt batting, but it wasn’t easy as there were many hurdles to e crossed in this new industry.  As they learned the many way fibers can be transformed into non woven products their very own Back to Back Fiber Products business began.

Their current products are marketed to quilters and to the craft market – a multi-million dollar industry.  Their vision for new non woven products will soon move into home decor and outdoor sports products.  Sue and Linda are confidant that there are many new and unique markets for their  non woven product. 

They are inviting any North American Alpaca Breeder to join their team of over 300 farms that now are a part of their fiber collection and exchange program.

Very exciting stuff ladies – way to go!

With the weather turning colder again, I always feel like sitting down with a ball of my favorite alpaca yarn and designing yet another beanie hat.   Below is one that I have sold twice and can be done in various colors.   The hat itself is knit, then felted.  After the felting I applied the needle felted alpaca figure and dots.  Then I did the crochet edging.  And voilà – a beanie hat completed!

I have also had fun mixing some mohair… it’s fun to just see where my imagination will take me.  When I begin a project I usually just know what color I am beginning with.  As the project unfolds I just create with whatever comes to mind at the time.  Sounds a bit goofy, but that’s the way it works with me.

 A view from the side…

From the top looking down…

Pretty funky, huh?

 And just a few more…..

For more fiber arts projects visit AlpacaFarmGirlFare.

Hill Country Alpacas will be participating in this local show in Boerne, Texas.  Please come – there are lots of fabulous alpaca products, raw fiber and there will also be some alpacas to meet and greet you.

Here is my Louet drum carder.  As you can see, it is beginning to get full of fiber!  I am using that beautiful light fawn alpaca fleece that is sitting next to it. 

In this picture you can see one batt of the carded fiber.  Also in the picture are the hat molds that I have to create hats.   I need to have about three or four more of these batts to create my felted hat. 

Wish me luck….this will be my first try on my own.  Dad, this is the practice hat before I make yours.  I don’t want to mess up your Stonewall hat!  Be patient, I will get it done.

Yesterday was our second annual National Alpaca Farm Days ‘Open Ranch’.  We had the ranch opened from 10am to 4pm and boy did it get busy!  We had some members of Texas Fiber Guild from yahoogroups.com (texasfiberguild@yahoogroups.com) come over from San Antonio and New Braunfels to demonstrate spinning, hand carding, weaving and using a drop spindle.  They were a great addition to our event this year and I thank them for taking out a day of their lives to be out at our ranch.  Thanks George and Deb Rutherford, Karen Davis, and Craig and Peg Whitham.  Oh look, Luke made it in the picture, too! 

Some of the children who came to our event were so interested in doing something with the fiber that George sat them down on the floor of the barn and twisted alpaca fiber with them.  They really had a good time.

Chuck was so busy all day outside with our guests talking ‘alpaca’ and answering questions that I hardly ever saw him.  If you know Chuck, you know he really isn’t a ‘talker’, so for him to spend six hours talking is quite unusual. Thanks Chuck for all you did and I hope your voice comes back!  I know lots of people learned something new and enjoyed their day at the ranch…..

This young man’s name is Ian.  He has just recently moved to Bandera County from the Houston area.  Welcome Ian, we hope you had fun visiting with the alpacas!

Ian hugging Calhoun.

A few years ago I learned how to felt a hat with raw alpaca fiber.  I have always wanted to start doing more felting, but just couldn’t get it all together.  Instead, I focused on knitting beanie hats and felting those knit beanie hats.  That’s been real fun, but I still want to do some wet felting.

In the last couple of months I finally got some hat forms and ordered a drum carder (thanks Dad) so that I can ‘get on with it’, felting that is.   My first project will be to make a hat for my Dad for being so generous in funding the purchase of the drum carder.

This is the drum carder that I got.   It is a Louet Drum Carder with a fine cloth.  This carder will produce batts that I will use in making felt hats.  I will be using alpaca – go figure.  I love working with alpaca, it is so easy and fun to knit with.  And another benefit is I have 25 of these beautiful animals out in our pastures and I will be working with their fiber.  Whoo hoo.

The weather has changed significantly after Hurricane Ike and it’s beginning to feel like fall.  With the change of weather it has brought a heightened feeling of getting my hands in alpaca fiber.  I will keep you posted with pictures, etc. of my adventure in carding and felting alpaca fiber.

Open Ranch at Hill Country Alpacas

Celebrating National Alpaca Farm Days 

Please join us! 

Saturday, September 27, 2008

10am – 4pm

858 Moffett Road

Medina, TX

See the alpacas, watch spinning & fiber  

demonstrations, yarn and retail alpaca products 

 available  

830-589-7750

On the weekend of September 27th & 28th make plans to visit an alpaca ranch near you!  This will be the second National Alpaca Farm Days event.  Here at Hill Country Alpacas we are once again looking forward to this fun weekend and introducing friends, neighbors, and those looking into getting into the alpaca business to our alpacas. 

2007 was the first year for this event created by AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association), our national organization, and it was a huge success.  The purpose was for all alpaca ranches in the nation to have a common weekend in which we could have an open ranch day and introduce alpacas, the products made from alpaca fiber, and the lifestyle that it affords.

Please visit www.nationalalpacafarmdays.com for information on this event.  On September 1st on this same site there will be even more information on the event with a link to locate a participating alpaca farm near you.  Hill Country Alpacas will be open on Saturday, September 27th from 10am to 3pm, and we may be open on Sunday, September 28th also.  Just haven’t decided yet on that day.  But, keep posted, we will let you know.

We are planning on having some fiber artists, spinners and weavers at the ranch that day, along with some beautiful alpaca products.  Our alpacas will all be here and are looking forward to meeting everyone!