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.

Yes, it’s that time of year again!  It’s an exciting time not without its  moments of worry and hours of preparation. 

On Saturday, September 26th we will hold this event at Hill Country Alpacas  in Medina, TX from 10am – 4pm.

Each year since 2007 the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association has held this event in conjunction with alpaca breeders across the nation.  If you are interested in visiting our ranch in Medina, TX or would like to visit a local alpaca ranch please check out this website that lists all participating farnms.

This event is a great place to learn more about the alpacas and the lifestyle they provide.  We would count it a privilege to have you visit our ranch.  We will have some local fiber artists at our ranch that day along with a variety of alpaca products for sale.  It’s not too early to be thinking about Christmas!

See Ya!

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…..

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”.

So I started weaving on my Flip Loom….stayed at Old Oaks Ranch for part of the day then brought my loom home to finish.

It’s so much fun.  Right now I have the loom on our dining room table.  That’s the neat thing about this loom – it’s so transportable and you can put it wherever you want to.

It’s a little wavy, but hopefully that will get better as I weave more.

I did use 100% alpaca as the warping thread.  I am very happy with the way this first attempt at weaving has turned out.  Now to get it off the loom.

Yesterday my friend Suzanne and I got away from our usual daily schedules and headed over to Old Oaks Ranch Fiber Studio to learn how to weave. 

My sweet Dad recently bought me the rigid heddle Flip Loom by Schacht, so I took it along.  It is a nice, fairly simple loom and it is portable.  That’s the main reason I wanted it. 

So Suzanne and I and another student sat down at a table and began to learn.  The first thing we did was figure out how many wraps per inch we would get from our particular yarn we were going to use.  We did this by tightly wrapping our yarn around a ruler and seeing how many times we could wrap that yarn tightly in a one inch space.  Once we get that calculation we divide it in half and that number gives us our E. P. I. (ends per inch), for the warp.   (Is any of this making sense to you?  I know, me neither – I’m still learning)!!!

This is my rigid heddle Flip Loom

We did a whole bunch of other calculations that led us to deciding how many warp ends were needed to thread through the reeds on the loom.  My number came to 112 total warp ends for a 60″ x 9″ scarf.  Cool.

Then we did some calculations for the length of our warp yarns.  Mine came to a total warp length of 102″.  So I cut a suide string (a very bright pink) so that I could use a warping board thing to measure out my warping yarn.

This is a picture of the contraption that I used to measure my warp yarn.

After this was done the yarn was taken off , we learned some more about the parts of a loom, how to find the center of the heddle to keep our piece in the middle of the loom, and proceeded to thread our looms.

My warping yarns all orderly and tied strategically so that I can warp my loom effortlessly!

My loom threaded with warp and bundled in groups of 10.

From the other direction.  The opposite end all wrapped tightly around the front of the loom for stabilization when gathering the groups of 10.

The ends are tied to the apron bars in the front and back of the loom.

There will be more posting tomorrow when the weaving really begins!

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…