New Alpaca Welcome - Chinella

This little black girl, 9 month old Chinella, is being welcomed to our farm by her half brother, our herd sire, Polaris (they have the same daddy, Chin). Can you see the only white on her - her little milk mouth.
If you are thinking about purchasing alpacas or just want to visit a really nice well run farm, visit Kathy and Lew Kukla in Jackson, Michigan. They have beautiful animals that they love dearly and so enjoy talking about. Although their site isn't current (get on it, Kathy) you can take a look and make connections for a farm visit here - Luka's Alpaca Ranch I now have a business partner on this alpaca investment - Beth. She drove her van to Jackson and this is her son, John (our alpaca expert) and Chinella on the way home. Chinella cushed (alpaca's unique way of tucking their feet under to rest) all the way home and being the perfect little lady that she is, she didn't relieve herself until we got here.

Our four girls were quite aloof and acted half frightened of this little black thing thrown in their midst, but the boys welcomed her with kisses and much running, jumping, and showing off. The girls are on the left of the fence and the boys are on the right. Six of the boys are fiber alpacas (not able to reproduce) , and Polaris is our handsome, kind herd sire.

Have I mentioned that all four of our girls are pregnant. Two are due any day now, one later in the month, and Sonata, the brown girl above - behind grumpy, pregnant Lady Belita, is due in September.

Kristin's Faded Glory

This yarn is from some of my hand dyed alpaca/merino roving named Faded Glory that Kristin bought. She recently sent me this picture to see how lovely the yarn turned out. Take a look at her Etsy shop kcknits. She has some more of my fiber in her store.

Kristin is a stay at home mom to two, living in Denton, Texas, who recently discovered the joys of combining fibers to make beautiful yarn. She's now totally addicted to carding and spinning. Welcome to our world, Kristin.

Nikki's Wallaby Sweater Finished

We took a trip to Corunna today (after we were sure no alpacas were going to give birth). I took Nik's finished sweater to her ↑ (above with wet hair. I'm sure she really didn't want to pose but being the perfect daughter that she is, never let on). Nik is our oldest daughter, middle kid, and the mom of these two darling grandgirls. I'm mighty proud of the way she and her husband, Bob, are raising these munchkins. They are delightful to have around, and much to my delight, are great animal lovers, although the youngest, Elizabeth, isn't really into mucking stalls like Meredith is.

☼

Nik's sweater is the third Wallaby that I have knitted since March and I think that I'm going to take a break. Feel like I owe Bob one, but egads, he's 6 foot 9 inches tall.

What to do with the lumpy/bumpy art yarn?

This is a scarf that I just listed in my Etsy shop. A fast and easy knit, but you must realize that I hand dyed the alpaca/merino/mohair roving, spun a slubby 160 yard single, and plied it with Wooly Nylon. Can you tell there are little ruffles on each end? Here are the simple directions. Cast on 64 stitches (I use the knit cast on), Row 1, knit 2 together, Row 2 knit 2 together. Knit each row until you have about 4 yards of yarn left (I chose the garter stitch because I think it shows off the lumpies best). Increase in each stitch and the last row increase in each stitch again. Bind off loosely. Oh, I used US# 13 needles.

I'm just showing here some other yarns that I think would make similar scarves. With some of the lesser yardage, I would cast on 40 or maybe 48 stitches, and follow the same decrease and increase.

Cyber Friend, Socks, and About Me

My new cyber friend, Chris, mentioned me and a few of our alpacas in his blog if you want to take a look:
http://vtknitboy.blogspot.com/2008/05/etc.html
Chris and I are negotiating my fiber for a pair of hand knit socks. Notice I said "pair" Folks that know me also know that I absolutely can't do two things alike, be it socks, mittens, leg warmers, whatever. The socks that he has pictured on Ravelry look beautiful, and, Cary and Mary, he prefers toe up. Maybe I'll have to run to Vermont to try them on.
I stuck some roving in the mail this morning to go to him. Thanks for the mention, Chris.

Swatch is not a dirty word

This is a picture of some of the dyed roving, "Philon" that I mentioned yesterday. The color is off because there is no green in the sample. Before I wind the yarn onto my winder to become a skein, I sometimes have a chance to knit a little swatch to see how it works up. This yarn felt downright sensuous in my hands. The merino and mohair adds just the right amount of bounce and luster. Even though I would rather spin than knit, I think that it's important to sample what I'm trying to promote and sell.
When I first started working with the alpaca, I was a dieheart natural color person. I thought it shameful that anyone would contaminate the precious alpaca by dyeing it or adding silk or mohair, or heaven forbid, sheep. After a few years of actually working (knitting) with what I'm producing, I'm loving my blends and yarns. My choices for blends and colors have become intuitive and much more fun that trying to plan everything.

Dyed Alpaca Roving

This is Indy - Don Independiente - a very handsome, light fawn, herd sire who lives in Jackson with Kathy and Lew Kukla. He is the father of our goofy Celeste (due to deliver her cria any day now).

The hand dyed roving that I'm showing here is from him - and merino from genopalette and mohair from SpinningMoonFarm. Genopalette has nothing listed right now in their store and I'll bet that it's because Desiree's baby (human, hers) is due the beginning of June. I need to email her to see how she is doing.

I used three different colors of Jacquard dyes and simmered the roving in my crock pot for 30 minutes.

NIKE - "victory"

HELIOS - "Greek sun god"



I named this roving Philon "to love" It's very soft greys, blues, and pinks, rather unlike my normal color choices. I'm spinning 2 ounces of this right now and will probably ply it with a white single.
Actually I had a picture of the spun single here, but it seems to have disappeared. I'm still having trouble with pictures.....