Riley and Chinney's Red Ribbon

Aren't cats the most amazing critters? I never know where I will find Riley curled up. Usually he's in my chair that I sit in to spin and I have to move him. But this box is a new place and I just had to photo it. It's sort of artsy, don't you think? The light, the shapes, the texture?



Friend Nancy took our fleece to the MIAF show last weekend for me. Thanks, Nancy. Chinney belongs to both Beth and me and we are very thrilled that the fleece took a second. Remember last spring Chinney won her color championship. I love this picture of her and Beth's son, John, at our 4-H fair last summer.

This really is a very black fleece but the way the light hit it, it looks gray....

JR's Blue Ribbon Yarn

It's such a thrill to hear about my 'pacas' fiber from all around the world. I just received this picture ↓ from Barb in California. This is what she had to say *** Just a quick note to let you know that Kendra won a blue ribbon for JR's yarn at the Los Angeles County Fair. You sent that as a sample to us on (we think) our first order from you. We took a picture for you***

JR's fans will remember this little guy who was born last September and struggled to survive. He has remained very small for his age but is the most delightful, friendly little feller on the farm. I'm so pleased that his fiber has brought joy to Barb and Kendra.

Drum Carding My Alpaca

Yesterday I talked about washing this lovely fiber from Mira (white) and Lyra (dark fawn) and today I will show you how I prepare it for spinning.

This is my Strauch carder which I love. I've tried others but my alpaca fiber and I like this best (although I would dearly love to put a motor on it). On the left above I've fluffed up and spread out some of the fawn fiber. Turning the red handle will pull the fiber in to the picky/pokey licker-in while the big drum with the little curved wires rotates and straightens the fiber out. I planned this batt to be in layers.

After carding the first layer of fawn in, I add a layer of white as you can see in this looking down on the carder shot. Then I layered up another fawn and another white. As the wheel is turning, the brush on top lightly presses the fleece down, but after each layer, I use an old cheap bristle brush to further compact the batt.

There is a small strip with no wires on it so that you can slide a big knitting needle or special tool like the one above to loosen and pull the fiber up.

Then using your hands and slowly turning the drum, you pull the fiber off. This came off very smoothly, probably because the staple lengths are 5 to 6 inches long.

I like to run my fleece through just once to avoid any broken pieces (noils), but if I wanted to I could divide this up and run it through again for a more blended look. I want the white and fawn separated because I think it will spin up beautifully.

Roll those little beauties up and you have gorgeous batts ready to be spun. I have enough washed up to card some more for me to spin, so I think I'll put these in my Etsy shop when I get some time. One weighs 1.6 ounces and the other is 1.8 ounces for a total of 3.4 ounces

Washing Alpaca Fleece

I get so excited with all this freshly shorn fleece around that I just don't know what to do next. It's all weighed, staple length measured, recorded, and compared to last year's shear, so I can play. I don't know if there is a correct way to clean it, I'll just tell you what I do.
I work with about 4 or 5 ounces at a time. Running the hottest tap water that I can, I add a couple squirts of Dawn dishwashing soap, then gently sink the fiber in. I let this soak for about 20 minutes, every once in a while giving it a few pokes. I lift the fiber into a colander and drain out the dirty water. You will be amazed how filthy this is compared to the fairly clean look to the fleece. I repeat this wash, usually 2 washes are enough. Two rinses should finish it up.
I have never had my fleece felt but I think that it's important to know that you can go from cool to hot, but NEVER hot to cold......and as little handling and agitation as possible.

Above is some of Lyra (dark fawn) and Mira's (white) fleece washed up.

After washing and rinsing the fleece, I put it into mesh bags, and using the last spin cycle on my top loading washing machine, I spin it out. This cycle adds no water so my fiber is safe.

It will come out of the bags rather clumpy, so I pull it apart and sort of line up the fibers, and spread it on my counter to dry. By now most of the vegetation has disappeared and I pick out any remaining, along with second cuts that might have been missed.

Mira and Lyra's fleece is drying. Tomorrow I will show you how I'm going to card these two colors together.

Aimee, I would think that you could do the entire fleece in the bathtub, or even your washing machine, if you didn't agitate. I just don't like lugging around that much wet fleece.

Just Some Alpacas

I felt that I needed some pictures of the alpacas in full fleece because we will be shearing in less than a month and they look incredibly goofy after that. You will see....
Below on the left is Golden Opportuniy (1 1/2 years) and on the right, NSS Mira (10 months). Mira hasn't been shorn before so her fleece will be true "baby alpaca". It is about 5 or 6 inches long. Oppy's is denser with lots of crimp, about 4 inches long, and will probably be easier to spin. This will be her second shear.



And here is our 7 month old Astra (Snickers) → He's the recently weaned 4-H project. I'm making no predictions on his fleece other than it's long, fine, and crimpy. He's not pure white, more a light fawn with some darker fawn spots. He's a dirt magnet and I'm not looking forward to picking the VM (vegetable matter) out of his fleece before processing it.






On the left below is NSS Lyra, born last June with her mom, Celeste who is 4 years old. Celeste was our first "born on the farm" female so although she is a little goofy, she's very special. She loves wintergreen LifeSaver mints. When she hears the paper rustle, she comes running. Her fleece won Grand Champion OverAll in the MIAF Spin Off Contest two years ago.
An Alpaca Spin Off competition is when you submit 2 ounces of an alpaca's fiber to be judged. The fleece is first evaluated by several categories, then evaluated again as it is spun, and finally, the yarn itself is evaluated. I have been a Spin Off judge for a couple of shows in Louisiana and here in Michigan. Although it is challenging, it's a great learning experience to handle and spin almost 100 different samples of fleece.

Then, of course, here's JR ↓ He weighed in last Friday at 51 pounds, a gain of 3 pounds that week. I had cut out his noon feeding and if he gains well this week, will cut back to just an evening feeding. WhoooHooo, has been a long 7 months. I took his turtle neck off and his fleece was a mess this morning. He was out in the rain at some time and must have rolled in hay chaff, so now he looks like the rest of the babies.....a fleece cleaning nightmare.

I will try to get some more "full fleece" pictures up before shear day, Thursday afternoon, May 7th.

PhatFiber Blog

Oh, my, everyone. Look what I found this morning http://phatfiber.blogspot.com/2009/04/north-star-alpacas-and-giveaway.html What a lovely write up. Thank you, Jessica.

Alpaca Fleece to Zeilinger's Mill in Frankenmuth, MI

Yesterday we delivered 42 pounds of fleece to Zeilingers in Frankenmuth, MI, to be made into four batches of roving. If you haven't been to their mill, you are missing a super treat. When I go back to pick up my lovelies, I will try to remember my camera so that I can give you a tour. Gary has always been there to greet me at the door, help reweigh the fleeces, offer advice, and answer any questions that I have. I had 4 batches to be blended which I'm going to describe to you.
Blend # 1 - 11.3 pounds - 50% Merino, 49% Alpaca from Ana, pictured above, and 1 % Mohair.

I purchased the white Merino from Genopalette, McMurrys, this winter with this blend in mind. This picture is of their Merino lambs that they were kind enough to send to me. Notice the lambs tails haven't even been docked yet so they must be quite young.

The beautiful white mohair is from Edie, here in Michigan and her store SpinningMoonFarm. This is a picture of her little Ted born this spring.

Blend # 2 - 8.84 pounds - 35% Our BabyDoll Sheep fleece and 65% alpaca from Lady Belita and Celeste.

Blend # 3 - 9.28 pounds - 25% colored Merino from Genopalette and 75% brown alpaca from Sonata (pictured above) and Orion (you've met him here many times because of his school and 4-H adventures).

Blend # 4 - 13.3 pounds - 100% alpaca from the seconds (neck and hip fiber) of Ana & Pollux (WHITE), Luke, Orion, Polaris (BROWNS), and naughty Gunny (BLACK & GRAY). These colors will be added around each other in the roving. It's called a 3 way swirl.

Just in case anyone is interested in the finances involved here. The cost was $308.72 but Zeilingers offers a 10% discount if paid there by check, so it was actually $277.85.

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Now the anxiety of waiting 2 months for it to be finished. An incredible amount of time and energy goes into this final act of delivering fiber to the mills. I wake up at night thinking about what I want to do and spend hours on my deck going through each fleece, discarding vegetation, second cuts, and coarse fiber. Today is a little anticlimatic. It's sort of like getting the kid off to college the first time - the years of prep and worry and then just dropping him/her off. This analogy is an exageration, of course, but you get the idea.

BabyDoll SouthDown Sheep

Dave, our shearer, sheared our 6 sheep a week ago. This was another first for us. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for sheep shearers now. The shearer tips the sheep over backwards onto its butte onto the shearer's lap and legs, and while holding the sheep head to the side, leans over and shears. You need to visualize what a long reach this is. These sheep are only 24 inches high.
For some reason most sheep don't struggle and fight much in this position, but our two pregnant ewes, Cardigan and Jenny, protested greatly. Beth, Smitty, and I tried to help, but it was mainly Dave's job. Granddaughter Meredith was holding a flashlight because it was getting dark.
Above is the fleece from Maddy, pictured below, she looks so brown in the picture, but her fiber spun up quite black.

This is our white lamb Phoebe, in her new coat. Everyone will be wearing coats this year to keep the fiber clean. Phoebe's fiber seems to be finer than Maddy's but has more lanolin in it. I have washed up these two fleeces and listed them in my Etsy shop.

I'm very encouraged that we have some nice sheep after my friend, Cary, a long time sheep breeder, evaluated and likes our fiber. She talks about Maddy's fiber in her blog here.

Washing this stuff has been challenging. I soak the fiber in a big mesh bag that goes over the spinner in our washing machine (don't worry - I don't agitate), and then I spin it out.

Cary has a very good tutorial on her farm site if you want to learn how to wash fleece. I'm learning that the vinegar rinse is quite crucial to removing the grease.

I'm anxious to try blending our sheep with our alpaca. Cary suggested using close to the same staple length when combining. After I play with it a while and after we shear alpacas in May, I will probably send some combinations off to the mill. I have already sold two of the fleeces (from the naughty girls mentioned above) so have 2 whites and 2 blacks to experiment with.

Ain't Life Grand!

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Marie asked in the comments if we coated the alpacas. No, Marie, we really don't need to. Because the fiber is dry (no lanolin) it doesn't seem to attract the VM like the sheep. Many breeders blow out the fiber with vacuums before they shear, but we just hand pick the big stuff out. We don't get much trash in their coats probably because our indoor pens are lined with rubber mats instead of straw. They don't need bedding to stay warm because of all that lovely fiber. Another thing is that unlike sheep who poop and pee anywhere, alpacas are very clean and have a communal poop site. It's very easy for me to sweep their pens daily.

Welcome to my World of Fleece Washing

Welcome to my home........ The big landslide waiting to happen over the door reminded me of the old bucket of water over the door trick that used to facinate me as a kid.

Well, our last storm is over. Schools and, well, everything were cancelled on Friday. We had to get out our driveway and road because we had an appointment with our tax man. Fortunately, both our vehicles have 4 wheel drive. I guess living in the country like we do, 4 wheel drive and a generator are a necessity. We humans could probably get along without electricity for a while but I worry too much about having water in the barn for our four legged friends.

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I have a rather large yarn order to be spun up from some raw black fleece from Black Knight and this is pretty much what is taking up my time right now. I weighed out 20 ounces of his fleece and washed it. This is the way I wash if you are interested. I fill the sink or bucket with the hottest tap water that I can get and add a big glug of Dawn dishwashing detergent. (This is what I use for dishes so it is handy) I push the fleece in and usually put a dish or something on top to weight it down. I let this sit and soak until the water cools, frequently overnight. Before I dump the wet mess into a colander/drainer, I very gently push up and down to further loosen dirt. I dump it and push to get out some more of that yucky water. I again fill the sink/bucket with very hot water and this time I add Eucalan and follow the same procedure. Now begins the rinse. The first rinse gets a big glug of white vinegar and usually one more rinse will have nice clear water.

I have a top loading washing machine so I ease the fiber into a couple mesh bags, squeeze, and run like hell to the utility room where the machine is waiting with an open lid. I know, I know, I could put something under but I don't have a lot of excitement in my life......

My last spin cycle doesn't add any water and does a beautiful job extracting the water so I can lift the bags out - no dripping now. I spread the fleece out in the tub in our spare bathroom so that Riley cat doesn't wallow in it. If I go in and fluff occasionally, it will be dry in about 2 hours.

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Tomorrow I will talk a little about carding and my fight with static.

Fiber for Salana's Purse

Lady Belita and Pollux

I have to give some credit here to Lady Belita because she is the girl who donated her fiber for Selana's purse. I smile when I say "donated" because she really doesn't like giving it up. She and her daughter, Celeste, are the only alpacas here who protest when being sheared. She grumbles during the whole process - doesn't spit or kick or anything - just grumbles.

This is the BabyDoll SouthDown fleece that was given to me last week when we picked up our white lamb, Phoebe, and ram, Aries. I put it out on the table on the deck to pick out the junk. Oh, my, what a job! I guess that I'm really spoiled with the half hour that it takes me to pick out an alpaca fleece. Since this was my first sheep fleece, I wasn't totally sure what to do. Well, I weighed it - don't really know why I weighed it, but it weighed 11 pounds. I'm used to about 4 pounds of alpaca but guess the lanolin must weigh a lot. Speaking of lanolin, yuck - I don't like the feel nor the smell. Will definitely have to get used to that. I went around the outside pulling of lots of dirty, matted stuff. I was pitching and pitching it untill I realized I probably needed to stop or I would be throwing it all away. I tried to pick at the sticks, straw, and hay but finally just gave up. Hmmmm, thought I, maybe it will wash away....

I put about 4 ounces in mesh bags and into the washing machine to soak with some Dawn in the very hottest water that I could get. It soaked for about an hour and I spun it out (no agitating, mind you). When I looked at it, it was still yucky. I did this 3 more times. Wonder I didn't felt the whole thing. What I now have is some fairly white fleece that is full of tiny VM. I'm going to card it up and imagine that the VM is going to fall out.

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BTW, Lisa, thanks for the corn/bean salsa recipe. I have really been chowing down, you're right, it's addictive. Topped taco salad with it yesterday.

Sunday seems to be family day here and today was no exception. Daughter Nikki brought the two grand daughters up from Owosso to meet the sheep. Meredith (8) is on the left giving Danny some 'nilla cookies, and Elizabeth (5) is treating Jenny. The sheep are really husband's project (although I get the fleeces) and he wants to restrict their treats 'cause they are a little plump. But he is a total push over when the girls are around.

I'm just about finished with my Journey to a Shawl project and will be posting it soon. Lots of spinning going on because I have a custom order for Jessica in New York. She would like as much handspun of white Ariana as I can spin. Yippee! but I have to spin something else in between or it feels like work and I get cranky.

Oh, my gosh, so much has happened since I last posted, I'm not sure where to begin. Will do this chronologically, I guess. Tuesday Mary and I drove to Hastings to pick up my roving. It's GORGEOUS! Thank you so much, Suzanne. I have been weighing and wrapping it to get ready to sell. Actually, I'm just loving getting my hands into it. Were eight bags, I think. These pictures are of my two favorites. The black is from Berringer and has blue silk in it. You can see by the skein above that I couldn't wait to spin up a couple ounces. It spins beautifully and almost wants to be lace weight. The lighter picture is white merino, gray alpaca, fawn alpaca, and hand dyed pink silk. It's yummy to handle and look at. Will see how it spins soon. I am listing batches in my Etsy store as I finish them.

Mary and I ran over to Nashville to have lunch with my bestest friend, Marianne. We visited her 3 dogs, 2 horses, 2 alpacas, 2 goats, and numerous chickens and ducks, and got a tour of her fabulous gardens. Marianne will be selling her awesome soap in our booth at Allegan's Michigan Fiber Fest.

Olde English Babydoll Southdown Sheep

I am totally beside myself with excitement. In the Hobby Farm magazine my husband found an article about these darling sheep. In the classifieds was an ad for a farm called The Bidlack Pasture that raises Babydoll Southdowns. And, imagine this, the farm is only about 30 minutes from here. I emailed Amy Bidlack and EEEEHAW we are going to visit this Sunday. I hope Amy doesn't mind that I lifted this picture from her website.

I have been researching this breed and there are several things that appeal to me. Number one to satisfy my fiber addiction, they have very fine wool, between 19 to 23 microns. Baby alpaca is classified as fleece below 24 microns so you can see this wool is really fine. Can't you just imagine blending these Babydolls with alpaca? Mmmmmm.

They are very small according to what I have read, between 18 and 24 inches and easy to handle. Apparently they are friendly and bond to their humans. Colors are black and white. I can just imagine these sweeties in the pasture with our alpacas. Will update after our visit.

Barn Crisis

This morning while I was cleaning the barn, I looked out and Ariana was laying down, flat out on her side in the pasture. This is unusual behavior for our alpacas. I called the girls into the barn, and Ariana continued to act strange. She was up and down, stretching out on her side, looking at her belly, and did this hiccupy, spasm thing once. Horse folks will recognize these as colic symptoms.

I was afraid she was losing her cria, she's not due for 6 more months. (Gestation for alpacas is roughly 11 months). I ran in and called our vet who was here in about 20 minutes. When he arrived, Ariana was perfectly normal. Russ did a thorough exam and couldn't find anything wrong. He suggested that she might have choked which is fairly common in alpacas. Maybe because of their long necks. He drew some blood to have on hand in case we need it for diagnostic purposes and gave her a shot of Banamine to relax her and reduce any inflammation she may have.

I will continue to check on her throughout the day. Lucky for me, I can see all the alpacas out my kitchen window.

Merino Lamb Fleece

Oh, my! Look what I received in the mail yesterday. Three pounds of beautiful Merino Lamb Fleece. I have never seen sheep wool as clean and beautiful as this. It has hardly any lanolin in it. I hope all the little crimpies show up on your monitor. It came from the McMurray family in Franklin, MO. www.genopalette.com I originally ordered it to mix with my alpaca after spring shear. Now, I just don't know. Should I card it up? Dye it? Blend it? I think I will just wait and I'm sure it will speak to me to tell me what to do. I'm enjoying just looking at it on my kitchen table.

Weaning is going well but it makes me feel badly to hear Pollux calling for his mom and pacing the fence. He can see her but she just ignores him.