Light Brown Alpaca Roving

I want to show you the other bag of fiber that I brought home from Zeilingers on Sunday.

This fiber is from Nick who lives in St. Louis at Diversified Alpacas. I bought his gorgeous fiber in February and had Z put it into 100% alpaca roving. It's a beautiful light golden brown, extremely clean and fine. Cassie → quite insisted on showing you the bag of 5 pounds because yesterday Max got to be poster doggie.
I will be putting it in my Etsy shop when I get done here.

NutriSystem update - Oh, my, another 1/2 pound gone according to the morning scale. I can hardly get all the food into me. Seems like everytime I turn around, I'm sticking something into my mouth. We'll see what happens without my daily exercise. Had a major leg cramp during the night and barn chores didn't really work the soreness out so I'm taking a break from the 2 mile morning walk.

Alpaca - Merino Top from the Mill

Yesterday I ran over to Frankenmuth, MI, to Zeilingers to pick up some fiber that I left in March. I love going over there because they are always so helpful and treat me so well....They make me feel special even though I'm only bringing them a hundred or so pounds of fiber each year - compare that to the thousands of pounds of buffalo that they do.
Anyway, I'm so pleased!!!! I will just tell you about the white. The alpaca comes from Target who lives in St. Louis, MI, with Chris and Jenn at Diversified Alpacas. He's a very handsome herd sire with lovely fleece who we are hoping to breed to my Ariana.

I had left Zeilingers a little over 10 pounds of 75% Target and 25% white merino from Genopalette's lambs. Gary suggested that I have it made into topp instead of roving like I have always done in the past. This picture → is the pound of noils left over that might be considered trash. I can imagine it in an awesome bed for Max or Cassie.

Speaking of Max, here he is posing for you so that you can see what 8 pounds of top looks like. I had a treat in my hand to get him to stay.

I love the way the fiber is coiled around. Looking down into the bag → is like looking into a tornado. I'm really anxious to spin some of this because it's so soft and smooth. When I pull it apart it is about 4 inches long which makes me think it's going to practically spin itself.

I took the picture above to list this in my Etsy store. The picture on the right shows how I use my weaving warping frame to wrap the top and then band it with information like - weight, my stuff, and a picture of the alpaca who donated the fiber.

Note on the warping frame, I've used it only once to measure yarn for weaving. What a waste, but it works to put up roving and top.

NutriSystem update: I thought that I had all my food but the Schwann's truck dropped off a bunch of frozen stuff today. I had a veggie pizza and an ice cream bar for lunch. They were yummy.

I started the program last Monday and have lost 3 pounds. This is amazing because I'm eating constantly.

I was just looking up how to spell top or topp, and came across the neatest little FAQ - How to tell if the fiber is roving or top? Pull the fiber apart. Top pulls apart in a straight line; roving leaves a rough, triangular-shaped edge.

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.

I Dyed Yesterday

Sharon gave me over a pound of adult, white, alpaca roving quite some time ago thinking that I might like to dye it up. Look at it! Isn't that yummy! As alpacas age their fiber tends to become less fine so when you see something listed as "adult" alpaca, keep that in mind so that you are not disappointed in the softness. I used my crock pot to dye 5 different dye lots.

I got one batch of two 2 ounce bumps listed in my Etsy store. See here

I say 2 ounces but I alway weigh at least 1/10th over, usually 2/10ths.

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And what's a post without a picture of an alpaca? This is Chinella ( 1 year, 4 months old) who is joint owned by Beth and me. Lucky for me, Beth doesn't spin so I can't wait till May to get my hands in this lovely black, black fiber.

Autumn Sunrise and Herd Blend Yarn

I wonder why Autumn sunrises are so intense? I took this at 7:30 this morning off my deck just before I headed to the barn to do chores. Wish I had sound because 3 of the 4 horses were whinneying and telling me to get my butte out there. It was raining a little but they don't seem to mind.

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Remember I mentioned last week that I picked up some roving at Zeilinger's in Frankenmuth, Michigan? Some black and some white? This is the white. It's incredible! I used some white from the blankets of a few of my alpacas and purchased some from Katie, who is our shearer's daughter. It's all weighed, wrapped, and ready to go.

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I have spun up a couple of skeins. It's very easy to spin and is coming out soft and beautiful. This particular skein is a slubby single plied with a normal single.

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.

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.....

Mystery Mail from 4thGenFiberArt

This arrived in the mail from Debbie Evans who has the Etsy shop, 4thGenFiberArt. I had no clue why....I knew it wasn't a swap, I couldn't remember ordering or asking for samples. A really big mystery. My memory's not too great, never has been. I know to write stuff down. As it happened I had saved a conversation from Debbie who was trying to mend an alpaca glove for her daughter (I think these details are right). I sent a little bit of alpaca roving, different colors of brown, I think, for her to spin up and match the glove.
And, lo and behold, look at the lovely package she sent. Some beautifully spun yarn (it's going to be a little purse/pouch with an alpaca needlefelted on), a delightful card, some dyed mohair locks, a sweet sample of soy silk roving. and a delicious bar of soap that made the whole package smell yummy.
Because of the joy I received getting this, I now have to think of something nice to do for someone to pass the love along.

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.

And My Reward Is

This lovely black skein is what I finished plying last night and is hanging up to dry right now. It came out very soft and I'm very pleased with its consistency and balance. I run my plied yarn from the bobbin to a 2 yard winder, and when I take it off that and it hangs perfectly straight that means that it is a balanced yarn, and I give myself a big congratulations, well done, pat on the back.

NOW I can get to this... After I do a straight forward, well spun skein, I reward myself with something fun. This is some alpaca roving that I dyed last week. (I do have some in my shop also). I have some green and yellow dyed mohair (did you know that mohair comes from Angora goats?) that I think I will add to it. Probably will spin it thick and thin, slubby, you know. I also have some tiny gold beads that I could string on some Woollee Nylon serger thread and then ply it with that. Do you think 100 beads for 100 yards sounds about right? I haven't added beads before so this will be an adventure. Yep, sounds like the plan for today. Will put up a picture if it happens.....

Kim from Michigan bought the black skein soon after I posted it. Thanks, Kim. Take a look at her blog to see the beautiful squares being made for charity.

Pudge Yarn from Sunni

A few weeks ago, Sunni from Chicago, who has bykes shop on Etsy purchased some of Pudge's roving. I just received this picture from her and she assured me that Pudge's fiber is very lovely and that she is going to keep the yarn she spun for herself instead of selling it in her shop. Besides yarn and roving, Sunni sells other lovely "stuff", so you should go take a look.

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Sunni is a student in Chicago and rides her bike around town - which I can't even imagine doing.

Yummy New Roving Arrives

Three big bags arrived from Suzanne this week, and, as usual, she did a beautiful job preparing this roving - (white, light fawn, and black). I have most of it done up in bundles like this with a picture of the donor and have already listed it in my Etsy shop. I like to put it in 2 ounce bundles because it is easier to handle and store, besides, it looks really super all fanned out like this.
The arrival time was perfect because I am running a 15% off all my roving sale until November 16th. On November 16th there will be a Trunk Show at the Etsy headquarters in New York City. We were invited by Etsy to do it and many members of our fiber arts group, EtsyFAST, have already sent stuff. To celebrate this Trunk Show, many of our shops pledged to offer sales of at least 15% off. See here for more information.
I'm also thinking on November 16th I should do more with sales because that will be my 1 year anniversary of having my online Etsy store. Maybe offer 15% off everything in the store, not just roving. Any suggestions?
I got a little off track there because I wanted to tell you how I got my ♪♫♪ three bagsfull ♪♫♪.
Phil, a buddy from nearby town, borrowed our horse trailer for a trip to Indiana to pick up 2 new alpacas. In return he offered me the raw fiber from three of his alpacas. You can see Pudge at Phil and Polly's site. Needless to say, I'm thrilled!
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It is an incredibly windy day here in midMichigan. I locked all the horses outside with hay and water. If I leave their stall doors open, sawdust and crap will blow all over the barn. Actually, the horses don't mind. They were all standing out side anyway, with tails to the wind.

EtsyFAST Sale

EtsyFAST, our fiber arts group on etsy, are on a really big roll. We are having a Trunk Show at Etsy headquarters in New York City on November 16th. I surely can't go to the event but some of our group will be there. Many of us sent items to be displayed. I sent some yarn and little packets with my business card and some alpaca fleece.

To recognize and celebrate this show, many (38 shops) of us are offering some really good sales from today, November 1st through November 16th. I'm offering 15% off all the roving that I have. These items on sale are everything from roving, to yarn, to finished products. Most of the shops are having 15% off, but there are some with 20% off.

I have no idea what happened here, but if you click on any of this underlined stuff, you will go to a list of all the shops participating in the sale.

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For those of you who are wondering about Lady Belita, our sick alpaca, she seems to be just fine now. The only thing we can figure out is that maybe she was dehydrated. For some reason none of the animals, (horses, sheep, & alpacas) were drinking well earlier in the week. The blood sample and the fecal sample showed nothing conclusive.

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I have so messed this up. Click on any of this underlined stuff to find a list of the EtsyFAST artists who are having sales.

EtsyFAST is a group that I belong to that works together to promote Etsy. The FAST stands for Fiber Arts Street Team. We do a themed monthly challenge just for fun, no prizes or anything. The challenge for September was Apples. My thoughts when dying this alpaca roving was Golden Delicious Apples. I striped yellow, red, & just a touch of green and set the colors in my oven.

I am so determined to dye my alpaca and retain all the lovely features of this fiber - softness, fineness, loftiness, and mainly - easy to spin.
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I'm using Pollux's baby alpaca to experiment. Here's today's adventure:
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I weighed up 2 one ounce samples. Turned my crock pot on. Started heating a tea kettle full of water. I wound one ounce of roving lightly around the inside of the crock pot and poured 1/2 cup of white vinegar onto it, then half my tea kettle of hot water, just about covering the fiber. Then I dyed by dipping the end of wooden spoons into the powder and applying it to the roving (this was fun seeing the colors explode). I sort of divided it into fourths & used 4 colors.
I repeated this same procedure using the rest (1 ounce) of my roving.
I turned the crock up to high, covered it, and cooked for 30 minutes. The water was clear so maybe I could have stopped sooner.
I took the pot out and let it set until cool.
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I put this in my Etsy shop but have some that I "cooked" yesterday and am spinning up today. It is really fun to work in some color. Like Peggy, I dearly love the natural colors of alpaca but just need to do different stuff once in a while. I'll post my yarn tomorrow when I finish spinning it.

These are the rovings that I dyed at the Saturday workshop. Well, not the brown, that's just natural colored alpaca. This is the first time that I haven't overdone dyeing my roving. In the past they have been nearly felted, would break easily, and have been very hard to spin.
Everything that we dyed had a vinegar soak to start with.
Top left yellow was held in a simmering kettle for about 3 minutes and then allowed to dry on the racks. The orangey one was spread out and hand painted with yellow, pumpkin, and red, and then nuked for 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave. I also did a purplish one in the microwave that isn't shown here. After everthing cooled off naturally, we gave it a rinse in a bucket of plain water. I had quite a bit of color come out.
Now, I think that these all look and will spin nicely, but I'm not convinced that they will retain the colors well. Will have to wait and see but I am envisioning colored fingers while spinning.

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.

Getting ready for Michigan Fiber Festival

This is what I have been doing in my kitchen for the last few days. Definitely not cooking. I hate to cook! I'm going through bags and bags of roving deciding what I want to get ready for the Michigan Fiber Festival. I couldn't decide how I wanted to present the roving. Leaving it in the plastic bags and weighing up for people doesn't seem very professional so I came up with this process.

First I weigh out the roving into 1 or 2 ounce piles (I always add a little more), then wind it around pegs on my warping board. The pictures that you see happen to be the 1 ounce samples. Cary suggested that I do 1 ounce samples for folks to try. Sure appreciate her advice since I have only done a walk through at a fiberfest once in my life and don't really know what I'm getting ready for. Anyway...... then I am wrapping the sample with a label featuring a picture of the alpaca that I printed up on cardstock on my computer. I think I will price these small samples at $4 a ball? bump? wrap?, and offer a mix and match at 4 for $12.

So far I have wrapped 73 2 ounce samples and 32 1 ounce samples. Goes fast because I can do it on my bar dividing the living room and kitchen, allowing me to visit or watch television.

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Anyone interested in the breeding that is supposed to be going on in the barn -Ariana almost cushed (cush, meaning kneeling on all 4s) this a.m. She was interested but wouldn't stay down. I'm trying to be patient.