I Do ♥ to Dye

I'm back in the dye pot! Yea! I want to do a batch or two a day until I get enough ahead that I feel I can list some in my Etsy shop and start spinning some. It's so much fun to spin this dyed fiber. This batch is 4.4 ounces which is very strange because I very carefully weighed out two 2 ounce bundles before I started. Everything seems to be putting on weight around this house.
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For those interested in how I'm dyeing this alpaca roving - the rest of you just skip this paragraph - I'm soaking the roving in warm vinegar water for about half an hour. Then I add a wet layer (no, I'm not spinning it out) round and round in my crock pot. I use a popsicle stick to add just a titch of the dye powder on top of the wet roving. Then I carefully pour boiling water from my tea kettle over the roving and dye powder. I gently poke the dye with a big plastic spoon to get it to spread a little. I continue layering about 4 times while keeping the same color on top of the underneath color. I have used only 3 different colors with this method. The crock pot was set on high when I started and I cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Then the hard part - unplug and leave alone to cool...... I try to handle the dyed roving very gently while rinsing and spinning out in my washing machine. I'm pretty pleased with this method because the fiber is hardly felting at all.
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I'm all concerned about running out of fiber so have been on line searching for two days now. So far I have ordered a medium fawn blanket that took a blue ribbon at a show, and some black from a herd sire. I have so many connections going right now that I'm confusing myself. I found a farm that will sell me some white roving for a very reasonable price. These folks have all agreed to send me pictures of the alpacas so that I can show them with the fiber that will be for sale. I would still like to find some nice white.
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I've ordered 5 pounds of McMurray's awesome white merino to blend with my alpaca after we shear. I've decided that the only fibers worthy of blending into the alpaca are really good merino and silk. Having said that, I do think some of Edie's mohair from Spinning Moon Farm will make it into our rovings.

Between Christmas and New Year's Day......

This is a custom hat that I just finished for Anna in Texas. She and I have had a great time communicating about its creation. Anna said to make it tall so that we can be sure that it covers her ears. I had my daughter Terre, who has a rather large head try it on and it almost covers her eyes, as well as her ears. Anna wanted it 10 inches tall, but I stopped at 9. I spun the brown and white by holding the two colors next to each other to create this nice blend, and then double stranded it while knitting. The top blending is Luke and Celeste, and the bottom is Sonata.
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My daughter bugged me today about updating this blog. Yea! I didn't think that she even read me. And she says the other daughter does also.
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Tomorrow is the end of our holiday celebrations. All three of my kids will be here, our son-in-law, and the two granddaughters. Son, Rob, has been here since Wednesday and will be going back to Pennsylvania on Monday. I am so blessed to have them want to come home.

Foggy Morning in the Barn

It was so foggy this morning that local schools were on a 2 hour delay and finally cancelled. Bet the teachers are enjoying an extra day to prepare for the holidays. Ahh, I remember how thrilled I used to be....... More baking time.
I went back to the barn about 8:30 after my chores were done and took some pictures. The fog turning to ice on the trees was awesome. This is a picture of our POA pony, Kelly, who is nearly blind. Can you see the ice forming on her hairs?

Frosty Berringer

I think this is a really neat picture because Berringer (Bear) is 7 years old and has grown lots of those nasty, prickly guard hairs. The fog/frost this morning settled on them and they really show up.

Because they are lighter in color and stand up from his nice fleece, it has always been easy for me to just pull them out when I clean his fleece after we shear. His fiber, sans guard hair, always spins up with a luster.

Alpaca/Mohair Yarn Handdyed and Handspun

Only 2 more ounces and I will have all my handdyed roving used up. This yarn started out as 2 ounces of dyed up white Pollux, one ounce of natural brown Sonata, and a handful of mohair that I got from Edie Bowles at SpinningMoonFarm through her Etsy store. Edie was very helpful teaching me a little about mohair. My past experience was working with some not so fine stuff so I was a little negative. I carded these three elements together on my carder. Have I mentioned that I'm not really very fond of carding? And I do have a very nice Strauch that does a great job, but I just want to get to the spinning. The white that you see in the yarn are the tuffs of mohair.
Very bulky @ 8 wpi - 3.4 oz./95 grams

Merry Christmas from John and Slammie

This is dear friend, that I mention all the time, Beth's son and Orion (barn name Slammie). While we were at Tractor Supply today getting barn stuff, Beth took John and Slammie back to the pines to get a Christmas picture for her Christmas cards. She might kill me if I have ruined her card surprise, but I don't think anyone on her list reads my blog. This picture is just too cute and needed to be shared with all of you.
A friend, Nancy, started an Alpaca 4-H Club, and John will be showing Slammie at the Fair next summer.