I managed to capture Lola giving birth on July 7. It was slightly concerning that the nose did not appear first, or right along with the toes, but I could see that the nose was right behind the opening. The whole event took less than 30 minutes and the last photo of the baby is when she was barely 30 minutes old.
Win a Whole Alpaca Fleece!
Squished between tales of Africa we are having a fleece giveaway! The fleece I have chosen for the giveaway is from Paris, a sweet brown baby girl with one of the nicest baby fleeces this year. There will undoubtedly be some vegetation, but at this point she has one of the cleanest fleeces of all the babies. This is Paris!
BMR Paris
You can see from the size of her neck in this photo that she has a very nice staple length and you might notice there is not much vegetation on her either.
Why am I doing this? To get more traffic to my Etsy site! I am starting to create alpaca batts with my new Big Tom electric drum carder. I am blending alpaca with silk, bamboo and merino to create one of a kind batts. I’m using organic dyes, blending colors and fibers to create batts that I personally would love to spin. (and sometimes I do!) I decided the best way to attract spinners would be to give away something that a spinner would love! The only problem with my grand plan is that I have not had as much time as I need to create more batts, but the contest goes on and I’ll get the store filled up as I can!
But what if you don’t spin? No problem! Several options. You might want to learn to spin! It is an ancient art that is relaxing as well as productive and there are classes offered in most areas. Or you can send it to a processor to have roving or yarn made. Our favorite processor is Spinderellas. Read more about them here. Fleeces do not have expiration dates if stored properly, so you can take your time to decide what to do if you win the fleece.
OK, so How do I enter? You can enter as many times*or ways as you like. Each method of entry = 1 entry into the contest. Here’s how:
1. Visit our Etsy shop, then come back to this blog page and leave a comment telling me about something you like in the shop.
2. Leave a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. You must however link to this blog. Leave a comment that you tweeted with a direct link to your tweet. *Limit of 4 tweets per day.
3. Write a post on your own blog about our giveaway. You can write whatever you want, just link back to this post. Leave a comment that you did this with a direct link to your post.
Use the “leave a comment” box at the bottom of this page. Each comment gets an entry number. You may enter as many ways or times as you like!
When and how will you choose a winner? Winner will be chosen at random as we put all the numbers in a hat on May 1, 2010 and will be announced on our web site. Last entry accepted on April 30 at midnight MST. The more times you enter, the more chances you have to win. Shearing is scheduled for June 7 ,2010 , you will be sent your fleece within a week of shearing.
Entries welcome from outside the USA, but we will ask you to pay shipping only.
a pretty darn cute alpaca I 'd say
Have fun, play nice and enter often!
Now I better go card some more batts. 
Haberdashers
This post is to answer my dear mom who after seeing a purple hat I made out of alpaca fleece said, “How in the world did that happen?”
So here is the rest of the story……
But first, credit where credit is due! My felting mentor is Gail of Fiberdoodles in Georgia, who once upon a time drove all the way to Utah to teach us how to make felted hats! You can visit Gail ‘s site here.
Now back to the story of the purple hat ….. First I took a white alpaca fleece, wet it and shoved it in a big pot. Then I doused it with purple dye ( I used Jaquard dye and a little vinegar), brought the pot to almost boiling, then turned if off and let it sit over night. The next morning only clear water remained, which means the dye was fully exhausted. I did also put a few skeins of white yarn and some roving on top just to see what would happen. They also turned out great! The purple split into shades of blue and pink along with the purple which was what I was hoping for.
purple dye pot
Then the fleece comes out to dry. We have very little humidity in Utah so this part goes really fast!
out of the dye bath and on to a drying table
Next I got to use my friend Linda’s carder again. This aligns the fibers in one direction. If I wanted to , now I could take pieces of this batt to the spinning wheel and make yarn, but a felted hat was in my mind for this fiber.
after carding the colors start to blend
Now you must invite some friends over to help you with the felting. It’s not that hard, but does take hours and it helps if these friends own alpacas , and have fleece they want to play with! You can see all 4 stacks of fiber which will soon be turned into felt! It was raining so we had to work under the covered porch.
invite friends who like to have fun!
This is actually four layers of the purple batts that have been wet with very hot soapy water and as I agitate it, it will begin to turn to felt.
- 4 layers of batting get wet
Then using very hot water and soap, you rub and press the fibers molding the to the hat form. It really does take a long time but it is very exciting when it starts to take shape!
this part takes hours- she is just starting
Hours later – she is trying really hard to smile, but getting really anxious for the hat to be finished! She is using a razor to shave off some pilling. We later decided that perhaps the rubber gloves caused some pilling and bubble wrap might be a better option.
she's getting tired and trying real hard to keep smiling
Bubble wrap with the bubbles facing down can make the process go more quickly.
using bubble wrap to help with the felting
Oh it’s just a little fruit punch to help move the afternoon along! And to celebrate that it stopped raining.
Oh it's just fruit punch!
We used the hose to rinse the soap from the hats and started to plan how we would trim up the fiber.
- using the hose to rinse out the soap
Not quite finished yet, but definitely looks more like a hat than it did in the morning!
still drying but looks like a hat now!
Mindless knitting
I so admire my friends who knit beautiful sweaters with complicated cables, socks and other fabulous creations. I do have half a sock I started about 5 years ago, but there it sits in my knitting bag just laughing at me.
I have come to realize I am a passionate alpaca farmer who knits occasionally and I guess that suits me fine. But I did discover a super simple project – well suited for alpaca yarn and I am having a ball knitting again! Not using too many brain cells in my knitting is OK with me for now. I haven’t had to rip one stitch out yet.
alpaca baby cocoon
A baby cocoon! Can you imagine having a super soft alpaca cocoon to put your baby in? Well I don’t actually have a baby (or grandbaby yet) but my dolls are filling in so I can be sure my cocoons are the right size. This is my preemie or newborn size and I’m working on a slightly bigger one. What a great photo prop this would be for a real sleeping baby.
I’ll list a few in my Etsy store once I get them finished.
