Alpaca

Alpaca Farm Days & Hat Tags

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

Ok, as promised :). The top pictures from left to right – The first picture is my son’s sock machine, it was rather windy – you can see the yarn blowing in the breeze, lol. He can whip out a pair of socks in about an hr, pretty cool huh? It’s made of metal and he lets the kids that come take turns turning the handle making a tube, they love it. Next picture is my spinning wheel, a Rick Reeves double drive wheel. It’s the smallest of my two wheels and will actually fit in the back seat of my car. My Kromski Polonaise is much bigger and would have to be taken apart to travel in my car, and nope not gonna do that! I’m not as sharing with my wheel at the event, it’s not replaceable, lol. I spin and people watch and ask questions that I am very happy to answer about the alpaca fiber and the wheel and making yarn, I do let them feel the alpaca fiber :). That cria fiber spins like a dream!! The 3rd picture is my son’s drum carder that he makes batts with for the dryer balls he sells at his farm store. I have two and put lavender on them before they go in the dryer, makes my clothes smell nice :). Behind the drum carder you can see his little tractor, that makes it easier for all the farm stuff he and Ev have to attend to. The 4th picture is the skirting table he made so it would be easier for them to skirt the fleeces and let the dirt fall to the ground and behind that you can see the frame with seats he made and attached on the trailer (that he pulls with the tractor) for hay rack rides he does once a week, everyone seems to enjoy the ride and the fire pit making smores afterwards :). My son is very handy with making things. The bigger picture to the left are his pea fowl and a family member who came to help. The peacock is starting to color out on the feathers on his back and a little on his tail, but it will be another 2 years before he has full color on all his feathers. He already looks at himself in the mirror that my son set out for him, the peacock is a narcissist, lol. The next 3 pictures to the left are of some of his herd. I did cover up faces of two people who were there because I didn’t get to ask them if they minded being in my blog. The last of those 3 pictures is the newest cria that was born a month ago, they call him Wish, but his full name is Wish Upon a Star, because his mother’s name is Star. He’s a cutie.

The last picture at the bottom is a hat with the new tags I ordered. I didn’t get leather because I was worried about how they would handle being washed and I wanted these to be easy care hats with a little something extra, so these are faux leather (a thick vinyl, lol) I chose the one that looked like bamboo. I think they look nice and everyone likes something nice. For the shelter I will make some with Child of God showing and some with the knitted heart showing so they have a choice. I think when I reorder I will get the ones I have to sew on instead of the snaps so they won’t come off in the washing machine. I’m a worry wort and I worry about everything, lol.

Prayers are going still going out to all those who were affected by Helena, please keep asking Heavenly Father for peace and comfort and help for them all. The devastation was massive and the emotional toll, for those who lost family and/or all they had, is great :(. I saw that there are many people out there trying to start helping with clean up and bringing things in, water, food etc, even tho FEMA and the Red Cross weren’t out there yet (where the heck are they?). My church always assesses what is needed and sends truck loads of things and there will be some of my church members from all over going to help with the clean up as well. I know that Ryan Hall Ya’ll (a YouTube weatherman) also sends trucks of things out to help from donations from those who watch his channel. Because food and things are coming in, I think clean up and housing will be the biggest issues, along with accounting for everyone that is still missing. :(. My heart is broken for all of them.

New Fiber and Alpaca Farm Days

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Well I might have accidentally bought some more fiber :O. I love yellow and this has sparkles and it was for 8oz at a sale price, so my excitement got the best of me. It’s Merino and Glitter and is called Sunny Day . The yellow is now only available by the lb and will be discontinued when sold out. I’m excited to see how it will spin up. The fiber under the yellow was a free 1 oz sample of Rambouillet from Camaj Fiber Arts, it is as soft as the merino. It will be fun to dye it too :).

It will be a while before I get to spin the yellow merino tho, because I only have two spinning wheels and my Kromski Polonaise has fiber still on it that I need to finish spinning, and I need my 2nd spinning wheel, my Rick Reeves wheel, empty because my son and his spouse are having their annual Alpaca Farms’ Day event on Saturday and I have to start the alpaca to spin on Saturday at the event. The fawn colored alpaca bump is not a new purchase, it’s a deep stash cria (baby alpaca). It is as soft as butter!!! I will try to remember to take pictures on Saturday. Usually the event is Saturday and Sunday but they are only opening their farm on Saturday this year so I expect it will be VERY busy!!!

Sending prayers out for those in Florida for safety with this hurricane :(.

Lots of Flowers & Alpaca

/ LDSVenus / 14 Comments

My braided hibiscus tree occasionally goes crazy with flowers. Love the flowers! Every so often I have to spray it for aphids with a soapy water with a few drops of cedar wood oil (one of my doTERRA oils). The soapy water kills the aphids and cedar wood oil smell keeps them off for a while.

The alpacas in the next picture are enjoying the splash pad on a hot day. My son bought it for them last year. They love it, as soon as he drags it out and sets it up they are in it like any kid, lol. Occasionally one will lay down in it and hog it up. Tisk, tisk tisk. Sometimes he brings out a sprinkler instead, but there are some that stand on top of the sprinkler and hog it up, lol. They much prefer our winters which are often -20’s to -30’s without the windchill. Their coats are so dense that snow doesn’t melt on their backs, and rain doesn’t soak in! But, they spend a lot of time in the barn too, they always have access to get into or out of the barn. They love playing in the snow. He has large fans going 24/7 in the barn in the summer so they can stay comfortable when the heat is too hot to be outside.

Hope you all are staying cool, we are very humid and hot. Sweltering is what the weatherman said. Tomorrow they said with the humidity factor we will be around 101F.

Happy Flag Day, 2 New Stitch Markers and Cria at the Farm :).

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

Happy Flag Day!!

I like to buy stitch markers and progress keepers from Adore Knit because they are really cute and makes me happy to see them on my knitting project, and they are well made. I really love her Snoopy stitch markers and progress keepers, so cute!

These are the two new cria (baby alpaca) on the farm. Libby is a young llama (about 9 months old) but this is after having her first shearing, you can see her real color now. The next two are Liza with her cria Himalaya (cream color, nick name is Laya) and Liz with her cria, Rocky. Rocky is the same color as his dad Everest. Everest was the father of both cira. Laya may look a little dirty but my son has a splash pad for the alpaca so they can stay cool and if they sit in the dirt, after they get wet in the sprinkler on the splash pad, they get muddy :P. Liza is Liz’s daughter, so Rocky is Liza’s 1/2 brother and Laya is Liz’s grand daughter ;), Everest wasn’t related to Liza or Liz. Did I confuse you enough? My son keeps up with all the relationships so he doesn’t breed back to family lines.

This week coming week starting on Sunday is going to be very warm, in the 90’s. Ugh! Everyone, stay cool!!

FOs and Better Late than Never

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

I finished the latest of the Hats for Warmth project. I liked the colors, hope it will keep someone warm next winter. I really like the cotton yarn I got at Hobby Lobby, I love this Cotton. It’s very soft and this was the 2nd wash cloth I got from it with some left over, tho I’m pretty sure I’d lose a game of yarn chicken if I started another, time to buy some more :P. This is the Granny’s Favorite dish cloth pattern, you can tell it’s a diagonal knit with the stripes. I’m going to start, some time this week, the 2nd bobbin of my multi color tweed spin. Still not sure if I want to chain ply each bobbin separately to keep the colors separate and have two half skeins or just go ahead and do a fractal ply. That’s me, last min decisions!

I try to have a picture of the Robbins when they first come back for spring. But they are not helpful in that aspect. I saw the first one about 6 weeks ago but they were only out where I could see them when I was driving and that wasn’t helpful. I was parked at the drs office earlier this week and lo and behold one where I could get a picture!!! He was running back and forth staking out his territory. I don’t get them every year because they are not always worried about rather I can get their picture or not lol. I have a feeling the males out there looking now probably missed the boat on a companion this year :(.

I forgot to get pictures when I was out at the farm :(, but I will try hard to remember to do that this next week. In the mean time here is one they took at the farm. I am calling the alpacas the motley crew right now because they are in need of sheering, which happens next month lol, then they will look more dignified and a lot thinner, their fleece is very thick. Can you find Libby? She’s only about 7 months old and already the size of the adult alpaca. They changed the llama’s name from Belle to Libby because my son has an African grey parrot named Belle (who is a character). Libby’s registered (call) name is When Liberty Rings. Libby the Llama has a ring to it, lol. She is friendly, no fear and sweet.

Farm Update :)

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

My son added a 6 month old Llama to his herd. They are pack animals in Central and South America, Alpacas aren’t really big enough to be pack animals they were more for fiber. Llamas can be fiber animals as well, tho they tend to have a lot more guard hairs, but they can have pretty soft fiber as well. She not full height yet, when I get down there next I’ll take a picture of Belle and an alpaca so you can see the difference, but her ears are a dead give away :). I’m hoping she will be a guard Llama, time will tell, they aren’t all good at that. I’ll let you know as she grows up.

He also added a peacock and a pea hen to his farm. They are not mature yet as you can tell by the lack of color in the peacocks tail. He said they were India Blues, because those are his favorite. They are in a large shed to protect them while they are getting use to his farm. The pole above them is their roost area. I haven’t seen the set up yet but I’m sure he has them in his old baby chick pen so they can’t get out of the fenced in area and predators can’t get to them. He’s very protective of his animals!

Finished Spin of Alpaca Yarn and Rant

/ LDSVenus / 7 Comments

I started this spin last year and had one bobbin done, and then I started the 2nd bobbin and then didn’t spin anymore on this wheel for months. I finished the 2nd bobbin this last Saturday at my son’s and his spouse’s farm because they were having an Alpaca Farm Days and I go on Saturday and Sunday because they have their skirting table set up and their drum carder and then I spin to show those who come the process for processing fiber from shearing to yarn. I plied it on Sunday and when I got home I wound it off the bobbin on my niddy noddy (tool used to wind the long skeins of yarn) and presto a skein of yarn. It is only 124 yards because the bobbins on the Rick Reeves wheels are made a little different and one side is tall and one side is short so you can only get some much plied yarn on it without it falling off the bobbin as you ply, wonder if they have a bulky flyer and bobbin (good luck finding one, his wheels aren’t made anymore :(.) It is a dk weight yarn and soft. This turned out balanced and no twisting as I held the the long skein from the top. I’m Impressed with myself :). Not sure what I can make with only 124 yards but I’ll do some digging and see if it would make a pair fingerless mitts. Now to go back to spinning the Pop Rox’s yarn. 🙂

Ok, now for a little rant (well it’s not so little :P). When I went to the Alpaca Farm days at my son’s alpaca farm on Saturday (this is a once a year activity on Saturday and Sunday) to spin for my son’s event, it was busy but not overwhelmingly so and everyone that came was nice and their children all had fun feeding the alpaca and chickens and seeing how the shorn fleeces are processed and watching me spin, and the kids had fun winding yarn on my son’s sock machine, children love doing things like that. My son’s mother-in-law made some apple bread and brought hot apple cider. All of this including the apple bread, which she had in slices, and apple cider is provided free and when the food ran out no one complained, everyone seemed to have a good time. Sunday was different, there are always a few people who can make a good time unpleasant because nothing is ever enough. Mind you this is all free, he doesn’t charge a fee to enter the farm and they get to feed the alpaca and chickens and the little snack my son’s mother-in-law brings for no charge. All he hopes for is that people will visit his farm store on the way out and buy some yarn or a trinket from their farm store after their visit, after all it goes towards running the farm and feeding the animals, vet bills, etc and hopefully some profit, if this was a hobby farm he’d only have a couple of alpaca but he has about 24, this is his farm, his business. Sunday, which is only 4 hrs compared to the 6 hrs on Saturday, was a lot busier than Saturday and people were standing in line to be able to go in the pasture with the alpacas (having too many people in the pasture stresses the animals out and they are the most important thing). One woman got upset when the bread and apple cider ran out. I mean honestly it’s free, we don’t have to provide it at all, it is just a bonus from a mother-in-law. Maners are severely lacking in some people. And then to add insult to injury, now remember this was only open 4 hrs and people are generally only there between 1/2 to 1 hr, a woman complained because my son did not have a porta potty there, she told him legally he had to have one for the event, he is going to check into that and if he does for his once a year activity, she just made this whole thing no longer free if he has to pay for a porta potty, for one complaining person, he would have to charge admission to be able to pay for it and she was demanding to use his personal house restroom, excuse me? Can she or her family member not just use the restroom at their home before coming out to the farm, we’re only talking about an hr here? Since it might not be a free event anymore I wonder if she would want to come anymore? My son also decided that his mother-in-law, if she still wanted to make the apple bread, will now need to make little loaves and sell them so no one will complain when they run out of apple bread. That will probably make that woman, who complained about those treats running out, upset too, you can’t win with them. Those really losing, are the people who never complain and just come and enjoy the experience who might be having to pay admission to come do this now. It just takes one person to ruin it for everyone else, like I said, there’s always that one. It took me a couple of days to figure out how to say this a little more tactfully. I think I did.

UPDATE: My son called and they told him, he is not required to provide a porta potty for his small event, he is a farm on the outskirts of town.

Spinning a Tweed Yarn

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

This was going to be one of my Tour de Fleece spins but I didn’t get to it before the end of the Tour de Fleece, so I decided I really did still want to spin it, so here we go. This is the Pop Rox from Camaj Fiber Arts and it says it is a blend of soft South American wool and viscose bits. I did a search for South American wool and there are several breeds, merino being one and I am going to guess this blend has a lot of merino in it because it is very soft! I am fascinated with the tweed fibers for spinning. They spin thicker (probably a dk or worsted weight when done) and I like to knit with with the thinner yarns (sock yarn and sport weight) but I just love the tweed look. I can hardly wait to see what the yarn looks like when I’m finished :). No clue what I want to use it for, there is 4oz so maybe a hat, but I can make a decision when I see the yarn spun up :). If you like this fiber you can find it here . Right now it’s a pre-order order for a lb and is on sale for $52 a lb. I bought it when they had it in a smaller batch to see if it would be popular enough to order larger quantities. It was :P. Maybe next month I will order a lb myself to make a hat and scarf to match for a grand daughter :), I am loving this.

Still waiting for the last cria to make an appearance. Hoping for a female with grey fiber ;).

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather after those hot oppressive humid days just a few weeks ago! I sure am!!

Newest Cria is Here :)

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

Kitchi (Native American name from the Algonquian tribe) it means brave. He was born a couple of days ago but my son and his spouse (who is also Native American) were busy with him, his mom is a first time mom and he had a small problem when he was born, his ankle is unstable and he couldn’t stand, so because he couldn’t stand to drink from mom, they bottle fed him some colostrum and continued bottle feeding him because they had him and mom separated from the herd in a barn in a stall, the rest were all close loose in the barn and could touch noses, but she was distressed because she was kinda sorta separated so they feed him through the night and the next day they put a splint on him while his ankle heals. He is now nursing from his mom.

The first picture is the clearest of him. His coloring is striking with the black head and his legs are also black but the rest of him is the cinnamon color, so pretty. The second picture is Finn (the cria born 2 weeks ago) checking him out now that Kit (his nick name) and his mom are no longer separated from the herd, Kit is laying down. If you click the picture it should enlarge and show the whole picture. I was going to put a video up of him walking around with his splint but I would have to upgrade my Word Press acct to do that and since this is the first and probably the only video I would post, I didn’t see the point :P. One more cria is due, should be here in Sept :).

Getting ready for another heat wave to start on Saturday through next Wed with some 96 degree days, not sure what the heat index will put the feels like temp at, sigh. Is it fall yet?

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last vestiges of Summer.

New Cria on the Farm!

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

We had a new cria (baby alpacas are called a cria) born on the farm. Not named yet, but he looks like his dad and not his mom :P, I will get to see him tomorrow. Babies are always exciting, and there are 2 more due this month.