Yes sir, yes sir! Three bags full!

I had every intention of posting these photos earlier this week. Didn't happen. It's been a bear of a week. Rather than bore you with a monologue of everything I've dealt with, I'll just post photos of fiber and finished yarn. Much better!!

I fluffed and aired out the fleece. A huge improvement from when I purchased it. I had that "what have I done??" feeling as I opened the bags when I got home. The fleece was damp and just didn't look good. (Damp because of all the stinkin' rain we had last week!)

Ok, this is the Bag 1, Mr. Crete. He's a white llama with tan spots. He is really about half and half. His fleece is quite long and curly. There's a lot of fiber in this bag. Maybe 3 pounds or more. He was shorn last Friday.
Close up of Mr. Crete. YUM! So soft. This is the fleece that did me in. This is from "Just Call Me Black", who is a black male alpaca. He is jet black and so soft. The brown on the fleece is dust. Dude really liked to roll in the dirt. Last summer was so dry that it's no wonder he was really dusty down deep. There are about 2 1/2 pounds in this bag. Isn't he glossy?Firefly, a male alpaca, donated this bag. This is from last year's shearing so I got a pretty good deal on it. Since it was dry and didn't need any airing out, I decided to spin a bit of this straight from the locks. I grabbed a handful out of the bag and set about to pick out the vegetable matter (VM). That was not an easy task, as the VM is about the same color as the fiber. I was able to shake soem of it loose, but the smaller bits required a tweezer.

After I got it fairly clean, I washed it. I put the fleece in a colander and set the colander in a sink full of room temperature water. I let it soak for about 15 minutes, then changed the water and soaked it again. I did this about 4 or 5 times, until the water was relatively clean. For the last soak, I used a little dab of wool wash to make it smell a little less like a dusty alpaca. I was very careful not to agitate the fiber or run water directly on it.
I set it out in the sun to dry. Every so often I would fluff and pick and turn the fleece. It didn't take too terribly long to dry.

Now for the fun part--spinning! I didn't comb the fleece or do any additional preparation. I just spun "woolen" directly from the fluff of fleece. It was a bit slow because I was still picking VM as I was spinning. I had to draft with my left hand in front, and in my right hand I held a tweezer to pick the VM while fluffing the fiber for drafting. I tried to keep it fairly thin, but it was a bit tricky. I think this fleece might be the entire alpaca rather than just the blanket. There were quite a bit of shorter, or second cuts that slowed me down.
I plied the yarn and ended up with an ounce of pure alpaca softness! I particularly like the light and dark. The color is a rich caramel with a touch of vanilla streaks. It's totally yummy. Up next: a swatch knitted from this alpaca sample.

After that: spinning a carded batch of alpaca (I bought a set of antique carders off ebay...$10! Woo hoo!)

The weather promises to be completely sucky this weekend so I can't wash the rest of the fleece. It's only supposed to get into the low 50s tomorrow and even colder on Sunday. How, pray tell, can we go from 80 degrees one day to a chance of SNOW (yes, snow!) showers 2 days later? I'm glad I'm not one of those sorry suckers who planted pretty spring flowers last weekend. Will they never learn? I guess memories fade in the presence of trays of impatiens, petunias and marigolds. Fools. They'll be lucky if they don't end up with a garden of ectoplasmicky muck by Monday. (Similar to what you find in the veggie drawer of the fridge when you forget about the lettuce you bought a couple weeks ago...nasty!)

I guess this means I don't have to mow the lawn. A good weekend for dyeing!

Sweney's Alpaca Farm

Every now and then Craigslist coughs up something really interesting and unique. On a wild hair I did a search on the word "fiber" and came across an add for alpaca and llama shearing. What are the odds? I called the farm and found out that she's also selling alpaca and llama fiber. I got directions, met a friend for breakfast and then we headed to Dickson, Tennessee.

We got lost.

Dickson isn't a very big town and I thought I had committed the directions to memory. Nope. I made a bunch of phone calls to people who I thought would be sitting at a computer and finally got in touch with my 11 year old nephew (who lives in Michigan). He Googled it for me and was able to get me directions.

We were amazed at the amount of mud and poo.

Also amazing were the animals. We were able to walk among the llamas and alpacas as they were waiting for shearing. Enough with the words...the photos are better.

Could they be any cuter? But the bigger question is "what did I buy?" I got a bag of jet black alpaca, a bag of cinnamon alpaca and a bag of caramel and white llama. The black alpaca is to die for! I've spun up a little bit of the cinnamon alpaca and it's so incredibly soft. As I wash, pick and spin, I'll post more photos and info.

Project updates, blasphemy and a list

Even though a majority of my posts lately have been about spinning and dyeing yarn, I am still knitting. So, I think a project update is in order. I apologize for the lack of photos...The Teen stole my camera batteries for his xbox guitar and didn't stick the dead ones in the charger.

Socks That Rock socks...I am going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that I don't really like the Socks That Rock (STR) yarn. BLASPHEMY!!! I LOVE the colorways, but the yarn is of the tight twist variety and it's knitting up all crooked. I've tried several different knitting methods, but I swear it's wanting to bias. Hmm. The colorway is drop dead gorgeous, but I'm getting a bit freakish over the wonkiness of the stitches. Has anyone else had this problem? Doomed to never be finished...we'll see.

Zack's afghan...I lost the pattern. It's really no big deal since I have the actual block pattern memorized. I just have to redo the pattern so I know what colors go where. This has, however, kept me from progressing on this project.

Vibe tote...I finally bought some fabric for the lining, again. I bought a cool batik fabric for the lining a while back, but ended up loving the fabric but hating it as a lining. Now I just need to line the sucker and figure out what to do for handles. I am convinced that it will be a great project bag once it gets done.

I'm navaho plying the rainbow yarn. Whoa, talk about an energized yarn. Holy cow! I'm plying on my slowest setting but it's still twisting back on itself. Maybe a couple days in time out on the bobbin and then a nice soak in a warm bath. It seems a warm bath always gets the kinks out, right?

And now for a list things that will make a person more pleasant to work for. I realize there are only about 2 people who read my blog, but I will try to be as anonymous as possible. Although the aluminum foil and acid washed jeans might give it away.

1. Trust your coworkers to meet deadlines without constant (passive aggressive) reminders.
2. Keep your office door open. When it's closed we think you're doing something you shouldn't be doing.
3. Acknowledge requests as soon as possible. Even if you can't get to the request in a couple days at least acknowledge it.
4. Say "good morning" before barking out rude orders.
5. Book your own hotel room if you want to make sure your room overlooks the ocean. If I book your hotel and you whine about it, the next time you want an ocean view you'll be looking out over the dumpsters for the Red Lobster next door.
6. Say "please" when you make an unreasonable request, like wanting me to make sure your room has an ocean view. Actually, in this case please isn't going to help worth a darn (see #6) but it will make me bitch about you less.
7. Say "thank you" too.
8. 99% of the time the code of after hours get-togethers or weekend get-aways with co-workers is "no bosses allowed". Period. Get over it.
9. Don't bring everyone in the office brownies that are wrapped in recycled aluminum foil that is clearly marked "2 pieces taliapi". Gross. Gross. Gross. (If you want the proof in this one, I'll take a photo of the foil. I kept it...had to...too good to pass up.)
10. Don't sit in your office with the door closed for hours on end only to emerge and sigh heavily as you walk out. More specifically, don't sigh heavily at all. It's annoying.
11. Do not wallow in self-pity because your life sucks, especially if you're doing nothing to change the situation(s).
12. Ricola. Please.
13. Short sleeved dress shirts and ties. No one has ever made this look good.
14. Just because you can fit into the acid washed Billy Idol jeans you had in 1985 doesn't mean you should wear them.
15. Leave things in the trash. They are there for a reason.

Party in a Bag

I finished plying "party in a bag". KILLER!!! This skein is about 73 yards, probably heavy worsted to bulky weight. I have one more bobbin that I need to skein, so I should have about 150 yards when it's all said and done.

Monday Monday

I'm going to fire my housekeeper!! She didn't show up again this weekend. Seriously, I don't think she's been around since January. The lazy, no good, mumble, mumble... When I told my son that I was going to fire her, he said, "We have a housekeeper??" Too funny!

So, what have I (the housekeeper) been doing...besides cleaning house? Playing with fiber, of course! I dyed six skeins of yarn and a couple hunks of roving. I spun my "party in a bag" roving that I got in Gatlinburg, TN. Lots and lots of fiber play. On to the photos!!!

I call this little lovely hunk of fiber "Vintage Roses". This is 4 of the 8 total ounces of 100% alpaca top/roving for spinning. Kettle dyed by adding pink to one side of the pot and brown to the other. Then I crossed my fingers and walked away. I was hoping for more of a neapolitan ice cream, but ended up with a lovely shade of faded roses. I'd love to see it spun up, but it's for my Etsy shop .


This batch should probably be called the kitchen sink. I had an odd amount of Brown Sheep mill ends and several pots of dye with only a smidge left in each. Ta da!
I split the roving into sections and then poured dye all over it. I wish I could replicate the colors because the pea green in the center is KILLER! I'm not sure where the yellow came from, it was orange before I steamed it. (I'm keeping this one for me.)


Now, for my new favorite, Pansies! I got up Saturday morning and started mixing dye before my first cup of coffee. I'm in love! It's everything I expected! It really does look like my neighbor's bed of pansies. The deep rose is my favorite part, so is the green, and I like the teal...hell, I like it all! Also on Etsy.

This batch started out as a bag of wool yarn I bought at an estate sale.

I pulled the skeins apart and discarded the damaged outer layer and ended up with about 550 yards. It was off-white to start, but it was so BORING! So I hit it with some blues and purples. Also on Etsy as I Got the Blues.

Speaking of Etsy, I changed my shop's banner and avatar. What I had before was so boring!

I'm going to post the "party in a bag" yarn later this week. I want to ply it first and then I'll share the photos. It was a total blast to spin, and it took only a couple hours. What is "party in a bag" roving? It's basically everything. There were all different colors of mostly wool, but some cotton, a bit of silk, locks, sparklies...and a couple pieces of vegetable matter just so I wouldn't lose interest. It's absolutely gorgeous! Maybe I can ply it by the weekend. Depends...

And then she dyed

A little color play this past weekend!

Several weeks ago a found a tan heather cashmere sweater at Goodwill. It was ugly, so I frogged it. Then it sat in a sad little tan pile and mocked me. This past weekend I did something about it and into the dyepot it went.

From this:


To this:
Now, isn't that better?

I also dyed some rescued wool boucle that I purchased at an estate sale. Pictures will be posted soon.

I'm a loner this week. Zack's off with a friend for spring break. It's so QUIET around here! I hope to dye a little more, spin a little more, knit a little more. You get the picture. What's really cool is that I can make whatever I want for dinner (bring on the onions!) and I can play hours of xBox with no one laughing at me. I feel a round of Guitar Hero coming on. It really doesn't take much, does it?

Let the games begin

I've got a request to recreate the Sandalwood Spice colorway. Thank goodness I took a photo of the yarn before I reskeined it. I honestly don't know if I can do this, and the funny thing is I'm really nervous about it. I need to get a grip. This time I'm going to take notes and photos of the process. If I'm going to be serious about selling my yarn, I need to be serious about my creative process.

I have some cool vintage wool boucle that I rescued from an estate sale. It's boring as hell and needs a kick. I'll use that as my palette. Maybe...just maybe...

p.s. sold a skein of black cherry today! woohoo!