Fiber Arts Friday

September 21, 2012September 21, 2012

FAF: A bit of everything

So this is what I’ve been up to as of late. Crias! We’ve had 2 cute girls born on the farm lately out of our new stud Alejandro. So excited about this gals, their fiber is AMAZING and SO dense. Even my one silky alpaca who never lets the studs density through has a cria that is super dense. I’m thrilled to pieces with my boy. Good Job Al!

I’ve been braiding away and making ropes. Here’s a few photos of some of my latest projects. Of course my phone rang half way through me making cord which ends up leaving my livingroom looking like this until I start up again.

Lastly here’s the progress I’ve made on my alpaca sweater vest. I’m currently doing decreases every 6 rounds so it’s fitted for my lady figure. Yeah right, me a lady? hardly.

That’s all for now. TTYL

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

FAF: Seminars and Sweater Vests

Welcome back Fiber Arts Friday Fans!

I’ve gotten a lot of interest on how to make the colorful ropes I’ve been braiding lately so I’ve decided to hold class on it. My good Friend Jennifer at Seven Spirits Farm is kind enough to host the class in her beautiful new Fiber Studio and here’s the details:

Techniques

6 strand round braid (confetti)
6 strand round braid (spiral)
8 strand round braid (herringbone)
Finishing knot/tassel
Hand loop splice

Materials provided

Braiding cord
Snap with attached core
Hemostat
Documentation

When: Saturday October 20^th @ 9am
Where: Seven Spirits Farm 6424 Liberty Pole Rd Dansville N.Y
Cost: $60 per person – Limited to 8 people – Lunch Provided

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Speaking of Braiding. Here’s a new one I’m currently working on just in time for hunting season. I call it Camo.

UPDATE: as of 9am this morning this leash has already been sold. If anyone wants one like it let me know.

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Other than that I’ve started my first ever sweater project! Well Sweater Vest anyway. The yarn is hand spun by Seven Spirits Farm from our boy CoHo. I’ve always wanted a sweater out of him so now is my chance. I’m thinking it’ll be another year before I finish it.

Well here’s photos of how far I’ve gotten and what my finish product hopes to look like.

August 24, 2012

FAF: I’m Back! I think?

Hi Fiber Arts Friday Fans.

So for the past month I haven’t posted. Why? Day job, nuff said! Darn thing gets in the way of me having fun ALL the time. Well with colleges and schools starting up again my work load drops off. Thank goodness too because I was starting to get burnt out.

Anyway I’ve been able to pick up the fiber fun recently and here’s what I’ve been up to.

First I’ve been busy braiding LOTS of ropes. I’ve finished 7 ropes in the last week. Here’s a sample of some of the brightest dyes I’ve ever done in my life.

Of course I couldn’t help by braid up a pair of split reins for myself. My camera still hates the color purple but here’s as close as I could get, the purple is nice and bright and the yellow is more of a gold color. Can’t wait to show them off at my next horse show!

Next photo is fiber-n-fiber, I was stuck at a headend one day and brought my knitting with me. Thought the concept of alpaca fiber and fiber-optics was way too funny of a photo to pass up.

Lastly I’ve been teaching myself a new braid! This little tiny test braid has 12 strands! My that’s a lot of untangling of dangly ends.

Ok that’s it for now. What have you guys been up to?

July 6, 2012

FAF: TdF Week 1

Hello Fiber Arts Friday fans

Well if you know Wonder Why Gal then you know we’re doing a Tour de Fleece event this month. Spinning fiber every day the Tour de France is cycling.

Here’s a snippit of what I’ve been working on

I painted up some new rovings to wok with since I have LOTS of white fiber laying around. Spinning white is fun but oh gosh can it get boring.

I tried my hand at core spun yarn which seems to have turned out nicely. Pretty bulky too.

The purple you see on the bobbin I spun up from raw un-carded alpaca locks that were died a light purple. Very interesting to try and spin up uncarded fiber but I love the way the yarn turned out. Lots of fluffies, big poof, thin spots, and oh so soft. Made for a great art yarn.

Well that’s it in a nut shell.

June 29, 2012

FAF: Secret Stash

Hi Fiber Arts Friday Fans,

I didn’t get much done this week fiber wise but I did find some goodies in the house as I was cleaning.

One is this lovely ball of handspun Merino/Tencel that I plied with gold thread and glass beads. It called out “make me into a light shawl” so I am. I’m kind of making up the pattern as I go so I’ll post it when I”m finished.. “probably 3 months from now.”

I’ve been skirting all the fiber we sheared this year and our lovely boy Alejandro gave us 12lbs of the fluffy stuff. I just love this boy. First alpaca I’ve ever had that spins up like merino with spring and loft in the yarn instead of being flat and boring.

I’ll leave you with our newest addition born last Sunday. This is our Lazy Acres Phoenix cria. I wasn’t expecting a brown boy at all! Albina is white, Phoenix is light fawn and poof, we have brown, since I breed light alpacas he won’t be staying long so if anyone wants a brown boy by all means let me know! $500 – unregistered $1,000 registered without breeding rights and $1,500 registered with breeding rights.