Tag: alpaca fiber

Welcome Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday fans to another week of craziness.

Ever since I brought my first fiber alpacas home I’ve been bitten by the fiber bug, and hard.  Finding time to do everything I want to do both professionally, on the farm and with fiber is hard!   As it stands this week I have 3 crochet projects going at once as well as my lust for spinning.  Here’s how everything is playing out.

1. Cotton Shawl – Yes this is the same shawl I’ve been working on since I posted about it a few weeks ago.  I probably managed to get 5-6 more rows done and it’s sitting in a pile staring at me again.  I’m bored with it for the moment.
2. Cotton Granny Square Blanket – Yet another one I’ve been working on since march but thought I’d actually get some photos up of my progress.  I need 60 squares, 20 of each color.  So far I have 20 squares total done.  I guess that puts me at about ¼ of the way done since I have to stitch them all together and put a boarder around the blanket. Blah, this one might get finished just in time for spring 2011
   
   
3. “The Wave” Crochet Blanket – I promised a friend of mine a blanket and said I’d get it to her by Halloween.  I’d post pictures but it’s a surprise design and I know she’ll read this post trying to figure out what it looks like.  Sorry Jenn, you’ll just have to wait.  What I can tell you is I’m using Lion Brand Homespun yarn in 2 different color blues and a sand color.  The pattern is pretty cool but it has a lot of ends I’ll have to sew in. Blah.

Enough of crochet let’s talk spinning.  My mom was really interested to see a spinning wheel in action and I was more than happy to show her.  Unfortunately she didn’t find it nearly as exciting as I do.  I think she watched for about 3 seconds and got bored with it.  She had that look on her face like “That’s it? That’s all you do?”  If it were only that easy!

I joined a roving club!  For the next 4 months I get a little roving surprise in the mail form EverImprovingMe on Etsy.   What a great idea.  Johanna asked me all sorts of questions about types of fiber and colors I’d like to try so she’d have an idea of what to send me.   My first roving surprise came in the mail on Wednesday which was a beautiful 4.5oz blend of merino/bamboo/nylon dyed in my farm colors of purple and gold.  Oh it, looks awesome and so shiny! 

Unfortunately I had 1 bobbin full of my black alpaca and needed to still spin another and ply before I could play with my new roving.  Not a problem!  I’m not kidding you I immediately got to work, spun up another bobbin and managed to ply it before I went to bed on Wednesday night.  Oh yeah, that’s right, Thursday morning I was already carefully separating my new roving and weighing it out into 2 even strips.   I even managed to start spinning a little before I had to jet off to work.  So far I’m loving it.  It is super soft and glistens in the light it with the beautiful luster of the bamboo. I’m trying for a 2 ply worsted weight when I’m finished, we’ll see how well it goes.

Good day Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday followers.

Now that I have a spinning wheel I just can’t keep my hands off of it.  I spin almost every night after work, my way of winding down for the night. 

I’ve been experimenting with the wheel and the different speeds.  I tried my first single which for a newbie turns out to be pretty hard since I always seem to over twist.  But I think the single came out well.  I also tried one with a really aggressive twist and 2 plied it.  I kind of like it, it feels nifty in my hands.

My latest spinning has a purpose.  I’m all sold out of my alpaca rope reins and I need to spin up strands and get ready to make some more.  I have a hunting/fishing show coming up and was thinking of making some dog leashes for the hunting dogs.  We’ll see if they do well.

Oh, one of the photos is of my $4 lazy kate!  Yup, I found a shadowbox on sale for $3 add another $1 for a dowel, drill some holes and poof!  $4 lazy kate.