Playing with Fiber

If you read or follow both of my blogs you will be seeing double!  This post fits the creative blog and the boys blog so I'm using it on both.  I've never done that, but as they say there's always a first time!

The boys were sheared in April and I have three bags full of their blanket fiber, plus two smaller bags from their legs and neck.  I just love saying three bags full - makes me think of that sweet nursery rhyme,  Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool,  but I digress.   On the third day of classes in Bend we will learn to assist our shearer, to sort, clean,to card,  and even needle felt some of the fiber. I don't want to get there and say I have three bags full but I've never touched it except to sort and put in bags, so today was the day to put my hands on it.

I pulled out some of the blanket fiber from Lefty's bag.  Pretty and white, but with lots of vegetative matter aka vm.  So I started by just pulling it a part with my hands, making it light and fluffy and pulling out little pieces of dried grass and twigs.

Starting fiber

Next, I used my hand carders.  They also make hand crank ones and electric ones (very, very expensive), but, for once, I decided to see if I liked doing the fiber myself or would I choose to send it to a mill for processing before I jump up in cost. I had so much fun today and saw how slow this process would be - fine for a little, but I see a hand crank carder in my future!

Hand Carders

 It took about 10-20 passes with the carders to get out vm I wanted out and even with that there are a few specks, but for the most part it's clean.

Trash after carding

When I was finished I had two small pieces of roving. This can now be used to spin directly from the roving or use for needle felting or other crafty things.   Pictures show how much I started with, how much vm came out of it, the carders and the finished product.  And it took about an hour or maybe more!

Roving - ready to spin or felt

And then there's what I have left of Lefty's blanket and remember I have two more bags from the other boys, plus all of the legs and neck bags and so you see why there is a hand crank carder in my future!

Lefty's blanket fiber left to card. This  does not
include the legs or neck!

The boys had lots of visitors this week and so more about that coming soon, with some fun pictures.  And I leave for Bend tomorrow!  Exciting time for me - haven't been away from home for 6 days in a long, long time!  I'll miss all of my boys and Bill will be doing alpaca duty while I'm gone!  The hottest week of the year!  Keep him in your prayers!

                           

I'm Back!

Oh, my goodness, tell me it's not true that my last post was February 16th!  Well, that's on this blog - you know I couldn't be quiet for that long.  If you want to catch up on my life, check out Jack and the Alpacas.  Anyway, I'm here because I've actually taken a weekend to think of creating and not just caring for animals!

To say the boys have been time consuming is an understatement.  So for the last two months I have made a couple of cards and a simple little scrapbook for a friend to celebrate her new grand baby, so this weekend is a welcome break.

W. C. Mercantile Booth

Hand Carders

As you know I love to needle felt and we will soon have our own fiber from the boys, so my attention is turning to fiber off the hoof! This weekend I went to the Yellow Rose Fiber Producers Fiesta in Seguin, TX.  The Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch where I bought my boys had a booth with their gorgeous fiber for sale and my favorite wool store W. C. Mercantile was right beside them.  I bought my first hand carders and got a quick lesson from Katie, a remarkable 21 year old "fiber genius".  She's been knitting since 8 and now spins, dyes and teaches us how to begin the process.  All this and college too!  She is a wonder!  Of course, I was especially drawn to her as that's my "perfect" granddaughter's name and the same kind of joy!

When I entered the doors I was blown away by the array of fiber!  It was like walking into a rainbow and the friendliest people I've ever met at a show of any sort.  Everyone wanted to help me learn, no question went unanswered and I learned so much.  After walking around and my carding lesson, I went to my drop spindle spinning class!  It was a small class of about six of us, all of which knitted, except me! The first thing we were told to do once we had seen the beautiful fiber she brought for us to use and were introduced to the spindle, was to make a slip knot.  For many of you that probably sounds like a simple instruction, but I just sat there with a blank look on my face as five other ladies quickly made their knot and slipped it over the top of the spindle.  I just had to take a deep breath and say, "I'm sorry, but what is a slip knot?"  Heads spun and the woman next to me showed me how.  Not that I remembered later, but she helped the class move along.  No one ask why I wouldn't know how to do that if I was a knitter and if I wasn't a knitter why was I taking this class. I made no confessions!

From that point on we were all beginners and I loved the process of spinning with this old and simple method.  I actually made decent single ply yarn.   Our teacher showed us another type of spindle called a Turkish spindle (no idea why it's called that) and it was interesting, but then she said, "You start it with a half hitch!  Well, in my mind that was out of the question - another knot!  No way!

Class ended and I headed over to show my progress to my friends and I saw the "Jeri Brock Woodworks" booth. I had just received a 10% discount on spindles so I stopped.  What beautiful spindles!  All hand made by Jeri of beautiful woods and I knew I had to have one.  So I was preparing to ask about them when my spinning instructor appeared.  She said, "Hello. I see you found the booth.  Aren't these spindles beautiful?"  I said, "They are beautiful and now I just need help on choosing one."  I turned to Jeri for help. Now this is the fun part!  Jeri said, "What type of yarn do you want, as that determines the type of spindle?"  I looked at her with that same blank look I had over the slip knot!  She looked at me and said, "What do you knit?"  I loudly exclaimed, "Oh my, I don't knit!"  I wish you could have seen the look on her face!  Her eyes were wide open with surprise and wonderment and the heads in every booth around us spun around!  My instructor simply said, "She just got alpacas and is starting the process from the opposite direction than most of us!"  I loved this comment and we had a big laugh and Jeri proceeded to introduce me to the types of spindles and when she showed me the simple process of making a ball of yarn as you spin with the Turkish spindle I was sold!  She showed me the half hitch knot ( this will be a separate post) and I got my first Turkish spindle.  Jeri hand carves all of her spindles and they are beautiful.  I got one with cutouts of Texas, but it won't be my last and so I will be collecting many of her designs.  She encouraged me to spin for at least 10 minutes every day for seven days and I would be shocked at how much improvement there would be; so I've started that plan and this is my first little ball I made on Saturday as Bill and I drove back down to the show.  She took it off the spindle and made a tiny little skein for me to save.  Everyone says we must keep our first skein, so she put it on a decorative holder for me to put on the tree each year.

My first mini skein!

I have so much more to say about spinning, the fesitval and fiber plans, but reality sets in and I must get some things done today, so I am putting my stories on hold.

So much to say, so much to do, so little thyme!

Princess in Pink - Project Quilting Challenge 2

I can't believe this is the first time I've posted since the last Project Quilting Challenge, but I don''t see anything so I guess it is.  I've recently started my new blog on our alpaca adventure and so guess I've just been posting there, but I digress, let's move on to "Princess in Pink".

This weeks challenge was to pick our favorite color and do a quilt, in any size or shape, in that color (and shades of it) and white!  No other colors allowed.  I chose pink, it actually not my favorite color, but I like it and it's how I imagined this little dress, so pink it is!

We receive the challenge on Sunday.  I was blank.  How hard can it be to come up with a quilt of any size or shape etc. etc.  It was very hard for me.  As I've said my desire to quilt comes strictly from wanting to paint my flowers and then quilt them.  And then my friend Sally introduced me to this quilt challenge. Actually, I really can't blame her - all she did was post on FB that she was excited about the new year of the  Project Quilting Challenge and I jumped in and joined. But, I can say, if she hadn't posted, I wouldn't know about it!  Thanks, Sally Keller!  Which reminds me you must go look at the quilt she did for this challenge!  She is just amazing and so is her quilt.

 So back to deciding what to do.  I was so blank I decided that I just wouldn't do one.  And then on Thursday as I waited at the doctor for my appointment a sketch appeared in my sketch book!  The docs PA walked in and ask what I was sketching and I told her an idea for a little wall hanging.  Once I said it aloud, it became real and I began to think how to do it.  The finished item is not the sketch, but it certainly was the inspiration.

This is the second time I've done a binding and I am happier with this one.  I found a video on You Tube from Missouri Star Quilts on how to do a machine binding and it was really good.  Finally it made sense so progress is being made.  I'm not ready to begin a large quilt, not even one over 12", but we'll see what the challenge is in two weeks.  You never know when they might just push me to move out of this "small" comfort zone.

The one thing I hope I will do while I wait for the next challenge is practice!  Practice free motion quilting and bindings!  The one thing I see or hear in every class, article, video etc. is practice, practice, practice and so if I really want to learn to do this I must, you got it, practice!

So until next time, I shall be at my sewing machine seeing what I can learn and, of course, preparing for Bible Study, mentoring MOPS, preparing for the arrival of the alpacas (to see more on alpacas click here) and the usual duties of homemaker!  Life is good! God is GREAT!

Quilting Challenge - Bloom

I'm so far behind!  This has been a very busy week - filled with Bible Study two mornings, food pantry one morning and Association Board Meeting Thursday night - needless to say all of these also involved phone calls, study, copying, etc. etc. etc. and so it's almost time for the next challenge and I'm just posting about the last one.

I mentioned in my last post about the pincushions that I had decided to join a quilt challenge and the first quilt was due in a week.  Yes, we had from Sunday (I found it on Monday) when they announced the theme to the following Sunday at noon to have it completed and a picture uploaded.

And now to my quilt! It begins with the word bloom - my word for 2013!  So many of my friends talked about choosing their word for the year.  I had never done that, but it sounded intriguing.  I began to pray about my word and I had two words come to mind.  Try and bloom!!!  The more I thought about it bloom was the word and this week I got to use it.

Now, call me crazy, but I decided to give this challenge a try.  I have actually quilted some fabric together in practice and about six years ago I quilted some fabric and made cute little jewelry (misc.) bags - three to be exact and a month or so ago I made a mug rug for Bill, but turned the fabric - did NOT put on binding.  That I had never, ever done!  So you ask,  "What was I thinking?"  Believe me by Saturday (a week ago) I was asking that, too!  I sat down and painted a flower early in the week, as soon as I signed up.  That's the easy part, I do that all of the time.  In fact, that's why I bought my new machine, to make wall hangings or other small items using my painted flowers.  But a completed wall hanging in a week?  Oh, my goodness!

But sometimes, this is just what I need, a challenge!  I am a procrastinator even about things I want to do and so a timed challenge is very, very good for me!  It forces me to act!  Now you notice, I said I found the challenge on Monday and I painted the flower immediately and then you might notice I mentioned Saturday as the day I was asking myself what I had gotten myself into.  Procrastination at its best! Yes, indeed, I thought about it every day, I looked at my flower every day and then on Saturday I panicked, went up stairs to the studio and seriously picked out fabric.  No I hadn't even picked out fabric when I painted my flower!  The advantage to being a fabric hoarder is that you have almost every color stuck away somewhere and so I pulled out a drawer and there it was the exact colors that were in my flower.  By the way, I thanked God for this and saw it as a miracle, since it was a set of matching fabrics and was in the first drawer I opened! Next it was cutting and pinning and quilting and BINDING!  Yes, I did just scream the word binding.  I studied videos and dvds and my binding finally got done around midnight!  Far, far from perfect, but done!


I posted the picture on Flicker and connected them to the challenge and I took a deep breath and went to bed!  From a distance this looks pretty cute and I got some wonderful comments, but I know that if I want to do better I have to practice, practice, practice! And so, in just an hour or so another challenge will appear on Facebook from Project Quilting and I will try again.  Just hoping it's not so far beyond my skills that I can't do it.  But whatever it is, I will try!  Check it out you might want to join me in this venture.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you I won a prize!  No, not for my quilting, but a random drawing of all the entries and I won a wonderful prize, picked out just for me from Pam Geisel For Quilts Sake. Check out her Etsy shop here.

And now I wait for the new challenge and head out to help my sweet hubby build the stall for our alpacas, Pancho, Lefty and Sammy who are arriving soon!  We went to visit them yesterday and they showed off some of their halter skills (not much yet) and let us pet them, a little.  Can't wait for them to arrive, but more on that later.

Be back soon,

Pancho & Lefty

Happy Day after Christmas!  I hope everyone had a wonderful day.  We started our day with videos of our little great grand-baby on his motorcycle that we sent him for Christmas!  He will need to grow a little, but that's good as they have lots of snow, so outside isn't available right now!  Next we watched Jack (our dog) open his gifts.  He always loves to tear open his packages, but never touches ours!  Smart little guy!  He got two toys and a Santa hat later in the day from a friend.  Next year he can wear his suit and his hat at the same time!

Our Christmas presents were a little big to put under the tree, a new building extension, two alpacas, a new sewing machine, and lots of tools for manland added over the last few months.  We thought about putting bows on everything that we had received recently, but decided we really couldn't afford the ribbon,  (laughing) so we just enjoyed our day and thought about names for the alpacas.

And, we've made a decision!  Yes we are definitely getting two alpacas and we finally decided on names!  This was not an easy decision and we enlisted votes through Face Book, but it's done! I've sent an email to Laurence and Donna to say yes and give them the names, Pancho and Lefty for registration so now as I sit in my studio and look out the window, I can picture them out there.

I've wanted llamas or alpacas for close to 20 years!  Of course, living in Bellaire, didn't lend itself to animals of this size and so I waited!  We've been talking about them now since we bought this house and property and the time is finally right.

Last year we added three sheep, well, they're not actually real, they just look real and so I've had some people ask me if the alpacas will be real!  Yes! I promise these will move around on the property without my having to pick them up and move them.  Ha ha

We now have to get our gates done at the front and do some cross fencing, so they know where they belong!  Now if I can just remember that they belong in the back field and not in my front yard or immediate picket fenced yard for Jack!  Bill says it will be more difficult for me than them!  He's so right. We just added an area to the back of Bill's barn for them and have to finish it too.  The rails need to be added and the straw put down on the ground and then they can move on in!  For now they will stay with  Laurence and Donna at Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch and I will go and visit!

At least now I won't need to drive down the road to look at the neighboring animals and I'm excited about all of the company I'm going to be having in the near future.  I look forward to everyone coming out and meeting them in person.  Didn't know how much alpacas would increase visitation!  That's a very good thing.

So now I will close and get busy on some other projects - working on next years Christmas card and have a bunch of birthdays this month and next - so I will post again after I see them on Friday and hopefully with some very good pictures.

Until then, happy creating!