Our alpacas just love this snowy cold weather.  They will lay out in the pasture when its snowing instead of inside the sheds.  Here is a picture of Apollo, behind him is Diego (one of my first two) and one of the brown boys just behind him, but I can't see who it is. 

They are so sweet.  They're the ideal farm animal I think.  No, we don't eat them.  But we do harvest their beautiful fiber once a year usually in the early spring.  Then they are cool all summer and start getting some length on their coats towards fall. 

One of the things they really like in the summer time is when I get out the hose and squirt their feet and legs.  Sometimes one will get so happy he will stick his entire head in the stream of water, open his mouth and get a nice cold drink.  All I have to do is head towards the water faucet and they are there.

Their fiber is extremely soft and warm.  Some of the most beautiful yarns come from these guys.  Here's a picture of Wasabi's fiber when he was only about a year old.  It was dyed blue and green, spun and plied to about a sport weight yarn.  Haven't made anything out of this yet, but it would certainly make a soft scarf or socks.  It feels like butter.

I have some new ideas for this year as far as using the natural colors of my animals.  I hope they turn out as I imagine them.

My niece had a great time space dyeing her merino / silk fiber she bought with some Christmas money she received.  We used Country Classics dye which don't require any additives other than soaking the fiber in a little Synthropol before dyeing.  The colors were a little tame for her (she likes zebra stripes and hot pink!) but all in all its very pretty. 

I started putting a Verithane finish on her wheel to protect the wood but couldn't find the sandpaper needed, so finally got some yesterday and hope to have the wheel finished by this afternoon.  Being a Kromski Minstrel it has so many little pieces that make it so fancy so it takes a while to get them all coated.  She's anxious to use it so guess I better hurry up.

I started blending some yellow superwash fiber that I don't really like the color of, with some beautiful white Punta.  It needed a little pzazz so some salmon-colored nylon icicle was added in big streaks.  I think it turned out pretty nice.  I wanted to see what it was like so its on one of my student spindles right now.  I love the way its turning out.  Hopefully others will like the batts and try spinning them.

We had our first spinning group the our local community center this Tuesday.  There were three ladies there plus myself.  One was a spinner but its always so much more fun to spin with others.  Its also a great way to discover new techniques.  The other two are using the student spindles and seemed to have fun.  They caught on very quickly and picked out some of the dyed / blended wool samples I brought.  Hopefully there will be more spinners in the future, but for a first time with instruction from me going on, three was quite enough.  Any more might have been too much.

Snow continues to fall in north Idaho and now a freezing rain is predicted after there were many pileups and collisions on our local roads and our one freeway.  Guess its a good day to stay home.  We were supposed to go pick up alpaca feed and then take our remaining two rescue babies up to the shelter in Priest River.  Everything is on hold until at least tomorrow.

What a good day to stay in the do some dyeing!  Already have fiber in soaking that my niece bought with her Christmas money, some merino and silk from Paradise Fibers.  So soft.  She spun a little already and was able to see the beauty of the fibers and the ease of spinning it.  We will do some rainbow space dyeing this afternoon.

Back in October I dyed some fibers for a spinning class I hope to be giving at our local community center.  I showed on that post some bending nylon in the dye pot with some dabs of color applied at random, this picture is after rinsing and on the drying rack.  It can be difficult sometimes to imagine just how the fiber will look once its dried, spun and then incorporated into your project.  That's what is so much fun about this craft ... seeing the final product made from your imagination.  Sometimes I start with what will be a planned project, but what I end up with is entirely different.

We are having a studio and shop day tomorrow.  Who knows what will come out of it.  Maybe a couple of real masterpieces :->   We are supposed to get up to 18" of new snow tonight and tomorrow, so it sure sounds like a good day to stay inside.  This morning's temp was just about -10 degrees so you know who wasn't outside, at least for too long.

There is usually a bright side to most things.  As snow continues to fall off and on here and the outside temps run between -10 and above 20 degrees,  my niece loves it and it doesn't matter how cold.  She was out playing with the dogs a few days ago and made her very first snowman.  We didn't have any carrots for his nose and since the woodstove was already going we couldn't dig for pieces of charcoal for his mouth so we made do with some green candy kisses for his eyes and a stump of broccoli for his mouth.  I thought he was cute.

The pink and white punta & BFL yarn is finished and plyed now.  I actually got two nearly full bobbins of finished yarn.  Today I'm trying to get it measured on the niddy-noddy, weighed and washed to set the twist as they say.  After drying it will be hung with the rest of the hand-spun finished yarns and hopefully end up in my etsy shop.  I've had the etsy a while but never have put anything in there yet.

The tan Polworth with the pink glitz is still on my Sonata wheel so am hoping that will be finished up this week.  Just a little more to spin and then the two bobbins will be plyed together.  Its beautiful but a little coarse for what I like but it may soften up when finished.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

After a very nice and quiet New Year's Eve we also spent an energetic and peaceful New Year's Day.  I always feel like cleaning house on the first of January.  Sort of like cleaning up my life for a new start.  The temps are still below 0 during the night but doesn't seem to bother the animals.  Except the kitties.  No One wants to go outside.  They sit and look out the glass door but do not try to open the door or they will run.

After getting the house in some semblance of order, I was able to re-card some fiber for the third time.  I like it a lot better now.  Also the pink BFL and white Punta is spun and in the process of being plyed together for a pretty soft pink yarn.  Not sure how much I will have here but certainly enough for a nice baby sweater set.  Maybe I will try to do some baby blue also.

I gave my niece a gift certificate for Paradise Fibers for Christmas so we are making plans to go over there one of these days.  She doesn't have school on Fridays so that might be a good day to go providing the weather isn't bad.  Looks like our cold weather will last until the middle of the week, then more snow which means warmer temps usually.  She's doing so well at blending and spinning her fibers.  Usually I give her some of my stash but now she will be able to purchase her own and get what she wants.

Christmas is over and slowly things are getting back to normal for us.  The scarves I made for my daughter and niece turned out nicely.  They are so warm and feel so good when the weather is nasty.   As soon as I can I am going to make up some kits for these scarves.  They are so easy to make and are a nice one-day project.  And I can dye them whatever color someone would like.  Merino wool is extremely soft and blended with silk makes the perfect felted scarf.  Spun up the wool / silk would be wonderful also.  My niece's scarf is purple ... her favorite color!

Keeping the animals fed and watered, pens cleaned and fresh straw down is a major job these days.  As soon as I can get my tractor up and running we will take it over to the pasture for some major cleanup work.  As usual the battery is dead, even though it was a new one last summer.

We are waiting for a snow storm today that will probably last through New Year's Eve, then the temps will drop to below 0.  As long as the wind doesn't blow too much we should be ok.  We always have extra water on hand and keep the wood stove going.  This seems like a good day for some serious spinning.  I have several unfinished projects that I'd love to get done before New Year's.

One more project before Christmas completed and on the drying rack.  This is a merino / bamboo felted scarf for my daughter.  I have one to go by Christmas.  Hope I get it done by Friday evening.  They are both a surprise. 

Still haven't finished my shopping so off to town tomorrow and hope I find what I'm looking for.  We went into town last week to view the Christmas lights and they were certainly pretty.  I thought we'd walk around a bit to see what the stores had to offer, but at 4:15pm on a Sat evening, about a third of them were closed.  Too bad, with only a week or two left before Christmas. 

This will probably be the last posting before the 25th, so I pray everyone has a beautiful and blessed Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

So far I purchased one gift and have the 'makings' for several others.  Our family doesn't make a huge thing out of gift giving.  We enjoy the true meaning, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Trying to get out to the studio but so far I've only been able to do some carding and spinning in the house.  But that's something I certainly enjoy ... blending some batts for my etsy shop, but when I get them carded they look so interesting I always end up spinning them.  I really need to stop being so selfish and get some of this on the net for sale.  Here is the blue / aqua BFL I carded this week after dyeing it last month.  It looks totally different after blending.  This was put through the carder three times.

Inspiration for color blending and dyeing comes from so many different places for me.  God is the master and He is so able.  Every once in a while we are blessed to come across something that is so remarkable, and I just had to share this.  This is the 1st Place 2010 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition: Eyes of daddy longlegs, from an internet picture. 

I just wish we could witness more of His magnificent workings ... and recognize them as such.  God bless you all on this Thanksgiving.

Today we had our first snow.  When we got up at 5:30 there was only about an inch or so on the ground; its now 9:30 and still snowing.  My niece was so excited as she has never seen snow before.  She actually walked up in the dark to get our great pyr Bella out of her pen, just so she could be outside in the 'white stuff'.  They are best friends and go everywhere together.

Last week we had company, my sister and her daughter.  We did some spinning on spindles and had a go at the wheel.  They did so well.  Then we went over to see Paradise Fiber's new store.  Wow!  It is great, and they are still doing some remodeling.  So much space.  Paradise is a wonderful place to go, or shop on line.  They always seem to have just what I need, or are able to get if for me.  Check out their website:   ParadiseFibers.net

Yesterday I dyed about eight ounces of beautiful BFL fiber.  Four ounces each of Royal Blue and Aqua to blend together along with some kind of shiny 'glitz'.  Here's a photo before I card them on my drum carder into batts.  I plan to leave large sections of color, rather than completely blending the colors as I normally do.  We'll see.

Got out to my studio at last, after a short hiatus.  I forget just how incredibly peaceful I feel out there.  I'm hoping to get a spinning group going at our local community center this fall so I've been dyeing different types of fibers for participants to try.  So far I've got some Wensleydale, White Norwegian and my favorite BFL which stands for Blue Faced Leicester, but so much easier to just say BFL.  There will be spindles for everyone to try that doesn't have a spinning wheel available, also lessons or demos for everything.  Its possible to blend different fibers and/or colors by hand so we won't need a carder.

Also did some rainbow dyeing with a bit of blending nylon.  I've left it as it was when it dried so I can show how the colors blend after the fiber is drafted out a little.  There's probably enough for everyone to try a little anyway.

Fall in north Idaho is such a nice time.  Usually the weather is cold, clear and sunny.  This week however its been cool, cloudy and rainy.  The painters were here this week trying to finish painting the outside of the house but it rains off and on so they've had quite a time.   The screened porch is wonderful and sure keeps the bugs out of the house.