I just finished reading Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey, and I have to highly recommend this terrific book. It has excellent photographs and she walks you through things slowly enough that you don’t get lost.

Ms. Casey begins by answering the question I had for many years – “WHY?” Why spin one’s own yarn? I mean, there are yarn shops for that, and mills to spin it, right? Once I fell in love with artsy yarns and realized how fun they could be I started to become interested in spinning my own. It is also more cost effective for a fiber grower such as myself to spin my own yarn. Economic times have made me look at these things.  But Casey really convinced me to give it a try when she spoke about the connection between spinning and our heritage. Not to mention the connection with the animals that grow our fleece and the consumers of our yarn.

This book teaches more than just how to spin. It teaches you about yarn. For alpaca breeders who aren’t spinning yet, this book is a helpful resource in understanding the process, and terms like “twist”, “wpi”, “ply”, and much more. As fiber growers, the more we know about our product and how it will be used, the better our product can be.

I’m dying to learn to spin! We will be holding a Beginning Spinning Class at our alpaca farm on Saturday, May 23th for anyone who would like to join us. Our teacher will be long-time Fiber Artist and Alpaca Breeder Sheri Watkins. Sheri is so kind, patient, and full of knowledge. Wheels will be available for rent that day or for purchase. If you ever wanted to learn to spin, and if you’d love to meet our alpacas ~ Join us! Click here for a registration form. You can also contact me at alpacas (at ) bellsouth.net for more information.

In the meantime, I am so impressed with this book, that I am going to give one away. There are four ways to enter to win a copy of this book:

1. Leave a comment telling me what you love about fiber, spinning, alpacas, anything really related to this topic.
2. Tweet about the giveaway and leave another comment including your tweet URL. (After you tweet go to your “updates”. Click on the date/time under your contest tweet. That’s the URL you want)
3. Subscribe to our RSS feed (top right corner of page). Leave a comment saying you did so.
4. Sign up for our farm email list (both are in the top right corner of this page). Leave a comment telling me that you did so.

Thanks for your entries and good luck. Contest will close Monday, May 4 at Midnight (CST). One winner will be chosed at random.

Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

1. Add the permalink to a specific blog post that features something Fiber Art related, rather than your general blog address and not your Etsy store. (Please DO put a link in your blog post that takes us to your store though.)
2. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!
4. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.

Be sure to visit our wonderful participants AND please leave them some comments!

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

We have closets, barns, rooms full of fleece. Just sitting there. It’s not that we don’t appreciate it, it’s just that – for some of us – there’s not enough time to do much with it. (Hey, I’ve got four kids and 75+ alpacas to tend to – that’s been my excuse for years.)

There are the organized breeders who ship it off to be processed the day after shearing. I try to be one of those. Try being the operative word. There are many places where alpaca breeders can send their fleece for cash or to be made into something they can sell. Look for a post with those resources next week.

In the past year, my kids have started school, allowing me to take up knitting and dyeing.  I’ve become more and more interested in processing the fiber myself. So I want to keep it around until I have time to work with it.

This room is where we usually hold seminars. Note the screen on the wall for Power Point presentations. Lately this room has needed to become the storage room while we get our house/farm ready to sell. The Artist has been grousing that he can’t fit his studio furniture in here if I don’t move the fiber. But where can I put 300+lbs. of fiber?

I told my Dad that it would help my marriage if he would please let me store some of my fleece in his shop building. He agreed! When I gave the Artist the news, he responded by singing, “Ahhhhh! Marital Bliss!” in his opera voice.

Here’s the truck ready to haul the fleece to my Dad’s. 53 bags to be exact. What are all these fleeces on the ground? Oh, that’s MORE fleece. Fleece from years past that was shoved into a bathroom in the Boy’s Barn. I had forgotten it was even there. (We ceased being able to USE that bathroom years ago when the fleece took it over) I’ll have to go through all this and figure out what to do with all of it…Tomorrow…I’ll think about that tomorrow.

When I saw one of the best fleeces in this bunch had bugs in it (lots of them) – I really wanted to throw up. I was so disappointed. Atlantis’ fleece. Atlantis, who sheared 8 lbs. of NECK fiber! A harsh lesson in not throwing the fleece in an unused bathroom for four years. Okay, okay. I’ve learned my lesson. *sniff* the hard way.

But I will go through all this and sort it out. At least I made the Artist happy by taking 53 bags of fiber somewhere else to store. I even made an inventory so I know which fleeces are where. I kept at least 15 25 fleeces to work with in the near future.

Recently, I sent some of our best fleece to Chris at Vtknitboy (left photo by Chris). I’m thrilled to report that he loved it and compared it with cashmere. If you would like me to send you a complimentary fleece sample for you to try out, email me at katy@alpacafarmgirl.com with your name, address and color preference (if you have one). Or visit our Etsy shop for alpaca yarn and other products for sale.

Anyone else gonna share their true confessions of fiber hoarding?

Twas the glorious day of Christmas 2008
Being up very early was the Carodel Dona.
The guests slowly left; only after they ate
but the greatest gift this day, a cria for Dona!

Yes you guessed it, we had our first Christmas present; a Christmas morning cria this year and she is magnificent. The morning was glorious. This is quite an experience that I wish I could really describe. Only hours before, at 2 AM, returning from the holy smoke and incense of our ushering in the Christmas season, I noticed a dam in deep contemplation, standing very quietly, while all others were helping her keep guard. Babies had no clue for they were sound asleep under the twinkly lights on their barn roof.

Went into our house and had shallow slumber to awaken at 6 AM to check the girls. Sitting down, now quite narrower and pulled up. No fuzzy one yet. Then as the sun came up and the cooking was not done; guest to arrive at 10:21. To my expectation, she went into Stage II; I called Penny, her owner, said, “It is time”.

And do you know that she was here in record time? The head appeared, then two legs, twist and turn from the Dona, and she was on the ground; “Coeur of Coup”.  Penny saw it all!! What a Christmas present for her!

Another miracle was that my 86 year old mother, who has moved to Georgia, and is not very ambulatory, found her sweater and her way out to the pasture to witness this birth. Now friends, that is full circle; a beginning and a near ending of life.

Take time to ponder your moments for they are so fleeting.
~Caroline

Donna and Cria - Photo by Caroline Mixon

The Toothamatic

Did you know that alpacas’ teeth grow? Eating wears them down but sometimes the teeth grow too long on our soft pastures (rather than the rocky terrain of the Andes in South America). Occasionally we need to trim their teeth. Sounds scary, right?

That’s where the Toothamatic comes in. It’s a tooth trimmer. One that saves Alpaca Breeders lots of time and money, and makes teeth trimming much easier on the alpacas. Designed by an alpaca breeder, this tool can be used with lamas too.

• It’s lightweigth (4.8 lbs.)
• Easy and Fast to use (2-4 seconds). This eliminates the risk of overheating the tooth which occurs when using a dremmel tool.
• Reduces stress on the alpaca and the human.
• Offers the “option” to adjust the length of the teeth.
• Saves serious $$$ over veterinary teeth trimming.
  

  Before. Older alpacas sometimes need a trim.

  

  Dental work - over in seconds

After. I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille.

Here’s what trimming teeth is like with the Toothamatic: It’s a Thursday afternoon, I am running around doing lots of errands, tight schedule, deadlines everywhere, the whole nine. On my To-Do list is trimming teeth on 3 alpacas. I drive up to the barn only 15 minutes before I have to go pick up my dumplings at school. I hop out and run to the barn. It’s pouring rain. I run into the office and ask Jeremy (my farm manager), “Can we do teeth now?”

“Sure,” he says. Phone rings. Its my hubby, the Artist, who asks what I’m doing. When I tell him, he complains, “You’re not gonna smell like teeth on our date tonight are you?”

“Of course not,” I assure him. Jeremy assures me that any teeth aroma will evaporate quickly. It does smell bad and we are supposed to wear masks because tooth dust is carcinogenic. Did you know that? Yeah, but I don’t worry much about it. I’m such a rebel you know.

In less than 10 minutes, we had trimmed teeth on 3 alpacas without any blood, sweat, or tears. Soon I was off to pick up the kids, take them to their lessons, pick up the babysitter, etc. …And in case you were wondering… perhaps it was because I had distracted surprised the Artist with NBA tickets, but I never did get any complaints that night that I smelled of teeth.  (Thanks Toothamatic! *wink*)

Win Your Very Own Toothamatic!

I believe firmly that every alpaca/lama farm should have one of these. They retail for $195. It will pay for itself after 2 or 3 uses. If you don’t win, contact Don Marquette at The AlpacaRosa to buy one. Tell him that you saw the Toothamatic at Alpaca Farmgirl AND buy one by 12/31/08 he will give you 10% OFF! You will be so glad you did. There are a total of 4 Ways to Enter to win, and everyone is eligible. You can enter as many ways as you like. Each method of entry = 1 entry into the contest. Here’s how:

1. Visit our Alpaca Herdsires list and then leave a comment answering this question: If you had got to breed one of your females to one of our herdsires, which one would you choose?

2. Subscribe to our RSS feed so you can keep up with what’s new on Alpaca Farmgirl. To do so, click the pink button on the homepage to subscribe to Alpaca Farmgirl. This means that you can receive updates from my blog each time I write a new post. You can choose to read them in a reader such as Google, or have them sent to your email account. Once you’ve subscribed to our RSS feed, leave a comment and tell me that you’ve subscribed. (If you are already a subscriber just put that in your comment. Thanks!) Consider subscribing to the Alpaca Farm Business feed as well. That feed is different, and subscribing to either one will get you an entry.

3. Follow me on Twitter and leave a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. You can write whatever you like as long as you link to this post. Leave a comment that you tweeted with a direct link to your tweet.

4. Write a post on your blog about this Giveaway. You can write whatever you want, just link back to this post. Leave a comment that you did this with a direct link to your post. If you don’t have a blog, email at least 3 people to tell them about this Giveaway. Leave me a comment that you did this.

* It is important that you leave a separate comment for each method of entry.* Winner will be chosen at random. This giveaway ends on December 18th at midnight CST.

Each day from December 1-7, I will be announcing 2 Giveaways per day. One prize will be unveiled in the morning and one in the afternoon. View a list of all the giveaways so far. Happy Holidays!