I admit I’m nervous and I’m rambling… We are shearing the alpacas tomorrow. The head count is hovering near 100. We have never sheared 100 alpacas. In 2009 we sheared 77. Every year I get nervous, and every year it goes off without a hitch. Maybe it’s like putting on a big Broadway production. Whatever the correct metaphor, it IS a big event.

So far I’ve labeled the black and brown bags (that’s only about 15% of the way finished since most of our herd is fawn/light). I have to order the food and make the brownies.

Last night my young son made my day year when he actually said to me, “Mom, can I help with shearing day? I’ve always wanted to. It looks like fun.”

Oh yes he did.

He was sick last year. I remember one year him helping a grown up who was sweeping up the debris. (but that was not really fun so he lost interest after a few hours)

I hope super-shearer Marc Loffhagen and I can come up with a cool job for him this year. My son showed me his muscles and he is pretty strong so we shall see…

If you are interested in following along with the shearing madness I will be tweeting all day on Saturday from my @AlpacasLive Twitter account. If you are interested in purchasing alpaca fiber you can email me at katy (at) alpacafarmgirl (dot ) com. Bulk pricing is available in for 9 lbs. and up. Individual fleeces (2-4+ lbs.) are available as well in white, fawn, greys, brown, and black on a very limited basis. Visit our Etsy shop for alpaca yarns and more fiber. Visit our Alpaca Farmgirl shop for alpaca teddy bears, blankets, socks, and more.

Now I’m off to label the fawn bags…

This week on Fiber Arts Friday we want to highlight our Fiber Arts Friday participants’ shops. You can link your blog if you want, but you are welcome to use this week as an opportunity to promote your Etsy (or independent) shop.

Buy Handmade this Christmas and shop with our Fiber Arts Friday participants!

Fiber Arts Black Friday Carnival!

To participate:

1. In the Mr. Linky wigdget below add the permalink to a specific blog post or store that features something Fiber Art related .
2. If using a blog, Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s shops! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
3. Visit as many of the other participants’ shops as possible. Heart their products you like on Etsy and shop til you drop!
   
4. Tell your friends about this carnival. Let’s all help each other and promote each others’ shops on Facebook and Twitter. Stumble and/or Digg this post. Blog about it. Spread the word! Vote for small farms and indie artists with your dollars this holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Autumn's Fire

This week I’ve been dyeing alpaca yarn and fiber using Fall colors. Since we live in the South, summers are our most challenging season on the farm. This makes Autumn my favorite season. It brings such a welcome relief from the seemingly endless hot, humid days.

Butternut

What better way to revel in the season than creating fiber products that reflect its beauty?

Pumpkin Harvest

My dyed yarns and fiber can be found in my Etsy shop.

What have you been doing with fiber this week? Share with us below by linking your blog post to Fiber Arts Friday.

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!

National Alpaca Farm Days 2009

Last weekend was “National Alpaca Farm Days”. Both Saturday and Sunday we held an Open House for visitors to come and meet the alpacas. We had alpaca products available for sale. The weather was super hot and humid so we only sold a few skeins of yarn, but our new Paca Poo Tea was a big success! This little darling (above) visited us from a nearby neighborhood. She finally found what she wanted. A precious little alpaca teddy bear.

Alpaca Teddy Bears are SO soft!

Some people came from far away to see the alpacas. These ladies pictured below came all the way from New Orleans. This was their third time to visit our farm. It’s wonderful to have such dedicated “fans” of the alpacas!

These visitors drove over three hours to see alpacas!

I was even able to meet some Twitter friends who came over. What a great opportunity for a Tweet-up. Thanks to @Alli_Flowers for the photo!

Twitter Buddies meet to tweet in person.

Left to right: Adorable children of @subrbanoblivion, @subrbanoblivion, @AlpacaFarmgirl, Lucinda alpaca, @Dmovelle, and @Alli_Flowers.

What a great weekend! Looking forward to our next Open House during the Holidays. Sign up (top right corner) to be on our mailing list if you want to hear about upcoming events.

This is what the yarn looked like a’ natural.

First we wet the yarn, then put it in the dyepots. These pots had water, dye, and citric acid in them. We used purple and blue. We heated them up on the stove and let them sit for awhile, stirring occasionally.

After the dye was exhausted in the pot (water was clear), we removed and hung to dry. My Fiber Artist friend, Sherry gave me the tip to use two coat hangers to hang up the wet yarn. Hanging one at the bottom too keeps it from tangling up.

Final Result. I had a couple of spots that missed the dye so I can dye these again or leave them with a couple of tiny “bald spots”.

Note: Once you designate supplies for dyeing they are not supposed to be used for food anymore. I picked up a spoon to use that I thought, “I’ve never used this spoon.” The next morning my husband came into the kitchen and bellowed, “What happened to my stir-fry spoon?!!” Oops. He was soothed by the promise of a new spoon of his choice from Williams-Sonoma, and I was able to keep the peace. Something to keep in mind as you choose your dye-ware!

What have you been working on this week? Share it with our Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival. And if you missed last week’s Fiber Arts Piece de Resistance – it’s a MUST SEE!

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.

At Alpaca Farmgirl we’re hooked on Fiber! Visit Hooked on Houses and see what other people are Hooked on!

Knits For Needs is a knitting and crocheting charity that accepts and donates any and all knit or crocheted items.  They are based in Atlanta, but they will donate warm items to homeless shelters, hospitals, food banks, and to other people in need all throughout the United States.  This group was only formed in January of 2009 and have already donated around 120 items to charity.  Knits for Needs members and supporters include people from all over the world and from most of the 50 states.  They accept donations of knit/crocheted items, donations of yarn, and they hope to receive monetary donations as well to help with shipping costs.

Knits for Needs will provide any knitter or crocheter with yarn for their charitable projects if they don’t mind paying for shipping.  They will accept pretty much anything that has been hand-knit or crocheted with love.  People who would like to donate specifically to chemo patients do not need to worry about washing their items and bagging them because Meredith does all of that…even if you have pets and/or smoke.  See the Knits for Needs blog and other various sites for more info on chemo caps and other information. We are currently collecting items and our goal is to have donated 400 items by the end of the year!
We are thrilled to be able to help this wonderful charity started by Meredith Zelaya (pictured above). How can you help?

• Follow Knits for Needs on Twitter.
• Join their group on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/knits-for-needs
• Join their Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/merfzel#/group.php?gid=46599648838
• Spread the Word about Fiber Arts Friday! For every participant in Fiber Arts Friday this week – Alpaca Farmgirl will donate $1 to Knits for Needs to help them with shipping.
• Spread the Word about Fiber Arts Friday! For every 5 participants in Fiber Arts Friday this week – Alpaca Farmgirl will donate a skein of alpaca yarn to Knits for Needs.

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.
5. If YOU DON”T BLOG – but you TWITTER – You may upload a TwitPic and post the TwitPic’s URL in the URL spot. Enter your name however you would like it to appear. If you do enter via TwitPic or other Twitter venue – you must Tweet “I’m participating in #Fiber Arts Friday at http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com via @AlpacaFarmgirl” or some other similar tweet that includes this URL and @AlpacaFarmgirl. The more you Tweet, the more people visit and see your Fiber Arts entries!

Once the kids got finished dyeing their eggs…

I decided to dye some alpaca yarn. The dye was too tempting, I couldn’t just dump it out!

Set out to dry. I was pleased with the results!

Time for Cupcakes!

My Five Artists on Easter Sunday. We cleaned up and made it to church

(not an easy feat for us). Yea! Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

Here is the yarn in the jar that I kept putting in the microwave. After I used the green dye there were still some places on the yarn that had not taken the color. So I decided to dye it again in blue and see what would happen. Fortunately I loved the results. I did the same thing with yellow and orange and was not nearly as excited about the outcome.

I did the same thing with orange and pink. Liked these results.

Liz from Hobbledehoy posted a great tutorial on kettle dyeing, which is the next step I’m hoping to take. She uses professiona acid dyes from the Dharma Trading Company. Another great source for dyeing information is Paula Burch’s All About Hand Dyeing site. I recently picked up the book, Hands on DyeingThere is also a group on Yahoo! Groups called “Dye Happy” for those who are interested in discussing dyeing techniques and resources.  I can’t wait to dig in and get started, how about you?

Do you have any other great dyeing resources? If so, please leave them in the comment section!

Now let’s see what you Fiber Artisans have been up to this week. Link your fiber blog posts to the Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

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.

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Sherry's Christmas Cards - Giveaway 1

To thank our readers this Holiday Season, we have 12 prizes which will be given away. From December 12-23, one Giveaway will be ending each night at midnight. Check back to see if you’ve won.

Our 12 Days of Christmas includes something for everyone. There are prizes for fiber artists, chefs, livestock owners, knitters, and more! Our goal was to offer something for everyone.

Winners will be chosen at random. Enter as many different giveaways as you like, and along the way learn more about alpacas! Leave your comments on my posts and let me know what you’d like to hear more about. Click on the Giveaways below for more information and to enter.

12 Days of Christmas Giveaways:

Day 1 – Christmas Cards

Day 2 – Hay Bale Bag

Day 3 – Alpaca Baby Blanket/Throw

Day 4 – Alpaca Bean Coffee Gift Basket

Day 5 – $50 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card

Day 6 – Alpaca Scarf (or Kit)

Day 7 – Toothamatic

Day 8 – Alpaca Socks

Day 9 – Blog Design/Makeover

Day 10 – Alpaca Yarn

Day 11 – Alpaca Teddy Bear

Day 12 – $100 Home Depot Gift Card

Light Fawn Alpaca Yarn

Attention knitters and the people who love them! Here’s your chance to win 3 skeins of alpaca yarn (over $100 value)! This yarn is home-grown. Made from the fiber of our alpacas. It is light fawn in color (a touch darker than beige) and is 15wpi, labeled sportweight. These three skeins make up a total of 540 yards (the individual skeins are 180 yds and 3.75 oz. each).

Alpaca fiber is prized worldwide due to its luxurious fineness. Alpaca is very light, warm, and has a nice handle.  Alpaca also lacks the lanolin that wool has, making it wearable for those allergic to wool. It was made from the fleeces of Honeybelle and Butterscotch. We have white, brown, black, and grey yarn available in addition to more light fawn.  This yarn can also be purchased in our Etsy shop.  This yarn Giveaway made possible by the alpacas at Fairhope Alpacas!

Win these Three Skeins of Alpaca Yarn!

There are a total of 4 Ways to Enter to win, and everyone is eligible, except people I feed on a daily basis or write a weekly paycheck to. You can enter as many ways as you like. Each method of entry = 1 entry into the contest. Here’s how:

1. Leave a comment telling me what you would do with this luxurious yarn!

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.

3. 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.

* 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 21st at midnight CST.

View a list of all the giveaways so far. Happy Holidays!