Learning to spin yarn has not been an easy pursuit for me. But after several classes and a good bit of practice, I’m starting to see some progress. It has helped me to use colorful fiber that I liked working with. The natural browns and off-whites looked so much like kitty hairballs that it was [...]
On day 2 of the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF), I took two dyeing classes, and fell in love with sheep. Here are some of the pictures I captured with my phone at SAFF last Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina.
More from the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair:
SAFF Day 1
The Animals from SAFF.
SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) is the first fiber fair I have ever attended. My reaction?
WOW! I didn’t know there was that much yarn…
(I took these pictures with my phone so please forgive the quality. Hoping to bring my real camera tomorrow.)
I tried hard to meet up with some Twitter buds today. In fact I [...]
Yesterday I voted for my favorite hand spun yarn in this Etsy Contest. Wow! It was a hard choice. And Inspiring. In the process, I visited lots of Etsy shops and added several to my list of favorites. If you haven’t voted already, please do! While you’re on Etsy, visit the Alpaca Farmgirl Shop, which [...]
For the Alpaca Bunny Smackdown, we are giving away a skein of white royal baby alpaca yarn. This yarn was home-grown on our farm. Made from the fiber of our alpacas, Earth Angel, who won a Blue Ribbon in the National Spin-off Competition, and her son, Bishop, who was a Champion herdsire. The skein is [...]
This was my first foray into dyeing yarn with professional acid dyes. First we got out all the equipment: Dye, pots for dyeing, mask, citric acid, spoon, and yarn.
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 [...]
I was inspired this week by this patriotic handspun yarn from Mona’s Etsy Shop. Mona has a dog named Elvis and says that she spins and knits everyday so she sounds fabulous to me! Visit her Etsy shop, and while your there visit the Alpaca Farmgirl Etsy shop. (I always forget to tell you about [...]
Since I am gearing up for our Beginning Spinning Class at the farm on May 23, I have spinning on the brain. I’m trying to learn a little ahead of time so that my brain doesn’t explode the day of the class. Here’s a helpful video on pre-drafting alpaca fiber for spinning.
In case you missed [...]
Start Spinning Book Review & Giveaway
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 [...]
This week’s feature Fiber Artist is hand-spinner, Spazzyyarn. She does a beautiful job spinning luxurious, chunky, thick and thin yarns that look good enough to eat. Last week I purchased her Neopolitan yarn. It is divine. Visit her Etsy shop for delicious yarns and a healthy dose of inspiration. Creative girl that she is, Spazzy [...]
Subscribe to Alpaca Farmgirl's RSS Feed
