Rovings in the Store

At long last, we have roving -- actually carded batts -- available in The Alpaca Merchant our on-line store. I think about half the colors and 3/4 of the volume are presently listed and we'll be adding more over time. We have a few fleeces still to list and the way time flies, 2005 shearing is almost upon us.

For dramatic color, I suggest our Tiger Eye HeatherSelect™ Blend. This is a black base with tan highlights and provides very dramatic color when spun. This blend draws visitors like a magnet at fiber festivals and craft shows.

For pure, luxurious, softness, I suggest our Chocolate Stripe HeatherSelect™ Blend. This fiber is from two alpacas that produce consistently soft fiber year after year and it is wonderfully soft. The dark brown highlights are dramatic in the lighter background, but the strength of this blend is softness. I dream of the day our breeding program is so successful that all of our alpacas produce fiber this soft.

Custom Handspinning

Our Custom Handspinning prices are now up under the services section of the website.

I haven't done anything with fiber today and at the rate the day is going, I'm not likely to do so. It's disappointing, but there are a lot of aspects to keeping a farm going and sometimes they must come first.

Take this pasture I've been thinking is almost finished for a couple months now just as an example. When I did the drainage a while back, I made a lot of mud. This mud is under the roof, so it will be where the alpacas cush (lie down). If they lie down in the mud, their fiber will get all muddy and be that much harder to work with. To deal with the mud problem, I hauled several cart-loads of sand from where the dog pen used to be and put that over the mud. They'll probably need more sand, but I put enough in there to get them started.

The next thing we realized is we don't have a catch pen in this pasture. We try not to chase our alpacas all over the pasture to catch them. We gently herd them into a catch pen -- a 10' x 10' area -- when we need to work with them. It's a lot easier for us and less stressful for the alpacas. We also feed the alpacas in the catch pen. It allows us to separate the alpacas while they're eating to make sure everybody gets some, and the alpacas learn to associate the catch pen with food, not just shots and toenail trims. Just feeding Sindre and Drake without a catch pen makes us shudder, so I took some panels and rigged a catch pen in the new pasture.

We feed our alpacas in big plastic bins. In our larger sheds, where we have plenty of floor space out of the rain, we just toss the bins on the floor and fill them with hay. The dry floor space in the new pasture is somewhat limited. Therefore, we need to build a proper feeder mounted off the ground so they can use all the limited floor space. I spent much of today demonstrating my limited carpentry skills trying to make a feeder. I think I have one that will work, except some of the screws are too long and I've already gashed my thumb on one. The screws are where the humans will get gashed, not the alpacas, but we still need to come up with a better solution. The feeder isn't square, even, or any of those things, but I doubt the alpacas will notice once I put some hay in it.

By the time I finished the feed bin and took care of the alpacas, it was time to haul in some firewood and start supper.

And I thought I got going pretty early this morning and I'd actually accomplish something today.

Carding

I spent some time carding yesterday. I started with the black baby suri alpaca fiber I had washed -- and felted -- a few days ago. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I teased much of it loose with a metal dog comb and carded all of it. There are still a few small clumps that aren't carding well and I'll have to pull those out as I continue to work the fiber. Chances are I can tease them out with a metal dog comb, but some of them may end up getting discarded.

I also carded the gray fiber also destined for the Naughty Puppies Blend. The gray fiber came out pretty clean.

My original plan was to blend the black suri into the gray huacaya to get black streaks. After washing, however, I have 17.6 ounces of black suri and 7.2 ounces of gray huacaya. Even given the volume difference in the huacaya because it fluffs up more, this isn't going to work because I have too much suri for the amount of huacaya fiber.

I'm still not convinced blending the suri is the right thing to do. I'm not really happy selling the roving as is because of all the short and variable staple in the fiber as well as the felty clumps. However, it certainly is something I could spin into very nice yarn. If I blend it with the longer and also variable length gray fiber, I will have a more manageable staple length, and the felty clumps will tend to get worked out in the blending process. It's something to think about as I work with the fiber.

Right now, I'm experimenting with blending the gray huacaya into the black suri. I'm curious how the fluffier gray stretches will work against the black suri background. I have a sneaking suspicion I'll end up with some black suri roving and some blended roving when I'm through with this.

(And trust me, whatever I end up doing, I will deal with those felty clumps. I'm not going to sell rovings with felty clumps in them.)

We continue to work on our on-line store. A better description of our HeatherSelect™ line of rovings and yarn is available as a popup from the Knitting Nook page. The HeatherSelect™ line is not only our signature line, but they are my pride and joy and a lot of fun to create. The updated rovings page is in progress and we should have rovings available shortly.

Our AlpacaNation site site has been updated with fiber pictures of our little boys. It's going to be fun shearing those guys in May -- they're growing wonderful, wonderful fiber.

For the bird lovers out there, check out our "nest stuffers" or "bird nesters". These are birdfeeders, except they serve alpaca fiber to be used as nest linings rather than bird seed. Our nest stuffers are listed under the Miscellaneus Matter section of the on-line store.

Red Heart Wonders

Reading a knitting blog yesterday made me think about some of the experiences I've had at various shows -- and how another booth owner taught me to handle them.

We do two types of shows. The first type is fiber shows like Black Sheep Gathering and the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. These shows are full of fiber people. Visitors to our booth know what alpaca is and many of them know alpaca well enough to evaluate the differences in the various fleeces we have for sale. Many of these people are not upscale, but they understand the value of good yarns. A large fraction of them are hand spinners so they know the work involved. In short, they understand and appreciate what we're selling and they generally have no problem with our prices.

The other shows we do are local craft fairs and similar events. Customers at these shows frequently don't know what alpacas are -- we get questions about how we spin from the feathers. Few of these visitors are spinners, and many don't understand how much work is involved in creating a handspun yarn. In addition, Roseburg is not a wealthy area and there are a large number of people who simply don't place a lot of value on other people's time -- or their own.

Sundays at the Roseburg Christmas Craft Fair used to be the worst for me. Sunday tends to be bargain-hunting day and many visitors think it's a show rule that you must cut prices 50% at opening on Sunday and an additional 50% at noon on Sunday.

The first year at the Christmas Craft Fair, I had a little handspun yarn for sale and several hats I had crocheted from handspun alpaca -- from our own alpacas. Those were (and still are) special hats and I had a lot -- too much -- of pride and ego tied up in them. The hats were priced at $45 which I think is a reasonable price -- but not great compensation for my time.

About the fifth time somebody accused me of being a rip-off artist and explained that she could make the same hat in half an hour using under $2.00 worth of yarn from Walmart, I got really, really, angry. Pam had to take away my spinning wheel and send me away from the booth. I was hurt. I was mad. I was insulted. I was livid and I suspect I was getting pretty loud.

After the tenth time this happened, Pam sent me off to an out-of-the-way corner with my spinning wheel and ran the booth by herself the rest of the day.

Several months later, I was sitting in a spinning circle and mentioned my experience at the Christmas Craft Fair. I guess I should explain that the Umpqua Spinning and Weaving Guild has a skilled and active membership and they usually have a booth at the same Christmas show that offers some really nice items.

The very gentle elderly woman to my right sneered, "Don't worry about them, they're just Red Heart Wonders." The woman to my left explained that they're the bane of every guild event. Somebody else said they don't understand and most of them never will. It was quite comforting to know that every person in that spinning circle had experienced Red Heart Wonders and their attitude toward spinning and they had all been offended at some point in their lives and all gotten past being offended. I figured at that time that maybe I could learn not to be offended as well.

Fast forward to the next year at the Roseburg Christmas Craft Fair. I mentioned to another vendor -- and I forget his name but he makes intricate wooden puzzles and his wife makes dolls and his booth has been near ours every year. He's one of those people who is always joking and making fun of everyone, but he has a rare skill of poking fun at people with a real sense of warmth -- you know that when your turn comes, you will laugh at yourself and not feel put down. Saturday afternoon and I mentioned I was dreading Sunday because of the Red Heart Wonders. He said to me that if anybody really wanted to provide hats like mine for $2.00 each, he'd take twenty, but they had to be made from handspun alpaca.

I have a totally new attitude toward Red Heart Wonders. I understand that they simply aren't my market. I don't price to them, cater to them, sell to them, or worry about them. And when somebody tells me they can make garments like mine for ridiculously low prices, I smile and say,

"If you'd like to do that, I'll take a dozen -- in alpaca."

On a Brighter Note

On a brighter note, our daffodils are open.




And so is one crocus

Unintentional Felt

You would think after all the fine alpaca I have washed, that I would no better than to wash already carded, very fine, baby suri alpaca aggressively!

I want to cry.

I managed to felt the black baby suri while I was washing it yesterday. I can't tell yet how badly felted it is. From what I can tell, I'll be able to salvage at least 80% of it -- probably 95% -- but doing so will take some work.

I OUGHT to know better.

The truth is, it takes discipline to remember not to agitate fiber too much during the washing process. It's very easy to get caught up in the process. Each time the fiber is moved through the water, the water gets dirtier -- meaning the fiber gets cleaner. I have to remember to restrict myself to three gentle swishes each time I change the water. After all, I sometimes spin alpaca unwashed, so I ought to understand that it is far better to leave a little dirt on the fiber than to felt the fiber.

And it's always the best fiber that gets felted because the finer the fiber, the easier it is to felt -- at least in my hands. I anticipated trouble with this fiber because it was so fine and already carded. You would think that fifteen minutes after writing about my trepidation in washing the fiber, I could remember to be gentle with it.

But no, I felted the fiber.

I said earlier that at least 80% of the fiber is fine and I'll probably recover 95% or more with a little work. I also said I can't tell how bad it is yet and I won't have a clear picture of the situation until it dries more. Time to stop kicking myself and talk about how to wash alpaca fiber safely.

Water and agitation will felt alpaca fiber. Actually, it's moving fibers against each other while they're wet. Soap and heat speed the felting up quite a bit.

I'm not quite sure what soap does, but I have two theories. While alpacas don't have lanolin like sheep, they do have some natural body oils that cover and protect the fibers. These oils largely prevent wet fibers from rubbing against each other while the fiber is on the alpaca. The tips tend to weather and felt, but most of the fiber is protected. Soap removes these protective oils. In addition, most felting recipes I have seen include soap, so I suspect soap plays an additional role in the felting process.

Electric shears are oiled with chain saw bar oil -- at least that's what folks around here use. Bar oil is a very thick and sticky oil and it gets into the fiber during shearing.

The objective in washing the fiber is to remove the dirt, natural body oils, and chain saw bar oil from the fiber without felting the fiber. To accomplish this, it is necessary to thoroughly wet each individual hair with hot, soapy, water while avoiding any action that might cause hairs to rub against each other in the process. Once the fiber is washed, it must be rinsed -- again without rubbing the individual hairs against each other.

That's the theory.

How to achieve this theory in practice is a bit harder. I wash my fiber in lingerie bags to keep the fiber from going all over the sink. I have found that putting the flexible lingerie bags into the water and taking them out tends to cause fiber to rub against each other too much. Putting the fiber -- still in the lingerie bags -- in stiff, leaky, containers seems to reduce felting considerably. I use ventilated cleaning caddies or shelf boxes -- the things you can buy at the dollar store for storing cleaning supplies. The holes in the sides allow the water through to wet the fiber, but the stiff shape reduces agitation of the fiber. I have also heard of people using a pasta strainer from a soup pot for this purpose. Putting the fiber in something stiff helps me agitate it less.

As I write this, I just realized something. My caddies have no holes in the bottom. Therefore, when I change the water during the washing and rinsing process, I turn them on their sides. When I do so, the lingerie bags of fiber flop around -- I'll bet that's a source of agitation. Before I use my caddies again, I'm going to add some holes to the bottom so the muddy water can drain out.

Someday, I'll post my entire washing process on this website since it is one of the more frequent questions at fiber shows. Until then, I hope you find this post useful. And remember, please be gentle when washing alpaca fiber.

Naughty Puppies Blend

In spite of all the other work I need to do today, I decided to do some fiber as well. Back when I introduced this blog, I mentioned the Puppies in the Wool Room Blend that I was working on and this thread carried through several posts. In addition, I mentioned another blend that would result from the same incident. This second blend was to be black suri and gray huacaya.

Today I started working on this second blend and I think I'm going to call it the Naughty Puppies blend -- but I'm not sure I'm going to make a blend.

I started by skirting the black baby suri prior to washing. This suri was left on the animal well over a year. The North American show system demands that suri alpacas have long fiber in fancy locks, so the fiber is often left unshorn into the alpaca's second year -- by which point the tips are felted and the locks are semi-permanent and the fiber is had to work with. If a suri is a potential high-value alpaca, then it is left in show fleece through the hot summer to improve it's sales price. If alpacas are ever to be an important fiber producing animal in North America, AOBA and the North American alpaca industry absolutely need to better align the show system with the needs of animal health and fiber processors -- but I'll tilt at that windmill a different day.

As I was saying, I started by skirting the black baby suri alpaca and found that it was already at the point of starting to felt. I was quite concerned that washing it further would cause additional felting and make it extremely difficult to work with the fiber. The fleece is too dirty to work unwashed. I don't expect my customers to be nearly as willing to spin unwashed alpaca as I am, and if I'm not willing to work it unwashed, it is totally unreasonable to expect my customers to do so. Therein lies the problem. The fiber must be washed, but washing it runs the risk of creating felt.

I decided to card the fiber first. Sometimes this helps. Sometimes carded fiber is more vulnerable to felting. In this particular case, I thought carding prior to washing likely to produce the best results. I carded the black suri and it didn't card well or easily. I put it through the carder 2-3 times and it looks much better. The batts are somewhat lofty and there are fewer fibers tied together in tight clumps and locks.

As I write this the fiber is soaking in the first bath of hot, sudsy, water. That water is black and it stinks. Some odor -- reminiscent of wet dog -- is normal when washing alpaca fleece. This much odor is unusual. I'm wondering if an extra soak will be required for this fiber to come clean.

The plan at this point is to finish washing the black baby suri, then wash the gray huacaya and allow both fleeces to dry. From that point, I will decide if I want to proceed with the blend.

We originally decided on the blend when we thought there were so many stray light fibers polluting the black suri that it would be undesirable to spin the fiber as black. After carding the fiber, I'm not so sure the stray light fibers are a problem. Yes, they are present and yes they would have to be plucked during spinning. I'm not convinced there are so many fibers as to create a real problem. I want to look at the fleece after it's been washed and put through the drum carder one more time before I make that decision.

If I do decide to blend the fibers, I will card each color until it's ready to spin, then I will layer black suri into the gray huacaya to create streaks of black within the gray. Because the two colors have different textures, there are two issues to take into consideration while carding. The first is integrating color and the second is consistent texture. My vision is of streaks of black in a basically gray roving. If I card to texture uniformity, the black suri will simply darken the gray huacaya and I'll have what appears to be a very dark gray fleece. That's not what I'm looking for, so I might end up with some texture non-uniformity. I'm not quite sure how that would spin up. It ought to be an interesting blend and I'm looking forward to it.

Pictures

I have pictures to post today.

On February 8, I mentioned that I had re-crocheted the brim on a hat.




Here is the fixed hat. The brim still puckers slighly whent he hat is folded flat, but not when the hat is worn. I like the hat much better.

Today's other picture is of the yarn I've been spinning and spinning and spinning for the past six weeks.




Here it is. Pinero's fiber has all been spun into yarn and washed. The yarn feels much softer with the washing, it's gained a lot of luster, and I think it's a shade lighter, too. I'm really pleased with the yarn and I think the owner will be really pleased when she see it.

I haven't started any new fiber projects yet. I'm making reasonable progress on the pasture. The drain is finished. All the T-posts I can reach are clipped. I still have to pull 2 t-posts and r-pound them on the other side of the wire. There are two gaps between posts and the shed that need to be closed. The drain has been installed and covered. I need to backfill the trench in some areas due to settling, then cover the whole loafing area with sand to keep the 'pacas from getting muddy. I'll finish someday.

Why I Prefer Plying from the Bobbin

I finished plying up Pinero's yarn this morning. It's almost done -- I simply have pull two skeins off the plying bobbins and wash the yarn. Feels like a weight off my back. I can finally move on to the next project.

As mentioned yesterday, I was having absurd difficulty with ends and breakage on one bobbin. I finally gave up and emptied that bobbin using the ball winder. As predicted, I had several extra ends and the end I ultimately needed was buried. Frustrating.

Once I removed the problem yarn, spinning the rest of the singles was quick. I plied the yarn from the bobbins very quickly, and then continued plying using one strand from a bobbin and the other strand from the center of my center-pull ball. As predicted, I had some uneven tension between the two sources, but I was able to handle that and make nice yarn. Unfortunately, I didn't get my yarn sources even, so I ended up with almost half a bobbin of singles and nothing to ply against those singles.

I could have delivered a large skein of singles with the two-ply yarn. However, I had a lot of yarn left, so I got out the ball winder and wound the yarn into a ball. Then, I started plying using both ends of the center-pull ball.

There are times when plying from both ends of a center pull ball is appropriate. I use this technique frequently when I'm making yarn samples from my HeatherSelect™ blends. It's a very quick process to spin up a few yards, wind it onto a ball, grab the ends, and ply right back onto the same bobbin. The whole purpose of the yarn is to show off what the blended roving will look like when spun.

When I'm making large quantities of yarn, I don't like plying from the center pull ball and the yarn doesn't look the same as when I ply from bobbins.

The first problem is the yarn plying as it comes off the ball before I'm ready for it to ply. One strand pulls out the center of the ball. The other strand unwinds from around the ball -- and winds around the center strand in the process. Because of the unwinding process, the strand from the outside tends to be longer and slacker than the strand pulling from the center. This means I have to constantly re-tension that strand. It slows down the plying and makes the plied yarn slightly inconsistent.

Problem number two has to do with fuzzies on the single -- usually the strand from the center of the ball -- catching on other strands much as fuzzy yarn tends to catch when ripping out knitting or crochet. Some yarn is a lot more of a problem than others depending on how worsted (or semi-worsted) the single is spun, how much the single is overspun, how crimpy the fiber is, and how long the fiber is. With long-staple suri spun fine, this problem doesn't happen. With soft, woolen-spun huacaya from a crimpy fleece, this can be a real problem.

The third problem is consistency of loft and twist when some yarn is plied from the ball and some from the bobbin. In my hands, yarn plied from the ball tends to be loftier than the same singles plied from bobbins. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when delivering a number of skeins, some plied from the bobbins and others from the ball, consistency is an issue. I think what happens is that the yarn gets relaxed when it is wound into the ball. Therefore, it's more relaxed when plying happens and it is plied under less tension -- meaning it untwists more during plying. Part of this can be addressed through experience by adjusting my treadling speed to accommodate the different tension from the ball. Some of it, however, will always be different because tension and relaxation affect how the yarn untwists during plying and those will always differ between a ball and a bobbin.

Finally, I have more experience plying from bobbins and at my current skill level, I have more control. I know what I can do and what to adjust when I'm plying from a bobbin. I don't have this control when I'm plying from a ball and I lose that control when I have to stop to unwind the yarn or de-tangle the center strand.

It feels great to be through spinning Pinero's fiber into yarn. Now I can move on to the next project -- although I haven't figured out what that is yet.

Lost an End

Here I am, happily spinning along, and the yarn snaps. This wasn't the usual problem of drafting the yarn apart and having the strand fall apart at the drafting triangle. Nope, this was an audible snap with the yarn breaking at the bobbin.

When the yarn breaks, the normal procedure is to catch the end and thread it through the orifice so you can start spinning again. Some spinning wheels come with devices called orifice hooks, so you know that catching the spun yarn and bringing it back through the orifice is fairly common. My wheel has a large orifice, so I just stuff the yarn through instead of using a hook.

This morning, when the yarn broke, I went to find the end.

No end.

It just broke. It has to have an end! Breaks create two new ends. I have one end in my hand. There has to be another end on the bobbin!

No end.

I bend forward and look carefully while turning the bobbin very, very slowly.

No end.

It's basic topology! If the yarn broke, it must have an end!

No end.

I place my hand against the yarn and spin backwards hoping the end will catch on my hand. This trick works -- sometimes.

No end.

I carefully work my finger under a strand and start spinning forwards -- theoretically, this should eventually let me find the end because my finger should spin out from under the yarn. Eventually. Theoretically.

No end, but I discover another loop of yarn crossing OVER the one I'm working. Hmm, if that yarn goes over this yarn, it must be spun more recently …

I switch my finger to the new strand and start spinning forward again.

No end.

I spin a little more.

Snap!

Not how I planned it, but I guess I've got an end. Actually, the yarn has broken twice, this means I now have three ends. I'm sure this will come back to haunt me, but for now I have an end. I can join to it and resume spinning. I'll figure out the rest of the mess when I ply the yarn off the bobbin.

I pull on the yarn and slowly treadle backwards so I have enough to feed back through the orifice and join.

A six or eight foot length of yarn falls off the bobbin into my hands. It would seem I have found two of my three stray ends.

I toss the short length aside and resume my search for the original end.

I've been having a really hard time with one particular bobbin of Pinero's singles. I have broken the yarn repeatedly on this bobbin, and I had to do some serious fishing for ends on several occasions -- and I have this odd feeling that I have five or seven ends lost in this bobbin.

I'm not quite sure what is going on with this bobbin, but I SUSPECT that I spun fairly slack for a while so I have some singles spooled fairly loosely on the bobbin. Since then, I have been winding the yarn onto the bobbin with slightly more tension. Due to the increased tension, the yarn cuts or digs into the previously wound yarn. It then either catches and snaps, or I create an overspun or weak spot that catches and snaps. Because the end is winding through the previously spun yarn, it's buried and I can't find it.

Of course, when I'm unwinding from this bobbin -- in this case by plying -- I start encountering difficulties in this same place because not only do I have tension problems forcing the yarn to unwind through other strands, but now I have crossed ends creating a topological nightmare. My theory is that I reach the problem area on this bobbin just as the plying bobbin is getting full -- and rather than work through this area, I have quit plying. This means, every time I have plied I came right back to this spot -- and therefore I've started filling the bobbin right at the problem area -- meaning I'm making -- and breaking -- more joins right where all the problems are.

I can see making sure I wind on with a consistent tension as a preventive measure. Haven't figured out any good fixes or corrective measures yet. I am contemplating unwinding the bobbin with a ball winder and then plying from the ball rather than the bobbin, but I prefer plying from bobbins and I dislike plying from sources that provide inconsistent tension.

Anyhow, that's my theory.

Now, if I could only find that end …

In Process, No Progress

It's starting to feel like spring here. Our daffodils are showing color and the crocus buds are getting fat.

It's been a busy week with only a little progress on the fiber front. It's amazing how busy one can be with seemingly so little accomplished.

On Wednesday, we ran errands. It was one of those days where first appointment was supposed to take 20-30 minutes, but started late and took 90. That put us behind for the rest of our errands and appointments and it seems like they all started late and ran long. By the time we got home, we were so rushed and scatterbrained supper was about all we could manage.

We have this monster van customized for alpaca transport. It started out as a 15 passenger van. From there, we had a cage installed to keep the alpacas in their part of the van. In addition to the cage, we installed a raised floor and a ramp that stows underneath the floor. Then we did a lot of caulking. While a large van isn't easy to drive -- not like our nice little car -- it is a lot easier than driving a trailer.

One of our errands on Wednesday was to help some friends transport alpacas to a new owner. Faye at Chosen Few Suri Alpacas near Tenmile, Oregon has been busy improving barn and pasture for the past few months and she now has five suri alpacas to utilize those structures.

Thursday was another one of those long days that somehow left little time for Fiber. Friday, I made progress on all the outdoor tasks, but didn't finish any of them. I finally spent some quality time with the spinning wheel Friday evening. I am ready to start spinning the last batt of Pinero's fiber. I should also be on the last bobbin singles -- unless I end up juggling bobbins so that the fiber comes out even. I guess it's time to get serious about projects to work on after Pinero's fiber is done.

I've made no progress with the on-line store -- still only yarn in the inventory. I can't figure out how to get good pictures of batts of fiber with my antique digital camera and a new one isn't in the budget at the moment. I'll probably play with putting fiber -- and possibly yarn samples -- directly on the flatbed scanner to see how that works. If anybody has suggestions for getting good pictures of dark fiber, I'd love to hear them.

The Fix is In

The fix is in, or at least the hat is fixed. I put a new brim on with the same yarn and things went mostly according to plan. You may recall that this hat was originally crocheted brim-up and I then removed the brim by snipping some yarn. I then crocheted into the existing loops and worked a new brim onto the hat. It's as if I worked two ways from one starting chain except there is no starting chain any more. I threw in a row of alternating HDC/front post HDC for interest. The hat looks good.

The next fix rip is an earband that is just too small. I love the pattern, but it doesn't show because it's very fine handspun in a dark color. The earband isn't tall enough either -- about half the height of my ears. I adjusted the repeats and the length for the diameter of my head, but I didn't adjust the number of repeats properly for the height (or is it width) of the band. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with the yarn. It's not very much, but it's really nice one-ply, handspun, huacaya. And it's not going to happen this evening, because ripping yarn this dark and this fine will require better light, tweezers, and possibly a magnifying glass.

My project today was to clean up the pump house so I could bleed the pressure tank. For those of you on city water, buried wells, or modern pressure tanks, this is a chore you've probably never heard of -- and are well advised to avoid. If you leave me a comment, I can explain the physics of the task in gory detail, but you probably don't want that either. Suffice it to say, I needed to work on the pressure tank today, which requires me to work in the pump house. It also means our drinking water system would be open to the environment of the pump house.

Before I could start working on the pressure tank, I had to clean the pump house. This involved removing the mixture of decaying fiberglass insulation, mouse droppings, and less savory detritus from the pump house. I cleaned up six very large plastic garbage bags this mess from the pump house and washed down the interior with a mixture of bleach and water -- very heavy on the bleach.

My cleaning thus accomplished, I set out to drain the water from the pressure tank and promptly broke the water main. That's right, I managed to snap the pipe that carries the water from the pump house to our house. Plumber was called. Emergency charges will be charged. Water is restored.

And not only do I not feel very good about anything I've accomplished all day, this whole mess has really cut into my spinning time.

One the spinning wheel: Pinero's fiber -- natural gray alpaca
On the crochet hook: Child's hat -- Fixed and finished today.

February is Love it or Rip it Up Month.

Actually, I think it's called the February fix is in month. Something like that. Anyhow, I've been noticing this little button all over knitting blogs all month and I hope I followed proper protocol in obtaining it. I wouldn't want the blog police after me when I'm just getting started.



As I was photographing some of my finished goods for the on-line store, I noticed one particular hat that -- well -- it won't ever sell as it is. It's a cute kid's hat, but the brim just doesn't lie right -- it doesn't fold up clean and it doesn't flop, it just sorta ... well ... looks funky.



As you can see, the brim is rather funky.



And when I turn it over, the brim is rather funky on this side, too.

Unfortunately, it isn't the sort of funky that simply blocking or re-blocking is going to fix. The brim is either too large for the hat or simply not contoured to the hat. Whatever the case is, it doesn't stay snug to the hat like a fold-brim hat and doesn't flop like a flop-brim hat, but insists on trying to do both at the same time.

So, in the spirit of the February fix, I decided to either fix the hat or to reclaim the yarn. It's a great kids hat in handspun alpaca. I'd like to fix it if I can, and I can always use black handspun alpaca yarn if I can't.

The design is a pretty standard brim up hat. The brim area is single crochet with the turn area created by working only in the back loop. Above the brim, the pattern is a simple alternating double-crochet and front post double-crochet to create ruffles. The color switch is where the brim turning starts.

The tan outer brim is removed at this point. I did this by snipping a few stitches and then pulling the tan end to separate the brim from the hat. I then pulled out the crochet and wound the ball onto my ball winder.

My thinking is I can simply single-crochet into the same loops and essentially re-create the brim using the base of the hat as a starting chain. I haven't decided if I'll try to use the same yarn or use something else. I also haven't decided if I need to toss in a couple decreases to hold the brim snug against the hat. I guess I'll try it.

Pasture Progress: I've got the trench completed and the pipe in place. There is an outside chance I'll have the drainage work complete and be back to finishing the fence today.
On the Spinning Wheel: Still Pinero's fiber, but the end is in sight.
On the crochet hooks: fixing a hat

The Secret is Out -- It's an on-line store

The secret is out. We have an on-line store. You can visit my store by clicking on the Alpaca Merchant link on the sidebar.

Our on-line store will feature mostly 100% alpaca in natural colors and blends of natural colors. Like most fiber people, I like to play with color and try new things, so we will occasionally stock dyed fiber and blends of alpaca with other fibers.

Right now, we have handspun yarn and various miscellany in the store. We will be adding roving (technically carded batts), raw alpaca fiber, crocheted items, and other goodies to the store over the next few weeks.

Progress on projects:
The fence: No progress because we discovered we had to drain part of the pasture so now I'm busy digging trenches …
On the spinning wheel: Pinero, but I've made progress. I have finished another bobbin of 2-ply and it's half onto the niddy-noddy. I have just over four ounces of carded fiber left, so the end is in sight.
On the knitting needles: What knitting needles? Oh, wait, now I remember. There is a practice piece somewhere under a stack of fiber.

Longest Skein Ever

I just finished winding the last bobbin of Pinero's 2-ply into a skein. It's a monster skein -- 1036 yards and 8.8 ounces. No wonder it took me forever. Both bobbins of singles are still about half full -- maybe another 8 ounces and 1000 yards. It's been around two weeks since I last pulled a skein off the wheel, but I seem to have spun a pound of fiber and something over 4000 yards of singles in that time. Maybe I should stop complaining about my productivity.

Writer's Block & Secret Web Projects

Three days without a post, and only one post in the last five days. I'm not doing very well.

Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time doing interesting things with fiber lately. One can only write "still spinning Pinero, same old practice piece, haven't finished the fence" so many times.

I've been trying to write about interesting alpaca fiber and spinning facts, but my brain keeps going blank. I know I have interesting things to write about, but I can't think of what they are, or I start writing and they don't sound so interesting anymore. Plus, there are some days when I just don't feel like writing. If you have something to ask, please post a comment or write. I'll be happy to answer.

In addition, I've been spending much of what would be my writing and spinning time creating content for a new area on our website. This is something I worked on for about 18 months and then threw out most of my work. Pam took over back in November, so naturally progress has been made. Now it's to the point we can both work on it. We have a lot to add to the new area, but it is now publicly available. I'll post more about it and add links when in a week or so when additional items are available.