Oh, my goodness, tell me it's not true that my last post was February 16th! Well, that's on this blog - you know I couldn't be quiet for that long. If you want to catch up on my life, check out Jack and the Alpacas, you'll find the link on the side of this blog. Anyway, I'm here because I've actually taken a weekend to think of creating and not just caring for animals!
To say the boys have been time consuming is an understatement. It hasn't just been hands on, in fact, there's been very little hands on! The boys have not yet learned to like my touching them. They have grown accustomed to their new home and us and will come up to us, but we better watch our hands and not reach out - off they go running to the far corner!
So for the last two months I have made a couple of cards and a simple little scrapbook for a friend to celebrate her new grand baby. Other than that, my creative process has been used on fencing and flooring and how to help an alpaca learn to trust me so I can put a halter on. Put it on them, not me! Sometimes I think that would be easier - let them lead me around! lol
Anyway, shearing is coming soon and I know these boys will be glad to drop their three - five pounds of fiber and be cooler for the summer. It's better for us to wait until middle of May, but circumstances this year set the date to April 30. And believe it or not they had frost on their backs Saturday morning. Surely that will be the last time this year, but glad they still had their fiber. I certainly do wander, this is supposed to be about their fiber I'm soon to have in my house instead on the hoof!
This weekend I went to the Yellow Rose Fiber Producers Fiesta in Seguin, TX. The Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch where I bought my boys had a booth with their gorgeous fiber for sale and were set up with the wool store W. C Mercantile right beside them. I bought my first hand carders and got a quick lesson from Katie a remarkable 21 year old "fiber genius". She's been knitting since 8 and now spins, dyes and teaches how to begin the process. All this and college too! She is a wonder. Of course, I was especially drawn to her as that's my "perfect" granddaughter's name and the same kind of joy!
I was blown away by the array of fiber! It was like walking into a rainbow and the friendliest people I've ever met at a show of any sort. Everyone wanted to help me learn, no question went unanswered and I learned so much. After much walking around and my carding lesson, I went to my class on drop spindle spinning! It was a small class of about six of us, all of which knitted, except me! The first thing we were told to do once we had seen the beautiful fiber she brought for us to use and were introduced to the spindle, was to make a slip knot. For most of you that probably sounds like a simple instruction, but I just sat there with a blank look on my face as five other ladies quickly made their knot and slipped it over the top of the spindle. I just had to take a deep breath and say, "I'm sorry, but what is a slip knot?" Heads spun and the woman next for me showed me how. Not that I remembered later, but she helped the class move along with her help. No one ask why I wouldn't know how to do that if I was a knitter and if I wasn't a knitter why was I taking this class.
From that point on we were all beginners and I loved the process of spinning with this old and simple method. I actually made decent single ply yarn. Our teacher showed us another type of spindle called a Turkish spindle (no idea why it's called that) and it was interesting, but then she said, "You start it with a half hitch! Well, in my mind that was out of the question - another knot! No way!
Class ended and I headed over to show my progress to my friends and I saw the "Jeri Brock Woodworks" booth and had just been given a 10% discount on spindles so I stopped. What beautiful spindles! All hand made by Jeri of beautiful woods and I knew I had to have one. So I was preparing to ask about them when my spinning instructor appeared. She said, "hello and ask if I liked the spindle?" I said, "They were beautiful" and ask Jeri to help me find what I needed. Now this is the fun part! Jeri said, "What type of yarn do you want as that determines the type of spindle?" I looked at her with those same blank look I had over the slip knot! She looked at me and said, "What do you knit?" I loudly exclaimed, "Oh my, I don't knit!" I wish you could have seen the look on her face! Her eyes were wide open with surprise and wonderment and the heads in every booth around us had spun around! My instructor simply said, "She just got alpacas and is starting the process from the opposite direction than most of us!" I loved this comment and we had a big laugh and Jeri proceeded to introduce me to the many types of spindles and when she showed me the simple process of making a ball of yarn as you spin with the Turkish spindle I was sold! She showed me the half hitch knot ( this will be a separate post) and I got my first Turkish spindle. Jeri hand carves all of her spindles and they are beautiful. I got one with cutouts of Texas, but it won't be my last and so I will be collecting many of her designs. She encouraged me to spin for at least 10 minutes every day for seven days and I would be shocked at how much better I would be!
We will see!
Foot Note October 2014 - Just took two art yarn classes and by the middle of the second one realized that one of the women was my drop spindle teacher at the Seguin Show! Amazing how things come full circle! I have not added any drop spindles, but by that August I had added a spinning wheel! Never really got the hang of the drop spindle, but you will see that I learned to love to spin with my "Country Spinner" wheel. Art yarn here we come!!!!
