A Rainbow of an idea

Have you ever had an idea that you just had to put into something real? Well I did in tbis one of a kind rainbow yarn! It was a concept that I had and wasn't even sure it would work, so I set out to dye 7 batts of alpaca the 7 colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Then i got busy...

I spun each color in order of the rainbow, putting on about a foot and a half at a time. Each color in order until I filled the spool.

I then plyed it with white alpaca and the results were rather great! As it was coming along the colors were beginning to remind me of the fruit gum we had as kids. My concept was real.

The finised product and I must say it was out of my comfort zone with color but not the concept. This year has been the year of the rainbow for me, who doesn't wish for the promise of what a rainbow holds? 

All 7 colors in a row! 

We're going Eco Friendlier!

We're going eco-friendlier by switching over to new packaging! These new bags will contain our dryer balls and eventually our felting kits too! They are paper bags with a biodegradable window that is earth friendlier than plastic. They are reuseable too!

Alpaca Dryer Balls!

                                                 

Making Alpaca Dryer Balls is not only time intensive, hard on the hands but also takes a lot of raw material to make them. The cost of the dryer balls is more than worth the time, the materials and the effectiveness they have on your clothes. Dryer balls are a chemical free way to dry clothes, remove static cling and leave your clothes super soft. When I make them I wash our second cut alpaca and allow to partly dry. I weigh up about 2 ounces of the fiber. This is the part of the animal we can't spin but it becomes very useful for this project. 

Using Dawn Dishwashing Detergent I place a small amount in a bowl and add the hotest water I can tolerate to the bowl. 

I then dunk it into the hot water and work it into a ball, squeezing and rotating in my hand. Often I will put just a small drop of detergent directly onto the fiber as I am woking it into a ball. This really helps tame the fibers and get them to work with you.

Our shearers in the past have made felted sheets that I have had laying around forever so I cut some up, wrapped them around the ball of already worked fiber. This is then dunked into the bowl of hot water and aggitated and squeezed over and over until it begins to cover. You get a nice squishy ball this way. I place it into a sock, tying it off and adding more as I go. This is then placed into the wash with several others and then into the dryer.

When done they are these lovely natural colors of our alpacas! We have had so many request to bring back our alpaca balls, have had numerous request for them at shows so they will be ready to go soon! Stay tuned for our new eco friendly packaging change we are making too!

Getting to task...

With just 7 weeks until our biggest show of the year ahead of us, it's time to sort fleeces, wash them, dye and get them spun! It's important for our customers to know we sell products that are hand made here, not in a mill, not bought and resold, it happens here! Last weekend I took a leap and did a local Harvest Festival. I broke my rule of doing Fiber Festivals exclusively which was my first mistake. I spent the weekend watching other vendors selling products and items they had bought from suppliers and resold. In some cases they repackaged and sold the product as theirs. I was dumbfounded! 

But enough of that, I am in love with this fleece. I lost the tag but I know it was a lamb fleece. I love the sun bleached tips and can't wait to get this spun up! 

I cleaned up this Corriedale fleece and when I went to dye it I was going for some early fall colors but the dyes took on a mind of their own and I got this. I positively love the combination of color here. As per the course, the camera doesn't do it justice. Some of the tips took on dark shades, just beautiful. One thing I have learned all these years in dyeing is the fleece, dyes and colors will do what they want.

Here I used a combination of nutmeg, salmon, and some other dyes. I was going for some fall colors here too, but well same old story but I love it!

I dyed some Merino the colors of the rainbow and have an idea for a yarn in my head. 

So this is the state of the back deck right now, drying and getting ready for some lined up projects soon to come as we get ready to gear up for the New England Fiber Festival!

Some Felting fun and upcoming event!

With the cooler weather upon us, I have been working day and night when I can getting ready for fall show season. We picked up a new one we are going to try out this year. We went last year and were quite impressed and noticed no one was doing what we had. We will be at the Monroe Apple Festival this year, Saturday Sept 7 from 10-5 and Sunday Sept 8 from 10-4. Above I felted these gourds for display as we will be selling felting supplies along with other items. 

I got this idea from seeing it at a Spring Fair. I had an extra flower pot, queued up some pictures of cactuses and came up with this. Can you imagine? A plant you don't have to water or kill?! It's for display only, we will not be selling this.

This little pumpkin was made as a prototype for a kit we will be offering at the fair along with an expanded variety of new kits as well. So if you are looking for something to do this weekend, stop by the show and say hi!