Cliff House Alpacas

Kicking off the 2018 craft show season!

Posted on October 1, 2018 by cliffhousealpacas

Hi all! If you’re like us, you’re probably already thinking about your holiday crafting projects! Cliffhouse Alpacas has your back with heaps of new handspun yarn at the Friends of Littleton Library Craft Fair this Saturday 10/06 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Just a few of the skeins we’ll have with us on Saturday!

For those who don’t knit or crochet but still want a handmade gift, we also have towering stacks of hats and enough scarves to fill several closets. As ever, all the products available at the show are made by our family (and grown on the ranch by the furry four-legged floofs).

Scarves and hats and booties, oh my!

We’ll have a double booth in the same place as last year. We started our production for this season way back in July, so it’s exciting to finally be able to share what we’ve been up to!

We hope to see you this Saturday!

Posted in business, fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, crochet, handspun yarn, knit, yarn | Leave a comment

Our wheels are still spinning

Posted on November 28, 2017 by cliffhousealpacas

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since we posted (jeez, looks like I’ve started several posts with those words). We are as active as ever, spinning, knitting, crocheting, and loving our alpacas. There just doesn’t seem to be time left over for blogging…

Still! Here are a few pictures of my last project. A friend wanted to crochet a little stuffed monkey for a baby shower, so I spun him two contrasting colors. Custom yarn!

I named the one on the left “Honeyed Flax” and the one right “Wild Rice”. Actually…I name every marled brown yarn “Wild Rice”. This skein was a complex blend of soft (but terribly float-y) camel roving, silk roving, and alpaca roving.

Honeyed Flax

Wild Rice

I haven’t totaled my yarn mileage in years, but I’m guessing I’ve doubled my last estimate of a dozen miles of yarn. My scotch brake (it tensions the flyer of my wheel) broke last week! An easy fix, but also a good milestone – I’ve put in some time with this wheel.

Our last show of the season is this Saturday, December 2nd at Cheyenne Mountain High School (in Colorado Springs). Come see us! Or drop Mom and Dad a line (you can find us on Facebook) and stop by the ranch.

Posted in fiber art | Leave a comment

Stars & Stripes Forever

Posted on June 4, 2016 by cliffhousealpacas

Hello everyone! It’s been quite some time since I did a pure yarn post, but my most recent yarn project just came out so fun, I had to share:

I actually spun this one on Memorial Day, and it is appropriately patriotic. I spun it by alternately marling red and white, then blue and white. I don’t have a scale on me, so I just had to guess at quantities. I changed hooks every time I changed colors, to make the estimating easier.

I’m down to the last few ounces of our alpaca fiber from two years ago, but our next batch of newly washed and carded fiber should be available soon! I leave you a shot of the wheel in my new tropical home. Mom & Dad are still manning the ranch in CO, and I’ll be around for a large portion of the show season, but let’s just say I’v verified that the wheel does indeed fit in the overhead luggage compartment on a plane 🙂

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, handspun, handspun yarn, yarn | 1 Comment

Show Schedule, Updates, and etc!

Posted on October 16, 2015 by cliffhousealpacas

It’s time for our approximately yearly update! If you’re looking for Cliff House Alpacas during this holiday season, here’s where we are:

October 17th and 18th, 10:00 – 4:00: Dakota Ridge High School Annual Craft Fair
November 7th, 9:00 – 4:00: Castle Rock Senior Center Craft Show, Douglas County Fairgrounds
November 14th, 9:00 – 4:00: Ye Olde Yuletide Bazaar, Parker Fieldhouse
November 21st, 10:00 – 3:00: Lincoln Meadows Senior Center Craft Show
December 5th, 9:30 – 3:00: South Suburban Craft Show, South Suburban Rec Center (Goodson Center)

We’ve already been to two excellent shows, where we made new friends and even had the pleasure of following up with previous customers! It’s nice to talk to folks about the yarn projects they made with our yarn, or how a scarf is working for a loved one.

What else has happened since we posted last? So much! The usual round of barn chores, trips to buy hay, shearing, ranch maintenance, animal antics, near-disasters, and of course: knitting and spinning. Here’s the hat I finished last night…did I go a bit crazy with that pom-pom?

Mom learned to spin! I wish I had some pictures of that, but she’s very shy about it. She just sold her first cowl made from her own handspun yarn, and we couldn’t be happier.

Merlin (our eldest alpaca) got very sick, then recovered fully. Here he is being babied through the rough times.

All told, it’s been a good year to be here at Cliff House Alpacas. We’ve had our challenges, but far more successes than failures. Come and see us at any of our upcoming shows, and we’ll catch up more.

-Kirstin

Posted in business | Tagged craft show, holiday crafts, show schedule | 1 Comment

Friends: Past, Present, and Future

Posted on November 23, 2014 by cliffhousealpacas

Hey there ladies and gents!! Kirstin here, at long last. Boy, have we been busy. Yesterday was our sixth holiday show, out of seven this year. We’ve had one (or two!) shows every week this month. But even with all the set up, break down, hauling, and frantic crafting, we’ve had a wonderful time and met amazing people.

Young and old are fascinated by the wheel.

This is only our second year of doing craft shows, though we are starting to feel like we’ve gotten the hang of it. Just that little bit of confidence has really allowed us to enjoy everything more.

Dad, our cashier, at the Castle Rock show.

Dad, our cashier, in a calm moment at the Castle Rock show.

At the Holly Creek Retirement Community, I talked with a woman who raised her children while living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A retired optometrist told me about the neurology lecture he was giving. Yesterday, at the Lincoln Meadows Retirement Community, I talked with three high school girls about every step in fiber processing. Their genuine interest, and the openness of everyone else we’ve talked to, makes all the work worthwhile.

Aunt Geri arranges hats at the Summerset Festival.

Thank you, everyone, for your support.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged craft show, holiday crafts, Holly Creek Retirement Community | 2 Comments

2014 Holiday Shows

Posted on September 9, 2014 by cliffhousealpacas_dad

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are quickly approaching! We started in May trying to decide which art and craft shows would work for us. From past experience, alpaca products, especially the hats, gloves, scarves sell better the colder it gets (who would have thought). In the past we’ve started with Welcome Western Week but found that it was still to early in the year.

Our first show this year is the Summerset Festival in Clement Park. This will be a three day show September 12 through the 14th, with lots of fun things to do. Our booth will be set up on Saturday and Sunday, and Kirstin will be spinning. Please come out and see us!

If you can’t make it this weekend, other locations you can find us:

Friends of the Library and Museum Craft Fair

Ketring Park
Littleton, Co
Sat. Oct 4

Castle Rock Craft Show

Douglas County Events Center
Douglas County Fairgrounds
Castle Rock, Co
Sat. Nov 1

Ye Olde Yuletide Bazaar

Sponsored by Mountain Pine Woman’s Club
Parker Field House
Parker, Co
Sat. Nov 8

A Christmas A’ Faire

Sponsored by P.E.O.—Chapter BS
Central Christian Church of Denver
Denver, Co
Fri. 5-8 Nov 14 and Sat. Nov 15

South Suburban Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair

spr.org
Goodson Recreation Center
Centennial, Co
Sat. Dec 6

Posted in business, fiber art | Tagged art show, craft show, show | Leave a comment

Jousting with distaffs: symbolism through the ages

Posted on January 24, 2014 by cliffhousealpacas

I (Kirstin) recently came across an article on medieval women warriors. As you might expect, there weren’t many, and in a world where history is written not only by the victors, but also mostly by men, what we know about these women is very little and very skewed. For instance, monks illustrating manuscripts refused to represent women jousting with actual lances because the imagery was too…uhm…provocative.

Yale has made this manuscript available online here: http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433279

Instead, they represented women as jousting with distaffs. Although one could argue that the distaff is nearly as…risque…as a lance, since spinning was a traditional pastime for females, they felt more comfortable with it.

Anyway, I know it’s been a long radio silence from us here at Cliff House. Rest assured, the business is cranking along. In fact, we have so many projects in the works we are going to have to let our regular updates on the blog slip. We are still here, still taking custom orders and making products, but we are concentrating on getting a more modern online store up and running (and Mom is learning how to spin).

Contact Mom at jan.holfelder@gmail.com if you need anything or have any questions for us, and we’ll update the blog when we have something interesting to report! As ever, thanks for your support. You make what we do worthwhile.

Posted in business | Tagged blog news, blog updates, distaff, jousting, spinning | Leave a comment

Black and White – Always Right

Posted on January 6, 2014 by cliffhousealpacas

Momma here, wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Our Colorado New Year started out cold and snowy, but thankfully we missed the big snow storm currently covering most of the nation. Dad and I took some excellent photos of our little herd’s snow antics on Sunday morning, and I thought you might enjoy seeing them.

Brittany is our true black alpaca, but on a cold and snowy day she is anything but true black. The density of her “blanket” or fleece keeps her insulated from the cold; just look at all of the snow still sitting on her back.

CiCi and Brittany trudging through the new snow. Notice how CiCi has no snow on her fleece. She sleeps in the barn, no toughing it out in the elements for her.

Vannie standing tall in the turnout. His “blanket” is incredibly dense, at noon he still had a thick layer of snow on his back.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpaca, alpaca fiber, Cold weather, ranch life, snow, weather | 1 Comment

There are no stupid questions!

Posted on January 3, 2014 by cliffhousealpacas

To start off 2014 I, Momma, want to share with you 20 questions and 20 answers about alpacas. These are questions we get asked all the time. I’m going in reverse order from a question or two to the most frequently asked.

#20 – Why should I wear alpaca instead of wool? Alpaca fiber doesn’t contain lanolin like sheep’s wool. Each hair shaft’s hollow core deters dust mites which cause asthma and allergies. Alpaca is 3 times warmer and 7 times stronger than wool.

Vannie’s 2013 “blanket” before we begin to process it.

#19 – What’s so great about alpaca fiber? Alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, requires no chemical agents for processing, light weight and alpacas come in a variety of natural colors. Alpaca has a low absorbency rate and superior wicking ability.

A photo of a few of our alpacas shows we have a brown, white, black, light grey, dark grey and a fawn.

#18 – What do you do with alpacas? Alpacas are raised for their luxury fiber. In the United States ranchers consider them exotic livestock. At Cliff House we shear, skirt, spin their hair into yarn; and knit, crochet and weave our alpaca’s yarn into clothing, blankets and rugs.

Kirstin spinning our alpaca’s fiber into yarn. We’ll knit this yarn into clothing.

Posted in animals, Fashion, fiber art | Tagged 20 questions, alpaca fiber, alpaca yarn, alpacas, crochet, hand spinning, knitting, spinning | 3 Comments

Christmas with Cliffhouse

Posted on December 30, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Hello all! Production has staggered to a halt as we all take a break from knitting and spinning to celebrate being together.

Jared, Olive and Bobbin get ready to open presents. Christmas really goes to the dogs around here, and we love it.

Jared and I are still the kids in the family, though Momma and Dad have a grand-dog, Derby. So we lavish plenty of attention on the inside animals as willing surrogates.

Being spoiled is exhausting.

We have our big, semi-formal party on Christmas eve. So Christmas day is about lounging around in pajamas all day, opening presents.

From left: Me (Kirstin), Aunt Geri, Uncle Jerry (I know, right?), Jared, Grammy.

From left: Me (Kirstin), Aunt Geri, Uncle Jerry, Jared, Grammy. Derby is my black dachshund and Bobbin is our beagle.

Santa knows me well. This year, I was overjoyed to receive a luxury item: onion goggles! I can’t even cut scallions without sobbing like a little girl, but these goggles seal out those horrible onion fumes. Seriously guys, when the fumes meet the moisture in your eyes, acid is formed. 😛

Onions are in everything. And I couldn't bear to be in the room when they are being cut. But no longer!

Onions are in everything. Once upon a time, I couldn’t be anywhere near them. But no longer!

I hope you all had wonderful holidays, filled with family and joy.

Posted in completely unrelated | Tagged Christmas, Christmas day, Christmas eve, Christmas presents, dogs, Family, holidays, onions, presents | 1 Comment