Cliff House Alpacas

Cliff House Alpaca’s Skirting Super Bowl

Posted on February 8, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas_dad

Last Sunday when everyone in the US was watching the Super Bowl, drinking beer and eating guacamole dip Gordon and I were in our barn participating in Cliff House’s skirting bowl. We had no beer and no guacamole dip.

This time of year is the perfect time to clear out our “fleece closet”. Our local fiber mill is not as busy now. They will be crazy nuts in May, and Andrew, the mill’s owner can get our processed fiber back to us quickly.

Our fiber closet

We decided to skirt five years of Clovis Mae’s fleeces to see if we could discern a difference between her baby fleece, 2005, and her fifth years fleece, 2009. Clovis Mae’s fleeces are a gift given to us by our shearer Scott. We truly appreciate your generosity, Scott.

After rolling the baby fleece out on the table it became apparent why many alpaca breeders don’t use the first year’s fleece. Amniotic fluid remains on the fiber’s tips until the first shearing, and collects everything. This includes dust, vegetable matter, poop and sunshine(the tips of the hair sunburn badly). The trade off in time was certainly worth it with this fleece. An alpaca’s first year’s fiber is certainly the softest and most crimpy.

Gordon lays out Clovis Mae’s baby fleece

What a difference a year makes. In 2006 Clovis Mae’s fiber was fantastic. It is brilliant, crimpy and soft. The skirting process removes as much as possible, the nasties you don’t want in the final product. This includes pulling out the guard hair, hair that is longer, stiffer and coarser than the rest of the coat.

A handful of guard hair

In 2007 we noticed more second cuts than the previous two years. Second cuts are very short pieces that were cut in a second pass over the alpaca after cutting the long parts (the majority of the fleece) off. Because there is no length to the second cut it can’t be spun.

The small dark brown clumps are second cuts

Of the last two years of fiber 2008 stood out. There was very little vegetable matter, no dust or dirt and very few second cuts. Her guard hair was softer than our Tulip’s prime fleece.

Prime fleece – yes sir, yes sir, one bag full

Gordon and I scored five bags, approximately twenty pounds, of prime fleece during our skirting Super Bowl. We plan on making this into spools of lace weight yarn to be used on a digital knitting machine. We have big plans down the road!

Five bags full of prime fleece – Clovis Mae 2005-2009

Posted in business, fiber art | Tagged alpaca fiber, fleece, yarn | 5 Comments

Patty Who?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by aunt_geri

I can’t for the life of me remember why I named these scarves Patty…But they have always been a big hit for us.

They are fun, and best of all-reversible! The pattern uses a double knit slipped stitch-known by the French as “Brioche” knitting. These scarves became so popular that I wanted to make matching hats!

Research revealed that this stitch is impossible to do “in the round” (hats are done on circular needles), but I fooled them all and designed hats that are very similar.

The scarf posted here was made during the Bronco play off game-thankfully it turned out better than the game! How embarrassing was that?

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, hats, scarves, yarn | 1 Comment

Boatloads of lace weight yarn

Posted on February 4, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Alpaca yarn is warm. Very warm. Perhaps too warm. Our solution (Mom’s really): lace weight yarn. She’s going to knit a few wide scarves with this very light yarn, hoping people will be able to wear them in the spring and fall, instead of just the winter.

She “ordered” skeins in 4 different colors. This is the skein I spun from Zane’s fleece (he’s one of our shearer’s alpacas). It is a dark charcoal grey, blended with 10% merino, so it has great memory.

The 3 ounces of fiber I used ended up making around 250 yards of yarn. Which is a ton. It just doesn’t feel like much. That’s the problem with lace weight yarn. You work and work, there’s probably 12 hours worth of spinning and plying there, and it makes this tiny little skein.

Ok. Done complaining. It came out pretty nice, and I know it will go a long ways for Mom.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, handspinning, handspun yarn, lace weight yarn, merino, yarn | 12 Comments

Taking down Christmas

Posted on February 1, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas_dad

I know we promised to talk about Donna’s Christmas scarf today, but it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.

The National Western Stock Show has been a Denver tradition for 107 years, and our family has been either participating or attending the “Stock Show” for nearly that long. The city’s tradition of taking down Christmas at the Civic Center after the stock show is over has become our family’s tradition as well. Last Sunday was the last day of the Stock Show, so guess what was on the agenda.

The Cliff House kitties and alpacas helped. Squeaky supervised and Whisper helped Jared.

The boys watched in fascination; they’ve never understood the whole red bow and garland thing.

The 2013 Stock Show is over and another new year has begun for our family. Our very best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy New Year.

Posted in animals | Tagged alpacas, animals, barn cats, cats, kitties, ranch life, weather | 2 Comments

Andean Rib Hats

Posted on January 30, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas_dad

Aunt Geri here, I was thinking, “A rib by any other name……………..”

Ribbed stitches were originally created for clothing hems and cuffs to provide a tailored, snug fit that doesn’t curl on the edges and provides some “give”. Using ribs in hats allows a broader range of fit – the bigger your head, the more stretch.

These hats unstretched appear to be made for gnomes – or anything with a skinny, pointed head! The ribbing provides a custom fit. Gnome or not, the 3-ply bulky alpaca yarn is super soft and super warm, with just a touch of wool to provide some “memory” or elasticity.

This yarn is also the base yarn in some of our “Magic Scarves”, so the hats can accompany (or not!) the scarves. The “pumpkin vine” top is made by just continuing to knit 3 to 5 stitches until it is long enough to tie a knot – I think it looks like a pig’s tail! I am making some other colors of the Rib hat and will probably make some more of these basic but fun ribbed hats in other yarns too.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged cuffs, hats, knit hats, knitting, ribbed hats | 2 Comments

Better baby booties

Posted on January 28, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Well! Those baby booties I made for my friend went over well, at least among followers of the blog. I’ve filled my first order of the cute little things.

I ran out of the “baby grey” yarn I was using, so I spun up some more using only the rose grey, 100% baby alpaca yarn. I used the new, slightly browner yarn for the cuffs and ties of the booties. I also modified the pattern. There were four rows of cuff in the pattern, but I only did three. I felt like the cuff to boot ratio was weighted a little too heavy on the cuff side (new bootie on the left, old on the right below).

I’ve only recently gained enough confidence as a crocheter to modify patterns. I used to crochet an entire blanket feeling like one stitch just wasn’t right. Not sure why it took me years to realize I could just change that stitch, but I’m glad I have!

Posted in fiber art | Tagged baby booties, baby items, crochet, crocheting | 3 Comments

Cindy’s Christmas Shawl

Posted on January 25, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas_dad

Starting today, Gordon and I are responsible for the Friday blog post.

Because this is a first for us, I’ve chosen to write about another first, a shawl I knit for our dearest friend Cindy.

Last summer, while cleaning up the craft room I found a huge amount of teal blue suri alpaca yarn, which matches Cindy’s eyes. I had in inventory two skeins of black alpaca yarn from Andrew’s mill (Spring Too Fibers), and the idea of these yarns knit together would become Cindy’s Christmas present. What I didn’t know, is how long it would take me to complete the shawl. Suffice it to say, I had just finished wrapping her gift as she walked into the door of our home on Christmas eve.

I had no idea how much yarn my “blue” loom was going to consume before the shawl was finished. I used 250 yards of the black yarn and 250 yards of the teal blue suri alpaca. This didn’t include the yarn I used for the fringe. For the fringe I used a four ply yarn that I pulled apart. Cindy thinks it looks like a horse’s braided mane. What do you think?

I don’t know how the suri (the teal blue) and the yarn for the fringe matched so well. I found both yarns while tidying up the craft room. Maybe someone is trying to tell me I need to keep my craft room cleaner.

Next Friday, Donna’s black and white scarf. She is the fun loving lady in the middle of the picture.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, knitting, shawls, yarn | 4 Comments

My new lazy kate

Posted on January 23, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Apparently Santa objected to my rather bojankity lazy kate solution. And here I thought I was innovating!

A lazy kate is simply a device that holds your bobbins while you ply. It just has to let them rotate freely and smoothly. My cardboard box and knitting needles lazy kate did that, and cost exactly $0. But it felt weird to carefully pack up a ragged cardboard box and cart it around to different craft shows. Enter my even more lightweight solution!

Two knitting needles and two knees! It’s super effective! In a craft that requires a dozen hand-carved, expensive tools, I avoided purchasing one more. I don’t need no stinking, highly efficient, easier-to-use lazy kate. No way, no how.

Santa got me one anyway. This is my new Schacht lazy kate. It is a little awesome. Unlike my, ahem, “creative” solutions, it has a tension string. Like the Scotch brake on my spinning wheel, it runs across a whorl on the bobbins and keeps them from spinning wildly and tangling up the singles. It also keeps the tension on both singles even.

I’m grateful to Santa for making my life easier. I have to admit, though, like most things, I’m glad I did it the hard way first. I developed a very fluid plying style because yanking on the singles would spin the bobbins too fast and create a giant knot. I’m also good at controlling the tension on the singles using only my hands. And that’s totally why I never bought one…not because I’m cheap. *chirp chirp*

Posted in fiber art | Tagged hand spinning, handspun yarn, lazy kate, spinning | 4 Comments

New creations

Posted on January 21, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Note – Our blog post today was written by Aunt Geri. Let’s give her a warm welcome to the internet!

Warm greetings from frigid Wyoming – 24 degrees below a couple of days ago. I feel fortunate to have only 2 foster horses to care for while the Cliffhouse Alpaca team immersively tends the hairy “herd”.

Being a driven person, knitting and spinning for Cliffhouse provides some balance to my needs for calm, creativity, and production. I am easily bored, so I often randomly mess with colors, textures, etc.. Production always wins me over and I implement some crazy ideas almost immediately. Excitement peaked in December over a new scarf idea – use several different yarns for special effects. The wonders of alpaca mixed with contrasting fibers for a visual and textural feast!

We call these new creations “Magic Scarves” due to the beautiful fabric formed from 3 utterly different yarns. The base alpaca yarn provides a soft halo and warmth, while various “accent” fibers bring different drape, luster, and shimmering color and texture variations. These scarves are knit vertically, which creates a wonderfully dense and balanced drape. Gorgeously complex – MAGICAL!

In the samples shown here, the purple is my favorite. It is so soft (alpaca and silk) and richly colored with a gold/wine accent. The blue one is made with a beautiful bulky alpaca yarn with fuchsia and aqua undertones. Mixed with sleek boucle (bumpy) yarn and shimmering ribbon, it reminds me of the winter sky in the Dakotas – BRRR! The gold scarf is the color of a timothy hay meadow – eat on little four-legged ones! This one has fringe that is embellished with glass
beads and pearls – all for the Incan gods of fleece.

I will keep letting you know about some of my “crazy” idea projects – as my brain downloads them and allows my hands to turn them into reality.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, boucle yarn, knit scarves, kntting, scarves | Leave a comment

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Posted on January 18, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

Dad really thinks he knows his alpacas, but Mom can be ornery. On Tuesday, Mom was taking tons of pictures, hoping to get some good blog images, when she came up with this idea. Since Marseille and her mom Mikayla are identical, except for some markings on their faces and slightly different color, she decided to quiz Dad. When he came home for lunch, Mom showed him the photos and asked him who was who. Let’s see if you can tell, which alpaca is Mikayla and which is Marseille?

Give up? Here’s a hint: Marseille has a “Groucho Marx” mustache and is a slightly darker grey color.

Marsy is on the left and Mikayla is on the right.

Mom knew for sure who was who, after all, she took the pictures, but Dad was tricked. I can’t tell them apart without Marseille’s mustache, but Dad says he depends on more than just their good looks. When he’s out with the ‘pacas, he knows who is who by how they relate to him. Awwwww….

Posted in animals | Tagged alpacas | 6 Comments

Cliff House Alpacas