Yarn – Earth Signs

Posted on June 26, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I mentioned I’d been working with Marcello’s fiber, and I’m ready to show off my first product with year’s new roving. This is “Earth Signs”.

I was trying for a medium weight worsted-ish yarn (to spin proper worsted, you have to run the un-spun fiber through a disk with a small hole it it called a diz, which aligns the hairs). Marcello’s fiber is just so darn fluffy, it ended up a little chunkier than I intended.

I couldn’t capture the color. It’s somewhere between the top picture, which is too orange, and the bottom one, which is too dark. It’s a touch bulkier than the other yarns in this order, “Clouds over Tuscany“ and “Deep Roots“, but I’m still exceedingly pleased with it.

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Portraiture

Posted on June 25, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Given my generally high, er, “self-esteem” (I look awesome with a tan), it may surprise you to learn that I’m not a huge fan of having my picture plastered all over everything. I mean, who’d want to look at me, when you could be looking at the cutest fluff of stuff you ever saw?

The legs, the yawn, the ears! It’s too cute, my brain ‘asplode.

Nevertheless, family and friends have successfully argued that spinning wheels don’t treadle themselves, leastways my wheels don’t, so perhaps the spinner should be in the picture.

Fine then. I’ll put a picture on the skein wrapper with me in it.

Perfect. Case closed.

But NOOOO. They want my WHOLE picture on our labels, and while I’m at it, on the blog more. And I’ll concede one point: a headless spinner is sort of creepy.

SO. Look, it’s me! Spinning!

 

I sure am spinning there. But wait, there’s more!

Woah! From the front!  Look at that…terrible posture! (I’m trying out the Sidekick at the Estes Park fiber festival in these pictures.)

Are we all satisfied? Blerg. Here’s a picture of Merlin not approving, to get the taste of people-pictures out of your mouth.

“I don’t approve.”

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The 2012 business cards are here!

Posted on June 22, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

What does every enterprising young alpaca need? A business card of course! Each of our alpacas has one, which is attached to any product containing their fiber. We update them in the summer, and we’ve just finished this year’s new cards. I particularly like the picture on Tulip’s card this year, it’s definitely a glam shot:

Front of card

Back of card

 For absolute cuteness, though, you can’t beat Auntie Brittany’s card:

Front

Back

Rawwww!

The people at the ranch have business cards too, but they are not nearly so cute. We probably should be giving out the alpaca’s cards when we meet people, instead of ours 🙂

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Alpaca water sports

Posted on June 21, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

It’s that time of year again! Time to get out the hose, set up the sprinkler, and begin the alpaca summer olympics. Events include, but are not limited to, standing on two legs in the water:

Tuscany wins the stand-up-on-your-hind-legs event!

 Standing-start, high jump in the water:

Tuscany wins this one too, but Morocco gets honorable mention for his dirty-look-giving abilities.

 Dodging the water:

What what? You think you can get me with that water? Well, I dodge you!

 Synchronized staring at the sprinkler:

“Look at it! It goes back and forth. And again!” “Should we get closer?” “No…no. Let’s just watch it some more.”

 And the ever popular, just sort of standing there in the water:

Tuscany wins again.

Tuscaninny is the overall winner at the summer games, for his athleticism, his charisma, and his superior ridiculous-ness.

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This year’s roving is in!

Posted on June 20, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Mom, Dad and Grammy drove the new roving up to Fort Collins for me on Friday! I was so excited, I sat down and spun in the middle of a work day, in a completely not posed, spontaneous act of fiber adoration.

In this completely-not-staged shot, I’m just attaching Marcello’s roving to my leader (the white yarn, it allows me to attach the un-spun roving to the wheel).

Well, maybe it was a little posed. Anyway, I have bags and bags of lovely fiber to work with now, and I’ve already spun some 450 yards worth. So far, I’ve only worked with Marcello and Tuscany, but both are very nice this year. I might even venture to say that the softness of Marcello’s roving has improved.

I always spin sitting in the center of my couch, surrounded by all the bags of roving I have (each open just a little, so the fiber peeks out), in a nice skirt. Snort.

Unfortunately, it’s been too hot to think about moving so far this week, so I’ve been mostly laying in front of a fan reading in the evenings. Today should be cooler, though.

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Our other new alpaca!

Posted on June 19, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

And this is Vanny! I love how goofy he looks in this picture.

Vanny also comes to us from Andrew at Spring Too Fibers, like Cici. He (Vanny, not Andrew) is a medium fawn like Tulip. Until very recently, he was an intact male. We weren’t ready to upset the delicate balance in the boy’s herd by introducing another strong-willed fellow, so for now, he’s living alone in the bachelor’s quarters. He used to being solo, though.

Tulip has short hair, so we tend to run out of her color quickly. I’m glad to have another beautiful fawn, especially coming from Andrew’s excellent stock.

Thanks for all the well wishes for our new babes! We’ll keep you informed as to their integration into the herd, and I can’t wait to find out what kind of personalities they have.

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(One of) Our New Alpacas!

Posted on June 18, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Everyone, meet Cici!

She and one other alpaca joined the ranch herd on Friday afternoon. Cici is a true white alpaca, unlike the rest of our white-ish alpacas, who are apparently light fawn (could have fooled me). I haven’t met her yet, but Mom and Dad say she’s quiet and shy, and that she fit into the girl’s herd right away (which is easy enough, so long as you let Mikayla boss you around).

Cici came from Andrew, of Spring Too Fibers. In addition to running a mill full-time, Andrew raises award-winning show alpacas. We’re very lucky that two of his lovely alpacas are now making their homes with us.

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Sheep to shawl competition

Posted on June 15, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

One of our favorite events at the Estes Park wool market was the “Sheep to shawl” contest. Teams work together to card, spin and weave a shawl in one day.

Although at some shows they actually start with the sheep (shearing it in the morning), the competition on Sunday allowed teams to pre-wash their fleece and prepare the loom beforehand.

It looked like a ton of fun. I’ve never thought of any of the fiber arts as team sports, though it’s certainly true that it’s much more fun to spin in groups than it is by yourself. The teams had great names like “Shear Panic” and “Twill Seekers”, and were graded not only their work but also on their friendliness and knowledge.

We stopped by several times throughout the day to watch the shawls take shape. After starting at 8:30, many teams were already weaving by 11!

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Yarn – Filigree

Posted on June 14, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I’ve spun my first 200 yards of yarn on the new wheel! I’m calling this one “Filigree”, after my favorite jewelry technique: twisting together wires of precious metal into loops and whorls. I particularly like to work in silver, as it is soft and accommodating (for a metal). The strength and fineness of this yarn parallels the curves of filigree work. Or something. Honestly, five seconds ago I realized I didn’t have a name for it and came up with that on the spot.

Anyway, the roving is a mill processed blend of 90% suri alpaca and 10% tencel. The alpaca part comes from Archie, a friend’s alpaca. The mill doesn’t like spinning it, I think because it is very fine, so our friend gave me two years worth of the stuff to work with. Since I spin it super lightweight, the fiber is going to last FOREVER. I don’t feel like I’ve even put a dent in the amount we have. This whole 215 yard skein weighs barely 2.5 ounces.

I’ll see if I can collect some stories from the ranch, it’s been awhile since we’ve heard from the ‘pacas!

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Yarn – Hieroglyphics

Posted on June 13, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Before I allowed myself to spin anything on my new wheel, I had to finish that beaded yarn that didn’t want to cooperate.

I like the concept of this yarn, Morocco’s slightly orange fiber with a bright copper bead, but I’m less in love with the execution. Even after I carefully re-twisted the singles, aiming for consistency, it came out slightly rope-y and under-twisted.

Ah well. I’ll try something different with the rest of his fiber. That just didn’t work.

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