Cliff House Alpacas

“Get a Jump On…….”

Posted on November 6, 2013 by cliffhousemom

…….that Christmas Shopping!” Nobody’s waiting for Black Friday this year – Aunt Geri here, and we’re headed to Ye Olde Yuletide Bazaar holiday festival with our wares this Saturday in Parker. We have something for just about everyone – including the new “hybrid” family of alpaca bears!

Today’s blog post items are made of an “oh-so-soft” alpaca yarn that’s a big hit. I actually made one of these hats with some, let’s just call them mistakes, and I wear it due to it’s “condition”! I can’t go anywhere wearing it without getting complements, so I decided we could offer more of them to you! We have a hat and scarf set and a solo hat in this beautiful periwinkle color. Because my hat’s so popular, I’m making similar hats in the same yarn with different colors.

Posted in business, fiber art | Tagged alpaca, Black Friday, Christmas gifts, craft show, hats, Olde Yuletide Bazaar, Parker | Leave a comment

Mileage

Posted on November 4, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

One of the questions I (Kirstin) get most often is “how long does it take you to spin a skein of yarn?” The answer, like the answers to most of life’s deepest questions, is “it depends.” The average is probably around 7 hours for a normal-sized skein, slightly less yarn than you’d need for a scarf. Beaded yarns can take more like 10 hours, and I can churn out a boring medium weight yarn in 6 hours.

Beaded yarns require more hours for string the beads, and plying VERY slowly.

Beaded yarns require more hours for stringing the beads, and plying VERY slowly.

So how much time have I spent spinning since I started in August of 2010? I’ve recorded yardage, weight, and other notes for every yarn I’ve ever spun in a very tattered notebook (I dropped it in a fish tank once, so it’s pretty darn weather beaten). This morning, I entered two years worth of spinning into the spreadsheet I started back when I did this exercise in December of 2011. So without further delay:

Total yardage of 2 ply yarn: 22,512 yds (12.8 miles)
Total yardage of singles spun: 45,024 yds (25.6 miles)
Rough yards per hour estimate: 30 yds/hour
Hours spent spinning: 750 hours

If I spun for every hour of the day, that would be 31 days, or 4.5 weeks of straight spinning. In the three years or so I’ve been doing this, I’ve spun almost a half-marathon’s worth of 2-ply yarn.

This is where I usually have a snappy little line to finish the post. I’m a bit conflicted on this one, though. I can’t decide whether this is evidence of time well spent, or a sign that I need to get out more.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged hand spinning, spinning, yarn | 2 Comments

Winter – It’s Getting Here

Posted on November 1, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Ice in the alpacas’ stock tank made me realize I still hadn’t done all the work in preparing for winter. Dad here, with some more work around the ranch. If you remember, we gave the alpacas their own stock tank back in July. Since then, the weather has gotten colder, and we need a way to keep the water from freezing up.

I purchased a stock tank heater from the local farm supply and dropped it into the stock tank. That was the easy part.

Alpacas are curious (you can see Tulip watching me in the back ground). To keep them from being shocked as well as to keep the moisture out, I also purchased a coupler that encases the connection. We’re good to go now!

Posted in business, how-tos | Tagged alpaca, business, camelids, Huacayas, livestock, ranch life, weather | Leave a comment

“Make Us Proud…”

Posted on October 30, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Finished is the word for Mark’s hats! Aunt Geri here with a pic of the last two pieces – we are excited to see how Mark and his family like our little goodies. I tried a new design, and I only had to rip out 1 1/2 hats in the process – a complex stitch pattern (a winged cable). I’ve learned it’s best to minimize distractions when beginning a new stitch! Just chalk it up to practice, I’m whipping through this design now.

My supply of Mark’s alpaca yarn was running low, so I used a lovely yarn that Kirstin spun some time ago for the main color (fawn). She named it “Caramel Crème”, as it’s Cliff Houses’ Tulip blended with merino wool and bamboo silk. The black yarn is a blend of superfine alpaca with merino wool and silk. These hats are fairly beefy, and I’m liking the look!

Posted in animals, Fashion | Tagged alpaca, alpaca yarn, animals, Aunt Geri, fiber, fleece, handspun yarn, hats, Kirstin, knitting, Mark, merino, yarn | Leave a comment

The not-so-fun part

Posted on October 28, 2013 by cliffhousealpacas

The organizers at our next show expressed an interest in handspun yarn. We have plenty of that floating around, but none of it was inventoried. This weekend, in addition to spinning another 220 yards of Holiday Extravaganza, Momma and I (Kirstin) spent hours getting the yarn priced and standardized. This is my least favorite part of the operation.

My work station.

First we entered each skein in Mom’s detailed inventory spreadsheet. That was tedious, but it’s not nearly so bad as tagging. Every skein has four or five tags: a price tag (on a separate string to be cut off at the time of purchase), a care instructions/alpaca history tag, a description of the yarn, and the alpaca’s business card. Each of the alpacas has a personalized business card with their picture and biography on it, which we attach to yarn made from their fiber. These tags are much loved by our customers.

That’s a ton of tags. But at least we won’t be up until 2 AM the night before the show getting them all done. The worst part is probably deciding on a price. Every 90 yard skein of Holiday Extravaganza represents easily 8 hours of work. At $13 per skein, that’s…$1.60 per hour. Good thing we’re in this because we love our animals, crafting and each other. Although, after a morning listening to me whine about pricing, Momma might have been having second thoughts on spending “special” time with me 🙂

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, art yarn, handspun yarn, inventory, price tags | 3 Comments

“Silos & Smokestacks”

Posted on October 25, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Hundreds and hundreds of miles of corn and soybean fields, silos, cattle, and an occasional horse or two. Aunt Geri here, back from our third trip to the Midwest in the last 5 weeks. The farm fields are being prepared for their winter rest as the combines harvest silage corn and soybeans. It makes us appreciate how much hard work goes into farming, and we’re thankful for all the bounty they provide. We were in Moline, Illinois (part of the “Quad Cities”) which is quite industrial – to my distaste. The leaves were beautiful and trees grow in the Midwest like weeds – the vegetation there borders on a jungle-like growth.

I had no opportunity to knit on this trip, but I have just finished the hat I was working on. These hats are for Mark’s special order. I discovered I still had some of his yarn from last year, and the grey cloche hat is from his alpaca, Archie. If the yarn was thicker, the hat would have more of a brim effect. The other hat is the “techno” hat which didn’t make it to the photo op for my last blog. It’s difficult to see in the picture, but it has a light blue lace-weight yarn carried throughout so it looks like a cloudy sky. I may have already shown you the man’s hat.

We are preparing for, and looking forward to, the Ye Olde Yuletide Bazaar on Nov 9th – hope to see some of you there!

Posted in Fashion | Tagged alpaca yarn, alpacas, cloche, hats, knitting, Moline Illinois, Quad Cities, Yule | 1 Comment

“Busy Worker Bees”

Posted on October 23, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Aunt Geri, Kirstin and I are “Busy Worker Bees” right now. We often have yarn, mostly mill spun, that is of Grade 4 or Grade 5 quality. This yarn is generally light fawn or medium fawn in color, and because the staple length of the hair is shorter at this grade, this yarn has a fuzzier appearance. To me, Momma, the yarn is not interesting to the eye. So… Perhaps I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Kirstin’s little dog “Derby” protecting my “Spiced Gingerbread” scarf. The scarf is near completion here; all I need to do is tie it off of my rake loom.

The scarf is medium fawn in color. Our Tulip & Vannie are both medium fawns. This is a fairly popular color, but I wanted to spice it up.

I knit a bright multicolored crochet thread with the alpaca yarn to produce a piece with a little more interest.

I have to admit, I don’t run a real high tech operation here.

Posted in Fashion, how-tos | Tagged alpaca fiber, alpaca yarn, Industrial Yarns and Sewing Threads, knitting, scarves, yarn | 2 Comments

Productivity

Posted on October 21, 2013 by cliffhousemom

Ah, the weekend. Picture it: two whole days stretch before you, hours and hours of time. All you have to do is a few loads of laundry, a week’s worth of dishes, a bit of tidying up, and (of course) some spinning. Plenty of time. And then suddenly, it’s Sunday evening. You’ve baked a cake, watched three movies, and gone dress shopping. Looks like you’ll be wearing your paint stained jeans to work, drinking tea out of a wine glass, and stepping around those dust bunnies for another week. And what about the spinning?

That’s why I love craft fairs. Kirstin here (on Mom’s computer), with a meditation on forced productivity. I always take my wheel to our craft fairs and for 8-12 hours, I sit and spin. Sure, I talk to people. But I can spin and talk. In fact, if I stop spinning I feel like I’m cheating the crowd out of their chance to see a somewhat obscure process in action. At our last craft fair, I spun 337 yards (8.5 ounces) of “Storm Clouds”. That’s twice what I’d get done in a weekend!

This yarn is spun from a 90% alpaca, 10% merino blend. It’s fluffy and has great memory. The alpaca, Zane, belonged to our shearer Scott. We often spin the fiber that others don’t know how (or have time to) process. Usually, we simply split the finished product, taking a few skeins as payment. It’s a great arrangement for everyone. We get more diverse fiber, and they get a service that can be hard to find. So if anyone needs a bit of contract spinning, let me know!

Posted in fiber art | Tagged alpaca yarn, hand spinning, hand spun, handspinning, handspun yarn, yarn | Leave a comment

Baby, it’s Beary Cold Outside!

Posted on October 18, 2013 by cliffhousemom

We woke up to snow this morning, but that didn’t stop the bears from wanting to go outside and play. How do you say “No” to a bear?

As promised on Wednesday, here are more pictures of our photo shoot the other day.

Three little bears found their glittens-a glove & mitten combo-100% alpaca: Price: $10.00.

“It takes two to Tango.” Cinnabear and Grey Bear modeling a 100% alpaca hand knit “Geo” scarf. Price:$30.00.

“Bear in Blanket.” Grey Bear snuggled up in a 100% alpaca knit shawl with crocheted roses on the edges. Price: $40.00.

I’m still entering into inventory more beautiful shawls, tote bags and Christmas decorations new to Cliff House Alpacas this year. When I, Momma, get all of my book work done I’ll get you more photos with the bears.

Posted in Fashion | Tagged alpaca yarn, alpacas, Bear, Christmas, crafts, hats, Teddy Bears, Toys, winter fashions | 2 Comments

Teddy Bears Agree to Photo Shoot

Posted on October 16, 2013 by cliffhousemom

It was cold yesterday, the cats wanted to complain about it, the alpacas wanted to kush and chew and the horses just wanted to be left alone so I, Momma, came inside and played with the bears. I’m looking for models for our new line of products from Peru, and when I asked the bears if they wanted to help, they said, “Yes.”

Your Basic Bear: 100% alpaca-hand made in Peru. His price: $45.00 – How much joy will he bring you or someone you love? – Who Knows?

Cinnabear and Greybear model their new reversible chullos. The price of the chullos: $14.00 ea. – Cinnabear and Greybear : Priceless.

Blondbear gets in on the fun modeling his traditional chullo. The price of the chullo: $10.00 – The three bears: Precious.

Blondbear, Cinnabear and Greybear modeling the latest fashion rage on the ski slopes: Snow Boarder Head Bands. Their price: $14.00 – The three bears are thinking Snow!

Quite the boarder, Cinnabear just loaned out his other two head bands for our photo shoot. They’re making snow at Loveland Ski Area, Cinnabear can hardly contain himself.

On Friday the bears and I have some more things to show you. Please look us up, Blackbear, Silkybear and Brownbear were having a great time, too. Frankly, I haven’t had this much fun playing dress-up in quite a while.

Posted in Fashion | Tagged Bear, crafts, hats, Peru, scarves, shopping, Soft Toys, Teddy bear, Toys | 4 Comments