Breeding Season

Fall is here. You what that means right?! 

Alpacas

I have to figure out how I can get some of these guys over to my house to eat my grass next Summer!

2016 Full Fleeces

The alpacas of Arrow Acres farm have been working very hard all year growing out their fleeces. Tomorrow is shearing day! Shearing day is always very exhausting and I have a feeling it might turn into a two day adventure depending on what time the shearers show up. So we get to enjoy these beauties for a few more hours looking so big and fuzzy.

Yarn Along

Q: How many alpacas does it take to make a sweater?

A: None. Alpacas can't knit.

Haa haa. We might say that joke at the farm a lot. But to be honest this sweater took 9 alpacas to make! I didn't use their entire fleeces but I did use part of their fleeces.

The main gray color is from my alpaca Dom's Blue Moon of ELK "Blue".

The rose gray yarn is from: Smoke, Sooshi, Bates

 CCNF Smoke Ring "Smoke"

FDA Bisturi's Royal Rose Blush "Shoosi"

Arrow Acres Mr. Bates "Mr. Bates"

Bates gets two pictures in honor of Downton Abbey beginning back!

The white yarn is from Treasure & Lily.

 Heather's Acres Arctic Treasure "Treasure".

Glen Ridge Diplomacy's Sugarlily "Lily"

 The bay black yarn is from Ono, Bocote and Star.

Black Midnight's Ono of Arrow Acres "Ono"

 Arrow Acres Bocote "Bocote"

Cayuga Star "Star"

Put them all together and you get a Rose & Cross Pullover!  I made quite a few modifications from the pattern. Mostly for the fit. I made the notes of my modifications on my Ravelry project page.

I love how this sweater turned out! I can't complain about the colder weather because I am so excited to get to wear it. 

I do get asked many times how many things I can make from one alpacas fleece. My answer usually includes these responses. From my alpaca "Blue's" one fleece so far I have made a pull over, shawl, hat and I plan on making a second large lace shawl. I think I could easily have made two sweaters.

But it is not always practical to process a single fleece. A lot of the fiber is lost on the machines. So it is better to combine fleeces to have processed at the same time to have less loss.  Since Blue's fleece is sentimental to me I had it processed alone, but the fiber mill did add 10% silk to it and spun it as a 2 ply. I held the yarn double for this project.

So since it is rare we process a single fleece it is hard to get a solid answer. Also each alpacas fleece is different some alpacas produce more fiber than others, some is longer, some if finer and some is more dense. When we process their fleeces we take all of those things into consideration. When we are combining fleeces to be processed together one of the most important things is the staple length. That is the length of each fiber. That helps to keep a consistent yarn. It also helps to find a good fiber mill to process your yarn!

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

The pattern for this project can be found in this book.

Butt Watching is Over

All of the Spring/Summer 2015 crias are on the ground so butt watching is officially over for the Summer!!! Woo Hoo. That means more time at the beach!

The newest member of the herd is Osiana. She is the daughter of MFI Peruvia Vauneese. Her sire is Summerhill's El Duro's Magnum. He is a 13x Champion, 3x Judges Choice winner. In other words he is a big stud in the alpaca world! This girl has some great blood lines and I can't wait to see how her fleece develops over the next few years. In the mean time she is going to have fun with all the other crias and have some fun playing in the sprinklers.

Me and My Alpaca & Freddy Too

Smile at the camera Blue.

I needed to get a new picture of me and I thought Blue would love to help me out. Most alpacas look soooooo funny after they get sheared, but in my opinion I think Blue always looks cool! 

Freddy even got in a picture! I was also happy to finally get a picture of me in my Postcard Cardigan. I really don't have any good pictures of me wearing it so I was very happy to get a few shots of it.

You may be seeing some of the above pictures in a magazine this Fall :)

Winnie Wenge Before & After

I think Winnie Wenge (wenge pronounced  weng-gay) gets the award for best shearing transformation this year.

She is such a sweet girl. Not to mention an outstanding fleece!!!

Strike a pose Winnie!

Her offical name is Arrow Acres Wenge. Her farm name is Winnie. I call her Winnie Cooper or Winnie Wenge.  She is the daughter of CCNF Smoke Ring and Geneva. Both are outstanding alpacas and she has a very bright future!