Someone Stop Me!

I just can't seem to stop putting my hands into silky-soft fiber! I'm busy getting ready for the 1st Annual Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival which is this weekend and plan to offer our best in dyed rovings, yarn, and finished products.Although I should be taking the time to get myself better organized, I just can't resist doing more dyeing and making things! I recently took some of our finest fleeces to get processed, and these are some that I'll be offering in both dyed and natural colors. Although I wanted to spin up every lot that I dyed (leaving none to sell!), I did indulge myself in spinning and knitting a sample swatch... ahem... JUST so that others could determine what they'd look like!What? You're not familiar with a fiber festival? I can still remember my first, Fiber Fest in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it must have been about 15 years ago. I took a spinning class, and dropped off llama and alpaca fiber and wool with Ohio Valley Natural Fibers to be processed into roving. That festival introduced me to the variety and wonder of working with fiber, and I went on to make spinning, knitting, dyeing a hobby and breeding top quality alpacas became my full-time job after a few years.

At the 1st Annual Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, you'll see over 6o vendors. Some of us will have livestock (come meet Jasper and Midas, two alpacas that are for sale and Phoenix, our friendliest pack llama). There will be several breeds of sheep, and angora goats (which produce mohair), and angora rabbits (which produce angora) and who knows what else! There will be TONS of yarn and spinning wheels and FIBER for sale (including many pounds of roving that I have been dyeing!).In addition, there will be local FOOD and wine available for sale. AND, if that's not enough, the Bluegrass Classic Sheepdog Trial will be taking place, too. All of this is happening at Masterson Station Park in Lexington from 9 to 5 on Saturday, May the 15th and Sunday, May the 16th, there are some fiber arts classes available on the 14th, too.

I am very excited as well as appreciative of the people who stepped up to make this happen- local fiber, local food, fiber animals, a festival atmosphere, and the opportunity to meet others and sell my wares from the farm.... I hope to see you there!

On a roll with felting!

Last week on my other blog I shared some recent felting projects and talked about having a creative rush without a lot of time to follow my urges. Well, it seems that positive intentions have resulted in both additional time AND continued inspiration!
I've been doing even more felting, and had a particularly great time making this hat! It is made from hand-dyed alpaca fiber, with the embellishments part merino and part hand-dyed and handspun alpaca.

Not a very patient person am I, but I am FINALLY learning to put unfinished projects aside occasionally when I get "stuck." I needled in the flowers last night, but didn't know what else to do the hat and it needed something. This morning I immediately had the idea for the lady bug and spiral, as well as the dotted band and handspun line on the brim.

After needle felting, I got the entire hat wet again with hot soapy water and wet-felted it again very gently with a palm sander (be sure to read up on safety precautions if you try this). I can't decide whether or not to stitch the edges like on the last one, but that can wait.

Yarn Paradise

With little time these days for handspinning on my wheel and a good demand for premium alpaca yarn, I was thrilled to get a new shipment of yarn this week that I had spun at a US mill for our own use and resale. We are finding that knitters are eager for top quality alpaca, and we certainly have the means to produce it! I love dyeing and handpainting the lighter colors, and got started immediately on some suri:

Having raised alpacas for nearly 14 years and being a knitter myself, I know that people want yarn that is SOFT (fine) and CLEAN (density helps in this regard, as does the farm environment) with very few to no straight fibers (uniformity). Some love natural colors, others like dyed and I personally love working with multi-colored yarns. People are also demanding USA-produced yarn! I didn't used to think that that the market would bear this out, but I was proven wrong when I first offered millspun yarn directly from OUR own Kentucky alpacas and it sold quickly, despite a higher pricetag than imports in the yarn stores.

Many of our current yarns are available for shipping through my site at Etsy (just click here on it), or you can make an appointment to see what we have here at the farm.