Quick post from Indiana

Hey everyone......we're down in Needmore Indiana for the Ukulele World Congress where my husband, Jim, can play his uke to his hearts content. 

We usually camp on site but this year we found we had major problems with our truck so we had to leave the camper at home and motel it.  I'm not to sorry about this since last year it was about 90 degrees with 75% humidity.  So far this year it's cold and rainy. 

Last night we ventured out to the field where everything happens.  Jim was able to reconnet with his friend from around the world.....Australia, Alaska, Thiwan, Canada, Bermuda, England, Nova Scotia....what a crazy bunch of uke players.   This is what the sky looked like when we decided to head back to the motel.

Those clouds opened up and the rain came pouring down.....felt so bad for the people in that field who were in tents.  You have to be a hardy soul for this uke weekend.  No electricity, no running water and only porta johns.

Here's my handsome man playing in the lobby of our motel.  He's so happy to be here again despite the weather.

 
Of course I did bring my knitting.   I'm working on finishing up my Color Affection Shawl.  Just completed section 3 so only have 2 inches to knit in the brighter blue color to finish it up.

....hubby chomping at the bit to get out to the field so that's it for me this week.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

No animals were injured.......

That's right....once again no animals were injured during shearing this year.  Although both the shearer and his handler sliced a finger while cutting fighting teeth that had grown back on one of our older boys.

We had amazing weather on Wednesday, just the right amount of help and animals that behaved well.  Who could ask for more.

We started with our white animals..........

then moved up to the darker ones....

Here is a before and after of our one any only Huacaya born from two Suri's.  His name is Dude.....

Look at all that awesome fiber!   Now you see it......

........now you don't. 

This is our youngest, Jimmy Boy, born May 26th, 2012 right before a terrible storm. 

He's such a sweet boy

Beautiful, shiny black fiber....mmmmmm.

Now look how tiny he is!

Happy Girls

Happy Boys

This year we used Easy Alpaca Shearing and had a wonderful experience.  They were helpful, humorous and best of all allowed us to move at our own pace.....slow and steady.  Great Day!

I'll leave you with a picture of my husband's favorite goat.  He was so stressed out with all the alpaca's not being in their proper places, he spent the whole time in his house.  After everyone left, Jim let him out to play.  He loves the leaves on our apple tree.

Lil One

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.  If you get a chance, say Thank You to a veteran.  Although I didn't like the times we were apart, I'm very proud of the 33 years my husband served.

Knitting+Beads=Jewlery

That's what the book Betsy Beads is all about.   When this book arrived at our LYS I knew it had to leave with me.

I used my left over sock yarns for this bracelet. Solid blue 100% alpaca by DROPS but can’t remember what the variegated is.  The I-cords went fairly quickly but it took quite a bit of time to sew together. I used my June Taylor quilting board to hold the I-cords in place while stitching.

Loved how the blue alpaca worked when stitching the variegated sock yarn I-cords together. Smooth, even stitches as if using thread.

I was supposed to use the variegated yarn to stitch the blue I-cords together but because the alpaca was so much softer it looked very messy. I looked through my stash and found the yellow/green alpaca thinking it would look okay.

I do like how it stitched up but when the bracelet is worn reversed, that side is not as striking as the other. A lot of stitching to go through to not wear the reverse side.

Pattern called for size 8 seed beads to be used to sew up the sides but I didn’t like how they looked. Tried several different types of beads and in the end used 1 size 8 seed bead, 1 size 8 fringe bead and then another 8 seed. By using the fringe bead in the middle the beads pulled closer together so you couldn’t see as much of the thread between them.   I also didn’t care for the look of the yarn showing between the beads so I used beading thread instead.

Then I decided to make this choker using Duet yarn in black with beads called River Moss.   The yarn has a satin and matt look but when the necklace was complete this difference did not show.  I chose to use only one color of beads through out instead of using accent beads as the directions suggest because I just love the color of these beads.

This truly is a choker and turned out to be to small for my liking. I extended the length by adding about 1 3/4 ” of beads at each side and used a toggle claps.  I used 1 strand of yarn and 1 strand of beading wire when I added the extra beads at the ends. I felt this would add a measure of security to that section. I left long tails and wove them back into the finished knitted section of the necklace.

Loved how quickly this knit up and the final result.....can see more of these in my future.

These earrings are what really excited me when I first looked at this book.  I don't know why....don't wear hoop earrings.....loved them anyway.  Maybe I'll have to give them a try.....their just so sparkly and take about an hour and half to make.

That's it for me today.....hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and don't forget to check out all the other exciting posts at Wonder Why Alpacas.

West Michigan Yarn Quest

Ten of our local yarn shops (well some what local) put together their first shop hop which started last Saturday and ends tomorrow.  I work at Your Local Yarn Shop on Thursday and Saturday so I thought I probably wouldn't make it to many of the other shops.    Ha....wrong! 

As the ladies came in last Saturday full of tales about the other shops, I decided I would have to see at least some of them for myself.  Made a call to Jill, Lady Peddler, to see if she would like to ride along since her shop is closed on Monday, she said sure.......so off we went.

Left early Monday morning and headed to The New Ewe in Newaygo.  Arrived right as they were opening after about a two hour drive.  Really nice shop........well worth the drive. 

Yarn on the left is ALP Dazzle by Fezayarns....awesome deep blue.  I received the cowl pattern free with yarn purchase.  Yarn on right is Vail by Classic Elite Yarns and is 70% Alpaca/30% bamboo fingering weight in Charcoal. 

Then we headed to South Haven in search of The Needlesmith and lunch.  I found three balls of Terra by SWTC.   I recently purchased the Betsy's Beads book so I was searching for yarns to knit up some of the jewelry pieces and thought these would work nicely.   Also bought a skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace, just couldn't resist.


Next stop, Painted Trillium in Hudsonville.  They had some awesome fiber by CJKopec but since I'd just bought a bunch from Yarn Hollow a few weeks ago I was able to resist this temptation.  This is the free pattern I received for stopping by.....

Right up the road from Painted Trillium was Country Needleworks in Jenison.  Fun store....gifts, jewelry, beading, stamping, needlework plus yarn.  They were featuring Yarn Hollow yarns but they had not arrived....bummer!

Found some Krenik Metallic thread and white DMC pearl cotton for the knit bead jewelry as well and a beautiful deep teal skein of Scrumptious Lacy by Lantern Moon.

Short drive from Country Needleworks and we arrived at Threadbender in Wyoming where I picked up this ball of Amazing 100% corn fiber.  I plan on using this for some of the patterns in Betsy's Beads.

From there we drove to Clever Ewe in Ada.  They were featuring Juniper Moon yarns.  I picked up a skein of Findley Dappled Lace. 

This was the first time Jill and I had ever been to Ada....what a fun little town.  On one side of the yarn store was a Pottery/Jewelry studio featuring works by local artisans and on the other was an art gallery.  Across from the shop you could get some Hudsonville ice cream and right around the corner was a covered bridge.  Great ending to our shopping day. 

Left home at 8:00am......238 miles......6 shops.  I got home about 6:30, exhausted, but what an awesome day.

Since we  managed to get to 6 out of the ten shops on Monday that left me with only three shops to visit.  After having lunch on Tuesday with my mom and aunts, I decided to head up to A Grand Skein in Grand Rapids where I found this skein of Exquisite Bamboo by Fibernatura.

Then stopped at Henney's in Caledonia and bought this huge skein of Sea Pearl  by Briar Rose Fibers.

And my last stop, Lady Peddler where I picked up her pattern for a  cowl.

So instead of thinking I might make it to a couple of shops, I managed to make it to all ten.....woot, woot! 

My final purchases will be at Your Local Yarn Shop tomorrow.  I have several skeins of Studio June yarn put aside.  My plan is to take in everything I bought at the other shops not only to show off my purchases but hopefully to help me make a decision on which colors/yarn blends to choose. 


What a fun, fun, fun couple of days.  Thanks to all the shops that participated....hope it was worth all their efforts and will be looking forward to next years event.

A Day at Yarn Hollow

Last Friday Kelly planned a surprise 50th birthday party for Linda at Your Local Yarn Shop and my assignment was to get Linda out of the store for the day.   Pick her up at 11:00 and return around 5:30pm. This may not sound like a difficult task but how does one go about getting ones boss out of the store on her normal work day?  By enlisting the help of others, of course. 

I called Rita to see if she could help me out by letting us visit her studio for the afternoon.  She graciously agreed and as luck would have it, so did Linda.  I wasn't sure we could stay at Yarn Hollow for the amount of time I needed to keep Linda occupied so Kelly also added a couple of stops to our agenda for the day.  She just had to have some yarn from both Threadbender and A Grand Skein.

Everything turned out well except it took us 1 1/2 hours to drive back to Battle Creek due to an awful rain storm.  Linda did admit she thought something was up because I asked her to leave for the day but she had no idea the surprise that awaited her at the store when we returned.  Friends, family, a taco bar with all the trimmings, veges, fruit, cake, doughnuts, margarita's and sangria......what more could a girl ask for.

Birthday girl with hubby Fred

Felted birthday hat by Jone Rakoski

Pics of the Yarn Hollow fiber I couldn't leave without.....

On my bobbin is the Finn I purchased at The Spinning Loft. It was only 4 ozs. so I took it with me to Rita's and found this braid of BLF, colorway Spumoni, that I'm currently spinning  to use for plying.

These two braids are Merino Tussah Silk Top in two different colorways. Morning Spice and Electric Chai..... 

and this lovely pair of Merino superwash braids in colorways Spumoni and Bengal Bees.  I now have some colorful spinning in my future!

Thanks to Rita and Ruby at Yarn Hollow for the fun afternoon and to all who helped make Linda's surprise a success!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!

New Adventure

Last summer at Michigan Fiber Festival my husband traded one of our Suri alpaca fiber boys for two Pygoras and Wednesday we tackled our first shearing.

We watched several Youtube video's....read some books.....and jumped in. 

 All hooked up.......our friends from 4 Musketeers Alpaca Ranch gave us this alpaca shoot they made and then never used.  We were able to place a board across the supports which put the goats at eye level.......very little bending over.  This was a god send! 

and here we go.........snip, snip, snip....

I could not believe the amount of fiber on this gray boy....thought I'd never get done

 one blister, two Pygoras, three pair of scissors and four hours later....exhausted but done.......

 two happy boys! 

Now to do some research on cleaning and processing this beautiful fiber.  I think I feel some Suri Pygora blends in my near future.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday......don't forget to pop on over to Wisdom Begins in Wonder and check out what everyone else has been working on.

Show Girls

Three stark, white styrofoam heads transformed into show girls......

Almost finished spinning my Panda Top from Yarn Hollow.......

Just two small bundles to go to complete my second bobbin.  I'm thinking of leaving this as a single and using it to knit Citron.

And moving along nicely on my Spectra....

A pretty awesome week!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!