June 04, 2010

Fiber Fun Friday -- A Year's Worth of Fiber

I haven't had a lot of fiber projects going on this week because this week has been all about the fiber. It's shearing time! A year's worth of fiber growth ready to be taken off.

Jim spent the beginning of the week getting the barn prepped for shearing, but I had a different task in mind. Since I still have lots and lots of fiber bags left from last year, I decided to spend an entire afternoon randomly dyeing the white fleeces. Knowing I had tons more whites coming up, it seemed like a fun way to experiment with some new colors.

Here are some of them. All dyed using Greener Shades dyes. These dyes are AWESOME!! Up until now I've been using the colors straight from the bottle, but this time I began mixing some to make new colors. I was even smart enough to write the color formulas down. The trick, of course, will be to see if I can duplicate them again.

Anyway, shearing day arrived and this is what we woke up to. I felt like screaming! Wet alpacas....gross and hard to shear.





Thankfully, the rain didn't last all day and we were able to shear inside the barn. It kept the wet grossness to a minimum that way.

Day 2 of shearing came with some clouds, but by afternoon the sun was out. Yippee!! I felt so bad though that our visitors didn't get to see a whole lot of shearing day since we were crammed inside. I had great plans to bring out the spinning wheel and some alpaca stuff, but with so much rain it just didn't happen. I hope they at least had some fun and were able to learn to love the 'pacas a little.

A big thank you to the Alpaca Barber!! He did a wonderful job and always makes this chore fun.

Now I'm going to have to get used to looking at my herd in their naked state. It's so hard to tell them apart right now, but give me a day or two and I'll have it all figured out again.

Oh, do you think I have enough fiber to keep me busy for awhile?? There's more than 100 pounds in that bathtub waiting for me.

15 comments:

  1. Your dyed fleece looks very nice. The last photo almost makes me drool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh man all that rain! Mine get locked indoors the night before to keep dew/rain off and they hate me for it. Barn walls are spitfilled but at least they are dry. Right now I"m keeping my fingers crossed for next Saturday to be dry.

    I can't wait to see all your fiber projects with this years harvest!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I locked the girls in the night before because they were up first, but I have a phobia about locking animals in the barn without a way out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice post! I haven't had the best luck with the Greener Shades dyes but your fleece looks great- any tips?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've only ever used Greener Shades dyes so it's hard to compare them to anything, but I've never had a problem. I guess my best tip is to maybe go for more acidity. I like mine at about 3.7 versus the 4.5 suggested. They exhaust a little better that way. I've dyed various wools and alpaca in locks, roving and yarn forms. I'd be happy to talk more about this if you'd like. You can contact me through my profile email.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You've created some beautiful colors.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, I am loving all that fleece you've got! I also adore naked alpaca pics. They're so cute without their fleeces! :)


    Jess

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi! I'm your new follower! Your dyes look beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey I'm a new follower from the Social Parade, love your blog!

    Alicia
    http://gocheckyourmail.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh how I would love to live on a farm. For now, I will have to live vicariously through your blog. :)
    Following you from Social Parade!

    ReplyDelete
  11. How fun! I'm following from Blog Hop. I would love it if you stopped by to say say.

    http://smartshopaholic.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Love the colors!
    I am a new follower from Friday Follow, so glad to have found your blog. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

    Eloise
    Mommy2TwoGirls
    http://mommy2twogirls.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow! The colors are amazing!

    New follower from Friendly Follow! I'd love for you to come visit and follow me!

    Have a great weekend :)
    ~Shelley @ Shelley's Swag

    www.shelleysswag.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. they look so cute without their coats! I found you from Blog Hop Friday, and love your dyed colors!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails