Prepare to DYE!

I had one heck of a good weekend. On Saturday, I spent my morning at Windy Hill Alpaca Farm taking a natural dyeing class called, "Prepare to Dye!". I loved it, and not only because of the pun in the class title. Ryan surprised me by finding this class all on his own and booking it for me. One of the best surprises ever! He knows me well.

My favorite dye we practiced Saturday was definitely mint [2 right skeins]. We dyed small skeins of alpaca yarn that started off as white/cream. I just love how the mint turned into a sage-y green color. I learned a lot, and am excited to experiment with other natural dyes - I'm even going to give dyeing with wine a whirl!

 

Since the class was on an alpaca farm, I naturally walked around and saw a bunch of alpacas. Including this 1-day old baby alpaca! 

I ended the day going to my sister's place with Ryan to babysit our nephew and niece. We had some serious bubble time.

Hannah was obsessed with blowing bubbles. Obsessed I tell you.

What a glorious weekend!

So much alpaca fleece!!!

It happened guys, alpaca fleece galore!

Beth and I each bought 3 small fleeces of our own, then we bought a few more to split. I'm researching drum carders and spinning wheels so I can start making this gorgeous fleece into yarn! I enjoy my drop spindle, but with this much fleece I would be spinning til the cows come home! Any carder or wheel recommendations?

I wish you could feel the fleeces...they are so so so soft.

Pure alpaca joy!

Who loves alpacas?!

Ever want to get your husband's attention? Tell him you want to buy an alpaca.

[source]

Long story short, I met a woman on the LA Yarn Crawl who owns 8 alpacas and she sells their fleece. My initial thought was, "I would love to have a herd of alpacas!". Turns out you don't even need to live on a farm to own alpacas - you can agist them at neighboring farms!

However, agistment is kinda pricey, and we don't live on a farm [yet]. So, I've decided to just buy a couple raw alapaca fleeces to process into roving and yarn. My friend, Beth, and I are going to try our hand at making our own drum carders so we can process the fleece quicker than using hand cards (which would take forevvvver with that much fiber). Then I'd love to try dying the white alpaca fibers with natural dyes, and eventually spin it into yarn. I have a drop spindle, but I have a feeling I'll be investing in a spinning wheel one of these days.

I'm going to buy one grey fleece and two white fleeces. Since I won't be buying an alapaca anytime soon, I've named the fleeces instead: Gandolf (the grey fleece), and Mary Kate and Ashley (the two white fleeces). I'm sure they'll keep me busy until I can someday have my very own alpacas. :)