Alpacas

I met beautiful alpacas at the March 2011 Alpaca show in Kansas City.  Here are two of them, Penny and Liberty.  I took their photos at the show and created these 8x10 oil paintings.  I hope to get even more photos on Friday when I visit Liberty at her home!

If it Holds Still - Dye It

I found this stained linen tablecloth at an estate sale last week for $2.20.  It is a nice heavy linen.  So, I brought it home and used cellulose dye on it.  And, now it is pretty.  Here it is drying in the sun.  It is even prettier after I ironed it!

Dogs Rule!

Chiquita was enjoying a cool day with her new sweater that I felted for her from some of my merino wool.  And, of course, I had to make a Sculpey button for it.

Poor Dotty is on the run.  Dotty is wanting a purple sweater.  So, I need to get busy.

Ignorance is Truly Bliss!

I am having such fun with my alpaca fleece, from the beautiful Mona Lisa, alpaca who lives with Marcia.
I carded some dyed locks last night and it went so nice that I decided to dye more locks.  Then, I put those locks in the sun to dry.  They looked so pretty and fluffy that I went inside, got my spinning wheel, took the wheel outside and started spinning.  No problem.  Not sure if this is what I should do with alpaca.  But, it looks so pretty.  It is sort of lumpy yarn-just the way I like it!  If it is homespun, shouldn't it look homespun?  I can't wait to ply it, full it and crochet something warm and wonderful.  Maybe a hat!?

Red Wins!

Here is the photo of the original sample and then the results of the red (watered down Jacquard cherry red) overdye.  The overdye really helped make the colors work together.  I ran some tests first and really had to water down the red dye.

Technology Meets Fiber

I dyed this merino, each color separately, then spun the three colors.  I really like the texture, but the color grates on my last nerve.  So, Chiquita (seen in the photo staring at the yarn) and I are running an experiment in Adobe Photoshop.  The first photo is the sample as it looks outside on a cloudy day in Kansas City.  The next photos have colors applied over the yarn.  So, I will be able to look at the photos and choose a color to overdye the skein.

black

blue

red

teal

yellow



A Fleece for Me!

I bought a gorgeous show fleece from Marcia at The Alpacas at Orchard Hills Farm last weekend.  I carded up a few ounces straight from the bag of fleece (notice the fantastic bloom of fleece waiting to be carded!)  I dyed it straight from the drum carder and then separated it up and spun it.  Really lovely!  Thank you Mona Lisa (the wonderful alpaca who grew this beautiful coat).