Shearing Day- Open Barn Sale

Spinners & Felters - Buy fleece Right from Our Alpacas

Our shearing day is Monday April 27th. This year we are inviting area spinners and felters to purchase our fleece as it comes of f the alpacas!
I will be selling alpaca fleece in white, beige, fawn, brown and black at the following prices:
Prime Blanket fleece:
Adult blanket: $40/ fleece (average of 3-5 pounds)
Cria (baby) fleece: $45/fleece(finer than adult fleece)

2nds
Fiber from neck and upper leg: $20/fleece(a little bit courser and sometimes shorter than prime fleece)
2nds are great for blending with other wool!

Our barn will be open to shoppers from 12:00 to 5:00

Oak Grove Alpacas
980 Nancy Ann Drive
Howell, MI 48855
(586) 506-1921

A Horse Named Ginger

Saturday Annelise had her first riding lesson. She is hooked! She is already asking for the next lesson. With Choir, Awana, softball & piano it is tricky to fit another lesson into her busy schedule.

Ginger is a very sweet horse and enjoyed the nice brushing and hoof cleaning that Annelise gave her. Annelise is learning that if you want to ride a horse you have to take care of it too!

Below are a few photos and a video from her adventure:

Alpaca/Silk Shawls Finished!

I spent my morning taking the glamor shots of my latest shawls so that I could list them on Etsy.com. I really like the way that they turned out. I have the same yarn in a pink/rose color(see below). I am going use the same pattern with that yarn.

Aside from weaving I am busy planning our trip to India and beginning another two courses at school. I am realizing that our time in India is going to go quickly. There are many things to do and not enough time. So far we have a 5 day trip to Delhi, Agra (this is where the Taj Mahal is locataed) and Jaipur. We would like to visit a jungle retreat, http://www.jungleretreat.com/, in Ooty and also visit the state of Kerela.

The next set of shawls will begin with this yarn:

Silk, Silk, Silk!

I have finally finished warping my loom and have begun to weave 2 shawls. I am weaving my first shawl with silk that my mom brought me from India. It is turning out very pretty! The pattern in this shawl is an 8 shaft dornik twill. I love the way that it looks with the multi-colored yarn as the warp!

Enjoying my week off!

Recently, I found some people from my past on Facebook. They have inspired me to scan some of my old photos. I think many of my family members will enjoy the uploaded album (scroll down and look to the right to view the album from the late 60's early 70's. I have also been working really hard to link all of my internet presences together - etsy, oakgrovealpacas.com, this blog etc. So far I have succeded in adding a mini etsy store to the side of this blog!

Yesterday I dyed skeins of yarn with the leftover Easter egg dye. Below are my version of the instructions:


Dying Yarn with Easter Egg Dye

Here are the steps to Dye with Easter egg dye(I used the kind that you mix with vinegar):
1. Wet your skeins
2. I put one or 2 skeins in a rectangle pyrex dish
3. Pour the leftover dye onto the skeins. You might want to squish them around a little to distribute the dye
4. Cover the dish with plastic wrap
5. Microwave for about 6 minutes (I am not sure if this step is necessary with this type of dye but that is what I do)
6. Remove from microwave and rinse skeins until they run clear

See Yesterday's post for finished skeins.

This afternoon I will either finish warping the loom or knit a few pairs of baby booties. Decisions, decisions!

Welcome to the world of Michelle!

I never seem to have a boring moment! I'm Michelle and I am the mom of 2 kids, the shepherd of 23 alpacas. In addition to being a mom and a shepherdess I am a textile designer and a student at Cleary University in Howell, Michigan. I have been meaning to get this blog up and running for a couple of months now. We are finally on spring break so I have time! Check back often! I plan to write about alpacas, spinning, knitting weaving and an upcoming trip to India. More to come on all topics soon!

In addition to creating a blog, today has involved a little Easter egg dying plus a little yarn dying with the leftover Easter egg dye.

Here are a few pictures of the day so far:

Izzy, Alicia & Annelise

Yarn dyed with the leftovers. I didn't like the original color so much!

I also have a couple of shawls in progress on my loom. I am using my favorite alpaca/silk yarn as warp and I hope to use some really pretty silk from India as the weft. More photos to come in the near future!

This yarn is a pretty blend of greens with a little white. It will look much better once I get going.