Wedding Shawls

I have been weaving wedding shawls for the last week. I used an 80% alpaca and 20% silk yarn as the warp. The weft is an extremely fine silk yarn that my Mom bought for me in India. This yarn is about 1/2 the size of sewing thread. Weaving the 2 shawls with such a fine yarn is taking a long time!

Silk Thread Next to Sewing Thread

Winding the Warp onto the Loom (Luckily I have a Long Studio!)

All 528 Threads Threaded Through the Loom

View of Warp Wound onto the Loom

Finally Weaving!

Once I wet finish this shawl it will be less shear than is is now. The shawls are extremely light and delicate. They will be beautiful when finished!

Making Plans for India

During our morning chat on Skype this morning my Mom and I were busy making plans. Our first adventure outside of Bangalore will be a visit to the Jungle Retreat. The Jungle retreat is located in Mudumalai, India near the Nilgiris Reserve. The reserve is home to wild elephants, deer, leopard and many other wildlife. We will go on a safari organized by the Jungle Retreat. I am hoping that they stock cobra anti-venom just in case. Running into a cobra is one of my biggest fears ever! We have decided jeans, sturdy footwear and perhaps beer would be good to bring with us.

In addition to the safari there is some sort of elephant camp near the Jungle Retreat. It looks like a place to get an up-close view of an elephant for sure!

Below are a few photos from the Jungle Retreat web site. I will post my own pictures when I get back from my visit. One of the best things about this place is that the best room at the resort only costs about $68.00 per night!

The view from one of the rooms. The resort is in the mountains

The pool

Hopefully this will be our room

Elephant Camp

More Elephant Camp

Even More Elepahnt Camp

The Dining Area at the Lodge


I feel the need to re-read a couple of Hemingway books to get me in the mood for our jungle visit. I may just stop by the library today!

Almost on my way to India

In just 2 weeks I will be leaving for my trip to India. I am busy gathering up the items I will need while I am there. I am going to try not to pack too much since I will need to lug anything I bring through the Airports by myself. Packing light is difficult for me. I feel the need to bring everything I own on vacation.

So far we are planning to visit: Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. On the way back we will stop in London for a few days.

I am a whimp about driving here in the US. I can't imagine how I am going to deal with Indian traffic. I am putting all my faith in Gunga, my parent's driver to get us around safely! Here is a funny clip about driving in India:

Up to my knees!

Spring at the farm means there is a ton of work to be done. One big job that needs to be tackled every year is getting our garden in order. The garden area doubles as our alpaca poop storage area. Luckily, alpaca beans don't smell bad. Our deck is about 75 feet from this area and you would never know what lurks in our 'garden'. A few passes with the rototiller turns the alpaca beans into really nice looking soil - ready for a few veggies to be planted. I was a little worried about planting veggies directly into the poop - I didn't want anyone getting ecoli from my food. She said that because alpacas are vegetarians we are safe.

Before I can get to the rototilling job I must get rid of all of the weeds that have popped up this spring. The area we are talking about is about 25' x 100'. Cleaning it up is an enormous job. I already did some work a week or so ago and now I am finishing up.

Weeds Eveywhere!

Front of the garden, not yet weeded

More before photos

All these need to go too

And this too- Eveything behind the chives in the middle is alpaca poop!

This is the pile of pulled weeds - it was double the size when I finished

I tried out a new bug band bug repellent. I think it worked well but it smelled like citronella. This gave me a headache after a while.

While I was working our new dog Murphy wandered near the alpacas. He has been here 2 months and the alpacas are just noticing him. They are saying 'Emergency! A strange dog is in the area'. Murphy could care less about the alpacas. He was just happy to be near me in the garden.

Meanwhile, Vic is busy working on his lawn. He loves the lawn like it is one of his kids. This looks much easier than garden weeding doesn't it? The entire family refuses to help with my weeding task - it is that bad.

This is our fabulous rototiller. We bought it 9 years ago when I was pregnant with Annelise. This is a machine that I can start with one pull after it has been sitting for the entire winter! It is worth every penney we paid for it.

The rototiller's first pass through the garden. See how nice the dirt looks after being tilled.

This job gets ugly once you get to the poop area. This picture shows my leg sinking into the poop 1/2 way to my knee. Yuck!

Making Progress!

After doing all this work I was too tired to actually plant my veggies. Today we will do the planting. I will post the results in part 2!

Fiber Friday

My dear friend Kathy and I had 'Fiber Friday' last week. We began our field trip with a visit to one of my favorite mills - Pufphaff's Fiber Processing(http://fibermill.yurtboutique.com/). Owner, Sue Pufphaff, helped me to turn 60 pounds of alpaca fleece into pretty roving. With Sue and Kathy's help I created about 10 3 color 70% alpaca/30% wool blends. They will arrive at my house in a few weeks. It was a great help for me to have friends around to help me pick the colors! It is hard to make these choices on your own.

The second stop on our Fiber Friday tour was The Yarn Garden in Charlotte, Michigan - http://www.yarngardenmichigan.com/. The Yarn Garden is a store with plenty of inspiration. I fell in love with a beaded silk yarn. I am inspired to spin my own beaded silk yarn or possibly a beaded alpaca/silk. I also found a pattern for a felted cloche hat that I am excited to knit. If I would have bought the proper knitting needles I would be knitting already! Kathy bought a new book - stitch and Bitch Nation. This book has many fun, easy to knit patterns. We decided it was a good investment.

The last stop on our tour was supposed to be Old Mill Yarns in Eaton Rapids, Michigan - http://www.oldmillyarn.com/. Unfortunatly, they were away at the Marayland Sheep and Wool Festival. We may need to take a road trip to this event next year!

This little trip helped me to accomplish my goal of getting all of the raw alpaca fleece out of my house. I will have new, pretty roving for sale very soon!

Below are a few photos from our trip:

The natural colored bags of fleece are mine. Somehow a kitty got involved in this picture too!

Wool everywhere! Mine is at the back of the room.

These are a few of the dyed wools that we chose to blend with my alpaca.

Alpaca fleece paired up with the dyed wool

Sue's Carding Machine (It magically turns fleece into roving!)

YOu might think I am crazy but I have created a blend with these colors! The idea is that mixed with white I will have a sherbert blend. If not, I will have the retro 80's blend!

Our favorite mill owner Sue.

She was off for a haircut after our visit. Did you do anything rash, Sue? If so, send me a picture.

Oak Grove Alpacas Shearing Day - April 27th

We were lucky to have beautiful weather for shearing day! It was about 75 degrees and dry. Dry weather is the best for shearing becaause the alpacas are cleaner and you don't have to worry about wet fleece going into plastic bags.

We sheared a total of 23 alpacas. Our team of shearing help consisted of 2 shearers, Dave and Katie, two helpers, Timothy and Trenton, my husband Victor and me. It took us about 6 and a half hours to shear our whole herd. 8 years of experience makes the job go smoothly.

Below are a few videos of the process: