Alpaca Vacation

On Friday, August 27th my husband and I left New York State and headed to Vermont for a mini-vacation. We spent some time at Snowshoe Farm and at the Caledonia County Fair at the alpaca exhibit! It was a truly amazing and educational experience. We learned a bit about interacting with the public and the kinds of questions they ask, bottle feeding a cria and how important good customer service can be. I've put together a short list of the things I learned over the weekend. Hopefully you'll find it informative and a bit humorous...

Things I Learned On My Alpaca Vacation

1. There's nothing sadder than a newly orphaned cria.
   
   
2. The temperature of the milk seals the deal for a bottle fed cria.
   


3. When it's hot and sunny, laying on the sprinklers and as close to the power fans are the places to be!
   
   
4. Once wet, you must roll in the dirt (or hay).
   
   
5. When it's too dark to take good pictures cria get together and give a great performance.



6. The hay in your hands is much better than the hay (from the same bale) you just put in the feeder.


7. When separated, mom and cria play their own version of "Marco-Polo" to find each other.


8. A good product does not mean much without great customer service.


9. Gloves are a must when putting up hay for the winter.


10. Nothing makes time fly faster than watching alpaca antics. AKA It really shouldn't take 3 hours to fill/check water buckets - but it often does.

Unfortunately, numbers one and two in the list were learned because a cria's mom died suddenly when the cria was just a week old. I did have a great time getting to help bottle feed Phylicia but I know it's no substitute for her mom. Here's a picture and yes, she really is as soft and loveable as she looks in the picture - but this isn't typical cuddle time with alpacas who would rather just look at you from a distance...

While at the farm we also got to work some with our cria, Tempe. She's a true wild child but we're sure with some hard work she'll be ready for the ring this spring! Here's a picture of her looking angelic!

Don't let her fool you - you get the halter and lead on and she's all over the place! She hangs out with the boys and seems to lead the pack! We're very proud...

I also wanted to share what I thought was a very cool idea for marking your cria, especially if they are going to be shorn soon and many look similar. Here's a picture that says it all!

Green is for boys and orange is for girls. Use a Sharpie to write on the names and you have easy tear-away name badges for each cria. Phylicia is the one in orange!

Until next time, enjoy those sprinklers!

Breeding Season

We have three female alpacas to be bred this year. Very exciting choosing the right herdsire and waiting for a confirmed pregnancy.

Tempest just gave birth to her fourth cria, Tempe, and so in a few weeks we will have her bred back. Typically you wait 21+ days to rebreed after the female gives birth. We've chosen Nibblewise of Elfenwood for Tempest's service sire. Nibbles is also Tempe's sire. We were so pleased with her we decided to breed Tempest to him again!

Sudi is our only maiden alpaca and she was bred to HobbyHorse Peruvian Midnight Cowboy. Thus far in her post-breeding pregnancy testing she is spitting off the male alpacas which indicates she is bred. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything continues to go smoothly and in 11 months we'll have another cria to add to our herd - think PINK!

Finally, there is Alcy. Our gray female is currently at Vermont Alpaca Company to be bred to Patagonia's Amicus. Amicus has is a true black herdsire out of two gray parents! We're hoping those gray genetics flow through Alcy and we end up with a beautiful gray cris. Thus far Alcy has been bred twice and during the post-breeding behavior testing (around day 5-7) she has cushed which indicates that she hasn't taken. At this stage in the game we aren't sure what this means but we continue to be hopeful. The vet will be out for a visit in the next week or so and will hopefully provide some insite. Alcy has had two cria, one in 2007 and the second in 2008. She was left open in 2009 due to space constraints on her previous farm. We'll keep you posted on how this breeding goes and cross your fingers!

Busy Weekends

This weekend we attended a Breeding for Champions seminar at Vermont Alpaca Company which focused on breeding your female alpacas to improve their cria and ultimately win championships. There are many factors to consider and it truly broadened our perspective and what to look for in our future herdsires. The seminar instructor was Cheryl Gehly, a well known alpaca fiber judge.

Briefly, some of the things we learned from Cheryl included how to analyze your female's fiber and ascertain what factors you need to look for in your future herdsire for each female. Some of the things to look for are histograms and fiber samples from the males. Also, we learned to never single trait breed or single trait eliminate. Overall analysis is very important in the decision making process. We also learned a bit about the different follicle types, alpaca fiber characteristics and the most advanced fleece type (ELITE) characteristics.

One important tip we pulled from the seminar is to keep very detailed records which need to include samples of the fiber being recorded. This is my next adventure! I sense a binder and a spreadsheeting coming into picture very soon. Cheryl recommended we keep a Reference Micron Library and a Reference Crimp Library. Obviously our first complete one will be from Tempe. Her cria fleece will be shorn off in the next week or two - we won't have a histogram for this but it's a good example of her base.

After the seminar our female, Alcy, was delivered to Vermont Alpaca Company for her breeding to their herdsire, Amicus. The seminar showed us we had chosen a herdsire who would take Alcy's cria in the right direction. As a gray alpaca, Alcy's fiber needs increased uniformity of micron, increased staple length and increased density.

Sunday0, June 27th, we spent at Snowshoe Farm meeting our new cria, Tempe, and learning some new alpaca things. We got to observe a couple breedings and learn what to watch for in cria to make sure they are healthy.

Here are some pictures of Tempe for your enjoyment! She's super cute and we're very happy with her. She is a beautiful rose gray and has some nice silver gray markings on her neck and legs.

Temperance & Fiber

Twilight Ridge Farm has its first cria! Tempest gave birth on June 22nd at approximately 10:30 AM. Temperance (Tempe for short) weighed in at a healthy 20.4 pounds. We are traveling to Snowshow Farm this weekend to see her. Already she's playing with the other cria on the farm. Here are some pictures from her first day - I'm sure many more will be posted after the weekend!

Also, we delivered our first fiber order to Annabel's Fibre Studio in Oneonta, NY. 8 batts of 100% alpaca fiber and 14 batts of Color Kissed Alpaca Fiber. Most of the batts were combined with dyed merino fiber and a couple had other fiber types mixed in. I washed all the fiber in my kitchen sink, combed it and carded it (twice)! I was very proud of my end product and hope the spinners at Annabel's enjoy them too! Larry designed the labels and I worked out the best way to package the fiber. In the end our joint efforts looked amazing! I will post some photos of the batts we delivered at a later date.

Stash Closet Exposed!

My wonderful husband is updating my stash closet for me so I can be more organized! However, this meant I had to clean out the closet first... Not such an exciting prospect, but I did get it done! Now it's all up to him for the sanding, painting and putting in the new shelving! I can't wait! Then I can keep the fibery stuff separate from the yarn of the matter! *sigh* Organization is grand!

The above is my exposed stash. I did manage to bag up some random yarn and unfinished projects that I decided I no longer need. It's a start.

Here are is a pic of the newly vacant closet! The closet looks small but it actually goes to the left and right once you are through the doorway. Not a walk in exactly but ample enough for now!

I can't wait until the closet it finished! I'll post more pictures once it is complete and back together again!

Carding Like Crazy!

Today I am carding fiber into batts! I call these my color kissed batts. It's mostly white alpaca fiber with a touch of other dyed fiber carded in. Very beautiful and soft! My cats are excited I'm home and so am I! I'll post pictures later today once I have made some progress. I LOVE my new drum carder and will post pictures of that as well.

Fiber Mania

So I finally have some yarn spun into skeins and I must say I'm improving though I have a ways to go. At least I can start knitting with the more recent ventures... anyone need a new hat? :)

The first yarn is the orange one and it is single ply. This is my very first attempt from during my classes. The second yarn is the black skein with white silk nodules in it so it is naturally a bumpier yarn.

My third yarn is a mix of a lot of different fiber I was trying out during class to see how I liked working with them. It has a lot of brown in it with some bright green, blue, pink and purple as well. My fourth yarn I think looks the most like yarn you might see in a store. I have more consistency and I'm really looking forward to knitting something up with it. This is primarily alpaca yarn both from some fiber I carded and some roving or batts from class.

I already have some nice light green alpaca that I am spinning which I bought from Snowshoe Farm. Once I've finished spinning it and plied it I'll post a picture or two. I do however have my next spinning project all ready and waiting for me! I just purchased some amazingly soft fiber (4 oz. of Proud Peacock) from Gale's Art.

As an aside Gale's Art is giving away a free silk hankie butterfly. From her website it says "A silk hankie, for those who don’t know, is a bombyx silk cocoon that is heated and stretched over a wooden frame. Each hankie contains about 7 cocoons and weights 6 to 8 grams (about a quarter of an ounce).They can be used in spinning, felting and papermaking. There are many excellent tutorials on how to use them on you tube." I can't wait to see what I can do with my butterflies as I got two!

Until next time happy spinning!

Fiber!

Washing Fiber

I'm taking a fiber spinning class at Snowshoe Farm in Vermont. It's been a lot of fun thus far and I can see how it something I want to do long-term. This week we had homework! We had to wash some alpaca fiber (careful not to felt it!). Here are some pictures I took:

This is about 1/3 of the fiber I got to wash. It doesn't look like much but it is super soft and every so slightly dirty/dusty.

These are must haves! Gentle shampoo, white vinegar and lotion. You also need a delicates washing bag and I found a cookie cooling rack handy!

This is the fiber in the bottom of our sink while it soaks for 20 minutes with a little shampoo mixed in. Then you take it out, drain the sink and fill it back up for rinsing. You can't have extemes of temperature and you can rough it up (both cause felting!).

This is the fiber after it is all done being washed and is air drying. It sure doesn't look like much and it also has a bit of a wet dog smell to it (but that goes away...).

This is the fiber once it has been dried for several days and "fluffed" along the way! Now when I take this to class we'll card it and spin it and then wrap it onto a niddy noddy like this one which my husband, Larry, made for!

Until next time happy spinning!