Alpacas and Llamas and Sheep, Oh, My!

Nearly five months later...   I'm finally getting around to talking about the IEHG West's February road trip.

IEHG West is an informal group of members of the Inland Empire Handweavers Guild that meets one Saturday a month, usually at a member's home.   at our January meeting, one of the members brought out a box filled with roving processed for her by Tom and Metta at Ranch of the Oaks.  Well, we all raved over it and one thing led to another - ending with me whipping out my iPad and emailing Metta to see if we could tour the ranch and fiber mill.

The result was that one beautiful day in February, twenty or so members, guests, and assorted husbands converged on Solvang, a little Danish village in the Santa Inez Valley.  Solvang is the home of Village Spinning and Weaving, one of the few (if not the only) brick-and-mortar stores serving weavers and spinners in California.  We had time to shop a little and have lunch before we were due at the ranch.

I've mail ordered from VS&W and shopped in their booth at the SCHG's annual Weaving and Fiber Festival.  But I've never been in their store and I was pretty excited about seeing it for the first time.  As some of our members were getting ready to pose for a group photo in front of the shop, the owner unlocked the entrance.  Can you blame me for snapping this shot and running for the door?

They had all kinds of yarns, tools, books - not just for spinning and weaving, but felting, knitting...  all types of fiber arts.  Instant bliss for the fiber frenzied!  As much as I like being able to find anything on the internet, there's nothing like being able to actually see and touch.



At the ranch we were given the royal tour by Mette and Tom.  The alpacas and llamas are kept in separate pens by gender.  The males can get aggressive, so we were invited to go into one of the pens with the females.  They were a bit shy until we offered them little baby carrots.  Then we couldn't get away from them.  What fun! 


I just love alpacas.  Love their funny faces, their many beautiful colors, their little humming noises, their friendliness.  And love spinning their fiber.










The llamas were not as friendly.  They kept their distance, even when the carrots came out.  So naturally I took up the challenge of making friends with a llama.




I spent a lot of my time trying to get close to this beautiful llama.  No soap. Couldn't even bribe her with carrots.




Finally gave up and turned my back on her.  A minute later I felt a little nudge on my back.  Turned around and got a llama kiss right on the lips.  Guess playing hard-to-get did the trick.



This was a day of firsts for me...  first visit to Village Spinning and Weaving, first visit to Ranch of the Oaks, first kiss from a llama, and first time spit on by an alpaca.

Well, not really spit - I hear real alpaca spit is slimy and disgusting.  This particular llama simply seemed to take a dislike to a carrot I had just fed her and she blew it right back at me after chewing it up.

But I forgive her because she's so darned cute.  Even though I'm pretty sure she was laughing at me with her friend.

  

 

 A small herd of Icelandic sheep live in a separate pen. This is one of the oldest and purest breeds of sheep.  I love that these are very close to the same sheep my Viking ancestors would have kept while they were pillaging and plundering my Manx ancestors.

Then Tom gave a tour of the mill.  I was so excited to see their process, I failed to take photos.  Guess I'll have to go back for another visit.  There was just enough time after that to do a little shopping in their store.  I have to say it got a little competitive, but no limbs were lost and everybody went home happy.





This lovely little shawl is made of 100% Icelandic Lopi wool raised, processed and spun by Tom and Mette.  The pattern is called "Rustic Bohemian," designed and knitted by Rebecca Stromgren, aka "Knits With Penguins" on Ravelry.  Since I look almost as silly in shawls as I do in hats, this will be a lovely gift for someone special.

For myself, I bought this "mystery" roving.  I couldn't decide which color I preferred so I made the only sensible choice and bought both.  Because I really need more fiber to spin.  Yeah.

Below are the rest of that day's alpaca photos.  If you're not an alpaca fan, you can stop here.  Otherwise, please enjoy these photos of some of my favorite animals (with a llama or two thrown in for good measure).

 

IEHG West Dye Fest June 1

Where does the time go? 

I've been to so many classes and group events, I can't even remember everything that's gone on since Studio 66. So I'm going to write a brief (for me) post for each of the highlights.  First...

IEHG West Dye Fest...  at the home of one of our members who has a dyeing station at her home.  We had jugs of the acid dyes left over from Studio 66, and did microwave dyeing on all sorts of things.   I got carried away with a gorgeous shade of turquoise and used it on nearly everything. 

Even though it was one of the hottest days of the season, we had such a good time playing with dyes and oohing and aahing over everyone's results. And of course I was so busy enjoying the moment, I didn't think to take photos.  We had drying racks full of the most brilliant colors all over the yard, and I just wish I could show them here.

By the way, I learned that Reduran does quite a good job at removing dye from skin.  Ask me how I know this.

A few days later, I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures so I took these with my phone.  Then learned that it captures turquoise as blue.  So the photos here have all been photoshopped to get back some of the actual color, but they don't do the real things justice.  Guess I'm going to have to break down and get some batteries for my digital camera.

Silk Hankies

More Silk Hankies

Mohair Locks.  There are actually twelve different combinations of colors - but the phone camera loses a lot of detail.

Wool Roving - looks pretty garish.  May overdye...

Just can't get the color anywhere near realistic on this.  I painted one long edge of this silk scarf with teal and the other with purple, and let them blend in the center.

I started with turquoise on the ends of this scarf and added a little teal every few inches as I painted toward the center.

Wool roving - pure turquoise

More wool - turquoise with more purples and pinks than shows here.

This was a really ugly yellowy-beige wool that made my eyes hurt.  I squirted some red, pink, and purple dyes on it randomly and got this gorgeous coloring.  Now wish I'd had more of that ugly stuff.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a great weekend to honor those who have served their country.  Time to remember the major reason that I am free to do all the wonderful things I get to do.   Patriotic observances aside, there was still plenty of time for other things, so I now step down from my soapbox and record my recent fiber frenzies.

Saturday morning was my first meeting with the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild.  What fun!  They couldn't have been more welcoming and I'm looking forward to participating in as many of their activities as I can.  I took Thor, and was surprised to run into Judy, Thor's previous owner, at the meeting.  He turned out to be a great icebreaker for me as I turned into my usual pathetic shy self when I walked through the door.

I went to the meeting intending to buy a Dorset fleece.  One.  Somehow I left with two.  Or possibly three.  Our guild has some link to Action K9 Sports in San Diego County. This is a school that features herding and agility training for dogs.  (Yes, there are still plenty of sheep in this country and dogs are still the most effective herders.) They ordinarily have a day each spring when they invite people to watch them do their thing and a professional sheep-shearer takes care of the flock -- after which attendees can buy the raw fleeces.  This year they were unable to get the sheep-shearer for the right day, so they sent a number of fleeces to our guild meeting.  Well, little miss back-to-nature here decided that one fleece would probably not be enough, and bought two of them.

 I was warned that since it was a warmish day, I would be smelling sheep all the way home.  Happy to say that didn't happen.  In fact, my drive was extremely pleasant both directions despite some traffic delays.  I've recently discovered the the Spin Doctor podcast and have been listening to them in order (another exercise in self-discipline).  I had several episodes on my iPad and plugged it into my car radio -so had the pleasure of listening to a few episodes along the way.   Sasha  is possibly even more OCD about fiber arts than I am so I feel like I'm listening to a kindred spirit (as well as an enabler).
 
Got home, and after pulling out the first fleece, it looks like there are either two more smallish fleeces or one humongous one.  They were only $20 each, so I'll settle with the guild at the next meeting if it turns out to be two of them.

Here's the first fleece waiting to be sorted (second and possibly third fleece waiting on the ground.  After sorting the first one, I put the other back in the bag for another day).  It actually wasn't as bad as I had expected.  There wasn't an awful lot of filth (polite speak for "manure") but enough to make me glad I had a pair of heavy duty rubber gloves.  You usually discard parts with large amounts of  vegetable matter or any filth.

 This is what I consigned to the allegorical compost heap.

 
Then you generally grade the fleece by staple length, coarseness of fiber, and cleanliness.  The shoulders and flanks generally have the highest quality fibers.  But to my untrained eyes, especially since I was not careful to unfold the fleece as one piece, I could not tell you what was from the shoulder and what came from the britch.  It all looked pretty much the same to me. So it all went into two tubs of cold water without being sorted.

I'm guessing there are about three pounds of fleece in each tub.  I GENTLY pushed the fleece down into the water.  They say that Dorset is very forgiving and not as easily felted as other breeds, but I'm not taking any chances.

Next morning, I carefully lifted the fleece out of the water and set it on a screen to drain.  I knew the raw fleece had been pretty dirty, but was still surprised by the appearance of the water.  I also ran into some filth that I had not seen when sorting the day before.  Guess I was a little too eager to get it into the water.  More junk went into the trash barrel as a result.

This is one of the tubs post-fleece.

And the fleece just removed from water.

As I write this, the fleece is back soaking in tubs - awaiting the delivery of some Unicorn Power Scour.  I've been hearing about this product for scouring wool for some time - most recently on the Spin Doctor podcast, and think I'll give it a try.

Saving the other fleece(s) for a group session I'm going to try to organize.

Sunday was a real treat.  One of my fellow Inland Empire Handweavers Guild members was looking for people to help her demonstrate weaving and spinning at the annual Home School Fair at OCHS.  I had no clue what it was about, but went along with my buddy Gail and took Bunny Watson (the Hansen mini-spinner) to keep me busy.  As it turned out, the organizers put us together with another group of (mostly) spinners.  Here is one of the things I love most about fiber arts.  In most activities, when you put two separate groups together, you get instant rivalry.  But for some reason, fiber artists tend to bond and share. Maybe it's cross-enrollment in many groups.  Or perhaps it's because the fiber community has a number of traveling teachers so we aren't limited to thinking that WE have the only way.  But whatever the reason, we joined ranks and  had a delightful day. 

The other group was called "No Idle Hands."  All but one were in costume -- one in a civil war-era dress and bonnet, one in a Victorian smock, and the rest in Ren-Faire apparel.  I gather their emphasis is on Victorian era crafts, but they also participate in SCA and historic reenactment activities.  Most were spinning, but one was grinding wheat in a manually cranked grinder and making dough on site.  One of them gave each of us a a beautiful beaded orifice hook she had made.  Just in time since I've been using a big paper clip on Thor.  We sat in the shade and chatted most of the day while we worked on our projects.  And talked with loads of parents and children who were attending the fair.  May have won a few converts over to the fiber arts this weekend.

Gail took one of her triangle looms and the moms at the Fair were sure interested.  She weaves an awful lot faster than I do - got all this done in just a short time.

We had two other charming neighbors at the Fair...

These babies are only three weeks old and I may have spent more time watching them than I did actually spinning.

One more fiber-related activity in the works - for a later post.  But I will hint now that I've been regretting having sold my Mountain Looms tabletop loom years ago.

P.S.  - while writing this, I had a friend drop in to visit and he saw the photo of the two fleeces on my screen.  He was concerned that I had participated in the killing of sheep for their fleeces.  So I feel it important to tell any family or friends who happen to read this that no sheep were harmed in the acquisition of these fleeces.  Most domestic sheep don't shed so they need to be sheared yearly to protect them from problems and potential death resulting from overgrown fleece.  For those who want to know more, have a look at this.

Love at First Sight

I don't usually hold with naming inanimate objects.  Well, except for my first car, a 1970 Ford Maverick.  He was called Otis, for a reason I don't care to discuss, and I thought he was the next best thing to sliced bread.  But yesterday morning, while browsing forums on Ravelry, I saw a post headed "FS: Moswolt Hammer Wheel."  Well, wouldn't you need to know what a Moswolt Hammer is?

 I opened the post, and this wheel shouted "My name is Thor, and you need me!"  OK, maybe he didn't actually say it, maybe it was more of a mind meld thing, but I got the message.  Sent the seller, who turned out to be a really nice lady named Judy, a message right away, and that was it.  I'm not sure it would have even mattered if the wheel was functional - it was just so cool I couldn't resist.

 

 

Went down to Garden Grove to meet Judy and retrieve Thor.  Spent the afternoon giving him a couple of coats of paste wax and buffing, and he's now ruggedly handsome.  He has a built-in yarn winder and came with a tilted lazy kate and three bobbins.  Judy also threw in a pair of hand cards that came with Thor when she bought him (a late-night ebay purchase).  I haven't seen cards this coarse -- maybe they're for carding yeti fur.

 

 I've been looking for information on this wheel all weekend.  It apparently was manufactured in the late 1970s for just a short time.  An ebay seller from the Netherlands had one just like it, calling it model M1.  They also have a Moswolt Hammer M2, which doesn't have the cool hammers - it has a  four-piece wheel and is nowhere near as appealing as the M1.  Seller says that Moswolt stopped building spinning wheels in the early 1980s.  Bobbins are huge -- seller says they will hold 9-10 ounces of fiber.

Moswalt Hammer M2

Other than a reputation for a very strong draw, I can find very little else (in English, German, or Dutch) about Moswolt wheels.  I did email the seller - hoping he may have more info or be willing to sell me a copy of the documentation that comes with the new M2 he is selling. 

In other news,  I finished washing the first alpaca fleece this weekend -- turned out to be 2 lb 2 oz - a bit more than the seller had advertised.  Smart lady -- she has certainly earned my good will.  Yesterday I had a chance to card some of it on an electric drum carder.  Wow!  a)  These things are really cool and b) now I understand why people charge so much for their fiber batts.  To get any volume of production you need heavy duty equipment which is not cheap, and it takes a lot of time to make a batt.  Don't think I'll ever raise my eyebrow at the price of a batt again.   I came home with these lovelies:

2.85 oz. done, 31.15 oz. to go.  Gulp.

IEHG West (a subgroup of the Inland Empire Handweavers Guild) met yesterday afternoon.  Just a handful of us this time, but I always enjoy the chance to see what everyone is working on and have a good visit.

I also put a couple of coats of satin polyurethane on the wool picker tonight -- it came unfinished and seems a shame not to give it some protection.

Highlight of the weekend, though, was having one of my sisters and her daughter as our houseguests. They had business to take care of so we didn't get a lot of time together, but I'll take what I can get.

Now that I have Thor, the MiniSpinner, the  Joy, and the Koala are not going to leave me alone until they get names of their own.    

Postscript 4/16/12:  Thinking about Kilby for the MiniSpinner.  Jack Kilby was the inventor of the miniaturized electronic circuit.  Seems appropriate for an eSpinner to be named after an innovator without whom it might not exist.

PPS 5/9/22:  @joke.klein , I"m so sorry  I didn't realize you had sent a comment until just now.  After searching for the  brochure on the Moswolt, I realized I had only scanned images, which I posted in two of my later posts about Thor.  The titles mention "Thor" or "Moswolt" so they should be easy to find.