The Two Year Sweater

This sweater should have never taken me two years to make, but I kept ripping it out and starting over. Not only did I keep ripping it out I then would put it away to work on other projects. So it was my then called my go-to project. Finally this year I was committed to finish it. This is only my second adult sweater I made. When I saw the pattern in a book I new the yarn I had at home would be a perfect fit.

The stitches on the body are moss stitch and basket weave with a mistake rib on the sleeves. The yarn was made by Morningstar mini mill in Ohio. It is 70% alpaca and 20% merino/hemp. It is so soft and a beautiful taupe color. I'm not sure I will ever wear it since it will be so warm. I was thinking about entering it in some fiber arts competitions at alpaca shows.

Blue Ribbon Winner

This is Lady Guenevere my blue ribbon winner. I can't find a recent pic of her, so I guess I am a bad Mom. :-( This weekend Lady G. is on her way to another show in Maryland. I am hoping she is the first Alpaca that I sell.

North Park Lake

I have lived in Pittsburgh since I was 5 years old. My Dad worked for Heinz and was transferred here from Chicago. Soon after moving here my Dad found North Park. He loved the park! He was a big hiker and loved climbing the hills throughout the woods. I have a lot of memories of my Dad and I walking many miles through those woods. We would find all kind of things, include grave sites. He handed down the love affair to me. Not a week goes by that I am not at the park. Mostly now with my dogs. I have walked many miles throughout those woods with my dogs and we too have found many things along the way, including new grave sites.

The park has a man-made lake that is going through a much needed re-vitalization. The lake really wasn't much of a lake in the last 10 years. It has filled up with silt and you could basically walk across it. It is now being dredged and will be a lake again. They are just in the beginning stages and should finish next year. There is so much dirt to remove! It will be interesting seeing their progress. So below are some pics of the very beginning stages.

Today was a perfect day in the Burgh. There were puffy clouds in they sky along with plenty of sunshine. So today was pool day for the girls. The labs love their pool! All they do is dig and splash, but they think it's the best. If you throw a ball in the water they are in heaven.

Elly May getting cooled off. No balls on this trip to the pool.

Phoebe playing with her ball. Black dogs are so hard to get a good picture. I should have used my flash.
Foxie was the life guard today. Not sure if she would have saved either one!

2010 Knit and Crochet Festival

Wow, the festival is over. It's like Thanksgiving dinner so much goes into the planning and poof it's over. I worked at Highland Alpaca's booth this weekend at the festival. We put a lot of planning into the yarn we made, colors, natural and hand dyed. Patterns to offer and what to bring to sell other than yarn plus what specials to have that weekend. I met so many people that passed through our booth. So many creative woman and men who loved to knit and/or crochet. I loved hearing the stories of what they made out of the yarn they bought last year. I'm trying to collect pictures for the next newsletter. Alpaca socks and yarn were the most popular. Once you put on a pair of Alpaca socks you don't want to take them off. In fact between Jim and I we have about 15 pair.

Above is part of the booth. These pictures really got a lot of attention. How can you resist such a fuzzy, fun looking animal.

Robyn Chachula, who is an international crochet designer was kind enough to sign a few of her books for us. The black sweater is from her book and was made by Diane Halpern. In fact if you can see the red sweater on the front cover it is the same sweater.

Above are some of the luscious yarns we had at the booth. These are the natural colors.

These are some of the patterns we offered free with the purchase of yarn. They got a lot of attention and questions.

We got a lot of questions about coming up for a visit. The answer is yes, you can visit the farm and meet the Alpaca. They have over 100 now on the farm. It's an experience you will never forget.

Finishing a Project

It feels so good to finish a project. It is the conclusion of many hours of work and sometimes frustration. I am at the end of my current project which happens to be a baby hat. Last year I made this hat for a girlfriend’s baby and it has become my signature hat.
She fondly named it the dreadlock hat. The name has stuck and that is what I now call it.

I am weaving in the ends of yarn pulling it all into shape. I get to hide all the holes from changing the colors of yarn. After a little blocking this is what it looks like. Not bad!

I would like to make an adult hat for me!

Did you know handmade is hip? I guess I’m hip now. I don't think I've ever been hip in my life. Well, there was the orange shag carpet and the bell bottom pants I was quit proud of in the 70's. At 50 I’m hip and cool. After all these years I'm hip since I have the crafty gene. Right now my craft of choice it knitting and crocheting. I’m average, by no means a master at either.

I show my friends what I've made they always respond with "you should make them to sell". At Christmas I showed my Husband’s niece a picture of a baby hat I made and in 1\2 hour she had plans for my hats to be made in china and distribution set up. UGH!

I have never been a repetitive person. I have enough repetition at work. I really don't see the fun in making the same hat 50 times and I can’t create a pattern for people in China to make to save my life. Just not interested!

I enjoy my crafty gene and I do like to see a smile when I give someone a gift. It’s a one of a kind gift.

This is a picture of my latest project.

Steel Phantom

Look at this little pee pot. His name is Steel Phantom. How can you resist this little face. He is trying to eat hay, but isn't really good at it yet. He is my last little baby and is about 5 months old now.

Pray for Haiti

I am sitting in my comfortable home with all the amenities of life I need. I don’t want for much in life. I have my toys, my dogs, my job and my friends. I try to keep life simple. But tonight I am watching TV about the earthquake in Haiti. I am watching people who had a hard life to begin with and to see their devastation and desperation brings me to my knees. I pray, but I don’t feel that is enough.

I watch the newscasters reporting and I don’t know how they do it. How can you not want to bring the children home? How do you walk away from a thirsty, hungry person and then eat dinner? Do they offer help to some? How do you not need counseling afterwards to deal with what you just experienced? These are my questions, along with so much more.

I am so blessed to live in this country. I am so blessed to be able to have a job. I am so blessed to have healthcare and be healthy. I am so blessed to have the basic needs in life met and not be hungry. I sit on my couch and feel so small in this world with such great needs.

My Nightly Ritual

Most of us have nightly rituals, mine involve my dogs. Each night we have little things we do and then it's time to snuggle. Foxie LOVES to snuggle. I light the fireplace when I get home and it warms up pretty fast. She loves to lay by the fireplace and get warm. She is around 12 years old, but still acts like a puppy. If I don't sit on the couch right away, she comes over and nudges me. That's her sign to get on the couch and pet me now. Shortly she falls asleep and begins to snore. A dogs life!

Lady G

I haven't showed you a pic of one of my Alpaca in a while. This is my first girl and the princess. She is so freaking cute and so soft. She is at Highland Alpaca and I call their farm the Alpaca Spa. An Alpaca couldn't live a better life on a farm. All of you need to visit an Alpaca farm and spend some time with these gentle creatures. Did you know they hum to communicate with each other. It is such a gentle sound. I am in love with these animals and love spending time with them. Hopefully, some time in my life I will have a small farm of my own.

Happy New Year

I am not the type of person who makes New Years resolutions anymore. I never kept them and I just got disappointed. So every year I reminisce about the past year and look forward to the new. I love having, what I call, a re-set button at the beginning of each year. It kinda makes things fresh and clean.

I have a lot of plans this year that mostly revolve around Alpaca. Whether is the animal or the fiber. I am going to enjoy this down time at the beginning of the year, before Spring. Once Spring arrives that brings a whole new beginning with gardening and being able to enjoy the patio again.

I can't believe how much my life has changed since leaving Parker/Hunter. It's now been over 3 years. Although the emotion of loosing all those friends still stings. Things change and life moves on. I wonder where I will be next year and what exciting things I will be reminiscing about?

This was my big purchase while on vacation this week. For some reason the beginning of each year I think I am going to cook more and go out to restaurants less. The year never ends that way, but it's a nice thought and a good start. So I bought this beautiful crockpot and a book from Williams and Sonoma, which happens to be my new favorite store. Ever try their candles? I'm looking forward coming home to a house full of nice smells.

So today I went to the grocery store. Didn't even think how busy it was going to be. There were only 4 grocery carts left! So I take one and off I go. UGH! There were just too many people in the aisles. I couldn't wait until I got out. Of course when I got home I thought of a few things I forgot to write on my list. Now I get to go back....... Lucky me. Not sure why I hate grocery shopping so much. I love going to Target!

Shearing Day

Shearing day is a blur of activity. All the Alpaca at Highland get sheared in May. Their fiber is thick, heavy and dirty. If there are any warm days in April and May they are definitely ready to get rid of their coat.

I drove up to the farm and got there about an hour after they started. The two guys who came to shear are originally from New Zealand, but now live in the states and travel around to farms shearing animals all over the country. It is really hard, back breaking, work bending over animals all day on your knees. When I walked in the barn they had two mats set up on the floor so there is always an animal to shear. The guys work together and they move from one animal to the next. They only take about 4 mins per animal. That day they had 85 Alpaca to shear. They separate them by color and sex to shear. Fiber is flying around along with the dust from the barn floor. All you hear is the buzz from the shears. The animals are all restless and crying, especially the ones being sheared. The only breaks are to oil the shears and briefly for lunch.

The blanket, which is the middle section of the Alpaca is the best fiber. The blanket is placed in a plastic bag marked with the Alpaca's name. The neck and butt fiber is segregated by color, which is still good quality, and placed into large bags. This fiber can be made into socks. I had some of this fiber made into yarn last year and it is spectacular. I am making a sweater from the yarn. The fiber from the legs is courser and very dirty. It is usually thrown away, but can be used as nesting for other animals. One of the ladies last year brought some home for her chickens. I brought some home for the birds to use in their nests.

When you see Alpaca being sheared for the first time you think the contraption they put them in is a torture device. They have to keep them still so they aren't hurt during the shearing process. Ropes are put around all four legs and the front and back legs are gently pulled apart until they are lying on the ground. The ropes are around pulleys, so they go down nice and smooth. They shear one side at a time. This is also a great time to trim their nails, as Jenny is doing below.

Once they are done the ropes are taken off and they are able to get up. At first they are disoriented from the shearing process and need to be guided out into the pasture. It takes a couple minutes, but then they begin to eat and act normally.

I was beat after shearing day. I was soar all over and couldn't wait to get into a hot shower. But have such great memories and can't wait for shearing day in 2009.

Below is what they look like sheared and at the top is Boudica before she was sheared.

The Beginning...

The company that I worked for in 2005 merged with another company and I lost my job in 2006. I got interested in learning how to knit and crochet in 2006. I attended a local yarn festival where a local Alpaca farm had a display. For most of my adult life I wanted to have a farm and own Llama. So I was immediately attracted to Alpaca. They look like small Llamas, but much smaller.

So I ended up visiting that farm to buy more yarn and fell in love with their soft fiber and large dark eyes. They make a soft humming noise to communicate. I fell in love. After this visit a local yarn store had a day trip to a local Alpaca farm, so I went. After I heard the owners of the farm talk about Alpaca I had an Oprah moment. I thought I can do this!

After a couple months of visiting local farms and asking a lot of questions we bought our three girls Morag, Ebony & Boudica in August 2006. All in different colors. It was hard to decide whether to buy maiden or proven females. The difference is you have either had a baby or not. These two choices brought many possibilities, all with different outcomes. We choose girls with excellent backgrounds and fiber that they would pass on to the next generation. Since we are boarding them at a local farm we had to consider the monthly expense too.

Ebony was bred in the Fall of 2006 then Morag and Boudica were bred in the Spring 2007. By buying maiden females this gave us some time to adjust to the business and attend a few shows before the babies came. A females show career ends when she gets pregnant.

After picking out our three girls we made a trip up to the farm to see them again. We weren’t sure which ones were Boudica, Morag and Ebony. After Jen & Fay, the owners of Highland Alpaca, picked them out for us we took a lot of pictures. Morag came right up to me and leaned on me. She loves attention. I gave her a good neck and back rub. The whole time puffs of dirt were coming out of her fiber. She loves to roll in the dirt! All I could think about was Pigpen from Peanuts. Boudica and Ebony just weren’t too sure about us two-leggers. They kept a safe distance.

Now some of the fun began. We picked our farm name, Chocolate River Alpacas. I was watching the Travel Channel and they were talking about the Chocolate Mountain range and it just clicked. What woman wouldn’t like a river of chocolate!

In the next few months after we bought the girls we made many trips to Highland Alpaca along with a trail of friends. Our friends didn’t know what an Alpaca was. Some laughed, but for the most part all were interested to hear more and see the pictures.

The most memorable trip was with my girlfriend Lori and her granddaughter Regan. Regan took to the Alpaca right away and it seemed they realized she was a small two-legger and she was able to move easily around them. They weren’t scared when she approached them. She was able to get really close and pet them.