The latest felting kit

The last couple weeks, I’ve been working on creating a new felting kit.  I chose a cute little bunny in a flower pot from the designs selected by my partners at Twisted Suri Alpacas.  After dyeing and stamping and all that, I got to needle felt the design.  This is the fun part!  And I am ‘required’ to do every design so I have an example to take the pictures for the packaging.  😉

Bunny #1

I asked for opinions and 3 out of 3 (4 of 4 if I include my own opinion!) were not thrilled with the bunny’s color.  So…..

Bunny #1 removed

I had carded white and black fiber together for the gray and thought I had a really nice gray roving!  I’m considering attempting to combine a bunch more and even try spinning it.  Gray yarn is so popular, but gray alpacas are rare.  (It is a bonus when good still comes out of an experiment gone awry!)  But a gray bunny was not to be.  So I tried again.

Bunny #2

This is the finished picture!   Already in our Etsy shop.   Cute and fun to make.

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Accomplishments on retreat

First – I knit these 2 pair of mittens. 

Mittens for charity

They will be finished by another gal in my knitting group.  I have a total of 7 pair to turn over to her tomorrow at our monthly meeting. 

Last weekend was my spinning guild’s retreat at the Linden Hills mansion.  I spun and knit and ate and relaxed.  It was awesome.  I spun this huge skein from the fiber of Ruby.

Hand spun alpaca yarnThis set was started before the retreat, but I finished the scarf and got the hat to the point of steaming. Brown set of alpaca yarn

After steaming, the hat will get ear flaps added.  The mittens need to be felted yet.

Something for others

They are my standby!  Mittens from the bags of acrylic yarn donated to my knitting group.   They still need to have seams sewn – which will be done by another gal in the group.   She offers – how can I refuse!

3 little pairs of mittens

We meet tomorrow, so these will be on their way to warm little school kids’ fingers soon. 

Legwarmers are finished – ready to be picked up later this week.  I think I will make another pair soon to have in the gift shop and maybe list onEtsy.   These were fun to knit.

Legwarmers

Striped like these or solid color?   Which do you like?

I may have overdone the Kool-Aid in the dye bath!  A combination of cherry and tropical punch and, man, is it red!   I don’t know if I can get this bright a red from commercial dyes.  Not sure I need to try!

Really red yarn

This is for a custom order of mittens and wristwarmers of the sport weight and a scarf of the bulky yarn.  Notice the white ties on the skeins – that is acrylic yarn that went thru the dyeing same as the skeins of alpaca.  I’m always amazed that acrylic just doesn’t pick up dye like natural fiber!   Makes you wonder how they dye acrylic in the factory!

Better late than never?

Here’s the end to the red scarflette saga.

I decided to put in 3 buttonholes for the 2 white and 1 red buttons.   I found this great tutorial on making buttonholes.   After a few tries, I was making pretty good buttonholes – much better than the ‘bind off, next row cast on’ type I had previously made.  So I switched from the bumpy seed stitch to smooth stockinette, knit a few rows, put in buttonholes, knit a few more and bound off.   I sewed my center red button on the other end and take a look!!!

One button one

End to end

The stockinette rows pulled in shorter than the seed stitch and the buttonhole row even more so.  Bad scarf!   So the scarflette went into time-out for a few weeks! 

When I determined that the scarflette had sufficiently repented, I ripped back to the seed stitch and started again.  I put in 4 buttonholes for the 4 red buttons.  (Thanks to Linda and Karen for agreeing on this!)  I continued to do the seed stitch and attempted to keep it as consistent as possible on each side of the buttonholes.  And here it is!

The buttons are on

Buttoned

Over the head with one buttonThe buttonholes still pull that row in a little, but it is much improved.Wide front

Pointed down in front

It is finally done!  I even had fun fashioning it is different ways on my mannequin head.   It is knit from bulky 100% alpaca yarn, dyed with Kool-aid.  $20.  I think it will go into my Etsy shop, but my blog readers get first chance.   I can say it is warm and cuddly!

Another design is ready

Our second alpaca felting kit is now available in our Etsy shop.  It is a cute bear on a hot air balloon ride.

Go for a ride

If you are close and would like to stop by either Hollyhock Farm or Twisted Suri Ranch, we have the kits available and ON SALE!  The kits are $15 (regular price is $20).   The refill kits are available too – on sale for $10 (regular price is $15).

I’m going to make you bit longer for the funny story – it deserves a post of its own.  Just a hint – Honie is the star!

Brand new!

Announcing:  (drum roll, please!)

Alpaca Felting Kits   (and the crowd go wild!)

I’ve been working with Roger and Gina of Twisted Suri Alpaca Ranch to develop a line of felting kits using our alpaca fiber.  I have finished our first design.  Scroll slowly and watch this little wonder develop before your eyes. 

What is it?

A little more to see

Can you guess?

Almost complete

Hello World

Framed and ready to fly!

This butterfly design will be our first felting kit.  The felting kit will include the backing (60% alpaca / 40% wool) which will be stamped with the design, hand-dyed (by me) 100% alpaca roving, alpaca yarn, a foam block to use for needle felting, 2 felting needles, complete instructions and a photo of the completed design.   Frame is not included.   We’ll also be creating refill kits which will contain everything in the felting kit except the foam and needles.  We have a hot-air balloon design, an alpaca and an iris in the works.  We have our Etsy shop  – Alpaca Felting Kits – open, but no kits posted yet.   We still need to do the accounting (blah!) to determine the price of the felting kits and refill kits.   As I get the roving dyed for each design, they’ll be available for sale. 

What do you think?   Do you like the butterfly?  Do you want to see more?

Week 4 – what I learned

Here’s how this short week went.  

another batch felted

I felted 15 bars of soap – citrus spice.  I smells really good.  I’ve had the batch here for the final week of its curing time and it has filled the house with a yummy smell.   (If you counted – the 15th bar is in my shower!)

baby socks

I have 4 new pair of socks completed.  Along with the pink pair on the shelf, I have a pair for each blanket set.   Another pair of each color only needs to be sewn up.

baby hats

I have 9 (yeah, 9!) baby hats completed.  I have another on the needles to work on during the show, should there be time.   The brown one in front is for a customer order from my Etsy shop.   I’m nearly out of enough yarn of any color to make another hat.   I’ll probably try to make a few more with stripes like the lavender / mauve one on the right. 

felted mittens

And lastly, I have these 2 pair of felted teen / small adult mittens. 

What has this experiment taught me?  

   1) it really helps to have a schedule set over a long period of time, that kept me from becoming discouraged when one day didn’t go as planned

   2) it helped to share my schedule with people (in-person and on-line), that kept me accountable

   3) I was glad I scheduled in previous commitments.  I looked forward to my fiber meetings as mini vacations

   4) Discipline is not always fun – even when I like what I’m doing. 

   5) I had to adjust and cut myself some slack.  I didn’t hit all my goals to completion, but I’m happy with the accomplishments.

   6)  it helped having the schedule on paper on my desk.   I checked it many times each day – can I move this? do that? 

Will I try this again?   What changes will I make?   So far, I’ve started putting some goals on my calendar on my laptop for next week, next month, January.  I’m not convinced that is a good idea, as I don’t use my laptop daily.  But I really shouldn’t have such a crunch as this again.   I think I have enough inventory to get me through Christmas, then I have until farmer’s market / summer before things start moving.  

Today was the day for packing for the craft fair in Braham tomorrow.   I hope to see you there.

Week 2 – wrap up

I think last week was pretty successful.   Here’s the breakdown:

Soap – 15 bars felted – success!   (7 bars sold!)

Ladies mittens – 4 pair knit, none complete – partial success

Baby hats – 4 complete, 2 partially complete – success!

Wristwarmers  – 24 pair on the shelf – success!

Wrist warmers all in a row

That was a good week! 

Week Three’s Schedule:

Monday – 15 felted cat toys  (these are now available in my Etsy shop!)

Tuesday – dedicated to baby hats

Wednesday – 5 pair of toddler sized mittens

Thursday – work on ladies mittens

Friday & Saturday – 11 pair of baby socks to match hats and blankets

Sunday – Finish the ladies mittens

That means that the cat toys, toddler mittens, baby socks and ladies mittens should all be done by week’s end.   The ladies mittens will be a challenge (as I need to dye yarn for them), but the others should be do-able!   This is the week of completion!

Production Schedule

Darryl and I took a dart-board approach to determining how much new inventory I need to create before October 31, my next craft show.  This is what we determined:

wrist warmers – 25 pr (I had 3 pr left and 2 more partially done at the end of farm tour) total of 20

felted soap – 30 bars (I was out, and only 15 un-felted bars on hand)

baby hats – 2 to match each blanket (I had zero left, 5 blankets, and one custom order) total of 11

baby socks – 2 to match each blanket (I had 1 pair left, and one custom order) total of 10 pair

women’s mittens – 5 pair (I have zero), plus 2 custom orders

toddler’s mittens – 5 pair (I have one pair left), 4 to go

cat toys – 20 (I have 5 left), 15 to go

I guessed on time requirement, divided by 4 weeks and came up with over 44 hours per week!   And  I have a few other commitments – like the nearly 3 hours I spend in the barn each day!  Oh, and email, my Etsy shop, cooking, laundry, maybe a shower now and then! 

So I need your help!  On Monday’s I’ll post my schedule for the week and the progress of the previous week. 

Last week’s progress — I had black yarn on hand and knit 5 pr of wrist warmers.   But black is SO hard to see to do the finishing that I can only do it with bright light.  I have 3 pr finished.  The yarn arrived for MANY more pair.

So here is this week’s production schedule:

Monday – off the grid, laundry and dental check up

Tuesday – Knit wrist warmers — goal of 8 pair

Wednesday – Wrist warmers might need to take a back seat to indigo dyeing.  Weather looks to get REALLY cold by the end of the week.  Might be my last chance to use the indigo.   Goal of 8 more wrist warmers?

Thursday – off the grid, volunteer job

Friday – finishing work on wrist warmers

Saturday – dyeing class

Final goal of the week is to have ALL wrist warmers done! 

So help me out, cheer me on.  Check in next week to see my progress.  Knowing you are watching will keep me going!

Finished Objects

Just have to show you this new shawl.   Finished it this morning.

New shawl

It is made from the yarn I dyed a while back – with this shawl in mind.   And that chair is my newest investment from Craig’s List!    It is for craft shows and farmer’s market.   I still don’t sit a lot, but at least I don’t feel like I’m hiding behind my tables when I do sit for a moment at the market.

Back of shawl

I don’t know why, but these colors remind me of a tequilla sunrise – the drink.  Orange juice and grenadine, right?    Once I get some better pix, this will go on my Etsy shop, $95. 

Wrist warmers

And I finished these.  I have 2 more that just need finishing.  I can’t seem to keep up with demand for these.

I have an order of yarn on its way to me — 100% alpaca for wrist warmers and mohair for shawls.   I’m trying to guess what I’ll sell at the craft show  next Saturday.   I need to felt cat toys and soap, too!   We would love it if you can come visit us there.