Georgia Alpaca & Fiber Festival

Yes!  Those are cupcakes with adorable little knit cupcake decorations made of icing adorning their sweet pink tops!  When you see these in the entry way of a Festival you know for sure you have arrived at the place to be for a fun filled fiber weekend!

The Georgia Alpaca and Fiber Festival was a great first year festival.  They had contacted me several months prior about teaching a few classes over the course of the week end.  I am so glad I went  And as always, as things often go with me, I do have a little story to go along with!!

The day before leaving my throat was a wee bit sore and scratchy.  Needless to say, upon waking, I had a full fledged head cold.  You know, the snotty nosed, sniffly, watery eye, throat so scratchy it hurt to swallow.  Yep, one of those.  

A trip to the pharmacy later, I was stocked up on cough drops, pain killers & cold meds.  Honestly, it really was not as bad as it sounds.  The congestion was the worst and being completely wiped at the end of the day was no fun, but as far as sickness goes it was fairly smooth going:)  Unfortunately, it did not let up until after the very last workshop I gave!

And that brings us to the classes.  Had an absolute blast being the instructor for 3 classes:  Coming Unspun about knitting with fibers; the Science of Carding which is about carding smooth batts, art batts and making roving; the Fundamentals of Dyeing where we tackle not one, but 3 different methods of dying! 

Have to admit, I hated for the Festival to end.  The committee members were absolutely awesome and just so very wonderful.  Attendees were so very kind and a really joy to share knowledge with.  And there was a great selection of lovely fibers to choose from!  How could anyone want the week end to be over, even if they had a nasty little head cold!?!

Welcome meeting with some fabulous door prizes!

This batt was carded completely with teeswater locks!  Is that not cool or what?

Carding alpaca

Some merino about to head through the carder after the alpaca.

Look who made the most beautiful ball of roving ever! And I'm not kidding, her roving was the most perfectly made rope I have ever seen in one of my classes!

Wish I had remembered to take pics of my other classes, but I was a bit more concerned with keeping my germs to myself:)  Oh well, next time!

Location:Georgia Alpaca & Fiber Fest

When sheep attack!

Only kidding folks, there are no attacking sheep in this post, but there are quite a few inquisitive ones!

The picture here is of Sherman a very friendly sheep who lives in Cynthiana on Equinox Farm.  You can read more about his crazy antics at the farm blog:  Punkin's Patch.  PS, her blog is very fun to follow because unlike me, she does not forget to post..hahaha

See for the longest time, I have been meaning to stop by to see my friend Sara's farm.  She has had several open houses at the farm; all of which I have not been able to attend.  So, when she asked about one of the carder brands I carried....  It was the perfect excuse for a visit to the farm!

It is hard not to miss Sherman!

Especially when he pesters you while taking pictures!

One of the adventure chickens.

I think this fellows name is Hemp.  He's just as sweet as can be!  Kind of hard not to be with a begging stare like this!

Weasley was feeling a little left out when we went inside!

Ewenice and her little friend Remmy

Fleece on the sheep.

Hank the guardian of the flock.  He is a very friendly and inquisitive boy!

Hank keeping an eye on his sheep.

I think this one felt a little left out.

 

The Strauch Petite carder.  If you look out the window you can see the big ball of yarn on my truck bed.

Another view of the carder.

Such a sweet kitty.

Had to say good bye to Miss Ewenice before I left.

Sara & her friend raise honey bees too!

You know you are on a good farm when there is a swing hanging from the rafters!

Alpaca VS 46 TPI

Well, I thought it was time to put it to the test. Put what to the test you say? Well, the whole idea that you need a higher TPI, Teeth Per Inch, to card alpaca using a drum carder.

It all started with a request from one of my customers over at LunabudKnits. She has alpacas and was wondering about how well alpaca could be carder with the Louet's 72 TPI. I had finally saved enough money that I could get one of the Louet Classic Drum Carders which has a 46 TPI. So off to the carder I went.

Here are the results. I picked the alpaca yearling fleece prior to carding and then sent it through the carder about 3 times. I have found that sending raw fleece through the carder a minimum of three times will properly open the fibers regardless of whether I am using the old 120 TPI carder or the new 46 TPI carder. As you can see from the photos, it turned out rather well!