Good Karma Farm

Knit and Crochet Away the Winter Blahs CONTEST!!!

2012-02-02T15:09:00.000-05:00

It seems like a good time for another contest!!! This time we're asking you to knit or crochet a hat from any pattern you like. You can use any of our yarns: the 60/40 worsted, the Secret Island 6-color or even Edna's yarn. Once you are finished with your hat you need to get creative! Find a cool location or model to display your finished project and take a picture of it. Email us the picture to info@goodkarmafarm.com and we'll choose ten finalists based upon the creativity and originality of the photo. We won't be judging your hat! From the ten finalists a winner and a runner up will be picked by our fans on Facebook. The winner will receive a $50 Good Karma Farm Gift Certificate and the runner-up, $25 certificate. Limited to one entry per person. The Contest will run from Groundhog's Day (2/2/2012) to April Fool's Day (4/1/2012) so get your needles and hooks working!
You can use Good Karma Farm yarn from your stash, order it through our website, or buy it from any of our retailers. If your LYS isn't carrying our yarn, ask them to!

We can't wait to see what your creative minds come up with! Have Fun!!!!

A Blogging Resolution

2011-12-27T09:58:00.000-05:00

With 2011 winding down we have a week or so to kind of catch our breath. This is the time that we spend making lists of all the things that we wished we had done in 2011 so that we don't forget to do them in 2012. Top of the list is to do a better job keeping up with this blog. This picture kind of sums up that resolution.

We have been keeping bees for over 10 years. Some years we harvest the honey and sometimes we leave it all for the bees. Our bees worked very hard this year and therefore produced a surplus. Did we blog about the extraction process? Nope. We took lots of pictures that day and there they sit on the hard drive. Next year we'll do better.

Same story for so many things. Next year we'll do better.

It's your turn to pick a winner!

2011-07-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

One lucky person will receive this lovely yarn bowl made by local Belfast potter, Mary Trotochaud.

Please peruse the contest entries on our Facebook photo album, and "like" your favorites. Whoever gets the most votes by August 30th will win this bowl!

And the second winner is. . .

2011-07-22T14:15:00.000-04:00

Oh dear. This photo is too lo-res for anyone to read. We could, in person, though, and the second winner is Jan Tricarico!

Congratulations, Jan!

A second chance!

2011-07-20T14:32:00.000-04:00

Oops! Seems that Ingrid Ellison's entry was in our spam folder, and she wasn't entered into the drawing. We scratched our heads and wondered what to do!

The solution? A second drawing! Everyone (except our first winner, Linda Hanford) will get a second chance to win eight skeins of custom dyed yarn! Woo hoo!

Oh, and here's Ingrid's cow, knit up in Seafoam:

The drawing will be on Thursday, July 21st. Who will be our lucky second winner?

And the winner is. . .

2011-07-17T21:27:00.001-04:00

Congratulations, Linda!

Thank You, everyone, for participating!

It's been really fantastic seeing all your wonderful creations. It's been great to see all the different finished objects folks have come up with using one skein of yarn.

There's more to come. . .so keep your eyes open. . .

The very last entries have arrived. . .

2011-07-16T09:17:00.000-04:00

. . .at five minutes to midnight!

Jan Tricarico's Lazy Knitter's Lacy Scarf:

Meredith Mills' Anthro-Inspired Scarflet:

We also received an entry from Mary McCoy, but we could not get the photo opened. As soon as we can, it'll be posted, along with the winner (whoever that may be!)

Friday at 10:20 p.m.

2011-07-15T22:33:00.000-04:00

We just received an entry from Cara Arnold, who wrote, "I didn't think I could knit fast enough to enter the contest, but I saw the Wave Hat entry by Beth Collins, and thought I could make it in time (2+ hours to spare!) I used the colorway Grenadine (love it! - like raspberry and orange sherbet!), but knit Beth's pattern on size 5 needles instead of size 6. Catie is modeling her new hat in this photo. ."

Here's Catie in her very own Wave Hat:

Is this the last entry?

2011-07-15T20:23:00.000-04:00

Don't know! Three hours and forty two minutes to go. . .

Darlene Herbert sent this photo from her phone. She crocheted this Funky Ruffled Scarf:

Friday afternoon entries

2011-07-15T16:29:00.000-04:00

Tori Schreiber's Tuesday Night Cowl:

LaNae Moline's Assymetrical Beret:

About seven and half hours until the deadline. . .wondering if any more entries will be rolling in!

Friday morning entries

2011-07-15T11:13:00.001-04:00

There's still time left, if you're reading this on Friday!

I'll be posting last minute entries until the deadline. Here's what we've received today. . .

Mara Bonsaint's Marina Hat:

Chris Harrington's Nautilus Scarf:

Elinor Schroeder's Merci Scarf:

One day, twenty seven minutes, and counting. . .

2011-07-14T14:42:00.000-04:00

. . .according to the Countdown!

We're going to be sad when the contest is over. It's so much fun seeing what folks come up with using one skein of yarn! The entries have been so varied. Here's more:

Willy Reddick's hat, which she "made up as she went along." She says she cast on 80 stitches on a size 8 needle:

Here's Lisa Card's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret:

Lisa also knit these Eugenia Mittens in Mamma Mia:

Countdown!

2011-07-14T10:04:00.002-04:00

The contest is over!

Here's Jill Cariglia's Malabrigo Neck Thingie (or as she calls it, "The Winning Cowl"), knit up in Little Monsters:

Two more days!

2011-07-13T19:20:00.000-04:00

There's still time to get your entries in!

Here's Kathleen Olbrych's Brattleboro Hat:

Another 198 Yards of Heaven

2011-07-11T21:08:00.000-04:00

We received another entry knit up using the pattern "198 Yards of Heaven!" This one was made by Giovanna McCarthy, who used the colorway Nautilus:

Thanks

2011-07-11T15:32:00.000-04:00

Sue Dean kindly sent us the pattern for the Cabled Keyhole Scarf she knit for herself (and the Big Contest). Thank you, Sue, but the pattern is for sale here, and so we can't share it. The scarf is knit in Nautilus:

Belfast is a small town, so we happen to know Sue finished this scarf over a week ago but hadn't gotten around to taking a photo. Don't let that happen to you by Friday at midnight, for by then, the contest will be over!

The weather is perfect

2011-07-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

It's a gorgeous summer day here in Maine. Some folks have said it's "too hot," but Owen looks pretty comfortable here in his new shorties:

These were knit up by his mom, Jenn Steingass, in the colorway Little Monsters.

Another of our latest contest entries is knitted in Little Monsters, the Sprung Kerchief, knit by Betsy Schubert:

Happy Bradford knit this knitting pattern sampler with a crocheted edge using the colorway Sweetheart:

Enjoy this beautiful day, wherever you are!

Little Monsters

2011-07-09T10:34:00.001-04:00

Today's entries are both knit up in the colorway Little Monsters. Betsy Schubert knit up a pair of Juniper Mitts. She has renamed them Beachcomber Mitts:

Jen Simoneau knit up this Lacy Waves Scarf:

One week to go!!!

2011-07-08T09:51:00.001-04:00

Only one more week until the drawing for the Big Contest.

Mary Kelley, who purchased her yarn at In The Loop when Amy did the trunk show there, wrote: "Since the name Nautilus comes from the Greek meaning "sailor," I worked my scarf in a traditional Sailor's Rib using a 31 stitch cast on. I doubted, the entire time I was knitting, that one skein would be sufficient, but after gentle blocking, I find it to be a perfect length. I think my new sailor rib scarf will be one of the few things I keep for myself, I doubt I will be able to part with it. Thanks for making such a quality fiber." Thank you, Mary! Here's her scarf:

Sailor's Rib is a lovely, simple-to-do stitch. Here's how:

Cast on a multiple of 5 stitches plus 1.

Row 1 K1B *P1, K2, P1, K1B* repeat from *

Row 2 P1 *K1, P2, P1* repeat from *

Row 3 K1B *P4, K1B* repeat from *

Row 4 P1 *K4, P1* repeat from *

For you newbies out there, K1B means "knit one through back loop."

Mary Kelley emailed us, and recommended that if you slip the last stitch on every wrong side row as if to purl with the yarn in front, it eliminates the "little loopy stitch with otherwise forms along one edge." Thanks, Mary!

Naomi Foran knit Diana Hannas Birthday Cowl. Naomi says this cowl only used a half skein of yarn! She sent us this close-up photo:

Keep those entires coming, folks!

Tick tock. . .tick tock. . .

2011-07-06T15:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you to young to remember, back in the olden days clocks used to make a sound that people called "tick tock."

Okay, it's too warm out for us Mainers to make any attempts at humor!

But, the clock is ticking; there's 11 days left to knit or crochet something for the Big Contest! We happen to know there's many of you who haven't sent your photos in yet.

The latest entries are. . .Sea Star knit by Betsy Schubert in the colorway Little Monsters:

EviePants knit by Jenn Steingass in Nautilus:

Beth Collins knit this hat in Mamma Mia, and you can find the pattern on her blog, Demonic Progress:

Happy July! (more entries!)

2011-07-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

From Liz Vigorito, the Romney Kerchief:

Sue Black knit up this hat and little bag in the same color way. Isn't that neat?

Diana Rasmussen knit up this Palindrome Scarf, a reversible pattern:

Keep those entires coming in, folks! We're loving it!

The entries are rolling in. . .

2011-06-30T14:33:00.000-04:00

First, we have the Lacy Baktus Scarf knit up by Debbie Palmer in the colorway Little Monsters:

You'll just have to wait for the rest. . .!

There's 18 days left, folks!

2011-06-27T14:01:00.000-04:00

No, the world isn't coming to an end, but the contest will be on July 15th! That's right. You've got 18 days left to knit or crochet something and simply send us a photograph to be entered to win the Big Contest. A few folks have taken this very seriously. Linda Hanford tells us she's used up all her skeins of 60/40 alpaca. Here's her latest, and last, entries:

A Hurricane Hat for herself (she's already made one for dear hubby), a pair of fingerless mitts, and a

Bainbridge scarf:

Irlanda Isabel Corrales has also sent in another entry! Here's her crocheted neck warmer:

So, folks, get those needles clicking!

A shawl from Edna's Bounty

2011-06-23T20:49:00.001-04:00

Linda Hanford's knitting needles must be on fire! In addition to her sending us contest entries, she's still got time for other knitting projects. Here's her Brandywine Shawl:

A close-up (obviously!):

Another 198 Yards of Heaven

2011-06-23T20:41:00.000-04:00

Naomi Foran knit up another 198 Yards of Heaven Shawlette for our Big Contest (!) in the color Wood Nymph.

Arf!

2011-06-21T14:35:00.000-04:00

Diane McGinnis says her puppy, Lady, wanted to help her knit the Nautilus scarf pattern she knit up using the colorway Clarisse. Here's Lady modeling the scarf:

The needles are flying!

2011-06-21T14:31:00.001-04:00

Irlanda Isabel Corrales sent in another photograph for the Big Contest. Again, she used her imagination, and no pattern for this shawlette:

She's a busy bee

2011-06-18T17:06:00.000-04:00

We've received two more entries from Linda Hanford. Here's her "scarf with no name:"

And the Traveling Woman scarf:

More entries!

2011-06-17T19:10:00.000-04:00

It's so much fun seeing what people have made with one skein our Good Karma yarn! Keep those entries coming, folks!

Linda Hanford knit and modeled this Hurricane Hat, which she made for her husband:

Naomi Foran used a skein of Winter Sky to knit the 198 Yards of Heaven shawlette:

If you're not a member of Ravelry, the last link will not work. Another good reason to become a Ravelry member!

Today's entry

2011-06-15T14:27:00.001-04:00

Isabel Corrales designed and crocheted this lovely hat for the Big Contest. She lives in Stockton Springs, Maine.

We're so pleased to see entries that are crocheted. There's a lot of crocheters out there!

Faerie Garden Scarf

2011-06-10T10:28:00.002-04:00

Congratulations and a big thank you go out to Lynn Swiriduk, who sent us not only a photograph of her Faerie Garden Scarf, but a detailed set of instructions for her creative design. You can find them here.

Lynn knit her creation in Sweetheart and she wrote, "I used all but 5 yards of the skein."

I don't know how long it took her to make the scarf, but she said, of the instructions, "I think it took longer to write them down than to actually knit the scarf."

"And our first contestant is. . ."

2011-06-10T09:53:00.001-04:00

Congrats to Gracey for being the first person to send in her contest photograph! She bought her skein of Mamma Mia at the Rhode Island Sheep and Wool Festival.

Gracey said, "I made a cowl of my own design..it's pretty simple and used most of the skein...there's about 96 inches left, enough to make a crocheted flower...."

Contest!

2011-05-20T12:21:00.002-04:00

How would you like to win 8 skeins of our yarn, in a brand new colorway of your invention, and named by you? That's the prize! Now, here are the rules:

Knit or crochet a one-skein project using our worsted weight 60/40 blend. The yarn may be purchased from us at the farm store, online, or from one of our retailers listed below, or it may come from your existing stash of Good Karma yarn.

Heavenly Socks Yarns Belfast, ME

Spruce & Guss Bar Harbor, ME

Yarning for You San Marcos, CA

The Yarn Garden Littleton, NH

Baadeck Yarns Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada

You can knit up our new Nautilus Scarf pattern, or use any pattern of your choice, but it needs to use one skein. Don't worry if it's not the full 210 yards. We won't be weighing the entries.

If fact, all you need to do is send us a photo, via email, with your name, contact phone number and your own email address, along with the name of the pattern you used. DIdn't use a pattern? Great! Let us know that, too.

We are looking forward to sharing your photos on the Web, here, on Facebook, and on Ravelry. It'll be fun to see what you all come up with!

If you would prefer we keep your name private, let us know. We do need your contact information so we can inform you if you win! Images should be jpegs with a maximum size of 1000 pixels. If you are unsure about the photo size/format, contact us.

You can enter as many projects with photos as you like. Each entry gives you another chance to win.

One name will be chosen at random from all entries.

Entries will be accepted until midnight on July 15th.

The winning name will be chosen at random the following day, July 16th.

The winner must reside in the U.S. or Canada or agree to pay the postage to receive their prize.

Good luck!

The Nautilus Scarf

2011-05-13T15:28:00.002-04:00

This new colorway of yarn inspired me. It reminded me of our Belfast coastline - blue water and pebbles, bits of crumbled old sidewalk, and foundations of buildings never built or built long ago. I set out to make a one skein project, and having made quite enough fingerless mitts for a while, a scarf was in order, a long scarf, one that was perhaps more decorative than useful.

I wanted the form to look organic, and indeed, it felt like the scarf was growing right off my knitting needles. Alas, it was not true, for I still had to knit 210 yards of yarn!

I'm not complaining. It was fun, but not as much fun as we had playing with it!

All coiled up, it looks like it might have grown here, along with the lichen:

And yes, it functions quite well as a scarf. Amy will be happen that I've cropped out her face to give you this close-up:

The pattern is here. It's oh-so easy to knit, even though, no, it doesn't magically knit itself. If we find out otherwise, we'll let you know!

Lots o' stuff going on!

2011-03-17T14:13:00.000-04:00

You can read Clara Parkes' take on our 60/40 wool/alpaca yarn and a bit about Belfast, Maine over at Knitter's Review. We do want to clarify a misperception that was in the review (as happy as we were to see it): all the wool in our yarn does not come from island sheep. The wool in our Secret Island 6-color does.

This coming Tuesday, March 22nd, we'll be having a knitting night at the farm starting at 7:00 p.m. Bring your knitting, your spinning wheels, or what have you. We'll have some of Jim's new spindles available for you to try your hand at.

Amy used her camera to make a little movie of Julie spinning on one earlier today:

Julie will be teaching an introduction to lace knitting workshop at the Treetop Zen Center on April 23rd. You don't have to be a Buddhist to take the class!

The following Saturday, April 30th, we'll be having a Build-a-Batt day from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Folks will have an opportunity to, well, build their own batts. For $50, you can pick your own dyed or natural colored sheep and alpaca fleece, and see your custom made 8-ounce batt carded right before your eyes. You'll have complete freedom to make them how you want - multi-colored side-by-side, layered, filled with extras (at extra charge) or plain. Bring your wheels and friends, and make a day of it. Hopefully, it'll be feeling like spring by then.

What to do with a batt

2011-02-25T11:55:00.002-05:00

Maybe you've got a batt and you're not sure what to do with it. If you've spun with hand carded rolags, you have all the experience you need. If you've spun from commercial top, you also have plenty of experience. It's simply different.

You could spin directly from the batt, but that's a heck of a lot of fiber to have sitting in your lap, and if you have a pet, it's really not a good idea. Your pet, especially if it's a cat, will like that fiber just as much as you do (or maybe more!)

The first thing you should do is to divide the batt into manageable amounts to spin from. You may not want to do this all at once, for there's many ways to divide up the batt, and each way produces a different result. You could divide the batt by color:

The above is only half a batt, for I'd divided the batt this way beforehand:

There's no special technique for ripping a batt up. You simply grab the batt with one hand, and pull the fiber off with the other.

As you can see, this batt had gotten rather beat up and compressed, but that's not a problem, for one can then attenuate the fibers. You can go ahead and spin without any more preparation, but if you do the next simple step - attenuating the fibers - you'll find spinning to be a breeze.

Attenuating simply means pulling the fibers apart. Again, you hold the fiber in one hand, and pull with the other. Do a handful at a time. In the end, the fibers will look like this:

Here's some I did last night, with colors from another batt. You can see that this one is not nearly as neat:

I put my foot in the picture (and not in my mouth), so you could get a sense of scale.

Let's go backwards and see how this one started. I was quite sloppy about ripping this batt, as you can see:

One handful of fiber ripped the short way from a batt will give you quite a lot of fiber to spin with! I spun 24 yards of singles thick enough to produce a worsted weight yarn when plied:

There's many ways you can divide and use your batt. Attenuating the fibers neatly, as they are in the picture with the purple fleece above, will provide you with the easiest spinning experience. If you do a more sloppy job, you'll have to do more work when you're spinning to create a consistent yarn. On the other hand, being more loose about attenuating the fibers can assist in creating a more "rustic" yarn, with all the nice lumps, bumps and slubs that say "hand spun" without using any fancy spinning techniques.

There's plenty of fiber in a batt. If you've never used one before, it's a great opportunity to learn and play.

Here's a close up of some small skeins which were made from various batts, including the twelve yards of plied yarn from the singles you've already seen:

Except for the green and blue skein, these were all made from the fiber that was left on the drum carder after a batt was made. You can create yarns that look just like these if you use handfuls of your batt in a rather random fashion. There's so many possibilities when spinning from a mixed batt. You can be very deliberate about how you divide it up, using a scale for precision (!), or you be just the opposite by closing your eyes and pulling off random handfuls. . .it's entirely up to you.

Have fun!

Andean plying

2011-02-09T12:02:00.003-05:00

What if you have a little bit of fiber to spin, or want to make a sample - how does one ply it? Andean plying is generally used by folks who spin on spindles, not spinning wheels, but it's a great technique. Here's how to do it:

First, secure the end of the yarn under
your ring and pinky fingers.
Don't lose that end!

Wrap the yarn around the back of your index or middle finger, and then around the back of your hand.

Continue in this fashion. . .

. . .until you have all the yarn wrapped
around your hand! Try to wrap fairly loosely, or else you'll wind up cutting off your circulation, and don't forget to always wrap the yarn in the same direction.

Next, slip all the yarn around your wrist,
making sure you have both the ends secured.
If you don't feel like spinning right away,
you can slip the yarn on to a stitch holder.

Next, attach the ends to a leader on your bobbin as you normally would. The only thing different about plying this way is the bit of trickiness involved in slipping both ends off one's wrist gracefully. At first, it's a good idea to pull back a long ways with the wheel stopped (hopefully without a cat trying to ~~ply~~ play with one's yarn):

This fiber is a an alpaca, wool, and bamboo blend, and what was left on the carding drum after making up a big batt.

Here's the finished product (before the cat attacked it):

Click on the photo to see it in more detail.

This was certainly one of the more subtle batts. More photos to come. . .We are making all sorts new things for Spring!

The trip from fiber to batt (part three)

2011-01-28T12:17:00.001-05:00

Using a lot of color is a sight for sore eyes in the midst of another Maine winter. We love Maine, but it's all so white and gray. Maybe that's one reason we like color so much.

Well, back to the creation of the batts. The next step is laying out the colors on the conveyor belt that feeds the fiber into the drum carder:

On the other side, we've got fiber in motion:

Half a pound of fiber, ready to be taken off the drum:

This is an awful lot of fun for a fiber fanatic! Here's some different colors coming out of the carder:

These long 1/2 pound batts are hard to photograph, but, here's most of one:

More photos to come - there's now batts that sparkle, pastel batts, and batts with colors layered on top each other. Yes, more fun! We'll also show you the many different ways to use the batts for hand spinning. Carded fibers are a breeze to spin, and spinning from these babies is a little too much fun for this spinner! Hmm. . .how many times has the word "fun" been used in this post?

The trip from fleece to batt (part two)

2011-01-15T17:18:00.000-05:00

No, the fleece isn't going into an old drawer. This is the wool picker (well, part of it). The white thing is a conveyor belt. There was a whole lot of fiber on top of it. I was so involved in pulling the fibers apart ("teasing") that I forgot to take anything but this one photo. At back of that green door are truly nasty sharp pointy things that can rip one's arm apart. One must be careful.

Here's the inside of the picker box, with a silhouette of those nasty spikes:

A close-up of the pink fiber:

Some purple . . .

. . .green. . .

. . .red. . .

. . .and that wasn't all.

There was also yellow, orange, all sorts of blues, and mixed blues, violet, and purple. This was just too much fun!

So, what's next? Just wait. . .

Tuesday's dyeing

2011-01-11T19:12:00.002-05:00

Started the day with a mysterious looking vat of brown alpaca and Shetland wool. The steam seemed perfect on a chilly morning.

Here's the second dye pot. Looks about the same, doesn't it?

After 45 minutes of simmering, neither of them had any pink hues left. A pot of dye surely is a mystery. Here are the results, sitting on the drying racks:

The next vat was mossy green. Then, a red, and a real violet-pink. Now, that one didn't look vibrant at all in the dye pot! Sure looks vibrant here:

Last, a burnt orange and a yellow:

So, what's next for all this fiber?

Stay tuned, because it'll be a lot of fun to watch. They're going to be blended with each other, carded into stripes, mixed with silk, bamboo, and a little bit of glitter, to make big half pound batts for hand spinners. If you want to knit with it, and you're not a spinner, it might be time to learn to spin. . .

How to do the twist

2011-01-07T17:10:00.009-05:00

A few people have asked for more explanation of how to do "The Twist" in our pattern for fingerless mitts.

Here's the written instructions:

Knit 2 stitches together. Leave on left hand needle. Insert right hand needle into first stitch on left hand needle and knit 1 stitch. Pull all stitches off onto the right hand needle. That's it!

We hope these photos help the visual learners out there:

Knit two stitches together.
Leave on left hand needle.

Insert right hand needle into first stitch on left hand needle.

Knit one stitch. Then. . .

. ..pull all stitches off
and on to the right hand needle.

It really is simple. Just follow along, and you'll see. This faux cable stitch is great to use anywhere there's a K2P1 or K2P2 ribbing. It's decorative and doesn't stretch much. Have fun!

New year, new blog

2011-01-06T12:30:00.003-05:00

Hey folks! Welcome to our virtual world. It's been over a year since the last blog entry and there's just so much new goings on that it'll be hard to catch up. We'll try.

Here's where you come in. We'd love to post photographs of your projects using our yarn and fiber. Please email us if you have any photos you'd like us to post.

Please feel free to leave comments. If there's anything you'd like to see on the blog, let us know. We're open to suggestions. Meanwhile, Happy New Year from all of us on the farm (and yes, that includes the animals).

The yarn above is our newest six-color, called "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" To order, click here.

Yeah, we actually paint it.

2010-01-16T17:15:00.005-05:00

We handpaint a lot of yarn. It occurred to me recently that many people don't know what we mean when we say that the yarn is handpainted (with brushes and everything). I also think that there is a lot of so-called "handpainted" yarn out there that really isn't (it just kind of looks like it is). So, just so everyone can see that when we say painted we mean it. The best part of handpainting yarn is that it is so much fun. It seems like no matter what colors you throw together, the end result is great.

The rainbow array of yarn (picture at the top) wasn't at the farm for very long. The yarn is in its new home (and available to purchase) at Heavenly Socks Yarns in Belfast www.heavenlysocksyarns.com. Everyone around here just calls the place "Helen's". So now Good Karma Yarn is available at two Belfast locations, Murfreesboro, TN, Valley Forge, PA, and of course online.

The seasonality of color- or some such thing

2010-01-09T19:04:00.008-05:00

In the midst of this cold, dark January how can we not crave color? For the past couple of days we've been dyeing some of our fiber with new colors that recently came in the mail. The color is in such sharp contrast to the world outside our window and I've been thinking about how I think about color, season to season.

In the fall, I find myself craving the natural tones- brown, taupe, beige, gray. I associate those colors with a warm and cozy home along with roasted vegetables and crusty bread. Those colors stay with me throughout most of the fall until the solstice and Christmas when everything wants to be red, white and green.

When January really sinks in and everything seems to be white, brown and gray, we all crave bright color- think Key West, Aruba, Mexico- all things warm, no, make it HOT! It seems like our customers want it too. We had a line of January-weary customers waiting while we carded our new assortment of colors into roving. Needlefelters were imagining landscapes of summer flowers. Spinners were thinking of next year's winter knitting project (we handspinners are great for planning WAY ahead).

My new knitting project is from a free Ravelry cardigan pattern. I'm trying to decide on which of our yarns to use. This summer we dyed some "homespun" type yarn with goldenrod and the effect practically screamed "late summer field" . I think I need some of that in the midst of January.

Welcome to Belfast

2009-11-12T16:14:00.003-05:00

It's been almost a year since we first visited the farm that has become our new home. We love living in Belfast. Our alpacas love it too. We've been a bit busy, to say the least, getting moved into the new digs.

Baby #2 - Ophelia

2008-08-13T14:43:00.002-04:00

The story of this baby really starts with the birth of her mother, Lucy, about 3 years ago. What an adorable baby....whose name quickly morphed into "Lucifer". She was like a spoiled 2 year old. Baby alpacas are generally pretty curious about the humans who take care of them and will occasionally give kisses and act like the adorable little furry creatures that they are. Not Lucy! There was no love for us from the beginning. So we've learned to live with her underlying dislike (hatred seems a little strong) of 2 legged mammals. She was bred for the first time last spring to our farm stud Luciano. Once a female is bred, we occasionally will bring the male back to her to see if she still seems receptive and therefore not pregnant. Lucy was one of about 7 females bred last spring and so nearly every day Luciano would don his halter to be led to the girls field to either breed or be spit at (when we say "not receptive" we mean it!) As soon as Lucy heard the clinking of the halter (mind you, we hadn't even gotten it on Luciano yet) she went into full attack pose. Nevermind that we weren't testing/breeding her. She was letting everyone know, right down to the chickens, that she had been bred once (thank you very much) and once was plenty.

Fast forward to Spring '08. Lucy's due date was sometime the first week in May and so we'd spend what seemed like hours watching her abdomen for baby movement. Nothing! Normally you can kind of tell by the female's overall temperment if they are pregnant but Lucy is not so normal. We decided to shear her with everyone else so that maybe we could see the baby's movements more clearly on a shorn belly. Still nothing really definitive until the next day when adorable little Ophelia was born. Snow white ball of fluff with a brown tail and brown toes. We'd really like to show you a picture of Lucy and Ophelia but Ophelia is a chip off the old block. They know that a camera is just another way we're planning on killing them and they avoid it and us like the plague. To Lucy's credit she is a fiercely protective and wonderful mom. That's enough for us.

Baby #1

2008-08-03T14:31:00.006-04:00

As promised, way back in May, the full story of our eventful spring! Yucatan was born 5/7 on a beautiful spring day to our farm matriarch, Fiesta. We were thrilled to discover that he was a light sliver gray and better than that, absolutely healthy and lively. However, his birth is only 1/2 the story. While we were all reveling in his birth, giving him his first shot and dipping his umbilical cord, trouble was afoot. Poor Fiesta prolapsed her uterus. This is highly unusual in alpacas and thankfully we were all right there to help. But what do we do? First was recognizing the problem. If this had happened our first year of farming, I'm not entirely sure that we would have known what was happening. Second was, of course, CALL THE VET! This is a big emergency. We do not have a vet who will come to the farm so we are on our own in most situations. Fortunately, our vet is great on the phone and she kept us calm while we tried to keep Fiesta calm. The biggest issue was that there were only three of us to help; me (Amy), Jim and Zoe. I had the back end, Jim the front and Zoe was either holding Yucatan (who insisted on running around) or doing multiple 100 yd dashes to the medicine cabinet. We were able to get the uterus put back where it belonged but it was a lot like putting toothpaste back into the tube. At one point, I really doubted that I could do it and Jim (wonderful guy that he is)reminded me of the story of James Herriott (All Creatures Great and Small) and the sow with the prolapsed uterus. That was all I needed for inspiration as I realized that Dr. Herriott was working in the dark, on a cold barn floor with no medicines. And it was a really big pig! From that point, I felt the Dr. Herriott was sitting on my shoulder. Uterus back in place, we gave mom and baby some time to bond and nurse and then loaded both for the 1.5 hour trip to the vet. There they lavaged Fiesta's uterus with antibiotics and trussed her so that she wouldn't re-prolapse. What a day! If we had only known that we had more excitement soon to follow. I'll save that for another day.