Fiber Friday - Handmade Felted Journals

Last fall I appeared on the morning television show Showcase Minnesota to help promote the fifth annual Alpaca Farm Tour hosted by Alpacas of Minnesota. On this show my handmade felted alpaca journals appeared briefly but were not left unnoticed. I have received requests for the instructions on how to make these handmade felted journals. I ment to get this tutorial put together sooner but real life got in the way. It took a simple request from my online twitter friend @AlpacaFarmGirl to get my behind in gear and get pictures taken and the tutorial compiled. Click here to download this FREE tutorial to start creating your handmade felted journals today! I hope you enjoy my Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival Entry!

Will you help me pick a name?

I am setting up an Etsy shop. My shop will have mostly alpaca yarn, roving, and raw alpaca fiber. I plan to add dyed alpaca fibers and drop spindles eventually. I want my name to be creative and rememberable but don't want to limit it to just alpaca. I want it to feel like my brand name. For many years I used the name "Creative KJ" because my nickname in highschool and college was KJ. Someone added "Creative" to my nickname because they thought I was always so creative. A few years ago I changed it to "Cre8tivkj". My blog name uses it. My pattern's blog uses it. It is my Ravelry ID, my Yahoo ID and now my Twitter ID. Now I am wondering, have I successfully branded this as my name online?

Should I stick with my online spelling of the word creative? Keep it spelled correctly? Change it only a little bit? Forget about the word altogether? Which name do you think I should use as my Etsy store name?

1. Cre8tiveSpin
2. CreativeSpin
3. CreativSpin
4. Cre8tivSpin
5. Spin4Fun
6. Fiber4Spinning
7. Spinning4Fun
8. FiberDreams
9. SpinningFiberDreams
10. Luv2Spin

Alpacas of Minnesota Farm Tour September 27 & 28, 2008

On September 27 & 28, Humming Hills Alpaca Ranch, LLC invites you to join us for the 5th Annual Alpacas of Minnesota Farm Tour. Our doors are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day!

What is an alpaca? Alpacas are members of the camelid family, which means Llamas and Camels are their cousins. They’re very gentle creatures with a wonderful disposition. They’re approximately a third the size of a llama and produce one of the most luxurious and strongest fibers in the world. Their cashmere-like fleece is 5-7 times warmer than wool and does not contain any lanolin. For people who have sensitive skin, allergies or cannot wear wool because it’s too itchy, alpaca fiber is the perfect alternative. Alpacas are also the only fiber bearing animal that comes in 22 different natural colors and variations.

In addition to educational sessions, children’s activities and fiber related demos (drop spindle and wheel spinning, crochet, loom knitting, needle knitting, and machine knitting, needle and wet felting), Humming Hills Alpaca Ranch, LLC will also be selling alpaca related products, jellies and jams, jewelry, and lots of gift items. There’s something for everyone in the family - raw fiber (used in fly tying), yarn (hand and machine spun) and garments made from alpaca fibers, alpaca toys, make-and-takes, photo opportunities, and more!

Come and enjoy the autumn colors, refreshments and the soothing sound of our humming alpacas!

Wordless Wednesday: Home raised, handspun, hand (loom) knit, done!

Pattern here. More wordless here and here.

Whoo, hoo, yipeeeeeee!

So excited, I got my Hatshaper today! I can't wait to make a wet felted cowboy hat out of my alpaca! I can see a knit and beaded band around the brim. Just had to share, I am so excited!

I know, I am easily amused.

Wordless Wednesday - This is what alpaca poo does to a garden!

More Wordless Wednesday here and here.

Wordless Wednesday...fresh out of the oven!

More Wordless here and here.

I keep dreaming the same dream.

This dream is so real. Almost night after night I wake up in a cold sweat and I either shake my hubby awake or holler out. Poor hubby, last night I jumped up out of bed and yelled out his name over and over again, frantic. Then it hit me that it was only a dream...again! He just sat up and said "looks like you figured it all out". I keep dreaming that I am forgetting to feed the baby alpaca! In my dream the baby is dying because she isn't being fed. What a silly dream! Of course the baby is being fed! And, the silliest thing of all, her momma still feeds her milk. She eats hay and she gets fed grain morning and night, but in my dream she isn't being fed. What on earth does this crazy dream mean? I've had this dream almost nightly since she was born last fall! Oh, I wish I knew.

Fun, but not 100% accurate...

I am a Camel – Consistent and inflexible
“Camel has very little elasticity, and it doesn’t felt easily. The fiber also doesn’t bleach easily, so you’ll normally find it used in yarns whose color either masks or enhances the natural tan shade of the camel fiber.” –The Knitter’s Book of Yarn

Camels are frank and straightforward in their manner. You know what you want and, while you are extremely polite and tactful, you have no difficulty being firm and definite. You are not very flexible or adaptable; you like things to be a certain way.

Funny, I raise camelids (alpacas) so I suppose it is fitting that I came out resembling a camel. I don't agree with the fiber not felting well, total hogwash! I tried washing my first batch and barely agitated it and it came out as a big unsightly mass. It felted too well! LOL. I would say I am straightforward and such, but would not agree with the inflexible part, I also adapt really well to change.

What Fiber are you? Take the quize and find out: Click here.

I finally got around to making myself a blog banner. I had fun drawing it up. It is suppose to be me. Here is a picture of me:



What do you think?


Have a great day!

Contest Winner Announcement!

First of all, I want to send out a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to each of you who sent me your name ideas for our baby boy alpaca born to Martini, the beautiful alpaca we are purchasing from Hollyhock Alpaca Farm in Becker, MN! There were so many wonderful names to choose from! The decision was a tough one! There was one name that struck a cord with us though. We LOVED the concept behind this one name! You see, alpacas are raised for their luxurious fleece, their value resides in their fleece. The more crimp they have, the better. The softer, the better. When you take this into account, there is only one name that says it all, the name Sampson. Sampson from the Bible, got his strength from his hair. A male alpaca Sire is carefully chosen because of the quality of his fleece (hair) and his composition or stature (strength). Sampson fits him perfectly! The lucky gal with the winning name is Trish. Congratulations Trish!

See you next week!

Name our baby alpaca and win gorgeous alpaca yarn!

Isn't he adorable??? He doesn't have a name though. Tough decision time. He needs a great name. I am a firm believer that an animal takes on characteristics of its name (people do too). Since we want this little fella to turn into a great Sire for our herd (we have female alpacas unrelated to him we could breed with him) we want him to have a worthy name. If you can come up with a worthy name for this little guy, you will snag yourself a skein of gorgeous alpaca yarn! This yarn was spun from alpacas at one of the ranches we are purchasing our alpacas from. It is white (you could dye it if you want). This yarn goes for $6 an ounce! The skein is 3.6 oz and is 300 yards. It is sock weight and there is plenty of yarn here for a couple pairs of soft and cozy socks. Retail value of $21.60! Post your name ideas in the comments section to this post. This contest will run for a week (unless I only have a handful of entries, then it will run longer) and once we choose a name, I'll post the winner's name. We need to check with the Alpaca Registry database to make sure the name is unique before we use it, since alpacas are registered animals. This process will take a little time so I'll post the winner as soon as possible (shouldn't take but a week or so). The winner is responsible for contacting me so I can get the mailing address to send this yarn to. I'll post my email addy along with the winner's name. Good luck!


Win this gorgeous alpaca yarn!

I have been face painting again. I used to face paint a lot and could dig up some great pictures I took of my previous work. I haven't painted a face in a long time. I painted a cat face on my stepdaughter for her play the other night because she begged a pleaded with me so I caved. My youngest daughter watched me paint with total admiration and has wanted me to paint her face two days in a row now! I didn't get a picture of my stepdaughter's face, nor did I get a picture of my daughter's butterfly face yesterday (both were awesome), but I did get a picture of her rabbit face today.


Paige Rabbit Face

I started my Threads of Compassion scarf the other day. I've ripped it out a couples times because I couldn't get the size right so I am not very far. I just started my loom knit version about an hour ago.


Notice the heart?
Needle knit version of my Threads of Compassion Scarf

Precious memories...VT squares...and a baby alpaca

I have been working on my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary presentation over the course of the past couple weeks. I am teaching myself how to use a video editing and movie making software that came with my laptop. While I was watching several hours of home videos the other day, I stumbled on some gems. Turns out, my husband is quite adept at handling a video camera. He does a superior job at narrating and working the camera at the same time to create a wonderful piece of film. It's really amazing what he captured while we weren't looking. I watched videos of when my eldest boy was only two and a half years old (he is six now). I watched videos of my eldest daughter's 1st birthday (she is four now). I watched a video my husband made of the kids and I the day I went into the hospital to have our youngest. These precious moments are cherished moments. I am thankful my husband insisted on buying a video camera. These moments would only have been faint memories otherwise. Memories that would have faided away, eventually.


Needle knit VT square using my graph.

My VT squares have been mailed (7 total) and hopefully they will be woven into an afghan that brings healing to a family grieving the loss of a loved one. The square pictured above was needle knit using my graph. I really indended to provide written instructions for others so they could needle knit or loom knit some too, but life just got too busy for me and I barely had time to make squares myself. I did the best I could, and I am certain each and every square will find a special place in one of the afghans for the victims of this terrible tragedy.


My mother's gift.

My mother got a couple dishcloths I knit up for her for mother's day. I finally got them off of my camera to share here.

I got word yesterday that our alpaca that is being adjisted at a ranch near the twin cities had her cria. We welcomed a baby boy into the world. We had hoped for a baby girl to help grow our herd faster but in His wisdom, God blessed us with a boy instead. I will not fret since God knows what He is doing. I thought about it, and since this boy is not related to the two other female alpacas we purchased from another ranch, he could be their sire when he is old enough. Our baby boy alpaca is dark brown and is doing well. His mother had a difficult delivery, but the vet said she should heal up ok and shouldn't have any problems in the future. When I get pictures of the little guy, I'll post them here.

Have a great day!

Our hills will soon be alive with the sound of music...the humming of alpacas!

My husband and I are embracing the lifestyle of alpaca ranching! We purchased our first animals a week ago and we are ready to purchase one more sometime this week. We will have a total of two pregnant females and one maiden female (she too will be ready to be bred this fall). By next year we should have a total of eight alpacas. We are getting anxious to bring our animals home. My husband and I have both fallen in love with these gorgeous animals and can't get enough of them! We are both finding ourselves waking up during the night with these little creatures dancing around in our heads! Take a look at these faces! You can't help but fall in love:




I am anxious also to get my hands on this luxurious fleece and to begin making some very special things. I am trying my hand at spinning the fleece to make my own yarns so I can loom knit and/or needle knit this spun gold into products we can sell and to wear for our own enjoyment.

Once the frost goes out we can get out to our pasture and get our fencing in. We will be working very closely with the ranchers we are purchasing alpacas from in order to set our ranch up properly and to learn how to raise these animals to be happy, healthy, and gorgeous fleece producing animals. The hills on our acerage will soon be alive with the sound of music (humming alpacas)...thus the new name for our ranch--Humming Hills Alpacas of Avon, MN.