Poop Scoop

Brookfarm’s Annual Alpaca Farm & Fiber Festival

Sat, 4 Sep 2010 07:27:54 -0700

Fiber Kitty Helping with Alpaca Blanket Project

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:14:21 -0700

Noah thinks this is a great kitty bed on a cool foggy nights.

If I hadn’t pointed him out, you’d almost lose Noah in the natural color alpaca fiber, which is pretty much a blend of all his tabby colors. Noah has turned out to be a wonderful addition to Brookfarm and a good mouser, since he was brought in with the title of “Barn Cat”.
This pile of alpaca fiber is under the skirting table in our fiber shed. At the moment, it is being used to process the fiber contributed to the Alpaca Blanket Project, of which Brookfarm is providing the service of California Collection Site. In the last week, we have received nearly 150 pounds of fiber all bagged and identified by the farm who is sending it in to be processed into blankets produced by Pendleton Mills in Oregon. Can’t wait to see the lovely blankets when they are done and ready to use and sell.

GGFI - Where It All Begins

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:46:39 -0700

Where it All Begins
The art and craft of spindle spinning with Abby Franquemont
Golden Gate Fiber Institute (GGFI)

Had I studied the title of this class, I would have been better prepared. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the class and learned so very much. But, a rock to spin on! That I did not expect. Ms. Abby Franquemont tested us to think WAY outside the box on several occasions AND, I thank her, because I learned so much.

Our first set of tools

As you can see above, I did learn to spin on the rock. Then we were given the stick -- the skewer without any clay. Then we were given a dab of clay to place wherever we wanted on the stick: top whorl, bottom whorl, mid whorl -- we got to choose. The one challenge was keeping the clay from flying off the stick.

In the demonstration below, Abby holds the fiber supply, while a class member just twists th stick and a single ply yarn is created.
It’s just that simple!

And this is where the fun began. We were given this beautiful top whorl spindle, and a very traditional bottom whorl spindle, much like what is used in Peru where Abby learned to spin as a 5 year old so as to become a “productive member of the community”. And of course I had to make a few purchases, which included this lovely “Burl” top whorl spindle and some gorgeous Capistrano roving to practice on.

Each day we would receive some new fiber to sample. The brown is a “generic” fiber; the lavendar is an alpaca blend. The balls are created by wrapping a single ply right off the spindle into a figure eight on your hand. Then it can be slipped open into a circle and placed around your wrist. From there, you take each end of the yarn, line them up together, and wind them into a ball side by side -- very similar to a two ply that hasn’t yet been twisted.

Then there was some cotton :-( , some silk :-) , and an assortment of other fibers. Some of the students liked the cotton -- I did not (I gave it away to someone who loved it!). I loved the silk, while some others weren’t thrilled to spin it.

From the ball, we learned this very nifty way to ply yarn with a bottom whorl spindle. I must admit, I’m starting to get the hang of it. It is also very impressive to show someone else. It’s almost like doing “Walk the Dog” with a Yo-Yo; well.... sort of. :-)
So in the end, there wasn’t as much fancy stuff to show off after this class, but I learned oh so much about spindles, spindling, plying, the history of spindling and textiles, oh.... AND THIS:

THANKS, ABBY. It was a wonderful class!

GGFI - Gifts from the Cauldron

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:46:34 -0700

Gifts from the Cauldron
Creating color on cloth and woven thread with Judith MacKenzie McCuin (JMM).
Golden Gate Fiber Institute (GGFI)
This was my morning class each dat at GGFI and a fabulous class. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it and will most definitely try more of the techniques learned. I’ve already ordered several books that JMM has recommended.
We started out by learning a bit about the Shibori technique of dyeing. What is Shibori, you may ask? Shibori is a collective term for Japanese resist-dye textile techniques: tie-dye, stitch-dye, fold-dye, pole wrap-dye, etc. The most common English translation is “tie-dye” but the more accurate term is “shaped-resist dyeing.” Shaped-resist dyeing is what naturally happens in the patterning process: manipulation of cloth from a 2-Dimensional surface into a 3-D shape while compressed in dye.
We tied garbanzo beans into silk scarves, added some stitched gathers, designs, and even tied in some rice. Judith explained and demonstrated Indigo dye baths and our tied scarves were very carefully submerged into the dye bath. The tieing and dyeing all took a couple of days and was worked in amongst the other techniques and projects in progress.
Silk scarves in pink basket, all soaked and waiting for submersion into Indigo. Judith MacKenzie McCuin - Shibori Indigo Dyeing

That’s my scarf at the bottom of the photo. Some participants then over dyed the resist, such as this magenta dye bath.

My finished scarf ~ over-dyed with Cyan, then a few spots dipped into magenta.

While we were working on our Shibori projects, we began to measure out two warps on the warping board. I chose to use the finer Pony wool yarn for both of my warps. One warp (15” wide, 24 EPI/Ends per inch) would be used for my Ikat project, the second warp (10” wide, 24 EPI) would be used for another Shibori project. All the while I’m wondering how on earth we will all find the time to tie up and weave one project and then do the same for a second project. Mind you, each night, and several mid-day breaks you would find several of the JMM students busily working in the loom room tieing garbanzo beans, untieing beans, measuring warps, working on T-shirts, etc., etc.
In Ikat weaving, the design is done by careful dyeing of the warp and sometimes the weft too. Sometimes a design is drawn first. The warp and weft threads are carefully measured, tied and placed in the dye solution. For fabric of different colors, the ties are removed and the warp is retied and dyed again to create layers of color. This can be a very laborious process.
My finished Ikat warp is 4th from left; the one with brown, tourquoise, and bright orange. This required 4 different submersions into the different dye vats, each time tieing and untieing different sections to get the desired effect.

This warp came home with me to be woven.
The weft thread is the cyan sitting on my Cranbrook Loom breast beam. It should tone down the orange and get the cyan to pop!

I personally spent 3 nights in a row up till midnight threading my loom. Needless to say, my Roomies were beginning to wonder what happened to me, and most of that time I was correcting mistakes I made in threading the reed and heddles because I was working so late into the night! GRRRR!!!
In this piece, a heavier cord is woven in as a weft thread into several strategic spots using different weaving techniques. When the piece was cut off the loom, the cord was pulled very tightly to make gathers and puckers. Then once dyed, these gathers and puckers created yet another method of resist in the dye pot. Again, I chose Indigo dye.

Here is the Shibori weaving. You can see a couple of the different areas of resist from the woven weft cord.

And.... of course ... a tie-dyed T-shirt was a must. Mark’s reply when I showed him my projects: “Looks like you went to Hippy Camp”

THANKS, JUDITH. I learned so much and can’t wait to weave my Ikat warp!

Best of Show

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 13:37:26 -0700

Look what DH picked up for me at the faire.
All while I was off playing at GGFI.

GGFI - Golden Gate Fiber Institute ~ Bridge to the Future; Link to the Past

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 13:43:45 -0700

Summer Intensive ~ August 2010
Oh dear, where do I begin... fiber to die for, two of the most amazing classes, new friends, great food, nature and a beautiful setting, shopping.... have I missed anything. That describes the Golden Gate Fiber Institute 2010 (GGFI) in a nutshell! Morgaine of Carolina Homespun and Judith MacKenzie McCuin outdid themselves. I will most definitely be back next year!!

GGFI is held at the beautiful Point Bonita YMCA Camp. The camp itself is an old Military site and offers simple accomodations, but all the surrounding scenery makes up for the lodging ~ the bay, the hills, the Golden Gate Bridge view, the lighthouse. Who could complain about a little fog. Actually all the participants from the East were loving it.

Accommodations are sparse, but you get the choice to sleep up top or down below, and then store all your gear on the other bunk. Besides, with all the fiber to play in and projects to work on, who really spends much time in the room.
This is knitter and designer extraordinaire AnneLena
... knitting on one of her many socks. She was in the same weaving class as me, but in the afternoon session. See her lovely Shibori weaving in red and her indigo dyed T? Watch for her first published patterns to come out in Interweave Knits next edition. YOU ROCK ANNELENA!!

The program begins Sunday evening with check-in, dinner, and a welcome meeting. The cafeteria at camp prepares delicious, yummy meals; and fantastic desserts. Then Monday morning we start into our routine...
Coffee ready near the kitchen around 6am, breakfast served at 8am, morning class 9am-noon (I took Gifts from the Cauldron with Judith MacKenzie McCuin), lunch at 12:30 with a break until 2:30pm, afternoon class 2:30-5:30pm (mine was Where it All Begins with Abby Franquemont), dinner around 6:15pm, evening meeting around 7:30 pm. Then we get to SHOP!!!!!, work on projects, enjoy the views and hiking, and get acquainted with new fiber friends during all the other hours. Talk about a great time... Each night at the meeting there were drawings for door prizes and everyone’s name went into the bowl at least 2 times.
Goody Bags were also handed out. Look at the cool stuff in my bag:

My two door prizes

Then there was the shopping! Oh what fibery fun that was.
I couldn’t resist Capistrano hand dyed fiber, Mother MacKenzie’s Miracle Dyes and some Indigo dye, Woven Shibori book, Will Taylor’s Lazy Kate, and a Turkish Spindle.

The spindle was intended as a thank-you to Sarah for taking care of the farm since Mark was also away for part of the week. But she already has one. Imagine that.
In JMM class we also did a bit of hair dyeing.
Sheila was happy to comply.

Roomie 7 girl, Terry, took the felting class and here is her final project - a lamp. And she even learned how to wire it.

Terry also took the rigid heddle weaving class. Here is her scarf on hand-painted warp, and a nuno felted scarf from her felting class.

AnneLena sports her hand-knit socks dyed with kool-aid.

GGFI Roomies ~ Couldn’t have asked for better roommates!!:
L-R ~ Donna, Marta, Debbie, Jane, AnneLena, Terry

Use links below to view entries where I share details & photos from my classes:
★ Gifts from the Cauldron, creating color on cloth and woven thread with Judith MacKenzie McCuin
★ Where it All Begins, the art and craft of spindle spinning with Abby Franquemont

Jack’s Black Knight

Fri, 6 Aug 2010 10:05:55 -0700

HB’s Katy’s Kaitlyn X HVLA Black Jack
Look who arrived just in time before Mark and I were headed out of town in different directions. He to Wisconsin to work a JDRF event, and me to the Marin Headlands for the Golden Gate Fiber Institute.
A beautiful true black boy -- not a speck of white to be found anywhere. And bundling and crimp and density galore!

Rocky & Keeleigh's Latest Darlin'

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:42:11 -0700

BROOKFARM’S P Rock of Gibraltar X OVA Keeleigh

This newest little girl cria arrived on July 29, 2010, and she is quite the stunning young lady. The combination of Rocky and Keeleigh, one of our top foundation dams, has proven to be a winning mix. It is in the cards to repeat this breeding.

Look at that crimp! “Love you momma”.

Catching a nap in the sun.

My first night at Brookfarm ~ it was foggy!

Rocky continues his consistency of producing strong cria, with beautiful heads, full fiber coverage from noes to toes, and tight crimp with exceptional bundling. We are so very impressed with all 3 of his very first cria on the ground.
New cria, yet un-named Comet Marble Rose

Rocky’s crias are sure to perform in the show ring, and our first opportunity for them to bring home a ribbon will be this Fall with Marble Rose!

Boys being boys ... neck wrestling
(Max and Ace)

BEST OF SHOW

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:25:39 -0700

Wet-Felted Wisteria Bag - Nicky Epstein Pattern
(To see most of Debbie’s projects in progress, check out her Ravelry “Projects” page)
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to arrive at the Sonoma County Faire this week with my dear friend Moz and find several RIBBONS awarded to both of us for our spinning, knitting, and sewing efforts. And Vicki, another friend, was awarded ribbons too! As a matter of fact, I think we received ribbons on everything we entered. WHAT EXCITEMENT!!!
We have all been knitting and spinning for some time; but Moz and Vicki for much longer than I have. We get together monthly with a spinning group, among other connections from time to time at our LYS, etc. But this year we all decided these young broads would enter the Sonoma County Faire for our very first time. What did we have to lose; after all?
I’ll start with the 5th place ribbons and work my way up....

Debbie’s blue/green cowl and alpaca/merino/angora handspun - 5th Place Ribbons.
I didn’t get a photos of my handwoven alpaca scarf, which also took 5th.

Debbie’s grey wet-felted bag, 5th Place. Vicki’s felted hat, 2nd Place.

Moz’s Stonington Shawl, 3rd Place (brown shawl; bottom/left).
Moz’s shawl was all out of her handspun and is quite exquisite.

Debbie’s beaded capelet ~ 1st Place!!! Moz’s Rocky PiShawl ~ 2nd Place!!!
BTW, the Rocky Pi Shawl was lovingly knit from one and only award winning Rocky, aka Brookfarm’s P. Rock of Gibraltar’s yarn. 2nd BTW. my capelet is hung inside-out, of all the silly things. It would look much nicer if the stockinette side was on the outside as it is supposed to be worn.

The rose shawl is the first place winner over Moz’s Rocky Pi shawl, and it took Best of Show as well.

Moz’s 1st Place quilt, with Moz excstatically standing under it; and her hand made dress ~ 2nd Place!!!

A couple of photos of most of the exhibited knit and woven items.

The center of the room where the “special” winners are exhibited.
See Debbie’s felted bag in the right middle area, just to left of the green plant. You can also see some of the lovely quilts displayed above. It was a very well designed display.

The Wisteria Bag is wet-felted. Basically, you knit up the bag first. It is usually about 3 times larger than the finished project. Because then you toss it into your washing machine with some warm water and gentle soap. But don’t just let it go..... Instead, you need to watch it carefully and check often to stop the felting process when it gets to the desired size. The flowers and leaves were all knit up separately and then stitched onto the bag along with the beads. In another life, I hope to line the bag with fabric and a pocket or two, and add a magnetic closure, maybe even replace the I-cord handles with leather! -- Ahh, would it then be a new project for next year’s Faire??? :-)

And, of course.....
One MUST walk through the flower show too! It was quite lovely and has me thinking I need to return for the big plant sale after the Faire closes.

What Faire would be complete without a walk through the livestock barns to check out all the farm animals and especially the baby pigs!

So the bar has been lifted very high now. What will we have to do next year to even come close to these results?

Fallen Tree

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:50:48 -0700

Wood for the winter!

Two New Ones

Wed, 7 Jul 2010 16:32:42 -0700

Memento’s 2nd Cria
We were on a roll with girls earlier this year. Now we’ve switched to boys for a repeat run of the last four crias. All is good, because they are all gorgeous boys. The last two arrived over the last 12 days. Little Mr. Ace (aka Diamond Ace) is 12 days old today. He is the result of a breeding of our Dasie Mae to Derwydd’s Manchu. This is Dasie Mae’s first cria, and he is a beautiful strong white boy with lovely fleece. As always, time will tell as to just how great he is, as it is difficult to make an accurate prediction of a newborn cria. But we have high hopes. Don’t we always???

Diamond Ace DOB 6/26/07 (Brookfarm’s Dasie Mae X Derwydd Manchu) ---

Yesterday.... our second Memento cria arrived. The little boy is yet to be named, but he is a beautiful dark silver grey and is the result of a breeding to Alpaca Shire’s Amidala, a lovely silver grey girl herself. And with two 7’s in his birthdate, there may be some “lucky” name we will come up with. How about “Memento’s Fortune”. He is very strong in bone already, and is gentle and calm, just like his daddy, Memento.

DOB 7/7/09 (SRA Memento X Amidala of the Shire) ---

If you have ideas for the newest cria’s name; we’d love to entertain your suggestions.
Just leave your comment below!

Kids playing and relaxing...

Happy Birthday, Darlin’

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 13:54:16 -0700

Debbie receives her first Golding Drop Spindle!
Dear Sweet Husband presented me with my very own Golding drop spindle for my birthday.
What a guy!

It is a Damascene Flower:

Every intricate part of Golding drop spindles are finely tooled and detailed.

Right down to the notched shaft for quick spinning.

My new spindle just arrived, so I am very anxious to get spinning on it in anticipation of my Golden Gate Fiber Institute class with Abby Franquemont in August! :-)

Dye Day & New Project

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:29:00 -0700

It’ll be a new cabled hat project for me!
A few of us fiber girls spent a day at Vicki’s dyeing yarn and fiber. This was my very first experiencing dyeing my own yarn and I was so apprehensive about the process -- fear of ruining my beautiful alpaca yarn set in!
But all was put to rest by Paige and Vicki who had everything set up for us, mixed the dyes we selected, had the soaking baths ready and equipment dedicated to dyeing.
Oil drip pans help to keep everything tidy

Squirt bottles work for the “painting” method

Once painted, wrap in plastic like a burrito, and steam for about 20 minutes to set the color.

Beautiful colors!

The Dye Crew: Deborah, Debbie, Paige, Molly, Vicki, Mo

Beautiful alpaca yarn...

What Fun!

Gotta Love Those Babies!!!

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:52:58 -0700

Don’t miss the Cria Crib chronicle of all the babes so far!
This year we are expecting the most number of cria yet to Brookfarm. Five have arrived to date, and we are so very pleased with each and every breeding decision so far. AND...... (drum roll, please) the first cria from OUR herdsires are part of this group and all gorgeous. The first 3 cria of 2010 were girls, the next two crias were boys. You may have already read about our first two crias in earlier Blog posts, each from one of our herdsires -- Rocky and Memento.
Memento’s cria, Coraline, arrived first on February 20th. And Rocky’s cria, Marble Rose (aka Rose) arrived on March 18th. We couldn’t be more pleased with each of these beautiful girls and have shared more current pictures of them so you can see just how beautiful they each are.
And then..... most recently we welcomed 3 new cria all within 4 days.
It was a fun and very busy week.
Black Pearl started off the roll on a Wednesday, delivering a bit early, but healthy and happy none the less. Noir de Noir is our first cria out of our super fine, true black Herdsire, HVLA Black Jack, proudly co-owned with Alpacas All Around. AND ITS A GIRL!!! :-) Noir is also true black. She is a sweetie, with lots of spunk and personality. She appears to have very dense fleece with much improved fleece character and crimp over her dam.
Lavender was visiting from Alpaca Shire while her owners were traveling. She was a bit overdue, but this is nothing new in the Alpaca world. On Thursday, I arrived outside at 7:30 AM for morning chores and there was our second little Rocky cria on the ground, looking healthy, and very handsome in a Carmello color. Comet is a Brookfarm cria (Brookfarm’s Rock of Gibraltar’s Comet) and Rocky has stamped his second offspring with that gorgeous dense and crimpy fleece, not to mention a regal presence, much like Rocky has always had. You can see the fiber coverage all over his face and all the way down to his toes. He is a “Rocky” chip off the old block for sure. Considering Comet and Marble Rose are Rocky’s first two cria, we are super excited that he is producing what appear to be ribbon winners. Proof will be in the show ring next Spring.
So then we had a day of rest. Whew!!! And on Saturday, Pninah delivered our much anticipated OVA Kiernan cria. A handsome, healthy boy arrived. Max (Brookfarm’s Maximillian O’Kiernan) is a dark reddish brown with blackish points on his nose and feet. He is the spittin’ image of both his dam and sire, and is already exhibiting the crimpy fleece character of his multiple color champ sire OVA Kiernan.
And two more cria are due any day, with one more in July, one in August, and the last one in November.
Take a look at the future of Brookfarm:
Coraline

Rose

Noir

Max

Comet

Pacas and Maremmas

Stay tuned for more additions soon!

Spinners Day on the Farm

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:04:40 -0700

It was a perfect Summer morning when we arrived at West Valley Ranch in Healdburg, which is situated alongside the Russian River. Sarah arrived the night before, and Debbie already had the truck all packed up and ready to go: lots of Brookfarm alpaca yarn and roving, drop spindles, alpaca finger puppets, 2 Schacht spinning wheels for customers to test drive, pop-up, tables, chairs, banners, food, drink . . . Check!

We arrived around 8:30am to do our set up before the event began at 10Am-4PM. Set up went very well. Sarah is such a trouper and very focused to get it all set up and have it very esthetically pleasing. Even though this was a fairly new pop-up shade structure, and we had not put it up as a team before, all went well. We did have a few scares when a couple of large gusts of wind blew through and things went flying. As luck would have it, a light steady breeze settled in for the day which made it very pleasant for spinning and visiting with wonderful friends.
The spinning circle and other vendors

Sarah Drop Spinning.

Sarah spinning on the Reeves Saxony and Dee on her new Matchless wheel.

It was a lovely day, lots of wonderful spinners, so many beautiful wheels to see, yarns, rovings, and great friendship and relaxation. Join us next year --
Mark your calendar for 2011
The second Saturday in June!