About Yarn

Really, this blog is about my yarn spinning, knitting, felting, fiber animals, stuff like that.  I'll get there one day!

How about now?

Let's go in reverse order for today.  Fiber animals.  I have four French Angora rabbits.  Lola is a ruby-eyed white, almost four years old.  Jojo is a fawn boy, three years old.  I bought them from a woman through Craig's List last year and they have two kits, Molly and Huck.  Huck is black and Molly is chestnut agouti (her and Jojo's fur is ticked like a wild rabbit) and they are almost a year old.  Angora is used in high end sweaters with tons of fuzzy halo and is very warm and soft.  They are all sweet pets and not nearly as painful to care for as most people might think of a really fuzzy pet.  Here is something most people don't know about French Angoras; they shed their fur every three months!  There are some other types of Angora rabbits, some do that, some don't.  What that means for me is that I don't have to shave them, just pull, very gently, and the hair comes off.  It doesn't hurt the rabbits at all and they enjoy the lap time of grooming like being petted!  A certain animal welfare group published video once upon a time of a rabbit farm, I believe in Asia, where the rabbit was screaming while it was being plucked very roughly.  I don't blame him.  None of us who raise Angoras hurt our rabbits deliberately.  Most of the commercial operations don't either.  Hurt rabbits don't grow nice fur.

How nice is Angora wool?  It is finer than Merino wool (from sheep).  It is softer than Alpaca.  A lace shawl knit from Angora would give the wedding ring shawls from Scotland and Orenburg and cashmere pashminas a run for their money, both for fineness and warmth.

Lola

Jojo

Huck

Molly

I have spun from three of them.  Lola and Jojo have white and very pale cream wool and Huck's black wool isn't entirely black, it is more like silver with black tips that form the halo.  I think I will try dying some of the yarn from him a bright color, it should be spectacular.

Here is a doll dress I knit from some of Jojo and Lola's wool that I mixed randomly.

In the photo above, taken as I began knitting the dress, you can see the yarn coming from the ball is still smooth from being spun. As I knit it, the halo begins to bloom.

Look for more soon.  Thank you for stopping by!

Are you well?

 We are all in a unique situation with this Plague.  Some of us are doing fine with it, some would really like the world to be back to normal.  I'm in between.  I have an asthmatic son, so we are doing our best to protect him, but still be able to enjoy the outdoors and do the shopping.  

Bicycling is our together, outdoors activity. I got out most days last summer and fall and the kids, one or both, usually went with.

We're starting up again this year; I've been out riding with our dog and on my own.  The kids haven't, yet, but they will.  My son and I also started spinning poi again.  I used to, back when I was a belly dancer.  Long enough ago to have to start all over again.  But this is also getting the garden cleaned up season, so there is a fair amount of that and Spring cleaning.  All good!

Gotta Get Better At Blogging

I just spent 15 minutes typing a post, only to have it vanish when I reached up to scroll up and see what I was typing and accidentally deleted the post.  I am waiting for a new Bluetooth keyboard to get here so I can type more betterer on the tablet.

Alpaca Show

We went to our first alpaca show yesterday!  What beautiful, engaging beings they are!  I am in love with their energy, engagement, apparent intelligence, yes, fleece, too! 

I've never been around them before and was pleasantly surprised, can you tell?  Camelids (relatives of the ships of the desert) have that reputation of spitting, being nasty and mean-tempered, at least the I've heard.  All of the alpacas we met yesterday, aside from youngsters nervous to be at their first shows, were sweet and enjoyed the petting.  We were told that, like all critters, there is the whole range of personality in alpacas.  I talked to many owners and crafters and they all love them as pets.

My son has asthma and has always had allergy attacks at the horse shows we used to go to, didn't sneeze once or even have a runny nose. Alpacas are hypoallergenic!  There are two types of alpacas, Huacaya and Suri, each with a different fleece texture, crimpy and fluffy or long and silky.  We bought and were given some of each to try spinning (my daughter just started spinning!).  One farm is close to us and allows farm visits, I look forward to making friends with the family.

In our future, I can easily see a small herd of alpacas on our dream farm!

I am a Business!

I filed for my Employer Identification Number online today. It's the first step toward making official my yarn business.  I will be able to sell at farmers markets and buy supplies at wholesale prices like wool, wood and other consumable goods that go into making my products.  When I was selling photographs,  I could buy framing supplies, chemistry, printing papers, and film.  Now that I have the tax ID,  I can apply for city business licenses.

Hello World!

Hello, my name is Malinda Welte.  I have been blogging off and on for a fair amount of time (see the connected blogs or Google "SideShowMom").  I craft, create art, garden and take care of my teens and menagerie.

About a year ago I went to a renaissance fair with some friends and learned to spin yarn.  Now I spin way more yarn than I use knitting and crocheting.  This summer you can look for me at local Northland Farmer's Markets selling my yarn and spinning more or teaching someone else (you?) to spin.  You can also find stuff to buy in my Etsy store.

On this blog I'll share some of my fun with you!