Passionate about Alpacas

It's been a long time between blogs....

2007-05-11T17:07:00.000+08:00

Been on holiday to New Zealand, came home and finished some more projects and now preparing to go on holiday again! This time we're going to the UK and France. I hope to revisit my roots and catch up with family and friends - some of whom I haven't seen for over 30 years.

We might notice a few changes!

Here are some pictures of some projects, and the latest newborn alpaca who was sooo tiny born, only 5.5kg, but is doing just fine now.

This jacket is made from natural black alpaca and acrylic yarn

A new year and new projects.....

2007-01-20T18:02:00.000+09:00

I got a loom for Xmas and this is my first attempt at weaving. The warp is commercial wool 8 ply and the weft is natural handspun alpaca - it's beautifully soft.

The loom is an Ashford rigid heddle 60cm.

This is a stole I made on my new loom. The warp is commercial wool 8 ply and the weft is various commercial textured yarns from my stash. I added beads to the fringe.

I started this wall hanging for my son about 3 years ago and only finished it for his birthday in January! For a long time it was in the too hard basket. It's very satisfying to have it finished!

Nearly Christmas....

2006-12-21T16:21:00.000+09:00

Nearly Xmas and the weather is hot and very dry. Our family of alpacas is growing with another little girl born a few days ago. She's having a few problems feeding from her mum at the moment so is having bottles, but hopefully things will improve .... fingers crossed! She is called Portia.

Birth of the First alpaca of the season......

2006-11-28T19:48:00.000+08:00

"Indiana" was born 26th Nov. early in the morning weighing 11 kg (which is pretty big for an alpaca baby!) She's solid black and very quiet. So quiet we started halter training her and took her for a walk with her Mum yesterday! She's learning fast.

Here she is just 10hrs old!

Here she is with her Mum (Arizona)

...and first time with a halter on!

Loomed bootees and things in the garden...

2006-10-26T18:22:00.000+08:00

What a glorious sight! Fresh from the garden broad beans and peas - and boy do they taste good!

This is just one of about five baby canaries that have hatched so far. This little guy is about two weeks old...

These are two pairs of bootees made on the FG bootee loom. The pair on the right was made with ewrap 1 over 1 and came out too loose for my liking.
The pair on the right was made with ewrap 1 over 2 which is a much closer stich and I also got rid of the holes at the heel shaping as I made them.

Shearing the alpacas...

2006-10-25T17:40:00.000+08:00

Today was shearing day for the girls, and boy do they feel better now! They might not look better now but with warmer weather coming they will be much more comfortable. Eleven done and just four to go!

The spinning wheel will be running hot for a while.

If anyone in Australia wants some alpaca wool please visit my website for prices and postage www.westnet.com.au/bluegumalpacas

Today it's Summer...!

2006-10-21T15:01:00.000+08:00

Suddenly it's Summer. The last couple of days have been very warm and I've put the long pants and sweaters away!
These are some sweet peas from out of the garden.

Some loom projects

2006-10-11T17:56:00.000+08:00

The scarf was made from the softest yarn you can imagine called Moda Vera Parade. I made it on the blue circular KK loom in the round. It took 2 x 50 g balls and extra for the fringe.

The mittens were made on a mitten loom with the thumbs made separately on a homemade loom that just happened to have the right number of pegs to create a thumb! These are made from alpaca, natural colour. I think one is slightly bigger than the other - but who cares!

Spring is sprung.....!

2006-10-01T18:46:00.000+08:00

It's been pretty busy lately with goats kidding, lambs lambing and a baby alpaca too!

Not to mention baby budgies too! At the last count we were hand feeding 3 lambs, 2 budgies and suplementing the baby alpaca, Nimbus.

Two finished projects!

2006-09-15T14:10:00.000+08:00

Two projects I've just finished are a knitted alpaca cushion worked in natural colours in the traditional patchwork log cabin pattern, and an acrylic on canvas - "Poppies". This is my second attempt at painting and my first on canvas. Both these projects are for my daughter's house!

The cushion is knitted on 2 needles in one piece starting with the middle square. Stitches are then picked up along the side of the square (grey) and knitted. Then stitches are picked up down the side of the grey and the middle square (light fawn) and knitted, and so on .......

From L toR this is Adrian, Clancy, Latte and Brian. The kids of 2006! They are 10 days old here.

This might be a good oportunity to add some pictures of previous projects made out of handspun alpaca.

Sleeveless waistcoat.

Grey jacket.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since I made all of these from handspun sheeps wool

2006-09-09T15:14:00.000+08:00

I made this soon after my Mum died in 1993, so I call it my "Therapy Jumper!" It used up a lot of bits and pieces and I could just lose myself in it.

This my daughter modelling the tropical fish jumper in 1995

I made these Jumpers in the 1990s - maybe I had more time them, I don't know!

This jacket was knitted sideways.

This a front and back view of a jacket that took forever in handspun sheeps wool! It has Sturt Peas (Australian native) on it that were knitted seperately and added sewn on when the garment was finished.

Some handspun stuff in sheeps wool

2006-08-31T14:41:00.000+08:00

These are some Jumpers I made in the 1990s out of handspun sheeps wool. The designs are all my own. I used Dylon powder dyes for dying the bright colours.
Front of Lorikeet jumper.

Lorikeet back

Back in the early days....

2006-08-25T15:57:00.000+08:00

Jacket made from squares, wildflowers.

Handspun natural wool jumper, possom
Back of same jumper, ram's head

Natural and dyed handspun wool

Natural and dyed handspun wool (knitted sideways)

Pink & Grey Galah

Where did it all begin....?

2006-08-25T15:45:00.000+08:00

Soon after arriving in W.A. in 1985 I joined a craft group where I reluctantly learnt to spin and, after the obligatory few weeks of neck and shoulder tension, everything fell into place and I haven't looked back since!

I learnt with sheeps wool, then some mohair and now 100% alpaca. Although I have been known to incorporate some commercial yarns into my creations to add texture and variation. There are so many interesting new knitting yarns on the market now that is hard to resist them! This is a picture of me and "Sheridan", a bottle fed alpaca.