Making Progress!
This has been a crazy and wild ride since I woke up one day and decided I needed to blog. Since then, I have completely changed the direction of my products and even the blog in general, I’ve entered a business partnership with a wonderful friend, we managed to publish our first book together, and my blog viewers are growing! As this was happening, life also happened. As some of you know already, I was maid-of-honor in my only sister’s wedding a few weeks ago. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, but who knew there was so much to do?! Between bridal showers, bachelorette parties, gifts to be made, center pieces to put together, dresses to hem, decorations to be thought out and created, it was chaos! Instead of focusing on writing blogs and making products, I got caught up in making sure her special day was perfect. All our hard work paid off. She had an absolutely beautiful ceremony and the reception was everything she wanted. I am so happy for her and proud of her.
Gosh I clean up nice next to all these lovely ladies!
While juggling the wedding, I entered into a partnership with Stoney Meadows Alpacas and Stone Mountain Looms owners Theresa and Chuck Jewell. They have been absolutely wonderful. Just about once a month they kidnap me and my woven projects to go traveling along the East Coast to Alpaca shows. Oh the things you will learn while traveling! I’ve learned so much about fiber in the last few months and I love it! I’m hungry for more and can’t wait to share all the knowledge I am gaining each day.
Dreaming of Books!
It all started in November of 2017. Theresa Jewell needed a partner in crime to assist her at the Empire Alpaca Show in Syracuse, NY. I just so happen to live about an hours drive from Syracuse, I’ve been weaving on her looms for several years, and I’ve been told I’m good at teaching. That’s how I got that faithful phone call. I was so honored and pleased that she asked me to help out. I’ve been assisting her at the Niagara Celtic Festival for several years now, but to be asked to go to an Alpaca show event was something new to me. To top that off, Chuck and Theresa had just purchased Stone Mountain Looms and were now making the looms themselves! That meant this show was going to be a little different from previous shows. We had to focus on the looms, which is not a problem for me.
I attended the show with Theresa and had such a fun girls weekend selling looms and meeting some amazing weavers along the way. In the mists of all the fun, Theresa whipped out a binder full of sketched out patterns for the various looms. I’m not talking a few patterns, I’m talking close to fifty patterns! The first thing out of my mouth was why haven’t you made a pattern book with these? That’s when our first pattern book Continuous Strand Loom Weaving for Beginners was born. With my ability to translate Theresa’s sometimes crazy ideas into writing and her ability to keep dreaming, we entered a partnership. It also helped that during the Syracuse show Theresa discovered how quickly I picked up information and was able to help customers as quickly and as knowledgeable as her. It was a relief to her to have someone know how to use the looms and how to teach all age groups on them. That’s when she decided I had to join her and Chuck to these large events.
Since then, Chuck has found about one alpaca show every other month and hopes to change that to every month for us to attend. It’s been a great time! I’ve learned so much from them and from other vendors at these events. I’ve been able to witness several fleece to shawl events, which are truly amazing! If you haven’t seen one of these events, it’s worth it. At least three teams of four are given fleeces at the beginning of the day which they then have to card, spin, and eventually weave into beautiful shawls. The skills and companionship displayed at these events is beautiful to watch. I’ve even suggested to Theresa that one of these days we should consider creating our own team and going for it! *It’ll be awhile before that happens, I need to get better at spinning first.
At all of these shows, I’ve listened to fiber farm owners and other vendors discuss how long it takes for fiber to be processed at fiber mills. It’s amazing to me how long their wait is. There is so much fiber and not enough fiber mills. This is where I got it into my head that I could do that! If I start planning now, learning now, I could one day work my way up to my own fiber mill and hopefully help process some beautiful skeins of yarn, among other things. Now I’m full of all sorts of questions and desires to learn the entire process! I’m hoping to record my journey on this blog as I go from humble weaver, to fiber farm and mill owner.
We released our first book Continuous Strand Loom Weaving for Beginners: On 5ft and 6ft Triangle Looms in April 2018. It includes 18 patterns for the 5ft triangle and 18 patterns for the 6ft triangle with easy to read instructions on how to weave on the triangle loom. We included troubleshooting, starting, finishing, and some other project ideas in the book. It’s our first and in my opinion has a lot of room for improvement, but it has gone over well!
We had copies of the book with us at the MAPACA Celebration Alpaca show in Harrisburg, PA the week the book came out. There we received a lot of good feedback about the book and made a bunch of sales! I’m so happy everyone is liking it! I’m so excited about it, I have already written the outline for the next book which will be on the square loom. Our second book will be much larger than the first with a lot more patterns and ideas because we intend on including all of our square loom sizes in the book. Like the first book, there will be a beginning section on how to start, end, and work on your square loom with some troubleshooting. Unlike the other book, we will have pattern ‘chapters’ on each size loom followed by possible themed chapters. For example, we are working on a Kitchen Collection using the square looms. All the projects will relate to kitchen items. Which also means we will be including patterns that require assembly. Aka, you’ll need to make more than one panel to create the finished project. We are also planning to include patterns that combine one or more of the looms together!
It’s all very exciting! I’m hoping to keep working on this book throughout the summer and fall with ambition to have it close to completion near Christmas of 2018 which means you could see it on shelves in the spring of 2019!
My First Shearing Day!
As part of my interest, I asked Theresa when she was shearing her Alpaca. I just happened to ask at the right time because it was coming up quick and she needed assistance. The more hands the better and smoother shearing day can go. I was excited and a little nervous. I’ve heard so many horror stories about what can happen during shearing day. Injuries were high on the list, but so was spitting. Alpaca’s are adorable and huggable, but when they’re scared or angry they spit. I’m going to quote someone I met at an alpaca show. He had the best description of what alpaca spit is like. It’s like being hit with “vomit and diarrhea all at the same time.” Ew! I didn’t think I was a neat freak, but let me tell you, alpaca spit makes me nervous. Thank goodness I’ve not been hit by it yet! I did kneel in some during shearing day, which was disgusting enough. Gross.
My first shearing day experience went great. I was impressed with how quickly the shearers went through each animal. And I was impressed how they took care to make the experience as least traumatizing for the animal as they could. You could tell they cared about the animals safety and well being as much as their own. We had 18 animals to shear in total. Some of Theresa’s females had been done recently and her sheep had been sheared a few weeks prior.
Being new at shearing, I wasn’t sure what to do or expect. Once Theresa explained I was there to help collect fiber starting with first cuts, then moving to second cuts and cuts that were too short to be spun into yarn, I found a rhythm. Since I’d been given a spinning lesson earlier that morning, I understood what fibers would be good from spinning and which were useless. It was depressing how much fiber was too rough or too short to be considered good for spinning. I wish there was something we could use the fiber for and eliminate some of the waste, but there is nothing to be done.
As I collected, alpaca’s peed and spit and yelled and I most certainly knelt in it all. It was sad to hear them yell, but I knew this was for their own good. They need to be sheared for the summer to avoid overheating and causing other medical issues later. Besides, once they were released from their hair cuts, they frolicked away almost seemed relived to be 5 pounds lighter. Gosh they’re so cute!
Once all the babies were sheared, I was amazed with how much usable fiber was left. There were bags and bags of good fiber! Theresa has a lot of work cut out for herself since she is planning to process all of the fiber herself instead of sending it to a mill. And of course, I hope to assist her through the entire process.
My First Spinning Wheel
I have finally gotten my first spinning wheel! I must confess, I have been slightly intimidated by it, so it’s been collecting dust in my living room. I’ve spun yarn before, years ago, but I’ve never started a new bobbin by myself. I wasn’t sure how much fiber I needed in my hand to produce a decent size strand or how much twist it needed. It was a little nerve wrecking so I decided to contemplate it and wait until I felt more confident. I’ve gotten it out a few times to just practice spinning the wheel both clockwise and counterclockwise. It’s a lot harder than you think! At least, until you get the hang of it and figure out where to place your feet on the pedals.
I’ve found I cannot spin with shoes on. I’ve tried, but I just can’t ‘feel’ the wheel enough to know if I’m pushing too hard or going the right way. Once I took my shoes off, it was so much easier to find a comfortable spot on the pedals and how much pressure was needed to get the wheel to spin appropriately.
I was too afraid to use any of the alpaca roving I had to try to spin because I knew my first attempt would probably be terrible. So I just continued to wait. That’s when I recalled I was going over to Theresa’s for shearing day! Why not bring the wheel with me and get a lesson before we got started? I figured if Theresa showed me then I’d have a little more confidence. I was right.
Theresa was happy to show me how to work my wheel. She had me run some wool through the picker, then the drum carder, before she moved me to the spinning wheel. She intended to have me start with the roving I had just made on the drum carder, but then we discovered all of her single bobbins were full of spun yarn. So instead, she had me ply the yarns together. I had so much fun plying the yarns together. They turned out so pretty! I can’t wait to wash the yarn and give it a few good ‘whacks’ as Theresa suggested, to make the yarn behave. Once they’re clean, I intend to use them in a project or two. I’m sure I’ll let you know what I do with them!
*Since then, I’ve attempted to spin from the roving I have at home. It is most certainly not as even as Theresa’s, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Just give me a few more months to practice and I will get it for sure!
Chemistry in the Kitchen
Oh my goodness! I am super excited about my newest product line, Dandelions! I’ve been playing around with what I can find in my back yard that I could use to either naturally dye my yarns with or add to my soaps and lotions. That’s how I came across dandelions. Everyone thinks of dandelions as unwanted weeds, but did you know how good dandelions are for you? I’ve read, through several sources, that scientists are finding something in dandelions can actually help prevent cancer and in some instances, cure it.
But that’s not why I’m interested in dandelions, although it is an added bonus, I’m interested in dandelions because they are amazing for dried, cracked, skin. They are great at moisturizing and nourishing dry damaged skin when put in soaps and lotions. As soon as I heard this, I went dandelion hunting. I’ve collected a few, but I need more to make a dandelion infused oil to use in my soaps and lotions to produce new amazing products!
My plan is to open a new dandelion line including Dandelion Lavender Lotion Bars, Dandelion Soap, and Dandelion Charcoal Soap. If these go over well, there may be new dandelion products in the future! I’m excited to see what happens!
Preparing for Events
Now that shearing is over, and I’ve finally a break in my regular day job, I have more time to prepare for shows. I recently looked up my events and when they are and if I turned in all the applications on time. I have, so far. But then I discovered one of the events I had planned on vending at was canceled this year and I still haven’t heard back for the one event I really really want to be a part of!
ChrisKringle Market in Canandaigua, NY is an amazing holiday event in November every year. They approximate about 10,000 people attend this event every year! That’s amazing! I’d love to participate in this event, as it is practically down the road from my apartment. I will not find out if I’m vending at this event until July, but in the meantime I am preparing.
Last year, I went around to several vendors at the ChrisKringle Market and asked how they got into the event and what I’d need to do to get. The vendors were very nice and gave me some great advice. They told me to get my application in ASAP. I did that! Go me! And they told me to be prepared! By prepared, they told me to bring a lot of stock. When you think you have enough products, double that. They told me it was better to have too much stuff, then to run out on day one. If a vendor runs out of product early in the show, they presents a problem for the event coordinators. There’s now an empty space due to poor planning. As a result, vendors that are not prepared are not invited back the following year. YIKES!
So now it’s time to prepare! I have to get moving if I want to make sure I have enough product in time. Especially since now I am attending all these alpaca shows with Chuck and Theresa where I have been selling a few items here and there. I’m going to have to set goals for myself and start meeting them! It’s a little daunting, but I feel like I can do it, as long as I prepare now! The worst that happens is I don’t get to participate in the event and I’ll have a large stock of items to sell at other events, until I eventually get in. Can’t wait to find out if I’ll be participating this year or if I’ll have a whole year more to plan and prepare!
What’s Next
I have so many things going on right now. But here’s what I’m hoping to work on the rest of this year, and I’ll keep you updated on my progress!
- Practice spinning yarn! *I’m hoping to eventually start spinning most of my yarns I use in my weaving
- Keep Weaving! *I’m going to become a weaving machine in the next few months preparing for holiday craft shows
- Knitting Away! *I’m working on a new knitted boot cuff, but as always I’m knitting fingerless gloves.
- Make Soaps and Lotions! * I’m planning to make a lot of soap and lotion for my holiday craft shows
- Book 2! *Playing on square looms and creating lots of patterns for the new book
- Bi-Monthly Newsletter *That’s right, I’m now attempting to write a bi-monthly newsletter. We will see how it goes.
My longest post yet! Thank you for sticking around to read and/or skim the whole thing. I’m off to go dandelion hunting and perhaps make some soap!