Oh My... Only 4 More Days

My very first craft booth will be up at the Mystic Earth Psychic Fair on October 3rd. I am getting ready and have so much to do! I hope that I will be ready in time. Either way at least I have a bunch of stuff already made. I really need to update my website with some of my items. As soon as this event is over I have a couple of patterns that I want to write out and put on here. I made up a pattern for a drawstring bag by modifying a different pattern and it turned out so nice that I want to share it, so look for that in the near future. I also have a beautiful hair pin lace crochet mask pattern that I haven't tried yet, but looks so beautiful that I want to share that as well, so look for the information on that soon, too. As for right now I need to go and make more items and label stuff, and lay out some brochures and flyers, and, and, and... lol. Okay, off I go to finish more stuff!

Success!

I decided today that I wanted to take one of my alpacas for a walk, so I was able to halter Shiloh, put the lead rope on and lead him around, first in the alpaca pen (it was so funny, all the other alpacas were following us around), then I took him out of the pen to walk him around in the grassy area outside of the pen. I walked with him for about 10 minutes or so and he was able to eat some of the nice green grass that was growing in the yard. Then Tim asked me to bring him back because the other boys were stressing out at the fence and trying to figure out where Shiloh was going. I took him back and gave him some of the big pellets that he loves so much (We've switched the pellets and he doesn't like the new ones as much, but he loves the old ones, so I'm lucky that I had some left.).

Anyways, I am feeling so happy that I was able to take one of my alpacas on a walk!!! And he wasn't bad at all, he didn't try to get away like Professor did and he was just so wonderful!!! So, I would consider this a successful breakthrough in working with my boys.

Felting Mishaps

Well, this evening was an interesting experience. I let my husband and sis-in-law help me out with felting some soap. My husband came up with the idea to use un-carded fleece to felt around the soap, and since I have a bunch of un-carded fleece I let him try it. Yeah, No... That doesn't work. It comes out horrible and doesn't felt really well. So, he made it into a felted ball and it looks like a large hair-ball. So when Halloween comes around I was thinking I could be a black cat and carry around a hairball to "spit up".

All in all it was a fun night and I got 3 actual felted soaps, plus the mishap soap which I will clean and re-felt with carded fleece.

Lesson learned: Do not use un-carded fleece for a project that asks for carded fleece. :)

National Alpaca Day!

September 26th is National Alpaca Day and I will be spending my day out at a popular ranch called "Alpaca's of Shepherds Pasture". The owners, Ron and Marilyn are wonderful people who helped to introduce us into the alpaca groups in Oregon. Without their support I would be lost! Marilyn said I can put out my crafts to sell at the event and I am thinking I might set up a station where people can try out felting and spinning for themselves. I think it will be a wonderful day and a great place to spend National Alpaca Day!!! Come out and join us at their ranch and check out their website for more information: http://www.alpacabiz.com/. I look forward to seeing you there!

Face Painting at the Ranch

The face painting for the boy's ranch went great! I got to paint on about 20 people or so and I had a blast the entire time. I am learning more and more about how to do line work and the different pressures to apply to get what type of line. It's really neat! I am hoping to keep practicing and get better and better.

Big Day Today!

In about 10 hours I will be face painting at the fundraiser for TrueNorth Star Boys Ranch and I am sooooo very excited! This is my first face painting event ever and I have been getting ready for it all week. I hope that I get to paint lots of people and that the paintings turn out wonderful. I will try to get some pictures so that I can post them on here later! Wish me luck...

My hands hurt...

I spent many hours over the last few days crocheting some items for the upcoming craft fair and between the blisters from my rope burn and the repetitive motion of crocheting my hands are so tired and hurt right now. So what I do? I come over to the computer and type? Well, that's no good... Since this is just a different repetitive motion and will become just as painful. But I am getting things done and I realize that now, after a little breakdown that I had earlier tonight. I was feeling very down and felt like I have spent so much money in developing my business, but I haven't made any money yet and I felt like I was going nowhere, but after talking to Tim I realize that I am going places. I have several events planned for the upcoming months. I have many things that I can do and I just need to find the right buyers. I am feeling much less frustrated and realizing that I can do this. I will do this and I will be successful at running my own business. Now to go and make some new goals and plan for an upbeat future...

Eeep... October 3rd.

October 3rd seems to be creeping up on me. I swear just yesterday I had over a month to plan and make stuff and now I have just over 2 weeks. I have so much to make before I will be ready to have my booth, but hopefully I will be able to make it all in time. I need to make more felted soaps, some more pincushions, maybe another scarf or 2, some slippers, I have lots of the little hair things and headbands, so at least those are ready. I also want to make some nice tote bags because I think this is a great event for them. So... I need to get going and making things!

My website

I have got my website all figured out now, I found a great way to add product and I won't have to deal with any credit card information or anything. I will be having paypal do it all for me! Then I just get an email when a new order comes in. I will be adding new things all the time, so keep checking for fun new stuff. And if you think of something that you want made, just ask, I am always willing to try new things! Go, check out my website and order products (if you want to). http://www.alpacacrafts.com

Haltering Professor

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch! Tim and I were able to get Professor into the small catch pen, we were able to halter him and put the lead rope on him. I was able to walk him out of the catch pen, then about 5 or 6 steps away from the catch pen. That's where it all went downhill. He snapped his head back, pulling the rope through my hand, when he felt the rope go slack he started running around the field like a crazy alpaca and my hand felt like it was on fire. After a few minutes of running about, Tim was able to catch him and we un-haltered him and let him go. I am thinking that I will wait a bit before I try that again. That was no fun for me and none for him either. I think the halter slipped a little on his nose, which on an alpaca can cut off circulation and make them freak out, which he was definitely freaking out. When I got in the house I put aloe vera gel on and my had felt much better. The skin didn't break, but I am going to have a couple of blisters for a bit. Oh well...

Yay, Facepainting!

On next Saturday I have my first face painting event! Hooray! I will be painting at TrueNorth Star Boys Ranch for their 3rd Annual BBQ and Auction. So, come on out 9/19/09, 11am-2pm to support the wonderful ranch. For more details, go to http://truenorthstar.org/.

If anyone else is interested in having a face painter at their event or party I would be happy to oblige. I am just learning, so would love lots of practice! You can contact me at info@alpacacrafts.com or call my cell phone at 916-307-9433 or if you cannot call out of area: 866-870-5252. Thank you!

Mission Succeeded

Whew. Today was an adventure. We went up to Eugene, picked up the computer, then went to Cafe Yumm! which is an amazing mostly vegetarian restaurant and I got a Jazzy Bowl, which has jasmine rice, black beans, sour cream, cheese, salsa, tomatoes and some other kind of sauce. It was delicious.

After lunch we went to pick up the alpaca. He was already in their catch pen, so it took me and Tim all of 5 minutes to get him haltered, then maybe 10 to get him loaded and comfortable. It wasn't so bad and he is a real sweetie pie. He didn't have a name, so on the way home we were talking about names, maybe Lightning Bug or Greased Lightning and several other names. But what we came up with fits him perfectly. We named him Marley after Bob Marley because of his beautiful dreadlocks. He is a suri alpaca, which is a different type than what we already have, which is huacaya. The difference is in their fleece, where a suri has a heavier fiber looking like dreadlocks, the huacayas have a softer fiber looking like a teddy bear.

When we got him home, it was crazy. We let him in the pen with our other boys because I thought they were going to break down the fence trying to get to him, then the dominance games started. For a bit I was a little worried that Marley was actually a girl. (He's not, we rechecked). We were out there for about an hour while poor Marley was mounted by Kodiak and then Shiloh. At least Zachary and Professor X didn't want to mount him. After they were all done with dominance challenges I was able to get them fed and everything calmed down just fine. Until we tried to take the halter off of Marley. That's when I knew he had been accepted into the herd. We chased him around trying to corner him for about half an hour, and kept getting thwarted by the other boys who were trying to protect him. Finally we cornered him and got the halter off. Things are calmed down again and I thing Marley is really happy to finally have a herd.

Mission: Alpaca Transportation

About a week ago I found an ad on craigslist for a free alpaca who is greatly in need of a haircut, so I responded to the ad and the lady contacted me back and said that she had another guy who was interested that responded first. She would keep my contact information in case he decided to back out. Well... Tonight she contacted me and asked if I would still be interested in picking him up. He has been in a field for the last 2 years without being sheared or haltered, so I am not sure how he is going to respond to being handled or transported, but I am hopeful and I have read so much information on how to deal with transporting an alpaca I feel like it should go okay.

I am excited and nervous. The alpaca is up in Eugene, so about an hour and a half drive for us, but we needed to go up there anyways to pick up a computer that was being repaired at the Mac store. So, I will let you all know how it goes and post a photo of my new boy when/if I get him here!

Business Update!

Wow, I am feeling like such a business woman! I now have my own website: http://www.alpacacrafts.com AND I have a toll-free number for my business! YAY!!! I also ordered some business cards with all my new information on them. I feel so great about this! Oh, my website is not ready to receive orders yet, but it should be up in the next couple of days, so please be patient. Thank You!

Crochet a scrunchie

Just after my last post I decided to try out a pattern that I've had my eye on for weeks now. I started at about 11:45pm. It is now 3:45 am and I am finally done! So, 4 hours to finish this project. It turned out absolutely beautiful, but I don't think that I will be using a lace or super fine weight yarn again anytime soon... I recommend trying this pattern, but maybe using a medium worsted weight or at least a sports weight. Here is the site that I found this pattern at http://www.owning-alpaca.com/scrunchie-crochet-pattern.html. They have a lot of really neat things on there, so poke around and check it out. I'm going to bed now... I'll post pictures of my scrunchie sometime tomorrow. :)

Crochet a headband

Now for my attempt at a crochet pattern. Please let me know if you can read this alright or if I need to add more clarifications in here.

Yarn I used - Lion Brand Homespun Yarn (if you don't want to use that, then a bulky or chunky yarn works well)
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet

Ch 50
Row 1 - turn and dc in the 3rd ch from hook *sc, dc* repeat from * until end of row (48 stitches)
Row 2 - Ch 1, turn and sc in 2nd ch from hook * dc, sc* repeat from * until end of row (48 stitches)
Row 3 - Ch 2, turn and dc in 3rd ch from hook *sc, dc* repeat from * until end of row (48 stitches)
Finish by slip stitching the two ends together to make it into a headband or you can sew it together, whichever you feel more comfy with.

Now you have a simple headband. I will be posting a cute flower to use with this later this week.

Please review, criticize or complement as you like. I believe we can all grow from some constructive criticism, so don't be afraid to tell me what you think!

Carder update

So, the guy with Habasit called and came by today. Unfortunately I wasn't home when he did. He was passing through Roseburg and figured that he could get the information for the band. I was out at a fiber mill to get some of my fiber processed to yarn (which I am so excited about). Dave, my brother in law was there, so the guy was able to see the carder and figure out what I need. He said that he will get be able to come back in about a month and give me a replacement part for it, plus he said he will get an extra one also! Yay!

Until then I have figured out a kind of solution. While I was at the fiber mill the lady there said that for awhile they had to use zip ties on one of their belts and that it worked okay, so I tried that on my carder and it actually works alright. It's not great and makes me do a bit more work, but way better than the hand carding that I would need to do if I didn't have a drum carder. I am so happy about this! Hooray!

Carder

Well, I tried to fix my drum carder using some stuff that I had laying around the house, but nothing is stretchy or strong enough to be the belt. I contacted the habisit representative again to see if I can get that belt, but haven't heard back yet. If I don't hear back by tomorrow I think that I am going to visit an automotive shop and see if they have a belt in a similar size. I'm thinking that might work... Stay tuned to see what happens.

Face Painting Is Fun

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Last night we had a bunch of friends over, some of them with children, so I decided to go and get out my Mehron Paradise AQ set that I got for body painting awhile back and haven't used in ages. I don't know why I ever put that thing away! I enjoyed face painting so much and the kids loved being able to choose a design from my face painting book and I loved being able to make the designs look like what was in the book! Lots of fun was had by all, and I'm thinking that I will not be putting away my kit anytime soon... Now I just need more subjects to practice on!

Mystic Earth Psychic Fair

I will have my first vendor space (well first for my craft business) at the Mystic Earth Psychic Fair and I am so excited. I am making special little crocheted pouches and I'm sewing some nice tote bags. I hope that these will do well out there. I will also have my normal stuff, like the headbands, aprons, pincushions, etc that I have been making so many of. I'm thinking that I will get some of my fleece processed at a fiber mill so that I can have some nice yarns for sale, too. I am really hoping to kick off my business in a good way! Also I think I will have a website up before then for people to order from, which will be really nice (and then I can hand out cards at the fair with my website to get more orders).

This fair is on October 3rd, 2009 and will be at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

Up to my ears in fleece

Well, when we bought the 4 alpacas we decided to buy their fleece from their last sheering also. The fleece is divided up into 3 bags for each alpaca (neck, blanket and legs/stomach), so I have 12 bags of fleece from that, plus I bought 2 other bags of fleece from a different farm, that makes 14 bags full. This is not a lot in the alpaca farmer's eyes, but in the starting out crafter's eyes, this is a whole lot.

I started to card Zachary's oh so luscious fleece and got through about 7 ounces (out of 6 pounds) when my carder's band decided to break. Grrr... I have tried to get a replacement, but the guy that said he was going to meet me to measure this thing hasn't called me back, so now I think I'm going to try fixing it with some cotton string or something and see if that works instead of buying a whole new band. So, I will keep you updated on my progress about that.

What I did get done with the carder I have used to make some felted soap, felted pincushions (so cute goblin looking guys) and some felted dog toys (which I allowed my dogs to test and they loved them, so I will be making more of them to sell).

I have 4 ounces that was the nice blanket stuff that I will be using to spin up into some yarn, but I am so nervous of messing up the nice fleece with my not so good spinning skills. So, stay tuned to find out more about my carder and my spinning attempts. :)

Alpacas

Near the beginning of August 2009 I bought 4 alpaca's for my birthday. They were delivered on August 14th, the day after my birthday, which from here on out will be known as Alpaca Day for me. When they first got here they were all very skittish, not really want to get near me because I was someone that they didn't know. Shortly after they arrived, Kodiak and I came to an understanding, he does not want to be petted and I do not want to be kicked. As the weeks have gone on, they have started to accept me and they occasionally come up and nip at my arms while I am getting their food ready for them. Shiloh lets me pet him, as long as his head is in a food dish and Professor X lets me pat his butt when he is eating the hay. Zachary is still very shy, Kodiak still does not want to petted and I still don't want to be kicked. All in all we are doing great together and I am looking forward to the day that I can halter them up and take them to the craft fairs with me.

My Own Craft Business

So, I've finally gotten my business license. I have been crafting up a storm and I'm looking forward to the craft fairs coming up through fall and winter. I have been crocheting so much that my fingers are wishing I was back in a cubicle typing up reports (and they didn't enjoy that much)! I've also been finding new stuff to sew and modifying patterns to make them my own. I love the aprons that I have come up with so far. They are nice and reversible and I can make them in adult or child sizes, which is great. I'm also making a bunch of little goblin heads to be used as pincushions. They are super cute and made out of felted alpaca fiber. Right now, I'm just hoping to have enough products made before the beginning of the craft fair season! And then hoping what I do have made will sell well. So, stay tuned for more information on my ventures. And possible crochet patterns in the future. :)