No picture today, but I do have two feet. The first sock now has a partial mate. It’s not time to count rows for the heel yet, but it’s almost time to be concerned that I don’t knit too long a foot before I turn the heel. My plan is to count the rows – easy because I switched color at the heel – to make sure I have both socks the same size.

Much of the last two weeks has been taken up by the Tour de France. I’ve spent my mornings either at work or watching the race. Housework has been neglected. Knitting productivity – for reasons previously discussed – has declined. Production of scrapbook embellishments has however, been rapid and varied.

Since the end of the tour – and on a couple days when I worked mornings and couldn’t see the tour – I have been back to making progress on the sock. I’m finding the stockinette foot of the sock progresses very rapidly. I’m also discovering that if I have a fiber project out where I can grab it, I’m likely to make progress in odd moments. With all the spinning in the pipeline – I’m not sure I’ve mentioned that yet – I need to find a way to leave the spinning wheel out and available for odd moments. This is a tiny apartment. A sock on the coffee table is one thing. A wheel and chair in the middle of the floor will be a very different story.

Sock pictures soon, but not tomorrow. As mentioned I owe you an entry – or two or three – about why the spinning pipeline has gotten so large. There is this double-ended crochet project on the double-ended hook which is not totally forgotten. There are garden adventures to be mentioned…

I can’t say I’ve been busy, but I can say I ought to be.

You’ve seen this picture before. Let me tell you a little more about it.

All four embellishments are constructed from the same pattern with essentially the same number of stitches. The pattern is simple – chain four and join to a ring. Work twelve single-crochet into the ring. Sc-dc-tc into the first stitch, tc-dc-sc into the next stitch around for a total of six petals. Very, very simple. Easily varied to five or seven petals – use a five-stitch ring for seven petals.

The flower in the top left is crocheted from size 30 crochet thread using a size 10 (1.15mm) crochet hook. I’ve also been using a size 7 (1.65mm) hook on this size thread for slightly larger embellishments.

The flower in the top right is crocheted from size 3 thread using a size 3 (2.1mm) hook. I also use a size C (2.75) mm hook with this thread. The 3/2 weaving thread I’m using (not pictured) is a similar size and can be worked with either hook as well.

The two flowes on the bottom are worked with a size 3 hook and number 10 thread. The colored center is achieved by switching color after the round into the ring. I use the size 7 hook with this size thread for slightly smaller embellishments.

Which brings up the question I asked earlier – should I charge the same amount for the large ones as for the small ones?

First factor is perception – and I work retail so I ought to know to respect perception. Perception says the little ones are smaller and therefore not worth nearly as much. I know I have to deal with this perception in pricing the embellishments.

Second factor is cost. Anyone who has ever used a size 10 hook on size 30 thread can tell you tiny stitches are not easy. The tiny embellishments are more difficult and slower than the larger ones. By the reasoning of labor costs, I should charge more for the smaller embellishments – or at very least I should be able to charge the same amount.

My target market for these items is scrapbookers. Scrapbookers, for the most part, are paper crafters not fiber artists. They will understand and appreciate handmade aspects. This makes them a good audience to sell handmade items to because they understand the effort and value. However, they’re not likely to appreciate the additional effort involved in tiny stitches. Based on various input, even my relatively stitch-conscious audience is reacting to size rather than pattern similarity. This tells me I have to respect the perception side of pricing.

I’m still not sure what I’m going to charge, but I know I have to think about perception.

Today’s post is more conversation with an experienced fiber artist who is new to alpaca. The original dialog started in this post and continues today.

…I of course, couldn’t wait, and unrolled the fleece on the deck and definitely it is fleece that has been skirted, and then a bag of other separate…

You might take a good look at that bag of separate fiber. Is it fiber that has been skirted out of the fleece or leg fiber that was bagged separately during shearing? If the latter, there might be some first-quality fiber from the upper legs in that bag. It’s worth a look.

the fleece was reasonably clean I thought…compared to sheep at least, so I took a bit out, and soo soft. and then just spread the lock and spun a but from the cut end..spun it relatively fine and then plyed a little…so soft..but here are the things I noticed doing it that way…first of all the little bits and there weren;t many and they were tiny, but when I washed the liittle plyed skein they definitely stood out from the white fleece, of course, I will dye it, but I could see what you are saying about trapping the vm bits into the spun fibre…

Alpaca fiber is “dirty” in different ways from sheep fleece. I have read that sheep’s wool can lose 30-60% of the weight of the fleece during washing. I’ve never had alpaca fleece lose much more than 15% during washing.

Sheep’s wool contains a lot of lanolin – over 30% of fleece by weight in some breeds. Alpacas have body oils, but they don’t have lanolin. Body oils make up a much smaller percentage of the raw fleece weight in alpaca than in sheep. It is this difference in oil content that makes spinning unwashed alpaca so different from spinning wool in the grease.

Alpacas love to roll. Alpaca fleeces WILL be dusty. Depending on the pasture and the preferred rolling location, they may also contain lots of vegetable matter, the size and nature of the VM being a function of the pasture. This dust will mix with body oils.

When you look at an alpaca fleece, you will often see a clean band near the animal, then a “dirty” – as in dust mixed with body oils – band starting about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the skin. The dirty region lightens toward the tip of the fiber as the body oils wear off.

I also was amazed at how much dirt there was in the water, murky, even though it looked clean, very dusty as it says it probably would be in other posts I read

My wash program for alpaca is soap and soak, rinse, soap and soak, rinse, repeat rinses until clean. The rinse between the two soaks seems to make a huge difference. If I soap and soak, then soap and soak, it takes about seven rinses to clear. If I rinse between the two soaks, it takes about three rinses to clear.

….anyhow, so maybe a good wash soak, etc, and drying is in the cards for me…and maybe carding as you said because definitely to pick all the tiny little bits, even if not many they stand out…would be a huge labour to do while spinning it…

I often spin with a pair of tweezers at hand for removing VM. Yes, it’s slow and picky, but it sure beats getting the VM into the yarn. I have a lovely bright white first shearing cria fleece I’m drooling to spin – or I would be if it weren’t so full of VM. It’s clearly a fleece to spin with tweezers at hand.

another question : the locks weren;t felted at the tips at all which is great, and the lock has a nice consistent strength but what I did notice which is unusual in sheep…is the cut end has little discoloration sort of slightly rusty and a bit compacted, what is that about, usually the cut end is fluffy and open this is sort of open but with this bit of other…? It did wash up gorgeous white, which of course only made the odd bit of vm stand out even more….

I’m not sure what to make of your description of slightly rusty and compacted at the cut end. My guess is some combination of chainsaw oil and sweat – chainsaw oil being used on sheep shears and sweat due to the stress/panic of shearing. Certainly, I have seen cut ends clump on the shearing table due to the combination of sweat and oil. I have seen the oil hold clumps together after the fleece dried, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen sweat clumps stay stuck.

Very dense alpaca fleece form definite clumps at the skin and this may be what you’re seeing at the cut end.

I guess I really don’t know what you are seeing, but the above are some possibilities.

also if I do card it, will the fibres be straight in the carding, they seem so fine and I don;t want them all jumbled up in woolen form , I like then straight and worsted if possible…..maybe what I will do is wash and dry it, then see about spinning in the lock, and then if that is too vm I will card it

Have you considered combing this fleece? I’ve never used combs on alpaca, but I know a lot of people who have with good result. This should give you good alignment for a worsted or semi-worsted and allow most small VM to drop out. The major objection to combing alpaca is the amount of leftover or non-combable fiber. Many spinners won’t comb alpaca because they don’t want to waste the fiber. The trick is to re-skirt the combing leftovers and then card them for a different project. These leftovers can also be blended with wool or silk.

….I can see I will have to perfect my really thin spinning again….and the plying I did do on the little skein looked great and soft so it was very rewarding…..and what will I use the other that is not blanket for? it looks pretty good to me if I can separate all the short cuts out of there

I base my use of the fiber on softness. Good blankets and some seconds are great for next to the skin wear. Other blankets and most necks make hats and outerwear, but they’re not good next to sensitive skin. Feet are tough, and I can use coarse work socks, so they get some of the coarser fiber and the coarsest stuff ends up as chair covers, blankets, or mulch.

You will probably want to be aware of not only textural differences between the blanket and non-blanket, but also length differences. Length differences aren’t a big deal to most handspinners, but they’re a problem for certain projects. Care must be taken that short, stiff fibers don’t create extra prickle by sticking out of the yarn. In addition, the hair on the lower leg can transition to very short and stiff, making it hard to spin. My advice is to look a that lower quality fiber, feel it, and see what it wants to be.

As many times as I have covered alpaca fiber prep and spinning, I continue to get new questions – good questions, new questions, interesting variants of old questions. I thought I had it all answered – or maybe I thought I had all the answers. As I continue to learn about fiber and as I continue to get new questions, I realize that I don’t know it all, don’t know the answers, and haven’t answered everything I think I know.

The following questions come from a fiber artist with a good blog, but since they were sent by private e-mail, all links are omitted. The artist lives and works in an isolated or remote area and while she has thirty-five years experienced with a fiber artist, this is her first alpaca fleece.

This puts me in the rather difficult position of being a relative novice fiber artist providing answers to someone with vast experience – and judging by the works on the blog – considerable skill. True, I have more experience with alpaca than many spinners, and most of my experience is with alpaca. This makes my advice to experienced spinners worthwhile. However, I am rather hesitant to say something can’t be done a certain way with alpaca just because I have never had any luck doing it that way.

The questions and answers are as follows:
Hey: saw your site re alpacas, and just returned home with a fleece…a cria fleece, but the woman that owns the farm wasn’t there so I have no history of the fleece but ohhhhhhhhhh is it soft…I am a spinner and dyer for many years, but never used alpaca, why would be the question? anyhow I am living [in a remote/isolated area], so am reaching out to find out more of how to use this ….is seems to be divided I guess when they skirted it, they put the leg fleece in a separate bag, it doesn’t have much vm and is wonderfully soft…

Alpaca fleece is typically divided into three portions at shearing. These three portions are blanket or firsts, neck or seconds, and leg or thirds. Some shearers divide fiber strictly on anatomy. Blanket (back and sides), neck, legs. Others divide more on grade in which case good neck and upper leg fiber ends up in the firsts bag and low-grade neck fiber may end up in the thirds. When one purchases an alpaca fleece, one may be purchasing the entire fleece or only the blanket portion. It is often best to clarify with the seller if you can.

Neck fiber is often comparable quality to blanket, but different length. This is a major issue in alpaca shows, but often not an issue with hand spinners. However, neck fiber can contain a lot more guard hair than the blanket which is an issue for hand spinners. It all depends on the fleece – and guard hair in the neck fiber can increase dramatically as alpacas age.

Leg fiber can be very variable in both length and quality. The fiber from the upper leg can be so good it is often included in the blanket. It can also be lousy. Fiber from the lower leg can be almost all guard hair. Again, it all depends on the animal and the year.

In terms of using the fiber, the fiber artist needs to make the decision whether to include or exclude various parts of the fiber based on the desired outcome and finished product.

should I spin this fine from the cut end and hand tease, or is it absolutely necessary to card…

I have never had much luck spinning from the lock. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done, it simply means I haven’t done a very good job – yet. I send everything through my trusty drum carder. I know spinners do work from the lock with great results. As an experienced fiber artist, you may have very different results. Like many aspects of fiber arts, I suggest experimenting with the fiber and taking what the fiber gives you.

I am a 30 year spinner, so have much experience…also should I wait to wash…just what is the scoop..thanks heaps

I will answer this question with a question. Is what is called a cria tip or if it is the actual first shearing fleece.

It is common practice among alpaca breeders to sheer cria about three to four weeks of age. This removes the amniotic fleece which can be brittle and a VM magnet. The fleece shorn at this time is called cria tip. It is the softest fiber the cria will ever produce. A good handspinner can work with this fleece – I have done so – but it is very tricky. The fiber is extremely short, very soft, variable, and very slick. Washing cria tip without felting it is nearly impossible – at least for me. Washing alpaca also makes the fiber slicker. I typically spin cria tip unwashed and then wash the yarn because of slickness and felting issues. My unwashed results have been good enough and my difficulties with felting have been great enough that I feel comfortable advising a spinner of great experience to work cria tip unwashed unless there is a very good reason to wash the fiber.

More likely you have the first full shearing fleece from a cria. This is absolutely luscious fiber. Enjoy it. Depending on how dirty it is, you may or may not find it necessary to wash it prior to spinning. I work both ways and I enjoy the fiber both ways. I know some spinners who only wash first if they plan to dye the fiber or if they want a bright white yarn from a dirty fleece.

Nothing feels so wonderful to spin as good alpaca and washed alpaca feels even better. If you’re working with a light-colored fleece, you may have difficulty washing dirt from the center of the yarn after it is spun. Washed fleece will take dye better. There are lots of good reasons to wash.

Unwashed alpaca fiber won’t be so slick and will feel more like wool. Some argue this gives the spinner better control. Alpaca fleeces – particularly cria fleeces – are vulnerable to tip felting during washing. Working unwashed avoids this problem. I find washing yarn is faster than washing fiber. There are lots of good reasons to work unwashed.

As with so many aspects of spinning my advice is to experiment and to take what the fiber gives you.

There are finished objects, and then there are finished objects.

I’ve been making a lot of these …

… because I’ve been watching the Tour de France and these are much less subject to gage and tension variations than sock knitting. You will remember the embellishments and Tour-related tension issues from this post. The embellishments are proving to be a great mindless project.

I’ve been calling the completed embellishments “finished objects", but I’m not sure they qualify as completed projects.

Here is what Pam (blog not yet released to the public) has done with one of my embellishments.

Now that’s the true finished object.

The crocheted embellishment has been lightly stamped on a stamp pad to give it slight coloration, then used as part of this card.

Thus far, the embellishments have been a hit. I actually have orders for a few. I’m having fun with them, but a question has cropped up. It’s one of the age old dilemmas of craft fairs. The question is …

What are your thoughts on pricing? Can I charge the same for the little ones as for the big ones?

I work in one of those big box stores – in the garden area. I won’t call my employer dangerous – certainly it’s not a dangerous place to shop. However, there are many, many ways to get seriously injured in our store if you’re not using your head. We’re not unsafe, but you do need to pay attention and use your head when you’re shopping in our store.

We use power equipment – forklifts and other things – to move products around the store and to get heavy items down from top shelves. We try very hard to avoid using this equipment when the store is busy, but there is no way to completely avoid doing so. We have a set of special safety rules we follow when the store is open. These rules are to protect us and our customers.

One of the things we do when we’re using power equipment in the store is block aisles to keep customers out of the areas where we’re working. We block the aisle we’re working in and we frequently block the next aisle over from where we are working. Danger in the aisle with the power equipment is fairly obvious to many customers. Danger in that adjacent aisle is actually greater even though it’s less obvious. All it takes is a little push with the power equipment and items start falling off the top shelf in the next aisle over. It’s all too easy to do. Trust me.

(Think about it. We’re all about sales. If we block an aisle, it’s an inconvenience to our customers. Inconvenienced customers shop elsewhere and don’t come back, meaning we lose sales. We don’t want to do that. If we block an aisle for safety, there is a very good reason.)

Some customers are too special to be injured in a retail store. Others simply believe they are immune to falling pallets. They feel they’re impervious, so they can walk into our work areas and we should wait to do our work while they shop. (Not a thought at all that there might be a customer waiting for the goods we’re pulling down from the top shelf …)

The other day, I was working a jammed and hung pallet – somebody else jammed it and I was called in to extract it safely. This pallet was jammed against a ceiling beam and hanging over the edge of the rack. Only a thin layer of shrink wrap was keeping a thousand pounds of merchandise on the pallet. When that shrink wrap gave way, four very heavy grills were going to fall from twenty feet in the air.

The aisles were blocked off. Colleagues were in place to keep customers out of the way. The situation needed correcting, and there was a high risk of serious merchandise damage. The only real danger of injury was in being underneath that pallet and I could get the reach truck in place without driving directly underneath. So long as everybody was smart about the situation, nobody was going to get hurt.

Here I am, operating the reach truck in limited space, trying to back up far enough to get the forks into the pallet without smashing the rack behind me. The shrink wrap is stretching and that pallet is about to fall. I finally get the forks positioned and start moving forward to put the forks in the pallet, when a customer walks past the aisle blocker, steps over the moving front wheels of the reach truck, and starts shopping right underneath the pallet that’s about to fall.

(Not to mention, the customer stepped between a moving piece of heavy equipment and a fixed object. It would have been very easy to crush the customer against the racking or smash the customer’s feet with the front wheels of the reach truck.)

Talk about panic. I can feel my blood pressure spiking just writing this story.

I told the customer to get out.

“I’ll only be a few seconds.” was the response.

In a few seconds, that pallet could fall.

A colleague yelled at the customer. The customer told her to be patient and that I could finish my work when she was done shopping.

I didn’t know what to do. I considered getting off the lift and pulling the customer out of the way. However, there was no way I was going underneath that pallet.

I totally panicked and froze – very poor reaction. I couldn’t move forward to grasp the pallet safely, because the front wheels of the reach truck would hit the customer’s feet. If I did anything else, I risked knocking the pallet loose. The shrink wrap was continuing to stretch and it wasn’t going to hold those grills forever.

Fortunately, the customer moved before the pallet fell. I was able to pull the pallet down safely. As the customer left the area, my colleague started explaining the situation to the customer and pointing to the danger of the hung pallet. The customer called her rude and impatient in not quite so many words. The customer couldn’t understand why we were so upset. Given my level of adrenaline, I’m sure I wasn’t at my most coherent or cordial.

If I had physically pulled the customer out of the way, I would probably have lost my job and been charged with assault. (And I wasn’t about to go underneath that pallet to physically move the customer out of the way.)

If the pallet had fallen on the customer, my colleagues and I would have been fired on the spot and quite possibly charged with manslaughter. The resulting legal fees would have ruined me win or lose. (Not to mention, I don’t really want to kill anybody.)

Please, if you’re going to shop in one of these big box stores, please, please use your head. If an aisle is blocked off, there is a reason. You don’t shop faster than a falling pallet. If you get in my way and I start yelling, it’s not because I have to wait for you, but because you’re in serious danger.

My next safety rant will be about those @#$%^& shoes with wheels in the heels and parents who allow their children to roll down the aisle at 25mph out of control and unsupervised…

Look very carefully, at the top of this sock.

Notice the lack of needles. This sock is finished. Finished! I even managed to maintain a loose bind-off on the first try. I’m excited. One sock is done. I actually finished my largest and most complicated knitting project to date.

Or did I?

I have two feet.

There was a time in my younger life when bicycling was pretty much everything to me. I lived on my bicycle. I rode to work every day rain or shine – and in Seattle winters, it’s mostly rain. When I wasn’t working, I was cycling for fun, including some rides into the shorter ultra distances. I was president of the bicycle club. I lead recreational rides. I went off riding by myself just for kicks. Bicycling was life. That’s all changed. I still own bicycles, but I don’t think I’ve been on a bike in seven years at this point. My bicycles are not in riding condition – and I might not be either – but I still am interested in the Tour de France.

Of course, I could do without the drugs and the controversy in the Tour. I’ve ridden 203 miles in under eleven hours with no more drugs than an extra cup of coffee. I’ve done 920 miles in nine days – in the mountains – with nothing more than a couple ibuprofen. I’ve done 156 miles with 10,000 feet vertical in a day with no extra boost at all. Tour riders are riding faster than I am and they’re getting paid. Speed and big money, however, are no reason to muck up the great sport of bicycling with drugs and doping. It’s time for the Tour riders to start riding and stop dragging the sport through the mud.

Despite my disgust with the drugs, I am delighted to to have a few days this year when I can actually watch Tour de France coverage. I sat down to watch the tour this morning and picked up the sock to knit. This is what happened:

The gold thread is the marker I described yesterday to mark the beginning of the final inch (unless I decide I need another final inch after that). Observe the rows after the marker very carefully. Note the knitted purls, the purled knits, and the extreme tension variation. I was sprawled on the couch, feet on the coffee table, watching the Tour de France and trying to knit. Every time something exciting happened in the race, my feet would start twitching and my tension would double. The knitted purls and the purled knits are simple lack of paying attention.

Knitting during the Tour de France is not going to work!

I thought about spinning while watching the Tour, but quickly discarded that idea.I was tired from work last night and really enjoying sprawling on the couch. Spinning just felt too much like effort. Besides, spinning a wheel has certain similarities to spinning bicycle pedals and there is just no telling what would happen to my twist every time a rider started to break from the pack.

With knitting and spinning out of the picture, I decided to crochet some scrapbooking embellishments. They’re quick and easy and I can rip the whole thing without much wasted effort. This is what I produced while watching the last 35km of the Tour de France this morning:

Four finished objects. Pam will include these on cards or scrapbook pages.

The ends are sticking out intentionally. We are still experimenting with these embellishments and scrapbooking. I’m not securing or weaving in the ends the way I would on a garment, I’m just pulling the thread through the last loop and not weaving in or tying at all. It’s hard to hide threads in these tiny finished objects. Given the intended use, it may be easy to secure the ends with a drop of glue. As we learn how to use these embellishments, I may have to go back and secure the ends better. Experience will tell.

Yup. Want to write. Can’t think of what to write. Not enough knitting progress to mention. No spinning. No new birds to talk about. Nothing really new in the garden. And, no pictures I feel like putting up at the moment.

Nothing.

I suppose I could make this the interminable sock progress blog. You know the kind – knit two stitches and post a picture daily for six months. I mean I’m already headed that direction and there is the second sock still to be started. The only news of progress is that I tried on the sock again today. I put the model sock on the other foot and decided I still had another inch of ribbing to go. I’ve had just another inch of ribbing to go for several inches now. I did mark the sock today so I can see how much progress I’m making on the current “final inch". No word on whether or not the current “final inch” will be the last one or not.

I could make this the wish I were spinning again today blog, really, we make choices in our fiber hobbies and I’ve chosen to start some other projects since the spinning. I do wish I had time to spin and knit and accomplish everything else I feel like I need to accomplish, but I have the same 24 hours per day everbody else does. As much as I dislike the constraints of a 24 hour day, I find I do better if I accept said constraints than if I try to fight them.

And I tell you, it’s the 24 hour limit on a day that’s the real writer’s block!

Wow! Life got busy. There was a holiday and a family involved. There has been no spinning progress and almost no sock progress – I’m just now writing about last weekend.

We spent last Sunday visiting our babies – our alpaca babies – in Tennessee. We took my father in law and his wife with us to see the animals. My parents visited us in Oregon when we owned the alpacas, so they have seen the animals. Pam’s dad had never seen them, so it was quite a treat to take him to see the animals.

Plus, I miss the alpacas and I was very happy to see them again even though we only saw six of the nine. Anna is so sweet – she even played kissyface with me.

Unlike previous visits, we were able to get some pictures.

Here is Pam with Morghan. That’s Maggee in the background. Remember Morghan from this entry? She’s grown into quite an alpaca and her fiber is still really soft! Morghan is Sindre’s daughter and she seems to have inherited his softness. In this picture, Pam is feeling Morghan’s fiber and checking out her head.

Best of all, I brought Morghan’s fleece home with me. I’m looking forward to spinning it.