Sweet Liberty Belle was eventually directed to the gate in a very large white class, which didn’t really surprise us. Don’t get me wrong, she’s lovely with her compact frame, pretty head, and soft bright fleece; her fleece lacks that “elite” quality required of a white animal in the show ring. Belle was quite a good sport about it and happily skipped back to her pen-mates. She’ll make someone a wonderful dam and produce bundles of luxuriously soft fiber each spring!

More weaving!!

Hello,
I know I'm being overly proud of my first weaving projects but I can't help it! I spent so many years working on things that were so utterly boring (called "a job") that I'm blowing my own socks off by what's coming off my loom!

This time I warped the loom for 2 scarves. The first one shown here is about 8" woven. The papers you see right up front (actually cheap toilet paper) is used to pack the warp to bring the yarn together before starting to weave.

By warping with a pattern of 4 blue and 4 cream (and so on), and weaving with 4 blue, then 4 cream, it creates this beautiful pattern called "Houndstooth". It's one of my favorite patterns, I think.

The 2nd scarf was created using the same warp, but only weaving with cream which creates the striping over the 2-color warp. I love them both.

These scarves were woven slightly tighter than the Herringbone but are still very soft. The blue is 100% Baby Alpaca commercial yarn, and the cream is from our herd.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my "works of art" as much as I've enjoyed sharing them. I've got a shawl in the planning stage right now. Stay tuned ...

and stay warm,

Liz

Weaving bliss!

Hi,

I finally carved out some time to get a project on my loom. It took awhile to figure out exactly what I was doing and to plan my project. It took even longer to get the yarn ready and dress the loom. And once it was all dressed I realized it was completely backwards! (And that is why I shouldn't do these things in the evening!)

No worries ... I rolled with it and wove it backwards.

The scarf turned out beautifully! I'm very happy with it (can you tell?). I wove it loosely making it very pliable and drapey. This scarf if from our herd yarn and it's incredibly soft!!

Well, Onto the next project ...

Stay warm, Liz

Mavic cable sweater

Hi,
I know I promised to share my finished Mavic sweater. Somehow that never happened so here it is! Cookie is my model. The sweater fits me like a glove but I'm not much at modeling!

This sweater is the most scrumptious in the shop and for sale!! ;)

Warmly, Liz

Winter at Turkey Creek Alpacas

This gorgeous creek runs along our farm. It's fast flowing like a river so doesn't freeze over. The running water can be heard any time of year and is a lovely sound after dark when we sit in front of a campfire along the creek.

Lee and I were lucky to take a 9-day vacation to visit my family in California right after Christmas this year. Unbelievably we hit a perfect week in the 70's with 2 days in the low 80's. We came back to low temps, ice, and blustery conditions to find our alpacas, dogs and barn cat doing well in the care of our farm sitter. Bless him for the wonderful care he takes of our home and critters allowing us some much-needed time away.

Now heading into February we are hoping for an early spring and once again starting to plan our shearing event, some spring shows and a few camping trips! We have no crias (baby alpacas) due until fall so we are foot loose and fancy free (as long as we have our trusty farm sitter, that is).

We decided to raise some chickens this year so I just ordered a late April delivery for a mix of 15 pullets. I never thought I'd be raising chickens but something this year tells me to diversify. With that thought in mind, Lee and I are also attending a bee keeping school in Indianapolis at the end of February. Just another project for future pondering.

I leave you tonight with a photo of Spirit last summer in front of the house. It's one of my favorites!

Stay warm, Liz

Autumn at last!

Did I say that?? I do love autumn but what happened to summer??? The months rush past with quickening speed each year. Lee had some fun this year trying his hand at growing giant pumpkins. Shown is his "prize winner" weighing in at 91.2#. It didn't actually win any prizes, but we had many a comment about it from farm visitors.

He made 2 different newspapers with the giant. So he's grown a 52# watermelon, 10' Indian corn, and now this ... what will next year bring? :)

Seriously, it's hard to believe that it's November 1st already! October certainly didn't treat us well in Indiana. Plenty of gloom and more than our share of rainy days. We are praying for a short and sweet winter although it doesn't sound promising.

As for my fiber arts this summer, I did manage to keep very busy! I spent as many Saturdays as the weather allowed at an open-air artisan's & farmers market in Syracuse. I became quite adept at throwing up that tent and setting up shop for the day.

I haven't had much time to take photos of my latest pieces, but I can tell you that I finally finished my Mavic cabled hoodie and it's had many "oohs" and "ahhs" throughout the summer. It has to be the coziest piece in the shop. I also sold the green wool version and it looked fabulous on the young lady who bought it. That's a great feeling!

I also had a bit of time to put up a site on Etsy.com but have had little time to really add much of anything to it. Being a one-of-a-kind type of gal, I find it's too time consuming to take photos and go through the entire rigmarole to get things listed. :D In the meantime I've moved my office and expanded our farm shop. It's looking great! Come on out for a visit, and check out our newest crias for 2009. I'll post a few pictures later on - I promise!

I'll leave you with this funny photo taken at Suzie & Terry Hart's farm in Middlebury. Her boys were in rare form and hamming it up for the photographer (me!).

Warmly, Liz

Ahh, Spring at last!

We've made it through another shearing season and, as usual, they all look fabulous, healthy and happy. It's great starting over each year and watching how they change and "grow" as the year moves on. Plus we have an entire stash of fresh fleeces!!! Exciting!!

I'd like to share this photo of our log house underneath the blooming dogwood. Spring is my all-time favorite season and it's entirely too short.

Let's see, I've started a new project on my floor loom. I'm using up yarn (cotton/acrylic blend perhaps?) and making some colorful placements as my next practice pieces. I used the yarn in it's "white" state for the warp, and dyed the 4 remaining quarters in yellow, orange, blue and green. I'm about 1/4 into my 2nd matt and they are looking very cheery with fringe around each side. I'll be sure to include pics of the loom all dressed up, and the finished projects soon.

We've only had our first cria so far, a 21# baby boy to Mohana. He gave his mom quite a time during birth and we've decided to name him Spirit because he sure showed his during the rigamarole of birth!

Talk soon ... Liz

Turkey Creek Outfitters Grand "Re-opening" !!

Yes, we have reopened our farm shop and it's grand opening will take place on May 2 during our Shearing Day open house. Most of our products are hand-crafted, and all of our natural yarns are from our herd.

For the spinner, don't miss out on the luxurious rovings from last year's fiber crop. We have solids and gourmet blends available at $4/oz. (pictured in the right-hand column).

Andean Chullo

This hat was one of my recent projects. I learned Fair Isle knitting while creating something alpaca-related. Although the hat is made from 100% Andean Wool (versus alpaca) it's very soft with bright, eye-appealing colors for winter. I loved working on it and will be attemping some in the near future using alpaca!

Where has time gone?!

Wow, time flies!! Spring is here and with that comes shearing time! Yeah!! With 20+ animals this year, we'll be shearing all weekend with our open house landing on Saturday May 2 from noon till 5 PM. The general public is welcome and the event is free of charge. You can expect to see lots of alpacas - some fluffy; some shorn, fiber arts demonstrators taking fleece from raw to finished product, and of course plenty of finished product in the farm shop.

As for this fiberist, I've been working with friend and teacher, Maggie Schnaars to learn several types of knitting, tips, finishing, etc. It's been a wonderful experince and I've come a long way. I'll photograph and share some of my recent creations soon, I promise.

I also took a day-long one-on-one weaving course at White Violet Alpaca Farm. That was loads of fun and I met several wonderful people. Now I just need some *time* to put my creative juices toward my loom!

Husband Lee has been creating birdhouses out of gourds plus a few uniquely painted dipper goards just for the fun of it. Even though Winter seems to be hanging on this year we have kept ourselves busy with plenty of artwork and creativity during these long months.

Our sad news is that we were forced to close our shop at the American Countryside Farmers Market in January due to the downturned economy. However, we have reopened our farm shop and look forward to serving the public there. Pics to follow ...

Ah, if only the days were twice as long!

Liz