Dutch Hollow Acres

Welcome back to school! What a great time to adopt one of our alpacas and get to know them personally throughout the school year! Get to learn more about these fuzzy wide eyed creatures and what makes them such a special livestock here in the US.

What you get when adopting one of our alpacas.

• Certificate of adoption, photo and bio about your alpaca

• Monthly alpaca newsletter. Learn about alpacas and their history, what they are used for and most importantly what your adoptive alpaca has been up to.

• Health records. It’s very important for alpacas to stay healthy so they produce the best quality fiber. Each month in the news letter you will receive health information about your alpaca like weight, temperature, fiber growth, nail trimmings, teeth filings, and any boo boos or mishaps they might have had.

• Hold a fiber weight contest! Alpacas are sheared once a year in the spring. Can you guess how much fiber your alpaca will produce? You will receive a sample of your alpaca’s fiber from the shearing.

• Cria naming: A baby alpaca is called a cria. Some of our alpacas are pregnant and should one give birth during the school year your class will have the opportunity to submit names and vote on the name of the cria! (some naming guidelines apply).

Like with any livestock alpacas are a business and may potentially be sold at some point through the school year. If this should happen notification prior to the sale will be given and a different alpaca from our herd can be selected to take its place.

What does the $75 adoption fee go towards?

• Feed/Hay/Minerals
• Veterinary fees
• Fencing and other barn maintenance
• Shearing fees
• Fiber processing fees
• Shipping/handling

Want to learn more and see photos and bio of our alpaca up for adoption visit Dutch Hollow Acres

It's Monday and that means our virtual fiber market is now open!  Come post your links to your local harvest store, farms store, etsy etc. Connect with fiber shoppers!

To buy or sell fiber products please go to http://www.alpacabytes.com/?p=318

Visit our blog and add your link to our Fiber Market Monday!   This is our version of a Fiber Farmer's Market.

Show us your raw fiber, milled fiber, handmade products, fiber livestock, studs and more! 

Links are free to post until 11:59pm on 7/21/09

All that we ask is that you please link back to our website to help promote the free fiber market atmosphere. 

Enjoy!

--Lindsay
Dutch Hollow Acres
Alpaca Bytes

CLICK HERE FOR OUR OFFICIAL BLOG

Probably the easiest, cheapest and least harmful way to dye alpaca fiber is with Kool-aid.  Where else can you get a rainbow of colors for $0.25 a pack!

Solid Color Dye:

1.       Heat a pan of water so that you see steam rising but not so hot it’s boiling

2.       Add your Kool-aid  and stir

a.       The more packets you add the darker the color.  Mix and match kool-aid packet colors and make your own!

3.       Put in your fiber and push down with tongs until fiber is fully submerged

4.       Let simmer for 30 minutes or until water is clear.

5.       Pour your fiber and water into a colander to drain out the water. Use your tongs to press out extra water but be sure not to agitate the fiber or it will felt. (Note the water that I’m pouring out in the photo is clear)

6.       I dry my fiber on cookie racks next to my dehumidifier in the basement.  You can also use sweater racks or set it out to dry in the sun on a lawn chair or towels

Kool-Aid Dye Color Chart!
Click on color chart for larger image.  Props out to http://www.thepiper.com/ for this great color chart!

In this video I’m using all one color because the end product is for the show halter I’m working on.  In future series I will be using multiple colors to show you how you can make designs and patters in your weave. 

Palmer Looms

Welcome all yarn fanatics! If you like to knit, crochet, braid, ply-split, etc, this CSA is for you!

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Our fiber CSA allows you to own a share of our alpaca herd and receive yarn from our heard as if you owned the alpacas yourself. You really didn’t want to clean up alpacas beans anyway, right?

What does a share of Alpaca Fiber CSA get you?

- CSA share holder’s certificate
- Monthly Farm Newsletter
- Finished Alpaca Yarn!
- # of skeins and colors vary depending on our final shearing

What do we spend shareholder fees on?

- Feed/Hay/Minerals
- Veterinary fees
- Fencing and other barn maintenance
- Shearing fees
- Fiber processing fees
- Shipping/handling

Yarn will be mailed out to you as soon as we receive the processed yarn from the mill. Milling times do vary and we will keep you updated in our newsletters as to when we expect shipment from the mill.

CSA shares cost $200. You’re welcome to purchase more than one share to double, triple, etc your take of the harvest. We currently limit our shares to 20 to insure everyone gets a fair amount yarn.

Share holders are encouraged to visit our farm and see what we’re all about. Please contact us to set up a farm visit!

To Purchase a CSA Share Click Here - You will be taken to our Etsy Store.

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UPDATE: We currently have black roving available for our CSA share customers.  2009's shearing is headed to the mill tomorrow to be processed into yarn.  This year's yarn will be processed into an alpaca/wool/nylon blend perfect for socks, mittens, sweaters, and other items that take abuse.  The wool give the yarn memory while the nylon gives it added strength.
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CLICK HERE FOR OUR OFFICIAL BLOG

I spent Sunday afternoon skirting alpaca fiber.  Like the majority of new alpaca owners I’m broke after purchasing my foundation herd.  I feel like the blue collar redneck alpaca owner sometimes but honestly, I wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything.  It is hard work but very satisfying.

So what is skirting fiber you ask? Once the animal is sheared and the prime, 2^nd and 3^rd cuts are sorted in their baggies the hard work actually begins.  Each fleece has to be laid out and picked through to remove any short cuts and vegetation before it’s ready to send to the mill for processing.  A skirting table is what you lay the fiber out on.  This special table has holes in it so when you shake the fiber dirt, debris, and short cuts fall through while the fleece rests on top.  They even make fiber tumbling drums which rotate and toss the fiber around and let the crud fall through to the floor.  Tables or tumbles usually cost between $2-400.  That’s $ I don’t have laying around at the moment.

I’ve got 36 lbs of fiber to skirt and no table which is a problem.  So I started digging around the barn trying to think of what I could do to put together something at 0 cost to me. 

The solution?
- (2) 4×4 approx 5 feet long
- Chicken wire 24” x 5’
 -  Some staples 

Tada, I give you poor man’s skirting table!  I was afraid the chicken wire would catch the fiber but it didn’t, the fiber rested on tope nicely.  The hole size in the wire was good too an anything shorter than 1.5 inches fell through.  I was surprised to see the amount of dirt and dust that fell out of the fiber. 

I’m happy with my little skirting table until I can afford to build a better one. So far I’ve managed to skirt all the prime fiber and will start on the 2nds next weekend.

Here’s a photo of my “table.”  I apologize for the photo quality, it was taken with my cell phone.

News article about the alpaca blue jeans project.

Arrests made in connection with the alpaca fiber scam.

For more information read this article. http://www.kansas.com/news/story/793458.html

If anyone has invested in http://www.americanalpacafiberfederation.com/ you really should read this article.

Welcome all yarn fanatics! If you like to knit, crochet, braid, ply-split, etc, this CSA is for you!

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Our fiber CSA allows you to own a share of our alpaca herd and receive yarn from our heard as if you owned the alpacas yourself. You really didn’t want to clean up alpacas beans anyway, right?

What does a share of Alpaca Fiber CSA get you?

- CSA share holder’s certificate
- Monthly Farm Newsletter
- Finished Alpaca Yarn!
- # of skeins and colors vary depending on our final shearing
- We process all yarns into 2 ply sport weight

What do we spend shareholder fees on?

- Feed/Hay/Minerals
- Veterinary fees
- Fencing and other barn maintenance
- Shearing fees
- Fiber processing fees
- Shipping/handling

Yarn will be mailed out to you as soon as we receive the processed yarn from the mill. Milling times do vary and we will keep you updated in our newsletters as to when we expect shipment from the mill.

CSA shares cost $200. You’re welcome to purchase more than one share to double, triple, etc your take of the harvest. We currently limit our shares to 20 to insure everyone gets a fair amount yarn.

Share holders are encouraged to visit our farm and see what we’re all about. Please contact us to set up a farm visit!

To Purchase a CSA Share Click Here - You will be taken to our Etsy Store.