Dutch Hollow Acres

FMM is back!  Get more visitors to your local harvest fiber store by listing it for free at Fiber Market Monday's. 

Just dye a new batch of roving or yarn?  Show it off! 

Proud of your fiber animal and want to show them off?  Post them too!

To enter your link and view others Visit AlpacaBytes.com

What does a share of Alpaca Fiber CSA get you?

- CSA share holder’s certificate
- Monthly Farm Newsletter
- Finished Alpaca Yarn!
- Quarter share = minimum of 10oz of finished yarn
- Half share = minimum of 1.25 lbs of finished yarn
- Full share = minimum of 2.5 lbs of finished yarn
- Our alpaca fiber is blended with other natural fibers like Tencel
so that your finished products are machine washable!

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 for a full share, $100 for a half share, $55 for a quarter share. You’re welcome to purchase more than one share to double, triple, etc your take of the harvest. We limit the number of shares sold to insure everyone gets a fair amount yarn. The amounds per share are listed as minimums because if we have a good shearing with little VM or short cuts waste we may have a higher yeild which would give you more skeins!

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UPDATE 7/21/09!
Shares will be ready by Sept/Oct
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We have black roving and raw fiber
for our hand spinners
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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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Alpaca Fiber CSA giveaway!

If you purchase a full, half, or Quarter share by August 31st you are entered to win even more yarn!

Names will be drawn totally at random and no preference is given to those who purchase full vs. half shares. The more shares you purchase the more times your name is in the pot!

If you purchased a full share you will win a half share of yarn that you can either keep for yourself or use as a gift for someone else.

If you purchased a half share you will win a quarter share of yarn that you can either keep for yourself or use as a gift for someone else.

If you purchased a quarter share you will win 2 extra skeins of yarn in your CSA share.

There will be 1 winner and the name will be drawn on September 1st. The winner will have 1 calendar week to respond to the winning email I will send. If there is no response another winner will be drawn in their place.

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.

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.