Frosty The Snowman G with 2 verses

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Llama Crias, Rabbit Kits and a Ravellenic Medal

We have had such a busy summer at the farm that I'm behind in blog posting! I don't know where to start. There are so many subjects I'd love to share with you, but I don't want this to get too long. I'm opting for a few photos of our handsome new cria, Heartsong Gillen, born May 10. He is by FFF Mas Chiri and out of Hard Rock's Simply Stunning. We can't wait to get him in the show ring next year. He has lovely conformation, gorgeous fiber and a nice personality to add to the package.

We also have welcomed two litters of French Angora rabbits to the farm. They are just adorable and out of quality parents (Black Foot's Coal is the sire; Blackfoot's Popcorn and Briar Lane's Frosty are the dams), so they ought to have nice, dense fiber and easy-going personalities. We will pick a couple to keep and show (and to use their fiber) and the rest will be available for sale. Popcorn had 9 in her litter and Frosty has a group of 6 in her litter. Coming home to love on a baby llama or to snuggle baby rabbits can be a great stress reliever! Just grooming the animals in general -- it doesn't matter if it is Connemara pony, llama or French Angora rabbit -- is time well spent and rejuvenating to both animal and human handler.

Popcorn's litter of 9!

One of Frosty's kits, fast asleep in my hand.

Frosty's litter of 6!

The other fun and slightly silly news, is that I participated in the Ravellenic Games 2012 this year in Ravelry during the Olympics.... and ... won a "medal!" I signed up for the Swatching Coxswain and made 5 swatches to sample different animals fibers and to have swatches for display at my farm tack area at  shows - llama and rabbit shows. I already took several of the swatches to the Indiana State Fair and many people seemed to enjoy looking at the llama and then holding a piece of knitted fabric that had been produced from that very llama. It was fun to watch their faces. (I'll do my next blog post on the adventures of attending the Indiana State Fair llama show.)

Angora rabbits have joined the farm family

We have added rabbits to the farm this spring! After getting my new spinning wheel in December, I started learning about fiber rabbits. I had raised rabbits for 4-H when I was a teenager, but my experience was with meat breeds - Californians and New Zealand Blacks.

So I've been reading, and reading, and reading about Angora rabbits, then started talking with breeders. It was the same sort of process I went through when we decided to add llamas to the farm. I settled on French Angora rabbits since they have guard hairs in their coat and are fairly easy to keep groomed. I also met several rabbit breeders who had raised other types of Angoras and then landed on French Angoras for the long term.

After selecting four rabbits, we made a trip to Michigan in early March to attend Rabbit School at Michigan State University Rabbit Breeders' Convention and Show. That was a blast! And a great place to soak in a bunch of information about rabbits. (I still can't believe I talked Scott into attending Rabbit School with me!) 

We met several really friendly rabbit show folks, and had opportunity to ask lots of questions. After Rabbit School (I just love that phrase!), we met with the owner of Briar Lane Rabbitry and picked up two full sibling junior does that we had purchased.

Then a couple hours later, we stopped in northern Indiana and picked up the other two from Black Foot Rabbitry -- a French Angora lilac tort doe and a French Angora black buck. They have all settled right in to our family. If you'd like to see our new website just for the rabbits, it is Heartsong Rabbitry. I have registered the farm with ARBA (American Rabbit Breeders Association) as Heartsong Rabbitry. I have also taken the rabbits to our first show - Golden Prairie Rabbit Breeders Show in April. Frosty and Delight both won their classes. it was a bunch of fun to meet all the other rabbit people! And so different from showing llamas or ponies! (You can see Delight and Frosty in the photo below as they wait for their big moment on the show table!)

I have just harvested the junior coats from the rabbits (you can pluck or trim an Angora about every 4 months), and I'm eager to try blending it with some of our llama fiber to use in a handspun project. I've joined the Rookies (rookie spinners) team and the Fiber Rabbit Fanciers team for the Tour de Fleece in Ravelry. The spinning teams in Ravelry spin fiber on the same days as the bike competitors are racing in the Tour de France. It is supposed to be a way to keep you motivated on your spinning project, and provide you with a group of like-minded fiber artists to encourage you along the way. I'm excited to participate, and hope it helps me get more mileage with hand spinning fiber! The photo below shows Frosty after she had been trimmed part way.

If you are also participating in Tour de Fleece and are looking for llama rovings to spin, I have rovings from FFF Mas Chiri and LUA Annabell Status available in my Etsy store. I also have batts of I Believe "Betty" available. I get the sense we need more folks who are spinning llama fiber or llama blends participating in Tour de Fleece to help promote the awesomeness of llama fiber!

Added Note:  Below is a photo of the Angora fiber on the bobbin on my spinning wheel. This is fiber that I simply pulled from the brush as I was grooming the rabbits, so you see the four different colors of our four French Angora rabbits. I just spun it from the cloud. It was a fun experiment.

Llama Yarn in the Making - Springtime Shearing

I'm hoping our last bit of cold weather is past us now, because I have started shearing the llamas. It was toasty warm today, and I don't want them to be miserable and hot in their full fleece. I have always tried to be very careful when I'm shearing so as not to include any extra VM (vegetable matter) in the bagged fleece, but now that I have added the experiences of taking the fiber to the mill for processing, and working with the yarn, I'm even more careful. I want my customers to be as thrilled with the llama batts, felts, rovings and yarn as I am!

It isn't easy getting a fleece from initial growth, to shearing, to sorting and picking debris, to processing and then to final product. You have to pay attention to everything from proper feeding and housing of your llama to grooming techniques and the timing of shearing.

I'm not an expert by any means. I keep soaking in as much information as I can from others more experienced than I am, and from books and websites. One of the best things I did was to make a visit to a mill and to put my hands in some other fleeces. I'm learning about which fleeces would be nice to combine with other types of fiber or with other llamas' fleeces.

I started today with Hard Rock's Simply Stunning (photo above). She is due to have her cria in a few days, and I thought she would appreciate having the weight of her fleece sheared off so she could stay cooler. Also, her fiber doesn't pick up a lot of debris as she is grazing and hanging out doing llama things, so I knew I could get her sheared fairly quickly this morning before work. I use the blower on the llamas before shearing so I can get most of the dust and VM out of their coats before I turn on the clippers. Her gorgeous fleece is in the photo below. I haven't weighed it yet, but she's a big gal, and she provided lots of fiber!

This evening, I worked on LUA's Moonlighter's Heartsong. I separated her fiber into a bag of prime fleece that was all black, and then a second bag of neck fleece that was a mix of white and black fiber. I'll probably combine the latter with something else for processing.

 

I'm so excited about how both fleeces have turned out so clean, soft and lovely. They will become beautiful beautiful yarn. You can find our yarn, rovings, batts and felted batts at our Etsy store:  heartsongllamas.

Here are a couple of "after" photos. They always look so silly, but they love to frolic and roll after they've been sheared. It's a fun llama day!

Llama Yarn Now Available in Our Etsy Store

The llama yarn is in! We're so excited to have our llama yarn back from the mill. We had it processed in small batches, by the llama. So, for instance, if you're a fan of SVL Llovely Llana, you can now get her luscious brown locks in the form of worsted, 2-ply yarn! All of our yarn is 100% llama. We have several natural colors listed at our Etsy store:  heartsongllamas.

We also have llama rovings for those of you who prefer to handspin your own yarn. The fiber for spinners is available as rovings and batts.

For those of you who prefer llama fiber in fabric form, we had felted batts made just for you. My background in fiber arts is as a seamstress, so I'm especially fired up to use the felted batts in some projects. The ideas are churning! I just found an awesome Butterick pattern for a large handbag and hat that can be made out of felt and other fabrics. I'm going to give it a try!



Llana on a hike on our trails with Philomena.



If you purchase one of our llama products and make something out of it, I'd love for you to send us a picture that we can post here in the blog or on our website. I'd gladly give you a photo credit and/or credit as the artist of the item. I'm anxious to spread the word about how awesome it is to work with llama fiber. I'm always telling the llama gang "you are all doing such a terrific job growing beautiful fiber!" Keep us posted on how you use it! I'll tell the llamas. Maybe it helps keep them motivated in their efforts to eat healthy and frolic around as happy llamas!