Project Zoo Loves Alpaca

Hand Spun Alpaca Fibre

This is a really neat fibre-related volunteer project that I coordinate here in Toronto. We asked the zoo keepers to collect the fibre from the alpaca and camels when the animals are groomed so that we can use the fibre to make beautiful one of a kind objects to donate back to the zoo so they can be sold in the gift shop. The money (100%) raised from the sale of these items go to the "Enrichment Fund". The Enrichment Fund provides the animals that live in the zoo with supplies that enhance the animal's experience. I want to share some photos of some of the work that has been done so far on the project. Enjoy!

Needle Felted Alpaca

For more information on the project please visit our website:

www.projectzoo.wordpress.com

A Journey Into Hand Spinning

I have recently had the urge to try a little bit of hand spinning with a drop spindle. I am so busy knitting and crocheting I find it difficult to put down the needles or hook to do much of anything else, including reading the new book I bought by Wally Lamb. Just before Christmas I purchased a kit at the City of Craft sale in Toronto. It came with what appeared to be Kool Aid dyed roving, a drop spindle and a few sheets of printed details. While I didn't find the sheets to be very helpful in the instructions department, it was a pretty good deal for the kit at $16. I ended up looking on YouTube to find out how to go about taking up hand spinning. My favorite instructor by far was Abby Franquemont. She is also the author of Respect the Spindle. 

I completed my first hand spun ball of yarn.

You can see it is thick and then thin...not at all my intention...but not bad for my first. I am just amazed it looks like yarn at all!

Then I decided it was time to dye the yarn myself and spin it. I looked up kits on Etsy and found one in a Chandler, Arizona shop called Wind Rose Fiber Studio. I received the most luscious merino wool and three dyes in the colours I specified. I was so excited when I received it in the mail!

There was also a free sample or Firestar (on the left)  that was generously included. 

And here is the resulting yarn, dyed and spun.

I chose three colours to dye with: alphalpha, mustard, and pacific. In essence blue, yellow and green. What I didn't think about was "what do you get when you mix yellow and blue?" So a lot of 

green resulted from the process. I am happy with the way it turned out though. Quite beautiful!

So what next? Owning my own alpaca? angora? like this blogger? Tabitha Webber, a fellow fibre enthusiast is seriously considering taking the next big leap! You may be interested in reading about her journey. While I may not be on the same page as Tabitha right now I can see something down the way in my future. I have daydreams about owning my own alpacas too, but until then I am happy to get my hands on that delicious fibre and spin to my heart's content.

Toronto Zoo Fundraising Project

I have a couple of ads up currently on the TCA website. For those that do not know the TCA is the Toronto Craft Alert. The greatest invention since carbohydrates. I can't get enough of checking it out to see what is coming up next in my city in the world of art and craft.

This past summer I went on a field trip to the zoo with the clients I work with. I took a little detour into the gift shop and found a wonderful skein of camel hair yarn. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I am still saving it for something special. It looks so good as it is I may never knit it up. Anyway, while heading home from the zoo by public transit (a 2 hour plus trip) it occurred to me that the zoo could be making their own yarn. The yarn I bought was from an animal far, far away. We have our own animals! I contacted the zoo right away and proposed that the fibre be collected and processed so that people can knit it up into wonderful things to be donated back to the zoo so they can sell them for profit. Three months later I finally got a reply and was told that this is a possibility. I may be able to get my hands on that animal hair after all! So I am putting together a project team so we can tackle this together.