I'm getting my roving runs organized for shipping out to the carding mill. I think I have almost 200 pounds of wool and mohair bagged and ready. There is always some fiber loss when carding but I think I will have enough to make a good showing at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I still have my "Lipstick" run to do when I get the dyes ordered from Dharma. Wish I had time to sort through each and every bag to get any remaining schmutz out of there, but it ain't gonna happen unless I clone myself. So much more to do with soap, shaving cups, Bundaflicka totes, etc. I am a one-woman-band. I like what I make and consider myself lucky to have all this wonderfully tactile and colorful stuff to play with. I work hard to make my fiber pay for itself. I just heard something sad today from the local hay broker. Several alpaca farms around here have recently gone out of business and the animals showed up at the livestock auction a couple of miles from here. How sad. I bet they counted mostly on alpaca sales that didn't happen. If they dyed the fiber and took it to shows I know they would make some money. Many alpaca people don't even spin.
1 comment:
Hi Maggie,
What beautiful colors in the photo!
Reading what you wrote on the alpaca farms - I was rather surprised. Especially after CBS Sunday morning news had a video on alpacas. See http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403164n&tag=contentMain;contentBody . One of the alpaca owners said that she had bought her alpacas at the height of the market in 2010 and prices had slid since then. I sometimes wonder if spinners/weavers/processors shouldn't be teaming up as a business to provide the wool to the knitters/weavers. I am surprised that the owners weren't tapping the fiber market especially the organic market.
Looking forward to seeing the roving at MSW.
Kirsten
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