Moonsong Ranch Alpacas and Fiber Arts

How to create gorgeous hand-blended roving from a hackle.

2012-02-16T10:42:00.001-07:00

The is a fun tutorial on how to create gorgeous hand-blended roving from a handmade hackle.

This is my handmade blending hackle.


Begin by loading your hackle with fiber. This is an alpaca fiber I hand dyed. When loading take a handful of fiber and drop it on the hackle and draw it down and back in a fluid motion.

I added some carbonized bamboo. It's important to make sure the staple length is similar.

Some angora bunny add a nice sandwich effect in the finished fiber. Note: It's a little short on staple length so It's not ideal.

I added a nice layer of white Alpaca/Shetland mix for stretch and stability above the angora bunny. Note: I blended the Alpaca/Shetland and pulled the roving just before I started this project.

I added another later of alpaca and carbonized bamboo. I like the sandwich look! Now, it's time to diz off the fiber. I use a medium size washer as my diz. You can choose a smaller size if you prefer pencil roving.

The motion is this: pull/draft your roving, then push the diz forward towards the hackle and pull/draft the roving. As you draft you will find that the roving will easily move across the entire length of the hackle.

I'm about half way through the diz process. It's looking pretty nice!

Wrap it around your fingers into a nice bump!

Here is the finished roving along with an aqua roving a did earlier.
Happy Blending!

How to make a wool comb and hackle set

2011-11-07T15:20:00.002-07:00

So, last year my wife and I decided to invest in a spinning wheel so we could learn to spin our own yarn. We bought it at the Taos Fiber festival, then it sat in the corner and started to gather dust. We tried to use it at first and each time it ended in frustration. More swearing more dust gathering...

When a year rolled around and the Taos Fiber festival came around once more, money was tight and we decided not to go. So instead of going, I sat down and decided to spend that weekend learning to SPIN or BUST. Well, I did learn and I discovered that I enjoyed it so much I couldn't turn it off. So, night after night I sat down to spin, until I ran out of available roving. Normally it wouldn't be a problem except that the drum carder we had was borrowed and the lender requested it back a month before. I was inspired by some other folks who make their own prototype tools so I decided I might be able to construct my own comb and hackle set for much less than the store price. I didn't really have a lot of wood working skill but in the end I really like the results.

Here is the ingredients list:

1 box of 16d ("16 penny") 3.5" long finishing nails.
1 box of 8d ("8 penny") 2.5" long finishing nails.
8 inch dowel
1 tube of epoxy (the type with two connected plungers).
2 pieces of 2" x 2"x 20" maple, Hemlock or poplar.
1 bottle of wood glue. (optional - I used it to connect the wood handle).
1 small can of walnut finishing stain

You will also need access to a saw, drill with 1/8 bit and 2/32 bit, ruler and either sandpaper or an electric sander and a light hammer.

First, I went to Home Depot and found some Hemlock wood in 2" x 2" sticks that where 20" long. I cut two blocks at 5 inches and glued them together and held them with a clamp for 24 hours. Then I started to work on the hackle.

I cut a 15" stick from the hemlock and drew out two lines a 1/2 inch apart then marked alternating dots where the nails would be added. It was pretty tedious bit it really payed of. Next, I drilled the marked dots about 1/8 of an inch in until the were all done. Now for the messy part. I took out the epoxy glue a squeezed out a bit and mixed it up. Then I dipped the head of each nail and tapped them lightly into place in the pre-drilled slots. I used a total of (20) 16d nails. Let dry for 24 hours. That hackle was pretty easy.

The next day I went back to work on my comb and Marked out the general shape I wanted for the comb. Then I began marking out nail holes in a alternating pattern. I had four rows to mark. I started with (12) 16d nails in the front row, (11) 16d nails in the second row, (10) 8d nails in the third row and finally (9) 8d nails in the back row. For a total of 42 nails.

I cut out the triangle shape with a table saw and then used a sander to round off the corners and rough edges. Then I drilled the holes.

At this time, I also drilled a hole for the dowel/handle to slide into snuggly.

Now everything gets finished with a nice coat of walnut stain. I neglected to stain the hackle first so I did it along with the comb and handle. Let it dry for a few hours. When everything is dry, glue in the nails by dipping the heads in the epoxy and tapping them into the paddle lightly. Last glue in the handle. I used wood glue but you could probably use the epoxy for this as well.

I gave it a test run with a diz I made with a hole punched into a milk carton lid and the results turned out well. (In the pic below I used some nice alpaca blanket I had processed myself). I'm really happy with how it turned out. I could have created another set of combs and hackles but I was short on 16d nails.

So, I will soon have roving and more hand-spun yarn available on our website at www.MoonsongRanch.etsy.com. You can also like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MoonsongRanch. Happy spinning!

Gearing up for the Renissance faire

2011-08-15T12:37:00.000-06:00

We've been gearing up the do the Mancos Renaissance Faire this weekend. I've never done one before. I'm excited!! We have to try and create a sense of stepping into the past as they step into our shop. So we've had to make a few alterations to the tent. Yesterday we did a dry run of how the tent shall be set up. The walls will be silky fabric of green and burgundy. Note: I really should be sitting in the red chair sipping tea in the hot sun, but verily, time is short and there is much to accomplish before the seventh eve. (I'm practicing my Old English). This week we will be working on our outfits, a Fairy (with wings) and a shepherd/ alpaca rancher.

My wife and I are combining our shops into one booth for the first time as well. A jeweler and a fiber rancher/artist.

The story goes that one evening the alpaca rancher spotted a fairy creating trinkets by moonlight. He liked her work and wished she would also work for him knitting the fiber from the alpacas and inspiring him to create magical felted goods. So, he bought an enchantment spell and went out in to the woods that night. When the fairy showed up he blew the enchanted dust at the fairy. The next night the fairy came to the rancher who was felting and began knitting the most gorgeous items from the alpaca fiber and also creating beautiful trinkets by moonlight. So, it is said that is how Creations by Moonlight and Moonsong Ranch Alpacas, LLC teamed up.

It's a little overwhelming but I thinks it's going to be a pretty cool event. If you've done something like this we would love to hear any advice or things that worked well at an event like this?

Oh, and if ye are in the area thee must stop in and past time with us!

A Natural twist of...

2011-07-09T13:00:00.000-06:00

YARN! Our yarn arrived last night and Allurynn and I have been looking it over with great excitement. It's beautiful, rich and just the right weight for all the things we... (Actually Allurynn, since she's the knitter and I am the felter) wish to create for our new yarn based product line in 2011.

We are really loving this yarn and the mill that created it is wonderful to work with. SageRidge Mill & Critters run by Linda Atkinson, located is Clearmont, Wyoming. She really goes out of her way to create a great product and provide quality customer service. She even picked up our fleece in Durango, Colorado! She was driving through during the Great Western Alpaca Show and dropped done South my way to visit a friend. Thanks Linda!

We will also be listing some our our yarns throughout the weekend at our Moonsong Ranch product website so, stop in if you are interested in some rich yummy alpaca yarn!!

Here is a sneak peak of a couple of our new product ideas for 2011.

More to come!!

From wild and wolley to naked...

2011-06-23T10:11:00.000-06:00

No, no, no, I'm not talking about some crazy beach party or a wild party in Vegas, This is something a little less risque...

It's shearing day at Moonsong Ranch!!

This year the cast included Peter Connelly (the shearer) and his handler Eric Tongate from Kentucky. We also had myself, my wife Allurynn and two new alpaca breeders Wayne and Arveda.

We had a total of 18 alpacas and 3 Llamas to shear this year. We had five coming in on a trailer so we had to do it in three shifts. First, we did some animals from Wayne and Arveda's ranch, then our girls and then lastly the boys.

All in all, the transition was smooth and easy. I think back to last year and recall all the animals being a little unsettled and very resistant to being shuffled around the pens. Maybe the moon was in a better place compared to last year. We are also at a new ranch, so maybe it's better situated for the movement of animals.

Everything went fairly smooth we went through the first set of animals lickety split. We even took out a snaggle tooth out of Wayne's large guard Llama. It was literally growing out sideways, but it was ready to go and he seemed relieved to be done with it!

Next up the Girls. I always expect the females to be a little more challenging. They have a tendency to spit, scream and carry on while the boys are generally more stoic. And I usually get covered in green, slimy, alpaca spit. We learned a little trick that seems to help. After they are laying on their side I will run a rag across their face/nose area which is dipped in a mix of water and lavender. After wards they noticeably calm down and we can get down to business without too much turmoil... And I don't get slimmed... as bad.

You can tell they really do loooove not having to carry around all that hot, heavy, fleece. But, they are just plain put out at having to be put through the perceived trauma of shearing. We had one who was shorn and afterwards was so zoned out he didn't even notice it was over and it was time to get up and leave. We gave him a moment and a gentle nudge.

Now, the alpacas are NAKED and WE have their beautiful fleeces to create with. We have an order out for yarn from last years crop so we will have more resources for the products that we SO love to dream up and create. You can see some of our creations here at www.MoonsongRanch.com

Ringing in the New Year...

2011-01-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

With MORE snow than you can shake a stick at! Of course you'll be hard pressed to find a stick around here due to the 18 inches of snowfall we received in a two day period. Needless to say the alpacas were mostly unhappy about their play area being socked in with snow. I think it cramps their style... just a bit.

Now that the sky is no longer dumping snow the temperatures have dropped to 20 degrees during the day and below zero during the night. The alpacas just accept it, settle in and chop on hay until sunrise.

There are a few alpacas who seem to genuinely like the snow and plow into it with playful abandon eating their own snow cones.

And there are others who would clearly prefer we move to Florida and they are quite clear about their desires.
But either way we are all Happy to be here and are ringing in the New Year with snow cones and bubbly!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Moonsong Ranch Alpacas, LLC

Third move's a charm!!

2010-10-30T23:00:00.002-06:00

It's been one week since we started moving and we are just getting to the point where it feels like we're close to completion. It's odd because most moves involve a day or two of intensity and then you begin to weave your life back together. But, when you have a ranch with cats, dogs, chickens, alpacas and Llamas it's any thing but ordinary.

This evening we finally brought a small brave contingent of alpacas over to Moonsong Ranch version 3.0. at first everything looked great. Then our dog snuck up to her fence line and suddenly started barking as if she'd been planning this all along. Well, Yazminemoon bolted like a spooked cat on a windy day and cleared the FENCELINE enterly. I gasped! Then She looked back to see her cria still on the other side of the fence. I ran over to open the nearest gate and she decides it's probably best to leap back over on her own.

After everyone was safe I reinforced that side of the fence that had been there previously and that I had doubts about anyway. Leave it to Yazminemoon to push the boundary's.

Tomorrow I will bring over the rest of the girls and Annie our trusted guard llama.

Stay tuned!

Moonsong Ranch Alpacas, LLC is moving!!

2010-10-19T13:49:00.000-06:00

Moonsong Ranch Alpacas, LLC is moving to it's new location... 2 miles up the road. We will now have 5 beautiful irrigated acres where the alpacas can pronk and play, and a great solar heated house and nice outside area for classes and events. Stay tuned for more on the move... Which will be this weekend!! I better get to work I have to begin removing, moving and remaking fences and shelters before the winter weather really kicks in.

This is our beautiful pasture!

Our solar heated home!

Surprise, suprise!!

2010-07-29T09:02:00.002-06:00

These last couple of days have been quite eventful. I got a call from Allurynn on Tuesday with a little surprise. Below you can read about it from her perspective.

We got a surprise yesterday when my eldest went outside to do his chores. Shortly after leaving the house I get a call, he tells me there's a "baby Alpaca on the ground in the barn". Our maiden wasn't due for another 3 weeks, and since our Matriarch lost her cria 3 months ago, born stillborn 6 weeks early, my first thought was, "is it alive". When he said it was I dashed out the door as I dialed DH's number.

Once in the barn it was a fiasco...Tyler said he thought it was unusual that all the girls were in the barn on such a nice day...then once he entered and saw what fuss was all about, he got it. When I got there the others moved out of my way, except for Mahogany, our Matriarch and YazmineMoon our maiden....Yaz was totally confused as to what just had happened...and Mahogany beings that she has lost hers...wanted this one for herself...thus not letting either Yaz or myself near it. I never had an incident where one of our animals hurt me, but Mahogany wasn't about to give it up and continuously spat, that nasty smelling spit! Yaz was very upset with the situation, and as I tried to check on the little one, she tried to bite my head! It scared me, as some of you know the accident Doug had with one of the boy's after trying to get between them to stop a fight...he ended up with several stitches on his leg.

Anyway, that's when I knew I needed to clear out the barn and get Mahogany away...Tyler was a trooper...as always, our awesome ranch helping hand, he herded the girls out and we had to halter Mahogany to get her to move...she's been so stubborn lately, and led her out as well. While he situated the girls in the next field, I inspected the little one. Needless to say Yaz didn't like it and nipped me in the arm. This was our first experience with a maiden, so I suppose this and much more would be new and different for us, since all our prior births were with experienced Mommies.

I finally got a grip on the little one and took it outside. Here's his first pics....

YES it's a boy...finally got a peek!

Here's a picture of his Daddy...our first born...Eclipse

While on the phone with DH I went through our new born check list and though I was weary of Yaz, I still managed to get her milk going and the little one nursing.

Everyone was happy to see him and get to know him...here's his Aunt Lunessa welcoming him

All the rest came over as well...

Look, how sweet he looks..

His name....well, in keeping with our Moon theme, his name is Jericho ~ Arabic, meaning Moon God.

Welcome to Moonsong Ranch Jericho!

Shearing Day at Moonsong Ranch

2010-06-17T11:39:00.001-06:00

Once each year this day comes around. I can't claim to look forward to it nor do the alpacas. But, after all is said and done everyone is usually pleased. It's called shearing day! Our's occurred yesterday and it went well for the most part. We have a total of 11 alpacas and two Llamas. Some of our animals don't mind shearing and others are adamantly opposed to it.

So, I try to inject a little order into an inherently chaotic venture, by spending a little time considering who goes first and how the cattle panels are arranged, so that we can move seamlessly and smoothly through the day. Well, this year all bets were off. Nearly all the animals decided to go on shearing strike. We tried to gather everyone up in a holding pen so that the person shearing can move animals in and out without trouble. While I was trimming the nails during shearing a few of the alpacas decided to push hard on the green temporary fencing until it moved enough to allow passage back out into the open areas. Well, needless to say as we went to re-corral them again they decided evasion might be the best tactic. And yet another thought laying down might be more successful. She was right! So we ended up lifting her from both ends. She didn't seem to mind. It went this way most of the day. Even Annie our way-too-smart Llama wouldn't budge with her halter on so we used and extension cord and sheared her where she stood. The one saving grace was that the clouds rolled in to cool us off. After everyone was sheared we looked around at a the funny looking animals and had a good laugh!!

See for yourself: Before.

And After!!

We come from the Earth and to her we return...

2010-04-25T22:59:00.000-06:00

It's never how you expect it. I've heard other accounts from alpaca owners of births that didn't go well. However, yesterday we had our own experience of it. Our matriarch Alpaca Mahogany lost her little Cria (baby) in a stillbirth, born 6 weeks early. We're not sure why she passed in her mothers womb, but we feel in our hearts there was a reason why this little one didn't make it through to this world. This is the first time we've experienced such a sad tragedy, though as Doug said, it's bound to happen on a ranch. At sunset we buried her in our orchard and our son read a prayer I put together from a few I found on the net. We buried her deep in Earth's womb and planted a berry bush over her, as we returned her to our Mother Earth.

Mother of life, Mother of death, here is a spirit so new that the gates of life and death are just an archway in her dancing ground. She has danced her way back to you.

Her passage is easy but ours and her mommy’s is hard. We wanted to hold her living flesh, and feel her soft breath and her heartbeat.
No other cria that may come to us will ever be what she would have been. Whatever healing we may find, this loss will always be a part of us.

Bless Mahogany’s womb, which has the power to create life and death. Bless our arms that would have embraced her. Bless our hands that would have lifted and took care of her. Bless our hearts that grieve for her.

Mother Earth, we return to you the body of one of your children, welcome her back into your womb.
Let her spirit return to her ancestors, and let her rest in peace in your arms.

~thanks to those who shared your prayers so that I could piece this one together~

Welcome to Moonsong Ranch Alpacas

2010-04-12T12:20:00.009-06:00

Moonsong Ranch has been around for 4 years now and we are finally taking the next step. We are creating a blog dedicated to our ranch, the alpaca lifestyle, the heartbreaks, the joys, and all the interesting interactions that take place year round between us, our Alpacas, Llamas, Chickens, Cats and Dogs. (and local Willey fox!) This is also very interactive so you are encouraged to visit often and add your own thoughts and ideas to the mix. This month we will also begin introducing you to our animals in a series called, "The Alpaca Barn" You're invited to step into our pasture's and meet the alpacas "virtually"! This is meant to be fun and interactive so don't be afraid to get your "virtual" feet dirty! =') We will reveal a little more each day through video and pictures, so you can get a sense of who she is and what her life's been like from birth (and yes I will show some baby pictures). So, stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe!
>> Step into The Alpaca Barn to meet Lunessa!