What is an Alpaca Bird Nesting Ball, you ask? It is a ball made of grapevine stuffed full of alpaca fiber, for the birds to pluck out and carry away to build nests for their young! Alpaca fiber is very soft, and very warm. Can you just imagine what a comfortable nest a mama bird could build for her babies!
The birds really do use this fiber and I frequently find it when cleaning out birdhouses in the Fall. The grapevine balls are approximately 4″ in diameter and generously filled with 3 ounces or more of alpaca fiber inside, and sticking out of them. Nesting balls hang from a piece of twine, and can be hung on a branch or tied.
Why did we start raising alpacas? We fell in love with them, and the alpaca lifestyle! There are soo many more reasons to choose to start an alpaca farm…here’s just ten of them!
1. Love of the Animals
Like I said, we fell in love with the animals! When we visited that first alpaca farm and saw those intriguing looking animals, it was love at first sight! There is a peacefulness about these gentle animals, with their long elegant necks, large eyes, long lashes, and gentle humming. Alpacas continue to transfix us, making them irresistible for those of us who have taken the “taken the plunge.”
Shearing day is one of the most important days of the year on alpaca farms. It is the day that we harvest the beautiful fiber that our alpacas have grown over the last year. Getting organized for the day ahead of time certainly makes the day less stressful and chaotic. Teamwork and a well thought out plan will make shearing day run like a well oiled machine.
That being said, shearing is one of my least favorite parts of raising alpacas, because though our shearers claim it takes them just eight minutes to shear an alpaca, and though they are not harmed in any way, it still is a scary experience for them. Some tolerate it better than others. All of them feel better when it’s over.
I’ve been going to write a post for quite some time, maybe even do a video, on cleaning suri alpaca fiber for doll wigs. This morning I ran across the following video on that very topic, and it is using some of our own suri fiber! To be more specific, it is white fiber from an alpaca named Miss Miami. Credit goes to Beth Alvarez, whose YouTube channel is Lomi’s Playground. If you do a search for “alpaca” on her channel, you can see all the videos Beth has made on using alpaca for doll wigs.
In each of our pastures, there is a bare spot where our alpacas like to roll. It must really feel good, but they do get very dusty. The suri fiber we sell gets tumbled which helps get out much of the dust, then rinsed multiple times. As you can see in the video, there still is some muddy water when washing it again. Each step of the processing is a step towards cleaner fiber.
This is our sweet Miss Miami, though we have sold her and she no longer lives on our farm. We were visiting our son in college at Miami University, when Miss Miami was born, hence the reason for her name!
And this is her beautiful fiber!
Be sure to check out our Suri Fiber, both in raw form and separated into locks for you. Visit Lomi’s Playground to see more videos by Beth on using Suri Fiber for doll wigs!
Lara Nance, doll customizer, author, (and frequent customer of doll hair from Alpaca Meadows), has a YouTube channel called Artistic Adventures. She has done videos on many aspects of doll customizing, and most recently put together a video on Processing Alpaca Fiber for Doll Wigs. It seems there are various techniques for making doll wigs. Lara makes a wig cap out of T-shirt material and glue that is molded to fit the doll’s head, as shown in the following video. This is much easier and less time consuming than another doll wig technique called rerooting.
This video focuses on how to prepare Suri Alpaca Fiber for doll wig making.
In this video, Lara completes the wig by sewing the glued alpaca wefts to the wig cap with needle and thread for a beautiful finished wig with bangs and a center part.
How to Make a Suri Alpaca Weft for Doll Hair is a mini-tutorial by Fabiola at Fig and Me. The method she illustrates involves sewing suri fiber onto yarn with a sewing machine, then sewing it onto a crocheted cap. For a tutorial on how to sew weft to a crochet cap, see this video by Gabi Moench-Ford or this tutorial on her blog called Fairywool Dolls.
There are many options when it comes to processing alpaca fiber into a value added product. Finding a fiber mill that will help you evaluate and determine the best use of your fiber is very helpful. Morning Star Fiber Mill, an artisan fiber mill in North Carolina, offers custom processing and did our processing for us this year. I brought our fiber to the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster, Ohio for pick up, which was very convenient, and I had my product back in less than a month’s time.
Two of our huacaya girls, Annalise and Amelia, have been at our farm just a year. Morning Star has a six pound minimum per color for processing into yarn and I did not have that much fiber from these two girls, so I had their fiber made into roving for spinning. It is super soft and lovely, and I can’t wait to spin some of it!
I had been saving fiber from Sunshine and Sunscape, mother and daughter, for several years so I did have enough of their fiber to have yarn made. I didn’t want just solid colors, so gave “artistic license” to JC Christiansen, owner at Morning Star, and said he should “play”. He ran Sunshine’s white fiber and Sunscape’s brown fiber side by side at the carder to produce the yarn above. I am calling it “White Mocha” even though it looks rather silver grey.
I decided on a two-ply worsted weight, a less rounded yarn with a nice “squish factor”.
I’m calling this yarn “Cappuccino“. It is a result of more of Sunshine’s white fiber run side by side with medium fawn, from an alpaca named “Brawny”. For the last few years I have bought fiber from a local 4-H girl, so the remainder of the yarn was made from her fiber.
The colors used in this yarn are white, and a white and medium fawn mixed to make a medium rose grey, fed side by side at the carder to produce a color I’ve called “Milk Chocolate“.
This yarn called “Dark Chocolate” is medium fawn and dark fawn, fed side by side at the carder.
I had several years’ worth of suri seconds, so had roving made from the light colored colors, see Suri Alpaca Roving. I have been dyeing this roving and have had lovely results, be sure to see Circus Time and Summer Delight. Check back for a post on dyeing roving if you’d like to try this yourself, or try out one of our Roving Dyeing Kits!
I have a market for selling raw Suri Fiber to spinners, and the longer length suri fiber to doll makers. I sell both natural colors and hand-dyed fiber, so that is what I will do with my prime suri fiber this year. This involves skirting, tumbling, washing, dyeing, and packaging, more labor for me but less expense. Who knows what I’ll do with our fiber next year. I love that there are so many options. Keeping products unique and marketable is a fun challenge!
See products made from our fiber in past years. More coming soon on how to evaluate your fiber.
I love hats with flowers, maybe not on me, but a flower just sets off a hat, makes it so much more stylish! I love flowers, and it is Spring, so thought I would share my Flowers, Flowers, Flowers Pinterest Board. On it you will find crocheted, knitted, fiber, and felted flowers, some with instructions and some just for inspiration! Be sure to check out our Classic Alpaca Yarn for many, many pretty colors of 100% alpaca yarn for flower making, and my favorite patterns for Knitting and Crocheting Flowers!
There are also many FREE flower patterns for knit and crochet, or perhaps you can create your own! Some of the flowers shown are knit, then felted by throwing them in the washing machine and dryer. Some have been cut out of felt, others needle felted. Our Bloomin’ Brites Needle Felted Flowers Kit uses a combination of both cutting flowers from felt and needle felting fiber onto them.
Fiber of the suri alpaca grows vertically down the side of the body, hanging in long, separate, distinctive locks. These individual locks are made up of many lustrous fibers. Separating the locks of fiber is not hard, but it does take time. I am a novice when it comes to video, so hope you’ll bear with me.
1. Identify the tip of the lock, versus the cut end which will be more blunt.
2. Hold the upper tip end of the lock tightly and pull it away from the base of the fleece, while holding the base of the fleece around the lock. This keeps the other locks intact and ready for their turn at being removed.
3. The lock is pulled up and the fleece around it is held intact by my other hand.
This can be done wet or dry, as seen in the video, depending on your preference.
We offer our raw suri fiber in two different forms. Our Natural Suri has been carefully skirted, tumbled, and washed. Suri Locks have been taken one step further in that the individual locks of fiber have been separated from the rest of the fleece.
Doll makers are finding that suri alpaca makes beautiful doll hair! There is some fiber terminology that may be helpful for doll makers purchasing suri fiber for doll hair.
Purchasing the Natural Suri is the most economical way to purchase this silky, lustrous fiber. There is a huge cost savings if purchasing an entire fleece, but this is usually way more fiber than needed for doll wigs. Separating Suri Fiber into Locks is not difficult, but it is more expensive to buy fiber this way because of the time involved. See How to Separate Locks of Suri Fiber.
The Terms:
Fiber is the hair of an alpaca.
Fleece is the coat of an alpaca, after having been sheared, but before being processed into yarn or thread.
Micron is the unit of measurement used in assessing the diameter of a fiber.
Micron count is scientifically devised by measuring the diameter of several individual fibers and determining the average. The lower microns are the finer fibers. The larger the micron count, the courser the fiber.
The textile world generally uses six Grades of Fiber for Alpacas:
Grade 1 Ultra Fine (less than 20 microns) Grade 2 Superfine (20-22.99 microns) Grade 3 Fine (23-25.99 microns) Grade 4 Medium (26-28.99 microns) Grade 5 Intermediate (29-31.99 microns) Grade 6 Robust (32 microns and above) Locks are the natural divisions in an animal’s fiber. A single lock of suri is made up of multiple individual fibers.
Skirting is when fleece is shorn off an alpaca, the blanket or primary fleece is brought to a table where the guard hair and vegetable matter is hand picked from the fiber.
Staple is an independent cluster of individual fibers.
Staple Length is the actual length of shorn alpaca fiber.
Tumblingis when fiber is placed in a machine called a tumbler and, well, tumbled, to removed dirt, dust, vegetable matter, etc.
Vegetable Matter is the little pieces of hay, stray, dead leaves, seed heads, and sometimes burrs that find their home in alpaca fiber.
More Alpaca Fiber Terms can be found on the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America, Inc. website.
And now the TIPS:
1. Be aware that there is a lot of waste when combing out the locks. Be sure to purchase up to an extra ounce for your project, to make sure you have enough.
2. For whatever reason, the darker colors seem to work well in the higher micron range – 26 microns and up. The fiber tends to have less static, is stronger for combing, but is still very lustrous and the fibers hang together well.
Dark Brown Suri Fiber Separated Into Locks
3. On the flip side, the whites and lights work better in the finer micron ranges, say 20 – 28 microns. Finer than 20 microns and the fibers will break. Over 28 microns, the fiber just looks bad with no luster, the fiber looks coarse, etc.
White Suri Fiber Not Separated Into Locks
4. Lengthwise, the 7″-8″ fiber works the best. That is just a year’s worth of growth for many animals, so it is easier to comb out, has less breakage, and overall has less damage than most of the two year growth animals. Some doll makers opt for longer fiber, 9″ – 12″. Though premium prices are charged for this longer fiber, it can be hard to comb out and tends to have more vegetable matter embedded in the locks. Of course, it is lovely but can be more work.
5. Stay away from fleeces of alpacas that the alpaca owner has shown extensively in the show ring. This fiber is going to be prone to fiber breakage due to repeated stress and length of time the fiber is on the animal.
6. Be cautious of first year fleeces. Again, breakage due to stress of weaning can make the fleece problematic for doll hair.
7. Buy from an experienced fleece handler who knows the doll hair market. Many suri farms will offer their fleeces for sale in this market, but only a few will really understand the characteristics needed to make good doll hair!
Thank you to Liz Vahlcamp and my doll maker friends for helping me with this post!
Suri Alpaca Fiber has become quite popular for use by doll makers that use it as doll hair. See Using Suri Fiber for Doll Hair. Pictured are below are dolls made by some of our my favorite doll makers with suri fiber from our very own alpacas.
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