Not Enough Hands

I have decided that I just don't have enough hands to do all of the things that I want to do. I have so much to do at the mill everyday just flys by and before you know it is time to go home. Besides processing everyone elses fiber I also want to start dying and blending my own rovings to sell. The last roving that I made sold as fast as I put them up on my website.

Here are the rovings that I made that sold right away. The orange one was my favorite, I was trying to get the fall colors of the leaves around here in CT and I think I did a pretty good job.
The other things that I want to do is spin for myself, weave, try wet felting, and most importantly is to spend some quality time with my two young children (2yrs and 1.5 months) it just looks like it would be so much fun and you could do so much with it. I have to many ideas in my head and I just don't have time time to do all of them. I have come to the conclusion to just do as much as you can everyday and eventually I will have been able to try everything.

Moisture is Key

I have found out over the past few weeks how important moisture in the fiber and the air is while processing the fiber, ESPECIALLY ALPACA. I have been working on a huge order of alpaca for what seems like forever and as soon as the cold weather came along the fiber gave me the challenge of my life. It was flying everywhere and sticking to the equipment like you wouldn't believe. The static was so strong the the metal it was almost impossible to take it off.
To solve the problem we got the biggest humidifier we could possibly find. This helped the air and then to keep the fiber moist the most import thing was to keep it covered. After it was washed and dried I sprayed it with a mist of water and bagged it up. Then after I picked it I sprayed it with the correct amount of antistatic and placed it in bins for 12 hours before carding it. Finally after carding it I spray it with water again and stacked the barrels with the roving in it to compact it and made sure that the top barrel was covered waited another 12 hour and then I was able to pin draft it without it falling apart. This was all very frustrating while I was learning, but I'm glad everything is working again.

The First lessons learned

The mill is getting busier and busier. I've had lot of beautiful Alpaca that I've been working on and a lot more that was dropped off in the last week. When we were opening we were told to be prepared that people were going to test me with their worst fiber before dropping off there good stuff. So far I don't feel like this has been the case at all. All of my customers so far have given me some really nice fiber to play with.

Since the mill has been open there have only been a few issues I've had and a few lessons learned. The first thing is how different fleeces are even among the same breed. The next is learning what grease content to soap ratio are needed. There were a couple of fleeces that appeared to be washed and grease free until the were dry and picked and then they all felt greasy again and needed to be re-washed. Finally the newest lesson which has not been completely solved is the static issue. The mill has dried out so much in the past few weeks that the static is out of control. We ordered a misting system, but I'm not sure that this has solved the problem completely. It is increasing the moisture content, but at the same time is not completely evaporating before it is falling and then makes everything that is below the misting heads all wet. I need to find a middle ground where there is moisture in the air, but doesn't get the equipment all wet. Hopefully this week we will have this sorted out.

Baby E... is here !!!!!

It seems like it has been so long since I've had a chance to write. A lot has happened including a new addition to the family. We had a baby girl Oct 16 at 8:13 AM. She was 20.5" long and weighed in at 7lbs 6oz.

As for her older sister that is 2, she hasn't been too jealous. She does the usual like get mad when the baby is on my lap or when she wants something and I can't jump up and get it. She really does love her though. When she goes to school that is all she talks about.