Beautiful Hand-Spun Textured Art Yarns

I am always in awe of the beautiful crafts supplies my sister makes with her alpaca fiber.  Whether it's roving, carded rovings, hand-crafted carded batts, hand-crafted rolags, hand dyed yarn, hand-spun yarn, natural yarn, or her nuno felted items, handmade yarns, and scarf rings everything turns out beautiful.

And, of course, I want all of it but she is in business so she can't be giving me everything I love or she'd go broke.....lol

Her newest items are hand spun textured art yarns for knitting, weaving, doll hair, mixed media and textured arts and they are absolutely beautiful.  She has 8 one-of-a-kind textured art yarns of 50 yards each for sale on her Rock Garden Alpacas Etsy shop. 

I'm secretly hoping she has a few yards left over for her "big" sister's dolls or mixed media projects....lol

Gotta Love Beautifully Hand-Dyed Alpaca Roving Multi Color Blender Packs From Rock Garden Alpacas

I can hardly wait to use this hand dyed alpaca roving that I got from Rock Garden Alpacas.  Look at all the beautiful colors.  I can imagine all sorts of needle felted fairies, flowers or pictures.  Can't you?

I have to admit I'm a little biased when it comes to this alpaca roving.  My sister and her husband are the owners of Rock Garden Alpacas.  My sister processes her alpaca roving and creates amazing natural roving packs, hand dyed multi-colored roving packs (like those shown above), hand-spun alpaca yarn, and hand-spun and hand dyed alpaca yarn.

While I am a little biased I have to tell you that the alpaca fiber you get from Rock Garden Alpacas is of the finest quality.  I've used a lot of wool roving, mainly from craft stores, and have to tell you that the wool roving I've used from the craft stores pales in comparison to my sister's alpaca fiber roving.

The craft stores sell limited amounts of cheap roving that doesn't felt well and cannot be used for needle felted art dolls, doll hair,  or wall art.  Plus, the colors are never consistent within the packages so end you up with various shades of the roving you want to use.  A lot of it is very hard, lumpy and, sometimes, contains vegetable matter. It's fine for small beginner felted projects but not usable for more advanced felting projects.

I don't knit or spin my roving but know that my sister's roving is of such fine quality and consistency that it is sought after my spinners and knitters.  If you'd like to read the customer reviews from her Etsy shop please click here.

If you'd like to learn more about her alpaca fiber products visit her RockGardenAlpacas Etsy shop.

Here's what Deb had to say about her alpaca roving:

Hand dyed and natural color mill processed alpaca roving for all your felting projects. BIG "Blender" pack includes 24 assorted colors that have been hand dyed, using professional acid based dyes. Roving was braided together and then hand dyed a single color. When the braid was undone this created varying shades of the color throughout the roving - Fantastic for blending color into your projects. The braided rovings were left in the dye pot until all dye was exhausted and then rinsed a minimum of 3 times to reduce bleed thru. Amounts of roving supplied for each color vary. Also included in the BIG "Blender" Pack are 8 natural colors - lesser amounts are supplied of each of these rovings. This pack contains 32 colors equaling 3+ ounces in fiber weight.

This hand packaged and assembled package of alpaca roving comes from prime blanket fleece of various alpacas with different grades of fiber; perfect for all your needle felting or wet felting projects. As stated above all fibers have been rinsed at least a minimum of 3 times to remove any possible excess dye; however, please test as you may experience a small amount of bleed when you wash or wet the fiber for the first time; especially darker color dyes.

All products are processed and stored in pet free/smoke free environments.

It's The Summer Of White Faced Girls

It's the summer of beautiful white faced girls.  My sister has yet another beautiful alpaca baby girl with a white face named Gladiola.   Now she has a trio of white faced alpaca girls: Gladiola, Peony, and Marigold.

Gladiola is Zinnia's 2nd offspring and it looks like she has her mother's beautiful colored fiber.

Now my sister won't have any excuse for not giving me some more of the fiber I love using for doll hair. Hint! Hint!  Hope you're reading this baby sister.

Isn't Gladiola beautiful?

It's going to be hard telling her apart from Peony, and Marigold - both shown below.

Peony 

Marigold

Here's what my sister had to say about Gladiola, "Some excitement on the farm today - our girl Zinnia finally went into labor (6 days late) only head and 1 leg presented; I had to go in; left leg was bent and down under pelvic bone - vet was on his way but I could not wait. I was able to straighten the leg and deliver a beautiful girl. I am SOOO proud of myself - the first time I was able to handle this! Mom and baby are doing fine.

Introducing our herd sire Cosmo's second cria - a girl, my husband Karl named Gladiola because we were so "glad" everything worked out fine and so "glad" the waiting is over!"

So now my sister has three adorable alpacas with beautiful white faces.

Another New Addition - Peony - A Twin To Marigold

My sister has another new addition to her family.  Meet - Peony.

Isn't she beautiful?

Except for not having the white on her chest you really can't tell her apart from Marigold, shown in the picture below, who was born the end of May.

Here's what my sister had to say about Peony, "She is here! Rock Garden Alpacas Peony, born yesterday. This is our herd sire Cosmo's first cria - he is Full Accoyo white and her dam is our Gianna's Peruvian Ivy, Full Peruvian dark fawn. Isn't she beautiful.... Cosmo's second cria will be due in 3 weeks, can't wait to see that one!"

So now my sister has two adorable alpacas with what looks to be beautiful fiber colors.  I am definitely going to need lots of their fiber.  Hint... Hint...

A Beautiful New Addition To My Sister's Family - Marigold

My sister has a new addition to her family.

Meet Marigold.

What a little sweetie....

Cute as a button.

Wouldn't you agree?

I can't wait to see how beautiful her natural fiber will be.  I'm going to need lots of it.  Hint... Hint...

Who Doesn't Love Amigurumi, Crocheting, and Knitting?

Knitting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's

I learned how to knit as a young child. One year I decided to knit these really big Christmas stockings with different colors and images and gave them to my family for Christmas presents. Every one loved them - especially the kids as they held a lot of presents. Unfortunately that was so long ago we no longer have those stockings and, I, foolishly never took a picture.

What I do remember, however, is thoroughly enjoying knitting. I haven't done it for many, many years and would love to find some time to do so as I keep adding pins to my Pinterest knitting board that look like wonderful knitted projects to try.

I've already pinned over 250 pins to my knitting board - all of which I want to try.  I know how to knit so that should be no problem and have always wanted to try those really big knitting needles they have today.

If you would like to learn how to knit hopefully these tutorials, video's and how-to's will be helpful.

If you love my Knitting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above..

Crocheting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's

I've got close to 700 amazing crochet tutorials on my crocheting board all of which I'd love to try.  Of course, I'll never be able to do all of them.  First and foremost I would need to learn how to crochet. It's one craft that I could never master as a kid.  Maybe now I'll be able to.

Hopefully when I finally have a chance to learn how to crochet and crochet something some of the how-to's and pins will come in handy.

If you love my Crocheting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Amigurumi Tutorials, Video's, Patterns & How-To's

It should come as no surprise that I also love amigurumi as it basically involves knitting or crocheting little animals and dolls.  Truth be told it's the adorable little crocheted amigurumi animals that are the real impetuous for my learning crochet.  I'm determined to master this as I just have to make some of these adorable creatures.  With close to 250 pins on my Amigurumi Pinterest board I'd better get started.

If you love amigurumi or want to learn how to do this hopefully these tutorials, video's, patterns and how-to's will be helpful.

If you love my Amigurumi Tutorials, Video's, Patterns & How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

For sure when and if I do start to knit and finally learn how to crochet I'm going to need some of my sister's Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber handspun yarn.  That is, if I can convince her to give me some of it. Wink! Wink! Oh, baby sister - I hope you're reading this post.....

Gotta Love Alpaca Fibers Boards on Pinterest

Four years ago my sister and her husband became alpaca farmers and started Rock Garden Alpacas. Two years later they started Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber for selling all their alpaca fiber products, including roving, raw fiber, carded batts, handspun yarn, hand dyed roving, and doll hair fibers.

My sister had given me several large (make that HUGE) bags of roving and several carded batts (which I loved) from her alpacas Sunflower, Ivy, Cosmo, Zinnia and Masquerade which I used to make my needle felted art dolls, like those shown in the picture collage above.   I loved working with the natural alpaca roving and carded batts - especially Masquerade's gray fiber batts.  It was fabulous for making the needle felted dolls.

Several years ago I was visiting my sister and learned how to card batts and dye roving.  It was a lot of fun and I came home with some wonderful carded batts and lots of bright and cheery dyed roving packs. I had Fall combination colors, beautiful blues and purples, Christmas colors and so much more.

Two years ago my sister started spinning her alpaca roving into yarn.  She subsequently learned how to hand dye her yarn and utilize several methods for plying it.  Last year she sent me a surprise package in the mail that contained some of her handspun alpaca yarn.  I was thrilled and put this to good use with some of my mixed media art dolls - especially the witches. I've used her raw alpaca fiber, alpaca roving (natural and hand dyed) and handspun alpaca yarn for some of my dolls hair and have to tell you it's just wonderful.

I keep looking for various ways to use her alpaca fiber products and have to tell you that the possibilities seem endless. I had so many little sticky notes for this project or that project or this method or that method that I'd like to try or thought she might try that it was getting a little unwieldy. So, I decided to set up Pinterest boards to handle all the pins. So now I have three wonderful Pinterest boards instead of thousands of yellow sticky's everywhere.

Spinning Tutorials & Carding, Batts, Roving & Making Felt Tutorials, Video's and How-To's

I have a spinning, carding, batts, roving and making felt tutorials, video's and how-to's board. I'm hoping that when my sister finally teaches me how to do this all these tutorials will come in handy.

If you love my Spinning Tutorials & Carding, Batts, Roving & Making Felt Tutorials, Video's and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Dyeing Fabric Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's

I have a dyeing fabric, yarn, wool, alpaca, ribbon & threads tutorials, video's and how-to's board. I love visiting that board just to see all the wonderful colors of the yarns and roving and some of the methods are very intriguing.

If you love my Dyeing Fabric Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

Weaving & Loom Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's 

And, I have a weaving & loom tutorials, video's, patterns, and how-to's board. Hopefully, this will come in handy as well.

If you love my Weaving & Loom Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

I also set-up three other Pinterest boards - Amigurumi, Crochet, and Knitting.  I've already pinned over 250 pins to my knitting board - all of which I want to try.  I know how to knit so that should be no problem and have always wanted to try those really big knitting needles they have today.

I've got close to 700 amazing crochet tutorials on my crocheting board all of which I'd love to try.  Of course, I'll never be able to do all of them.  First and foremost I would need to learn how to crochet. Hopefully when I finally have a chance to crochet something some of the how-to's and pins will come in handy.

It should come as no surprise that I also love amigurumi as it basically involves knitting or crocheting little animals and dolls.  Truth be told it's the adorable little crocheted amigurumi animals that are the real impetuous for my learning crochet.

Needle Felting How-To's

Four years ago my love of crafts expanded even more when my sister and her husband became alpaca farmers and started Rock Garden Alpacas. At the time neither they nor I had no idea what a big impact that would have on my art doll making and craft designs.  

With the alpacas came Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber for selling all their alpaca fiber products, including roving, raw fiber, carded batts, handspun yarn, hand dyed roving, doll hair fibers, knit scarves, and handmade nuno felted scarves. With this came my desire to create needle felted art dolls and other crafts using their products.

My sister and I began our needle felting and roving crafting adventures in October 2012 during my sister's visit.  Over the years we've dabbled a little learning needle felting and creating and dyeing roving.  My sister has also learned how to spin and dye her own yarn.

While we were learning I decided to write a few posts and how-to's.  I hope you enjoy them.

Dyeing Alpaca Fiber & Roving and Creating Carded Alpaca Fiber Batts

My Sister Came To Visit and Work A Little! YIPPEE!!

Dimensions Needle Felted Snowman Kit

Needle Felted Pumpkin Picture E-Pattern

Free Style Needle Felted Pictures

They All Have A Different Needle Felting Use!

Deb's Southwestern Needle Felted Shadow Box Tray Scene

The Needle Felted Flowers

 

Needle Felted Pink Rose and Multi-Colored Purple Rose Mini Pictures

How I Made My Needle Felted White and Multi-Colored White/Burgundy Rose Pictures

How I Made My Needle Felted Daisy Shadow Box Flower Picture

How I Made My Needle Felted Poinsettia Shadow Box Picture

For more information on all my free e-patterns, e-printables and e-books please CLICK HERE.

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Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.

Gotta Love My Sister's New Magnolia Pod Decorations

If you're a reader of my Linda's Blog you know how much I love pine-cones and decorating for the Christmas holidays with pine-cone trees and pine-cone baskets. Well, when my sister told me she thought wrapping her roving around magnolia pods and decorating them would make a wonderful Christmas ornament for her Rock Garden Alpacas Farm Store I had to ask what magnolia pods were. So she showed me during my last visit. I loved them.

Well, given my sister and I are never quite done with tweaking our creations she kept working on her magnolia pod ornaments until she had them just the way she liked them. She decided to add Angelina fibers, yarn, some dried berries, dried floral, silk floral and wire ribbon bows to them and the results, shown in the collage above and the pictures below, are just beautiful, I absolutely love them and think they make for adorable Christmas woodland ornaments. I hope you would agree.

  

  

  

All of the magnolia pods shown above are available in her Rock Garden Alpacas Farm Store.  

Alpaca Farm Days At Rock Garden Alpacas

My sister and her husband, who are the owners of Rock Garden Alpacas, had been planning on participating in their first National Alpaca Farm Days Weekend Event for a year and that weekend was finally here.

My sister had also decided that this would also be the official opening of their Rock Garden Alpacas Farm Store. This meant products had to be made and the store had to be set up. Needless to say even with a year to plan all this the closer it got to the day the more harried everyone became.

The event was meant to showcase alpaca farms, teach the public about the alpacas and to, hopefully, sell some products. So, of course, with a two-day event the weather was important. Luckily for us the weather forecast for that weekend was beautiful sunny days.

What could be better than spending a beautiful Fall day at the farm, sitting on the hill and taking in my sister's incredible view, learning about the animals and their fiber, and doing a little shopping. Sounds like a perfect day to me.

Everything had to be ready so there was lots to do and check ahead of time. Everything needed to go as planned.  And, everyone had to be ready.

Early in the morning with so much to do my sister and her husband weren't worried about the fog. They knew it would burn off.

The farm store sign was ready.

The flower gardens were in bloom and ready.

Pumpkin man was ready.

The mushrooms were ready.

The faerie house was ready.

The bathtub begonia garden was ready.

The girls were getting ready.

Petunia was in her hay pile.

Roxy and Zinnia were getting ready.  There would be visitors today so they needed to look their best.

This meant a little rolling in the dust to make themselves beautiful for their guests.

After that it was time to feed their growling stomachs.

A little bit of rest was in store before the guests arrived.

And, of course a little fun in the hay pile was in order.  The girls were definitely ready.

Checking in on the farm store - my sister was ready.

The alpaca fiber ribbon awards had been hung.

The needle felted dolls made from Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber were on display and ready to shine.

All of my sister's beautiful Inspired Creations By D  handmade wall art quits had been hung on the walls. What an incredible splash of color they made. Just beautiful. I could stand there for hours just looking at them, but there was work to be done.

My sister's Inspired Creations By D  patterns and quilt kits corner was ready and fully stocked. Anyone who was interested in making her wall art quilts would be happy here.

The alpaca gloves, socks, hats, hand warmers and boot inserts section had been fully stocked.

The fiber table was fully stocked and my sister's handmade alpaca ornaments had been hung from the ceiling and windows. They all looked so cute just hanging there.

My Alpacas Rock handmade pillows made from my custom fabrics were all in their basket.

All sorts of little handmade gifts and knitting supplies were in their places.

The custom fabric alpaca ornaments had all been hung and the dyed alpaca yarns were in their box.

My sister's hand spun alpaca yarn and beautiful alpaca scarves had been hung on the center display.

The customer convenience shopping bags had been hung.

Everything in the store was in order and ready to go.

Outside the Fall mum and hay harvest display was ready.

The alpaca fiber and facts display was set-up.

The complimentary food and beverages table was ready to go.

Masquerade was still pinning for the girls but at least he wasn't moaning.,

Cosmo and Berberis were getting ready. Cosmo knew he had to be at his very best. He's the official farm greeter after all.

And, Boots just stood as regal as ever.  Perfect posture, perfect disposition - everything you'd expect from a senior citizen.

Everything was set. Everyone was ready.  The fog had burned off and it was going to be a wonderful day.

And, that it was. Everyone who came loved the view, loved the alpacas, and loved the farm store. Some just sat on the hill to take in the beautiful view while others tried and tried to get the female alpacas to come over to the fence to no avail. Cosmo, on the other hand, absolutely loved all the attention and played his part to a tee.

At the end of the day everyone was ready for a nap. No time for that. There was still another day to go and everything had to be ready again. No rest for the wicked.

I don't knit or spin my roving but know that my sister's roving is of such fine quality and consistency that it is sought after my spinners and knitters.  If you'd like to read the customer reviews from her Etsy shop please click here.

If you'd like to learn more about her alpaca fiber products please click here for her RockGardenAlpacas Etsy shop.