Naming Contest!

Ok, I have gone a little Alpaca crazy over the last few days. It really is his fault, he is just too cute.
Our Contest!
Send us an email, or send us a Convo through ETSY with your suggestion for our Alpacas new name. The name must start with the letter Z.
This little guy is 3 years old and is a Gelded Male. He is very friendly and comes right up to us when we head out to do chores.
The Contest ends May 3rd.
May 4th I will draw a name from a hat or random number generator and the winner will receive......

3 Dragon Eggs
The fiber batts will be made from this springs fleece with the newly named alpaca's tan wool, Yoshi's Lamma Fibers
and

Salty's (Lincoln Longwool) curly locks.

All the fibers will be natural in color, and should felt nicely. I may even post pictures of the shearing and carding process.

So chime in and send us a Z name!
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

New Friends!

This is our new Alpaca friend. He came with the name Calvin, but we are currently in the process of picking out a "Z" name for him. Calvin is a 3 year old gelding who loves spending time with Yoshi. If you have an Idea for his new name please send us a note!

I am hoping that we will be able to shave our new friend this weekend. Yoshi and Salty need to a hair cut too! Our current thoughts on a name are Zorro, Zander, Zelda and a few others Sam has been tossing around.

For the past few months I have been concentrating on School things with Sam and getting ready for the Iowa Federation Spin in. We made about 200 dragon Eggs and around 80 spindles to display and have up for sale. I am happy to report that the Spin in did very well, and now I have over 60 spindles to list in the Etsy Shop.

Our April Fiber of the month of is Spearmint and the May fiber is Thin Mints or Chocolate Frog (for the Harry Potter Fans). I love sparkles in my fibers but I realize that not everybody does so I am going to try to make up 2 months of fiber at a time, 1 with sparkle and 1 without.

Spearmint is a blend of Merino, Superwash Merino, Mill Ends, Bamboo, Firestar, angelina and nylon.

Thin Mints or Chocolate Frog is a blend of Merino, Superwash Merino, Iowa Wool, mill ends, bamboo and Nylon.
The green fibers are the same the difference is the white or chocolate fibers and of course the sparkle. Both colors may or may not felt, I have been meaning to try but just haven't found the time to knit something up.
If they sell out before the month is over I have lots of dragon eggs waiting in the wings for their turn to shine.
Watch for more spindles and fibers to be listed on Etsy.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Febuary Fibers

Our February Fiber of the month is a little girls dream. It reminds me of cotton candy and barbie dolls.

In this magical blend of fibers has SuperWash merino, Ingeo, Bamboo, Firestar, and Angelina.

I have been really behind this month due to family stuff and way too many hours clearing snow from the driveway and sidewalk.

So I wanted to give all of our followers a
special peek at the spindles that are waiting to be listed.
Each spindle has been labeled with the weight, diameter of the whorl, if it has been notched, tested, and what type of hook is on the shaft. If you fall in love with a spindle and would like me to list it as a reserve for you just send me an email and I get it listed right away. There are also spindles that are not up to my standards pictured that will be listed on Monday mornings in the oops category. The imperfect spindles have an additional note describing what is wrong with them. My collection of imperfect spindles is just getting a little too large, and Kim needs more money for textbooks.
I hope that March will come in like a lamb and be a very calm month.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Happy Distaff Day!

Anticipation of Spring our January Fiber Blend

The purple violets that spring up in our yard as soon as the snow melts inspire this fiber blend. I wanted to give the impression that all the beautiful flowers were just underneath a layer of snow, just waiting to dazzle us with all their glory.

Kim's thoughts were of all the spring fairies just waiting under the snow, counting the days until they could start spreading all the spring colors.
Anticipation Dragon Eggs are a blend of super-wash merino, merino mill ends, soy silk, bamboo and angelina.

New for 2010
After 2 years of searching we have found a new material for spindle hooks. My husband and I are very particular, we have been looking for a metal that was strong and flexible, but would hold it's shape well and a material that would hold up to the abuse that I put all my spindles to. I have to admit I am very hard on spindles, I tend to drop them on lots of different surfaces.
We should have spindles with the new hooks up sometime Sunday.
Look for spindles with 2010 in the description.

Enjoy Distaff Day January 7th.

New Fibers

Wow, what a week Dragon Craft has had!
We only have one Deep Water Dragon Batt left, so here are the October Batts!


Our garden is just buzzing with bees.

Inspired by all the bees, is a roving filled with lots of merino mill ends for texture, more merino, and bamboo. Of course bees have just a little shimmer to them so we added just a little firestar in black and orange. These batts all have super-wash merino and will not felt.

If you don't like bees....

This blend is inspired by fall leaves.
I may have been a little heavy handed on the orange.
The fibers used in the fall leaves blend are merino, superwash merino, soy silk, brown merino, and orange firestar for just a little shimmer. These batts may or may not felt.
If you are purchasing a spindle from DragonCraft.etsy.com make sure and let us know what color you would prefer.


Also I wanted to thank Nadiah for her fabulous YouTube video.
Thanks so much!

Happy Spinning!

September Fiber

The September fiber of the month is.....

A fantastic blend of Superwash Merino, Lincoln Longwool (from our little farm), corn silk (ingeo), mill ends and firestar.

All of our spindles are sent with roving please be sure to let me know if you would prefer a Dragon Egg (batt). The batts are carded on my Louette Roving Carder and measure 4 x 26 inches.

This is a sample skein of the September fiber, it is a 2 ply and measured 36 yards.

Labor Day weekend I did an educational display in Dundas, Mn. I brought my Ashford and spun from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. So I thought I would share the photos with you.
The white skein is a 2 ply merino cashmere blend ( a splurge), the first pink is merino 4-ply, the second pink is a 2 ply bamboo merino blend, the 3rd and 4th pink skeins are 2 ply merino roving that was spaced dyed. They are super loud colors, I brought this roving to spin because children really like bright colors and they are really interested in watching the colors change on the bobbin.

Until next time,
Happy Spinning!

What a week!

Our newest batch of spindles.
They just need hooks and then we will start listing them on ETSY.
My Favorite is the Spiders.

I have gone granny square crazy.
This is my latest project, however I had to order more yarn from JoAnn.com. So off it goes to await the new shipment. Right now it is 3 feet square, I am hoping it will be a good size throw when it is finished.
It is made from Loin Brand Wool Yarn and my greatest fear is that my husband will throw it in the wash and it will end up a rug.

Last weeks project has stalled.
After using up all of my scraps of handspun I selected several squares to make a tote. I have stiched them together and they are waiting to have the ends woven in and the lining sewed together. I just can not decide on a handle.

I can not belive how fast the month goes by. Next week I should have the July blend started.
With any luck I will have the Granny Square tote finished.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta