life with a chronic disease and a really big yarn stash
Alpaca Summer Camp
Last week was a ton of fun! I helped out at a Camp Macusani, a summer camp run by Alta Vida Alpacas, which is also the site of Alpaca Partners, an organization “committed to creating quality with purpose in the lives of special needs persons through unique opportunities offered on the ranch.” Wow! Teaching, fiber arts, alpacas and a chance to be involved in something special that is making a difference in the lives of young people facing more challenges than most of us. Not only was this a lot of fun, but it was a special, special week.
So with no further ado, here is the week. 🙂
This camp started just as you would have thought: the kids went up the hill to meet the alpacas!! That cute rear end you see in the manger is one of the sheep.Of course there were babies…and dogs. At Alta Vida the owners (Dan and Cari Corley) have guard dogs and llamas in the pens with their alpacas to help keep them safe. Most of the alpacas in these pictures are huacaya, although with their coats clipped off it’s hard for me to be sure. The ranch also has suri alpacas.The actual fiber day started with the kids getting their own bag of alpaca fleece (huacaya and suri) to pick vegetable matter out of and to wash. Here is the washed fiber drying.While the fiber was drying we all headed out into the meadows on the property to hunt for Colorado wildflowers.and then the flowers were pressed to dry in phone books (with bricks on top to provide the weight!)The next day the kids learned how to comb their alpaca fiber…and then they dyed some of the fiber using kool-aid and the heat of the sun. It was a beautiful hot day and the wool dyed great just using solar energy. The individual colors are contained in zip-lock bags, and then the bags were placed in aluminum cake pans with plastic snap-on lids. Slick, huh!The white and dyed fiber was used to create felt art projects and also was blended to create rolags. Fun, fun, fun!The downside: felting can be hard work. 🙂At the end of the camp students learned to make yarn. To break the process down to manageable “chunks” we had kids work with partners so that they could just control the spinning at the beginning, and then later they took over the drafting part of the process. Some were able to create yarn on their own using the drop spindle by the end of the second day.
Remember those pressed flowers? On the last day the dried flowers were used along with pictures taken during the camp to create photo memory books that the students took away with them. They also framed and made pictures using the felt that was created, and their yarn was steamed (to set the twist), wound and made into a little skein. Camp was only about 2.5 hours a day, but a lot was accomplished!
That’s why this was such a special week. By the family pizza lunch on the final day the kids had learned how fiber from live animals (that they learn how to take care of during the school year) is used to create items of beauty and purpose. Someday some of these kids will be creating items for sale in a farm store that will be operated by Alpaca Partners, and some of them may end up working with livestock later on in their lives. Things learned in this camp will be used in the two local high schools that currently collaborate with Alta Vida Alpacas to provide a unique educational opportunity for special needs kids; weaving and knitting with that yarn is a future possibility. If ever I spent a week well, this was it.
I weave, knit and read in Aurora, Colorado where my garden lives. I have 2 sons, a knitting daughter-in-law, a grandson and two exceptionally spoiled kittens. In 2014 I was diagnosed with a serious rare autoimmune disease called systemic sclerosis along with Sjogren's Disease and fibromyalgia.
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9 thoughts on “Alpaca Summer Camp”
No that would be a great summer camp! The pictures of the alpaca are adorable, of course. Doggies too.
But here is my question… just how much fiber did you score?
I did seriously want some white alpaca. Sigh. So… no fiber was scored at this time. I did, however, agree to be their resident knitter and designer so lots will be coming my way. I have been doing a happy dance for two days. 🙂
You did good. Go for the long con… err I mean long-term relationship with the fiber supplier. That will pay off…errr, be more satisfying than any one time score.
What a fabulous way to spend the week! Green with envy!
I am looking forward to continuing the relationship with the ranch and the kids. I met the teachers and there is a possibility that I’ll continue helping from time to time during the year. There are definite knitting and weaving ideas. Yeah!
Love your green with envy comment. I foolishly used a finger to push fiber down in the depot and ended up blue. 🙂
This sounds like such an amazing week. How special to be part of such a program. It’s great also that you will be continuing your connection with them 🙂
Yarn, Books & Roses 
No that would be a great summer camp! The pictures of the alpaca are adorable, of course. Doggies too.
But here is my question… just how much fiber did you score?
I did seriously want some white alpaca. Sigh. So… no fiber was scored at this time. I did, however, agree to be their resident knitter and designer so lots will be coming my way. I have been doing a happy dance for two days. 🙂
Oh wow. ohwow ohwow ohwow.
You did good. Go for the long con… err I mean long-term relationship with the fiber supplier. That will pay off…errr, be more satisfying than any one time score.
What a fabulous way to spend the week! Green with envy!
I am looking forward to continuing the relationship with the ranch and the kids. I met the teachers and there is a possibility that I’ll continue helping from time to time during the year. There are definite knitting and weaving ideas. Yeah!
Love your green with envy comment. I foolishly used a finger to push fiber down in the depot and ended up blue. 🙂
This sounds like such an amazing week. How special to be part of such a program. It’s great also that you will be continuing your connection with them 🙂
I feel very, very lucky to be involved in this. Cari and I ran into each other earlier this year at Yarn Fest, and things just took off from there.