Last August, my mother decided to open up her own yarn shop. She’s a very one-of-a-kind woman, and is totally adamant about completing any task that she sets her mind to! She loves natural yarns and this summer she decided to learn how to make her own. My dad bought her a spinning loom a couple months ago, and then she bought local alpaca and sheep wool from farms, and took spinning classes from a lady in our town.

One Sunday morning, I went with her to her class and I was truly amazed by the process in which yarn actually becomes yarn! It gave my entire family a much stronger appreciation for the craft, and we decided to visit an alpaca farm in Michigan. I just got back from this trip, and so did the two giant bags filled with alpaca wool that we got!

George and Rutherford are the names of the alpacas we got wool from, and they were actually named after presidents of the United States. They had just had their wool sheered off, and they were taking a nap when we saw them. George had his head rested on Rutherford’s back and it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen!

Now that we are home, my mom will wash the wool and stretch it out and spin in on her wheel. The wheel is very tricky to use, and I haven’t mastered it yet (at ALL!) but my mom is very good at it! I think it takes a special kind of patience that I currently lack. After the wool is spun, it’s finished yarn and can then be sold, knitted, or dyed! The original color of George and Rutherford’s wool is so pretty that my mom is not going to dye it, but that’s something that we are really interested in trying some day! I personally want to make hot pink yarn.

My family is very eco-friendly and we genuinely love doing things from scratch because we really enjoy the process. As soon as we learn to make dyes, I’m planning on attempting to make a tie-dye ball of yarn and knitting it into either a crazy hat or socks! My favorite part about owning a yarn shop and having a mother who is an amazing knitter, is that I always get the coolest scarves and mittens in the fall and winter! I can’t wait to start some new knitting projects and I am thinking about teaching everyone how to knit for my next Hello Giggles video.

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