The Story of Making:
I attended the Sheep and Wool Festival up in Rhinebeck, NY last year for the first time. I was looking forward to finding some great local NY-based wool producers and farms that treat their animals ethically. What I was not prepared for was my backpack bursting at the seams and bags filled to the brim with beautiful alpaca fiber and enough contacts to keep me busy this year. Among my treasures were these bumps of cotton-cored alpaca, grown in upstate New York. I easily could have fit the entire lot into my friends truck but thought it undesirable to publically show my hoarding tendencies. I didn’t want all the fiber mothers to point and stare.
These Alpaca rugs are woven with a 100% Organic Cotton warp from California, Alpaca (with cotton core) weft and a small amount of wool, both grown and spun in Upstate New York. The alpaca is spun around the cotton and changes from white to grey to black, all natural undyed alpaca colors. I imagine this for underfeet when out of bed, or perhaps for meditating in front of a fireplace. I now only need a fireplace to test it out.
In weaving these, I kept the weft yarn intact which means it is only cut at the beginning and end. I liked the look of the smooth bumps on the selvedge, so I managed to pull the 50+ yards through with every row.
Looming Jane 