Author: Becky

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Our Third Annual Christmas In July

Our annual Summer sale “Christmas in July” is back! Try to beat the heat at our Winter Wonderland where you’ll find discounts on selected apparel. Browse hats, scarves, mittens, and more discounted up to 25% off! Want a sneak peak at a few of our “on sale” items? Keep on reading!

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These mittens are machine knit with the Eastport Yarn collection, a 70% alpaca and 30% merino wool blend. These mittens are 15% off! Purchase them now, and then hide them until winter time. Future You will thank yourself for finding such warm, soft mittens to keep your fingers warm!

Optimized-DSC00304This stylish hat is crocheted by hand here in Portland. The fiber artist used our Katahdin yarn collection, a 60% suri alpaca/40% merino wool, to crochet the hat, and then added reclaimed materials to create a decorative flower. This cap is one of a kind. It’s only available at PacaNaturals!

Optimized-DSC00514Also 20% off is our selection of Tuck Stitch Vests. Layer this Eastport vest over a collared shirt for added warmth this fall. This vest is available in Seafoam Green and Aqua.

What else will you find on sale during Christmas in July? You’ll just have to stop by to find out! This sale is a two week event, beginning today and ending on July 19th.

We hope to see you soon?

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The First Fiber Art Walk

Portland, Maine’s First Friday Art Walk is always a fun event. Buskers take to the streets, spontaneously performing for crowds of people. Stores stay open a bit later for art walkers. Dozens of local artists have the chance to share their work with some wicked awesome Mainahs. The FFAW is a great event for locals to get out and experience Portland in a unique way, but this June 6th, PacaNaturals is kicking it up one more notch!

Our featured artist is Kenneth Oliver, a well-traveled photographer who likes to capture the simple beauty all around us. The art he’ll share on Friday is a series titled “Natural Beauty”. These photos are of peaceful and serene nature, “images of calm” Oliver calls them. It’s a stunning collection that’s worth stopping by to see, but that’s not all we’ll have…

We’ve invited Falling Star Farm to join us that evening. Sheila McDonough will demonstrate yarn spinning on her wheel while passers-by can browse some of her unique artisan apparel made from alpaca yarns.

Step inside our store to try your own hand at working with alpaca fiber! Sample skeins of yarn will be available to test knitting and crocheting. Start a swatch or add to one that’s already started. At the end of the weekend, we’ll be stitching together the swatches to make a truly unique scarf for the Lobsterman’s Park monument.

Not a knitter? Why not learn to needle felt! Needles and natural wool will be set out for people to pick up and practice with.

If you find the alpaca fiber as soft and comfortable to handle as we do, take some home with you! You’ll find discounts on our yarn, alpaca fiber, and needle felting kits all week long.

Drop in this Friday to be a part of our very first First Fiber Art Walk! You won’t want to miss it.

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Join Us at Wolfe’s Neck Farm for the Spring Festival on the Farm!

Are you interested in exposing your children to Maine’s agriculture? Tomorrow’s Spring Festival on the Farm is the perfect event for you! Where else can you see seven types of farm animals after taking a wagon ride and learning how to bathe a cow?

If you’ve been wanting to meet our alpacas, this event is a great time to do it! Tom and Stacey will be talking with festival goers, sharing the benefits of raising alpacas and the fiber they grow. After you’re done learning about the fiber process our animals’ fleece goes through, browse the small selection of apparel we’ll have with us – then head over to the carding and felting demonstration!

Stop by the local food vendors. Try some wood-oven pizza, made with fresh dough and local ingredients, or something sinful from the “Wicked” Good Food Truck. If your stomach craves something healthy instead, don’t fret! There are plenty of nutritious options, including the Good Shepard Food truck and Kids Gone Raw.

Bring your good eats to the live performances. Family-friendly concerts are scheduled at 9:30, 11, and 12:30. Don’t miss the music or the opportunity to get your face painted.

This event is filled with fun to be found all over. Encourage your children to get some exercise by climbing the hay-bale hill. Discover how jam and honey are made. Find a trail and take a peaceful walk through the scenery with your family.

For more information on pricing, parking, and activities, click the banner above!

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You’ll Think Your Feet ‘Rule’ With These Kentucky Royalty Golf Socks

PacaNaturals presents a new sock style: an alpaca golf sock that is not just for golfers!

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These ankle socks come to us courtesy of Kentucky Royalty, a Kentucky-based farm that supports family owned farms. Each sock is carefully constructed, using only domestic fiber, to be highly functional and super comfortable.

As always, alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, but this sock has so much more to offer. Mesh knitting on the top allows your skin to breathe easy, keeping your feet nice and cool. A thicker layer on the bottom provides support for your arch as well as extra cushioning while walking.

If you turn one of these golf socks inside out, you’ll find terry loops. These loops help to wick away moisture quickly and reduce odor. Imagine that, a sock that helps to keep your feet smelling fresh!

Natural white and black are currently the only colors available, but we have a variety of sizes for both ladies and men. Stop in to get a feel for these socks yourself!

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Alpaca Elegance: A New Alpaca Yarn Collection

You’re probably not too surprised to learn that many knitters visit our shop. Some seek inspiration, searching for a new pattern to master. Most are on a mission for materials. Alpaca yarn is some of the finest a fiber artist can work with. It’s soft to touch and keeps you toasty while you work. And now, we offer a brand new collection: Alpaca Elegance.

 

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Alpaca Elegance is a collection created by Green Mountain Spinnery. Located in Putney, VT, this mill is proud to offer “greenspun” yarns. Their product is processed with only vegetable based soaps and oils. They don’t use any chemicals to dye, bleach, mothproof, or remove chaff.

This collection is a DK-weight blend of 50% New England alpaca fiber and 50% fine wool. Each skein has about 180 yards of yarn. The suggested guage is 5 stitches per inch on US needles size 6.

You might use these skeins for a nice pair of fingerless mittens, a cozy hat, or an elegant scarf. Stop in to feel the yarn for yourself! Whether you have a pattern in mind or you’re just interested in adding to your stash, we can help you choose the right color and the right yardage for you.

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An Experience Like No Other: Alpaca Shearing

It’s hard to find the words to describe an alpaca shearing. “Organized chaos” comes to mind. “Not easy” also works, as Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs learned.

The process itself is pretty simple. An alpaca is lead to the shearing area and is then lowered to the ground to be stretched as long as it comfortably can be. The legs are tethered for stability, like this:

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Don’t worry! The alpacas are not in pain while tied up.

Before our shearing begins, each animal is weighed. They get their toenails clipped and their teeth checked over. We administer vaccinations to keep the herd healthy for another year. A few alpacas will have their teeth filed down a bit. It’s like a doctor’s visit, a trip to the dentist, a manicure, and a hair cut – all in one easy location!

Alpacas are sheared once a year, in late spring before the summer heat sets in. The fiber is sorted by grades, determined by the thickness of the fiber. Grade 1 fiber is ultra fine, for example, and grade 6 is a “robust” fiber.

The best fiber comes from the alpaca’s back and sides. This fleece is known as “the blanket“.

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We try to keep the blanket in one piece. To do this, the alpaca must be turned over as it is being sheared. Like this:

Optimized-DSC01284 Optimized-DSC01288Ooooh! Look how soft the blanket looks. Don’t you just want to curl up with it?

The blanket is bagged and labeled, so that we know which animal the fiber came from. Some blankets will be entered for judging at The Maine Fiber Frolic; most of it will be sent to the mill to be spun into yarn.

After the fiber from the belly is “snip-snipped”, the neck and legs get their turn. We call this fiber the “second and third cuts”. This fleece is used for felting, stuffing, and rug yarns.

Optimized-DSC01361A few of the alpacas get a preview of what’s to come when their buddy comes through the waiting area.

The shearing process takes several hours and a few volunteers. Someone ushers in an alpaca while another is sheared. Fiber is being bagged and binned. The ground is being swept. Fiber samples are going in one direction, vaccines in the other. Notes are written to record which animal received what treatment.

If you’re interested in learning more about shearing, you can get in touch with us! Click on the “Contact” page and send us your questions. For now, we leave you with these images of sheared alpacas rocking some goofy hair.

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First Friday Art Walk: Kelly Ufkin

This First Friday Art Walk, travel from Portland to Florence by way of May’s artist, Kelly Ufkin.

Kelly Ufkin is a young artist raised locally. Ufkin left the comfort of New England to pursue a degree in Art Therapy at Merrywood University. After earning her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, she re-enrolled and acquired her Master’s of Fine Arts in painting. She says her school “became my home for seven years,” leaving only for two semesters abroad in Florence, Italy.

Walkway to the Beach Kelly

 

In Italy, Ufkin studied oil and fresco painting. She also got a chance to study a few of the country’s greatest artists. “Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi’s realism and extensive technique have helped me enhance my style and progress as an artist,” she says. Monet, Renoir, and Corot are also listed among her influences. Ufkin says these artists have taught her how to capture a moment in time in a simplistic manner.

This Friday, Kelly art work will don our walls. We’ll our store’s doors open until 8:00pm. We’ll have wine, as well as cheese and crackers, to share with First Friday Art Walkers who are at least twenty-one years of age.

 

Pine Lake Kelly

If you can’t make it this Friday, stop by to see Kelly’s work all month long.

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The Return of First Friday Art Walk!

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On Friday, April 4th, PacaNaturals will resume participation in Portland’s First Friday Art Walk. Our first featured artist is Gwendolyn Cardente, a local jack-of-all-art-trades. Gwendolyn enjoys working with a variety of media, including oil, acrylic, mosaic, and printmaking.

 

Pictured left is one of her more colorful acrylics. At our store, you’ll see a series on the tools in our lives. Gwen believes that possessions absorb the characteristics of their owners, revealing how we’ve made use of even the simplest of objects.

“I have a hammer that belonged to my grandfather,” she offers as an example. “Although it is a mass manufactured tool, the dings and drips of paint, its handle, the angle of its swing, have been shaped by years of handiwork; repairing the shed, hanging pictures, building tomato trellises.”

PacaNaturals will remain open until 8:00pm. We welcome art walkers to stop in and experience Gwendolyn’s tool series, as well as some new autobiographical work she plans to debut.

In the past, PacaNaturals has had painters, photographers, and needle felters share their work for Portland, ME’s First Friday Art Walk. A new group of artists has been lined up for this summer’s events.

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Find The Best Alpaca Socks For Chilly Feet In Winter Weather

It’s a bit chilly out there today, reminding us that (as Ned Stark would say) winter is coming. Maine winters can be rough. We get mountains of snow dumped on us. Our boots get wet. Gloves get separated from their mates. And boy, do we get cold!

This year as I think about gifts for my loved ones, I find myself eyeing alpaca wear around the store. The men in my family would love some warm, soft alpaca socks to keep their feet warm while they work.

Continue reading Find The Best Alpaca Socks For Chilly Feet In Winter Weather