Alpacas Magazine - 2013 Herdsire

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134 | ALPACAS MAGAZINE
Lynnette Ausland Eads is a weaver, spinner, dyer,
andmaster knitter who has beenworkingwith
alpaca fiber since her parents began raising alpacas
in themid-1980s. Lynette enjoys teaching children
about fiber arts, and also teaches adult classes on
weaving, spinning, knitting, and Australian locker
hooking. Contact Lynette at
or .
Last year I brought some pipe cleaners
and alpaca roving from which the children
were encouraged to create animals. For
one group we carded wool and made
rovings to use with the pipe cleaners.
Some kids needed help to shape their
pipe cleaners into animals, others created
animals and odd beings from their own
choice. This activity was fun for all ages
of children, and adults as well.
Since I do not speak Russian very well,
I used a translator to help the children un-
derstand how to card rovings from fiber and
how to shape the animals. There were times
when the translator was busy when we also
used pictures and animal noises to share
which animals we were talking about.
This was great fun for all, and we all
laughed after seeing our creations. At the
boys’ prison I could not think of all of the
animal names, so we made the noises of
certain animals and the boys all laughed
at our silliness.
In retrospect, I should have taken more
pictures of animals and my little alpaca
statues so the kids would have a better idea
of what we were talking about. The children
came up with very odd shapes of birds, dogs,
alpacas, odd alien beings—quite a variety of
fun shapes. At a couple of the orphanages for
children with some slight mental challenges,
we had to help shape the pipe cleaners and
then they would wrap them.
Children often have no concept of the an-
imals and how to make them unless there
are lots of pictures or small statues, toys,
etc. that they can see and touch. This helps
in their shaping of their animals. They liked
making other animals besides the alpacas,
and I did have pictures of birds, pigs, hors-
es, etc. With arts and crafts, language is not
always needed. We can demonstrate how
to do a craft which the children can copy,
or we can have good examples for them to
see. I enjoy working with children as there
is always lots of laughter and fun involved.
Most of them also have lots of imagination
and are freer to let it out.
Using roving is better than using
raw fiber because roving wraps easier
around the pipe cleaners than raw fiber.
It is OK to use hand carders to make
your rovings instead of using commer-
cially milled rovings. Heavy or loosely
spun yarns can also be used to wrap the
pipe cleaners.
Shape the animal by manipulating the
pipe cleaners, making a head, body and
four legs. Pipe cleaners may be cut to make
shorter legs, tails, etc. Once the animal
(alpaca, bird, horse, whatever) is shaped to
your satisfaction, begin to wrap around the
pipe cleaners with your roving. The pipe
cleaners should be completely covered,
except for the toes, hooves, or feet.
I found twisting two pipe cleaners
together and using as one works better, as
it makes the pipe cleaners stronger. When
a single pipe cleaner is used for the legs,
they seem too wobbly. It is OK to make
the alpaca lying down, and then there is
no worry about wobbly legs or trying to
cover them well. Some of the alpacas have
a felt face with eyes glued on and ears.
One of the alpacas made has an egg-
shaped foam ball as his body and wooden
matches for the legs, which are too short.
Pipe cleaners were used for the neck and
head on this one. The foam ball seems to
have made the body quite rotund.
Tacky glue that we had brought with us
was used in Odessa, when needed. Here
I’ve bought spray adhesive which works
but gets on the fingers.
This project can be good for any time of
the year. During the summer, at children’s
birthday parties, during the holidays to
decorate the home, for 4- H, Girl Scouts,
or Boy Scouts meetings, or just when the
children are bored and need an activity
like on a rainy or snowy day, think of this
project. Any animal can be made and real-
ly anything can be used to make faces and
bodies, and any fiber can be used to make
the fur of the animals. Have fun with the
children and use lots of imagination.
The process of constructing a critter starts with a pipe
cleaner armature, top, gently wrapped with roving.
When your critter is complete, felt ears or googly eyes
can be glued on to add personality.