Tuesday's Toot - I didn't expect much and I got...

This past weekend I participated in the Shepherd's Harvest Wool and Sheep Festival's Alpaca Fleece Show sponsored by Alpacas of MN DBA: Upper Midwest Alpacas. I went into the show with little expectation of winning anything since it was my first fleece show and I am relatively new to raising alpacas. I didn't have any idea of how to prepare my fleeces for show. I called a couple fellow members of UMA and got a little bit of advice. I even contacted my online friend on Twitter, @AlpacaFarmGirl for advice. She gave me a link to a website showing how to skirt a fleece to go to a mill. Of course, without a hands on demonstration, it is easy to miss things and advice isn't always as thorough as we would like it to be. I did the best I could and entered the fleeces anyway. On Sunday I picked up my fleeces from the show and was pleasantly surprised to receive a ribbon on each one! The best part, I designed the logo that was on the ribbons and now I can proudly desplay the ribbons and I get to admire my handiwork too :) Toot Toot

I've been using my thumb as a pin cushion this weekend.

Ouch! My thumb has several pin sized holes in it. No, I didn't do it on purpose. It is just one of those things you can expect when you needle felt a 3D figure (oh, and I have poked myself a few times doing needle felting on a flat surface too).

You may remember on Mother's Day weekend Lisa Anderson and I met up at the Shepherd's Harvest Wool and Sheep Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. We both fell in love with the 3D needle felted figures at one of the booths (pictured in Lisa's post here). Being the adventurous and artistic person that I am, I of course had to try it out for myself.

It was my first time needle felting in 3D. Since I have an alpaca farm tour coming up this fall, I need to work on projects to sell anyway. I decided to start out making an alpaca. What do you think? Does it look like an alpaca? I think it just needs a little more fuzz (sorry for the poor quality photo, I took it with my camera phone).



I have also been busy loom knitting some afghan blocks for my friend's comfort-ghan. There are sparkly silver strands (not showing up in the pic) in the super soft yarn I used in this block and I didn't want to distract from these strands so I just used a simple e-wrap stitch.



I wanted to use some of my super soft alpaca but unfortunately, I think the color is too dark for the stitch pattern I came up with (yes, I'll write it up for those who would like to use the pattern in their own loom knit projects). It is still pretty and the texture is nice anyway. I think I'll use it for my shrug I was suppose to be loom knitting for the May LAL on Ravelry. I'll need to use my DA adult hat loom though. Hopefully it will be wide enough. It will be 24 inches if I use all of the pegs.



Until next time!

My jam packed weekend of fiber, fun, animals, and friends!

I usually spend my days loom knitting, needle knitting, or doing some sort of craft or art project and don't usually get out of the house much. It is tough when you have six kids and naps need to be taken, snacks need to be eaten, potty training needs to be done, meals need to be prepared, and alpacas need to be fed and watered. I always have mountains of laundry to do or messes to clean up (I had a giant one this morning, my two year old tossed her breakfast across the kitchen while I showered). This past weekend was an exception to my usual rule of being a house ape. When I have plans, I have plans! I started out my weekend off by going with my two youngest girls on a community fieldtrip to St. Paul, MN to the Children's Museum. My daughters had great fun running from one room to the next playing with all of the exhibits! It was mayhem! LOL!


Amanda playing with ping pong balls at one of the exhibits.


Amanda sliding down an exhibit.


Paige playing with magnets in water.

While we were at the museum I found a little boy on the staircase crying his eyes out. He was about five years old. I saw so many people just walk past him. I walked up to him and asked him if he was lost. He wouldn't speak to me at first but I persisited. I told him it was ok, I would help him. I found a staff person and told him that the little boy was lost. The man said he would radio someone and walked away. My two girls were anxious to get going and took off running. I had to take the little boys hand and follow my two girls. Finally the man came back and brought a guide for the museum with him. I felt so badly for the little guy. He was so scared. I hope and pray he is home safe with his family.

After we left the museum, we headed to the Como Zoo. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day! It was warm and sunny. It wasn't too warm or too cool. My girls couldn't have been more well behaved! LOL! Too bad I had a terrible cold and had to haul a pile of kleenix along and stop to blow my nose constantly!









Our day went by quickly and we were soon home and crashed into bed early!

The next day was Mommy's day to play! Since it was my step kids weekend with their mother, I dropped off my three children off at my sister's house and my husband and I went down to Lake Elmo, MN to the Shepherd's Harvest Wool and Sheep Festival. I got to meet my friend Lisa Anderson. We had lots of fun endulging our fiber addictions! It was cold and pouring rain, but we still delighted in all of the fleece, yarn, spinning wheels, felted critters, and such! I can honestly tell you, this woman has a serious yarn addiction! LOL! Oh, and her husband is the tallest man in the world! Lisa is about the same height as my 11 year old and her husband towered over my husband and my husband towers over me! I am not short! And, I am considered tall for a woman! When we met up at the Llama barn I almost walked past them because he was so much taller than Lisa, it threw me off! LOL! I heard them say "maybe not" as I walked by so I turned and asked the gal standing next to this towering man if her name was Lisa. Imagine my shock when she said "yes"!



My only regret over the day was how cold and wet it was! I brought some alpaca fleece along to show Lisa and her husband but it was just too wet out. Oh well, they will be near by for a while so we can have them come by our ranch and visit with the alapcas in person some day soon!

At the festival I picked up a sweet little booklet to aide me in using my drop spindle. I am able to spin on my wheel but haven't been able to master my drop spindle yet. I really want to learn so I also picked up another book on spinning the following day as a gift to myself for Mother's Day.



I managed to talk Lisa's husband into buying a drop spindle at the festival. Now I need to master mine and then I can help him out with his! I figured I'd introduce him to the spindle since it is a much more economical way to learn to spin and to find out if he even likes to spin instead of investing in a wheel right off the bat.

Until next time!