What to Make?

Nuno shawl with alpaca, merino, silk, angelina sparkle, and mohair on cotton

The past week was fun to say the least, with the highlight being a wonderful surprise birthday party my sweet husband gave me with our close friends and family at a favorite restaurant, Heirloom in nearby Midway. The AOBA National Auction was a big success for our farm and those of our our partners, too, you can read about that here. I also had a super time at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, and was very inspired by all of the great colors and project ideas I gleaned from the high-quality vendors.

Now I can concentrate on the upcoming felting class I'm taking later this week with Nicola Brown of Ireland (whose class I took last fall in Michigan). I had a rare long, quiet day yesterday in the studio, and contemplated what I most hope to learn from Nicola this time. What to make? What to make?

I completed these nuno scarves since the ones I made last week sold at the Festival, and I love making them but want to challenge myself with something completely new in Nicola's class. I think I want to tackle a large wearable project, like a cape or jacket. Either way, I'm glad that the auction, travel, and the fiber festival are behind me, home schooling is gearing down, and I can just concentrate on creating for a while!

I am so very blessed and most challenges in my life are fairly trivial, and my heart and prayers go out to those that are suffering through the tornadoes and subsequent losses...

Kentucky Sheep and Fiber and MORE!

Hand-dyed and felted alpaca lattice shawl

Life has been REALLY hectic lately, and these next several days will be a real peak for me! In this past and next week, there's end-of-school year stuff, the Buckeye Alpaca Show, a birthday (ahem....), the AOBA National Auction in Denver (with our elite herdire, El Nino's Accoyo Michelangelo and a beautiful female selling), and the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. I'm excited for it all, bring it on!

Nuno-felted scarf of silk and wool, hand-dyed

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to dye fiber and yarn and make finished products for the festival, but I'm pleased with what I have done so it's just going to have to be enough for this time! My friend MB with Alpacas at Booker's Corner and I are sharing a booth at the festival, and she'll be there on Saturday and I'll be there on Sunday. I've decided to keep things at least a little more simple and won't be taking animals this year.

I do love spending quiet time in my studio making things (and haven't had enough of that lately), and I'm looking forward to both taking AND teaching some classes this summer. We'll be continuing home school over the summer, but on a less structured basis. Watch for news about upcoming classes!

Hand-felted Lamb Shade!

In the mean time, I hope to see many of you at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival or AOBA Nationals!

Auction Time Again!

This weekend I'm off to Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, WV for the Extreme Progeny Alpaca Auction. Getting ready for an auction is a multi-step process which involves early selection of the sale animals months ahead of time (based on pedigree, curb appeal, show record, fiber-we always choose some of our best!), submitting photos and information, getting prepurchase vet and travel exams done, paying consignment fees, and additional advertising (double-click on our ad below to enlarge, the links won't work in this version but you can find the info at the website link above). Then it's a matter of having the animals ready (one of our girls has some small "stick-tight" burrs that we've been picking off her legs for weeks- ARGGHH, and we need to complete that job, like... today!). I need to prepare their stall books for people at the auction to read about the finer details of each animal. At this time of year when the animals have only about 1-2 inches of fiber re-growth since shearing, we need to display the fleeces which in some cases involves "skirting" the fiber to remove vegetation and putting it into a nice display basket or bag. Both Runalong and Trina have WOW fleeces that will look great no matter what!
Being gone from the farm, especially with our farm manager coming along, entails some planning and extra work as well. Today we're completing the worming process for the remainder of our herd, as well as lining everything up for Paul and the kids to handle while we're gone. I also need to finish packing, oh yeah, my SELF and clothes, food, etc (we'll be taking our motor home and stock trailer, gotta make sure that's ready, too!). Making sure the kids (and Paul) have what they need while I'm gone is another important detail!
Will I get it all done? Somehow, we always do... now the preparations are over and all we need is for buyers to notice what awesome animals we have to offer! (Oh yeah, we need to remember to have FUN as we always do when around our alpaca friends, and a bit or horse racing won't hurt a bit either!)

Summer Hodge-Podge

We have been in no particular routine around here, just a little bit of this and that. Here's a sampling of what's been keeping us busy! I've been doing a lot of felting and dyeing of yarn and silk. The garden is producing at least a little bit, though it's extremely handicapped by the skyscraper-ish weeds which I've given up on at this point.

The weather has been the prettiest I can EVER remember for a Kentucky summer.... rain every few days, cool nights and highs of 70-80. Heaven.
Last night, we went to the Kentucky Cup Reining Championship at the Kentucky Horse Park. It was the first of several preliminary "trial" events in preparation for the September, 2010 World Equestrian Games. Reining is kind of like dressage, Western-style. (Like most athletic pursuits, equine or otherwise, it looks really easy when someone's super good at it, but it's NOT). We're preparing for the National Elite Alpaca Auction in Leesburg, VA. Check out the two beautiful girls we have consigned (that's our full Accoyo fawn, Noel, above)! Information is available on our farm blog.

A Weird and Wild Adventure

I'm SOOO glad to be home all in one piece from our final alpaca event of the season (the Belleau Wood Auction and Carolina Classic Show in Concord, NC). It was exciting from start to finish! First, we brought along an extra pussy (get your minds out of the gutter now), MB's cat Stevie-Y, who had his leg amputated the week before. MB couldn't leave him to travel, as he needed a lot of extra care and bandage changes. Seems he used up several of his nine lives when some low-life shot him. I know that God must have a plan for Stevie, as he survived at least 3 shots- the one that eventually took his leg, another that pierced his ear, and a third that went cleanly in and out of the surviving front leg.

Stevie was a model patient and traveler (except for the time that he hid himself in the cupboard and scared MB to death), and we were glad to have him along! It's very inspiring how quickly he is adapting to his loss, and he was nimbly jumping around on counters and upon the bed, where he gladly kept my feet warm!
Because we were leaving so early on Friday morning, MB and Stevie came the night before and were going to stay in the RV. We were already hooked up to the trailer and ready to pull out from the barn, and had the RV plugged in to an extension cord for heat. MB called to say the heat was malfunctioning, and then quickly called again to say that she smelled smoke! We told her where the fire extinguisher was and Paul and I flew up the hill to find that the electrical panel had partially melted due to an improper plug-in. Paul eliminated the problem by turning off several breakers and felt we were safe to still take the RV, and MB and Stevie stayed in the studio for the night.

The auction and show were successful for us, and you can read about the details here. We were extremely grateful to get good prices for our animals in this unpredictable economy, and it was reassuring that the foundation we laid for our farm/alpaca business 14 years ago is serving us well through raising top-quality alpacas.
On the way home, we began losing power going up big hills and the warning light was coming on in the coach. We immediately stopped for the night outside of Ashville, NC and were very fortunate the next morning to find an engine service provider that could fix the RV on our 3rd try. It was a long and uncertain wait, but we were able to get home in time for me to tuck the kids in and crash before my usual bedtime. Above, MB is showing off the cria that we had along, Eye Candy, to the mechanics at the first RV repair place. Below, at the semi-tractor repair place, the alpacas got lots of weird looks as we let them out of the trailer for fresh air and to stretch their legs!Thank you, Lord, for another event that ended up with a good outcome and that I can chalk up to experience, once again!

Alpaca Auction!

Selling a valuable animal at auction can be both nerve-wracking as well as rewarding, and it's something I always have to remember to keep in perspective. Quality, registered alpacas have been worth huge sums of money since the first importations from South America in the early 90's, and we have enjoyed having them for their fiber, fun, tax benefits, and income (I quit teaching to stay at home with our son and raise alpacas). We have made money from nearly every alpaca we have ever purchased (unlike the stagnant stock market of the past 10 years or most other livestock).

We recently consigned three beautiful alpacas to the National Elite Auction in Leesburg, Virginia and combined work and some vacation into the same trip. (You'll hear more about that later, as well as the knitting that I got done along the way!). The National Elite is a very classy auction, but also expensive to participate in and if your alpaca doesn't bring the minimum sale price of $10,000 it can be a pretty big loss! The host farm does a wonderful job of displaying the fleeces, and they wine and dine the visitors and consignors in a huge barn which was air-conditioned for the event and it's associated free seminars on alpaca care, fleece, and marketing.

Auction day arrived, though I didn't sleep well the night before wondering IF our animals would sell, if they'd bring good prices, and who would buy them. Because of the animal's value and our ability to provide good after-sale support, I don't worry too much that they'll be well cared-for but I do get attached (these cuties do have very distinct personalities). Here they are right before sale time:

People often ask me what I think our animals will bring at auction, and I learned a long time ago not to reveal that publicly as there are always surprises! This time, I would have been spot on with my hopes and expectations, and we were thrilled that our three girls will all be going to good farms where their potential is appreciated.

Ember is going to Cameo Rose Farm in Ohio.

Darling Paisley was purchased by Seven Springs Farm in Virginia. Our champion girl, Starbright, will reside with our great friends at Chardon Alpaca Ranch in Ohio. (She sold in the top 10% of the auction!)

I was pretty proud of myself for abstaining from purchasing any thing this time, especially since I wasn't abstaining from the Dom Perignon which our friend Stu was generously sharing at the auction table! (Each buyer received a bottle). As always after a long trip away from the farm, I had to go visit "the babies", just to see them and of course to evaluate and dream of the next show or auction. We were all very happy to be home, sweet home.