Westwind Farm & Fiber Fair - Take 2

Schedules aligned so that I would be able to sell yarn at the Westwind Fiber Fair at the end of June again this year! The family at Westwind is so sweet and caring, and the vendors are interesting and fun to talk to. The word is starting to get out about the fair, and many attendees were very knowledgeable about fiber processing, yarn weight, spinning, and knitting. It was nice to jump right into a deeper conversation rather than explain the process from the beginning more often.

I decided to upgrade my table look this year with a few cheap frames for my photos. But it's always difficult to pick which pictures should be in the frame! 

I decided to streamline my setup routine and table layout, which ended up saving a significant amount of time. My yarn "tree" was pre-hung with lace and fingering weight yarns and took 2 seconds to place on the table.

Then I went continued the line of yarns in order of increasing yarn weight: sock, sport, DK, worsted, Lopi, rug and felt sheets. I put together a "table box" that paired the knit samples with a few skeins of the weight yarn in each color available. 

Unfortunately I forgot my empty shoe boxes to create different heights and more visual interest on the tables. I think I also need to label the skeins for sale and have another note (in a frame) that tells people that the samples are not for sale. No one can afford the time in the samples! I'm currently brainstorming if empty oatmeal canisters might be repurposed to hold more skeins of yarn. I could cover the outside with some fun cloth and stack them into a little tower...

The weather was a bit challenging with temperatures raging in the 90's on Saturday and then a glorious, but very windy Sunday. Saturday was a slow visitor day due to the heat. On Sunday I was chasing my merchandise and photos around the grass! I once again only had a few customers, but I definitely came out a little bit ahead, which is always the preferred outcome. Next year, I might add some notecards with pictures of our animals on them for sale.

We'll see about next year's timing, but I do hope to return with even better display ideas. I should knit some more samples and maybe get some more fiber processed... Hmmm...!

A Whack of Washcloths

And as summer rumbles to a close, here is my very distracted collection of washcloths that I made. The project is a combination of trying to knit up stray balls of yarn, travel knitting, and of course needing a few new washcloths. 

The first one was knit on a mini road trip to Turkey Run State Park with my work friend who was driving. She drives a little too close to other cars, so, nice distraction! We had an amazing hike in this wonderful park and ate ice cream at a locale called Gobbler's Knob: Eats Sweets & Mercantile. I mean, you have to!

The next day, I made another while trying to calm down after the airline canceled my flight to Vegas. Lucky me, I was able to get another flight on a different airline later that day. The Farmer and I went to see Dead and Company at the Sphere. We also saw Absinthe, which featured stunning acrobatics and many adult jokes. The shows were both astounding, but let it be known that will my only trip to that town.

Then I was clearing out a box of yarn when the yellow yarn fell back into my hands. I knit my niece a cute sweater with it in 2012. It's so soft and makes an awesome cloth as well as sweater.

I happened to bring the last of the white ball on my flight to Texas. We spent a week in Levelland at Great Plains College for Camp Bluegrass. We met amazing people, had great teachers, and heard some wonderful live music. And since we had to bring all of our bedding and towels, we didn't have enough. So the washcloth was pressed into action as a face towel immediately!

I'm hoping to ramp up knitting production as soon as school routines gets reestablished. I need to knit a cowl for a good friend, finish up some projects that have been laying around forever, and using up some more stash. 

Enjoy the end of summer! I'm not going to lie, I am ready for sweater weather!

End of an Era: Alpaca Farewell

All good things must end eventually, and thus we decided to shut down the alpaca operation this summer. A combination of changing interests and longer absences this summer made us face the difficult decision of giving farming a rest. We are grateful for 13.5 happy years as alpaca farmers.

A series of "last" photos from June 7. The last beautiful dining done on the pasture. Dark Star is looking regal and elegant in his shaggy winter coat. 

Peggy-O is taking one last nap in the shade at Shady Grove. Her fluffy face is looking forward to a shearing!

Sweet fluff nugget Cherise is happily munching on her favorite grass snack. 

Lounging in the sunshine. 

The last time the ladies are lined up to come into the barn after a long day on the pasture. 

Waiting for pick-up in the barn on June 8. Our friends at Big Pine Acre Alpacas agreed to adopt the three alpacas into their herd. We bought Peggy-O from them in 2021 and they were delighted to have her back with some friends.

Peggy-O insisting on leaving the way she came, by sitting down and not budging!

If we resume animal farming in the future, this is the type of trailer I would love to own. It has two pens so you can transport both male and female animals in the same trip. Cherise gets a helpful lift into the trailer first.

Dark Star is trying to go the wrong direction. A true home boy. 

Final glances, sniffs, and hums from Dark Star inside the trailer. This picture breaks my heart. He was our first cria and a sturdy friend.

Another good-bye from Peggy-O as we load the remaining bales of hay and grain bags into the pickup bed.

And thus concludes our farming adventure, with three alpacas humming good-bye all the way down the driveway. What an amazing experience with the incredible memories they provided! Even though they are no longer living with us, we have hundreds of pounds of raw fiber and lots of yarn to remember them by. Gratitude!

Shady Grove Alpacas - October 31, 2010 - June 8, 2024

Great Pyrenees guard dog - Tenny

Suri Alpaca Foundation Herd - Bella Oak, 'Greta, & Moonstar

Cria #1 in 2011 - Dark Star (mom - 'Greta)

Cria #2 in 2012 - Cassidy (mom - Bella Oak)

Cria #3 in 2012 - The Eleven (mom - 'Greta)

Cria #4 in 2015 - Ripple (mom - 'Greta)

Purchased in 2020 - Ramble on Rose

Purchased in 2021, first Huacaya alpaca - Peggy-O

Cria #5 in 2022 - Cherise (mom - Peggy-O)

Year-End Alpaca Gifts

At the end of the school year, students are likely to show up with extraordinary alpaca-related thank you gifts. This year was no exception.

The first gift was from a senior whose grandmother crocheted this beautiful set of alpacas for me! They remind me of the late Moonstar and her younger "nephew" Dark Star. This student is far from forgettable, but this pair seals the memory forever. 

The second gift was from a new 6th grade violist. During her recess hour, she learned quilling and decided to make an alpaca. Derpy is clearly another Moonstar reference, as I'm sure I told stories in class! Although "Zazzy" brings to mind the Big Bang Theory episode in which Sheldon gets too many cats, names them after famous scientists, except for the one that has a "zazzy" personality!

Here is a detail of the quilling. So much work! Lovely.

Finally, my birthday is close to the end of school and my mother-in-law found these amazing llama/alpaca slippers at LL Beans and got them for me as a gift. I saw her the day after school let out, so it also felt like a year-end gift. They have been super comfy to lounge in during summer break!

 Summer is crashing to a close at the moment, but big thank you's for all the thoughtful gifts!

Syzygy

SYZYGY: noun, a conjunction or opposition, especially the moon with the sun. "The planets were aligned in syzygy."

April 8, 2024, a day I had been eagerly awaiting for several years, came together most beautifully: e-learning day at school, three day visit from two besties from my Colorado years, and the perfect weather for a total solar eclipse!

The weekend started with two airport runs (thanks, airline screw-ups), and so we started the weekend in Indianapolis at the the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art and wandering around downtown and along the canal. 

This incredible carving of a bird in the museum was made out of a musk ox horn. 

And the musk ox carved out of stone. 

And incredible paintings! This one called Stillwater Crossing by Daniel Smith was so unbelievably life-like. What a treasure!

Sunday started with a huge risk: baking popovers with and without gluten. Boy, did they pop!! The secret - don’t open the oven door… They we delicious!

Alpaca visits after breakfast! They weren’t quite as hungry, but we all had patience to hand feed them until they slowly finished all their grain. 

On Monday, the weather looked great for viewing in the neighborhood, but the continuous eye on the NYT up-to-the-second weather map around lunch indicated that we were better off going with the original plan A to avoid slight cloud cover at the house. We raced to the Cardinal Greenway bike trail and hiked to the center of totality near Losantville. 

We set up next to the road and waited, enjoyed, and were awed by the changes we experienced. The light started to get very weird the closer we got to totality. It felt like something was on my glasses and needed to be wiped away. 

The air cooled significantly. I was hot in the sweater initially, but almost wished for a jacket the darker it got. The wind picked up a bit. We started hearing bugs get more active in the grass and peepers in a pond started chirping. The following images were taken on a phone with eclipse glasses in front of the lens. 

And then it got truly DARK 360° around us! Twilight was on every horizon all around the edges of the fields. We were super close to the road, and traffic stopped for the duration of darkness. I caught the light disappearing in a 360 video I took. The phone camera lightened everything, so the feeling of the darkness was not caught completely. It was amazing to see the solar flares on the edges of the sun, a complete surprise! The whole experience was magical and difficult to capture in words and images. It was awe-inspiring and beautiful! My whole school was elated for the rest of the week. Remarkable and special!

And just as soon as the sun came out on the other side of the moon, daylight was once again super bright. The change was immediate, even getting dark featured a longer time with the murky light. 

Small joke! 😉

And a few maps. The small purple “x” shows where we watched the eclipse. 

And the years each part of Indiana had seen a total eclipse before April 8:

Finally, a video of the totality by the Ball State Planetarium.

Several photos are the works of EB and NW. Thanks for sharing the best weekend with me!
 

Friends, Foes, and Flowers

The Herd made some new friends this past weekend! They were excited to get some grain snacks. The girls are looking wistfully at Dark Star’s good fortune. 

Not to worry though, Cherise stepped right up for her turn at the bucket. Peggy-O did not partake, though it may be a bit hard to see with that mop on her head.

One thing they all agreed upon was that those dogs are under suspicion. The alpacas are standing guard and have a few choice scary clickety-clicks to share with the four-legged guests. 

But not to worry, those girls were tied up safely at the other end of the pasture, enjoying a snooze and the occasional wrestling! (And super adorable. I did not capture a still shot, sadly.)

Finally, here are some spring flowers to mark their dates of bloom. March 25

March 10

March 15

Enjoy the changing season!