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...

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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!

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Summertime routine... not!

After five jam-packed days in Cleveland of showing and selling alpacas, networking, learning new things, shopping, and camping in our RV on a parking lot, I had hoped to have at least one little quiet day.... not! We had our 3rd cria within a few days (male, but one of the best-looking fleeces I've seen on a cria), the kids have lots going on, and this morning our water well pump went out. It always takes a while to get into our summer groove, so I guess I need to be patient.

The AOBA National Show and World Alpaca Conference really was great, and I am SOOO glad I went! It was so fun reconnecting with people, and I think it's always good to learn new things. It's just very motivating! Fiber and all of the awesome things that people are doing with their fiber was probably the most exciting thing to realize. The Fashion Show was great as always, and featured both commercial and handmade items! (See guy in alpaca coat and scarf at top, be sure to look at coat, not just guy!)

One of the new things I learned about was these giant needles, at the booth of BagSmith. I bought a pair of Size 50's (plus 35's for i-cord), as well as a very cool pattern book for making rugs, shawls, bags, etc. It looks like I could be going through a lot of my giant yarn stash very soon!

I've been wanting to "relearn" how to crochet- they make giant crochet hooks, too!

The definite highlight of the conference was winning our first National banner- Brown Female Color Champion with XXXtremely Sweet! We purchased her dam at the Snowmass Auction last year, and it was a very affirming selection! Her dam just gave us the mentioned cria on Monday, and he looks to have the same potential.

Out other alpacas did really well in the show, and we sold our auction girl! Check out this little movie to see Man of Steel (co-owned with Catalpa Creek)being shorn after showing. His color change from before to after is really cool. Pin It Now!