Angoras and Alpacas and Llamas

Oh my!

On Friday I took a little "mental health" day from work and headed up to Fletcher, NC with my friend Stephanie for SAFF, the Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival. I'd never been before but we had a great time.

The vending floor
The fleece sale
Steph and I sat and watched people examining the fleeces while we ate lunch. I don't know a whole lot about fleece but I am learning more from reading other people's blogs (check out Sock PrØn for some really good information on fleeces).

The food
I think there is an unspoken rule that when you go to any fair type venue you have to eat the most nutritionally lacking food you can find. The chilli dog might have been so good that I ate a second one.

There were lots of animals:
Alpacas
I really liked this guy. He had this cute little quivering lip and the softest looking ear tufts.
Steph and I both got a handful of hay to try and feed them but they were more interested in eating out of the big feed bag.

Llamas
Say "cheese"!
This guy was really interested in me. He came up and stuck his nose right by my hand and inhaled for a good 20 seconds. He kind of scared me and I pulled away which made him a little put off. He retreated to a corner and sulked the rest of the time Steph and I were visiting him.

And angora bunnies
I loved the seeing the rabbits. When I was a little girl my parents got me a rabbit, a brown and white Holland Lop that I named Benjamin. He had this awesome run in our backyard that my grandfather had built and I used to feed him clover through the bars of his cage. One year we entered him in the state fair and he won second place. Unfortunately, one day when I was at school Benjamin kicked out one of the sides of his hutch and escaped (at least this is what I have always been told). Seeing these little puff balls made me want to get another bunny. I liked the orangy brown ones best because they look like Penelope, just in rabbit form. Plus, angora fur is the softest thing I've ever touched! I have a super sensitive neck but I think I might actually be able to make a scarf with angora yarn (which I just happened to pick up :) ) and wear it.

Speaking of yarn....
I did make a few purchases. Mostly sock yarn and all unique dyers. I didn't want to buy anything I could get at my LYS. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will soon and I promise to post.

Going to SAFF was a whole lot of fun and it also energized me to get working on my store more diligently. I have some new yarns to post and I need to get the next batch of yarn ready to dye (it's still in a great big box in my living room). This week I will hopefully get some of that tackled, all while getting ready for a Halloween party on Saturday night. Wish me luck!

You Have 15 Minutes

I was trying to post this blog in 15 minutes before I had to go meet some friends for dinner. Unfortunately I was also trying to use iTunes for the first time on my new computer and knit on a sweater vest. Needless to say, I did not get this posted before I had to leave but I present it to you now for your reading pleasure.

This morning I took a little jaunt into Atlanta to the fabulous yarn store Knitch.

I bought lots of yarn (which I will show you in a minute). I also went to Belly which is a wonderful little general store/deli on the corner in front of Knitch. They were out of their delicious sesame seed bagels so I had to settle on a plain one which was almost as good. I forgot to take a picture of the outside but inside on the window sills they were growing potato plants which I found quite intriguing.
The yarn was wonderful, of course, and I think I spent almost 2 hours in there trying to decide what I should get. I finally decided on some Shepherd's Wool (8 skeins) for a sweater I'm looking to make.
I think this is the softest 100% wool I have ever felt in my whole life. Not scratchy at all.

Some organic cotton and some alpaca for a swap through Ravelry.
And when I got home some yarn I had dyed was dry.

These are little left over skeins of sock yarn. About 75 yards. I used them to check my dye to water ratios and try and figure out the perfect combination. I think I got it right this time because these came out quite lovely.

A skein with brown, black, teal, watermelon, and bright orange.
A rainbow skein with brilliant blue, grey, lilac, shamrock, bright red, and yellow.
On the way home I saw this sign in the back window of a car being driven by middle aged Asian man (click to make big).

It says "New Drever." And apparently "New Speller" as well. God bless him.