spaazliciousMonday, January 09, 2006
Happy Sunday (way too many pics, sorry dialup dollies, but I did do tags for the pics, not the same but a stab at it really)
Nancy, Cristina, Mary-Kay, Heidi, Hilari and I met up at The Linkery for pre-Critter Crawl lunch and it was quite good.
Nancy is quite frankly a pervert, as her plate proves:
After enjoying the foodie show, we piled into Mary-Kay's mommobile and meandered out to Crest, home of A Simpler Time, an alpaca farm and fiber processing mill.
We met a little Nubian goatgirl who was such a little sweetie, I may have to amend my poultry resolution to include livestock in general.
One reason I liked her so much I think, is that she was a near dead ringer for Molly, one of the Nubians I had for 4-H.
I learned that it is pretty much impossible to take a good pic of a black cria nursing its black mother from a distance.
They were quite outgoing when the feeding scoop appeared and ate from hands without eating fingers.
I love the way their hair poofs out like fantastic bangs. I really wish I could get my hair just like the one who's got her face jammed into the feeding scoop.
They are very photogenic little buggers. And about as soft as they look.
And one (I've forgotten her name) was also quite a good kisser who took a shine to Mary-Kay.
Nancy tried to sneak up on their champion stud for a snog, but being an alpaca of the world, he was a wary one:
The guard llamas were a little less, er, cute.
Although, maybe they fall into the so ugly they're cute category? I love the goofy lines of this guy. Lovely legs, eh? And the white splash on the chest reminds me of a very foofy ruffly shirt peeking out from a suit coat.
Sorry, I just love these teeth.
One last llama pic, but pay attention to the cutie in the foreground. Her name is Peaches, and I bought 10.4 oz of her fiber at the little fiber festival in October of last year.
I thought I'd bought 14 oz. but I looked up the Oct 16th entry and see I was mistaken; dangitall, these online diaries are handy for that sort of thing.
I bought a pound of fiber from an animal named "Leloo" who has moved up to Washington, so we didn't get a chance to meet him, but I am hoping that the total of 27 oz. of alpaca will be enough to have something lovely out of it.
I'm hoping for a worsted weight in the end I think, or maybe DK. Since there will be about six ounces of Leloo left over, I can ply it together for a contrast color with the two-colored two ply maybe, or spin the two at different weights to ply?
Anyway, a top down raglan with a fairly simple stitch pattern is in their future. My mother rocked the house and gave me the fourth and third stitch treasuries from Barbara Walker which I've been wanting ever since I saw it in the Knitting Basket at Lemon Grove for Christmas, and Epstein's Knitting Over the Edge, so there's lots of fun possibilities floating about in my head as I sit at the wheel.
I just hope I don't change my mind midspinning; that's always a bummer.
I guess that's what sampling is for, but sampling is the spinning version of swatching: A Very Good Time and Effort Saving Idea but also a bit of a pain.
Anyway, from there we went to Rebecca's coffee house and the Grove, where I further ignored my year goals by buying a skein of silky wool, some dpns, and reveling in the irony, a self-help book on managing money (it was on sale. ahem.). A bit of a goalbashing day, but I'm not pregnant and I don't have any live poultry about the place, so I'll call it a wash.
It was a very good day, and thanks go out to the Davies of A Simpler Time for showing us around and letting us play with their camelids and show us their mill (a separate post in itself). They are also dealers for Schacht, and have a matchless to try on site, so that's handy too.
And thanks to Mary-Kay for haulin' us around. I always have a really good time with you guys, I'll miss every one when we move. If it ever happens. Eureka seems to be out, Sacramento seems to be in.
Until then, looking forward to the next shopping trip--wildfibers in Santa Monica and LUSH? Some Saturday next month?
|
Nancy is quite frankly a pervert, as her plate proves:
After enjoying the foodie show, we piled into Mary-Kay's mommobile and meandered out to Crest, home of A Simpler Time, an alpaca farm and fiber processing mill.
We met a little Nubian goatgirl who was such a little sweetie, I may have to amend my poultry resolution to include livestock in general.
One reason I liked her so much I think, is that she was a near dead ringer for Molly, one of the Nubians I had for 4-H.
I learned that it is pretty much impossible to take a good pic of a black cria nursing its black mother from a distance.
They were quite outgoing when the feeding scoop appeared and ate from hands without eating fingers.
I love the way their hair poofs out like fantastic bangs. I really wish I could get my hair just like the one who's got her face jammed into the feeding scoop.
They are very photogenic little buggers. And about as soft as they look.
And one (I've forgotten her name) was also quite a good kisser who took a shine to Mary-Kay.
Nancy tried to sneak up on their champion stud for a snog, but being an alpaca of the world, he was a wary one:
The guard llamas were a little less, er, cute.
Although, maybe they fall into the so ugly they're cute category? I love the goofy lines of this guy. Lovely legs, eh? And the white splash on the chest reminds me of a very foofy ruffly shirt peeking out from a suit coat.
Sorry, I just love these teeth.
One last llama pic, but pay attention to the cutie in the foreground. Her name is Peaches, and I bought 10.4 oz of her fiber at the little fiber festival in October of last year.
I thought I'd bought 14 oz. but I looked up the Oct 16th entry and see I was mistaken; dangitall, these online diaries are handy for that sort of thing.
I bought a pound of fiber from an animal named "Leloo" who has moved up to Washington, so we didn't get a chance to meet him, but I am hoping that the total of 27 oz. of alpaca will be enough to have something lovely out of it.
I'm hoping for a worsted weight in the end I think, or maybe DK. Since there will be about six ounces of Leloo left over, I can ply it together for a contrast color with the two-colored two ply maybe, or spin the two at different weights to ply?
Anyway, a top down raglan with a fairly simple stitch pattern is in their future. My mother rocked the house and gave me the fourth and third stitch treasuries from Barbara Walker which I've been wanting ever since I saw it in the Knitting Basket at Lemon Grove for Christmas, and Epstein's Knitting Over the Edge, so there's lots of fun possibilities floating about in my head as I sit at the wheel.
I just hope I don't change my mind midspinning; that's always a bummer.
I guess that's what sampling is for, but sampling is the spinning version of swatching: A Very Good Time and Effort Saving Idea but also a bit of a pain.
Anyway, from there we went to Rebecca's coffee house and the Grove, where I further ignored my year goals by buying a skein of silky wool, some dpns, and reveling in the irony, a self-help book on managing money (it was on sale. ahem.). A bit of a goalbashing day, but I'm not pregnant and I don't have any live poultry about the place, so I'll call it a wash.
It was a very good day, and thanks go out to the Davies of A Simpler Time for showing us around and letting us play with their camelids and show us their mill (a separate post in itself). They are also dealers for Schacht, and have a matchless to try on site, so that's handy too.
And thanks to Mary-Kay for haulin' us around. I always have a really good time with you guys, I'll miss every one when we move. If it ever happens. Eureka seems to be out, Sacramento seems to be in.
Until then, looking forward to the next shopping trip--wildfibers in Santa Monica and LUSH? Some Saturday next month?
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