During my trip we visited several yarn stores and I showed great restraint buying limited quantities of stash enhancement.
On Thursday, S and I took a little drive out to Waldoboro to Village Farm Alpacas (which is a farm store, but primarily an alpaca breeder). While I would strongly discourage anyone from taking children here (in fact the owner was pretty nasty about kids, quite intolerant), the farm was lovely. Here's a pic of the shop just so you can get a sense of the yarn.
All the yarn they sell is 100% alpaca and the wool is from their own animals which I thought was quite nice (I wanted to purchase some locally grown wool while I was in Maine and this fit the bill). You can get a sense of the colors of the yarns from the pictures... all natural colors, no dyes. They do blend colors from different animals to get the variations in browns and especially the grey. They were beautiful.
More beautiful... the adorable little animals.
I had no idea how small alpaca were or how cute.
They had several adult animals as well as some babies.
Just tooooooo cute! I was suprised to find that there wasn't much sheep farming, but from a Maine fiber guide we got at the farm it does appear that there are a number of alpaca farms.
In addition to alpaca visits, there was also some knitting time. We had one glorious rainy day -- you have to realize that for us LA-ers, rain is something to be appreciated! It was perfect for curling up on the couch and knitting.
I was also able to deliver Bubby to my new friend Josh.
And then of course I had to immediately start another gift for the little guy. This time a wee sweater (of course not small enough for him to fit into right away... grin).
With all my travel time (did I mention that in addition to being delayed three hours on the trip there we also got stranded in Cleveland on the way home and had to spend the night there.... grrrr), I also finished my toe up socks. Yeah!!!
S likes to call the shot above the wicked witch of the west pose.
I have to say I was glad to get these done. Socks take a long time in my opinion. The leg... all that K1 P1 ribbing... yucky. All in all, I am pleased with how they came out... very colorful. I'm pleased to say now that I feel confident in both top-down and toe-up methods... good progress on my 2007 new year's resolutions too.
Toe-up Socks with Peasant Heel by Joan McGowan-Michael (received during sock class)
less than 2 balls of Cascade Fixation (98.3% cotton, 1.7% elastic)
Color 9054 Lot 210183
US size 3 bamboo dpns
first sock cast on June 24, 2007
second sock finished July 30, 2007
3 comments:
How cute those alpaca are! I saw a place online that sells them, and they aren't cheap, especially if you want a breeder. Glad you got your local fiber purchase in too! Thanks for sharing your pictures. Maybe I'll see you at the next SNB.
Gorgeous Alapacas and yarn, but the owner being unhappy with children is quite unnessecesary I think. Wouldn't make me want to go.
Love your pictures! The farm looks neat -- I can understand the owners not being thrilled about parents letting their kids run wild, but well-bahaved children shouldn't really be a problem. I wonder if they've had some bad experiences in the past?
Post a Comment