Alpaca Shearing

This morning was an extra early morning were I was out of the house shortly after 8:30am. I'm *not* a morning person so this was amazing for me. Cindy helped out with a Dutch Brothers Mocha. I just had to wait for it to cool enough to drink. ;-)

I picked up Cindy and Bobbie and we headed over to Islay Hill Alpaca Ranch where the llama shearing was already in progress. I have photos of of the llamas and alpacas here.

I did do a few videos. One I decide just wasn't showing much so didn't put up. The first one is the longest and the one I learned that alpacas spit. You can see me getting spit at and then further spitting. We all learned quickly to move if one of the alpacas started giving you the gimlet eye proceeding the spitting. It was like it was our fault they were having this indignity done to them.

This is the longer one:


Shorter one:


Towards the end we were taking the samples and labeling bags for the blankets and second cuts, sweeping and raking and encouraging the alpacas out of the barn after they were done. Yea, you would think after all the complaining they would be 'so out of there' but some had to be guided out. Then with the boys they would come back to check out the next one being done.

I was ready to be done by the time they were all done. My migraine medication had worn off and heat was starting to add to things. Cindy also needed to be home to do some transcription work.

Shelia brought home my Lendrum this evening after helping Morgaine break down her stuff from TKGA. Brandon put it together and Bobbie explained things to me, but my head bobbled things a bit so it was a slow start. I did start getting things going but will practice more in the morning with a head hopefully not pounding.

an author (long so split into smaller ones)

Last Tuesday for the Yarn Harlot's visit, I managed to acquire 64 points for the Portland Inexplicable Knitting Behavior Scavenger Hunt. I spent waaaaay too much time on making a Google map of my endeavors, putting photos on easily viewable printed pages to discover that Blue Moon Fiber Arts people did a simple - Those of you who earned 5 points please stand (we received a nice pin for this), continue standing if you have 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 (there were five of us standing at this point), 65 (I had to sit down - put Wait! They noticed this and asked how many I had "64", so they had me come up and get a skein of yarn from the overflowing tote they had up front - I scored a beautiful Silkie Socks That Rock skein, valued at $24). They continued on until there was one person standing, Susan with 88 points. She had maps, many maps and had planned it all out.

But I forget, before this was the acquisition of more photos, you can see them at the web albums linked previously. Picking up something to eat and heading to the MAX station. The car I was sitting in did not appear to have any other knitters on board. Getting off at the Zoo there were four others just before 5pm. We walked through the pouring rain to get to Miller Hall at the Forestry Center where luckily they were opening the doors to let people inside. This is where someone didn't put a lot of thought into the layout. You had to go by the yarn, special one for the event with $3 going to Doctors Without Borders, the colorway called 'Knitters Without Borders' and you were limited to one skein per person and picking up your copy of the current book, and any other past ones you wanted to add to your library. (I forgot one of mine at home, darn it!) Then the long line came if you were doing a credit purchase. I could have made money charging to let people go through the line to get into the seating area. Lots of money.

Then there was the two hour wait before Stephanie came out to talk. That's where I was the abnormal person. Everyone else is pulling out their knitting and getting started. Me, I'm people watching and checking out what people are knitting, and really some of the interesting people that showed up. There were even, men, who came to see her talk. Okay, there were a couple that came with their significant others, I'm not sure if they came willingly or not, I didn't ask. I did talk to Bob, you can see him in the pictures I took wearing a blue and green cardigan that he designed himself, in line. Very amusing and fun to talk with as he knitted from his 'emergency knitting' he'd brought in from the car just as Stephanie was talking about just such a thing. It was a hat that hadn't fit the way he wanted so he was redoing.

I saved a seat for Camille who was coming from grad classes at PSU. By the time she arrived, it would have been challenging finding a seat. It was fun chatting with her and by then I was ready to pull out my knitting. I brought my 'sock in progress' but I wasn't going to start on that there, so I had also brought my 'Odessa' hat. I worked on it during most of the talk and then put it away towards the end. The long wait came during the signing portion. They were going to do it by rows but that quickly went bye bye. So I jumped in line behind Sarah and crew from Knit/Purl which also had Bob with them and chatted with them through the line. I have photos of their simulation of a 'Charlie's Angel's' type knitting pose in the Yarn Harlot photo album. Along with a couple photos of Camille and her first sock with Stephanie. I gave Stephanie some stitch markers, she quickly recognized would be good for socks (my intention) and had my book signed. I didn't ask to have my photo taken with her, I really hate having my picture taken, but I kind of regret it now.

Nessa, knitting, nothing much else

Okay, there was a little "n" thing going on in the title.

Nessa has been under the weather since last Tuesday. She stopped eating. This is the little girl who hasn't met a food she doesn't like, so this was a HUGE indicator that something was wrong with her. Noticed she was running a fever, found some homeopathic sulfur in the med cabinet and tried that with her. Thought I would give her a day or so to see if she would bounce back. Well Thursday she still wasn't eating and still running a fever. Brandon wanted me to see Dr. Ulbrich at Holistic Pet Vet Clinic over going to the local allopathic doctor. Since he is the main breadwinner, I went with his option. They unfortunately weren't able to get us in until Friday afternoon. She was running a temp of 104.7. No vomiting, was drinking water, and some diarrhea. Dr. U wanted to take blood and also took a fecal sample (tiny as it was). No parasites showed up in the sample, but her blood was dark and thick, showing that she was a little dehydrated.

While waiting for Will to finish his written test for his permit (finally), Dr. U called back saying that she had over 31,000 white blood cells running around (high average is 15) and that she is clearly fighting off some type of infection. Her thyroid and kidneys were also showing low so he wanted to get her an antibiotic and support for both of those. So after Will gets his permit we swing by HPVC to pick up the new supply of meds and head home. Do you know how much fun it is trying to get 12 different meds down a dog that doesn't want you to? Thankfully they had also given me a couple of syringes so that I could get the pedialyte and beef broth into and so they helped ease the way of the capsules and pills and powdered stuff.

Saturday I did get out of the house while the D&D game was going on. I met Camille at the Fairgrounds MAX stopped and we talked our way to Knit Purl for another night of inventory work. Another $20 on my gift card and I'm back up to $24. Camille splurged and bought some gorgeous (not just because I helped) Shibuiknits Silk Cloud - silk and mohair. She plans to make them into a shawl. I'm saving mine. I think though I have found what I'd like to get with the addition of another $20 - some Habu Textiles Bamboo lace weight. Two skeins of it and I'd be set for the Cleopatra shawl in my queue, plus some leftover for another project...

Just spent some time doing an added benefit for me in my queue - making sure that my notes all have the type of yarn and yardage needed. That way its an easy scan, not a 'must look up first'. Okay, it was a distraction because of looking for yarns and projects that could be supplemented with the Gemini birthday gift swap. But it's how I found the bamboo lace weight. I will hopefully work another shift of inventory at Knit-Purl to help buy it too. I can also then pick up what I've outlined for my giftee in Denmark.

I need to get started on a sock. That way I can participate in Blue Moon's Inexplicable Knitting Behavior contest. They call it a Scavenger Hunt, but it's not like we'll actually find items at the locations, we have to take photos of our sock at those locations.

My recent photos are here. Yarn and finished projects are in the April 2008 albums.