A is for Alpaca
The Carolina Alpaca Celebration was held in Concord, NC over this weekend this year, and so Aimee, Cristi, Dani and I took the opportunity to crash it today (Sunday).
Three of us met in Matthews, piled into one car, and drove up to meet Dani there. From where we were, we had to take a few roads that seemed to lead into nowhere, North Carolina.
We went from this...
...to this..
...to this...
You see? You see how the cars all like.. disappeared?
But, eventually, we got there!
We first took a lookie-loo at the adorable alpacas in the livestock exhibit section:
So much fuzzy love..
But alas, I already have two furbutts, plus currently one foster. Granted, they're dogs, but I can also harvest their undercoat for spinning. And David explicitly said I couldn't come home with any livestock.
No mention about fiber or yarn, you see. I can live with that.
After cooing over the furbeasties, we trudged past the competition hall and to where the vendors were because, well, we are knitters and we shall purchase. Last year, Cristi, Heather and I had visited Dianne's booth but she couldn't make it this year and it really did feel significantly empty without her! There was quite a bit of lovely alpaca yarn for sale at wonderful prices but I was able to resist adding more to my stash despite Aimee's urging (She is Teh Evol Enabler). I could not justify a purchase for any project in my queue. However, I couldn't walk away from a nice cabled alpaca tunic sweater which was priced obscenely low. 100% black baby alpaca, y'all. With cabling. True, it is more a manufactured piece as opposed to hand-made by chaste virgins, sitting by candlelight, and listening to folk music, but damn, y'all, I can't sneeze at a price of 40 bucks. Technically, I bought fiber, but it's already a Finished Object :)
We then left for lunch at a nearby El Vallarta before eventually parting ways to resume the rest of our weekends.
I'm very psyched that I still have a day off tomorrow, since it's Presidents' Day. It's times like these that I'm happy to work for a financial institution *grin*
Three of us met in Matthews, piled into one car, and drove up to meet Dani there. From where we were, we had to take a few roads that seemed to lead into nowhere, North Carolina.
We went from this...
...to this..
...to this...
You see? You see how the cars all like.. disappeared?
But, eventually, we got there!
We first took a lookie-loo at the adorable alpacas in the livestock exhibit section:
So much fuzzy love..
But alas, I already have two furbutts, plus currently one foster. Granted, they're dogs, but I can also harvest their undercoat for spinning. And David explicitly said I couldn't come home with any livestock.
No mention about fiber or yarn, you see. I can live with that.
After cooing over the furbeasties, we trudged past the competition hall and to where the vendors were because, well, we are knitters and we shall purchase. Last year, Cristi, Heather and I had visited Dianne's booth but she couldn't make it this year and it really did feel significantly empty without her! There was quite a bit of lovely alpaca yarn for sale at wonderful prices but I was able to resist adding more to my stash despite Aimee's urging (She is Teh Evol Enabler). I could not justify a purchase for any project in my queue. However, I couldn't walk away from a nice cabled alpaca tunic sweater which was priced obscenely low. 100% black baby alpaca, y'all. With cabling. True, it is more a manufactured piece as opposed to hand-made by chaste virgins, sitting by candlelight, and listening to folk music, but damn, y'all, I can't sneeze at a price of 40 bucks. Technically, I bought fiber, but it's already a Finished Object :)
We then left for lunch at a nearby El Vallarta before eventually parting ways to resume the rest of our weekends.
I'm very psyched that I still have a day off tomorrow, since it's Presidents' Day. It's times like these that I'm happy to work for a financial institution *grin*