Happy Halloween!

As is typical with our kids (most kids?), ideas for Halloween costumes come at the very last minute. This morning found me fashioning a beard for Robert's costume for school. He's dressed as a "famous" hobo that used to frequent our small town, I'm told.

The beard is not of alpaca, but some BFL (Blue-faced Leiceister sheep's wool) that I got from my friend, Dianne. It is beautiful fiber and I still plan to do "something" with it... this is the something for now!

I have spent the last while scouring my photo files for a picture of the time that Robert had to dress up as a President- he was George Washington and we made a wig together out of white alpaca rovings, it was a hoot!

I needle-felted these pumpkins out of hand-dyed alpaca fiber.

Everyone have a Happy Halloween, and remember to use what you have on hand!

Felting Class Fun

Things have been going much more smoothly on the farm lately, with the recent felting class being one of the highlights. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures since I was teaching, but here are a few.
The best part was the fun and energetic attendees, which included an artist, an alpaca breeder wanna-be, and some current alpaca breeders with varied backgrounds in working with fiber. Planning the timing for a 4-hour class which included several demos and hands-on was a bit tricky the first time, especially considering what a chatty group we had! All in all, everything worked out fine and I think everyone had a good time. Each participant took home a few small finished projects as well as some door prizes.
One of the husbands had to try it, too, when he came to pick up his wife and I think he enjoyed the needle felting immensely!

You can be sure that I'll be scheduling more classes in the near future- let me know what you'd like to see the most! This was a beginner's overview class (of which I'll offer another) but future topics will include Felting a Hat, Nuno-felting, and a specialized needle felting course.
Thank you very to each person who attended, and I hope to see you at future classes!

Images from a week on the farm....

Always Learning

Isn't that what life is all about? Sometimes we don't learn things in time (that's called The School of Hard Knocks), but we tuck away those tidbits to apply in future situations.... That's all I can glean from the rather bad experience we went through with Maisy. She's the alpaca dam that we thought was perhaps going to have twins.... I'll write in more detail about it soon, but I'll just say here that we had almost the worst possible outcome. Maisy died and there were no twins, but we do have a male bottle-baby. Again, more details in time because I do have some helpful things to share about prolapsed uterus, bottle-feeding, and working with your vet. It's still a bit raw for me to talk about.

Okay, on a happier note!!!! One of my goals for the year has been to do more felting and subsequently more teaching here. As many of you know, I have lots of fiber interests- knitting, spinning, dyeing, and best of all for me, FELTING! I'd love to have you join me for this upcoming class on Sunday, October 18th! (If anyone can explain to me how I can insert a flyer such as this below so that it can be downloaded and printed, please let me know!) If you'd like for me to send this to you as an attachment, please just email me. Hope to see you there!

Change in the SCENERY

As I've mentioned in other posts, my word of the year is ADAPT, and it's been one of those cases of "Be careful what you wish for." Flexibility and thinking on my feet has been a necessity time and time again this year.

We have chosen NOT to go to Shaker Village this weekend as originally planned, but to have our own Alpaca Farm Day here at Seldom Scene Farm after all. The weather is very iffy for Saturday, and the ground will still be soggy on Sunday. After sitting through rain and trying to keep alpacas and merchandise dry last Sunday at Midway, we have decided it will just be better to invite people HERE, rain or shine.... and it's FREE! Our new barn is comfortable and dry, a lovely spot overlooking the fish pond, and a nice place to come learn more about alpacas and their fiber.
Please come out and see us AND our newest cria (above) on either Saturday, September 26th OR Sunday, September 27th between 12 and 3. I'll have apple cider and cookies available, fiber products, alpacas for sale, and will do a quick felting demo each day at 2:00. You can pet the alpacas, take a farm tour, or buy Christmas presents in our farm store! As a potential bonus, we have an alpaca due right NOW and after examining her, our vet thinks she may be carrying twins. After having over 400 births here in the past 14 years, we've never had twins so this could be a historic occasion! Complications with twins are common, however all we can do is be prepared and hope for the best (the dam, Maisy, is an excellent mother and milker so hopefully all will be well). We are watching her constantly on our barn cams.

Hope to see you on Saturday or Sunday, don't hesitate to call for information or directions at 859-428-8883.

Sunday Morning Blog Roll

Although I was looking forward to sleeping in the morning before heading to the Midway Festival, I guess I've been on such a roll that I woke early anyway. I love catching up with my blogs on a Sunday morning, and here are some cool things I found today...


A lovely wedding was held in England yesterday, feast your eyes on wedding festivities and alpacas combined on Rob's Alpaca Blog.


Here's a fun fact I learned regarding whether or not alpacas have more bones in their neck than humans, read about it on Debbie's Alpaca Blog.


This is an awesome photo from the Popham Alpaca Blog. (Beware!)


As always, I enjoy reading AlpacaFarmGirls' blog, and try to participate in each week's Fiber Arts Friday- check it out! The last one included information about raising silkworms to grown your own silk!

Adapting to the Seasons

It's that time of year again that I love (officially starting tomorrow!), the transitional season of fall. I love the fall wildflowers, the hint of color on the trees, the bucks in velvet (the young one above should be quite majestic in the next year or two), and the cool nights.

One of my favorite activities in autumn is the Midway Fall Festival. As always, we'll be there with alpacas, fiber, yarn, and finished products including hand-felted shalwls and scarves, socks, etc! Many of the recent projects I've highlighted on my blogs will be available. Hope you can make it out! (Check out the website for hours, activities, and directions).

It's always fun to follow tradition, and the seasons bring out that feeling of comfortable repetition. BUT, as these current times remind us, we all need to ADAPT! (That's my word of the year, in fact, and it has been extremely timely in many ways!). With that spirit in mind, here's a past and current project I'd like to share.
This is a purse that I knitted and felted from alpaca and wool a few years ago. I was making a lot of these then, and they were literally flying off the shelves. It finally hit me that the colors in this one were just a bit much for most people (including me!) I decided to challenge myself to re-dyeing it, and was pretty pleased when this is what came out of the dyepot!!!! (I soaked it in water, then overdyed it with a greyish and orange mixture). It will be fun to see whether or not it sells this fall!