April '08 Meeting

Hello again,

I can't believe I finally got the "Shearing Day" post done. It took me four days to do it. Now I know how to post videos. Yahoo!!! It's not that hard to do but it takes a while to download the video though. Don't get me wrong ... I love doing the posts for this blog. I just didn't realize it would take that long. :)

O.K. let's see if I can remember what happened at our last meeting ... Oh, yeah. We had fun seeing a hat and scarf that Sherry had crocheted for her daughter in California. I should have taken a picture of them to show you all. I think I did good to remember to take a picture of all of us before anyone left the meeting this time. I'll try to do better next time I promise. :)

Leah showed us some great deals she got on some knitting books and supplies from Tuesday Morning on JFK. Judy and I went there after the meeting to take a look at what they had. We found several crochet books for $4.99 each. I couldn't help but get one. That's a great price for a hardback book.

Here's the picture we had taken at this meeting:


I called all the yarn shops we're going to visit on our trip to Memphis today. They are all going to be open on both days (April 18th and April 19th) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here's a list of the shops:

Stash Knitting
Yarniverse
Rainbow Yarn & Fiber
Yarn To Go

There is another yarn shop right outside of Memphis called "Hank Of Yarn" that we may visit if we have the time. It's a new store that I hadn't heard about before but when I called Stash Knitting they told me about it. They also told me that another yarn shop that was located right outside of Memphis called "That Yarn Shop" was closed now. I was planning on us going to that shop if we had time that day. I'm glad she told me about them closing. I hope to hear from everyone who can come on the trip soon. Once we decide on the date we're going I'll email everyone with where we're meeting and at what time we are leaving.

Hope to see everyone soon,

Opal

Shearing Day '08

Hello everyone,

Wow, has it only been 2 1/2 weeks since the "Shearing Day" at Millennial Way Farm? It doesn't seem like it. It seems like it's been longer. Well, I should have posted about this right after it happened but time just got away from me. I had a great time there. I have lots of pictures and video to show you. The first thing Judy and I did when we got there was watch them shear the sheep. Here are some pictures I took of them shearing the sheep:




Here's a picture of the sheep after they were sheared:


I meet a nice person named Dayna while we were watching the sheep being sheared. I found out we both used ravelry.com. I invited her to start coming to our meetings. She said she use to meet with some people in Maumelle but it wasn't convenient to go to their meetings anymore.

Also, while they were shearing the sheep we got to watch someone demonstrate handspinning. The lady doing the demo is married to the man who did the shearing. Here's a picture of her spinning:


The next thing we looked at while we were there were the baby lambs. Here's Judy holding one of them:


Here's a picture of the lambs in their pen:


Here's Marla petting one:


This one is my favorite! I couldn't help but take this one. The baby and the lamb together is just too cute. :)


The next thing we watched was the alpacas being sheared. At this point I remembered that my camera also had a video feature. How dumb of me to remember this after they were done shearing the sheep. Oh, well. At least I did remember it in time to use it to video the alpaca shearing. Here's the before and after pictures of the alpacas:








The first one shown being sheared was a young male alpaca and the second one was female. Here's the video I took of the male being sheared:



After they sheared the female they put it in a stall with the male alpaca. I started recording when they did this thinking I would get video of them after they were sheared. Well, what I didn't know was that the male alpaca would jump on the female right after they let her loose in the stall. When this happens apparently the female will spit. You guessed it. I got spit on by an alpaca. I didn't get very much on me but poor Dayna was standing right next to me and she got a lot more on her. I would put this video on the blog but I don't think the blogger people would like it. After we got spit on we decided to go to the gift shop. They had angora rabbits for sale there. Here are some pictures of them:




They had handspun yarn and wool that was ready to be spun for sale there too. Here's the pictures I took of them:




They had other things for sale there too but I plan on doing a review of the gift shop in the future. So, I'll leave that info for later.

The last thing we saw before we left was a spinning demonstration. Mallory did the demonstration. I asked her if she was the one who posted on ravelry about the "Shearing Day" and she told me she did. Here's a picture of her spinning:


And here's a video of her spinning:



And last but not least here are the pictures we had taken of us while we were there:






Now that's the longest post I've done so far. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures and videos. Sorry it took me so long to post them.

Enjoy!

Opal