March 11, 2007

Can you guess what this is?

This, my darlings, is almost two pounds of alpaca! There is a re enactment group at the Ren Festival every year and they set up a camp and cook all their food, etc., as well as spin, weave, etc. One of their group had bought alpaca to spin. She found she was allergic to it so she bagged it up and sold it. For $8. I got almost two pounds of raw alpaca for $8!

It's pretty clean, although I will spread all of it out today and check it. I may just be able to pick out the vegetable matter (VM) and card it. If not, I'll wash it once just to get the dust out and then card.

I was a very good girl and knit part of the way both up and back to the festival. I have less than an inch left on the cuff of the second sock and then put the heels in!

This is the Swan ride at the Ren Festival. It's totally human powered. That grungy young fellow on the left and his buddy push the swing back and forth until it gets about 8 feet off the ground. No big deal, but it adds to the ambiance of the Festival.

F, B and I had a great time at the Festival. We watched three shows. Zilch the Storyteller transposes beginning consonants on words to create hilarious fairy tales; the two nuns in Hey Nunnie Nunnie! cast an irreverent look at Catholicism/Christianity. Irreverent enough to be funny, but not to be offensive; and Cast in Bronze is a musician playing a medieval instrument called a carrillon.

He played among others, Carol of the Bells (one of my very favorites) and Tubular Bells (better known as the theme for the Exorcist). We sat a little too close, but it still was absolutely wonderful.

Oh, and F got his chocolate covered strawberries. Lots and lots of chocolate covered strawberries!