Sadness and Alpacas

It has been a long, tiring weekend here in Wisconsin. The roommate of a good friend of me and my husband passed away very suddenly this past week at the age of 25. Husband and I have spent a lot of time at the hospital and with our friend this weekend, culminating in a memorial service for Mike on Sunday at the Chemistry Department where we all work. The whole thing has been a shock, and I'm sure that any thoughts and prayers directed at Mike's family, friends and coworkers would be greatly appreciated.

I was lucky to get out away from everything for a little while and meet up with some Ravelry friends at the Midwest Alpaca Festival. I mean, how can such cute animals not induce a smile?


I think these alpaca thought that I was weird for taking a photo of them, those silly alpacas.


The friends who went to the festival with me are all from the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry. I'm still amazed at how my internet friends are slowly transitioning to be real life friends. One of our group was actually demoing that day and gave lessons to my two friends who have never used a spinning wheel before. We all went home with a piece of handspun to show off--mine coming from a few minutes test driving a very nice Lendrum wheel.


While it was great to see the alpacas and learn to spin, the group really went to see the vendors! Since it was an alpaca festival, I scored some beautiful chocolate brown roving from an alpaca named Mojo. I also bought 2 ounces of camel fiber at a great price to see how it spins up, as well as 8 ounces of this wonderfully tweedy red roving. And since I picked up a new drive band (and a spare) at the festival, I am all set to get spinning!