vicunas, decking and Mr Cute

we took a little mini vacation over the weekend

packed up the dog and took off for our daughter's house early Friday morning

on Saturday we headed off to Estes Park for Wool Market

we had heard that there would be all kinds of animals as well as the actual fiber vendors on hand

on the way, Mr Cute was entertaining himself my making faces at that kid in the mirror

last fall we had gone to the Alpaca Round Up at our end of the state, which was a pretty low key event (you can read about that trip here
one of the things we learned during that trip is that there are two kinds of alpacas --

the huacayas which look very much like big, long necked poodles because their fleece is fluffy (in fact at the Round Up there were some that had not had their heads shorn and their heads looked like big tootsie pops on top of their slender necks)


the other variety is a Suri

and their fleece looks like a corded poodle -- or dread locks

this little beauty is the first on of those I had ever seen -- adorable!

and notice these animals are not just in stalls on the dirt

that's a pretty nice looking rug this little Suri is laying on!


the barn over there were more traditional animal pens

and a number of goats

but not just any kind of goats

these are all Cashmire goats -- they have really interesting hair -- an incredibly soft downy undercoat and a coarser guard hair -- when the fiber gets spun you have to pick out those guard hairs first


and then there were these lovelies

these are paco-vicunas

like the llama and the alpaca they are camilids -- in fact they look very much like small alpacas (the one with the rust colored rump and the white head was born on March 30 of this year)

and if you think alpaca is soft and light, vicuna is even more so -- just a step or two short of qiviut


I exercised pretty good restraint when we went into the fiber vendor tent

two skeins of alpaca yarn -- from two different vendors

and I have plans for each of those skeins -- and I'm looking forward to working on those soon




Sunday afternoon's project was a little more like work

now that there is a little guy who will be walking soon in the house there was a need for that deck with it's 3 to 4 foot drop to the ground below to be enclosed

so the DH and the son-in-law took our van off to the hardware store and got the necessary materials to get that enclosure started







they did such a good job that by the end of the afternoon the entire deck was enclosed

and a very nice looking enclosure it is too




and while they were working just outside the kitchen door, my daughter and I were working on scrapbook projects at the kitchen table

my daughter has a cool machine that cuts shapes and letters out of paper or card stock

and I'm working on something that will be a Christmas present

as with all projects there was lots of clutter (both ours and out on the deck) before the project work was done, but the results are awesome

Mr Cute is starting to eat solids now

(although the pureed veggies hardly look "solid")

over the weekend he was trying out peas

he ate them, but not with nearly as much enthusiasm as he had for sweet potatoes or pears

he's just so adorable

and such a happy little guy that when he does fuss you know there is something definitely needing attention in his world

he'll be six months old tomorrow -- WOW, time really flies!




one of the other things that my daughter and I worked on over the weekend was tying a comforter for one of her friends that is having a baby in August

the tying part was all finished by Sunday evening

and yesterday afternoon I finished stitching the binding (which was done by rolling the backing around to the front)

we're about ready to put this in the mail







and of course, since I was in the car another charity afghan square is all complete

so today it's back to the usual household chores before work in the studio

laundry and groceries today (I've already watered the lawn)

time to get moving!