Mother Earth News Fair! This weekend!

We're off to the fair this weekend!  Me and my sister, braving the elements (it's supposed to rain all weekend!), spending our nights in a 'rustic' cabin with no plumbing!  Ah yes my friends, this will be one great adventure.  And I can't wait!  For all of it!  I will get to see some of my favorite authors and hopefully come home just  a little bit smarter as a homesteader.  There's SO many great workshops and seminars going on this weekend that I just don't know how I'm going to choose.  All I can say for sure is that I will be stopping by to hear Jenna Woginrich from Cold Antler Farm and Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms.  Those 2 are a must for me.  So if you live in the greater Pittsburgh area and have nothing better to do this weekend, hop on out to Seven Springs for a little taste of my world.  We'll be there both Saturday and Sunday.  Young or old, there will be something for everyone!

Bramble's Arrival

Baby Bramble, not even 2 hours old.

So she finally arrived; Tuesday of last week.  There has been so much going on that this post has been in the works for over a week now.  A classic alpaca birth, so I'm told.  I'd been waiting for the call that Bracken was going into labor for over a week prior; ready to drop everything when my phone rang.  See, we still board our alpacas on another farm, and that farm is 50 minutes from home and 1:15 from work.  So I was sure that by the time she started showing signs of delivery, she would have already delivered by the time I got there.  It just so happened that I did indeed arrive in time though.  And not a minute too soon.  There were 2 little hooves and a nose just peeking out of the birth canal.  On went the camera and out came a beautiful baby girl!  In less than 3 minutes no less!

We were so thankful to see that healthy baby girl.  She was up and nursing with in an hour and a half.  It's amazing to watch how quickly these events take place.  And as I looked at her standing next to her mamma, I though, "How on earth did she fit in there?"  She's all legs!

Baby Bramble next to mamma Bracken

By the following day, she was galavanting around the pasture with the rest of them.  Rolling in the grass and just enjoying the fine weather.  I can't wait to see how her fiber develops.  She's just the softest little thing.  

Lessons in Dyeing

 So I'm hoping to be a craft vendor at my hometown's Johnny Appleseed Festival in a month.  I'm not sure if that makes me ambitious, entrepreneurial, or just plain delirious.  It will be my first vending event if I can pull it off, but that means that I need to more than double (maybe even triple) my inventory; most of which is already posted on my Etsy site.  So I got to thinking about what I might bring with me:

Baskets

Hand spun and dyed yarn

Hand processed and dyed roving

Decorated origami stars

Knitter's mittens

Hats

Woven scarves

And whatever else I could find ready to go in my craft room.  

I still have not sent in an application and payment.  I have till mid-September to decide, and that's sure going to come up quickly.  I spent the past couple of days trying to work out what needs to be made, prices, tracking down a tent.  There's a lot to think of.  So I started with the fiber!  I pulled out my trusty book on Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan and went too it.  I have thirteen colors to work with, although if I mixed them, the possibilities could be endless.  

Not shown - Fire Red

And here was the finished product drying in the bathroom.  It was too humid to dry it outside.

And once it was re-skeined.

Two hanks of Alpaca and one of Babydoll Southdown.  Not bad for a few hours.  Er, a few hours of dyeing that is...I already had the yarn spun up.  Still, I'm pretty happy!  And if you're not familiar with the Sheffield's Johnny Appleseed festival, take a peek HERE!  It really is a neat thing to see.  Makes you want to go out and get your own axe and start a swinging!  And let me tell you, the women are just as tough as the men!  It's quite impressive.