We've been very busy around here lately! I haven't had much time to compose my blog entries but I did want to get the word out about a date change with one of my upcoming fiber arts workshops. Originally the date was Oct 6-7th for the marathon fiber felting weekend at Alpacas of Nottingham Hollow but we quickly realized that it conflicts with another fiber related event so we've changed the date to Oct 13-14th.

If you are interested in learning how to turn your alpaca fiber into hand made products you might want to check out our alpaca fiber felting weekend planned for Oct 13-14th. The cost is only $200 for the weekend and everything you need to make the products is included in the cost! You can visit www.madavemialpacas.com/fiber and follow the link to pay online or you can go to www.madavemialpacas.com/fiber_theworks to see pictures and read comments about the last marathon fiber weekend that was held at Bear Garden Farms in WV. If you have questions just email me at Dawn@MadaVemiAlpacas.com ~ Dawn

I know it's been a while since I added to my blog but tons of things are happening here and there's never enough time in the day. Maybe I just need longer days to get everything done I'd like to do each day.

June 30th- July 1st www.BearGardenFarms.com in Capon Bridge, WV hosted my Turn Your Fiber Into Finished Products weekend workshop. What a blast we had! We kicked the weekend off with a new addition to the farm...

I got there Friday night and spent the evening with Terrie and Greg having a lovely dinner on their deck then checking on Terrie's horse who was due to give birth any day. We did our last check at midnight and found that "Summer Time" had waxed up which apparently means "due within 48 hours" in horse talk. Since I know very little about horses I found the idea of Summer going into labor during our fiber workshop rather entertaining. I carried myself off to bed sometime after midnight thinking of questions to ask about horse babies in the morning.

At 4am the house phone screamed. I immediately thought, "Who the h*** would be calling someone at 4am!" I didn't realize it was Terrie calling from the barn phone to signal Greg the baby had arrived. Terrie came flying into the house to wake me up saying, "we have a baby!"

In my PJs and flip flops, I followed Terrie out to barn to see the latest addition to her farm. He was so darn cute and huge compared to an alpaca cria! Since Summer was a maiden we had to milk her a little and then feed the baby from a bottle at first. After about an hour or so he figured it all out on his own and Summer turned out to be a fantastic mother to him.

When the sun finally came up we had our coffee and made frequent checks on the new colt. It was Greg's job to pick his name and he finally came up with Summer Time's Outlaw.

I set up the fiber workshop stuff while Terrie set up the breakfast stuff. Everyone was supposed to be there about 8:30 for breakfast and the workshop was supposed to last from 9-4 each day.

When we began our felting weekend none of the 6 ladies knew how to do anything with their fiber other then send it out to a mill to be made into yarn. I began by showing them all the things I'd made and told them I process all of my fiber right here on my farm. I showed them how I skirt the fiber for processing and let them try out both carders to get a feel for carding fiber. Then I started our first project...

We wet felted a ball and finger puppets. We wet felted ropes, braids, and belts, then a purse with a resist. After they'd gotten the hang of making flat pieces of felt and some shapes I let them explore and experiment. The idea was to let them try out various projects to see what they might like to make from their own fiber at home. What a creative group of ladies this turned out to be!

They spent all day Saturday felting and no one wanted to stop for food or the 4pm "end" of our first day. It was well after dark before most of the ladies headed off to the hotel or back to their homes. I sent Tara and Robin back to their hotel with needle felting kits in case they got bored. Misty was still in the garage felting well into the night while Terrie and I were in her soon to be "store" skirting a show fleece that the shearers had scrambled up. It was well after midnight before we headed for bed.

At 6am Sunday morning we were up and getting ready for another marathon day of felting. Misty was already out in the garage felting and carding fiber before I even got my first cup of coffee. Tara and Robin came back from the hotel with their needle felted items to show off. Ann and Elaine joined in for a quick breakfast then we headed off to the garage to begin the days projects.

I wanted the ladies to make a nuno felted scarf, a wet felted hat, and a needle felted project before the day was finished. We managed to get our projects done and it was pretty clear to the ladies what things they were going to pursue further. We took all our finished products into Terrie's yard near the alpaca fence and Greg took a picture of us showing off some of our goodies.

All in all, I think the ladies got a good glimpse into the world of fiber arts and they now have a few ideas of what to do with their fiber now. By the end of the marathon fiber weekend workshop the ladies barely stopped for food and everyone agreed we should make this a yearly event. I had such a fun time with this group of ladies that I would love to return next year and do it all again. Ok...maybe not the 4am start thing... but the rest of it would be great!

If you want to see more pictures and read what the attendees had to say about this workshop go to www.MadaVemiAlpacas.com/fiber_theworks

My next felting class I'm scheduled to teach is August 11th at www.AlpacaPasturesVA.com and we'll cover mostly projects you can teach to kids groups or demonstrate at your farm events. This one is designed to help people promote their farm just in time for the National Alpaca Farm Day weekend scheduled for Sept 28th & 29th.

Mada Vemi's Amerikhan Legend wowed the crowd at the VAOBA Alpaca Expo this past weekend. Luckily he also wowed the judge! He was awarded 1st place in his color class and then went on to win the color championship!

This is highly unusual for a 6 month old because the judges rarely give a young male the championship because they often lack the presence to pull off a win that big. The judge started off his commentary saying, "I know it's unusual to give a juvenile a color championship but in this case it's well deserved... If there is one fleece to see this weekend THIS is THE ONE!"

We couldn't be more pleased with Legends winnings and he's taking it all in stride. He was approached by well over 200 people this weekend all wanting to take a look at his fleece. He handled all the hoopla very well and we were quite proud of him.

On to the next show... The Carolina Classic Dec 1-3 - Wish us luck! ~ Dawn

Well it took a while but we finally decided on a name for Roadie's first cria. She caused such a commotion around here since the minute she was born that we felt the only appropriate name for her was Mada Vemi's Drama Queen. She spends her day ruling the kingdom and has quite the dramatic personality. ~ Dawn