I know I'm a slacker!

Yeah, yeah, so sue me. Nobody reads this anyway! But here's what has happened of late in the realm of our alpaca adventure. Little Mark went to two shows. Walked in the Virginia Classic because the weather was horrid and they didn't separate the classes like they should have. Took 5th in the Palmetto Classic with comments about his staple length being positive. It's a start I guess. It's just too frickin expensive in this economy to be entering shows. Unfortunately because we're not a big farm we need all the advertising we can get. And we can't afford to pay for it in publications. Never gonna get one of these guys sold at this rate.
On to fiber though, not getting that much time to work with my fiber as I had in the past. My stuff all sits idle collecting dust right now. I still haven't finished my blankets from last year and I've got shearing coming up next week! That means more blankets! I'm thinking of paying the shearer to skirt them for me and then sending them off to a mill for processing into roving that I can then spin myself. Spinning is not as intensive as doing all the carding and cleaning. It will cost a little bit but it will be better than letting it sit and go to waste. And maybe I'll eventually be able to create something beautiful out of it!
I got some guidance on my spining wheel issue recently as well. It looks like I'm going to have to create an entirely separate tension knob and buy an additional spring in order to use my plying head. I was told I should have recieved the spring with the plying head but I didn't. I attempted to contact The Merlin Tree as well to ask about this issue but haven't recieved a response. That's been typical unfortunately. I don't have a lot of good to say about them once you buy a wheel.
On the other hand I have managed to get some sewing done. I made my little boy a pair of pajama shorts with pirate skulls on them and my little girl a dress with Ariel all over it. And I finally put together the backing for my Christmas quilt. Now I just have to get the batting, pin it and sew it! Yeah sure, that will happen this year. Not.
Anyway, just a short update, no pictures. I promise I'll have some by May though. I'm going to the farm where my pacas board later this month and I'll take some pictures then. Holly should have her baby by then so there will be a new cria to name (and pay for)!