Western Welcome Week Recap!

Posted on August 20, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I’m happy to report that our first public show was a success! Thanks to everyone, new friends and old, that stopped by our booth on Saturday. It was a pleasure to talk to you all about our alpacas.

It was a ton of fun, and probably very nearly that much work. We arrived in downtown Littleton at 5:30 AM to set up our booth. The organizers had coffee and donuts for vendors, and all the volunteers and staff were incredibly helpful and friendly.

Early birds and other vendors began to cruise main street at around 8, and things were pretty much busy from then on.

Even during the parade, which had enough marching bands even for me (I’m totally an ex-band nerd, I love a good marching band), folks stopped in to take a look.

We did pretty well, sales-wise, for our first big show. Probably more exciting, we got several invites to other craft shows! And hopefully, we made some new friends.

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Western welcome week details

Posted on August 17, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Alrightie folks! We’ll have a 10 ft by 10 ft square of pavement on the north side of Main Street, between Nevada and Curtice. Because of some cancellations, we were able to get right in the center of the action. If you’re in Denver CO this Saturday 8/18, stop by and check us out!

I’ll be there spinning in the morning, Mom and Dad will be there all day. We’ve been bustling to restock the items that sold at the artist show (mostly printing more greeting cards), and M&D have done a trial set up in a 10 by 10 square of the driveway.

Even though I know we’re as ready as we’ll ever be, I’ve gone from really nervous to audition-level dread.

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We’re off to Western Welcome Week!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Well, just when it looked like we had a long stretch of down time in front of us, we signed up for another show! Cliff House Alpacas will be at the 84th annual Western Welcome Week this Saturday, August 18th. When did we sign up? Yesterday, August 15th. Plenty of time.

The craft show runs from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, and is held on Main Street in Historic Littleton. Before we moved to the ranch, my family lived for 8 years in Littleton, and although our house was in the country, I’ve always loved the century-old buildings and eclectic charm of old downtown.

I have to admit, I’m a little nervous. There is space for 200 vendors, and 75,000 people attended this day of the event last year.

Ok. Now I’m a lot nervous.

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Greeting cards are fiber art, right?

Posted on August 10, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I can’t claim to be surprised, since I love our greeting cards, but it is a little strange that they were one of our best sellers at the artist show. We are a fiber shop, after all. But who can resist faces like these?

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(front of card)

“What, we missed your Birthday?”

“Nah, that can’t be right.”

“Yeah man, I think we totally did.”

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(inside card)

“Nah, nobody can be that old.”

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I got nothing

Posted on August 8, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Maybe it’s because we’re in a come down period from the show, or perhaps it’s because I haven’t done any spinning (to rest the gimpy finger), but I’m sorry guys: I got nothing.

So here’s a picture of Heidi meeting Tuscany for the first time, back when Tuscany was just a cute little fuzz ball.

I am going to post a video of me spinning on the drop spindle at some point soon. But if anyone has any ideas for blog posts, any burning questions you want answered, any untold tales you want, well, told, let me know.

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Artist show recap: 2012

Posted on August 6, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Phew! The Cimarron Sky Dog Artist Show is over, and it was a blast. Good food, good friends, and good wine made for a memorable day.

We had much more inventory this year, and a wider variety of items. Dad made folding peg boards for us to display our merchandise on, which really helped get all our products out in the open.

I brought both my wheels. Anyone who wanted to try spinning could have a seat at my little Kromski and give it a whorl! (Ow, terrible spinning pun). We had quite a few folks who were game, and I did much more teaching than spinning.

We don’t have the details yet on how much money we raised, or even a clear idea how much we sold, but I’ll let you know when I do.

I’m not sure what to do with myself, now that the show over. I guess it’s time to get that darn online store running.

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Units of measure

Posted on August 3, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Yarn is sold by weight or by length, but these days I prefer to think of skeins in terms of minutes of time invested. Each yard of finished, 2-ply yarn took me 2.1 minutes to spin (including spinning both singles and plying them together).

Yarn for the show. Actually, not everything in this basket is for sale, it’s even less than it looks like.

 

I managed to spin 1515 yards of yarn for the show, even with my broken finger. That basket of yarn represents 53 hours of work.

I guess that explains why weeds are taking over my garden and the dog is feeling a little unloved.

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More alpaca commentary: get well soon

Posted on August 2, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Captioning pictures of the alpacas is one of my favorite things to do around here. It’s downright fun, probably because alpacas have such hilarious facial expressions. Mom and Dad have been making greeting cards based on this principle, and here is my favorite.

——————————————————————————————
(front of card)

Um… feeling a little down…?

——————————————————————————————
(inside)

Hope you’re up and runnin’ soon.

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Yarn – Black magic

Posted on August 1, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

It’s still slow going, but I spun another skein of yarn for the artist show on Saturday.

This yarn is 80% Brittany, 20% purple merino/silk blend. I can really see the difference between the skein I spun before the great window disaster and the one I just finished. There is more purple in the older one, and it is finer (it’s the one on the bottom in both pictures).

Ah well. Still pretty, and soft. I quite like it. Hopefully I can crank out one more skein tonight.

 

 

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Cue the tiny violin

Posted on July 30, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

It took me all weekend to spin one skein of yarn. There’s no way to say this without it sounding stupid: I knew my fingers were important, I just didn’t realize how important. They are all doing a different and important job while I spin, and trying to work with the one in a brace was like learning how to spin all over again.

The end result isn’t TOO bad. I’m hoping most people won’t see the inconsistencies I see. Or at least, they’ll be kind enough to pretend they don’t see them.

Can you tell which of those skeins I spun with my gimpy finger?

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