Sunday, August 30, 2009

Alpaca Socks and Squirrel Shirts

Fall is well on it's way. You can tell by the few yellow leaves that are falling. The temperature at night is getting colder and the nights are getting a little longer each day. I know I wasn't as active as I wanted to be this summer with my garden because I had no control over what my dad did with it but next year will be different. I'm putting my foot down and planning that garden myself.
On Friday before I headed to work I stopped by the farmer's market. The vendors were few before the sky decided that it was going to rain on their parade. My mission was beets but none of the vendors had any. The one vendor that I had talked to said that his beets were taken by the deer. But I didn't leave empty handed.
I've been wanted some really warm socks for a time now. I've attempted to make my own but that hasn't gone to well. The only choice I had was to buy them. I snagged a really good pair of alpaca socks from a vendor that came from Hunderton County, New Jersey. There's 78% alpaca wool, 20% nylon and 2% lyrcra. Not bad. The best part is that they have a terry cloth like interior which makes them really cozy.
Normally, I don't bother with getting warm socks but I'm challenging myself this winter by not using the electric heat in my room. My one dog will get a nice blanket for extra warmth and my sheltie should be fine. As for me an extra blanket or two will be added to my normal four layers. As soon as the sewing machine is fixed I'll make my fleece blanket and I'll perhaps buy a nice alpaca blanket for the same vendor I got the socks from unless a better product elsewhere.
I'm still knitting my scarf. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of September. Then I'll make a hat.
A little earlier on Friday I bought a T-shirt that I've been wanting for awhile. It snagged it at a garden center that is going out of business for $10. This particular shirt has a squirrel with a mask on that reads "Hand over the sunflower seeds and no one gets hurt." The line is called Squirrel Stuff. I have a long love hate affair with squirrels. In middle school they where the cause of everything that with wrong. The artist as a lot more up on her website that you can buy. Very cool stuff.

1 comments:

Karen Sue said...

I have spent over a year trying to get together with a local alpaca guy. The long and short of me is that 2 Feb's ago, I read a Country Woman magazine that talked about alpaca raising and I was interested, so I started googling alpaca info and I learned a ton. I've taken alot of ribbing about it actually. That led me to a blog where a lady wrote about her alpaca experiences and it was my first blog read. I followed a couple of her links and then read in a women's magazine about starting a blog, so I did. and I have been following ever since, but I still haven't met an alpaca face to face. So that is on my list of fall things to get done. I'd like to buy some yarn too and I thought it would be oh,so,cool to meet the alpaca that the yarn comes from. But we'll see. I don't think I'm ready to knit socks, but a hat would work!! Out issue here are all the cute little chipmunks. ALl birdseed stored in metal garbage cans that cannot be chewed open.
Don't be too discouraged about the garden. I was fully in charge of mine and things didn't work out as planned. Just look at your Dad's involvement as a good excuse for all things that didn't turn out quite right this year!!

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