Today, I bought some yarn. Not just any yarn: lovely 100% alpaca yarn. And not just any alpaca yarn either: I met the very alpacas whose fleece had been spun into my yarn! This was my special (belated) birthday treat, and it was worth the wait. Alpaca Acres is a small local alpaca farm, and they had an Open House this afternoon. It was a glorious day for it – the sun was shining and it was perfect autumn weather.

The owners were very welcoming and answered all my hundreds of questions. We saw the breeding male (front) strutting for the benefit of the lady alpacas (the females were already pregnant, so they rejected his advances by spitting at him – apparently the alpaca version of a pregnancy test!):

This year’s babies were so adorably soft and had beautiful big dark eyes – this little guy was only 6 weeks old:

And as for the yarn, I bought some light brown yarn courtesy of Vixen:

We also got to hand-feed her and some of the others! Their mouths are very delicate and feel velvety when they touch your hand to take the food. Here she is in close-up:

And here I am with Harvey, my other yarn donor:

What a cutie, with his lovely dark brown fleece:

I don’t know what I’m going to make with the yarn yet (I only have 50g of each colour so it won’t be anything big), but when I do crochet it into something I’ll be able to think of Vixen and Harvey whenever I use it. What an amazing experience to have met the actual animals who produced my yarn!