Get Up In The Morning Already Yawning

It has been an absolutely mad couple of days but they have definitely proved how popular alpacas are becoming and their raison d'être.  We have attended a show where Si was to give a talk on alpacas and a demonstration on toenail cutting; we had a stall showing our yarn and knitwear products.  It has meant a really early start both days but has proved extremely profitable, flattering and fun.

We work closely with Westhill Alpacas in Dorset because they believe in the same principles as us where alpaca farming is concerned.  We have both been breeding for high quality fibre and we mix the best of both herds to produce the finest yarn.  We are both basically following the example of Wellground Alpaca Stud in Wiltshire, they set the standard and recommended that we only purchase top quality alpacas and breed for fine fibre.  This has paid off as both Westhill and ourselves have won prizes for our fleeces.

I'm afraid I have really let the side down with my photography though.  I took pictures of everybody's stall before it opened to the public and only managed a rear shot of ours in the background of somebody elses.  I have had to crop the photo to be able to show it.

We started off the weekend with two large boxes of hand-knitted stock and our table was overflowing before we had got half of it out.  As soon as the gates opened we had customers, compliments were flying thick and fast.  We were told by one lady that our yarn was more beautiful than cashmere.  A lady who had a knitwear stall came down to us on Saturday afternoon and said that it was no wonder we were so busy as everybody could see the quality and people would be willing to pay high prices for it.  I had worried that our prices seemed high compared with other products that were on sale.  We had an amazing first day and I was really excited when I emailed Rosemary with the results last night.  It surely couldn't carry on like that.

Up at 6 again this morning feeling exhausted deflated because it had to have been a fluke yesterday surely.  I mean there is supposed to be a recession and it is also March so not exactly the best time of year to sell luxury products.  Well, we couldn't have been more wrong.  Less than an hour after the gates had opened today we had sold two of our larger and more expensive items.  We also had an item that was knitted from alpaca that didn't come from one of our herds and people really felt the difference.  Stunning, beautiful, exquisite were just a few of the adjectives used to describe our knitwear and that was by customers not us.  My head was growing at such a rate I thought I was going to have to walk out of the building via the roller shutter entrance. 

Si gave his talk to a really interested audience and the boys were really well behaved during their toenail demonstration.  It went so well that a committee member from another show has asked him to do it again at a different venue and while that was going on I got a text from an organiser of another show asking us to take a couple of alpacas.  We don't attend alpaca halter shows for biosecurity reasons but it would appear there is no need.

Just a last word to Rosemary, if you are reading this you shouldn't be, you should be knitting, we need two dozen pairs of lacy gloves for next month, we also have an order for US and I could have sold the grey beret four times over so we need more of those.  I may make an item or 20 myself.