Where there's sheep dogs, there's sheep. Where there's sheep, there's me.

I went to the Kingston Sheep Dog trials today. We saw a ton of neat stuff (big cats, lizards, birds of prey) but somehow managed to almost completely overlook the actual sheep dogs. Whoops.

I had an embarrassingly good time checking out all the crafty tables, and watching the sheep-to-shawl competition, and I found a guy who makes his own wheels (and almost considered buying this one tiny one that was only $350- until I saw dh's face when I said the words "only" and "$350" in the same sentence). I did buy a hook for pulling the yarn through the orifice (I know there's a name for them, but I'm blanking). I actually need one too. My bent paperclip is really not cutting it these days.

But my big score was while Miles was on a pony ride, I saw two gorgeous alpacas standing next to a table full.of.yarn! And fleece! And I just couldn't resist taking a little something home. A souvenir, really.



It came from an alpaca named Nicandro (I'm absolutely giddy about the fact that my fleece has a name, and yes I know exactly how silly that is). It's 86% fawn alpaca and 14% 'merlot' silk (I don't know the names of the worms that provided the silk, but I suppose that would be asking too much, wouldn't it?).

Here's Miles cradling my fleece (that is only half of it) like it's a newborn child. I'm so proud. *sniff*



I suppose my joy at this new acquisition left me a little distracted, and I did come home with something else, far less desirable:



(Oh holy hell, my roving matches my back!)

The only explanation is that I must have neglected this area during re-application of sunscreen (I may have also neglected this area in my primary application. That was just dumb).

So the whole Sheep Dog trial event gets an A from me (though I can't comment on the dogs themselves), the Alpacas get an A++. I get a D, but the sun gets an F. It was, after all, entirely his fault.