I started this spin last year and had one bobbin done, and then I started the 2nd bobbin and then didn’t spin anymore on this wheel for months. I finished the 2nd bobbin this last Saturday at my son’s and his spouse’s farm because they were having an Alpaca Farm Days and I go on Saturday and Sunday because they have their skirting table set up and their drum carder and then I spin to show those who come the process for processing fiber from shearing to yarn. I plied it on Sunday and when I got home I wound it off the bobbin on my niddy noddy (tool used to wind the long skeins of yarn) and presto a skein of yarn. It is only 124 yards because the bobbins on the Rick Reeves wheels are made a little different and one side is tall and one side is short so you can only get some much plied yarn on it without it falling off the bobbin as you ply, wonder if they have a bulky flyer and bobbin (good luck finding one, his wheels aren’t made anymore :(.) It is a dk weight yarn and soft. This turned out balanced and no twisting as I held the the long skein from the top. I’m Impressed with myself :). Not sure what I can make with only 124 yards but I’ll do some digging and see if it would make a pair fingerless mitts. Now to go back to spinning the Pop Rox’s yarn. 🙂

Ok, now for a little rant (well it’s not so little :P). When I went to the Alpaca Farm days at my son’s alpaca farm on Saturday (this is a once a year activity on Saturday and Sunday) to spin for my son’s event, it was busy but not overwhelmingly so and everyone that came was nice and their children all had fun feeding the alpaca and chickens and seeing how the shorn fleeces are processed and watching me spin, and the kids had fun winding yarn on my son’s sock machine, children love doing things like that. My son’s mother-in-law made some apple bread and brought hot apple cider. All of this including the apple bread, which she had in slices, and apple cider is provided free and when the food ran out no one complained, everyone seemed to have a good time. Sunday was different, there are always a few people who can make a good time unpleasant because nothing is ever enough. Mind you this is all free, he doesn’t charge a fee to enter the farm and they get to feed the alpaca and chickens and the little snack my son’s mother-in-law brings for no charge. All he hopes for is that people will visit his farm store on the way out and buy some yarn or a trinket from their farm store after their visit, after all it goes towards running the farm and feeding the animals, vet bills, etc and hopefully some profit, if this was a hobby farm he’d only have a couple of alpaca but he has about 24, this is his farm, his business. Sunday, which is only 4 hrs compared to the 6 hrs on Saturday, was a lot busier than Saturday and people were standing in line to be able to go in the pasture with the alpacas (having too many people in the pasture stresses the animals out and they are the most important thing). One woman got upset when the bread and apple cider ran out. I mean honestly it’s free, we don’t have to provide it at all, it is just a bonus from a mother-in-law. Maners are severely lacking in some people. And then to add insult to injury, now remember this was only open 4 hrs and people are generally only there between 1/2 to 1 hr, a woman complained because my son did not have a porta potty there, she told him legally he had to have one for the event, he is going to check into that and if he does for his once a year activity, she just made this whole thing no longer free if he has to pay for a porta potty, for one complaining person, he would have to charge admission to be able to pay for it and she was demanding to use his personal house restroom, excuse me? Can she or her family member not just use the restroom at their home before coming out to the farm, we’re only talking about an hr here? Since it might not be a free event anymore I wonder if she would want to come anymore? My son also decided that his mother-in-law, if she still wanted to make the apple bread, will now need to make little loaves and sell them so no one will complain when they run out of apple bread. That will probably make that woman, who complained about those treats running out, upset too, you can’t win with them. Those really losing, are the people who never complain and just come and enjoy the experience who might be having to pay admission to come do this now. It just takes one person to ruin it for everyone else, like I said, there’s always that one. It took me a couple of days to figure out how to say this a little more tactfully. I think I did.

UPDATE: My son called and they told him, he is not required to provide a porta potty for his small event, he is a farm on the outskirts of town.