A Trip to the Alpaca Expo

We took a trip last Sunday over to Owatonna for the Minnesota Alpaca Expo.  This was such a fun event for us last year that we decided to make the trip again.  Alpacas are not the friendliest creatures -- they don't really care to be petted or even have strangers standing very close to them.  However, I was able to photograph some of the many different colors and cute faces that we saw at this show and wanted to share them with you in this post.

 No, this wasn't a talking alpaca -- just happened to snap the picture in "mid-chew"

No ears on this guy!  Their ears are very expressive and it seemed like when something was going on they didn't like, the ears went down or back......extreme paparazzi disapproval here!

Pretty gray coloring on this alpaca (I was seeing yarn shades.....)

Alpaca Kiss!

I really liked the colors on this one!

And look at this beautiful dark, dark brown color......like french roast coffee or dark chocolate!

This is Fancy Pants, sporting a fashionable hat and heading off to the show ring

Three different colored alpacas from the same farm (notice two have ears but one is in "no photos, please!" mode)

This sweet little gray one was watching some activity at the pen across the way.

This was also a fiber show and not limited to alpacas -- the angora bunnies were there!

along with their angora bunny babies!  I love angora -- it makes the softest (but very expensive!) yarn.

These guys were anxious to get back on the road to their home in Wisconsin.

I bought only 1 skein of yarn.  This colorway is called Ripe Tomato.

There's 500 yards in the skein and I'll be using it to knit this shawl. Can't wait to get started on it......



A Trip to the Alpaca Show

Today Mr. Johnson and I took a trip over to Owatonna to visit the Minnesota Alpaca Expo. I found out about this event months ago on Ravelry and thought it might be fun to check it out. There was no admission fee (how great is that?) We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering through the arena and marveling at all the cute faces.

There are 2 different varieties of alpacas. These are the Suri alpacas. They have long shiny locks like very soft, slightly curly hair.

And these are the Huacaya (pronounced Wuh-kai-ya) alpacas. They are fluffy like teddy bears.

They use their ears to express emotion. This one was not happy about me taking its picture and turned its ears way down around behind its head.

There was also judging taking place here.

Another cute Suri face.

This alpaca and its owner were on their way back from the show ring.

Aren't they sweet looking? We were most surprised at the different sounds they make. Mostly a high-pitched humming, but we also heard one making some little rhythmic squeaky noises too.

Here's a Suri and Huacaya together and you can really see the differences in their fleece. (also note their ears......not liking the camera at all!)

And of course, there was yarn! Lots of yarn! This vendor was my first and last stop at the expo. And I bought this skein of beautiful blue yarn from her (400 yards!) You can't believe how soft it is.

I also found this skein of 100% alpaca yarn in a gorgeous apricot color -- 498 yards!

What a fun day. I'm really glad we went and will definitely watch the calendar for next year's dates and the chance to attend again.